death, or life, or even the pains of hell. In this manner he explained himself one day, when some body attempted to inspire him with the fear of infernal pains. "When Gerhard perceiving Ruysbroeck professed faith, love, and trust in God, would sometimes try to excite in him the fear of the divine judgment, and of hell, by quoting several passages of scripture to that effect; the man was so far from being moved thereby, that his love to God seemed to be more inflamed; and at last he would answer: M. Gerhard, assure yourself that from my heart I am willing to suffer whatever the Lord shall be pleased to lay on me, whether it be death or life, or even the intolerable pains of hell. For I judge nothing more pleasant, or better, or more to my advantage, nor do I seek or desire any thing else, than that my beloved Lord God may always find me willing and prepared to comply with the good pleasure of his will.' This briefly discovers the principles of the man.*" Mr Arnold, from whom I have taken what I have related, says that Ruysbroeck was not so much as other mystics occupied in squaring his actions according to the law from a principle of the servile fear of punishment, but all his endeavour and study was the exercise of a free evangelical virtue, manifesting itself by the filial spirit that operates in every true believer.

We may observe by the bye, that there is no doctrine for which the mystics are so much exclaimed against, as for that of consenting to their own eternal damnation.

Ruysbroeck died the second day of December, 1381, at the age of eighty-eight years.-Art. RUYSBROECK.

RELIGIOUS SLANDER.

WE must own that, both on the side of the Catholic and of the Protestant, there has prevailed a cruel custom of loading with infamy those who have changed Arnold. Hist. Theol. Mystic. p. 308.

their religion, and of employing all manner of abuse for that purpose. Their whole life was sifted, even back to their infancy; all the sins of their youth were brought together; every part of their behaviour was pried into; loose reports, facts which might be true, and such as could admit of a bad construction, were all assembled and blended together, when minds, full of suspicion and distrust, examined them without mercy, and an infinite number of satires composed after this manner, were dealt about in the world. We need not ask, " cui bono, to what purpose?" for it is manifest enough that both sides proposed two or three considerable advantages by this proceeding. They hoped that the conduct of deserters would give no scandal, provided they represented these deserters as persons who had sold themselves to iniquity, and were void both of honour and conscience. By this they would prevent its being believed, that the uncertainty of the doctrines which they maintained, and the reasons alleged by the other side had prevailed with those deserters to abjure their religion. They would lessen the triumph of their adversaries, by maintaining that they had only gained proselytes who were ruined and infamous in their character. In short, by exposing to infamy those who had revolted, they proposed to raise a greater horror against revolting; and to frighten any who should think of apostatizing; it being probable that those who were afraid of satire, would not dare to lay themselves open to it by changing their religion, when so many formidable examples might teach them that their party would fully execute this threatening.

Quid me commorit (melius non tangere clamo)
Flebit et insignis tota cantabitur urbe.

HORACE, Sat. I, lib. ii, ver. 45.

For if he does, he shall repent the wrong:
The warning's fair, his vices shall be shown,
And life exposed to all the cens'ring town.

CREECH.

But if the advantage were visible in those respects, the loss was not less visible on other accounts; and thus it is surprising that the foresight of the bad consequences of this resentment did not temper it. Nothing could harden the adverse party in their errors more than the lash of these personal satires. Each side imagines that the followers of the other are slaves to a blind prejudice, and a passionate obstinacy; and does not each confirm the other in such an opinion, when they blacken the character of the man who has left them, and employ against him not a modest, civil, and charitable answer to the motives which he publishes, but a violent answer, and personal defaming invectives? That side which has won a proselyte gives no credit to the stories published by the side which he has left, but looks upon them as base calumnies, and thus they persuade themselves more and more that nothing prevails on the other side but passion and obstinacy, without the least mixture of an evangelical temper. Surely to persecute a convert with libels, is the way to alienate him wholly. Perhaps he would have returned into the pale of the church, had he been calmly and civilly admonished of his fault; his return would have been a triumph which might have been advantageously opposed to the victory which their enemies boasted of; but that advantage is lost if they irritate this weak brother. He cannot but be very sensible of his innocence with regard to some points in the satires which defame him. Thenceforward he conceives a bad opinion of his ancient brethren, and of the motive by which they act. If the truths which they divulge make him uneasy, the lies serve not a little to make him more so; he contracts a hatred against their persons which disposes him to hate their opinions; so that he who was at first only an outward convert, now becomes one inwardly. Anger produces this effect. It is probable that Spondanus, for instance, possessed with this passion, by reason of the

terrible calumnies which were spread about against him, banished every idea which might recommend to him his former religion. He grew a staunch Catholic out of a resentment against the Protestants. Du Perron's discourses could not so much confirm him in the Romish religion as his own resentment.

It will be in vain to object to me in the words of the Psalmist," Imple faciem eorum ignominia, quærent nomen tuum Domine,-Lord, cover their face with reproach, and they will seek thy name." I will answer, that when we make this prayer, we ought to leave the issue of it to Providence, and not assign it to the pens of satirical writers. They are very unfit persons to bring back into the way of truth those whom they defame for having turned aside from it. They have not well understood that an evangelical spirit is a fire which ought to enlighten and warm, but not to burn, calcinate, and stigmatize. We must say the same thing of this fire that a Spanish author said of the fire of virtuous love: "Arde y no quema, alumbra y no danna; quema y no consume; resplende y no lastima, purifica y no abrasa; y aun calienta y no congoxa.- It glows, but scorches not; it enlightens, but hurts not; it burns, but consumes not; it glitters, but dazzles not; it refines, without destroying; and though it be hot, yet it is not painful."

As to the profit which may arise from the art of being formidable by satire, it is a disputable point. I would not deny that when people observe that their failings are supported, while they appear zealous for their religion, but that, if they leave it, these failings will furnish matter for dematory libels, they may be restrained from abjuring, by the fear of slander. A satirist may strike with terror those who are not conscious of their innocence.

Ense velut stricto, quoties Lucilius ardens
Infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens est
Criminibus, tacita fudant præcordio culpa.

JUVEN. Sat. 1, ver. 165.

But when Lucilius brandishes his pen,
And flashes in the face of guilty men,

A cold sweat stands in drops on every part,
And pain and anguish seize the vicious heart.

He may even alarm the mind of a good man, who is desirous of an honest fame. We know too well the power of calumny, and that the testimony of a good conscience does not secure us against the credulity of mankind. But after all, is it not a considerable advantage to keep weak members within the pale of the church; and should we not imagine that the fear of slander will be but a weak barrier to those whom other passions animate to revolt, and who may depend upon being cordially received by the opposite party, and on being reputed by them as virtuous persons, and undeservedly calumniated? The change of religion is a marvellous wash in the eye of converters. They may be said to claim the right of promising what God promises in the Bible" Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Observe, that in order to weaken the strength of satires, the adverse party made them pass for an artifice, and at last pretended that this mine having taken air, had no effect. Let us quote a modern author.

"This declamation . is not more serviceable to this author's design, which is to blacken the reputation of all those who are converted to the end, that the fear of being ranked among defamed persons might hinder others from turning Catholics. I own that when the Protestant party bethought themselves of this stratagem, some people at first were simple enough to be deceived by it, and to be kept in their errors for fear of losing their reputation. But that artifice is become entirely useless, because all the world knows at this time that reasonable people, whether they be Catholics or Protestants, give no longer any credit to calumnies of this nature, since