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The cause of Irish Rebellion.

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by foreigners in Ireland, always acted as kings by fighting murderous battles among themselves first, before attacking the foreign invading enemy. Englishmen forgive; but they never forget, in order to be safe against attack. Irishmen forget; but they never forgive, because there is so much degenerated Royal Irish, or haughty tyrannical, blood in their veins pressing them to show their power. Disraeli, in his speech on the Irish Church in the House of Commons, came very near to the secret of Irish fighting, discontent, and murdering, when he traced all these things, and seeking people's lands, houses, and churches, to "the vapours of the Atlantic." The baptizing vapours of the Pope, from Ireland to Rome, cause much of all this, I must own, but I, being Irish, find this state of things in the blood and water of the Royal Irish body.

Jesus Christ was a King, and He shewed he was, by shedding blood; but this was His own, and it saved us and made us Kings in Him. England is now swarming with the princes of King Pope, for we have Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests, without number. Hence the troubled state of England, which will soon become New Ireland; for I dreamt that St. George rides his dragon in his Channel, to lash up the Irish Sea on Old England. The devil urges the Irish to commit murder; the Pope spurs them on to fight with the English to get him Peter's Pence; and their degenerated Royal Irish blood excites them to fight among themselves. So between their fallen nature, their corrupted Royalty, the Pope and the Devil, they cannot be improved. Savage chiefs cannot live without shedding human blood; and worldly big

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Titles make men worse.

men cannot get on but by tyranny and cruelty in order to shew their power to inflict misery. But Christians leave blood-shedding to King Christ; and they deny murdering Him. Those who believe in the Pope's bloody bread are blood-thirsty all the world over. No transubstantiation for me after this.

The character of the Irish titular chiefs, or their degenerated Royal nature, forcing them to fight to possess other men's lands and houses, makes me think that those who accept titles despise common people. No man is really what he is made by another, but what he naturally makes himself to be: and a really great man wants no title to mark his distinction. All created beings, when corrupted, are worse than natural ones. The fallen created angel is known as the devil for his badness. The title "Reverend has made me worse since I got it, because I use it as a cloak or passport for my faults. When a man becomes a Church Dignitary he grows worse than he was before; and his character is as big now, as his title, for worldliness, haughtiness, and tyranny. His sermon before he got a title was about Christ, but his preaching when he is promoted is about authority. Had Lord Christ been created, similarly as the Queen creates "Lord Marquis," instead of being God begotten of the Father, the devil would have defeated Him in the wilderness. His human body was not made of earth, like that of Adam; but "He took it in the womb of the Virgin, of her substance." Families bearing titles have more affectation than natural goodness.

CHAPTER XIII.

Man's standard of treatment unlike that of God, by being devoid of mercy—The evils of talebearing and secrecy—The trials of poor vicars-Irish love for land accounted for.

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ROM all I have suffered, my conclusion is, that

in this world, we are treated according to what people think would suit them. If seven things be required of us, and if we give entire satisfaction in six of them, we are condemned as much as if we had fulfilled none of the requirements. It is true that, “if we offend in one point of God's law, we are guilty of all"; but, yet, God's mercy seat was overruling the hard law, in the ark, by being placed above it. All things are in such disorder down here, without any mercy or bright side, that there must be a heaven, and a good King over us to enable all Christians to enjoy something somewhere. Real Christians and poor Vicars have, of all men, the least happiness here.

I was treated as if I had the tithes to buy a good pony, and the Church lands and churchyard to feed it. But those people were not considered cruel who clamoured to put double load on me, by making me do extra work in my church, because I was an old Irish animal, without giving me any food to enable me to do it. Irishmen expect the English to be like God in helping them to be perfect and surely condemning a man by fault-finding and backbiting is

90 Circulating scandal to become important.

making him worse. To do a man good we must talk to him, and not of him, so as to come down to his level.

Finding underhand proceedings going on in my parish; and finding that this system kept people from improving or prospering, and from being independent and happy, I became fully determined to preach against secrecy, gossiping, and tale-bearing. The Popish Confessional was a pure place compared to what went on at the meeting of couples and groups of people, in the streets and everywhere, in my parish. Gossiping gentlemen, in search of news, found their way from other parishes to kitchen fires, to pick up the scandal of the place. As my stipend was small I could not influence the people, and as nothing could be got out of me, they preferred their own thoughts, views, and words, to mine. I will never blame Ritualistic clergymen for adopting the confessional, until Bishops, Archdeacons, and Rural Deans give up listening to gossip and scandal against poor vicars. It is unreasonable for Bishops to blame Ritualists for trying to get homage, in the Confessional, from a criminal, or for seeking power over such a creature, by finding out his crimes and secrets; while the Bishops themselves, and their Archdeacons, and Rural Deans, seek worship; and while they display their importance by hearing every gossip and scandal which the devil sets afloat. The Ritualist is the best man of all these, since he requires a declaration of repentance from the confessing sinner; whereas the Bishops, Archdeacons, and Rural Deans, give a benediction to the inventors of the false reports or to the tale-bearers, by telling

Priests for tales, secrecy, or the Confessional.

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them to "go on their way rejoicing" to bring them

more news.

It is impossible for a good minister to make a good sermon upon a bad subject, as his innocency makes him unacquainted with what is evil, and as we cannot be clever at anything, but what we live, practice, or experience. Somehow, Bishops and Church Dignitaries can say plenty upon crime of all sorts, just as well as if they had lived what they comment upon so cleverly. My earnestness is my only qualification for speaking upon tale-bearing; but those who listen to what is evil cannot be in earnest in condemning its circulation. I took to my pulpit, and preached a few words upon Mat. x. 26, "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known."

My brethren, I cried, avoid all underhand affairs, and cry down the tale-bearers and scandal-mongers, for these invent lies to get up a good case. Tale-bearing and slavery go together. As it is with the " two or three," and not with one person only, Christ promises His presence (Matt. xviii. 20); believe me that he does not appreciate tale-bearing, or the secrecy of whispering into the ear of one person only, at such places of art as the confessional, the palace, or the office. The man who listens to scandal and lies becomes for the moment the equal of the tale-bearer, for both being made dirty, each is ashamed or afraid of the other. I will hear no dirty confessions from you, whether your own faults, or those of others. Listening to what is bad honours the devil and defies God. Very few have courage, for it requires holiness to have a sense of duty to oppose

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