ighly illiberal and
unjust to uphold imputations of guilt, even against the worst of culprits,
solely upon the asseverations of their declared enemies; and, if these
enemies stand otherwise convicted of malicious calumnies, this circumstance
alone must go far towards the acquittal of the accused. Now, it is well
known, {288} that Prynne and De Thou wrote in the most turbulent times,
amidst the distractions and rage of civil wars, occasioned in England and
in France by restless sectaries; that they were both inflamed with party
rage, and never spared their adversaries. If, then, their testimony is to
be admitted as irrefragable, in the present times, in one point, why not in
another? If, without a shadow of proof, we must believe with Prynne and
you, that the Irish massacre and the British civil wars were to be imputed
to Jesuits, and especially to Cuneus, the pope's nuncio, and cardinal
Barberini (who, by the way, never were Jesuits), we must also believe every
thing written by that foul mouthed lawyer against Charles I, against
episcopacy, and against the famous archbishop Laud. But we know, that the
fellow's ears were twice bored and cropped in the pillory for his
defamatory libels, and that his cheeks were seared with the letters S. L.
(seditious libeller.) I believe my readers will agree, that the stigma
might, with propriety, be transferred to the unblushing front of the
retailer of his falsehoods. {289} Before I speak of De Thou, I will mention
only a few of your insufferable fabrications, which hardly Prynne himself
would have ventured to utter. 1. "In matters both of _faith_ and practice,
the members of the society are bound to obey the society, and not the
church[100]." In what part of their Institute is this canon found? It was
unknown to the council of Trent, and to the several popes, whose
confirmation and commendation that Institute obtained. 2. "They have
invariably opposed episcopacy, and they have _repeatedly_ attacked the
decrees of general councils, especially that of Trent[101]." It should
seem, that, in a protestant country, _attacks_ upon catholic councils would
not be deemed very enormous sins. But, since they have been _repeatedly_
committed by Jesuits, it would have been easy for Laicus to convict them,
at least, in one instance. Why has it been omitted? 3. "The society has
prisons, {290} independent of secular authority, in which refractory
members are put to death; a _right_ which Laines obtained