There is obedience, but, being transferred to a wrong object, the right principle produces a depraved and corrupt result. There is zeal, but it is all put out for the furtherance of the plans of a scheming man, instead of rising high to the blessed end of seeking God’s glory. There is some fear towards God, but it is directed not by God himself, but the Superior; and hence it follows that the Jesuits, whilst they set aside the practical use of Scripture, do in fact confirm its truth; for they stand out as living witnesses to the unfailing truth of that remarkable passage which connects alienation of heart with the substitution of human for Divine instruction, and says,—“This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” {62} There is just the same substitution of man for God in the great work of a sinner’s salvation; and from this, as the root, may be said to spring the whole remainder of the system. Loyola, as is well known, struggled hard for peace. Deeply convinced of sin, he passed through an agony of soul in search of life; and, failing to find it as God has revealed it, in free grace and full redemption, he made a desperate plunge into Jesuitry, and the creation of the Order was the result. His book of “Spiritual Exercises,” written shortly after the time of his conflict, is still the standing work for the Jesuit’s personal religion. The reader has been already informed of the high authority by which it has been introduced to the British public, but few who are not acquainted with the mechanical character of the whole Romish system will be prepared for the mournful substitution of man’s action for God’s grace, which pervades both the preface and the book. The book contains a plan for passing a novice through a kind of spiritual manufacture in twenty-eight days; or rather, it used to be twenty-eight days in the time of Loyola; but we travel now by railroads, and everything moves quickly, so that Cardinal Wiseman states in his preface that the twenty-eight days may now be reduced to ten. {63a} Now, learn what may be accomplished in these ten days. The Cardinal says,—“It is not a treatise on sin, or virtue; it is not a method of Christian perfection; but it contains the entire practice of perfection, by making us at once conquer sin, and acquire virtue.” {63b} Now, it is a question of the deepest interest to ascertain the process by which sin is to be conquered in twenty-eight, or by us moderns in ten days. It is a secret that many a sin-burdened conscience would give worlds, if it had them, to discover. But really it is most deeply affecting to turn to the book, and see the utter emptiness of the whole scheme. According to the Cardinal, “it is divided into four weeks, and each of these has its specific object, to advance the exercitant an additional step towards perfect virtue.