A VIEW OF HEAVEN. near and dear to their affections? This is a merciful dispensation, designed to fix their regards more ardently upon Him who is better than many children-the strength of their heart, and their portion for ever. Are they suffered to fall into persecution and distress? This is intended to try their faith and exercise their patience, and to engage them in more earnest longings for that heavenly state where all their wrongs shall be redressed, and their enjoyment be undisturbed for ever. Are they tempted by sinful suggestions, and the malicious insinuations of the devil? This also may be meant to make them feel more powerfully their dependence on the love and favour of their Redeemer, and to train them to a firmer confidence in the mercy of God, in whom alone is their hope and security. Over them are the wings of his providence outstretched, and not the slightest accident can befall them but by his permission and appointment. He hears their cry of sorrow, and tells all their wanderings, and treasures their tears in his bottles. And dark and painful as his dispensations now appear, yet when their purified spirits see by the light of a blessed eternity, and are enabled to look back on all the way by which they have been led, they shall find that not an evil that happened to them but, viewed in its consequences, was unmixed and unalloyed good. 171 your actions, the punisher of vice, is there; and though he does not at once launch his thunderbolts to requite your provocations, he as truly hears what you say, and sees what you do, as if he stood by you in a visible form, to record, with a pen of light, every item of your guilt in the book of his remembrance. Let this reflection stop the current of your diver sions, and imbitter the intoxicating cup of vicious pleasure. Let it overwhelm you with remorse and confusion, at the thought of the insult you offer to the Majesty of heaven, by daring to practise your pollutions in his venerable presence. Or if even this fail to keep you from the perpetration of what is base and disgraceful, yet remember that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. There is a day of accounts to come, and a dread tribunal before which all must stand. Then shall our disguises and dissemblings avail us no longer. The curtain that conceals the underplot of life shall be lifted up-the real character shall be uncovered to the view of all; and God, who now seeth in secret, shall reward and punish openly. "I saw (says St John, in the Apocalypse)-I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire." A VIEW OF HEAVEN, BEING A PASSAGE IN THE EXPERIENCE OF JOHN the seventeenth century. His ministry was much blessed during his life; and "though dead, he yet speaketh" in the many religious works which he left behind him, and which have been as springs of refreshing water to the souls of many of God's people. He is, indeed, one of the most illustrious of our prac But this consideration, which is so comfortable to the righteous, is full of terror to the wicked. Let them not imagine that they can hide their sins from God, or elude his observation. Whither can you go from his presence? whither escape from his Spirit? Do you think that silence and obscurity can conceal you from his eye, and that the omniscient glance of the God of heaven will not detect your privacy, and lay open all your crimes? Ah, no! You may possibly impose on men by your deceitful pretences. JOHN FLAVEL was one of the many distinguished You may flee from the disgrace and punish-ministers of Christ who flourished in England during ment with which they would pursue your vices. You may reserve the indulgence of your lusts for some dark retreat and the silent hour of midnight; while, in the open view of the world, you study an appearance of uprightness, and sobriety, and chastity. But be not deceived; God is not mocked. His eyes are everywhere, beholding the evil and the good. He follows you through all the windings of your hollowhearted hypocrisy. He marks your progress in the crooked paths of self-deceit and imposture. There is not a passion secretly gratified, there is not a wicked action performed, there is not an impure fancy starts up in your imagination, but, lo! he knows it altogether. In the hour of sensual pleasure, when the noise of riot ascends to heaven, when the head is crowned with flowers, and the wine mantles in the cup-in the haunts of licentiousness, where the voluptuary seeks to cover his shame from the notice of the world-there is a formidable witness in your company, with whose presence you would willingly dispense. The judge of tical writers. He appears to have been a man whose gularly realizing views of spiritual things, and who "I have with good assurance this account of a minister, who being alone in a journey, and willing to make the best improvement he could of that day's solitude, set himself to a close examination of the state of his soul, and then of the life to come, and the manner of its being and living in heaven, in the views of all those things which are now pure objects of faith and hope. After a while he perceived his thoughts begin to fix, and come closer to these great and astonishing things than was usual; and, as his mind settled upon them, his affections began to rise with answerable liveliness and vigour; he therefore (whilst he was yet master of his own thoughts) lifted up his heart to God, in a short ejaculation, that God would so order it in his providence, that he might meet with no interruption from company, or any other accident in that journey; which was granted him; for, in all that day's journey, he neither met, overtook, or was overtaken by any. Thus going on his way, his thoughts began to swell, and rise higher and higher, like the waters in Ezekiel's vision, till at last they became an overflowing flood. Such was the attention of his mind, such the ravishing tastes of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein, that he utterly lost the sight and sense of this world, and all the concerns thereof, and for some hours knew no more where he was than if he had been in a deep sleep upon his bed; at last he began to perceive himself very faint, and almost choked with blood, which, running in abundance from his nose, had discoloured his clothes, and his THE JESUITS. BY THE REV. THOMAS M'CRIE, EDINBURGH. IGNATIUS LOYOLA. I PROPOSE, in these papers, to give an account of the most remarkable sect that ever appeared in the religious or political world-the Jesuits-a sect now more than three hundred years old-a sect which, though it sprung out of the bosom of the Roman Church, and is indeed the very quintessence of Popery, has been frequently condemned by the Pope, ! and as often welcomed back to his arms-which has been alternately hailed as a blessing, and hunted down as a curse, in every country to which it camewhich has been proscribed by the laws of all nations, and has yet effected a settlement in every one of them-which has not only spread over Europe, but penetrated into the wilds of Africa, scaled the wall horse from the shoulder to the hoof. He found himof China, braved the sunburnt plains of India and self almost spent, and nature to faint under the pressure of joy unspeakable and unsupportable; and at the sunless shores of Lapland, and flourished amidst last, perceiving a spring of water in his way, he with the priest-ridden States of Southern, and the demosome difficulty alighted, to cleanse and cool his face cratic States of Northern, America-a sect possessing and hands, which were drenched in blood, tears, and the most perfect organization, having all the dissweat. By that spring he sat down, and washed, cipline of an army, with the secrecy of a midnight earnestly desiring, if it were the pleasure of God, cabal-all the sacredness of the monastery, with the that it might be his parting place from this world. He said, Death had the most amiable face in his eye activity of a secular corporation-a sect which, like that ever he beheld, except the face of Jesus Christ, "the spiritual wickednesses in high places," is at which made it so; and that he could not remember work everywhere, without being visible anywhere(though he believed he should die there) that he had a sect which seeks, as its chief end, its own aggranone thought of his dear wife or children, or any other dizement, by entwining itself with the whole frameearthly concernment. But having drunk of that spring, his spirit revived, the blood staunched, and work of society, monopolizing the education of youth, he mounted his horse again; and on he went in the the guidance of men's consciences, and the control of same frame of spirit, till he had finished a journey of national councils-which has numbered among its near thirty miles, and came at night to his inn; members some of the profoundest statesmen and where being come, he greatly admired how he came philosophers that ever guided, and some of the most thither that his horse, without his direction, had precious miscreants that ever infested, mankind; and brought him thither, and that he fell not all that day, which passed not without several trances of considerwhich, after having been driven from Britain, and able continuance. Being alighted, the inn-keeper placed under the ban of every law, civil and ecclesiascame to him, with some astonishment (being ac- tical, has, within these few years, risen up like an exquainted with him formerly). O, Sir,' said he, what's halation at our feet, and now threatens to overspread the matter with you? you look like a dead man.' the land. 'Friend,' replied he, 'I was never better in my life. Show me my chamber; cause my cloak to be cleansed; burn me a little wine, and that is all desire of you at present. Accordingly it was done, and a supper sent up, which he could not touch; but requested of the people they would not trouble or disturb him for that night. All this night passed without one wink of sleep, though he had never a sweeter night's rest in all his life. Still, still, the joy of the Lord overflowed him, and he seemed to be an inhabitant of the other world. The next morning being come, he was early on horseback, fearing the divertisements in the inn might bereave him of his joy; for he said, it was now with him as with a man that carries a rich treasure about him, who suspects every passenger to be a thief. But within a few hours he was sensible of the ebbing of the tide; and, before night, though there was a heavenly serenity, and sweet peace upon his spirit, which continued long with him, yet the transports of joy were over. He many years after called that day one of the days of heaven; and professed he understood more of the life of heaven by it than by all the books he ever read, or discourses he ever entertained about it." is instructive. Mankind would need to know someThe history of such a sect must be as curious as it thing about it, even for their own safety. And yet this is one of those topics on which the world's instructors dare not speak out. The sect has called itself religious, and, therefore, to expose its enormities would be called bigotry. The felon, convicted of rapine, lust, murder, and every crime, has taken refuge in the bosom of the Church, and laid hold of the horns of the altar; he must not, therefore, be dragged forth to the light to receive his deserts. In vain do we look for any genuine account of the Jesuits in our repositories of useful knowledge, or information for the people. Oh, no; if such a person as John Knox has been charged with murder, on the faith of a flyleaf, though in the face of all history, common sense, and honourable feeling, the fictitious story may be paraded at full length in our popular journals; the man is in his grave, and cannot resent it; his friends may repel it, but of course their defence cannot be admitted into the journal which retailed the slander. THE JESUITS. But to say a word against the Jesuits, the patrons of murder, would be high treason against the liberality of the age. It is only in such a periodical as this that the truth can be told. Now, then, without further preface, for our wondrous tale. The founder of the order of the Jesuits was Ignatius Loyola, a person so extraordinary, in his own way, and who stamped so much of his own image on the Society of which he was the parent, that we cannot commence our sketch more appropriately than by giving a brief history of his life. Don Inigo, generally called Ignatius Loyola, was born at Guipuscoa in Spain, in the year 1491. In early youth he was brought up amidst the splendour of the court of Ferdinand of Spain; during which period, according to the admission of his own disciples, who have written his Life,* the ruling passions of his mind were vanity and ambition. His time and attention appear to have been about equally divided between debaucheries and military exploits. In the year 1521, being then thirty years of age, while defending Pampeluna, which was besieged by the French, his right leg was broken, and having been unskilfully treated by the surgeon who first attempted to set it, he submitted, with the utmost resolution, to another operation, which was attended with the most excruciating anguish. During the confinement which followed, he manifested the first symptoms of that strange medley of military and romantic devotion for which he afterwards became so distinguished. He declared that Peter, the prince of the apostles, appeared to him in a vision by night, and assured him of his recovery. But personal vanity held, as yet, the ascendency even over superstition. An awkward splinter, which protruded through the skin, and would have marred his fair proportions, he ordered to be sawed off; and finding the wounded leg inclined to shrink, he made himself be stretched for several days on the rack, till it was drawn out to its former length. To relieve the lassitude of his confinement, and in the absence of other romances, he was fain to content himself with reading the legends of the saints, written in a style almost as romantic as those of the knights-errant, whose achievements had formerly so much delighted him. This led to what his admirers have called his conversion. A vision of the Virgin Mother, who, environed in light, and clasping her infant Son to her breast, revealed herself in fancy to his adoring gaze, wrought an entire change in his plans and prospects. Before this heavenly visitation all visions of earthly fame vanished away. From that moment, if we may believe his annalists, every unholy passion died within his breast. He determined to devote himself to the service of the Church, to become the knight-errant of the Virgin, and to bathe in the blood of her enemies the sword which he had hitherto wielded in the cause of worldly ambition. Inspired with this devout fancy, Ignatius, as soon as he recovered from his wound, sallied forth, like Don Quixote, in search of adventures, and was not long of meeting with an opportunity of showing his • We draw our information chiefly and directly from his Life by Maffeus, one of his own disciples, which is considered a standard work by the Society. 173 devotion to his lady-love. He encountered a Moor, who maintained that Mary ceased to be a virgin by becoming a mother. The wrath of the knight was inflamed to the highest pitch, and on parting with his adversary, he began seriously to regret that he had allowed the blasphemer to escape with his life. To decide the point, he determined that if his mule should, of her own accord, follow the path which the Moor had taken, he would pursue him and avenge the honour of the Virgin; if not, he would regard it as a sign from Heaven to let him alone. Fortunately for the Moor, the mule took an opposite direction. Ignatius next resolved to doff his carnal weapons, and assume a dress more becoming his spiritual vocation. With this view, following the approved rules of knighthood, he repaired to a chapel of the Virgin at Montserrat, hung up his arms at her shrine, and actually watched them there for a whole night. Next day, meeting a beggar on the road, he exchanged clothes with him-a transformation which had well-nigh proved fatal to the poor mendicant, who was suspected of having robbed and murdered the converted knight. The subsequent behaviour of Ignatius indicated too clearly that he was labouring under the influence of a disordered mind. He shut himself up in a gloomy cell, neglected his person, allowed his hair, on which he had once bestowed such attention, to grow matted and uncombed, and his nails to become like those of the king of Babylon, subjected himself to the most degrading penances, and, in short, became too noisome for human contact. Yet while indulging in these fanatical excesses, which are represented by his historians as constituting "the odour of sanctity," he is said to have been favoured with visions of the most extraordinary description, having, among other things, beheld the mystery of the Trinity exhibited in a visible form, and written an account of it; which, however, has been lost to posterity. Dragged out of this melancholy condition by some considerate friends, he began to ruminate on some way in which he might be of service to the Church. But here his want of learning seemed to present an insuperable obstacle to success. To overcome this, he began at the age of thirty-three to study the rudiments of Latin, and took his place, with great humility, among the boys at an academy. Here his progress appears to have been very indifferent; for while conjugating amo, "I love, thou lovest, he loves," &c., instead of learning the tenses and moods of the verb, his thoughts, we are gravely informed, wandered away to the contemplation of divine love, so that, despairing of the task, he entreated the schoolmaster to drive it into him by the ordinary mode of corporal discipline, which some assert was actually administered to him.* It may appear surprising, that an order so powerful and politic as that of the Jesuits should have been beholden to such a person as its founder; but, in fact, Loyola, though the originator of the sect, is not entitled, in the proper sense of the term, to be called the inventer of the institution. He was the first to Jurieu asserts that he was literally whipped, in the most humiliating form. Stillingfleet does not go so far; but the main facts above stated we have taken from the Jesuit historian, Maffeus.-Ign. Vit., cap. 16. Bayle Dict., art. Loyola. set agoing the Society, but to others we must assign the honour, or the disgrace, as it may be viewed, of organizing its constitution. Those who have ascribed to Ignatius Loyola the far-sighted sagacity of creating a system which he foresaw would spread over the earth, and reach a splendour unknown to any other religious order, have allowed themselves to be led almost as far astray as his idolatrous admirers, who ascribe his project of their Society to an immediate inspiration from heaven. The Jesuits, it has been justly said, are indebted, for the existence of their order, not to the wisdom of their founder, but to his enthusiasm."* It might be added, that they owed its success to the circumstances under which it accidentally originated. The Reformation had sounded an alarm to the Church of Rome of a danger, to meet which active and energetic spirits were re-life, is the despot, by whose orders every case is quired. While Loyola was watching his arms at Montserrat, or was squatting, squalid and half-naked, in his cell, Luther was making Germany re-echo with the first trumpet notes of his defiance of the Pope. The monasteries, in which ignorance had slumbered in the lap of superstition, had awakened, but from their very organization, their inmates were unfit to do battle on the new field of active strife which had opened around them. A new species of troops and of tactics had become necessary. Unwittingly, and with little foreknowledge of the result, Ignatius, the illiterate layman, suggested, in the fervour of his fanaticism, the line of policy, which it took wiser heads to mature, but which, with all their wisdom, they never thought of before. The man was crazy, beyond question; but his craze had taken a fortunate turn, and came at a fortunate time, for the interests of Rome. Bred up in the court and the camp, he brought all the finesse of the one, with all the rigorous discipline and unquestioning submission of the other, sublimed by religious enthusiasm, to bear upon the formation of his plans. His zeal enabled him to persevere in spite of all the opposition which he encountered. At length he proposed to the Pope, that besides the three vows of poverty, chastity, and monastic obedience, the members of his Society should take a fourth vow of obedience to the Popebecoming, as it were, his body guard, and binding themselves to go whithersoever he should command, for the service of religion, without depending on him for remuneration. He engaged, particularly, that they should be ready to act, both for the extermination of heretics and for the extension of the Roman Catholic religion throughout the earth. Such proposals, coming at such an emergency, commended themselves to the approbation of the Pope so highly, that in September 1540, he confirmed the institution of the Jesuits by his bull-granted the most ample privileges to the members, and appointed Loyola to be the first general of the Society. The constitution and laws of the Society were perfected by Lainez and Agnaviva, the two generals who succeeded Loyolamen as far superior to their master in abilities as he excelled them in fanaticism; and in less than half a century, this order, which assumed to itself, with as much blasphemy as arrogance, the name of "Th Society of Jesus," rose to be the most enterprising and formidable order in the Church of Rome. The Society of the Jesuits differs essentially all the other orders of the Church of Rome. Ir of being confined to the cloister, and engaged to sp his time, like other monks, in the routine of ser called devotional, the Jesuit is left at liberty to wander abroad, and mix himself up with general society. He is not bound to appear in any particular co^** or practise any rigorous austerities. Here, however, his liberty ends. He is, in other respects, the greatest slave on earth. Loyola, as we have observed, full of the ideas of implicit obedience derived from hi military profession, impressed on the Society the char ter of a pure monarchy. The general, chosen for Robertson's Hist. Charles V., vol. ii. 145. D'Alem cided, and to whose irresponsible authority e member is amenable. The members of the Soc...y have no more power in the regulation of its affairs, or in the disposal of their own persons, than the soldier in the ranks has in the marching orders of the day. He must obey his superior without question or complaint, whatsoever and wheresoever he may be commanded, though it were to go to the uttermost part of the earth; and it is their boast, that so prompt and implicit is the obedience given to such orders, that were they to arrive while the brother was engaged in writing, he should stop in the middle of a word and leave it unfinished, rather than delay for a moment obedience to the will of his superiors. To insure this ready compliance, as well as the other objects of the Society, a system of espionage has been established among them, which beats all that ever was attempted by the despots of worldly kingdoms. These may employ their agents to worm out secrets under the guise of friendship, to lurk in corners, or peep into letters. The Jesuits have converted the confessional into an instrument for discovering the secrets of the Society as well as of other men. Every novice is obliged to "manifest his conscience" to his superior-to discover not only his sins, but his inmost inclinations; and this every six months. In addition to this, they are constituted spies upon one another, and bound to disclose everything of importance which they may discover. They must pass through a long noviciate, till they reach thirty-three years of age, when they become "professed" members. These reports on one another are regularly transmitted to head quarters, and entered into registers; in consequence of which the general is intimately acquainted with each member of the Society, and can select them for such services as their respective talents and tempers may best qualify them to discharge. When to this we add, that in these reports everything that can by possibility affect the interests of the Society is regularly communicated, and that all are bound by a solemn oath of secrecy against divulging to others the secrets thus imparted to the general, such a piece of dexterous and finished despotism is not to be found elsewhere in the annals of mankind. Next to this distinguishing feature of the Society, is the devotion with which each member is bound to bert's Account of the Destruction of the Jesuits in France, consult the interests of the Society. "There is not p. 11. a Jesuit," says D'Alembert, "who may not say, like 5 EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S NOTE-BOOK. = · ne ricked spirit in Scripture, My name is Legion.' Never did Republican love his country as every Jesuit loves his Society; the very lowest of its mem- interests himself in its glory, of which he thinks rays reflect upon himself. They are all at once in action by the single spring, which one man rts at his pleasure; and it is not without reason that they have been defined ‘a naked sword, the hilt of which is at Rome.""* Jesuitism is, in short, an absorption of every other sentiment, selfish and social, in the grand object of advancing the honour and glory of Jesuitism. Before this object every consideration, earthly and spiritual, must give way. To gain it, no authority, civil or sacred, must respected; no means, however iniquitous, must be scrupled at; no reverence for oaths and obligations, Sympathy for human sufferings, no regard to social rests, must be permitted to stand in the way. 1e dearest ties of kindred must be rent, the most solemn pledges violated, the most sacred laws of nature and morality outraged, rather than the Society suffer detriment. The good of the Society, like the charity of the Gospel, "will cover a multitude of sins." It may be thought strange that such a principle as this should comport with the original pledge given by the Society, to yield implicit obedience to the See of Rome. But they have generally contrived to render themselves so useful to the Pope, that he has overlooked this theoretical anomaly in their constitution; while they, on their part, have flattered him with a show of submission to his authority, which they have practically disregarded. The real end of their ambition has been to govern mankind, to monopolize all authority, and to become universal monarchs. But, as this object is sought for, under the guise of religion, and avowedly for the advancement of Catholicism, their services have been accepted by the Pope, and by almost all the Catholic princes of Europe. They have found them, to their experience, good servants, but bad masters. Their zeal against heresy has recommended them, wherever the Reformation extended itself. And certainly no society ever rose within so short a time to such a formidable state of power and splendour. In 1540, when they presented their petition to Pope Paul III., they amounted to no more than ten persons. At the death of Ignatius in 1556, they numbered twelve grand provinces. In the beginning of last century, they had twenty-four houses of profession, fifty-nine houses of probation, three hundred and fifty residences, six hundred and twelve colleges, two hundred mission stations, and nineteen thousand and nine hundred Jesuits.+ D'Alembert's Account of the Destruction of the Jesuits in France, p. 33. 175 EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S NOTE-BOOK. POPISH PERSECUTIONS IN THE VALLEYS OF THE ALPS. WE are seated now on the summit of one of the loftiest mountains on the left bank of the Rhone. In our immediate neighbourhood all is bleak sterility, as if vegetation had expired. But we have ascended to this peak with a special object in view, and the sterility is all in keeping with it. We could not leisurely diverge into all the valleys of Piedmont, where God's persecuted remnant were hunted of old, and butchered in whole towns at a time, by remorseless Rome and her emissaries; but from the spot which we now occupy, it is not difficult to trace the outline of the different valleys, or connect, as in a continuous chain, some of the historical atrocities of the system whose head exalts himself above all that is called God. We have well-nigh a panoramic view of many of the scenes which we could not traverse. Let us sketch them. There appears, then, though far in the distance, to the eye of memory at least, the town of Beziers, which Romanists long regarded as the bulwark of the hated doctrines of the Bible. Centuries ago it was taken by assault, when besieged by Count de Montfort, at the Pope's command, solely because the Albigenses had found a shelter in it, and not a soul escaped. Trembling old men-mothers with their infants in their arms, and children imploring mercy from the brutal soldiery—all were massacred. They had read the Bible-they had believed it-and must die. It was suggested that some Romanists might be in the place, and that they should be spared.-Slay them all, was the reply of Arnold, the missionary of Rome; God will know those who are his; and more than fifty thousand were sacrificed, in consequence of the order, to glut the vengeance of men holding what has been called, and called exclusively, the Catholic religion. The very churches of those victims of merciless Rome afforded them no asylum. They were massacred while clinging to the horns of the altar. But perhaps this was a solitary outbreak of ferocity. Turn, then, to Lavaur, where some of the persecuted had shut themselves up, and where a pitiless destruction awaited them, because they would not lay their souls beneath the iron foot of Popery. One hundred thousand Albigenses fell there in a single day-they had hoped to find an asylum in it, and found only a grave. The soldiers of the Pope hurried, from place to place, for three months upon their cruel errand; and in their pious rage, neither age nor sex, neither castle nor cabin, was spared. This war of extermination lasted for nearly twenty years, and at last † Histoire Generale de la Naissance et des Progrès de la the Man of Sin could boast that their remained no Compagnie de Jesus (par La Coudrette), vol. i., p. 29. SELF-EXAMINATION. SUM up at night what thou hast done by day; And growth of it; if, with thy watch, that too Be down, then wind up both: since we shall be More surely judged, make thy accounts agree. HERBERT. trace either of heresy, or of the Bible which fomented it, the heretics were all butchered, and the Bibles all burned. A hymn of thanksgiving was sung, amid the heaps of carcasses which lay piled in their ghastliness around Lavaur, "to the Omnipotent Virgin," who had blessed the butchers with success ! But open war was not enough. First the tribunal A very graphic account of these atrocities, and those that follow, may be seen in a work by Dr Malan, entitled, "Pourrai-je entrer jamais dans l'Eglise Romaine," &c. |