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    I &Qn \ tfli&Kl 4 htik - itO ) Mr . J \ f aeguJre belong ^ titei merit ^ ^ virfgj achieved more e ^ pct ^ J ^ fi ^ a ^ . ee ^ uiries of written controversy ^ ou |[ 4 / b » y 1 ej |}? ewtusly done , m $ : ' gmfc , '' ty& influential benefit ,- not only has he taijgjht ! ws , icount ^ men that CJatliolic and Protestant inay meet in friendly debate , and . tjiat while each { jarty , as . yet unconvinced , may insist freely , and fully , an # nr ^ al j ^ s on the jJr / iprietjf of their respective ojnmoiis , it is ^ o ^ sibfe ifor them to Separate with mutual good feeling and regard ; not ojify has life done tMS ^ reat gootf ,

    but he has stimulated them to task the *** intellectual ' powers , * he li&s taught them to know that that acquiescence with which inherited opinions were hitherto received , must give way before the necessity of self-defence ; that examination is a duty from which Catholics can no longer either safely or honourably refrain , and is , in fact , itself indispensable to demonstrate that examination is not necessary at all . In a word , he has taught them to feel that , with whatever success either Catholic or Protestant may happen to

    encounter opinions at variance with his own , he is indebted for that success jto more or less of study and inquiry 5 and Irishmen may at length discover , from the example of Mr . Macguire , and the free , and manly , and decorous spirit in which he bore his share in the late discussion , the gratifying truth , that religious disputation , in place of a barbarous struggle of bigotry , may be ennobled into a more noble and generous struggle of mind . " Have I a right , in matters of religion , to form a conclusion by the exercise of my own reason ? Such I conceive to be the simple question at issue ;

    and let me add , I conceive too , the instant it is stated , the controversy may he said to expire . The very question involves a solecism ; for how , let me ask , is it in the nature of things to come to any conclusion without the exercise of my own reason ? Can I , in the most unlettered , or the most childish state of mind conceivable , be influenced to form an opinion without more or less of reasoning , be it ever so simple or so short , to conduct me to that opinion ? Impossible ; just as impossible as to think without thinking . "

    Such constitutes the burthen of our author ' s first argument against Infalli bility , " from the impossibility of excluding private judgment . " Additional arguments are derived from the manifest opposition to fact involved in the interpretation of a distinguished text , by which this doctrine is usually defended ; and from the admitted absence of that faculty in investigating the sense of those passages in general which are represented as teaching that doctrine . The Romanist adduces the following words of our Lord , from the

    concluding verses of St . Matthew ' s Gospel ; " All power is given to me in heaven and in earth ; go ye therefore and teach all nations , baptizing them in [ rather into ] the name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo ! I am with you all days , even to the consummation of the world . " Upon which he offers the following comment : " Christ here declares that the same power given to him by the Father , he communicates

    to his apostles without limitation , moral or personal , " &c . Our author asks , ' " * Where does he [ Christ ] declare this ? Not here assuredly , for there is nothing like it . I apprehend the Spirit was given without measure to Christ ; but I am not so sure it was given in the same measure to the apostles ; if it were , how came it to pass that they mistook the very terms of their commission , and that in the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Acts , we find Peter

    and the other apostles represented as only then , by an additional reflation , discovering that " all nations , " including the Gentiles , were to be comprehended in the gospel scheme \ Again , now came it that , notwithstanding all their supernatural gifts , Paul ana Peter , as detailed in the second chapter of Qajtatiaris , came to open rupture , PauJ withstanding the latter to the wee ,

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    tteviem- ^ BiMe ControvempMn Ireland * 543

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 543, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/31/