But you will perhaps reply, that all this church property, has been justly given to your Protestant Church, by the law of the land; for as the law of the land, justly secures to the landlord, his rents, so the law of the land, justly secures to your church, the tithes. I answer, in the first place, that by no law, either human, or divine, can property be justly applied to any other purpose, than to that for which the intention of the testator left it. Now one-third of this church property, was left by our Catholic ancestors, for the support of the poor; and as long as this property, was in the hands of the Catholic Church, the poor always received their just share. Hence, among all the calumnies against the Catholic Church, even her basest enemies, could never accuse her of injustice to the poor. I answer secondly, the law of the land, as to landlords, is a good law, because the landlord gives to his tenant value (viz., the use of the land) for what he (the landlord) receives; whereas the law of tithes is a bad law, because it often exacts tithes, where the payer has never received, one farthing of value from the parson. Now in this case, it does appear to me (and I am sure it must to many others) most unjust to demand it from persons, who never received a pin's-worth of good, from your ministry in their lives. Nay, perhaps the only return they got, for the payment of their tithes was, to hear their religion abused, and to be held up before the public, as guilty of those very crimes, which these reverends themselves were really committing, either by their robbing the poor of their just share, or by unjustly exacting from others money, for which the payers had never received one farthing of value.[H]
And now, most Reverend Gentlemen, I must just let the people see, how you contrive to blind them, by throwing popish dust into their eyes. All the noise, which you make, about the pope's bulls, and about popish spiritual and temporal domination, is a mere ruse de guerre of many of you, (some of you indeed, I believe, are sincere in your motives, and actions,) to divert public attention, from the great temporalities of the established Church. You call, and hold your public and glorious meetings. With upturned hands and eyes, with high-souled strains of devotional eloquence, with cordial community of feeling, got up between the established Church, and those whom you indeed honour with your lips by the title of reverends, but whom, in your hearts, you deem mere phantoms of ministers, with silvery tones, and well-turned periods, of rag-tag and bob-tail inspirations; you excite the breathless attention of your audience, and profess the most sanctified attachment to your godly Church, and to your glorious Constitution, under the protection of whose wing, you are slyly basking in the sunshine of godly mammon, and worldly wealth. Should any poor Catholic, or charitable dissenter, (who wishes you to do to others as you would be done by,) obtrude himself on the notice of your meeting, a thundering philippic is instantly raised against popery, and gaining strength and speed, and loudness in its progress, rumbles onward, until at last, it bursts forth into a tremendous elemental roar, increased by the zealous acclamations of an enraptured and fanatical audience. Oh, most Reverend Gentlemen, this is really a glorious, and very profitable humbug. As long as you can manage, to keep the people in this feverish state of excitement, the gulls will think more of discussing pope's bulls, Guy Fawkes's, and Gunpowder Plots, than of questioning the moral basis of the law, which entitles you to take from the poor, their just share of Church property, left by our charitable ancestors, and of exacting tithes and Church-rates from those, who do not belong to your flock, and for whom you do nothing in return. Thus, you successfully stave off the discussion of Church property, professing all the while, the most devotional concern for the spiritual welfare of the gulls, on whose pockets, you are making a most 'extraordinary, and presumptuous movement.' Thus you reap the profits, and laugh at the fools, who are cajoled by your grand displays. Really, most Reverend Gentlemen, this extraordinary and presumptuous conduct, does, in my humble opinion, beat all the powers of impudence.[I]
Most Reverend Gentlemen, I have now proved "the extraordinary and presumptuous movement," which your scriptural Church as by law established, has been making for a long time on the pockets of Englishmen. I must now proceed to show, what "a most extraordinary and presumptuous movement" she has been making for a long time, on the intellects of Englishmen. Would to God that occasion had never been given to me to touch on this subject! But remember, that many of your reverend body, have been publicly advancing the most pretty, and polite things against us Catholics. The newspapers, will bear ample testimony to the strange, and horrid things, which many of your reverends, have lately uttered against the Catholic Church. Now, what they have in general uttered against us, is, unfortunately, not founded on truth; but mind, what I shall advance is really true, although most awful, nay almost incredible, had not your Protestant testimonies borne ample witness to it. Remember, also, that although Our Saviour was the most meek, and kind creature that the world ever beheld, still, when the honour of His Heavenly Father was insulted and outraged, He cast the buyers and sellers out of the Temple. Now, some of your reverend body, have, in my ideas, lately used all their endeavours to insult, and outrage the Catholic Church, which, I consider, the Temple of God. Pardon me, therefore, if I should with the spiritual arms of truth, (and I hope of charity,) cast them out of that temple, and show the world, they had better have been in their own temple, and have tried to have reformed it, before they had endeavoured to turn masters of Israel, in their neighbours' temple.
But this, Reverend Gentlemen, I must say, that if the Catholic Church, had no better foundation than declamation against the Protestant Church, I would not be either a minister, or a member of it for a single day. But mind, the Catholic Church has both a good foundation, and can also show the flimsy texture of the Protestant Church, when Protestant ministers are so imprudent as to attack her.
Most Reverend Gentlemen, I can only say, had you remained quiet, I should have been innocent of the disagreeable task, of having to state the following awful facts. But as you have not, I can only add, I am innocent of the consequences, look you to them. I will not indeed exclaim, with the Scripture, "Its blood be upon you, and upon your children;" but I will rather say, in the spirit of charity, may it bring you, and your followers, to a serious consideration, and to a sense of duty. But some of you reverends will perhaps infer, from the awful truths which I shall advance, that I must believe that all, who are not of our communion, must go to hell. Appalling sentence! Christ certainly has said, that he that will not hear the Church, is to be to us as a heathen and a publican (that is, excluded from our spiritual communion.) But Christ does not say, he will go to hell, much less, therefore, ought I to rashly condemn him. St. Paul, also, warns us to judge no man, for this good reason, because we, also shall have to stand before the tribunal of Christ. Far, therefore, be it from me to open the flood-gates of damnation, even on a single individual, much less on the whole body of our Protestant brethren. Although, therefore, I shall shortly advance truths, most awful, and almost incredible, still, let no one imagine, I mean anything PERSONAL. Oh, no, I will say with the poet—
"Let not this weak unknowing hand,
Presume thy bolts to throw,
Or deal damnation round the land,
On all I judge thy foe."
Well, then, let it be remembered, that I shall advance only undeniable facts, without intending to deal damnation on you, or on the whole Protestant body.
"I (shall) only speak right on,
Yes, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friends, and that they know full well,
Who gave me public cause to speak the truth.
I'll tell you that, which you yourselves might know."
A certain Spanish chemist, thought that God's formation of his master, had not been executed in the most perfect, and durable manner; and this chemist had the audacious presumption to imagine, that if he demolished his master, he could raise him to life again, to a more perfect, and durable specimen of workmanship, than he was, when God first made him. For this purpose, this audacious chemist cut his master into pieces, and put the various parts into his sublimatory glass, with the design of raising his master again, by chemical operation, to a more durable, and perfect state of life than he was, when he was the handiwork of God's formation. Now, Most Reverend Gentlemen, I will not apply this to your Church, but this I will do, I will show you what the Church was, and is, which the fathers of the Reformation wished first to demolish, on account of her imperfections, and then, to raise her again to a more perfect specimen of spiritual life; I will show the characters of these spiritual chemists; I will show you the wonderful works of their spiritual chemistry, and the wonderful spiritual works of their scriptural hands; and then, I will leave you, and others to judge, whether these first reformers, and these new soul menders, did, or did not, really imitate the strange, and presumptuous conduct of this Spanish chemist.