It seems strange to mention the holy name of religion in connexion with such principles as those of probability and intention, and the first feeling of the heart is to rise up in holy indignation, and to declare it is utterly impossible that religion can have anything to do with such a system. But such a conclusion would be clearly incorrect; for not only do the facts prove that there is a certain religious principle in action, but I believe it may be shewn that such results could not be produced except through the power of a debased and perverted Christianity. The assertion may startle some, but I believe that upon investigation it will be found true, that there is less power in bare, barren, blank Infidelity, to break down the morality of a man, than there is in a Gospel, debased and defiled to suit his purposes. Infidelity gives no sop to the conscience, no chloroform to destroy the sense of sin, nor can it altogether root out the moral sense, however mournfully it may sear and deaden it. But the case is different with a debased religion. It overpowers conscience, by setting off against it the spurious principles of a pretended Christianity. It produces certain maxims, for which it claims pre-eminence, because it says they come from Christ; and, by the very authority which they derive from the misappropriation of that holy name, it tramples the moral sense under foot, and leaves the pervert ready for any enormity that it may require. I have no doubt, therefore, in my own mind, that a large proportion of the Company of Jesuits are, in one sense, religious men; nor can we look at the history of Jesuit missions, at their indefatigable zeal, untiring self-denial, patient endurance, and, in some instances, cheerful martyrdom, without the conviction that a deep religious feeling has been more or less their actuating power. But more than this,—you may see it even in their crimes; you may there obtain the most perfect illustration of the statement just made, that a perverted religion may be called in to give its sanction to those crimes which an Infidel without religion dare not commit. Look, for example, at the letter of Sir Everard Digby to his wife, written when he was under sentence of death for the Gunpowder Plot, in which he says,—“Now for my intention, let me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the least sin in the plot, I would not have been of it for all the world, and no other cause led me to hazard my fortune and life but zeal for God’s religion.” [59] Look again at the remarkable fact, that those conspirators received a solemn mass from a Jesuit father of the name of Gerard, when they solemnly swore to do their part in the conspiracy; and that the whole scheme was known to Garnett, the Provincial of the Society. [60] So that the solemn sanction of the Lord’s death and sufferings was thrown over all the enormous guilt of that long-premeditated and wholesale murder.

But then the question arises, What can be the perversion of Christianity which can lead to such an abandonment of the moral sense? The full answer to the question might occupy volumes; but there is one root to which, I believe, the whole may be traced; and although it may seem at first scarcely sufficient to produce so vast a Upas-tree, yet I believe it will be found in fact that the whole plant has sprung from it;—I mean, the substitution of man for God in the great business of the soul’s guidance and salvation.

The passages already quoted prove this substitution very clearly, with reference to the guidance of the Jesuit; but if there were any doubt of it, it would be removed by the oath of profession, in which it is sworn,—“I, N., make profession, and promise Almighty God, before his Virgin Mother, and before the heavenly hosts, and before all bystanders, and you, Rev. Father, General of the Society of Jesus, holding the place of God.” There is, therefore, a double transfer of Divine authority. The Pope stands between the General and God, and the General between the Jesuit and the Pope. There is a double delegation of Divine powers, the Lord being said to confer them on the Pope, the Pope conferring them on the General, and the Jesuit then swearing, in the most solemn moment of his life, that the General “holds the place of God.” And what must be the necessary result? That moral truth is no longer learned from the fountain of truth, but from the corrupt, the designing, the human authority that stands between the Creator and the soul. The Divine law is obscured, the human will is adopted in its place. The result of such a change must obviously be, that the character of the body must become the mere reflection of the character of the head; that his corruptions take the place of Divine perfections; and his schemes, whatever be their nature, are regarded as identical with the glory of the Lord. Hence the very religion of the Jesuit prepares him for any desperate measures provided only that his Superior gives his sanction to them; and the more that his soul feels in earnest, the more ready will he be to plunge on in any course of action, if only his head, a man quite as fallible as himself, and perhaps more corrupt, gives the word of command, and sanctions the foul act by his authority.

There is obedience, but, being transferred to a wrong object, the right principle produces a depraved and corrupt result. There is zeal, but it is all put out for the furtherance of the plans of a scheming man, instead of rising high to the blessed end of seeking God’s glory. There is some fear towards God, but it is directed not by God himself, but the Superior; and hence it follows that the Jesuits, whilst they set aside the practical use of Scripture, do in fact confirm its truth; for they stand out as living witnesses to the unfailing truth of that remarkable passage which connects alienation of heart with the substitution of human for Divine instruction, and says,—“This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” [62]

There is just the same substitution of man for God in the great work of a sinner’s salvation; and from this, as the root, may be said to spring the whole remainder of the system. Loyola, as is well known, struggled hard for peace. Deeply convinced of sin, he passed through an agony of soul in search of life; and, failing to find it as God has revealed it, in free grace and full redemption, he made a desperate plunge into Jesuitry, and the creation of the Order was the result. His book of “Spiritual Exercises,” written shortly after the time of his conflict, is still the standing work for the Jesuit’s personal religion. The reader has been already informed of the high authority by which it has been introduced to the British public, but few who are not acquainted with the mechanical character of the whole Romish system will be prepared for the mournful substitution of man’s action for God’s grace, which pervades both the preface and the book. The book contains a plan for passing a novice through a kind of spiritual manufacture in twenty-eight days; or rather, it used to be twenty-eight days in the time of Loyola; but we travel now by railroads, and everything moves quickly, so that Cardinal Wiseman states in his preface that the twenty-eight days may now be reduced to ten. [63a] Now, learn what may be accomplished in these ten days. The Cardinal says,—“It is not a treatise on sin, or virtue; it is not a method of Christian perfection; but it contains the entire practice of perfection, by making us at once conquer sin, and acquire virtue.” [63b] Now, it is a question of the deepest interest to ascertain the process by which sin is to be conquered in twenty-eight, or by us moderns in ten days. It is a secret that many a sin-burdened conscience would give worlds, if it had them, to discover. But really it is most deeply affecting to turn to the book, and see the utter emptiness of the whole scheme. According to the Cardinal, “it is divided into four weeks, and each of these has its specific object, to advance the exercitant an additional step towards perfect virtue. If the work of each week be thoroughly done, this is actually accomplished.” [63c]

The aim of the first week, according to the same authority, “is the cleansing of the conscience from past sin, and of the affections from their future dangers.” And how is this mighty result to be accomplished? how is the conscience to be cleansed from the past, and the affections guaranteed for the future? How is the frail and wavering heart of man to be so purified in a single week, that it shall go out into a world of trial and temptation, “cleansed against future danger?” Really it makes the heart sad to read the miserable and mournful absence of all that the Gospel has provided for a sinner. Loyola knew what sin was, and had bitterly felt its sting, so that there are touching signs of the sincerity of the deep inward conflict which passed within his soul. But the melancholy part of the whole matter is, that there is no hint at the only remedy. There is not a single passage in which the troubled conscience is directed to the atonement, as God’s provision for man’s free pardon; not a single allusion to the Lord’s advocacy, and no mention of either the name or the office of the Holy Ghost. But in the place of all this, there are certain rules to be observed during the retreat. If the inquirer is in business, he must be satisfied with the devotion of an hour and a half daily to the work. [64a] If he has more leisure, he is directed “to migrate from his former habitation into some more secret house or cell;” [64b] being there, he is “to deprive himself of all the brightness of the light, shutting the doors and windows as long as he remains there, except while he has to read or take his food.” [65a] He is “to direct his eyes on no one, unless the occasion of saluting or taking leave require it;” [65b] “he is to do penance by fasting, by limiting the hours of his sleep, and by the use of hair-cloth, ropes, iron bars, and whips;” but, “in preference, whips of small cords, which hurt the outward parts, and not those within, so as to injure the health.” [65c] He is provided with a manual to assist him in meditation, and self-examination; and, above all, he places himself under the guidance and authority of a director, “for,” says Dr. Wiseman, “the life of a good retreat is a good director.” [65d]

With this apparatus complete, he sets to work, and is directed to draw a diagram, like the following, containing seven pairs of lines, one pair for each day. [65e]

Diagram of seven pairs of linesThese are to be employed for the measurement of his sins. He is to remember and enumerate the number of times he has been in fault, and twice every day mark the same number of points on the proper line of the series. Now what is the result of the first week’s discipline? The lines, the reader will observe, become shorter and shorter daily, till at length, at the end of one single week, according to Dr. Wiseman, “sin is [66a] abandoned, hated, loathed. At the conclusion of the painful task, the soul finds itself prostrate and full of anxieties. The past is remedied; but what is to be done for the future?” [66b]

Such is the description given by this high authority of this miserable, mechanical counterfeit of Christianity. What becomes of the deep-seated corruption of the human heart? Where is the work of the Spirit? And if the conscience could be cleansed, and the past remedied by such a paltry human artifice, where, Oh, where was the necessity for atonement? and what need was there that Emanuel should shed his precious blood upon the cross?

But does it not verify the charge which I brought against the system, of substituting man for God in the salvation of the sinner? What is it that conquers sin in the first two days and a half of the retreat? Is it the Saviour? Is it the Spirit? Or is it the man? Wiseman says,—“It is the work of each week, thoroughly done.” [66c]To this one leading principle all Jesuitry may without any difficulty be traced; and if so, we may surely learn the one weapon by which it may be resisted and overcome. The evil originates in the substitution of man for God, and therefore the weapon by which it must be opposed is the exaltation of the Lord himself, as the only author of the soul’s salvation. “Be thou exalted, O God, in thine own strength, so will we sing and praise thy power.” There is a great conflict raging. There are swarms of these subtle adversaries filling the land; there is a vast power arrayed against us; the enemy is active, well combined, and unscrupulous; but they must not be met by their own weapons; for we had rather have all that is dear to us trodden under foot in the lowest dust, than gain the most brilliant triumphs through the use of a single weapon adopted from their armoury. We give them the exclusive use of all their probabilities, and are ready to meet them, without either subtlety or disguise, but with the plain, honest, frank, and open bearing of honest-minded servants of the Lord; we must be satisfied to struggle in the Lord’s strength, and to employ the Lord’s weapons. Nor need we be afraid in the conflict. Their human machinery, I freely grant, is superior to ours; their agency more complete, and their combination more perfect. “But the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and not spirit.” They in all their system have been guilty of the substitution of man for God; but our joy is to exalt God on his own throne; and our certain expectation is to triumph through the might of his own right hand. It is true, indeed, that they can summon to their assistance the countless contrivances of human subtlety, but our weapon is far superior to all, for it is from the Lord himself, it is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. There is no denying that they can assume any guise, and worm their way into the unsuspecting family; but our hope is in the power of the Spirit, to whom the heart itself is open as the day. They can meet us, indeed, and perhaps over-match us, in their varied appliances for intellectual education, they may be powerful in the pulpit, and attractive in the confessional, but they have no message that has one thousandth part of the loveliness of ours, for, unless they are false to their own principles, they can never proclaim to anxious sinners a finished atonement, and free pardon through the blood of the Lamb. There is much, indeed, to be apprehended in their close combination under the able conduct of a well-appointed General; but no general upon earth is to be compared to the Captain of the Lord’s hosts, whom God himself has set apart from the beginning to be “the leader and commander of the people.” Only let us be faithful to that blessed Master, honouring his word, leaning on his Spirit, at all times setting forth his grace; and the time will come, as certainly as God’s word is true, when the whole fabric of Jesuitry shall be split into shivers; when the prophecy shall be fulfilled, “Associate yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces when the triumphant cry shall originate in heaven, and shall swell back in a vast echo from a regenerate world, ‘We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, because thou hast taken unto thee thy great power, and hast reigned.’”

Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.