My friends, there was a time when the dungeon or the scaffold would be the temporary but certain award of these my humble efforts for religion—a time when the most exquisite of tortures would follow a similar announcement of principle—a time when the inquisitorial rack would either extort a recantation of such sentiments, or point to some painful death as a necessary consequence of their avowal—a time when the Papal arm had wielded an ungovernable sway over the countries of Europe; and when secular power was so entwined around the ecclesiastical diadem, that a Pontiff’s nod might be once considered as a sufficient guarantee for the deposition of a monarch—a time when a Pope Gregory the Seventh[44]detained a Henry the Fourth, of Germany, for three days naked and fasting at his gates,and suing for mercy and absolution—a time when in the days of a Pope Innocent the Third[45a]the British crown had lain beneath the feet of Papal authority; and when a John of England was forced to yield obeisance to that edict which proclaimed absolution to a people from their due allegiance to a monarch. Yes, my friends, there was another period of time when individuals, under the pretext of religion, and under, if not the influence, at least the sanction of ecclesiastical power, had frequent recourse to acts of punishment which no religious creed should tolerate—a time when the manly and religious sentiments of a Lord Cobham[45b]had enkindled for his body the fire of persecution; and when the open avowal of a Ridley, a Hooper, a Cranmer, and a Latimer,[45c]had impressed upon their brow the indelible sentence of religious martyrdom. But blessed be God for all things, those times are past, and we now live in days when a more refined civilization has contracted the unlawful stretch of Roman church authority, and when the intelligence of mankind points out to a safer way for the glorious spirit of religious toleration.
Yes, “old things are passing away, behold all things are becoming new.” Even the narrow compass of your own days, furnishes to the reflecting mind a proof of the comparative enlightenment of the times; and gives to religious hope a more consoling assurance of a better futurity. That spell which kept your minds in unscriptural darkness, is now broken; for your Bishops have at length come to the resolution of letting the Gospel light among you. A cheap edition of the Douay Bible hasbeen lately published for your particular instruction; and the Priest that would now withhold it from your perusal must undoubtedly wish to make a traffic of your ignorance. The number of your holydays is curtailed—those days which were often spent by some of you amid the scenes of drunken reveries, or in the circles of lawless assemblages. Your Saturday abstinence, which the superstitious times of a Gregory the Seventh had generated, is now abolished; all of which circumstances must form a remarkable epoch in the discipline of the Roman Church. The number of your reserved cases is also diminished. But here it may be requisite to apprise some of my readers of the meaning which Roman credulity attaches to the reservation of cases. A reserved case is generally termed that from which an ordinary confessor cannot absolve his penitent without a special privilege from his Bishop. Thus for instance, some time ago it was a reserved case for any of you to hear instructions in a Protestant house of worship. I have known an instance when a respectable Roman Catholic, who is now of considerable influence at the bar, was publicly denounced from an altar, for the mere fact of attending a charity sermon preached by a Protestant clergyman. But, my friends, it seems that the progress of years may divest crimes of their hideousness; and that this, which was once reckoned a reserved case, may be now counted among the number of your ordinary sins; for, I am now happy to inform you, that any officiating curate or parish priest has obtained the supposed privilege of absolving you from the imputed sin of receiving instruction.
I hope you will avail yourselves of whatever advantagesthe intelligence of the times may afford: and that the narrow or selfish views of man will no longer control you in the exercise of your judgment. Remember that “the word of God is fire tried,” and that it has ever courted investigation, while falsehood has always shrunk from inquiry. I know there are many among the lay portion of Roman Catholics, who would anxiously sever the link of their nominal adhesion to Roman doctrine, but their fears of an after persecution prevent an avowed acknowledgment of error. But, my friends, remember that the troubles of this life are not to be compared with the glory that awaits us in the next. “For (as the Apostle says) our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”[47a]I pray then, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, ye may know what is the hope of his calling”[47b]—and that ye may be strengthened to say with me in the words of the Psalmist, “In God I will praise his word; in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” Psalms 56th chap. 4th verse.
[30]See Hayes’s Sermon I.
[31]See Nicholson’s Philosophy, vol. 1.
[43]See Scheffmaker’s Polemical Catechism, translated by Coppinger, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cloyne.
[44]In the eleventh century.
[45a]In the thirteenth century.
[45b]In the fifteenth century.
[45c]In the sixteenth century.
[47a]2 Cor. 4th chap. 17th verse.
[47b]Ephes. 1st chap. 17–18 verses.