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have ensured success, had not the providence of God prevented it, as if by a miracle. The conspirators began by consulting Garnet, the Superior of the Jesuits, who sent them to Gerard, who confessed them, consecrated, administered to them the sacrament, and an oath of secrecy. Tesmond, another Jesuit, then took charge of them, to instruct them in their infernal business, and Garnet took measures to secure a Spanish invasion, as soon as the plot should take effect. This is the most horrid plot in the annals of history. Their design was to blow up James I., with the three estates assembled in Parliament. For this purpose, they placed thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in the vaults under the Parliament-house. The sanguinary bigots alleged that this horrid massacre was undertaken for the glory of God and zeal for his religion. They imagined that when the King, Royal Family, nobility, and the chief of the Commons were thus slaughtered, that they could establish the idolatry of the mass, and set up Satan's synagogue once more in England. This most infernal plot, worthy of Satan and his agents the Jesuits, was providentially discovered the very day before it was intended to have been executed. Gerard and Tesmond made their escape out of the kingdom; but Garnet and Oldcorn were hanged, after confessing and glorying in their guilt. Although executed for such an enormous crime, yet the Jesuits have ever since honoured these miscreants with the title of martyrs, of course they are included in their litany to the saints; and Bellarmine apologised for them after the plot. Alarmed by this and the other plots of the Jesuits, James drew up and ordained the oath of allegiance, which became a new source of division to the English Papists. In this oath no doctrinal points are touched, but the conscience is left entirely free. It requires a solemn protestation of fidelity to the State, and a renunciation of every foreign power, spiritual, or temporal, to dispense with oaths or to dethrone sovereign princes. This became a stumbling-block to the Jesuits; they accordingly denounced it, while the peaceably-disposed Papists took it. Paul V. forbade this oath to be taken by any Papist, under pain of damnation. Innocent X. also condemned it. In 1626 Urban VIII. "exhorted the English (Roman) Catholics to lose their lives, rather than take that noxious and unlawful oath of allegiance, by which the sceptre of the (Roman) Catholic Church would be wrested from the Vicar of God Almighty." No Papist can safely take the oath of allegiance, because he is under a previous oath to the Pope to do exactly what it forbids. Accordingly, to accommodate the tender consciences of the Papists, a new oath has been framed, to be taken and subscribed by them, instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and which is broken with the most unblushing effrontery.

Portugal was the first to suffer by the hypocrisy and ambition of the Jesuits. She was among the first also to discover it. The manifesto of King Joseph was the first blow levelled at them, and under which they eventually fell. They were expelled from England by James I., in 1604, from Venice in 1606, from Portugal in 1759, from France in 1764, from Spain and Sicily in 1767, and they were totally suppressed by Pope Clement XIV., in 1773. Clement took four years to deliberate; in which time he referred the consideration

to a commission, consisting of five cardinals, and several prelates and advocates. He himself searched the archives of the Propaganda for documents relative to the mission of the Jesuits. He considered both the accusations brought against them, and the apologies in their favour; and he read every publication, both for and against them. He communicated his brief privately to several cardinals and theologians, as well as to some of the sovereigns interested in their suppression, before he issued it. At length he promulgated the important document, which sealed the fate of the most wicked and the most treacherous body of men that ever disgraced the earth. Clement never doubted that his death would be the penalty of his magnanimity. After signing the instrument, he remarked: :-" The suppression is accomplished. I do not repent of it, having only resolved on it after examining and weighing everything, and because I thought it necessary for the Church: and if it were not done, I would do it now; but this suppression will be my death." His prophecy was soon verified. A pasquinade soon after appeared on St. Peter's Church, the initial letters of which Clement himself interpreted to mean," the Holy See will be vacant in September." Several attempts were made to destroy him by poison, but without effect; but in June, 1774, he died, with every appearance of having been poisoned. His throat, stomach, and intestines, were in a state of the highest inflammation. Immediately after death his whole body turned black, his flesh fell off, and he became so offensive, although remarkably thin, that it was impossible to approach him. There can be no doubt but that Clement died by poison; and there can be as little doubt that Jesuits were the administrators, and thus did they close their first career with a crowning deed worthy of their iniquitous principles, and their former execrable conduct,

We say their first career, for a second has commenced. The late Pope Pius VII., finding the spirit of Popery likely to revive, and that the jealous suspicion of Protestants had abated, recalled them into existence, and once more let them loose on European society. Once restarted, they sprung rapidly forward and soon regained their old position of influence and importance. In Austria, avowed Jesuits are now the chief ministers of the country. In Silesia, a Jesuit's Missionary Association has been formed for the purpose of perverting America; in Prussia, under the Archbishop of Cologne, they are shaking to its centre that ancient Protestant nation; in Hanover, they are intriguing to disturb the reigning dynasty; in Belgium, they have succeeded in throwing off the government of Protestant Holland; in China, they are pursuing a course of triumphant missionary exertion; in the South Seas, they are swarming and forming settlements in every eligible island; and in India, they are craftily forcing their way into the confidence of the Government, and into the possession of an unlimited sway over a portion of the people. And who can say, that here, in Great Britain, we are free from Popery's Jesuitical incursions. By law it is necessary that all Jesuits should be registered in England, and they are absolutely forbidden to settle in Ireland, but the English register is a farce, and in the sister country they parade through the length and breadth of the land without one whisper of suspicion, or one

attempt to restrain them from the Executive Government. At Maynooth in Kildare, their doctrines are taught to the instructors of the whole population; and at Stoneyhurst in Lancashire, and Blairs at Aberdeen, they superintend the education of the principal Popish laity and clergy. But these are only their acknowledged, recognised, and public movements. In private, they insinuate themselves into every circle, and assume successively each form that is likely to entrap the weak and unwary. They stop at no scruples, they hesitate at no difficulties, they lose no time in considerations of convenience and in fears of personal perils, but they go on fearless, reckless, and shameless, spurning all obstacles, rejecting the control of conscience, warring against the happiness of man, and derogating from the honour of God. In political affairs they are always ready for mischief, they are the general disturbers of the State, and the constant advocates for revolution. They are now endeavouring to sap the morals of the population by introducing an atheistical system of education, to destroy the Established Church, to disturb the security of property, and to taint the character of the Court. Continually fresh mines are sprung, and fresh conspiracies are arranged. Disunion is sown among Protestants by artful misrepresentations of genuine Protestant doctrines, while the follies, the vices, the idolatry, and the persecuting dogmas of Popery are as cunningly palliated or concealed.

Such is the genuine position of affairs in this country at the present moment. What then is the duty of all honest and sincere Protestants at such a peculiar and alarming crisis? Is not apathy under existing circumstances a crime? These are questions well worth considering, and absolutely necessary to be determined. The signs of the time are fearful and ominous, the enemy is awake and active, the most valuable institutions of the nation are in danger; treason within, and violent hostility abroad, are rife. Jesuits the foes of mankind, and the experienced determined advocates of persecution are the leaders of the opposite party; they are daily increasing and growing bolder, and therefore no farther excuses or delays can be justified on the part of any conscientious man who values the national interests, at stake in the present arduous struggle.

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