proceed from this; this alone must accelerate or slacken its progress; for this alone it must be maintained; every person in it, every thing in it, prayer and action, labour and rest, rules and exceptions, punishments and rewards, favours and refusals; in a word, every thing in the institute of Ignatius has one motive, one end, one common motto, The greater glory of God; with this it commences, with this it ends.
Whatever may be the sentiments of persons, of different religious persuasions, of this plan of sanctity, certain it is, that the idea of it presents something noble; and, in the principles of the catholic church, it embraces the height of sanctity. To men acting upon such a principle, no virtue could ever be foreign, because every virtue in its turn might be wanted to promote God's greater glory. The aim of Ignatius was, first, to form them into perfect Christians; and hence he prescribes and requires, in all his associates, the full practice of evangelical poverty, perfect purity, and intire obedience to lawful
authority; and these virtues must be sanctioned by vow. He requires, that all and each should emulate the other great evangelical counsels, such as mortification of the senses, refusal of dignities and honourable distinctions, perfect disinterestedness in their several functions, &c. He conceived, that God's glory would be procured by the practice of these exalted virtues; but, faithful to his principle, he judged that God's greater glory required the communication, the diffusion of them among his neighbours. He earnestly wished to bring all men to know and adore the Son of God; and, in forming his associates for this ministry, he was not content to teach them to be saints, he would make them apostles. To the other obligations, which he laid upon them, he added the solemn vow of missions, binding them, whenever required, to carry the name of God, in the primitive spirit, to the extremities of the globe.
It would be an extravagant exaggeration to assert, that all the followers of Ignatius
emulated such high gifts: but it has been allowed, in general, by the best judges in the catholic church, and, in great measure, by persons of other communions, that a large portion of the founder's original spirit was infused into the society, which he formed; and that Jesuits, cultivated by the mode of government and rules of life which he established, achieved feats in every country, which religion must revere, and sound policy commend. Their institute does not stop short of any perfection, which the author of it thought attainable by human weakness. He prescribes in it a variety of means, which his followers must employ, to yield service to all, who surround them; and, though all could not be performed by each, he strongly confided, that his order would never be destitute of men qualified to execute every thing that he prescribed. Some things are exacted of all and each, others are to be suited to the different talents of the men employed; and the common education, which he gives to all, qualifies each to succeed in his respective department. Every
person, conversant in the affairs of the catholic church, will allow, that, by the constant attention of the superiors, not any means of helping the public, which the founder had prescribed, was neglected by the body of Jesuits; and the general utility resulting from all this was precisely the thing, that distinguished this body in the catholic church, and won for it the protection of popes and bishops, the countenance of kings and princes, the respect and esteem of nations.
As St. Ignatius, in his pursuit of absolute perfection, thought no virtue foreign to his institute, so he judged no service, which churchmen could yield to the public, foreign to his society. Without pretending to enumerate the various duties and occupations, which he recommends to its members, I select only a few, upon which he enters into more detailed instructions, and to which he specially calls the attention of all superiors, the zeal of all their subjects. They are, good example; prayer; works of
charity to the poor, the imprisoned, the diseased; the writing of books of piety and religious instruction; the use of the sacrament of penance; preaching; pious congregations; spiritual retreats; national and foreign missions; and education of youth in public and gratuitous schools. In the catholic scheme of religion, each of these things is deemed important; and the united voice of all, who knew Jesuits, gives them the full credit of having, during their existence in a body, cultivated, with success, each of these several branches. Their preachers were heard and admired in every country; their tribunals of penance were crouded; the sick and dying were always secure of their attendance, when demanded; their books of devotion were everywhere read with confidence; the good example, resulting from the purity of their morals, secured them, even in the last fatal persecution, from inculpation, it disabled the malice of calumny. In the impossibility of criminating living Jesuits, their worst enemies could only revile the dead. Hospitals, workhouses, and lazarets, were the constant scenes
of their zeal; their attendance on them was reckoned an appropriate duty of their society. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the plague successively ravaged every country in Europe, many hundreds of Jesuits are recorded to have lost their lives in the service of the infected. Several perished, in the same exercise of charity, in the last century, at Marseilles and Messina; and, during the late retreat of the French army from Moscow, not less than ten Jesuits died of fatigue and sickness, contracted in the hospitals crouded with those French prisoners, who, a little before, had ejected them from their principal college, at Polosk, after having plundered it of every valuable. It would be tedious to insist upon every point; but something I must say on the articles of missions and public schools, the two principal scenes of their zeal.
With respect to missions, the Jesuits might truly apply to themselves the verse,