up.

rit,

and the mover of all our garboils at home and abroad. During the short space of nearly two years that he spent in England, so much did he irritate, by his actions, the mind of the queen and her ministers, that, on that occasion, the first severe laws were enacted against the ministers of our religion, and those who thould harbour them. He, like a dastardly foldier, consulting his own safety, Aed. But, being himself out of the reach of danger, he never ceased, by publications again it the first magistrates of the republic, or by fa&tious letters, to provoke their resentment. Of these letters many were interrupted, which talked of the invasion of the realm by foreign armies, and which roused the public expectation. Incensed by his work on the fuccellion, and by similar productions on the affairs of state, under the Temblance of a cause that now seemed just, our magistrates rise in vengeance against us, and execute their laws. They exclaim, that it is not the concern of religion chat busies us; but that, under that cloak, we are meditating politics and practising the ruin of the state. Robert Parlons, stationed at his eale, intrepidly, meanwhile, conducts his operations; and we, whom the press of battle threatens, innocent of any crime and ignorant of his dangerous machinations, indergo the punishment which his imprudence and audacity alone me.

They are the words of John Muih, taken from a work published by him in Latin, which will be quoted in a succeeding note, and which, in the name of the English clergy, was addressed to Clement VIII.'

Through the whole of Panzani's memoirs, it appears that a good understanding sublifted between the See of Rome and the King of England; and that many advances were made on both fides toward reuniting the Protestant and Romish churches. What high expectations the Pope and his Conclave entertained from Charles, will appear in the following letter from Cardi.. nal Burberini to Panzani, dated Dec. 10, 1635.

“ Our prayers are redoubled ; and I have made a religious visit to the seven churches.to obtain by my poor prayers what, I have reason to fear, my sins have otherwise made me unworthy of. However, if. I forget thee, let my right hand be forgotten : let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Britain above my chief joy.--I cannot pass over in silence the concern l feel, on account of that queftion of Mr. Cortington. Does his holinels love the king, he said. Love him! Yes, he loves him with a personal affection, equal to that he bears his nephew, not only as he is pope and a common facher, but he loves him as he is Urban. This love is of an ancient date, and, as it were, hereditary, as his majesty's grandmother, queen Mary of Scotland, was once a witness. I daily see manifest tokens of the good inclina. cions of his holiness towards his Britannic majelty: he expresses not in words only, but with tears, how much he desires to renew the same good understanding which his predeceffors, for so many ages, maintained with the Roman see. I constantly impart to him the contents of our letters; and he as often embraces his majetty at a distance.-I. very much approve the observation you made, that his holiness's nun. cios do well to be reserved, while other minifters give no tokens of good temper. I defire you will study an opportunity to acquaint her 13

majetty,

majesty, what a satisfaction and honour it is to me to be remembered on account of the trifles I sent her : return also to her the acknowledgments of his holiness for becoming a guardian of the spiritual blelings of the poor Catholics. St. Urban desired nothing more of St. Cecily than the conversion of Valerian her husband. This is all the present pope expects from her Britannic Majesty. It is a comfort to me to be regarded by her, and no less to be the protector of so fair a kingdom. That country of late is much beloved in Rome: men of distinction and even the populace are rejoiced, when they hear of their welfare ; and the thoughts of their conversion transport all sorts of people."

The favourable disposition of the clergy of that period to. ward the re-union with the mother church may be seen in a curious and circumftantial account of a conference between Panzani and the Bishop of Chichester : but for this relation we must refer to the book, it being too long for an extract.

The supplement contains a succinct view of the fate of the Roman Catholics, from the close of the agency of Panzani to the present time; in which the difficulties brought by the English Catholics on themselves through ecclesiastical or political intrigue, and the hardthips which they suffered through the bigotry of the times, are fairly and impartially stated.

At the close, Mr. Berington gives a summary view of the circumstances of their late application to parliament for relief from the burthen of certain oppreffive statutes. Inftead of extracting any part of this historical detail, we thall content ourselves with quoting a paffage in which Mr. B. gives his idea of the present state of ecclesiastical government among the English Roman Catholics; whence clearly appears the propriety of his proposed plan for their emancipation from the See of Rome:

• 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 fovereign or suzeraine monarch, in whose hands was lodged the fue premum dominium, and this he apportioned out to a descending series of vaffals, 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 vaffalage in archbishops, bishops, and the inferior orders in the ministry, is dire& and palpable. And here also there is an oath of fealty.

But as the feudal system, which in itself was a system of slavery, gradually ceased to oppress the civil state of man; fo also has it been in the ecclefiaftical order of things. Churches, with their minifters, learnt what their own rights were, and vindicated to themselves their

exercise,

10

exercise, how loud soever were the reclamations, and strenuous the resistance of their once suzeraine lord. The government of the Eng. lith Catholic church has remained feudal, in part owing to the tame Spirit of its clergy; but more to the clamours of that band of retainers, whose privileges, and immunities, and exemptions I have mentioned.'

From a note to the preface, we learn that Mr. Berington is projecting a work under the title of The History of the Rife, the Greatness, and the Decline of the Papal Power. He adds, Nor am I sure that the word Fall will not complete the title, if the present politics of Europe be not itemmed in their course, or the chivalry of France be broken. The first paftor, in my eyes, will be more venerable, when the Christian virtues, Faith Charity, shall be the sole supporters of his chair.'

Some Remarks' on this work are now before us,

and

ART. V. The Age of Reason; being an Investigation of true and

fabulous Theology. By Thomas Paine. 8vo. 1s. 63. Eaton.
EYE
VERY religion is good that teaches man to be good, and

I know of no religion that teaches him to be bad,” said
Thomas Paine in his Rights of Man. On perusing this passage,
we did not fuppofe Mr. P. to be a believer, but we thought
that he was of the opinion of antient statesmen, who regarded
all religions as equally useful; and therefore we did not expect
to see him raising his pen against the theological doctrines of
the Christian world. We were mistaken. It appears, by the
present publication, that he has long meditated an attack on
our religion, and that he is as inimical to Revelation as to
Monarchy. Deism is his creed; and his open avowal of it, to-
gether with his bold and undisguised attacks on Christianity, will
cause this pamphlet to be generally reprobated: but, in this age
of reason, neither his invectives againt Christianity, nor the
invectives of Christians against him, will avail much. The
gauntlet, which this champion of natural religion has thrown
down, will be taken up; and, however the advocates for false doc-
trine may tremble, no Christian, who has a reason for the hope that
is in him, will be alarmed for the issue. No man can write down a
TRUTH. Inquiry is to truth what friction is to the diamond:
it proves its hardness, adds to its lustre, and excites new ad-
miration. Some of the ablest defenders of the Christian reli-
gion have acknowleged it to have been benefited by the attacks
of Deistical writers, who have provoked such an examination
of it as it would not otherwise have undergone. To them we
owe many learned writings on the side of Revelation, and its
purification from the chaff, the dust, and the cob-webs, which,

Rev. Aug. 1794

Еe

during

during the dark ages, became blended with it. All may not yet be swept away, and Mr. P.'s Age of Reason, though it does not boast of any deep and erudite investigation, being nevertheless the fruit of a mind capable of conceiving objections with force, may lead to a farther examination of the facred writings, to such an examination as may affist in separating divine truth from human error. This, among rational Christians, has long been a defideratum. Much of our Deism they attribute to the corruptions of Christianity; and they are firmly of opinion that, by abridging the scriptures, or taking certain disputed passages out of them, essential service would be done to the Chriftian religion. It is evident, from this pamphlet, that part of Mr. P.'s religious disgust arose from his having been required to believe too much ; and it is not improbable that, had this circumstance never existed, he would now have been a Christian. What effect his answerers may have on his mind, we do not pretend to say: but, presuming that he will have many respondents, we shall rather report than minutely comment on his opinions.

Following the example of several of his colleagues and others of his fellow-citizens of France, he makes his voluntary and individual confession of faith; which, he affures bis readers, he does with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man communicates with itself.' This confession of his faith is positive and negative :

· I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties confift in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

• But left it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I fall, in the progress of this work, de. clare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

• I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

· All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and endave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

• I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise. They have the same right to their belief as I have to mine.'

To our suspicious eyes, a light shade of concealment appears in this seemingly undilguised declaration; and it may be questioned whether, as far as this goes, Mr. P. is not to be convicted of infidelity on his own definition The first article of his creed, which respects the existence of God and a future state, is expressed in terms which will lead some to suppose, and others to doubt, his belief in a life to come. He believes in God, but he only hopes for happiness beyond this life. Why is this change of terms? With a sensible man, hope is a species of belief; and we expected, in the progress of the work, to have found him eftablishing the foundations of this hope on the principles of natural religion. Scarcely any thing of this sort occurs. After an elaborate demonstration of the being of a God against the doctrine of the Atheists, he dismisses the inquiry about a future state in this evasive and unsatisfactory manner :

• I' trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body; and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist hereafter, than that I should have had exiltence, as I now have; before that existence began.'

This teason is scarcely strong enough to support even a lender hope ; and we cannot help Tuspecting that this article was added to his creed, and this reason advanced in its support, merely to accommodate his faith to that of the French, who have lately thought it proper to exchange their ' eternal feep,' for the immortality of the foul.

Objecting to the idea of a written revelation, and to our calling any book the word of God, this writer labours to diminish our reverence for the Jewish and Christian scriptures, which are generally so called; by a pert review of their contents. His mode of attack on the New Testament is remarkably similar, in mode and spirit, to that of Woolfton and Peter Annet.

On prophets and prophefying, he makes the following observa. tions :

• There is not, throughout the whole book, called the Bible, any word that describes to us what we call a poet, not any word that describes what we call poetry. The case is, that the word prophet, to which later times have affixed a new idea, was the Bible word for poet, and the word prophesying meant the art of making poetry. It also meant the art of playing poetry to a tune upon any instrument of music.

• We read of prophesying with pipes, tabre:s, and horns. Of prophesying with harps, with psalteries, with cymbals, and with every

It is necesary to the happiness of man, that he should be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not confift in believing, or in disbelieving it confifts in profeffing to believe what he does not believe.' P. 2. E e z

other