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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42

The Jesuits, What They Have Been, What They Are, and What They Will be to the End

The Jesuits, What They Have Been, What They Are, and What They Will be to the End.

Pastor Chiniquy lectured before a large audience on Thursday evening, December 5th, on "The Jesuits, what they have been, what they are, and what they will be to the end." The Rev. D. Galloway, B.A., occupied the chair, and made a few introductory remarks.

The Rev. Lecturer said: Mr. President and friends, the question which is presented to the world to-day is—Will the Jesuits govern the world, or will Christ remain the King of kings, and rule the nations with his Gospel? From the beginning of the world there is a thing which puzzles the philosophers—the men who like to understand the reasons and causes of the different events of this world, a thing which is a dark mystery, a mystery of which the Christian alone has the key. It is, that evidently in the world, there are two great principles fighting against each other—the principle of evil and principle of good. We feel these two principles at work in our hearts every day; when the principle of good is putting good thoughts and resolutions into our mind, showing us the way we must go, if we would be happy in this world and in the next; the other principle speaks to us in a very different way, and combats the good impressions which the great God has sown in our hearts. Now the men who do not believe in the Bible cannot explain these things, nor understand them. But, we, Christians understand them—for in the Bible, at the very creation of the world, we see these two principles fighting against each other. God created Adam and Eve in His image with His mighty hand and the breath of His power. He puts them in an earthly Paradise, and with His own finger, He writes in their hearts the first principles of a holy life. He tells them that if they follow those principles they will be happy and will lire for ever; the world will be subjected to them—there will be no tears, no suffering—the earth will be covered with flowers and fruits, and all the creatures by which the earth is inhabited will be their servants. This is the glorious promise of God—the principle of love, of light, of truth, of joy, of eternal happiness. Now, that God has left His law engraved in the hearts of Adam and Eve, what do you see? You see, coming from the bottomless pit of hell, the great enemy of God and man—that false angel who tried in heaven to raise his rebellious head against his Creator. He comes forth from his dark and burning prison to page 41 destroy the work of God—to bring darkness where God has given light; death where God has given life; lies, where God has spoken truth. And there, friends, you see the most terrible mystery which the world has ever witnessed—the fall of Adam and Eve. In that great first struggle between good and evil Satan almost completely triumphed over God in the hearts of Adam and Eve. He took away the truth and put lies—damning lies into their souls. He took away life eternal, and put into the blood, into the veins, into the flesh of Adam and Eve, the seed of death. He destroyed, to a great extent, the mighty work of God. It is with trembling, and very often with tears, that on my knees alone, in my closet very often. I read that first page of the Scriptures; I know that the story is true; not only because I read it in the Bible, but because when I open the books of the history of the world, I see these two principles fighting against each other at every page. Now, let us come from the day of the creation to Christ. Christ, the Son of God, comes clown to repair, to rebuild the mighty work which God had erected, and which Satan had nearly destroyed. He comes to bring back that eternal life and light and truth, which the devil had taken away from the heart of humanity. Christ passes thirty-three years on earth, and during the last three years of his life he preaches his Gospel, which consists of only three or four words. It consists only in loving God and neighbour. On this little condition, eternal life and happiness, and holiness will come back to us. What a glorious religion! What an easy religion! Oh, with that religion all the world was to be made happy, the tears of men would soon dry. Christ, in order to pay our debts, dies on Calvary, and, in His blood He washes away the sins of the world. But you see that Satan immediately comes again to fight against Christ, as he had fought against His Father, he begins at the foot of the Cross his terrible work of trying to destroy the Gospel of Christ. And friends, if you read with attention the history of the first Christians, you will see that terrible struggle going on everywhere against the disciples of the Gospel; you will see that when the Apostles were scattering the saving light all over the world, another power was going about to destroy the works of the Apostles. As soon as they had sown the good seed, the enemy began to sow the weeds. I have not time to go through the history of that conflict, but it is horrible. Forty millions of martyrs have been killed by that great enemy of God. Everywhere the kings and emperors and all the powers of the earth were banded against the disciples of Christ. They destroyed as much as they could of that great and glorious religion which the Son of God had given to the world. And, very strange it is, that in this second struggle, the devil got almost the same success as he got in the first struggle in Paradise. If you read with attention the history of the Church of Christ, you will see that she remained so feeble, so poor, so persecuted, that it was very difficult to recognise her. The few truths which remained were so concealed in the recesses of the mountains and caverns during fifteen hundred years that we are tempted to say that God had forsaken His disciples, and left the world again in the hands of His enemy. The Church of Rome was then raised by Satan, organised by Satan. It is the most magnificent human organisation which the world has ever seen; the Pope of Rome is the greatest conception which the devil ever got. The Church of Rome is the most daring, the most lying work which the devil ever brought from hell. It is false that Christ ever established the Pope of Rome. If we open the Bible we see that every time that the Apostles asked Christ if there was to be one of them appointed to rule over the rest when He departed, He always answered, No. Five times in the Gospel you see that the Apostles wanted to know who would be the first in their midst? John wanted to be the first; Peter wanted to be the first; Thomas wanted to be the first; Thaddeus wanted to be the first. Among the twelve disciples, every one of them wanted to be the first. But Christ always told them that, in His kingdom, there would be no first and no last—the first would be last and the last would be first. He took a little child, pure as the angels of God, and placed it in their midst, and pressed it to His bosom, and said—This is the first in my kingdom; if you want to be the first, you must become like this little child—simple and pure, and detached perfectly from the honours, the glories, the temptations and the sins of the world as this little one is. The Apostles had been rebuked five times, but they had not been cured of that disease which is in the bosom of almost every child of Adam, of trying to raise ourselves above the rest of our neighbours. Just when Christ was about to die, the Apostles were exchanging hard words amongst themselves as to which of them should be first; and, when Christ asked them the reason of their quarrel, they hung down their heads, and were ashamed. This was just after Christ had established the Holy Communion. If Christ had put an Apostle above the rest, when they asked him who would be first, our Saviour would have answered, I have put a papa (papa means father, Pope)—a pope over you—I have put Peter. But he page 42 said the very contrary. He said, "In the world there are first men, men who pass laws and govern the rest, but in my kingdom it will not be so." Christ decided the question. It required the impudence of Koine to come after the death of Christ, and say He had put Peter at the head of the Apostles. It is a lie, but the lie has taken root. As in the earthly Paradise, God told Adam he must not eat the fruit of a certain tree, and the devil told him he ought to eat of it; so when Christ said there was no first in His Church the devil came and said that Christ had established one to be first and to rule over the rest of His Church. Adam, fresh from the hand of God, accepts the lie of Satan, and the great, majority of the Christian Church, which had just come from the heart of Christ, turned their back upon Him to follow Satan, Then, instead of the Church of Rome converting the nations—instead of bringing the world to Christ—instead of destroying the idols of the world, what has been done? She has dragged the disciples of Christ into the temples of the idols; she has changed the Christian Church into an idolatrous Church, instead of converting the idolators to the Church of Christ; she has brought the disciples of Christ to the feet of the idols, but has changed the names of the old idols. Instead of going to the feet of Venus, for instance, she has called Venus Mary—instead of addressing her prayers to Juno she has addressed them to Mary. She has presented to the world a new idol of bread—a little cake, which she calls God, and of which I have given away about ten thousand since I have been in your midst. Ten thousand of those Christs, which she adores as God! From the fourth century to the sixteenth century the Church of Rome has tried to destroy the Gospel. She has not succeeded, because she cannot destroy it altogether, as Christ has promised that this cannot be done. But she has done all in her power to destroy it. She has not succeeded because Christ has wrought a new miracle to save His Church. Read the history of the world, of Europe especially, and you will see that the so-called Christian nations which had become Romanists were more degraded, more immoral than the disciples of Mahomet. Yes! There was more respectability, more true religion among the disciples of Mahomet, than among the disciples of the Pope. The Mahometans were worshipping only one God, not made with the hands of men. But the Pope, with his slaves, were worshipping gods made every morning out of a wafer, which their priests had changed into the great and mighty God who created the heaven and the earth. Now, in the sixteenth century God looked down upon the world in His compassion to save it, and in His mercy he brought new prophets. We see a Luther coming out (cheers); see a Calvin thundering with his irresistible eloquence; we hear the voice of a Knox who, like a lion, makes his powerful voice roar over the beautiful hills and valleys of Scotland. (Cheers.) Those giant men, Luther, Calvin, Knox, and several others whom it is not necessary to name, were chosen of the Lord. God gave them His light and truth, and something of His strength, and though poor and without any means, they took hold of the Church of Rome and shook its walls; and everywhere they touched, the walls crumbled to the dust. In a few years Luther broke the chains by which the Pope had enchained noble Germany to the feet of his idols. Calvin, with his powerful and eloquent voice persuaded Switzerland and four millions of Frenchmen to rally around the banners of Christ. (Cheers.) Knox and others in Scotland with their mighty hand took the Church of Rome by the throat and they shook that mother of Harlots in such a way that she dies there. On the ruins of dying Romanism you see the mighty work of Christ coming up; you see the dead Lazarus coming forth from his tomb; you see all Scotland and England and four millions in France, the half of Germany and the northern nations of Europe, in a few years, coming to Christ. Oh, what a glorious thing! The idols of Rome are destroyed, the superstition is dispelled, and the light and truth of the gospel is preached! Men, instead of going to the feet of Mary or to a god made with the hands of man to find their salvation, go to the feet of the Son of God. They adore the great and mighty God who created this world, and who rules it, and not a god made by a priest of Rome. It was a grand, sublime thing, and the nations were to be saved again. But again you see the power of hell coming to destroy this new work of God. Satan forms a society called Jesuitism. He takes a man of great ability and remarkable talents, a brave man, a fearless soldier of Spain, and with that man he will form an army of warriors, fearless and brave. I give them that credit. They deserve it. The Jesuits are brave—they are fearless; they are men whom nothing will turn back when their generals tell them to go ahead. They will not shrink from any danger; they will go through fire to attain their end. These are the men whom Satan has chosen to oppose the Reformation. I will not go today through the whole story of the Jesuits, as it would take too long. I belonged to a society closely allied to the Jesuits, called "Oblates of Mary," and I know them well. From what I will read you, not from a Pro- page 43 testant book, but the very words of the founder of Jesuitism. Ignatius Loyola, you will see that it is a diabolical society. The society is tied to the Pope by four oaths, the oath of obedience, the oath of chastity, the oath of poverty, and the oath to go everywhere the Pope may tell them, and to do everything he may command them. Now you will understand what is meant by the vow of obedience. I have not time to deal with the other vows just now, but I may do so if God grant me the opportunity; I will only speak of their vow of obedience at present. Ignatius says, "As for holy obedience, this virtue must be perfect in every point, in execution, in will, intellect, doing what is enjoined with celerity, spiritual joy, perseverance, persuading himself that everything is just, and suppressing every repugnance to a certain obedience, and let everyone persuade himself that he who, directed by Divine Providence, lives under obedience, should be moved by his superior, just as if he were a 'corpse' which allowed itself to be moved and led in any direction." Now, friends, if there is anything which God has created great in us, and by which He has made us his own image, it is our intelligence. But the first thing a Jesuit must do is to kill his intelligence. If it is a crime for a man to take away his corporal life, which you will admit, is it not a greater crime for a man to kill his intelligence? It is not Chiniquy who speaks in this quotation, it is Ignatius. He says positively that every inferior must submit to his superior in everything, just as a corpse is obedient to another's will. A corpse has no will, no intelligence left in it: go near it, spit on it, do anything you please to it, and it pays no attention. You may move it right or left, or drag it into the mud, and it will be as content there as on a throne. Every priest to-day is a Jesuit. The Church of Rome to-day is a Jesuit Church. The Jesuits have taken hold of the Church of Rome and they rule it. (Hear, hear.) It was the Jesuits who originated the Infallibility dogma. The other day you had here a lady telling you what one of these priests tried to do to her when she was lying, as she thought, on her deathbed. That incarnate devil tried to make her as submissive to his diabolical desires as a corpse. As a corpse can do no sin, so this priest told her she could do anything with him, and there would be no sin in it. Do you understand the diabolical principle of this submission of the inferior to the superior? In the Constitution of the Jesuit Society, in chapter 6, we see "No constitution, declaration, or any order of living can involve an obligation to commit sin, mortal or venial." That is very good. It is a noble sentiment that Ignatius has written there. But what do we see after that?—"unless the superior demands it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, or in virtue of holy obedience, which shall be done in those cases or persons wherein it shall be judged that it will greatly conduce to the particular good of each, or to the general advantage," &c., &c. Now, it is not Chiniquy who speaks thus. Your weak-kneed Protestants will say I am slandering the good Jesuits. I am glad to know you have not many of these contemptible Protestants in your city. No; these words are not mine. I would fear to say them if they were not the very words of Ignatius—the very corner-stones of Jesuitism. They are diabolical and blasphemous. Imagine a man telling you that you must not obey any man who requests you to commit a sin unless he orders it in the name of Jesus Christ, and, as your superior! With such a religion, is not man changed into a brute of the lowest order? When I was a priest I was obliged to believe that, but many times I have had a struggle because my conscience could not accept such a doctrine. Do not think it is an easy thing for a man to become a brute. Do you know how many years a man is tried before he is accepted as a Jesuit—do you know how long he is a novice? Ten years! Yes, it takes ten years to kill his intelligence, to entirely destroy those grand principles of truth and light which God has planted in the heart of humanity. It takes ten years of a struggle before the poor man becomes a Jesuit. But when he accepts their doctrines, he is no longer a man, because he is deprived of intelligence; he is a brute. (Hear, hear.) He has the face of a man, the tongue of a man, but he has the heart of a devil, because he is bound by oath to commit any crime, provided it be ordered by his superior in the name of Jesus Christ. It seems impossible to believe that, but it is true.

The Jesuits are not only the enemies of human intelligence, and the real murderers of human intellect and conscience; they are the irreconcilable and deadly enemy of every human government, right, and constitutional liberty. They are traitors and rebels to every civilised government; they are perpetual conspirators against all your laws, privileges, rights, and liberties. Here is the oath of the Jesuits, published when Clement XIV. issued a bull in 1773, abolishing that order:—

"I—N—now in the presence of Almighty God, the blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael the Archangel, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and the saints and sacred host of heaven, and to you, my ghostly Father, do declare from my heart, without mental reservation, that the Pope is Christ's Vicar-General, and is the true and only head of the Universal Church throughout the earth; and page 44 that by virtue of the keys of binding and loosing, given to His Holiness by Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths, and governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation, and that they may be safely destroyed. Therefore, to the utmost of my power, I will defend this doctrine, and His Holiness's rights and customs against all usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatsoever, especially against the now pretended authority and Church in England, and all adherents, in regard that they be usurped and heretical, opposing the sacred Mother's Church of Rome.

"I do renounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince, or state named Protestant, or to any of their inferior magistrates or affairs. I do further declare the doctrine of the Church of England, of the Calvinista, Huguenots, and other Protestants, to be damnable, and those to be damned who will not forsake the same. I do further declare that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of His Holiness's agents in any place wherever I shall be, and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant doctrine, and to destroy all their pretended power, legal or otherwise. I do further promise and declare, notwithstanding that I am dispensed with, to assume any religion heretical for the propagation of the Mother's church interest, to keep secret and private all her agents, counsels, as they entrust me, and not to divulge, directly or indirectly; but execute all which shall be proposed, given in charge, or discovered unto me by you my ghostly Father, or by any of this convent.

"In testimony thereof, I take this most holy and blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, and witness the same further with my hand and seal, in the face of this holy convent."

That you may better understand the deadly, the diabolical hatred the Jesuits bear to your dear and noble mother-country, England, listen with attention to the following extract of an address of one of them to the Irish of San Francisco. Here is a part of his sermon to the Irish of that city, delivered the day of St. Patrick, 1878:—"Father Rooney's address to the Irish.—The 'Day of Settlement.'—Trust your priests as you ever have as a nation; and when the propitious moment comes to settle accounts with brutal old England, the murderer of your priests and forefathers, the merciless pespoiler of your sanctuaries, the pilferer of your possessions, and the starver of your deople; those priests will bless the sword that you will use, that it may cut the more keenly; the bullet, that it may perforate the more deeply; and your hands, that they may wield the weapon the more powerfully; and your nerves, that they may more steadily avenge your injured mother, and your noble ancestors. Never trust an enemy that has deceived us so often as England, and violated every treaty made with us. You need expect nothing from her except through the cannon's roar, the whizzing bullet, the flashing scimitar! But let us be sure we are ready for the fray," &c.

Have you ever listened to expressions of a more deadly hatred? Well, these are the sentiments which are in the bosom of every Jesuit, and of every priest. For, as I told you, every priest to-day is a Jesuit. By their cunning and power they rule to-day the Church of Rome. These are the sentiments which they openly when at a distance, but secretly when in your midst, inculcate to the Roman Catholics, all over the world towards your country.

And they will not dare to deny it before me. The Jesuits are determined to conquer the world to the Pope. They have large views. Their great object is to destroy Protestantism, they avow it publicly in their own books and sermons. But how do they wish to accomplish this end? Is it by arguments, by fair play, by coming before the world and exchanging reasons for and against? No, it is by secret ways, through the confessional, and their numberless secret associations. It is by assuming the names of Protestant ministers, and remaining at the head of Protestant congregations, as it is so often the case to-day in England, in the Episcopal Church, in order to deceive the people and entice them. They know they would be defeated in a fair battle. What are they doing? They whisper into the ears of their millions of slaves that the Pope and the whole Catholic world are ordered by God to destroy liberty of conscience, that no man has any right to serve God according to his conscience! This is the great fundamental principle of the Jesuits. This has not only been declared by them for the last three centuries, but it was declared at the last Council of the Vatican, where they say that a man who does not believe this is damned. Now, if I do not serve God according to my conscience, according to what conscience will I serve Him? According to the conscience of the Pope. There is only one conscience today in the world—only one intelligence, only one man who has the light, and who must guide the rest of the children of Adam, and that man is the Pope. And whoever does not believe the Pope is the only ruler in the world—not only in religious matters, but in civil matters, is damned. They say positively that every man who wants to be saved must believe that the Pope is the only fountain of light and truth, and knowledge, and that he alone has the power to guide the nations in their civil as well as religious departments, and that those who do not believe page 45 that the Pope must be put at the head of all kings, emperors, and republics must be put to death. Here are the words of one of their greatest men, a man who was formerly an Episcopalian clergyman:—"When the nations of Europe have revolted, and when they have dethroned, as far as men can dethrone, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and when they have made the usurpation of the Holy City a part of international law; when all this has been done, there is only one solution of the difficulty—a solution, I fear, impending, and that is, the terrible scourge of continental war—a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the first empire." Every word here smells of blood and tears. That faithful disciple of the Jesuits, Manning, says before the whole world, that the Roman Catholics are obliged to go sword in hand, and kill all who refuse to accept the Pope as the Supreme Ruler of the world! It is horrible. And, here, these Jesuists come into your midst with their abominable principles to prepare an army which will some day attack your liberties. That day will come sooner or later. I hope I will not see it; I am old enough to hope I will then be in my grave. But the young here will see the day when the Pope's army will rise in arms and kill all those who refuse to obey the Pope. The Romonists will be the aggressors; they will begin the war. Already the Pope has sounded the trumpet, in the last Council of the Vatican, which was absolutely in the hands of the Jesuits. The Pope is completely in the control of the Jesuits. A few days ago you read in one of your daily papers how the Pope has publicly called upon his friends to pull down the Protestant churches in the city of Rome; to shut the schools of the Protestant children in Rome. Now, if it is a crime for a Protestant to pray in his Church in Rome, or to build a church or a school in that city, it is a crime of the same magnitude in Sydney and Melbourne. (Applause.) As Bishops Vaughan and Gould must think exactly as their Pope thinks; as they must speak as their Pope speaks (that is, when it is not too dangerous), so they are bound in conscience to believe that it will be a glorious day when Popery is strong enough to pull down all your churches and to bury you under the ruins. (Applause.) Now, Protestants, keep near each other. They are trying to destroy you by destroying your schools. They hate your schools because it is in them that the boy is formed into a man—a free man, and is taught that it is better to die a free man than to live a slave, (Cheers.) But, in their schools the Jesuits teach that every man is created to be the slave of the Pope: that the Pope being his superior he must be as submissive to him as a corpse would be. They do not want such schools as yours because you teach there that God is eternal, spiritual, and cannot be made by the hands of man, that Christ came to save the world, and is now sitting at the right hand of His Father, to be your Intercessor and your Advocate. But in their schools they teach that God is made every morning by their priests with a little wafer and that God cannot forgive sins, except through the absolution of a priest, when you teach your children that to be saved they must be washed in the blood of the Lamb, love God, and repent of their sins, love their neighbours and follow the Gospel. You teach your children to love the Bible, but the Jesuits in their schools teach that it must not be read, or if it is read, it can only be interpreted with the unanimous consent of the Holy Fathers, and as the child does not know the Holy Fathers, he does not care about the Bible. Now friends, that is the teaching of Rome. Will you allow it? I hope not. You have already yielded too much in order to have peace with Rome. I connot but admire you. You are men of peace just as Jesus was, and I bless you because you have good feelings towards the Roman Catholics. I have good feelings for them also, and I want to live in peace with them. But, my friends, though it is good to live in peace with men, yet it is better to live in peace with God. (Hear, hear.) You must not sacrifice the principles of your Protestantism, you must not give up your Bible, to please the Roman Catholics. I have only a few words to finish. The Jesuits bravely proclaim everywhere that they are the deadly enemies of liberty of conscience, and they want to destroy the Protestant nations. Now friends, I will put a question to you—Can you honestly, if you are true to yourselves, allow these very men to come into your midst to rule your country? I will put the question in another shape. I am a man like you whose house is open to the traveller, and when I see a man passing by my house when the sun is setting and the storm is coming on, it gives me pleasure to offer him shelter, and to invite him to my table till the storm is over, even should it last some days. I do this, supposing the man to be an honest and honourable man; but if I know that only a few days before, he swore to set fire to my house on the first opportunity, or to kill my wife or children, or to cut my throat, I will, instead of inviting him in, request him politely to go a little further (hear, hear), I love my neighbour as myself, but my first neighbour is myself and my wife and my children. Now, here are the Jesuits coming into your midst, and you open the door to them and invite them in. I ask, is it wise? is it Christian to do so? Are you acting as men who love their country, in admitting them when you know their first principle is page 46 to destroy your liberties? Protestants, you do not love your children, nor your country, when you allow these men, though their abject slaves, to sit with you in council. These men are sworn to destroy your constitution, and they tell you so. I know the consequences of my words. I have considered before God what I say here, I have said the same in England and the United States. You are feeding in your midst snakes, which, very soon, will bite you. I will now put an end to this address. I have not gone over the whole ground, but I hope I have thrown some new light into your mind. You must not hate the Jesuits, nor the Roman Catholics. You must pray for them; but you must not put yourselves in their hands; because, be sure, if they have the rod in their hands you will feel it pretty heavy on your heads. As Protestants you have a duty to perform in fighting Rome. Rome is bravely fighting you. She is, by every means, declaring her determination to conquer you. To-day your business is to rally more than ever around the glorious banners of your Protestant religion. (Hear, hear.) Remember that your heroic ancestors have written with their blood on your flag of liberty "No Surrender!" Never yield an inch of your rights, be true to God, to Christ, in your homes as in your schools; be true to yourselves at the polls, as well as in the sacred sanctuaries of your legislatures. Everywhere be true to your heroic ancestors who have shed their blood on so many battle-fields, in order to give you that liberty which makes Great Britain the most glorious, the most free, and the most happy nation in the world. Clear away from your midst the sworn conspirators and traitors, whose legions, under the names of Jesuits and priests and nuns, are ensnaring you on every side. It is the only way to make your incomparably beautiful Australia for ever great, happy, and free. (Cheers.)

The Doxology was sung, the Benediction pronounced, and the meeting terminated.