is killed
in such a manner is hardly credible: even as we assert that Christ is
born of a woman; but if we add of a virgin; then, according to human
reason, we cannot assent to it. This great work is to be ascribed to a
particular providence."

In this strain did the head of the Roman church laud the murder of Henry
III. of France. The deed was reckoned by his holiness as glorious a
work as the incarnation of the Saviour, and his resurrection from the
dead. Surely, the principles and practices of the church, were in exact
correspondence at that time. The principles have never been
relinquished; but circumstances control the actions of the church, so
that she cannot kill and slay with impunity.

Henry IV. of France also fell a sacrifice to the same principles. He had
been an advocate of Protestant doctrines; but from motives of human
policy he united himself with the church of Rome. Still, as he did not
persecute his Protestant subjects, the sincerity of his conversion was
called in question by the church. In less than one month after his
public profession of the papal faith, an attempt was made on his life by
an assassin, who had been encouraged by the reasonings of certain friars
and jesuits. After several escapes, he was stabbed in the street, by a
man who had formerly been a monk. His death was not celebrated publicly
by the pope, as was that of Henry III., but the jesuits and the friars
justified the act, and proved that, on the principles of the church, it
was lawful to put him to death, though a Romanist, since he was not
zealous against heresy, and in the cause of the papal see. King Henry
had also communicated secret information to Cecil, prior to the
discovery of the Gunpowder Treason, respecting the machinations of the
jesuits and seminary priests. The particulars of their treason were
unknown; but the very fact that the French monarch should convey
intelligence to King James, was a deadly crime in the eyes of the
jesuits. It was supposed at the time, and nothing has since transpired
to lead to a different conclusion, that the part he acted, in
communicating information to the English court, hastened his tragical
end. I have remarked, that the pope did not publicly applaud the act of
the assassin; but it is a fact, that his memory was in consequence held
in great veneration at Rome, for a considerable period after the event.
Henry was supposed to be lukewarm in the cause, and therefore it was
determined to