The Sun.
London, England, 1819-02-15 00:00:00

By a CHURCH of ENGLAND CATHOLIC.

As the old subject of Catholic Emancipation
(as it is termed) will no doubt be revived and
!now:lit before the New Parliament, it may be
well for the benefit of those who are, or affect to
he it;norant, to explain its trite intent and mean-
ing, th t our Senators and the good subjects of
these Ttealms may see their danger in time, to
avoid the impending storm, and be prepared to
give their decided opposition to so monstrous a
proposal as that of introducing Popish Membera
into our Protestant Parliament ; the true intent
and meaning of Catholic Emancipation. ss ill be
}mind in the following swords, being the true and
explicit language of every Roman Catholic in the
United Kingdom:—
We, Members of the Church of Rome, believers
in all its doctrines and tenets, performers of its
rites and ceremonies as originally establiihed by
the Holy Fathers, our spiritual lords and masters
the Popes, and confirmed by their successors, all
whom we believe to be infallible as vicars of
Christ on earth, whose powers and authorities
being derived from our immaculate mother
church, we consider outselves bound implicitly
to obey their rules, mandates, and ordinances,
gently and strictly to observe, and on every oc-
casion where the interest and welfare of our
church are concerned, to devote all our powers
and abilities, physical and mental, to its services,
In as that on °lmpart nothing should be wanting
to promote andtaccomplish our darling object
of one day, (which, we trust, is not distant)
establishing in this land, which we emphatically
call Catholic Ireland, Popish Ascendancy ; this
we confess is our ultimate aim, for the accom-
plishment of which, we demand a seat in the
Senate, a voice in your Councils, and an unlimit-
led admission into all offices of State, Civil -and
Military—for we are not satisfied, however we
may have appeared to be, with religious tolera-
tion, personal liberty, and security of property.
That the foregoing language is the true and
lineal offspring of those inseparable companions,
Popery and Bigotry, may be traced in the follow-
ing passage taken from the Oath which the Priest
makes on his entering into Holy Orders; among
•other things he swears :

That he will keep vtith all his might, the rules
of the Holy Fathers, the Apostolic Decrees, Or-
dinances, Disposals, Reservations, Provisions, and
Mandates, and cause them to be ohserved by
others. Heretics, Schismatics, end Rebel; to his
said Lnrd the Pope, and his successors aforesaid,
he %%1:1, to the utmust of his power, persecute and
destroy. So much for Christian cfra"Oty and li-
berality of sentiment. Hear further what. a. Ca-
tholic Writer, whose doctrines and positions 'were
so effectually oppugned by the illustrious CHIL-
LtNowouTH, says :—Since there must be some ih-
failittle means to decide all controversies concern-
ing Religion, and to propound truth revealed by
Almighty God, and this means can be no other
but the visible Church of Christ, which, at the
time of LUTHSICS appearance, was only the Church
of Rome, and such as agreed with her ; we must
conclude, that whosoever opposed] himself to her
definitions, and forsaketh her Communion, cloth
resist God himself, whose spouse she is, and
whose divine truth she propounds, and therefore
beCome guilty of schism and heresy, which, since
Protestants have clone, and still continue to do,
it forcetb is to declare this necessary truth—
That Protestancy unrepented of, destroys sal-
vation.

Es zoo Disc(' Ontnes.—Chillingworth's Works, page 298.
it is utterly impossible that persons holding
such opinions should ever harmonize with Pro-
testants in any extensive system of political admi-
nistration, for religious principles must bear upon
every important point of discussion in Govern-
ment and Law. It is impossible to detach them ;
the attempt would he vain.—On the circulation
of the Scriptures, which Protestants deem so ne-
cessary for instruction, and for which purpose
they were given, hear what the Holy' and In-
fallible Father of the Faithful, the present Pope,
says in his late Bull—The Holy Scriptures, in
the vulgar tongue, have, through the temerity of
men. produce,' more harm than good, and is a
most crafty devise, by which the very foundations
of religion are mudermined—a pestilence which
is to be abolished and remedied as far as possible—
impious machinations, to he opposed by whatever
Gbin be achieved by power, provided for by coun-
sel, or effected by authority—the wickedness of a
nefarious plan—tares which the Enemy is abun-
dantly sowing.
I shall now select a few passages from Doctor
DitomcooLe's remarkable Speech, delivered at the
Rowan Catholic Board on the Bth Dec. 1813,
as reported its their Official Paper, Tire Dt4/iir

Ereaing Post ; and be it remembered, thpt it WAS
received by all present with universal approba►ion
and universal bursts of applause, as recorded
iu The Dublin Evening Post of the 30th of De-
cen►ber, 1813; and be it further remembered, that
not only evety person who heard it delivered at
that Board, adopted it as their individual and ge-
neral sentiments, but that no Roman Catholic
who has read its publications has ever come for-

w•;4r,l to disavow it, or any part of its pi.

ciplt•s.

MArk, Reader, the sentiments and opinions

contains : That no innovation or alteration can he
made by authority of l'alliatnent in the doctrine
or discipline Of the Catholic Church of Ireland ;
that the Ittlief Bill, or Veto Bill, was so full of

shan't:lA ex ict so subversive of religion, and
so injurious to gcttetalliherty, liil our Ancestors
would have rejected it in the darkest night of the
Penal Code; and which I have a right to assert, if

offered as Articles of Capi►ulatio►n at the Siege of
Limerick, to these brave men who made the last
Italia fur It ish Independance, they would have re-
plied in no other way, but by the mouth of the

CllllllOll.

Speaking of Mr. GRATTAN:, he says, you may en-
trust him with your Civil Rights, but you can-
not confide your Religious Rights to his
prejudices ; Layman, no Protestant, but,
above all, no English Parliament, as at
present, or in what way constituted. ought to be
allowed profanely to intermeddle in the admini-
stration of your Church ; that right belongs to
another authority, where it was placed at the first
birth of Christianity, where only it can safely rest,
or be legitimately, exercised.
On the subject of oaths, he asks, which of you
Gentlemen that recollects his feelings when taking
our present Catholic Oath of Allegiance, that does
not think that sufficiently galling and insulting—or
that can with patience anticipate any further mul-
tiplication of such oaths') That oath is built upon
the falsest and most profligate imputations, having
their birth in periods of fierce religious contro-
versy, civil wars and blood--let us look amon;.;
those rempiers of defence for the Protestant
Church, and see is there an oath among them
which a conscientious Clergyman would take.
The Oath of a Member of Parliament is a mere
transcript of the present one; the Oath of
Priest, after swearing him to be a guard
and a spy upon the loyalty of his Bishop;
makes him swear that be will not do any thing
that may lend, directly or indirectly, to
(orb or overthrow the Protestant Church in these
Kingdoms, (mind it does not say by fraud or vio-
lence, as in the Member's Oath,) but by doing
any thing whatever in conjunction with Rome,
or the Agents of Rome, that has a tendency to
overthrow the-ProtestantChurch,Ac. Now what
is,the absurd tendency of these Clauses ; does not

tie Conversion of a People to another mode of
Faith go,• not indirectly, but directly, and at
once, to the destruction of the Establishment ; ant

is it to be supposed that a Clergyman of any per-
suasion, all, conceives that tLe truth is in him,
could be induced, without an abandonment of all
moral principle, to take and subscribe to such an
Oath as this ?

An, Oath, not to seek directly or indirectly the
subversion of the Protestant Church !—Why this
would be to abuse the Divine Commandment,
which says—" Go ye and teach all Nations."

Speaking of the Established Church, he says,
in vain shall Statesmen put their heads together ;
in vain shall Parliament, in mockery of Omnipo-
tence, declare that it is permanent and inviolate ;
in vain shall the lazy Churchman cry from the
Sanctuary to the watchman on the Tower, that
danger is at hand; it shall fall, for it is human, and
liable to force, to accident, and to decay ; it shall
fail, and nothing but the memory of th►e mischiefs
it has created shall survive ; already the marks of
approaching ruin are upon it ; it bets had its time
upon earth, a date nearly as long as any other
novelty ; and when the time arrives, shall Ca-
tholics be called, by the sacred bond of an oath,
to uphold a system which they believe will be
one day rejected by the whole earth. Can they
be induced to swear that they would ►►ppose even
the present Protestants of England, if, ceasing to
be truants, they thought fit to return to their an-
cient worship, and to have a Catholic King, and a
Catholic Parliament ?

flaying entered into this subject, with t view
to undeceive such of my Protestant fellow-sub-
jects as may flatter themselves that there would
be no danger to the State in admitting Roman
Catholics into political power, which would, of
course, lead their Clergy into more ecclesiastical
power and consequence than they possess at pre-
sew, I feel it my duty to introduce-whatever may
promote my object in every fair and rational way
it will admit of ; 1 shall therefore quote the lan. ,
gunge of a celebrated publicAtion on the subject
of Church Power applicable to that of Rowe.

Cto be coutittued.)