tingent.* Now, Sir, what inference think you must a reflecting Protestant feel himself warranted in deducing from these canons and decretals; especially when coupled with the following ones, and others of the same complexion? A clerico foricario quamdiu toleratur, nec habet operis evidentiam, licite audiuntur divina, et percipiuntur ecclesiastica sacramenta. † Clericus concubinarius in officiis vitandus non est, nisi sit notorius. Indisposed to use the language of excessive invective, I decline to deduce expressly the inference which presents itself to my mind; because I really find myself ill prepared for clothing it in any other. Cast your eyes over the twenty-ninth chapter of the sixth book of the Apostolical constitutions, admitted as authentic by your church in early times, and restrain yourself, if you can, from blushing for the matchless audacity and heathenish misconceptions and fatuity of your popes and theologians.

Returning to the consideration of wedlock, with reference to the priesthood, I would remind you that the priests under the Mosaic dispensation were married; that several of the Apostles, as before noticed, if not a majority of them were likewise married; that St. Paul expressly sanctioned the marriage of bishops and deacons ; that, as before shewn, marriage was quite common among the clergy in primitive times; and that an attempt which was made in the first general council of Nice, early in the fourth century, to oblige the clergy to abstain from their wives, was vehemently, and with full instantaneous effect, resisted by the celebrated confessor St. Paphnutius, bishop of Thebais, who had led, through choice, a life of Celibacy, in consequence of the persecutions of the Christians which raged in his life time, and was regarded as a distinguished example of chastity, and who, in the words of St. Paul, emphatically insisted on what, indeed, it would be nothing short of blasphemy to deny, that "marriage was honourable in all, and the bed undefiled."§ I would remind you that your authoritative canonist, Gratian, admits, that the clergy are not prohibited from marrying by either legal, or evangelical, or apos

Dist. 31, c. 19. Pith. Corp. Jur. can.

+ Decret. Greg. IX. L. 3, Tit. 2.

t Id. Ib.

§ Bishop Hornihold tells, in his catechism, (p. 149) that St. Paul's meaning, in the passage here cited, is that marriage is honourable in all THINGS; that is in all its parts and circumstances; and that we must not imagine it is honourable in all sorts of men; for if so, the marriage of a brother and sister would be honourable. The contemptible sophistry and ridiculous absurdity of this pretended illustration, are too obvious to need exhibition. St. Paphnutius, and with him Saints Chrysostom, Jerome, Clemens Alexandrinus, Epiphanius, Cyril, Fulgentius, and Augustine, appear to have thought very different from Bishop Hornihold; and that catechetical expositor should have recollected that he was bound by the infallible Council of Trent, and the symbol of Pius the Fourth, to interpret the Scriptures according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.

The memorable conduct of St. Paphnutius, on the occasion in question, is recorded at large in the writings of Sozomen, Gelasius Cyzicus, Nicephorus, Cassiodorus, Suidas, Blastares, and Ruffinus, and holds a place in the body of canon law, compiled by the brothers Pithæus. Dist. 81, c. 12,

tolical authority ;* that many exemplary bishops and eminent divines of your own church have afforded their fullest sanction to clerical matrimony; and that even popes and cardinals have not been wanting to admit its expediency and reasonableness,† I would assure you, in anticipation of what I intend to enlarge upon hereafter, that the clergy of Germany long boldly opposed the unscriptural obligation of Celibacy; and that that obligation was never carried fully into effect throughout the countries belonging to the Latin church, before the pontificate of the haughty, ambitious, and despotie Gregory VII. in the eleventh century; when the dissoluteness, debauchery, and diversified sensuality of the clergy, which had been increasing in proportion to the efforts of successive Popes to restrain them from exercising the natural right of marriage, had at length attained to such a height, as I shall undertake to shew on a future occasion, that the following representation of the heathen priesthood, given by Arnobius, became as true of the degenerate ministers of Christ's Gospel as of them : "Ubi magis à sacerdotibus quam inter ara et detubra canducuntur stupra? tractuntur lenocinia? adulteria meditantur ?‡ frequentens denique in ædituorum cellulis quam in ipsis lupinaribus flagrans libido defungitur ?"§ obeying the unscriptural requisition of Antichrist in direct opposition to the declared will and manifest design of God, they were "given up to uncleanness, to vile affections, and to a reprobate mind." I would observe to you likewise, that your clergy are, undeniably, not more exempt than your laity, from an obligation to second the designs of God; that the former cannot possibly, under any circumstances, become less susceptible of the influence of human appetites than the latter;|| that it is at least as requisite to preclude the bad effects of concupiscence in them as in others; that our Lord has pronounced concupiscence itself to be as sinful as the commission of the crime contemplated; that

* Copula sacerdotalis nec legali, nec evangelica, nec apostolica auctoritate prohibetur. Caus. 26, quæst. 2.

+ Pope Gregory, Pope Pius II. (Eneas Sylvius) Cardinals Panormitan, Cajetan, and others. Balæus, speaking of Gregory I. says, that on the discovery of a multitude of heads of murdered infants, the fruits of illicit sensual intercourse on the part of the clergy, he revoked the edict of Celibacy, which, however, was revived about forty-five years after by Marten I. Ex imo pectore dolens ae ingemiscens edictum illud protenus revocavit. Act. Rom. Pont. p. 46.

A certain late disclosure in one of the northern counties of Ireland, appears to furnish very sufficient ground for a suspicion, that the modern priests of the Church of Rome sometimes contemplate adultery in the discharge of their sacred offices, as well as the heathen priests of ancient times.

§ Cont. Gent.

Read what St. Jerome says of himself in his letter to Eustochium, de Cast. virgin. T. 1, beginning with these words: "O quaties ego ipse, &c.; and recollect for I dare say you have read or heard of-the expedients resorted to by Evagrius, St. Bernard, St. Omer, St. Francis, and St. Martinian: and in the end, I dare say you will be disposed to admit that Palladius did not write without due consideration, when, observing on the conduct of Moses, a man of exalted character, who was made bishop of the Arabians, he used these words:-~TO OVTɩ Yap αληθώς ακολατος επιθυμία.

many of those venerable individuals to whose authority you are taught to look up, have strongly expressed sentiments concurrent with the word of our Saviour;* that it is peculiarly incumbent on the pastors of Christian people to exhibit, in their conduct, impressive examples of piety and purity; and consequently, that they, especially, should not, under the impulse of any consideration whatsoever, be debarred from resorting to the use of every hallowed expedient which they may individually regard as conducive to their sanctification. I would, moreover, observe to you, in concurrence with St. Chrysostom and Theodoret,+ that peculiar respectability is no where in the Bible attached to virginity or Celibacy, and that no law in its favour ever issued from God; and I would then ask you to tell me, after taking a calm retrospective view of all that has been, most warrantably urged in behalf of the state of wedlock, whether you really and conscientiously entertain a persuasion of the infallibility of that council by which the following canon was enacted: "If any one shall say, that the state of matrimony is to be preferred to the state of virginity or Celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in a state of virginity or Celibacy than to engage in matrimony, let him be anathema :" i. e. cursed, and devoted to destruction.

Intending, D. V. to prosecute, in a series of letters, my contemplated disclosure of the various circumstances connected with the celibacy of your clergy, till I shall have fully accomplished the task, I shall take my leave of you for the present, with an earnest hope, not unaccompanied by a rather confident expectation, that the day is not far distant, when your reverend brethren will generally feel it to be their bounden duty, to endeavour to

* Τετο η αληθης παρθενια η της ψυχης καθαροτης επει πολλαι το σωμα αγναι και αμόλυνται εσαι κατεσπιλωμεναι εισι την ψυχην.-Theophylact, in Cor. vii. p. 222, Animus est enim qui sanctificat aut polluit corpus. Quid enim prodest corpus mundum habere, et animam pollutam? Cum merito animæ aut honoratur corpus, aut damnatur. Hilary, in ep. ad Cor. vii,

+ Το της παρθενιας σεμνον επι της παλαιας δε μεχρις ονόματος ην. Chryst. Hom. 61. Τ. 6. Ο δεσποτης Θεος νομες περι παρθενιας & τιθεικεν, οιδε γαρ φυσιν τὸ χρημα. Theodoret in ep. div. Decret. c. 24. p. 304.

Si quis dixerit statum conjugalem anteponendum esse statui virginitatis, vel celibatus, et non esse melius ac beatus manere in virginitate aut celibatu quam jungi matrimonio, anathema sit. c. 2, Sess. 8, de Virg.

"The Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone: I will make a help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her to the man. And God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply”— Gen. i 28. "To avoid, (or for fear of) fornication, says St. Paul, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." 1 Cor. vii. 2. "I will therefore, says he, that the younger women marry, bear children," &c.--1 Tim. v. 14.

Pour moi, says Barbeyral, il me semble qu'on devoit plutot l'attribuer (scil. l'esprit d'incontenence) a ceux qui aiment mieux s'exposer aux tentations de la chair hors d'au marriage honnête, que de s'y engager. Traite de la Morale des Peres, p. 39.

rescue themselves from the snare of obligatory celibacy, and virtuously and firmly, and successfully remonstrate against that unscriptural obligation, which has proved so copious a source of damning abominations in the Latin Church.

I remain, Rev. and Dear Sir, your faithful humble servant,

STEPHEN FREEMAN.

ON THE UTILITY OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE TO THE MINISTRY OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH,

No. III.

We shall resume this subject by quoting the entire of the letter from Doctor Johnson, which was written by him to Mr. William Drummond, on the propriety of publishing a version of the Scriptures in Gaelic; and is as follows:

"Johnson's Court, Fleet-street, 13th Aug. 1766.

"SIR-I did not expect to hear that it could be, in an assembly convened for the propagation of Christian knowledge, a question, whether any nation uninstructed in religion should receive instruction; or whether that instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the holy books into their own language. If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself, He that voluntarily continues ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces; as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a light-house, might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwreck. Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, no man can be good in the highest degree, who wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this side of the grave, is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet had an example, except in the practice of the planters in America, a race of mortals whom I suppose no other man wishes to resemble:

"I am not very willing that any language should be totally extinguished. The similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indubitable proof of the traduction of nations and the genealogy of mankind. They add often physical certainty to historical evidence; and often supply the only evidence of ancient migrations, and of the revolutions of ages which left no written monuments behind them:

Every man's opinions, at least his desires, are a little influenced by his favourite studies. My zeal for languages may seem, perhaps, rather over-heated, even to those by whom I desire to be well esteemed. To those who have nothing in their thoughts but trade or policy, present power or present money, I should not think it necessary to defend my opinions; but with men of letters I would not unwillingly compound, by wishing the continuance of every language, however narrow in its extent, or however incommodious for common purposes, till it is reposited in some

version of a known book, that it may be always hereafter examined and compared with other languages, and then permitting its disuse. For this purpose the transla

tion of the Bible is most to be desired. It is not certain that the same method will not preserve the Highland language, for the purposes of learning, and abolish it from daily use. When the Highlanders read the Bible, they will naturally wish to have its obscurities cleared, and to know the history collateral or dependant. Knowledge always desires encrease; it is like fire, which must be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. When they once desire to learn, they will naturally have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be gratified; and one will tell another, that if he would attain knowledge, he must learn English.

"This speculation may perhaps be thought more subtle than the grossness of real life will easily admit. Let it, however, be remembered, that the efficacy of ignorance has long been tried, and has not produced the consequences expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn, and let the patrons of privation stand a while aside, and admit the operation of positive principles.

"You will be pleased, Sir, to assure the worthy man who is employed in the new translation, that he has my wishes for his success; and if here or at Oxford I can be of any use, that I shall think it more than honour to promote his undertaking.— I am sorry that I delayed so long to write.

I am, Sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON."

In this interesting and important, pious and philosophical letter, is anticipated and answered one of the most serious objections which has been adduced, both in Scotland and in Ireland, against the use of the ancient tongue as a medium for instructing the people in spiritual things. It is quite needless to add more to the argument contained in it, for there is both reason and authority sufficient there. The reasoning of one who was at once the most profound moralist and philologist of his age-the authority of one well known not to be partial to the language concerning which he writes. It is unnecessary to add more to this letter, for this other reason, that I am not now contending for education in the Irish tongue, nor advocating the necessity of publishing books in the vernacular language, for the scriptural instruction of the native Irish; but confining myself to the simple and unentangling question respecting the propriety of the ministers of districts in which the Irish language is either chiefly or generally spoken, being competent to address their parishioners in the only language which they can well understand.

But although it be not absolutely necessary it is certainly desirable to quote in this place some facts which took place within the last year, which are noticed in the last Report of the Irish Society, established for the purpose of instructing the Irish peasantry to read their own language, with the view of bringing them to the perusal of the Holy Scriptures in their native tongue; -facts calculated to remove the above-mentioned jealous objection, and which, by affording decisive proofs of the value of the Irish medium of instruction, add collateral support to the strength of our general argument :