low-citizens, and my moft anxious wishes for your profperity. May the lash of defpotifm be averted. May the liberties for which our ancestors have bled, still furvive all attempts at their extinction. Put your trust in that Providence, that alone directs the blow, let the powers of this earth take what aim they may. HENRY FITZGERALD.

Boyle Farm, July 15, 1797.

No. CIX.

A Paftoral Letter to the Catholic Clergy of the united Dioceses of Waterford and Lifmore. By the R. R. Dr. Huffey. (P. 657.)

DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN IN CHRIST,

IN thefe critical and awful times, when opinions feem fpreading over this island, of a novel and dangerous tendency; when the remnants of old oppreffion, and new principles which tend to anarchy, are struggling for victory, and which in the collifion may produce the ruin of religion; when a moral earthquake shakes all Europe, I felt no fmall affliction and alarm, upon receiving the superior command of the head of the church, to preside over the Catholics of these united diocefes, upon the death of your most venerable, and ever to be regretted prelate, your late bishop.

In the midst of these fears and alarms, it was a great confolation to me, to be affured of the piety, zeal, and loyalty of the clergy under my fpiritual care; and that their exertions were conftantly employed to keep the laity within the bounds of religion, morality, and decorum. That no part of Ireland was more exempt from turbulence and infubordination to the laws, than this diftrict; and that the memory of the illegal injuftices and cruelties formerly practifed in this country by men, who made religious diftinétions a stalking horfe for political purposes, is completely and happily effaced, I hope,

for ever.

It is upon you, very reverend, and dearly beloved brethren, that, under God, my reliance is, that the Catholic faith will produce its happy effects, in mending and improving the morals of the flock, which I commit to your care refpectively. Let me befeech you, to attach yourselves to them, by frequently inftructing and exhorting them, especially as often as you approach.

the

the facred altar; and certainly you cannot fail to attach them to you, by fuch a pious, exemplary, and zealous conduct. Do not permit yourselves to be made the inftruments of the rich of this world, who will try, by adulation, and poffibly by other means, to make inftruments of you over the poor, for their own temporal purposes, and perhaps to render your facred ministry odious to them. The poor were always your friends, they inflexibly adhered to you, and to their religion, even in the worst of times: they fhared their fcanty meal with you, and with your predeceffors, and thereby preferved a fucceffion of fpiritual paftors throughout the kingdom. If they had acted otherwife, conformed to the errors of the nation, and imitated the conduct of the rich, who not only fhut their doors against you, but not unfrequently hunted you like wild beafts, I fhould not be able to addrefs the prefent refpectable body of clergy under my fpiritual authority. Such a confideration cannot fail to enliven your zeal, and with affectionate attachment towards them, to impel you to instruct them in their duties, to restrain their errors, and to correct their vices. Argue, obfecra, increpa, in omni patientia, & do&rina. Upon all proper occafions, speak to them the words of eternal life, without fear or deference towards the enemies of our holy faith. The paftor, who doth not act in this manner towards his flock, hath loft the grace of his vocation, or perhaps he never received it from God. He is the mercenary shepherd, defcribed in the fcripture, who, upon feeing the wolf, runs away, and abandons his flock an easy prey to him.

At the fame time that I charge you to avoid all political interferences, as unworthy the minifters of him, whofe kingdom is not of this world, I call upon you to ftand firm against all attempts, which may be made, under various pretexts, to withdraw any of your flocks from the belief and practice of the Catholic religion. Remonftrate with any parent, who will be fo criminal as to expofe his offspring to thofe places of education, where his religious faith or morals are likely to be perverted. If he will not attend to your remonftrances, refuse him the participation of Chrift's body; if he still should continue obftinate, denounce him to the church, in order that, according to Chrift's commandment, he be confidered as a heathen and a publican..

If, in any of your diftricts, the Catholic military frequent Proteftant placesof worship, it is your duty to expoftulate with them, and to teach them how contrary to the principles of the Catholic faith it is, exteriorly to profess one faith, and interiorly to believe another. That fuch hypocrify, even in the

eyes.

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eyes of the world, is mean and pufillanimous, as well as odious and abominable in the fight of God. That the military garb they wear, implies a manly candour, which abhors fuch duplicity. That this manly candour is peculiarly the character of an Irish foldier, who ought not to be afhamed of openly profeffing the Catholic religion-the religion of Irishmen. Inftruct them, that in all matters regarding the fervice of the king, their officers are competent to command them, and that they are bound to obey; but in matters regarding the fervice of the King of Kings, their officers have no authority over them. Their perfonal religion is their own natural, uncontroulable, imprefcriptible right, fubject to the fpiritual authority of the Catholic Church, and over which the laws of the land cannot enjoy a coercive authority. In all temporal matters, they are subject to their temporal rulers. In all spiritual matters, they are fubject to their spiritual rulers. These two authorities, like parallel lines in mathematics, can never touch each other. By the smallest Guard them from being deluded by declination, they lofe even their name. the hacknied phrase of liberality of fentiment. Surely liberality of fentiment does not confift in holding all creeds, and all forms of worship, to be equal! He who thus expreffes himself, is a latitudinarian, who defpifes all creedsall forms of worship! The man of true liberality is he, who confcientiously believes, and fcrupulously follows that creed, and form of worship, which is conformable to his confcience, yet lives in charity, in concord, in amity with all others, of every religious perfuafion. The man of true liberality is he, who employs his confcience as the helm with which he fteers, in his religious voyage, leaving others to fteer theirs by a fimilar guide. The man of true liberality is he, with whom a difference in religious opinions makes no difference in focial life-living in equal harmony with all, and frequently bestowing more kindness, and more bounty, upon those who differ from him in religious opinions, when they want it, more than upon those of his own communion. The man of true liberality is he, who, when raised above the rest, to govern a great people, fcorns to attend to the paltry diftinctions of fect or party, fpurns from his prefence those interested advisers of a dangerous faction, who would dishonor him, and abuse the facred name of majesty, to enrich themselves; but, like a true patriot, raises to power and influence, those whom, in his confcience, he thinks of moft ability and integrity, to serve king and country. To fum up the whole, the truly liberal man is he, who makes his religion the guide for his own perfonal and private conduct,

and

and not a rule to guide, to govern, or to compel others to act against their confcience and their religion.

The many compulfory means lately employed (and feveral inftances of them within this very diocefe not many days fince) to drive the Catholic military to Proteftant places of worship, alarmed the true friends to the king and his fervice, and every well-wisher to the peace and quiet of the country. Such unwarrantable steps could not make profelytes of the Catholic military; it might, in time, make them indifferent to all forms of worship, and thereby jacobinize them upon the French fcale, and perhaps in the hour of danger, induce them to forget their duty and their loyalty, in order to be revenged of their perfecutors.

O how different are the principles of a Catholic foldier, educated in the belief, and living in the full exercise of his religion! He clearly convinces his countrymen, that military valour is not inconsistent with religious piety; but that, on the contrary, they are natural allies. That when called to protect and defend his country, he is fearless, and intrepid in the midst of danger; his bofom glowing with this confideration, that his death upon his poft, promotes him to a fuperior pòft in eternity. The unbeliever, who fees nothing. beyond the grave, more naturally fhrinks from the danger of his diffolution, or if he seems to affume courage, it is either the brutal infenfibility of his temper, or an artificial mask, which he puts on, to fcreen him from the contempt which is fure to follow cowardice. But the courage and intrepidity of a true Catholic, is the discharge of his duty, is a calm heroic intrepidity, which fees the danger in his road, but fees immortality beyond it. He marches courageoufly on, fure that if he falls, it is to rife again beyond the grave. But when the unbeliever fees the danger, he fees nothing beyond it, and thinks, that if he falls, that moment puts a final and a fatal period to all his fchemes of ambition, of fortune, of pleasure, and that he finks into eternal night, never-never to rife again. Surely fuch an impious idea is capable of tranfmuting even a naturally brave man into a cowardly flave. Let me fay all in one fentence. Thofe fentiments of intrepidity, of fidelity, of honor, which high birth and polished education imprefs upon thofe of an elevated: fphere in life, cannot be fuperior to the fentiments of fidelity, of courage, and of honor, which the Catholic religion, if fincerely believed, and piously practifed, would infpire into the lowest in the ranks; and who, if his duty calls him, would fhew a courage and intrepidity equal to Alexander and Cæfar, and

as

as unfullied loyalty and integrity as those statesmen and generals, who regulate kingdoms, or who defend them.

In all your proceedings, very reverend and dearly beloved brethren, avoid intermixing the politics of the world with the fublime and heavenly maxims of the Catholic religion; they have not the smallest connection with each other: the one is fpiritual, the other is temporal; the one regards the tranfitory affairs of this world, the other the eternal affairs of the world to come. As the Catholic faith is a religion preached to all nations, and to all people, fo it is fuitable to all climes, and all forms of government, monarchies or republics, ariftocracies or democracies. Defpotic or popular governments are not the concerns of the Catholic faith: it may well fuit a fmall fect to regulate its creed and form of worship, according to the shape and form of government, of the limited boundaries where that fect arofe, exifts, and dies away. Not fo the religion, which the prophet foretold fhould extend from the rifing to the setting fun, which has been propagated and promulgated from Peru to China, from the Eaft to the Weft Indies, from Pole to Pole, teaching the fame doctrine, adminiftering the fame facraments, and offering up the adorable facrifice of the Redeemer, wherever man is found, and God adored. It is therefore called the Catholic, or univerfal religion. It may well fuit the laity of your refpective districts, to pursue their temporal concerns, and their temporal politics, by fuch ways as appear to them fair, peaceable, and loyal; and their past conduct is a proof that they are incapable of pursuing them by any other means. If their conduct has always been loyal and peaceable, even in the worst of times; if, even when religious penalties made them total ftrangers to their native land; if, when the ruling party, with infolence in their looks, and oppreffion in their hands, ground them down, when fome of the most powerful men in the nation declared in the fenate, that they hoped to fee the day when no Catholic would dare to speak to a Proteftant with his hat on; when even the course of justice was perverted, and the channels of it dried up, according to the prejudices and party views of the judges who fat upon the bench, and were paid for the impartial adminiftration of it, by taxes levied upon the oppreffed fufferers; yet even in these provoking times, if the body of Catholics remained inflexibly attached to their religion, and to their king, what have you to dread from their proceedings, when not only the judges are equitable and humane, but also a great part of these impolitic religious penalties are removed, and the rest of

them