6/-^3 ALUMNI LIBRARY, THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, N. J, Case, Shelf, «^^< I "^^Q-^ Division Sec- i 4. I) W.VNO /:m..l • # V--. THE . OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY, ^ A FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE, BETWEEN A RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF PROTESTANTS, AND A ROMAN CATHOLIC DIVINE. IN TrtREE PARTS. WMMX I. OH THB RULE OF F-UTH ; OR, THE METHOD OF riNOIHO OHT »»■ TRUE RELIGION. PART II. ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRUE CHURCH. MAT III. ON RECTXFTING MISTAKES CONCERNING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. BY THE RT. REV. JOHN MILNER, ». ». T. A. F. S. A. LONDON, AND CATH. ACAD. ROME. Jdirtited to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Burgess, Lord Bishop of St. Datid'i, m Jnnctr to his Lordship^s Protestant's Catechism. > ' TO WHICH IS ADDED THE AUTHOR's POSTSCRIPT. BALTIMORE : PVBIASHKD BY FIELDING LUCAU, JUn'i No. 138 Market street. .^thosetreat.ouharsia^whoa.n.^q;^^^^ » U^ those treat you harshly, who are ^f^'^^^^^.^^ harshly, who know not a^STto truth and ^--/V"L' nSuchce Let hose Lat you harshly, who have ow hard it is to get rid of old Pf*^J"^^9J^-,, ,ru L.jo,. eye and vender it capahle of noUearned how very lard it is to purify the uteuoi c e an ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ contemplating the sun o: tue soul, tiuth. ^^^^^^ , ^ ^^rrors of their own rsHtowards Per^o.^ who are separated A^^^^^^^ ^^ for from this dis- Lvention, but by being ^^^f^f^^ nreVthS the false opinions of those, whom position that we pray to O.d, t^^^^' .^^^^^^^^^^ ^ould bestow upon us that rct~;i""»"~i"*'---"' .There are -ny other «iing.^ieh^^I^-^^ Church. The jg'reement t^^^^^^ -^ .^^^^^ J^^ ^^^f "t^of authority established b> Miracles n.^ .accession of bishops in tbe See of confirmed by antiquity, keeps me mer 1 ^^ ^^^^ resurrection, committed hi6 St. Peter, the apostle, ^^ ^;hom oar ^on -xttu i ^^^ ^^^^^^_ ^^^^ Epist. Fundain. c. 4. fioints, p. 60. . The object of lhei.(*eCa4o,j^X-^^^^^^^ h^umS^Mdilu,;^ " The object of their (the Catholics) ='''3';» "^T humanity, which humanity trueind etirnal God, l>ypostat,c^y.{^-^i7'„" t'2,Ztal Ji'gn. :. and if they they believe actuaUy P'f J" »"^f ^^'^Jf omVor^hipping the bread m tl.« ca.«, rar*.sim^i"°s'pSVt\rrdi!J;- to do ^.» t. i--, r„v/.r, ^.^ <, JMfum. UJberty o/propbc^jingydm.^ ^ CONTENTS. FART L LETTER I. ***■ Introduction. __ Mr. Brown'* Apology to Dr. M. Account of the Friendly Society of New Cottage -•------.! ESSAY I. On the Existence of God and Natural Religion, by the Rev. Samuel Carer. LL.D. - 4 ESSAY II. On the truth of the Christian Religion, by Do. . . * • 8 LETTER II. To James Brown, Esq. Dr. M 's Conditions for entering on the Correspondence. Freedom ot Speech. Sincerity and Candour. A Conclusive Method - - 13 LETTER in. From James Brown, Esq. Agreement to the Conditions on the part of the Society . . - 15 LETTER IV. To James Broivn, Esq, Dispositions for success in Religious Inquiries. Renunciation of prejudices, passions, and vicious inclinations. Fervent prayer - - - 16 LETTER V. To James Broion, Esq. Rule or Method of finding out the True Religion. Christ has left a Rule. This Rule must be sure and unerring. It must be adapted to the capacity and situations of the bulk of mankind - - - - - i8 LETTER VI. To James Brown, Esq. First fallacious Rule ; Private Inspiration. This has led numberless Christians' into errors, impiety and vice, in ancient and in modern times. Account of Modern Fanatics, Anabaptists, Quakers, Moravians, Swedenborgians, Methodists, &c. - - - - - . - -20 LETTER VIL To James Brmcn, Esq. Ol^ctions of certain Members of the Society answered - - S9 lir Contents, LETTER VIII. To James Brown, Esq. Second fallacious Rule ; the Scripture according to each person's particular interpretation of it. Christ did not intend that mankind, in general, should learn his Religion from a Book. No Legislator ever made Laws without providing Judges and Magistrates to explain and enforce them. Dissen- sions, divisions, immorality, and infidelity, which have arisen from the pri- rate interpretation of Scripture. Illusions of Protestants in this matter. Their inconsistency in making Articles, Catechisms, &c. Acknowledgment .of learned Protestantij on tliis head - - - - - 38 LETTER IX. To James Brmon, Esq. The subject continued. Protestants have no evidence of the Inspiration of Scripture : nor of its authenticity : nor of the fidelity of their copies : nor of its sense. Causes of the obscurity of Scripture : Instances of this. The Protestant Rule afibrds no' ground for Faith. Doubts in wliich those who follow it live and also die - - - - - - - 44 LETTER X. To James Brown, Esq. The True Rule, namely. The Whole Word of God, unwritten as well as writ- ten, subject to the interpretation of the Church. In this and in every other country, the written law is grounded upon the unwritten law. Christ taught the Apostles by word of mouth, and sent them to preach it by word of mouth. This method was followed by them and their disciples and suc- -"essors. Testimonies of this from the Fathers of the five first centuries 5S LETTER XI. To James Brown, Esq. « The subject continued. Protestants forced to have recourse to the Catholic Rule, in different instances. Different instances of this. Their vain at- tempts to adopt it in other instances. Quibbling evasions of the Articles, Canons, Oaths, and Laws respecting uniformity. Acknowledged necessity of deceiving the people. Bishop Hoadleythe patron of this hypocrisy. The CathoUc Rule confessed by Bishop Marsh to be the Original Rule. Proofs that it has never been abrogated. Advantages of this Rule to the Church ftt large, and to its individual members - - - - - 61 LETTER Xn. To Jarnes Brown, Esq. Objections answered. Texts of Scripture. Other objections. Illusory de- clamation of Bishop Porteus. The advice of Tobias, when he sent his Son '*»to ji strange country, recommended to the Society of New Cottage - 75 Contents. T PART 11. Pagt, LETTER XIII. To Janus Broivn, Esq. Congratulation with the Society of New Cottage on their acknowledgment of the right Rule of Faitli. Proof that the Catholic Church alone is pos- sessed of this Rule. Cliaracters or Marks of the True Church - - 86 LETTER XIV. To James Brown, Esq. Unify, the First Mark of the True Church. This proved from Reason— from Scripture— and from the Holy Fathers - - - - - 90 LETTER XV To James Brown, Esq. Want of Unity among Protestants in general This acknowledged by their eminent writers. Striking instances of it in the EstabUshed Church. Vain attempts to reconcile diversity of behef with uniform Articles - - 92 LETTER XVL To James Brown, Esq. Unity of the Catholic Church— in Doctrine— in Liturgy— in Government, and Constitution --..-.--98 LETTER XVIL To Dr. M. from. James Broion, Esq. Objections against the exclusive claims of CathoUcs. Extract of a letter from tiie Rey. N. N. Prebendary of N. Bishop Watson's doctrine on this head 102 LETTER XVin. To James Brown, Esq. Objections answered. Bishop Watson, by attempting to prove too much, proves nothing. Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers on this head. Exclusive claim of the Cathohc Church a proof of her truth - 103 LETTER XIX. To James Brown, Esq. Second Mark of the True Church, Sanctity. Sanctity of doctrine wanting to the different Protestant Communions— to Luther's system— to Calvin's— to that of the Established Church— to those of Dissenters and Methodists, Doctrine of the Catholic Church Holy - - - - - 108 POSTSCRIPT. Variations and impiety of the late Rev. John Wesley's doctrine - - 115 LETTER XX. To Jam£S Brown, Esq. Means of Sanctity. The Seven Sacraments, possessed by Catholics. Pro- testants possess none of them, except Baptism. The whole Liturgy of the* Established Church borrowed from the Catholic Missal and Ritual. Sa- crifice the most acceptable worship of God. The most perfect Sacrifice offered in the Catholic Church. Protestants destitute of Sacrifice. Other laeans of Sanctity in the Cathohc communion" - - - 119 vi Contents. Page, LETTER XXI. To James Brown, Esq. Fruits of Sanctity. All the saints were Catholics. Comparison of eminent Protestants with contemporary Catholics, immorality caused by changing the Ancient ReUgiou - - - - - 126 LETTER XXn. To Mr. J. Toulmin. Objections answered. False accounts of the Church before the Reformation, so called. Ditto of John Fox's Martyrs. The vices of a few Popes no impeachment of the Church's Sanctity. Scriptural practices and exercises commoa among Catholics but despised by Protestants - - - 130 LETTER XXIII. To Janus Brown, Esq. Dirine Attestation of Sanctity in the Catholic Church. Miracles the Crite- rion of Truth. Christ appeals to them, and promises a continuation of them. The Holy Fathers and Church writers attest their continuation, and appeal to them, in proof of the True Church. Evidence of the Truth of many Miracles. Irreligious scepticism of Dr. Conyer's Middleton : this undermines the Credit of the Gospel. Continuation of miracles down to the preMiUt time : living witnesses of it - - - - - 133 LETj ER XXiV. To Jarats Brown, Esq. Objections answered. False and unauthentica*ed miracles no disproof of true and authenticated ones. Strictness of the exaiiiinvit/on of reported miracles at Rome. Not necessary to know God's design in working each miracle. Examination oi the arguments of celebrated Protestants against Catholic miracles. Objection of Gibbon and the late bishop of Salisbury (Dr^ John : Douglass) agaiu'st St. Bernard's miracles refuteu. St. Xavier's miracles proved from the authors quoted against them. Dr. Middieton's confident assertion clearly refuted. Bishop Douglass's Coitdvsive Evidence from Acosta against St. Xavier's miracles clearly reiuicd, by tiie testimony of the said Acosta. Testimony of Ribadeneiru a Sacrament, whole and entire under either kind. Protestants receive DO Sacrament at all. The apostles sometimes administered the communion under one kind. The Text, 1 Cor. xi. 27, corrupted in the English Pro- testant Bible. Testimonies of the Fathers for communion in one kind. Oc- casion of the ordinances of St. Leo and Pope Galasius. Discipline of the Church different at different times in this matter. Luther allowed of com- munion in one kind; also the French Calvinists; also the Church of Eng- land. - - - - '^^ • • 1 _ r ^ -::s^^p:^^*^ LETTER XL^ -^"^^-i^:;"-; ">■•; To James Brown, Esq. Excellence of Sacrifice. Appointed by God. Practised by all people, ex- cept Protestants. Sacrifice of the New Law, promised of old to the Chris- tian Church. Instituted by Christ. The Holy Fathers bear testimony to it, and performed it. St. Paul's Epistle to the HebrcAvs misinterpreted by the Bishops of London, Lincoln, kc. Deception of talking of the Popish Mass. Inconsistency of Established Church in ordaining Priests without having a Sacrifice. Irreligious invectives of Dr. Hey against the Holy Mass, without Ills understanding it!- - - - . . . ]{4S LETTER XLL To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. Abeolution from sin. Horrid misrepresentation of Catholic doctrine. Real doctrine of the Church, defined by the Council of Trent. This pure and holy. Violent distortion of Christ's words concerning the forgiveness of sins, by Bishop Porteus. Opposite doctrine of Chilhngworth : and of Lu- ther and the Lutherans : and of the Estabhshed Liturgy. Inconsistency of Bishop P. Refutation of his arguments about confession : and of his asser- tions concerning the ancient doctrine. Impossibility of imposing this prac- tice on mankind. Testimony of Chillingworth as to the comfort and bene- fit of a good confession ....... ^49 LETTER XLII. To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M A. Indulgences. Unsupported false definition of them by the Bishop of London. His further calumnies on tlie subject. Similar calumnies of other Protest- ant Prelates and Divine*. The genuine doctrine of Catholics. No permii- B X Contents, sion to commit sin. No pardon of any future sin. No pardon of sin at all. No exemplion from contrition or doing penance. No transfer of superfluous holiness. Retortion of the charge on the Protestant tenet of imputed justice. A mere relaxation of temporal punishment. No encouragement of vice; but rather of virtue. Indulgences authorized in all Protestant So- cieties. Proofs of this in the Church of England. Among the Anabaptists. Among the ancient and modern Calvinists. Scandalous Bulls, Dispensa- tions, and Indulgences of Lutlier and his disciples - - 258 LETTER XLIII. To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. .i. Purgatory and Prayers for the dead. Weak objection of Dr. Porteus against a middle state. Scriptural arguments for it. Dr. P's Appeal to Antiquity- defeated. Testimonies of Lutherans and English Prelates in favour of Prayers for tlie Dead. Eminent modern Protestants, avIio proclaim a Uni- versal Purgatory. Consolations attending the Catholic belief and practice 265 LETTER XLIV. To the Rev. Robert Ckylon, M. .'?. Extreme Unction. Clear proof of this Sacrament from Scripture. Impiety and inconsistency' of the Bisliop in .slighting this. His Appeal to Antiquity refuted 272 LETTER XLV. To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. Antichrist : Impious assertions of Protestants concerning him. Their absurd iand contradictory systems. Retortion of the charge of Apostasy, Other charges against the Popedom refuted ----- 275 :f^':^, . . LETTER XLVL "^ ' " -'-•^' " 2^0 the Rev. Robert Clatjton, M. Jl. The Pope's Supremacy truly stated. His spiritual authority proved from Scripture. Exercised and acknowledged in the primitive ages. St. Gre- gory's contest with the Patriarch of C. P. about the title of (Ecumenical. Concessions of eminent Protestants ----- 282 LETTER XLVII. To James Brown, Jun. Esq. The language of the Liturgy and Reading the Scriptures. Language a mat- ter of discipline. Reasons for the Latin Church retaining the Latin Lan- guage. Wise economy of the Church as to reading the Holy Scriptures. Inconsistencies of the liible Societies ----- 293 LETTER XLVIII. To .James Brown, Jun. Esq. Various misrepresentations. Canonical and Apocryphal books of Scripture. Pretended invention of five new Sacraments. Intentfen of Ministers of the Sacraments. Continence of the Clergy— Recommended by Parliament. Ad>antages of fasting. Dt-position of Sovereigns by Popes far less fre- quent than by Protestant Reformers. The bishop's egregious falsehoods respecting the primitive Church .-.--- 2S9 LETTER XLIX. To James Broxon, Jan. Esq. Helipious Persecution. The Cjtliolic Church cUiims no right to inflict san- guinary punishments, but disclaims it. The right of temporal Princes and Conientt, xi Page. states in this matter. Meaning of Can. 3, Lateran iv. truly slated. Queen Mary persecuted as a Sovereign, not as a Catholic. James II. deposed for refusing to persecute. Retortion of the charge upon Protestantr^ the most ef- fectual way of silencing them upon it. Instances of persecution by Pro- testants in every Protestant country : in Germany: in Switzerland: at tie- neva, and in France : in Holland : in Sweden : in Scotland : in England. Violence and long continuance of it here. Eminent loyalty of Catholics. Two circumstances which distinguished the persecution exercised by Ca- tiiolic^ from that exercised by Protestants - - - 30S LETTER L. To the Friendly Society of J^ew Cottage. Conclusion. Recapitulation of points proved in these letters. The True Rule of Faith : The True Church of Christ. Falsity of the Charges allcge«i against her. An equal moral evidence for the Catholic as for the Christian Religion. The former, by the confession of its adversaries, the safer side. No security too great where Eternity is at stake ! - - - -321 A POSTSCRIPT To the second Edition of the Address to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of 6L David's, occasioned by Im Lordship's ' Om Word to the Rev. Dr jlfitoer.' 3^7 ADDRESS, TO THE RIGHT REVEREND LORD BISHOP OF ST, DAVID'S. My Lord, THE following Letters, with some others belonging to the same series, were written in the latter part of the year 1801, and the first months of 1802, though they have since that time been revised, and, in some respects, altered. They grew out of the controversy, which the principal writer of them was obliged to sustain against an eminent author, a prebendary of the cathedral, and the chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, who had person- ally challenged him to the field of argument, in a book, called Reflections on Popery. That controversy having made some noise in the public, and even in the houses of parliament, particularly in the upper house, where the lord chancellor,* and a predecessor of your lordship, then the light and glory of the established church,t expressed opposite opinions on the issue of it, certain powerful personages expressed an earnest wish for its termina- tion. For this purpose, the usual method of silencing authors was at first resolved upon with respect to the writer, and a Ca- tholic gentleman of name, still living, was commissioned to sound him on the business : but, in conclusion, it was thought most ad- visable to employ the influence which the prelate alluded to had so justly acquired over him. Tliis method succeeded ; and, ac- cordingly, these Letters, whicli, otherwise, would have been pub- Ushed fifteen years ago, have slept in silence ever since. I trust your lordship will not be the person to ask me, why the Letters, after having been so long suppressed, now appear? — You are witness, my lord, of the increased and increasing virulence of * The Right Hon. the Earl of Loughborough. , t The Eight Rev. Dr. Horsely, successively bishop of St. David's, Roches- ter, and St. Asaph's. ii Address, the press against Catholics ; and this, in many instances, directed hj no ignoble or profane hands. Abundant proofs of this will be seen in the following work. For the present, it is sufficient to mention, that one of your most venerable colleagues publishes and re-publishes, that we stand convicted of idolatry^ blasphemy, and sacrilege. Another proclaims to the clergy, assembled in Synod, that we are enemies of all law, 'human and divine. More than one of them has charged us with the i^uilt of that Anti-Christian con- spiracy on the continent, of which we were exclusively the vic- tims. This dignitary accuses us of Antinomiamsm ; that main- ains our religion to be fit only for persons weak in body and in nind. In short, we seldom find ourselves, or our religion, men- tioned in modern sermons, or other theological works, unaccom- panied with the epithets of supcrstilious, idolatrous, impious, dis- loyal, perfidious, and sanguinary. One of the theologues alluded to, who, like many others, has gained promotion by the fervour of his NO POPERY zeal, has exalted his tone to the pitch of pro- claiming that our religion is calculated for the meridian of hell! ! — Thus solemnly, and almost continually, charged before the tribu- nal of the public, with crimes against society and our country, no less than against religion, and yet conscious, all the while, of our entire innocence, it is not only lawful, but also a duty, \vhich we owe to our fellow-subjects and ourselves, to repel these charges, by proving that there was reason, and religion, and loyalty, and good faith Simony Christians, before Luther quarreled with Leo X., and Henry VIIL fell in love with Ann Bullen; and that, if we ourselves have not yet been persuaded by the arguments, either of the monk or the monarch, to relinquish the faith 'originally preached in this island, above 1300 years before their time, we are, at least, possessed of common sense, virtuous principles, and untainted loyalty. The writer miglit assign anotlier reason for making the present publication; namely, the number and acrimony of his own public opponents on subjects of religion. To say nothing of the ground- less charges, by word of mouth, of certain privileged personages, the following writers are some of those who have published books, pamphlets, essays, or notes against him, on subjects of a religious nature ; the deans of Winchester and Peterborough; chancellor Sturges ; prebendary Poulter; the doctors Hoadly, Ash, Rvan, Ledwich, Le Mesurier,* and Elrington ; Sir Richard Musgrave, * • To one only objection of hi;; adversaries, the w^er wishes here to give an answer, that of having- quoted fakeh/ ,• which, liowever, has been advanced by very few of them, and is confined, as far as he knows, to two instances. The first of these, is, that the writer, in his History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 61, ** quotes Gildas, for the exploits of king Artlmr, who never once men- tions his name." This objection was first started by Dr. O'Conor, in his Co- lumbanus, was borrowed from him, by tlie Kcv. Mr. I^e Mesurier, in his Bampton Lectures, and was adopted from tlie latter by the Rev. Mr. Grier, in his Answer to Ward's Errata. — After all, this pretended /yr^cr_y of the writer. Address. iii John Reeves, Esq. the Reverend Messrs Williamson, Bazeleyi Churton, Grier, and Roberts ; besides numerous anonymous rifle- men in the Gentleman's Magazine, the Monthly Magazine, the Anti-Jacobin Review, the Protestant Advocate, the Antibiblion, and other periodical works, including newspapers. By some of these he has been challenged into the field of controversy, and when he did not appear there, he has been posted as a coward. A still more cogent reason, my lord, for the appearance of this work, which was heretofore suppressed, at the desire of a former bishop of St. David's, has been furnished by his present successor, in the work the latter has lately published, called THE PRO- - TESTANT'S CATECHISM. This is no ordinary effusion oi NO POPERY zeal. It was not called for by the increase of the ancient religion in his lordship's diocese, which teems with Me- thodist jumpers, to t^ie danger of his cathedral and parish church- es being left quite empty ; while not one Catholic family, is, per- haps, to be found in it. It was not provoked by any late attempt on the established church, or on Protestantism in general ; as the bishop does not pretend that such thing has taken place. Never- theless he comes forward in his Episcopal mitre, bearing in his hands a nevr Protestant Catechis^n, to be learnt by Protestants of every description, which teaches them to hate and persecute their elder brethren, the authors of their Christianity and civilization ! In fact, this Christian bishop, begins and ends his Protestant Cate- chism, with a quotation from a Puritan regicide, declaring, that ** Popery is not to be tolerated, either in public or in private, and that it must be thought how to remove it, and hinder the growth thereof:" adding, " if they say, that, by removing their idols we violate their consciences, we have 7io warrant to regard conscience, which is not grounded on Scripture."* This, jour lordship must i will be found, on consulting the passag-e referred to above, to be nothing else but a blunder of his critics ; since it will appear that he quotes William, of Malrtisbury, for the exploits of Arthur and Gildas, barely for the year in which one of them, the battle of Mons Badonicus, took place ! The second accusation of this nature, was inserted by one of the above named writers, in the Gentleman's Magazine, namely, that the wa-iter had advanced, without any historical authority, that James I. used to call November 5, ** Cecil's holi- day." In answer to this charge, he gave notice in the next number of the Magazine, that he had sent up to the editor's office, as he had done, there to remain, during a month, for pubhc inspection, lord Castlemaln's Catholique Jipology, which contains the fact, and the authorities on which it is advanced. The writer is far from claiming inerrancy ; but he should despise himself, if he, knowingly, published any falsehood, or hesitated to retract any one that he was proved to have fallen into. • Milton's prose works, vol. 4. The prose writings of this secretary of the Long parliament are execrable, for their regicide and anti-prelatic principles, as his poetry is super-excellent for its sublimity and sweetness. Four other ■English authors are brought forward, by the bishop of St. David's, to justify that persecution of Catholics, which he recommends. The first of these is the Socinian Locke, who will not allow of Cathohcs being tolerated, on the demonstrated false pretext, that they cannot tolerate other Christians. The IT Address. i^now, is the genuine cant of a Mar-Preate Independent ; the same cant which brought Laud, and Charles I. to the block ; the same cant which overthrew the church and state in the grand rebellion. But what chieflj concerns my present purpose, in this, the bish- op's twice repeated quotation from Milton, is to observe that it breathes the whole persecuting spirit of the sixteenth century, and calls for the fines and forfeitures, dungeons and halters, and knives, of Elizabeth's reign, against the devoted Catholics ; since, it is evident, that the idolatry of Popery, as it is termed, exercised inprivatCy cannot be removed without such persecuting and san- guinary measures. The same thing is plain from the nature of the different legal offences which the Right Rev. prelate lays to their charge. In one place, he accuses the Catholics of England and Ireland, that is to say, more than a quarter of his majesty's European subjects, of" acknowledging the jurisdiction of the Pope, in defiance of the laws, and of the allegiance due to their rightful sovereign :^^ though he well knows, that they have abjured the Pope's jurisdiction in all civil and temporal cases, which is all that the king, lords and commons required of them, in their Acts of 1791 and 1793. Again, the prelate describes their opposition to the veto (though equally opposed in the appointment of their re- spective pastors by all Protestant dissenters, who constitute more than another fourth part of his majesty's subjects,) as " treasona- ble by statute,^^ p. 35. Now, every one knows that the legal pun- ishment of a subject, acting in defiance of his allegiance, and con- tracting the guilt of treason, is nothing less than death. Nay, so much bent on the persecution of Catholics is this modern bishop, as to arraign parliament itself as guilty of a breach of the Consti- tution, by the latter of the above mentioned tolerating Acts ; true cause was, that his hands hc'mg stained by the blood of twenty innocent CathoHcs, who were immolated by the saug-uinary pohcy of his master Shafts- bury, in Gates* infamous plot, he was oblig-ed to find a pretext for excludinp^ them from the legal toleration, which he stood in need of himself. — Bishop Hoadly, who had no relig-ion at all of his own, would not allow the Catholics to enjoy theirs, because, lie says ; *' no oaths and solemn assurances, no regard to truth, justice, or honour, can restrain tliem." This is the hypocritical plea tor intolerance, of a man who was in the constant habit of violating all his oaths and engagements to a churcli which had raised him to rank and for- tmie, and who syst^maticall)- pursued its degradation, into his own auti- Christian Socinianism, by professed deceit and treachery, as will beseenintlie l.etters. — Hlackstone, being u crown lawyer, and writing when the penal laws were in force, could not but defend tiiem : but, judge as he was, and >mting at the above mentioned time, he, in tlie passjig-e following that quoted by Dr. Burgess, exjiressed a hope, that the time " was not distant, Mhenthe fears of a Pretender having vanished, and the influence of the Pope becom- ing feeble, the rigorous edicts against the Catliolics would l)c revised," b. iv. c, 4. ; which event, accordingly, soon took place. As to Burke, the last au- thor whom the bishop quotes against Catholic emancipation, it is evident, from his speecli at Bristol, his letter to lord Kenmai'e, and the whole tenor of his conduct, tliat he was not only a warm friend, but, in some degree, a mar* tyr to it. Address. ' ^ where he says : " If the elective franchise be really inconsistent with the Constitutional Statutes of the revolution, it ought to be repealed, like all other concessions, that are injurious to loyalty and religion.^^ — He adds, "But it does not follow that because parliament had been guUfy of one act of prodigality, that it should, therefore, like a thoughtless and unprincipled spendthrift, plunge itself into inextricable ruin," pp. oo, 54. Thus, my lord, though the prelate alluded to, after advertising, in his table of contents. A CONCLUSION, showing " the means of co-operating with the laws for preventing the danger and increase of Popery," when he comes to the proper place for inserting it, apologizes iov deferring its publication, as " being connected with the credit of the ecclesi- astical establishment,^^ yet, we see as clearly, from the substance and drift of the ProtestanVs Catechism, what his Conclusion is, as if he had actually published it; namely, he would have the whole code of penal laws, with all their incapacities, fines, imprison- ment, hanging, drawing, and quartering, re-enacted, to prevent even iho, private practice of idolatry ; and he would have the bish- ops, clergy, churchwardens, and constables, employed in enforc- ing them, according to the forms of Inquisition, prescribed by the Canons of 1597, 1603, and 1640. Before the writer passes from the present subject of loyalty and the laws, to others more congenial with his studies, and those of the prelate, he wishes to submit to your lordship's reflection two or three questions connected with it. First: Is it strictly legal, even for a lord of parliament, and is it edifying for a bish- op, to instruct the public, especially in these days of insubordi- nation and commotion, that the reigning king, and the two houses of parliament, have acted against the Constitutional Statutes, by affording religious relief to a large and loyal portion of British subjects; as king William, George I. and George II. had afforded it to other portions of them ? We all know what outcries are con- tinually raised about violating the Constitution, and we know what effect these are intended to produce : now, if a turbulent populace are made to believe that the present legislature has acted illegally and unconfititutioncdly in some of its acts, is there no danger that they may form the same notion concerning some of its other acts, which are peculiarly obnoxious to them, and that they may rank these among the Fictitious Statutes, as this prelate terms the Acts of Parliament of three former reigns ? — Secondly: "The writer wishes to ask your lordship, whether or no you think it is for the peace and safety of the sister isle, to alarm the bulk of its inhabitants with the threat of their being dispossessed of the elective franchise, which thev have now enjoyed for a quarter of a century? In like manner, is it conducive to this important end, for a person of his lordship's character and consequence to assure this people, that the Pope's jurisdiction, and Englafid^J dominion over them, " were introduced into Ireland by the mer- C VI •Address. cenary compact of the Pope and Henry II." p. 24, "founded on a fiction of the grossest kind, the pretended donation of Constan- tine," p. V. though, by the bye, this was never once mentioned or hinted at by either of the parties ? — Lastly: The writer would be glad to be informed by your lordship, whether it is for the advan- tage of the established church so highly to extol John Wickliffe, who maintained that clergymen ought to have no sort of temporal possessions ? And is it for the security of the state to hold up lord Cobham as *' a great and good man, and the martyr of Pro- testantism," p. vii.', who was convicted in the King's Bench, and in open parliament, of raising an insurrection of twenty thousand men, for the purpose of killing the king and his brother, and the lords spiritual and temporal, and who was executed for the same, merely because he was a WkkliffiJe? How innocent was colonel Despard, compared with sir John Oldcastle, called lord Cobham! The writer has spoken of the object of the publication which has lately appeared, under the name of a Rt. Rev. bishop of the established church:- he now proceeds to say something of its^con- tents. > ■- It professes to be THE PROTESTANT'S CATECHISM. From this title, most people will suppose it to be an elementary booky for the instruction of Protestants of every description^ in the doctrine and morality taught by Jesus Christ : but not a word can the writer find in it about Christ, or God, or any doctrinal matter ■whatever ; except that, " They, who do not hold the worship of the church of Rome to be idolatrous, are not Protestants, what- ever they may profess to be," p. 46. ; which is a sentence of ex- communication against many of the brightest lights and chief or- naments of the bishop's own church. Nor does this novel Cate- chism contain any moral or practical lesson; except that, " Every member of parliament's conscience is pledged against the Ca- tholic claims;" and, what has been mentioned before, that as *' Popery is idolatrous, it is not to be tolerated either in public or in private,''^ and that " it must be now thought how to remove it," p. 3. Had the Catechism appeared without a name, it might be supposed to be a posthumous work of lord George Gordon; but, had its origin been traced to the mountains of Wales, it would certainly be attributed to some itinerant Jumper, rather than to a successor of St. Dubritius and St. David. What, liowever, chiefly distinguishes y/ie FroUstunt Catvchism from other No Popery publications, is, not so nmch the strength of its acrimony, as the boldness of its paradoxes. These, for the most part, stand in con- tradiction to all ancient records and modern authors, Protestant as well as Catholic, being supported by the bare word of the bishop of St. David's : and what is still more extraordinary, they sometimes stand in contradiction to the word of the bishop of St * See Walsingham's Historia Major. Knj^hlon Lexcest. Collier's Eccic* Hiat. Stow, 5tc. Mdress, vS David's himself; resting in this case, on the word of Dr. Tho- mas Burgess, I purpose exhibiting a few of the paradoxes I refer to. The great and fundamental paradox of the Right Rev. Catechist is, that Protestantism subsisted many hundred years before Fopery; at the same time that he marks its essence consist in a renuncia- tion of, and opposition to, Popery! for his lordship lectures his Pro- testant pupils in the following manner: "Question. What is Protestantism r Answer. The abjuration of Popery and the ex- clusion of Papists from all power, ecclesiastical and civil." p. 12L " Question. What is Popery r Answer. The religion of the church of Rome, so called because the church of Rome is sub- ject to the jurisdiction of the Pope." p. 11. "Question. When was this jurisdiction assumed over the whole church.? Answer. At the beginning of the seventh century." p. 15. The writer does not here refute the various errors of the Right Rev. bishop on these heads ; this refutation will be found in the following letters ; he barely exhibits one of the bishop's leading paradoxes. It may be here stated as another very favourite paradox of the prelate, since he has maintained it in a former work, that, be- cause Venantius Fortunatus, a poet of the sixth century, sings that " the stylus, or writings of St. Paul, had run east, west, north and South, and passed into Britain and the remote Thule," and because Theodoret, an author of the fifth century, says, " St. Paul, brought salvation to the islands in the sea," (namely, Malta and Sicily, Acts xxvii.) it follows that the British church wdis founded by St. Paul! p. 19.* This paradox might be stated and even granted, for any thing it makes in favour of the bishop's object, which is to invalidate the supremacy of St. Peter. For it mat- ters not which apostle founded this church or that church, while it is evident from the words of Christ, in St. Matthew, c. xvi. v. 18, and in other texts, and from the concurring testimony of the fathers, and all antiquity, that Christ built the whole church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, he himself being the chief corner stone, so as still to ground it, next after himself, on the Bock, Peter.t This will be found demonstrated in the follow- ing work, Letter xlvi. A third paradox of the prelatic Catechist is this : Having undertaken to prove that " The church of Rome * The falsity of this inference and the weakness and unfiiirness of the bi- shop's arg-uments on the whole subject, have been well exposed by an able and learned writer, the Rev. John Ling-ard, in his Examination of Certain Opinions advanced by the Rev. Dr. BurgesSy &c. 1813. Syers, Manchester; Keating' and Brown, London. fThe Rig^ht Rev. prelate seems to have been forced out of his former ca- vil concerning the difference of gender between UtTpoc and HeT/i* in the text. Matt. xvi. by a learned colleag-ue of his [Landaff from remote ag-es was a thorn in the side of Menevia] who has shown him that Christ did not speak Greek but Syriac, and on this occasion, made use of the word Cephas, Mockt which admits of no variation of g'enders. viii Address, was founded by St. Paul,'* p. 13, no less than the church of Bri- tain, he attempts to draw an argument /rom their different disci- pline m the observance of Easter; that the latter was "indepen- dent" of the former, p. 23. Hence it would follow that St. Paul established one discipline, that which the prelate himself now follows, at Rome ; and another, "that of the church of Ephesus, and the eastern churches, in Britain," p. 17. The truth is, his lordship has quite bewildered himself in the ancient controversy about the right time of keeping Easter. He will learn, however, from the following letters, that the British church originally agreed with thatof Rome, in this, no less than in the other points, as the emperor Constantine expressly declares in his letter on that subject,* and as farther appears by the Acts of the Council of Aries, which the British bishops, there present, joined with the rest in subscribing. And when, after the Saxon invasion, the British churches got into a wrong computation, they did not fol- low that of the Asiatic Quarto-decimans, but always kept Eas- ter-day on a Sunday, diftering from the practice of the continent once only in seven years. A fourth paradox of the Catechism maker, is, that, admitting, as he does, the existence of our Chris- tian king, Lucius, in the second century, he, nevertheless, rejects his conversion by the missionaries of Pope Eleutherius, Fagatius and Duvianus, as " a mere Romish fiction, and a monkish fable," p. 23; notwithstanding both facts rest on exactly the same au- thority, namely, that of all the original writers, British, Saxon, English, Roman, and Gallic.t A fifth paradox of the bishop's, is, that " The British churches were Protestant before they were Popish," p. 23 : "six centuries elapsed before Popery had any footing in this island," p. 28 ; and that "the British bishop's showed their independence of the Pope's authority by rejecting the overtures of Austin, and by refusing to acknowledge any au- thority but that of their own metropolitan," p. 24. And yet it is demonstrated that the British bishops were present not only at the Councils of Aries and Nice, which acknowledged the Pope's authority, but also that of Sardica in Illyrium, held in 347,| where the right of appeal to tiie Pope in all ecclesiastical causes, from every part of the world, was confirmed.§ It is equally cer- tain, that in the former part of the following century. Pope Ce- lestine sent St. Palladius to convert the Scots, St. Patrick to con- vert the Irish, and St. Germanus to reclaim such Britons as had • KiUseb. Vit. ('onst.int. L. Hi. c. 19. *> t Nennius' Hist. IJriton, c. xviii. Girald. Cambr. De Jur. Mencv. P. ii. Ang-el. Sac. p. 541. Silvcst. (iiiald. Camb. Descript. c. xvili. The An- cient Reg-istcr of Landatt", cpiodTeilo vocatiir. Angel. Sacra, vol. ii. Glldas Historicus, quoted by liudborn. Galfrid Monument. Vcn. Bede, L. i. c. 4. The Saxon Chronicle. Gill. Malm. Antiq. Glaston. Martyr Kom. Kadenis, 8cc. 8ic. X St. Athan. Apolog. 2. See also Ushei § Can. ill. •Address, ix fallen into the Pelagian heresy.* Each of these facts is express- ly affirmed by a contemporary author of the highest character, St. Prosper; and the last mentioned fact is conformable to the Bri- tish records, whicli represent this foreign bishop, as exercising high acts of jurisdiction in Britain, which he never could have exercised but in virtue of the Papal supremacy, of which he and his companion, St. Lupus, bishop of Treves, were the delegates ; such as consecrating bishops in different parts of the island, and constituting St. Dubritius archbishop of the Bight Side of it, or of Wales.t But how many other proofs of the dependency of the ancient British church on the See of Rome, has not our episcopal antiquary met with, in his own favourite author and predecessor, Giraldus Cambrensis,| especially where the latter gives an ac- count of his pleading before the Pope for the Archiepiscopal dig- nity of St. David's, which the latter asserted was formerly deco- rated even with the Pcdlium, tlie mark of Papal legatine jurisdic- tion ; till one of his predecessors, Sampson, as he asserted, fly- ing into Britany, transferred it to Dol .^ He maintained, how- ever, that, excepting the use of the Pallium, the church of St. David possessed the whole metropolitical dignity, and was " sub- ject to no other church except that of Rome, and to that immedi- ately,^^^ The modern prelate does but add to the wonder of his learned readers by appealing to the conference between St. Austin, Pope Gregory's missionary and legate in England, and the Welsh bishops, A. D. 502, and to the latters "rejecting the over- tures" of the former, in proof of their "rejecting the Pope's au- thority," p. 24. For, what were these overtures ? They were these three : that they, the Welsh bishops, would keep Easter at the right time ; that they would adopt the Roman ritual in the * St. Prosper. ** Papa Celestinus Germanum Antisidorensem Episcopum, VICE SUA mittit, et deturbatis haereticis Britannos ad Catholicam fidem di- rigit." Chi'on. ad An. 429. See also Archbish. Usher De Brit. Eccl. Prim. t " Po stquam prsedicti Seniores (Germanus et Liipes) Pelagianam hsere- sim extirpaverant ; Episcopos, in pluribus locis Britannije Insulse consecrave- runt. Super omnes autem Britannos dextralis partis Britannia B. Dubritiuiii, summum Doctoi-em, a Reg-e et ab omni parochia electum, Archiepiscopum consecraverimt." Ex Antiq. Eccl. Landa.v. Rcgistro. Angl. Sacr. P. ii. p. 667. t The New Biographical Dictionary divides Silvester Giraldus Cambrensis into two different persons, whereas, it is plain, from this author's Descrip= tion of Wales, p. 882, Edit. Cambden, that these three names belong" to one and the same author. r ..r- 4 ^ § *' Usque ad Anglorum Reg-em Henricum I. totam MetropoHticam dig- lutatim, prseter usum Pallii, Ecclesia Menevensis obtinuit ; nuUi Ecclesije prorsus, nisi Romans^ tantum, et illi wiiiiediaie, sicut nee Ecclesia Scotica, subjectionem debens." De Jur. Menev. Ecc. Angl. Sac. P. ii. p. 541. — The rival See of Landaff' bears equal testimony to the supremacy of Rome. ** Sicut Romana Ecclesia excedit dig'nitatem omnium Ecclesiarum Catholics fidei, ita Ecclesia ilia Eandavia excedit omnes Ecclesias totius dextralis Britannia. " Ex Antiq, Reg-ist. Landav. Angl. Sac, P, U. p. 669, X Address, administration of baptism ; and that they would join with the Roman missionaries in preaching the word of God to the Pagan English.* This last overture demonstrates, that neither on the two former points, nor on any other point, and least of all on that of the Pope-s supremacy, was there, in the opinion of St. Austin, any difterence, of essential consequence, between his doctrine and that of the Welsii bishops. For, if there had been such a dif- ference, and especially if they had denied the supremacy of hia master, the Pope, would he have invited, and even pressed them, to join with him in preacliing the gospel to his new and increasing flock in England ? As well may we believe that a faithful shep- herd would collect togetlier, and turn into his fold a number of hungry wolves ! It is true they then said they would not receive 8t. Augustin for their archbishop ;t but neither did he nor the Pope require them to do so ; nor is the vindication of the rights of an ancient church, at any time, a denial of the Pope's general supremacy. So far from this, within two years from the holding of that conference, we find Oudoceus, bishop of Landaff, going to Canterbury to receive consecration from the same St. Austin, and we find him received, on his return into Wales, by the king, princes, clergy and people, with the highest honour.^: We have, moreover, the testimony of the above quoted British register, that the bishops of LandafF, from this period, were always sub- ject and obedient to the archbishop of Canterbury, who was at all times the Pope's legate. The right Rev. bishop's argument to prove that the Irish church was not, anciently, in communion with the church of Rome, namely, because it was in communion with the British bishops, p. 24, is as great a paradox as any of the above-mentioned : since it has been proved that the British bi- shops tiiemselves were always in communion with the church of Rome. Of the same description are the assertions, that no le- gate was appointed by the Pope in Ireland "before Gillebert, in the twelfth century," and that " the Pope's jurisdiction was first introduced into Ireland by the mercenary compact of the Pope ■and Henry II." p. 25. To expose the inconsistency of these as- sertions, nothing more is necessary than to consult the Antiqid- Hes of Usher himself, on Mhose authority they arc said to be grounded. This Protestant archbishop then testifies from an- cient records, which he cites, that, first St. Palladius, and after him St. Patrick, was sent into Ireland by Pope Celestine, to con- vert its inhabitans from Pagan idolatry; the former in 431, the latter in 432 ; that St. Patrick, " having estaft^lished the church of Ireland, and ordained bishops and priests throughout the whole island, went to Rome, in 462, where he procured from Pope • (* Ut gcnti Anglorum una nobiscum prxdicetis verbum Domini." Bed* Eccl. Hist. L. ii. c. 2. t JJed. Eccl. Hist. L. ii. c. 2. i Vita Oudooei, quoted by Godwin De Prsesul, and Usher. Address. xi Hilary, the confirmation of whatever he had done in Ireland, to- gether with the Pallium, and the title oi Papers legate ;^^* that in 540 the celebrated St. Finan, of Clonard, having spent seven years at Rome, and being consecrated bishop, returned into Ire- land, where he instituted schools and convents, one of which con- tained three thousand monks.t It appears from the same annalist, that in 580, the renowned St. Columban passed from Ireland to the continent, where he was protected by diiferent bishops and princes, for his orthodoxy and piety, and even by the Popes themselves, with whom he corresponded ; that in 630, a deputa- tion was sent from Ireland, of learned and holy men, " to the fountain of their baptism, like children to their mother,":|: namely, to the apostolic See of Rome, to consult with it on matters of re- ligion ; that among these was St. Lasrean, who was consecrated bishop by Pope Honorius, and appointed his legate in Ireland;^ that in 640, Tomianus, and four other bishops, being still anxious about the right observance of Easter, and about tlie Pelagian he- resy, wrote to consult Pope Severinus, and that they received an answer to their letter from his successor, Pope John. — Numerous other testimonies, not only of the cormnunion of the church of Ireland, with that of Rome, but also of its acknowledging the Papers supremacy, may be collected from Usher, Ware, and other Protestants, no less than from the original Catholic writers, down to the very time of Gillebert, bishop of Limerick, whom the Cate- chist admits to have been the Pope's legate in Ireland. This happened, according to Usher, in 1130, twenty-five years before the date of what the Catechist calls "tiie mercenary compact of the Pope and Henry II. by which," he says, "the Pope's juris- diction was first introduced into Ireland," and forty years be- fore the latter invaded Ireland ; which island, after all, as every child knows, he invaded, not as the executor of Pope Adrian's legacy, but as the ally of the dethroned king, Dermot. In speaking of the be<2;inning and progress of the religion of our own ancestors, the English, it migiit be expected the Right Rev. Catechist would have paid more attention to truth and con- sistency than he has done with respect to the foregoing more ob- scure histories. This, however, is not tiiecase. But, previously to the writer's entering on this particular subject he wishes to observe, what is more fully demonstrated in the following work, that the Catechist totally misrepresents our apostle, Pope Gre- gory the Great, as having "reprobated the spiritual supremacy," • Usher's Antlq. Index Chronol. . f Usher Primord. t Usher. § Gilbert was succeeded In the lej^atnie office by St. Malachy, who, by a special authority, erected the See of Tuam into an archbishopric. After his death Cardinal Papario was sent by Pope Euc^enius Ilf. into Ireland, namely, in 1151, with foiu" Palliums for the four archbislioprics. So false is the pre- late's account of the orig'in of the Pope's jurisdiction in b-eland ! xu Address* and also " his successor Boniface as being the first Pope to as- sume it," p. 16. In short, the question, at issue, is not concern- ing the titky but the ponder of a head bishop ; which power, as it will appear below, no Pope exercised more frequently or exten- sively " than the learned and virtuous St. Gregory," to use the prelate's own epithets. His lordship does not deny that our ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons, were converted to Christi- anity by " the Pope's missionaries," p. 28, namely, by St. Austin and his companions, sent hither by the above-men- tioned Pope Gregory, in 597 ; nor does he contradict the ac- count of our venerable historian, Bede, who describes the whole jurisdiction and discipline of our church, as being regulated by that Pope and his successors. Still the prelate most paradoxi- ^cally denies that "the Pope ever exercised jurisdiction in Eng- land or Ireland, except during the four centurie* before the Re- formation !" p. 11; and he maintains, in particular, that " the Anglo-Saxon churches differed from the church of Rome in their objection to image worshipping, the invocation of Saints, transub- stantiation, and other errors," p. 28. Here are two paradoxes to be refuted; one concerning the spii^itiial poicer, the other con- cerning the doctrine of the See of Rome. With respect to the former : is it not a fact, my lord, known to every ecclesiastical antiquary, that each one of our primates, from St. Austin down to Stigand, exclusively, who was deposed soon after the conquest, either went to Rome to fetch, or had transmitted to him from Rome, the emblem and jurisdiction of legatine authority, by which beheld and exercised the power of a metropolitan over his suiBfre- gan bishops ? An original author, Radulph Diceto, exiribits a suc- cinct but clear demonstration of this, in a series of all the arch- bishops, and a list of the different Popes, from whom the former respectively received the Pallium. Did not St. Wilfrid, arch- bishop of York, appeal to the Pope from the uncanonical seques- tration of his (li()ce?5S by the primate Theodore : Did not Offa, the powerful Mercian king, engage Pope Adrian to transfer six suflfregan bishoprics i'vmw tlie See of Canterbury to that of Litch- field, constituting it, at the same time, an archbishopric ? A hun- dred other instances of the exercise of the Pope's ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England, previously to the conquest, could be produced, if they were wanted. — As to the pretended difference between the doctrine of the Anglo-Saxons and the church ot Rome, the Catechist was bound to inform his readers when it took place ; and who were the authors of*it ; that is, who first persuaded the whole English nation to reject the religion they had been taught by their apostles. Pope Gregory and his mission- aries ; and whether this change was ett'ected by slow degrees, or all of a sudden.' If so absurd a paradox, as the above-mentioned. * To make some brief confutation of each of the Catechist's alleged dif- ferences between the Anglo-Saxon church and that of Rome : Bede testifies, AddrcsH. xin required a serious refutation, it niip;lit be stated that, in 610, bi- gHop Melitus, who afterwards bpcame primate, went to Rome to' obtain the Pope's confirmation (►f cLMtain regulations which ha However, m making this request of our society to you, it seems proper. Reverend sir, that I should bring you acquaint- ed with the nature of it, by way of convincing you, that it is not unworthy of the attention, which I am desirous you should pay to it. We consist then of above twenty persons, including ;he ladies, who, living at some distance from any considerable cown, meet together once a week, generally at my habita- • Letters to a Prebendary y in answer to Reflediom m Popery y by the Rer. Dr. Sturges, Prebendary and Chancellcyr of Winchester. A 2 Letter L tion of New Cottagej not so much for our amusement and re- fection^ as for the improvement of our minds, by reading the best publications of the day, which I can procure from my JLondcn bookseller, and sometimes an original essay written by one of the company* I hiu <• signified that many of us are of different religious per- suasions : this will be seen more distinctly from the following account of our members. Among these I must mention, in the first place, our above named learned and worthy rector, Dr. Carey. He is, of course, of the church of England ; but like -:, most other of his learned and dignified brethren, in these times, ^ he is of that free, and as it is called, liberal turn of mind, as to •explain away the mj-steries and a great many of its other arti- cles, which, in my younger da)'s, were considered essential to it. Mr. and Mrs » Topham, are Methodists of the Predesti- narian and Antinomian class,. while Mr. and Mrs. Askew arc mitigated Arminian Methodists, of Wesley's connection. Mr. and Mrs, Rankin are honest Quakers. Mr. Barker and his children term themselves Rational Dissenters^ being of the old Presbyterian lineage, which is now almost universally gone into Socinianism. I, for my part, glory in being a stanch member of our happy establishment, which has ktpt the golden mean among the contending sects, and which I am fully persuaded, approaches nearer to the purity of the apostol- ic church, than any other which has existed since the age ot it. Mrs. Brown professes an equal attachment to the church; yet, being of an inquisitive and ardent mind, she cannot re- frain from frequenting the meetings, and even supporting the missions of those self-created apostles, who are undermining this church on every side, and who are no where more active than in our sequestered valle}-. With these differences among us, dn the most interesting ot all subjects, we cannot help having frequent religious contro- versies : but reason and charity enables us to manage these without any breach of either good manners or good will to each other. Indeed, I believe that we are, one and all, possessed of an unfeigned respect and cordial love for christians of every description, one only excepted. Must I name it on the pre- sent occasion? — Yes, I must; in order to fulfil my commis- sion in a proper manner. It is then the church that )ou, Rev. sir, belong to ; which, if any credit is due to the eminent divines, whose works we are in the habit of x^eading, and more particularly to the illustrious bishop Porteus, in his celebrated and standing work, called A BRIEF CONFUTATION OF THE ERRORS OF THE CHURCH OF ROM¥., extract- ed from archbishop Seeker's V. SERMONS AGAINST Introduction, 3 POPERY,* is such amass of absurdity, bigotry, superstition, idolatry, and immorality, that, to say we respect and love those -who obstinately adhere to it, as we do other Christians, would seem a compromise of reason, Scripture, and virtuous feeling. And yet even of this church, we have formed a less revol- ting idea, in some particulars, than we did formerly. This has happened, from our having just read over your controver- sial work against Dr. Sturges, called LETTERS TO A PREBENDARY, to which our attention was directed by the^ notice taken of it in the house of parliament, and particularl)^ by the very unexpected compliment paid to it, by that orna- ment of our church, bishop Horsley. We admit then (at least I, for my part, admit) that you have refuted, the most odious of the charges brought against your religion, namely, that it is, necessarily, and, upon prmcipal, intolerant and sanguinary, re- quiring its members to persecute, with fire and sword, all per- sons of a different creed from their own, when this is in their power. You have also proved that Papists may be good sub- jects to a Protestant sovereign ; and you have shown, by an inter- esting historical detail, that the Roman Catholics of this kingdom have been conspicuous for their loyalty, from the time of Eliza- beth, down to the present time. Still most of the absurd and anti scriptural doctrines and practices, alluded to above, rela- ting to the T^orship of saints and images, to transubstantiation and the half communion, to purgatory, and shutting up the Bibk, with others of the same nature, you have not, to my recollection, so much as attempted to defend. In a word, I write to you. Rev. sir, on the present occasion, in the name of our respectable society, to ask you whether you fairly give up these doctrines and practices of Poper^^, as untenable, or otherwise, whether you will condescend to interchange a few letters with me on the subject of them, for the satisfactioiv of me and my friends, and with the sole view of mutually discovering and communicating religious truths. We remark that you say, in your first letter to Dr. Sturges : " Should I have occasion to make another reply to you, I will try if it be not possible to put the v/hole question at issue between us, into such a shape as shall remove the danger of irri- tation on both sides, and still enable us if we are mutually so disposed, to agree together in the acknowledgment of the same religious truths." — If you still think that this is possible, for God's sake and your neighbours' sake, deby not to undertake * The Norrisian professor of divinity, in the university of Cambridge speak- ing of this work, says, *« The refutation of the Popish errors is now reduced into a small compass by archbishop Seeker and bishop Porteus." — Lectxtret inlHviniii/t Fol. IF. p. 71. , ^ Essay /. it. The plan embraces every advantage we wish for, and ex- cludes every evil we deprecate. You shall manage the discus- sion in your own way, and we will give you as little interuption as possible. — Two of the essays above alluded to, with which our wordiy rector lately furnished us, I, with your permission, enclose, to convince you, that genius and sacred literature are cultivated round the \Vrekin, and on the banks of the Severn. I remain, Rev. Sir, with great respect. Your faithful and obedient servant, JAMES BROWN. ESSAr I. ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, AND OF NATURAL RELIGION BY THE REV. SAMUEL CAREY, LL. D. FORESEEING that my health will not permit nie, for a considerable time, to meet my respected friends afc New Cot- tage, I comply with the request, which several of them have made me, in sending them in writing, my ideas on the two Jioblest subjects which can occupy the mind of man ; the ex- istence of God, and the truth of ChristMtiity, In doing this, I profess not to make new discoveries, but barely to state cer- tain argimients, which I collected in my youth, from the learned Hugo Grotius, our judicious Clark, and other advocates of natural and revealed religion. I offer no apology for adopting the words of Scripture, in arguing with persons who are sup- posed not to admit its authoiity, when these express my mean- ing as fully as any others can do. The first argument for the existence of God, is thus express- ed by the royal prophet; Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath ?nade us, not we ourselves, it! jfoh}i xviii. 38. How many others resemble the rich young ' man, who, having interrogated Christ, JVhat good thing- shall I do that I imv-j have eternal life? when thii^divine master an- swered him, if thou wilt be perfect^ go and sell what thou hast and give to the poor ; — zuent away sorrowful! Mat. xix. 22. Fi- nally, how many more act like certain presumptuous disciples of our Lord, who, when he had propounded to them a mystery beyond their conception, that of the real presence, in these words, J^ /Icsh is meat indeed^ and fny blood is drink indeed;^-. Letter IV. \7 said, this is a hard saying"; who can hear it P — a}td went back and walked ?io ?nore with him! John vi. 56. O! if all Christians, of the different sects and opinions, were but possessed of the sincerity, disinterestedness, and earnestness, to serve their God, and save their souls, which a Francis Walsingham, kinsman to the great statesman of that name, a Hugh Paulin Cressy, dean of Laughlin, and prebendary of Windsor, and an Anthony Ulric, duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, prove themselves to have been possessed of; the first, in his Search into Matters of Religion; the second, in his Exomologesis, or Motives of Conversion, ^c; and the last, in his Fifty Reasons; how soon \70uld all and every one of our controversies cease, and we be all united in one faith, hope, and charity! I will here transcribe, from the preface to the Fifty Reasons, what the illustrious rela- tive of his majesty says, concerning the dispositions, with which he set about inquiring into the grounds and differences of the several systems of Christianity, when he began to entertain doubts concerning the truth of that in which he had been edu- cated; namely, Lutheranism. He says, "First, I earnestly im- plored the aid and grace of the Holy Ghost, and with all my power, begged the light of true faith, from God, the father of lights," &c. " Secondly, I made a strong resolution, by the grace of God, to avoid sin, well knowing that Wisdom will not enter into a corrupt mind, nor dwell in a body subject to sin,"*^ Wisd. i, 4. "and I am convinced, and was so then, that the rea- son why so many are ignorant of the true faith, and do not em- brace it, is because they are plimged into several vices, and par- ticularly into carnal sins." Then, "Thirdly, I renounced all sorts of prejudices, whatever they were, which incline men to one religion more than another, which unhappily I might have formerly espoused, and I brought myself to a perfect indifference, so as to be ready to embrace whichsoever the grace of the Holy Ghost, and the light of reason, should point out to me, without any regard to the advantages and inconveniences, that might attend it in this world." " Lastly, I entered upon this delibera- tion, and this choice, in the manner I should wish to have done It at the hour of my death, and in a full conviction, that, at the day of judgment, I must give an account to God, why I fol- l-?wed this religion in preference to all the rest." The princely inquirer finishes this account of himself with the following aw- ful reflections : " Man has but one soul, which will be eternally -either damned or saved. IVhat doth it avail a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Mat. xvi. 26. — Eternity knows no end. The course of it is perpetual. It is a series of unlimited duration. — There is no comparison between things infinite and those which are not so. O ! the happiness of the C 18 Letter V. eternity of the saints ! O ! the wretchedness of the eternity of the damned. One of these two eternities awaits us !" I remain, Sir, yours, &c. J.M. LETTER V. To JAMES BROWN, Esq . METHOD OF FINDING OUT THE TRUE RELIGION. Dear Sir, IT is obvious to common sense, that, in order to find out any hidden thing, or to do any difficult thing, we must first discover, and then follow, the proper method for such purpose. If we do not take the right road to any distant place, it cannot be expected that we should arrive at it. If we get hold of a wrong clue, we shall never extricate ourselves from a'labyrinth. Some persons choose their religion as they do their clothes, by fancy. They are pleased, for example, with the talents of a preacher, when presently they adopt his creed. Many adhere to their religious system, merely because they were educated in it, and because it was that of their parents and family ; which, if it were a reasonable motive for their resolution, would equally excuse Jews, Turks, and Pagans, for persisting in their respec- tive impiety, and would impeach the preaching of Christ and his apostles! Others glory in their religion, because it is the one established in this their countn , so renowned for science, literature, and arms : not reflecting that the polished and con- quering nations of antiquity, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Per- sians, Greeks, and Romans, were left, by th^inscrutable judg- ments of God, in darkness and the shadozv of death^ while a poor oppressed and despised people on the banks of the Jordan, were theonlydepositary of divine truth, and the sole truly enlighten- ed nation. But, far the greater part even of Christians, of every denomination, make the business of eternity subservient to that of time, and profess the religion which suits best their interest, their reputation, and their convenience. I trust that none of Letter V. 19 your respectable society fall under any of these descriptions. They all have, or fancy they have, a rational method of disco- vering religious truth, in other words an adequate rule of faith. Before I enter into any disquisition on this all-important con- troversy, concerning the right rule offaithy on which the deter- mination of every other depends, I will lay down three funda- mental maxims, the truth of which, I believe, no rational Chris- tian will dispute. First, our divine master^ Christy in establishing a religion here on earthy to zuhich all the nations of it were invited, Mat. xviii. 19, left some RULE or method, bi/ which those persons, who sincerely seek for it, may certainly find it » Secondly, this rule or method, must be SECURE and never- failing; so as not to be ever liable to lead a rational, sincere in- quirer, into error, impiety, or immorality, of any kind. Thirdly, This rule or method must be UNIVERSAL, that is to say, adapted to the abilities and other circujnstances, of all those persons for whom the religion itself was intended; name' ly the great bulk of mankind. By adhering to these undeniable maxims, we shall quickly, dear sir, and clearly, discover the method appointed by Christ, for arriving at the knowledge of the truths which he has taught, in other words, at the right rule of faith. Being possessed of this rule, we shall have nothing else, of course, to do than to make use of it, for securely, and, I trust, amicably, settling all our controversies. This is the short and satisfactory meUiod of composing religious differences, which I alluded to m my above mentioned letter to Dr. Sturges. To discuss them aU, separately is an endless task, whereas this method reduces them to a single question. I am, &c. J. M* ( 20 ) LETTER YI. TO JAMES BROWN, Esq. THE FIRST FALLACIOUS RULE OF FAITH, Dear Sir, AMONG serious Christians, who profess to make the dis- covery and practice of religion their first and earnest care, three different methods or rules have been adopted for this purpose. The first consists in a supposed private inspiration^ or an immediate light and motion of God's spirit, communi- cated to the individual. This was the rule of faith and con- duct formerly professed by the Montanists, the Anabaptists, the Family of Love, and is now professed by the Quakers, the Moravians, and different classes of the Methodists, The se- cond of these rules is the written Word of God, or THE BI- BLE, according" as it is understood by each particular reader or hearer of it. This is the professed rule of the more regu- lar sects of Protestants, such as the Lutherans the Calvinists, . the Socinians, the Church of England men. The third rule is . THE WORD OF GOD, at large, -whether written in the Bible, or handed down from the apostles in continued miccession by the Catholic church, and as it is understood and explained by this church. To speak more accurately, besides their rule of faith, namely, Scripture and tradition. Catholics acknow- ledge an unerring- judge of controversy, or sure guide in all matters relating to salvation, namely, THE CHURCH. I shall now proceed to show that the first mentioned rule, name- ly, a supposed private inspiration, is quite fallacious, in as much as it is liable to conduct, and has conducted many, into ac- knowledged errors and impiety. About the middle of the second age of Christianit)^^, Monta- nus, Maximilla and Priscilla, w^ith their followers, by adopt- ing this enthusiastical rule, rushed into the excess of folly and blasphemy. They taught that the Holy Spirit, having failed tc» save mankind, by Moses, and afterwards hf Christ, had en- lightened iind sanctified them to accomplish this great work. The strictness of their precepts, and apparent sanctity of their lives, deceived many, till at length the two former proved what spirit they were guided by, in hanging themselves.* Several • Euseb. Ecclcs. Hist. 1. v. c. 15. Letter VL jl j*^' - ,^ 'ft. other heretics became dupes of the same principles in the pri- mitive and the middle ages ; but it was reserved for the time of religious licentiousness, improperly called the Reformation, to display the full extent of its absurdity and impiety. In less than five years after Luther had sounded the trumpet of evan- gelical liberty, the sect of Anabaptists arose in (Germany and the Low Countries. They professed to hold immediate com- munication with God, and to be ordered by him to despoil and kill all the wicked, and to establish a kingdom of the just,* who, to become such, were all to be rebaptized. Carlostad, Luther's first disciple of note, embraced this Ultra-Reformation ; but its acknowledged head, during his reign, was John Bockhold, a taylor of Leyden, who proclaimed himself king of Sion, and who, during a certain time, was really sovereign of Munster, in Lower Germany, where he committed the greatest imagina- ble excesses, marrying eleven wives at a time, and putting them, and numberless other of his subjects to death, at the motion of his supposed interior spirit.f He declared that God had made him a present of Amsterdam and other cities, which he sent parties of his disciples to take possession of. These ran naked through the streets, howling out, " Wo to Babylon ; wo to the "wicked ;" and, when they were apprehended, and on the point of being executed for their seditions and murders, they sung and danced on the scaffold, exulting in the imaginary light of their spirit.t Herman, another Anabaptist, v/as moved by his spi- rit to declare himself the Messiah, and thus to evangelize the peo- ple, his hearers ; " Kill the priests, kill all the magistrates in the world : repent: your redemption is at hand."§ One of their chief and most accredited preachers, David George, persuaded a numerous sect of them, that " the doctrine both of the Old and New Testament was imperfect, but that his own was per- fect, and that he was the true Son of God»''\ I do not notice these impieties and other crimes for their singularity or their atrociousness, but because they were committed upon the prin- ciple and under a full conviction of an individual and uncon- trolable inspiration^ on the part of their dupes and perpetra- tors. Nor has our own country been more free from this enthusi- astic principle than Germany and Holland. Nicholas, a disci- • •* Cum Deo colloquium esse et mandatum habere se dicebant, ut, impua omnibus interfectis, novum constituerent mundum, in quo pii solum ct inno- eeutes viverent et rerum, potirentur." — Sleidan. DeStat. Rel. etReip. Coo»> ment. 1. iii. p. 45. fHist, Abreg-. dela Reform, par Gerard Brandt, torn. i. p. 46. Moshcim, Bccles Hist, by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 452. ^ I Brandt, p, 49, &c. § Brandt, p. 51. ■ | Mo»hcim, vol. iv. p. 4M. ft2 Letter, VI. pie of the above mentioned David George, came over to Eng- land with a supposed commission from God to teach men that the essence of religion consists in the feelings of divine love, and that all other things relating either to faith or worship, are of no moment.^'*^ He extended this maxim even to the funda- mental precepts of morality, professing to continue in sm that grace might abound. His followers, under the name of the Familists, or The Fami/y o/Love^ were very numerous at the end of the sixteenth century, about which time, Hacket, a Cal- vinist, giving way to the same spirit of delusion, became deeply persuaded that the spirit of the Messiah had descended upon him ; and, having made several proselytes, he sent tw^o of them, Arthington and Coppinger, to proclaim through the streets of London, that Christ was come thither with his fan in his hand. This spirit, instead of being repressed, became still more un- governable at the sight of the scaffold and the gibbet, prepared in Cheapside for his execution. Accordingly he continued till the last, exclaiming, " Jehova, Jehova ; don't you see the hea- vens open, and Jesus coming to deliver me, &c."f Who has UQt heard of Venner, and his Fifth Monarchy-men, who, guid- ed by the same private spirit of inspiration, rushed from their meeting house in Coleman street, proclaiming that they would *' acknowledge no sovereign but king Jesus, and that they would not sheathe their swords, till they had made Babylon (that is monarchy) a lueBing and a curse, not only in England, but also throughout foreign countries ; having an assurance j^hat one of them would put a thousand enemies to flight, and two of them ten thousand ?" Venner being " taken and led to execution, with several of his followers, protested it was not he, hut J^jsus, who had acted as their leader.":(: I pass over the une- a-iplcd follies and the horrors of the grand rebellion, having det iled many of them elsewhere.^ It is enough to remark that while many of these were committed from the licentiousnes f pri- vate interpretation of Scripture, many others origini t d in the enthusiastic opinion which I am now combating, that < f ;.n' im- mediate individual inspiration, equal, if not superior, t;i]iat or the Scriptures themselves. || It was in the midst of these religious and civil coititi • ions that the most extraordinary people of all those who ha\ c : opt- ed the fallacious rule of private inspiration, parted ip rt h call of George Fox, a shoe-maker of Leicestershire. Hi nd^ • Ibid. Brandt. t Fuller's Cliurch Hist. b. ix. p. 113. Stow's Annals, A. I). 1591. tEchard'K Hist. ofKnj^. kc. S Letters to a Prebendarv. Reig-n of Charles I. ^1 See Uie remarkable history of the niilitarv preachers at King-ston. Ibid Letter VI, 25 mental propositions, as laid down by the most able of his foU lowers,* are, that, " The Scriptures are not the adequate prima-, ry rule of faith and manners^ — but a secondary rule^ subordu nate to the spirit^ from which they have their excellency and certainty :"f that the testimony of the spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be re- vealed :":j: that " all true and acceptable worship of God is of- fered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own spirit, which is neither limited to places, times, nor per- sons. "§ Such are the avowed principles of the people called Quakers : let us now see some of the fruits of those principles, as recorded by themselves, in their founder and first apostles. George Fox tells of himself, that at the beginning of his mis- sion he was " moved to go to several courts and steeple-houses, (churches) at Mansfield, and other places, to warn ihem to leave ofFoppression and oaths, and to turn from deceit, andto turn to the Lord.^U On these occasions the language and behaviour of his spirit was very far from the meekness and respect for constituted authorities of the Gospel spirit, as appears from dif- ferent passages in t.is Journal.^ He tells us of one of his disci- ples, William Simpson, who was "moved of the Lord to go, at several times, for three years, naked and barefoot before them, as a sign unto them, in markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests* houses, and to great men's houses, telling them, so should they be all stripped naked. Another Friend, one Robert Hunting- don was moved of the Lord to go into Carlisle steeple-house with a white sheet about him."** We are told of a female Friend who went "stark naked in the midst of public worship, into WTiitehall chapel, when Cromwell was there;" and ano- , • Kobert Barclay's Apology for the Quakers. '^7^^^ -'<•--- - ^a- j- Propos. m. In defending this proposition, Barclay cites some of tho Yriends, who, being unable to reaJ the Scriptures, even in the vulgar lan^ guage, and being pressed by adversaries with passages from it, boldly denitdt from the manifestation of truth in their cum hearts ^ that such passages were con- tained m the Scriptures f /?, 82. \ Propos. IL ^ Propos. XI. B See the Journal of George Fox, written by himself, and published by hia disciple Penn, son of admiral Pcnn, folio, p. 17. \ I shall satisfy myself with citing part of his letter, written in 1660, t8 ' Charles II. *« King Charles, thou camest not into this nation by sword no§ by victory of war, but by the power of the Lord. And if thou dost bear the sword in vain, and let drunkenness, oaths, plays, May-games, with fiddler*^ drums, and trumpets to play at them, with such hke abominations and vanities, be encouraged, or go unpunished, as setting up of May-poles, with the image of the crown a-top of them, the nation will quickly turn, like Sodom and Go* morrah, and be as bad as the old world, who grieved the Lord, till he ove»- threw them : and so he will you, if these things be iio* suddenly prevented/* *c. G. F.'s Journal, p. 225. ••Journal, p. 239. 24 Letter VL ther woman, who came into the parliament house with a trench' cr in her hand, which she broke in pieces, saying, thus shall he he broke in pieces^ — One came to the door of the parliament house with a drawn sword, and wounded several, saying, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to kill every man that sat in tliat house. "=5^ But on no one occasion have the Friends, with George Fox himself, been so embarrassed to save their rule of filthy as they have been to reconcile with it the conduct of *James Naylor.f When certain low and disorderly people in Hampshire, disgraced their society and became obnoxious to the laws, G. Fox disowned them,:|: but, when a Friend of James Navlor's character and services^ became the laughing-stock of the nation for his presumption and blasphemy, there was no other way for the society to separate his cause from their own, but bv abandoning their fundamental principles, which leaves everv man to follow the spirit ruithin him^as he himself feels it. The fact is, James Naylor, like so many other dupes of a sup- posed private spirit, fancied himself to be the Messiah, and in this character rode into Bristol, his disciples spreading their garments before him, and crying, Holy^ holij^ holy^ hosannah in the highest: and when he had been scourged by order of par- liament, for his impiety, he permitted the fascinated women^ who followed him, to kiss his feet and his wounds, and to hail him "the prince of peace, the rose of Sharon, the fairest ot ten thousand,' 'II &:c. I pass over many sects of less note, as the Mug^letonians, the Labbadists, &c. -who, by pursuing the meteor of a supposed inward light, were led into the most impious and immoral prac- tices. Allied to these are the Moravian brethren, or Hernhut- tcrs, so called from Hemhuth in Moravia, where their apostle, count Zinzendorf, made an establishment for them. They arc now spread over England, with ministers and bishops appoint- ed by others resident at Hernhuth. Their rule of faith, as laid down by Zinzendorf, is an imaginary inward light, against • Maclaine's note on Mosheim, vol. v, p. 470. f See History of the Quakers, bv William Sewel, folio, p. 138. Journal of C. Fox, p. 220. t Journal of O. Fox, p. 320. • ^ Ibid. p. 230. Senel's Hist, of Quakers, p. 140. I Rchard's Hist. Maclaine's Mosheim. Neals Hist. ^ Puritans, Inclosing this account of tlie Quakers, we may remark that there is no appear.ance yet of the fulfilment of the confident propliecy with which Barclay concludes his Apolo.e;-y : •* That little spavk (Quakerism) that hath appeared, shall grow to the cousuming of whatsoever shall stand up to oppose it. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it ! Yea; he tliat hath risen in a small remnant, sliall arise A»d g-o on by the same arm of power in liis spiritual manifestation until he hath couquercd all his enemies : ujitU all the kiug^doms of the earth become th« kiiu{fdoin of Jesus Christ." Letter VL US s which the true believer cannot sin. This they are taught to wait for in quiet, omitting prayer, reading the Scriptures, and other worh,* They deny that even the moral law contained in the Scriptures is a rule of life for believers. Having consi- dered this system in all its bearings, we are the less surprised at the disgusting obscenity, mingled with blasphemy, which is to be met with in the theological tracts of the German count.f The next system of delusion which I shall mention, as pro- ceeding from the fatal principle of an i?2terior rule of faith! though framed in England, was also the work of a foreign no- bleman, baron Swedenborg. His first supposed revelation was at an eating-house in London, about the year 1745. "After I had dined," says he, " a man appeared to me sitting in the cor- ner of the room, who cried out to me, with a terrible voice, Don't eat so much. The following night the same man a^BP^^r- ed to me, shining with light, and said to me, lam the Lord^ your Creator and Redeemer^ I have chosenyou to explain to men the interior and spiritual sense of the Scriptures: I will dictate to you what you are to write,^^^ His imaginary communica- tions with God and the angels were as frequent and familiar as those of Mahomed, and his conceptions of heavenly things were as gross and incoherent as those of the Arabian impostor. Suf- fice it to say that his God is a mere man, his angels are male and female, who marry together and follow various trades and pro- fessions. Finally, his New Jerusalem, which is to be spread, over the whole earth, is so little different from this sublunary world that the entrance into it is imperceptible,^ So far is true, that the New Jerusalemites are spread throughout England, and have chapels in most of its principal towns. |1: • Wesley, in a letter which he inscribes "To the church of God at Hero- huth/ says, *' There are many whom yoirr brethren have advised, though not in their public preaching-, not to use tlie Ordinances-— reading- the Scrip- ture, praying-, communicating- ; as the doing these thing-s is seeking salvation by works'. Some of our Eng-lish brethren (Moravians) say. You willnever hav§ faith till you leave off the church and the sacraments.- as many go to hell by prau- ing as by thieving." Journal, 1740. John Nelson, in his own Journal, tells us, tliat tlie Moravians call their religion the Liberty, and the Foot Sinncrship, adding, that " they sell their prayer books, and leave off reading and praying- to follow the Lamb . t See Maclaine's Hist. vol. vi. p. 23, and bishop Warburton's Doctrine of Grace, quoted by him. \ Baruel's Hist, du Jacobinlsme, torn. iv. p. 118. S Baruel's Hist, du Jacobinisme, torn. iv. p. 118. ^ ^ I Since the above letter was written, another sect, the Joannites, or disci- ples of Joanna Southcote, have risen to notice by their number and the sii>- gularity of their tenets. This female apostle has been led by her spirit to be- Jieve herself to be the woman of Genesis, destined to crush the head of the in- fernal serpent, with whom she supposes herself to have bad daily battles, to the effusion of his blood. She believes herself to be, likewise, the woman of D 26 Letter VL I am sorry to be obliged to enter upon the same list with these enthusiasts, a numerous class, many of them very respect- able, of modern religionists, called Methodists: yet, since their avowed system of faith is, that this consists in an ijistantaneous illapse of God's spirit into the souls of certain persons^ by which they are convinced of their justification and salvation^ without reference to Scripture or any thing else, they cannot be placed, as to their rule of faith, under any other denomination. This, according to the founder's doctrine, is the 07ily article of faith : all other articles he terms opinions^ of which he says, "the Me- thodists do not lay any stress on them, whether right or wrong. ""=^ He continues : " I am sick of opinions ; I am weary to bear them ; my soul loaths this frothy food."f Conformably to this latitu- dinarian system, Wesley opens heaven indiscriminately to churchmen, Presbyterians, Independents, Quakers, and even to Catholics.il Addressing the last named, he exclaims, " O that God would write in your hearts the rules of self-denial and love laid down by Thomas a Kempis ; or that you would fol- low in this and in good works, the burning and shining light of your own church, the marquis of Renty.:}: Then would all who know and love the truth, rejoice to acknowledge you as the church of the living God."§ At the first rise of Methodism in Oxford, A. D. 1729, John Wesley and his companions were plain, serious church of Eng- land men, assiduous and methodical in praying, reading, fasting, and the like. Wliatthey practised themselves, the^^ preached to others both in England and America, till becoming intimate with the Moravian brethren, and particularly with Peter Boh- the Revelations crowned with twelve stars, which are so many minlstei's of the established church. In fact, one of these, a richly beneficed rector, and of u noble family, acts as her secretary, in writing- and sealing- passports to heaven, which she supposes herself authoi'ized to issue, to the number of 144,000, at a very moderate price. One of these passports, in due form, is in the writer* f)ossession. It is sealed with three seals. The first exhibits two stars, name- y, the morning- star, to represent Christ, the evening- star, to represent her- self. The second seal exhibits the lion of Juda, supposed to allude to the in- sane prophet, Richard Brothers. The third shows the face of Joanna hi-rself. Of lute, her inspiration has taken a new turn : she believes herself to be preg- nant of the Messiah, and her followers have prepared silver vessels of various •ortB for h's use, when he is born. • Wesley's Appeal, P. III. p. 134. •" t Il*»d. p. 135. (I Wesley's Appeai. ♦ His life written in French, by Pere St. Jure, a Jesuit, and abridged in Eng-lish by J. Wesley. % In his " Popery Calmly Considered,*' p. 20, Wesley writes: '* I firmly be- lieve that many members of the church of Rome have been holy men, and that many of them are so now." He elsewhere says, •' Several of tliem (Pa- pists) have attained to as liigh a pitch of sanctity as human nature ik capable of arriving at." Letter VI, 27 ler, one of their elders, John Wesley, " became convinced of unbelief, namely, a wa?it of that faith whereby alone we are saved,^^* Speaking of his past life and ministry, he says, " I was fundamentally a Papist, and knew it not."f Soon after this persuasion, namely, on May 24, 1739, " Going into a socie- ty in Aldersgate street," he says, " whilst a person was reading Luther's Preface to the Romans, about a quarter before nine, I felt my heart strangely warmed : I felt I did trust in Christ, in Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance xuas given me that he had taken axvay my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death,'''' \ ^ What were now the unavoidable consequences of a diffusion of this doctrine among the people at large ? Let us hear them from Wesley's most able disciple and destined successor, Fletcher, of Madeley. " Antinomian principles and practices," he says, " have spread like wild-fire among our societies. Many persons, speaking in the most glorious manner of Christ and their interest in his complete salvation, have been found living in the greatest immoralities. — How few of our societies, where* cheating, extorting, or some other evil hath not broke out, and given such shakes to the ark of the Gospel, that, had not the Lord interposed, it must have been overset !"§ — " I have seen them who pass for believers, follow the strain of corrupt na- ture ; and when they should have exclaimed against Antino* mianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of their zvicked hearts, which they said, stUl suggested that they xvere to do something for their salvation,''^ — " How few of our celebrated pulpits, where more has not been said for sin than against it /"^ — The same candid writer, laying open the foul* ness of his former system, charges Sir Richard Hill, who per- sisted in it, with maintaining that, " Even adultery and mur- der do not hurt the pleasant children, but rather work for their good."**—-" God sees no sin in believers, whatever sin they • Whitehead's life of John and Charles Wesley, vol. ii. p. 68. f Journal, A. D. 1739. Elsewhere, Wesley says, " O vhat a work has God begun, since Peter Bohler came to England ; such a one as shall never come to an end, till heaven.and earth pass away." i: Vide Whitehead, vol. ii. page 79. In a letter to his brother Samuel, John Wesley says, <* By a Christian, I mean one who so believes in Christ that death hath no dominion over him, and in this obvious sense of the word I was not a Christian till 24th of May, last year." Ibid. 105. § Checks to Antinom. vol. ii. p. 22, || Ibid, page 200. 1 Ibid, page 215. •• Fletcher's Works, vol. iii. page SO. Agfricola, one of Luther's first disciples, is called the founder of the Antinomians, These hold that the faithful are bound by no law, either of God or man, and that good works of every kind are useless to salvation ; while Amsdorf, Luther's pot-oompanion» tAUjjbt that they we an impediment to salvation. MosUeira's ^^celes, Hi«t, 28 Letter VI. commit. My sins might displease God ; my person is always acceptable to him. Though I should outsin Manasses, I should not be less a pleasant child, because God always views me in Christ. Hence, in the midst of adulteries, murders and in- cests, he can address me with, Thou art all fair my love^ my undejiled^ there is no spot in thee.^^^ — " It is a most perni- cious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins Jtccording to the fact ^ and not according to the person.^'' — " Though I blame those who say. Let us sin that grace may abound.^ yet adultery, incest, and murd*r, shall, upon the whole, make me holier on ".arth., and merrier in hcaven,^^j These doctrines ?ind practices, casting great disgrace on Me- thodism, alarmed its founder. He therefore held a synod of his chief preachers, undtr the title of a Conference^ in which he and they unanimously abandoned their past fundamental principles^ in the following confession which they made. — " ^lest, 17. Have we not unawares, leaned too much to Gal- vanism ? Ans. We are afraid we have, ^est, 18. Have we not also leaned too niuch to Antinomianism ? Ans, We are afraid we hr.ve. ^jiest, 20. What are the main pillars of it ? Ans. I. That Christ abolished the moral law: 2. That Chris- tians therefore are not obliged to observe it : 3. That one branch of Christian liberty, is liberty from observing the com- mandments of Gcd," hc.\ The publication of this retraction, m 1770, raised the indignation of the more rigid Methodists, namely, the Whitefieldites, Jumpers, &c. all of "vj^honi were under the particular patronage of lady Huntingdon : according- ly her chaplain, the Hon, and Rev. Walter Shirley, issued a •circular letter by her direction, calling a general meeting of her connexion, as it is called, at Bristol, to censure this " dreadful heresy ^''^ which, as Shirley affirmed, " injured the very funda- mentals of Christir.nity."§ Having exhibited this imperfect sketch of the errors, con- tradictioiis, absurdities, impie'iies, and immoralities, into which numberless Christians, most of them, no doubt, sincere in their belief, have fallen, by pursuing phantoms of thsir imagination for divine illuminations, and adopting a supposed immediate . and personal revelation as the rule of their faith and conduct^ I would request any one of your respectable society, who may, by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 35. p. 328. Eaton, a Puritan, in his Honeycomb of Justification, says: *• Ilelicvers ouf^ht not to mourn for sin, because it wa* pardoned bctfore it was commitled.** • Fletcher, vol. iv. p. 97. \ Quoted by Fletcher. See also Daubeny's Guide to the Church, p. 82. t Apud Whitehead, p, 213. Benson's Apology, p. 208. % Fletcher's V/orks, vol. ii. p. 5, Whitehead. Nightingale's Portrait of Methodism, p. 463. Letter VII. 29 still adhere to it, to reconsider the self-evident maxim laid down in the beginning of this letter ; namely, that cannot be the rule of faith and conduct which is liable to lead vs^ and has led very many well meaning persons into error and impiety \ I would remind him of his frequent mistakes and illusions respecting things of a temporary nature ; then, painting to his mind the all-importance of ETERNITY, that is of happiness or misery inconceivable and everlasting, I would address him in the words of St. Augustine, " What is it you are trusting to, poor, weak soul, and blinded with the mists of the flesh : what is it you are trusting to ? J. M. LETTER VII. TO JAMES BROWN, Esq, ^c. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Dear Sir, I HAVE just received a letter from Friend Rankin, of Wen- lock, written much in the style of George Fox, and another from Mr. Ebenezer Topham, of Brozeley. They both consist of objections to my last letter to you, which they had perused at New Cottage ; and the writers or tnem both request that I would address whatever answer I might give them, to your villa. Friend Rankin is sententious, yet civil. He asks, first, Whether " Friends at this day and in past times, and even the faithful servant of Christ, George Fox, have not condemned the vain imaginations of James Naylor, Thomas Bushel, John Pe- rot, and the sinful doings of many others, through whom the word of life was blasphemed in their day among the ungodly ?" He asks, secondly, "Whether numberless follies, blasphe- mies, and crimes, have not risen up in the Roman Catholic as well as in other churches V He asks, thirdly. Whether the "learned Robert Barclay in his glorious Apolog}', hath not shown forth, that the testimony oj the spirit is that alone by •which the true knowledge of God^ hath been^ is^ and can be reveal- ed and confirmed ; and this not only by the outward testimony so Letter VII. of Scripture, but also by that of TertuUian, Hierom, Augustin, Gregory the Great, Bernard, yea also by Thomas a Kempis, F. Pacificus Baker,* and many others of the Popish communion, who, says Robert Barclay, have known and tasted the love of God, and felt the power and virtue of God's spirit working within them for their salvation ?"f I will first consider the arguments of Friend Rankin. I grant him, then, that his founder, George Fox, does blame certain extravagancies of Naylor, Perot, and others, his followers, at the same time that he boasts of several committed by himself, by Simpson, and others. :|: But how does he confute them, and guard others against them ? Why, he calls their authors ra?iters^ and charges them with running- out!^ Now what kind of argu- ment is this in the mouth of G. Fox against any fanatic, how- ever furious, when he himself has taught him, that he is to listen to the .spirit of God within himself in preference to the authority of any man and of all men^ and even of the Gospel? G. Fox was not more strongly moved to believe that he was the messenger of Christy than J. Naylor was to believe that he himself was Christ: nor had he a firmer conviction that the Lord iorh?idt hat'Xvorship^2i% it is called, out of prayer^ than J. Perotll and his company had that they were forbidden to use it in prayer,^ Secondly, with respect to the excesses and crimes committed by many Catholics, of different ranks, as well as by other men, in all ages, I answer, that these have been committed, not in virtue of their rule of faith and conduct^ but yz direct op- position to ity as will be more fully seen, when we come to treat of that rule ; whereas the extravagancies of the Quakers were the immediate dictates of the imaginary spirit which they fol- lowed as their guide. Lastly, when the doctors of the Catholic church teach us, after the inspired writers, not to extinguish^ but to walk in the spirit of God, they tell us, at the same time, • An Eng-lish Benedictine Monk, author of Sanda Sophia^ which is quot- ed at lenj^h by Barclay. f Apolog-y, p. 351, i See Journal of G. Fox, passim. § Speaking of James Naylor, he says, "I spake with him, for I saw he wa.'f 9ut and wrong; he slighted what I said, and was dark and much out." Journ. p. 220, 8 Journ. 310. This and another friend, John Love, went on a mission to Rome, to convert the Pope to Quakerism ; but his H(*ness not understanding" EngUsh, when they addressed him with some course Enghsh epithets in St. Peters church, they had no better success than a female friend, Mary Fisher, had, who went into Greece to convert the Great Turk. See Scwel's Hist. 'i **Now he (Fox) found also that the Lord forbade him to put off his hut to any men either high or low ; and he required to 7Viou and Thee every man and woman, without distinction, and not to bid people Good morrow^ or Good evening; neither might he bow, or scrape with his leg-'* Seweli's Hist. p. 18. See there a Dissertation on llat-wi/rship. Letter VII. St that this holy spirit invariably and necessarily leads us to hear the church, and to practise that humility, obedience, and those other virtues, which she constantly inculcates: so that, if it were possible for anang-cl from heaven to preach another Gospel than what we have recieved^ he ought to be rejected, as a spirit of dark7iess. Even Luther, when the Anabaptists first broached many of the leading tenets of the Quakers, required them to demonstrate their pretended commission from God, by incon- testable miracles,* or submit to be guided by his appointed mi- nisters. I have now to notice the letter of Mr. Topham.f Some of his objections have already been answered, in my remarks on Mr. Rankin's letter. What I find particular, in the former, is the following passage : *' Is it possible to go against conviction and facts? namely, the experience that ver)^ many serious Chris- tians feel, in this day of God'^s power^ that they are made par- takers of Christ and of the Holy Ghost? Of very many that hear him saying to the melting heart, with his still, small, yet penetrating and renovating voice. Thy sins are forgiven thee : oe thou clean: thy faith hath made thee whole P If an exterior proof were wanting, to show the certainty of this interior con- viction, I might refer to the conversion and holy life of those who have experienced it." — ^To this I answer, that the facts and the conviction which your friend talks of, amount to noth- ing more than a certain strength of imagination and warmth of sentiment, which may be natural, or may be produced by that lying spirit, whom God permits sometimes to go forth, and to persuade the presumptuous to their destruction. 1 Kings xxii. 22. I presume Mr. Topham will allow, that no experience he has felt or witnessed exceeds that of Bockhold, or Hacket, or Naylor, mentioned above, who, nevertheless, were confessedly betrayed by it into most horrible blasphemies and attrocious crimes. The virtue most necessary for enthusiasts, because the most remote from them, is an humble diffidence in themselves. When Oliver Cromwell was on his death-bed, Dr Godwin be- ing present, among other ministers, prophesied that the Pro- tector would recover : death, however, almost immediately en- suing, the Puritan, instead of acknowledging his error, cast the i blame upon Almighty God, exclaiming, "Lord, thou hast de- ceived us and we have been deceived !":j: With respect to the • Sleidan. f It was originally Intended to insert these and the other letters of the san»e description : but as this would have rendered the work too bulky, and as the whole of the objections may be gathered from the answers to tliem, tliat inten- tion has been abandoned. ♦ See Bii-ch's Life of Archbishop Tillotson, p. 17. 35 Letter VIII. alleged purity of Antinomian saints, I would refer to the his- tory of the lives and deaths of many of our English regicides, /-and to the gross immoralities of numberless Just'ijied Metho- dists^ described by Fletcher, in his Checks to Antinomianism,* I am, &c. J. M. LETTER VIII. To JAMES BROWN, Esq, SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. Dear Sir, I TAKE it for granted, that my answers to Messrs* Ran- kin and Topham have been communicated to you, and I hope that they, in conjunction with my preceding letters, have con- vinced those gentlemen, of what you, dear sir, have all along, been convinced, namely, of the inconsistency and fanaticism of every pretension on the part of individuals, now-a-days, to a new and particular inspiration, as a rule of faith. The ques- tion which remains for our inquiry is, whether the rule or me- thod prescribed by the church of England and other more rational classes of Protestants, or that prescribed by the Catho- lic church, is the one designed by our Saviour Christ for find- ing out his true religion. You say that the whole of this is comprised in the -written -word of God^ or the Bible, and that erven/ individual is a judge for himself of the sense of the Bible. Hence, in every religious controversy, more especially since the last change of the inconstant Chillingworth,f Catholics have • This candid and able writer says, " The Puritans and first Quakers soon got over the edge of internal activity into the smooth aixd easy path of Laodi- cean formality. Most of us, called Methodists, have already followed them. We fall asleep under the bewitching power ; we dream^trang-e dreams ; our salvation is finished ; we have got above legality; we have attained Christian li- .:berty; we have nothing to do; our covenant is sure." Vol. ii. p. 233, Hese- fci-3 to several instances of the most flagitious conduct which human nature is Capable of, in persons who had attained to what they call finished salvation. \ Chillingworth was first a Protestant, of the establishment : he next be- came a Catholic, and studied in one of our seminaries. He tben returned, in part, to his former creed : and last of all, he gave into Socinianlsra, which hi« wiitings greatly promoted. Letter VIII. 53 been stunned with the cries of jarring Protestant sects and in- dividuals, proclaiming that, the Bible, the Bible alone is their re- ligion: and hence, more particularly at the present day, Bibles are distributed by hundreds of thousands, throughout the em- pire and the four quarters of the globe, as the adequate means appointed by Christ, of uniting and reforming Christians and of converting Infidels. On the other hand, we Catholics hold that the Word of God in general both -written and univritten, in other words, the Bible and tradition, taken together, constitute the rule of faith or method for finding out the true religion: and that, be- sides the rule itself, he has provided in his holy church, a livings speaking judge to ivatch over it and explain it in all matters of controversy. That the latter, and not the former, is the true rule^ I trust I shall be able to prove as clearly as I h ivc proved that private inspiration docs not constitute it : and this I shall prove bv^ means of the two maxims I have, on that occasion, made use of; namely, the rule of faith, appointed by Christ must be CERTAIN and UNERRING, that is to say, it must be one 7uhich is not liable to lead any rational and sincere inquirer into inconsiste7icy or error: secondly, this rule must be UNIVER- SAL ; that is to say, it must be proportioned to the abilities and circumstances of the great bulk of mankind, I. If Christ had intended that all mankind should learn his religion from a book, namely, Th? New Testament, he himself would have written that book, and would have laid it down, as the first and fundamental precept of his religion, the obligation of learning to read it ; whereas, he never wrote any thing at all, unless perhaps the sins of the Pharisees with his finger upon the dust, John viii. 6.^ It does not even appear that he gave his apostles any command to write the Gospels; though he re- peatedly and emphatically commanded them to preach it, {Matt, X.) and that to all the nations of the earth, Matt, xxviii. 19. — In this ministry they all of them spent their lives, preaching the religion of Christ in every country, from Judea to Spain, in one direction, and to India in another ; every where establishing churches, and commending their doctrine to faithful men who should be ft to teach others also, 2. Tim. ii. 2. Only a part of them wrote any thing, and what these did write was, for the most part, addressed to particular persons or congregations, and on particular occasions. The ancient fathers tell us that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel at the particular request of the Christians of Palestine,! and that St. Mark composed his at the • It is agreed upon among- the learned, that the supposed letter of Christ to Abgarus, king of Edessa, quoted by Eusebius,-Hist. Eccl. 1. 1. is spurious. t Kuseb. 1. 3. Hist. Eccl. Chrysos. in Mat. Horn. 1. Ircn. 1. 3. c. 1. Hieron. de Vir. Ulust. 34 . Letter VIIL desire of those at Rome.* St. Luke addressed his Gospel to an indiyidual, Theophilus, having written it, says the holy ^ydLXi- gtlistyhtc^nst it seemed g-ood to him to do so, Luke i. 3, St. John wrote the last of the Gospels in compliance with the petition of the clergy and people of Lesser Asia,f to prove, in particular, the divinity of Jesus Christ, which Cerinthus, Ebion, and other heretics began then to deny. No doubt the evangelists were moved by the Holy Ghost to listen to the requests of the faith- ful in writing their respective Gospels ; nevertheless, there is nothing in these occasions, nor in the Gospels themsL^lves, which indicates that any one of them, or all of them together, contain an entire, detailed, and clear exposition of the whole religion of Jesus Christ. The canonical Epistles in the New Testament, show the particular occasions on which they were written, and prove, as the bishop of Lincoln observes, that "they are not to be considered as regular treatises on the Christian Religion.":): II. In supposing our Saviour to have appointed his bare writ- ten word for the rule of our faith, without any authorized judge to decide on the unavoidable controversies growing out of it, you would suppose that he has acted differently from what com- mon sense has dictated to all other legislators. For where do we read of a legislator, who, after dictating a code of laws, ne- glected to appoint judges and magistrates to decide their mean- ing, and to enforce obedience to such decisions? You, dear sir, have the means of knowing what would be the consequence of leaving any act of parliament, concerning taxes, oi; in closures, or any other temporal concerns, to the interpretation of the in- dividuals whom it regards. Alluding to the Protestant rule, the illustrious Fenelon has said, " It is better to live without any law, than to have laws which all men are left to interpret according to their several opinions and interests."^ The bi- shop of London appears sensible of this truth, as far as regards temporal affairs, where he writes, "In matters of property in- deed, some decision, right or wrong, must be made : society could not subsist without it:"I| just as if peace and unity were less necessary in the one sheepfold of the one shepherd^ the church of Christ, than they are in civil society ! III. The fact is, this method of determining religious ques- tions by Scripture only, according to each individual's interpre- tation, whenever and wherever it has beenqtlopted, has always produced endless and incuraMe dissentions, and of course er- rors ; because truth is one, while errors are numberless. The • Euseb. 1. 2. c. 15. Hist. Kiel. Kpiph. Hieron. de Vlr. Illust . fEuseb. 1. 6. Hist. F.(<1. Ilieion. % Ekm. of Christ. Rel. vol. i. p. 277, S Life of Arcbbp. Fenelon, by Rumscy \ Brief Confut. p. 18. Letter nil 35 ancient fathers of the church reproached the sects of heretics and schismatics with their endless internal divisions; "See" says St. Augustine, "into how many morsels those are divided who have divided themselves from the unity of the church!"* Another father writes, " It is natural for error to be ever changing.! The disciples have the same right in this matter that their masters had." To speak now of the Protestant reformers. No sooner had their progenitor, Martin Luther, set up the tribunal of his pri- vate judgment on the sense of Scripture, in opposition to the Authority of the church, ancient and modem,:j: than his disci- ples, proceeding on his principle, undertook to prove, from plain texts of the Bible, that his own doctrine was erroneous, and that the Reformation itself wanted reforming. Carlostad,§ Zuinglius,|| Q^colompadius, Muncer,^! and a hundred more of his followers wrote and preached against him arjd against each other, with the utmost virulence, still each of them professing to ground his doctrine and conduct on the written word of God alone. In vain did Luther claim a superiority over them ; in vain did he denounce hell-fire against them ;** in vain did he threaten to return back to the Catholic religion :|f he had put the Bible into each man's hand to explain it for himself: this his followers continued to do in open defiance of him ;l^ till their mutual contradictions and discords became so numerous aud •St. Aug. ' ""^- f Tertul. de Pracscrip. t This happened in June, 15C0, on his doctrine being" censured by the Pope. Till this time, he had submitted it' to the judgment of the Holy Seel i He was Luther's first disciple of distinction, being archdeacon of Wit- temberg. He declared against Luther in 1521. H Zuinglius began the reformation in Switzerland, sometime after Luther began it in Germany; but t.iught such doctrine, that the latter termed him a pagaii, and said, he despaired of his salvation. ^ He was the disciple pf Luther, and founder of the Ai^jbaptists, who, in quality of the just, maintained that the property of Me tmcA:cc? belonged to them, quoting the second beatitude: blessed are the meek for they shall possess the land. Muncer wrote to the several princes of Germany, to give up their possessions to him; and, at the head of forty thousand of liis followers, marched to enforce tliis requisition. •* He says to them, *• I can defend you against the Pope — ^but when tb« devil shall urge against you (the heads of these changes) at your death, these passages of Scripture, they ran and I did not send th^m, how shall you with- stand liim ! He will plunge you headlong into hell.** — Oper. torn. vii. fol. 274. ft "If you continue in these measures of your common deliberations, I will recant' whatever 1 have written or said, and leave you. Mind what I say.** — Oper. torn. vii. fol. 276. edit. Wittemb. tt See the curious challenge of Luther to Carlostadto write a book against the real presence, wlien one wishes the otiierto break his neck, and the othesr retorts, niay I see thee broken on the wheel.— YixisLt. b. ii. n. l2. 36 Letter VIII. scandalous, as to overwhelm the thinking part of them with giief and confusion.^^ To point out some few of the particular variations alluded to ; for to enumerate them all, would require a work vastly more voluminous than that of Bossuet on this subject: it is well known that Luther's fundamental principle was that of imputed justice^ to the exclusion of all acts of virtue and good works whatsoever. His favourite disciple and bottle-companion, Ams- dorf, carried this principle so far as to maintain that good works are a hinder ance to salvation,^ In vindication of his fundamen- tal tenet, Luther vaunts as follows : This article shall remain, in spite of all the world : it is I, Martin Luther, evangelist, who say it : let no one therefore attempt to infringe it, neither the emperor of the Romans, nor of the Turks, nor of the Tar- tars ; neither the Pope, nor the monks, nor the nuns, nor the kings, nor the princes, nor all the devils in hell. If they attempt it, may the infernal flames be their recompense. What I say here is to be taken for an inspiration of the Holy Ghost.":j: — Notwithstanding, however, these terrible threats and impreca- tions of their master, Melancthon, with the rest of the Luther- ans, immediately after his death, abandoned this article, and went over to the opposite extreme of Semipelagianism ; name- ly, they not only admitted the necessity of good works, but they also taught that these are prior to God^s grace. Still on this single subject, Oslander, a Lutheran, says, " there are twenty 3everal opinions, all drac^nfrom the Scripture, and l^eld by dif- ferent members of the Augsbwrg, or Lutheran Confession."^ , Nor has the unbounded license of explaining Scripture^ each one in his own way, which Protestants claim, been con- fined to mere errors and dissensions ; it has also caused mu- tual persecution and bloodshed ;!| it has produced tumults, re- • Capito, minister of Strasburg, writing to Parel, pastor of Geneva, thus complains to h\^: " God has given me to understand the mischief we have done, by our precipitancy iu breaking with the pope, &c. The people sav to us, I know enough of the Gospel: I can read it for myself. I have no need of you." Inter Epist. Calvini. In the same tone, Dudlth writes to his friend Bcza, ** Our people are carried away with every wind of dortrine. If you know what their rehgion is to-day, you cannot tell what it will Lx^ to-morrow. In what single point are those churches which have declared war against the pope agreed among themselves ? There is not one point which is not held by some of them as an article of faith, and by others as an impiety.*' In the same sen- timent, Calvin, writing to Melancthon, says, "It is ot great importance that the divisions, which subsist among us, should not be known to future ages: for nothing can be more ridiculous than that we, who have broken off from the whole world, should have agreed so ill among ourselves, from tlie very begin ning of the Reformation." t Mosheim Hist, by Maclainc, vol. iv. p. 328. ed. 1790. ^ Visit. Saxon. § Archdeacon Blackburn's Confessional, p. 16. II See Letters to a Prebendary, chapter, Persecution. Numberless other proof* of Protestants persecuting, not only Catholics, but also their fellow Protestants, t» death, on account of their religious opinions, can be adduced. Letter VIIL 37 hellions, and anarchy, beyond recounting. Dr. Hey asserts, that " The misinterpretation of Scripture brought on the mise- ries of the civil war ;"* and lord Clarendon, Madox, and other writers, show that there was not a crime committed by the Puritan rebels, in the course of it, which they did not profess to justify by texts and instances drawn from the sacred volumes.f i.eland, Bergier, Baruel, Robison, and Kett, abundantly prove that the poisonous plant of Infidelity, which has produced such dreadful effects of late years on the continent, was transplanted thither from this Protestant island ; and that it was produced, nourished, and increased to its enormous growth by that prin- ciple of private judgment in matters of religion, which is the very foundation of the Reformation. Let us hear the two last mentioned authors, both of them Protestant clergymen, en this important subject. " The spirit of free inquiry," says Kett, quoting Robinson, " was the great boast of the Protestants, and their only support against the Catholics ; securing them, both in their civil and religious rights. It was, therefore, encou- raged by their governments, and sometimes indulged to excess. In the progress of this contest, their own Confessions did not escape censure ; and it was asserted, that the Reformation, which these confessions express, was not complete. Further reforma- tion was proposed. The Scriptures, the foundation of their faith, were examined by Clergvmen of very different capacities, dispo- sitions, and views, till, by explaining, correcting, allegorizing, and otherwise twisting the Bible, men's minds had hardly any thing to rest on, as a doctrine of revealed religion. This en- couraged others to go further, and to say that revelation was a solecism, as plainly appears by the irreconcilable differences among the enlightcners of the public, as they were called; and that man had nothing to trust to, but the dictates of natural reason. Another set of writers, proceeding from this, as from a point settled, proscribed all religion whatever, and openly taught the doctrines of Materialism and Atheism. Most of t/ie.h-e innovations were the ivork of Protestant divines^ from th causes that I have mentioned. But the progress of Infideli was much accelerated by the establishment of a Philanthropi or academy of general education in the principality of Anha Deffsau. The professed object of this institution was to unit the three Christian communions of Germany, and to make it possible for the members of them all not only to live amicably, and to worship God in the same church, but even to communi- cate together. This attempt gave rise to much speculation and • Dr. Hej-'s Theological Lectures, vol. i. p. 77. I Hist, of Civ. War. Examin. of Neal's Hist.' of Puritons. M Letter VIIL refinement ; and the proposal for the amendment of the formu- las, and the instructions from the pulpit, were prosecuted with so much keenness, that the ground-work of Christianity was refined and refined, till it vanished altogether, leaving Deism, or natural, or, as it was called, philosophical religion^ in its place. The Lutherans and Cahinists^ prepared by the causes before mentioned^ to become dupes to this masterpiece of art, were enticed by the specious liberality of the scheme, and the particular attention which it promised to the morals of youth : but not one Roman Catholic could Basedow allure to his semi- nary of practical ethics,''''^ IV. You have seen, dear sir, to what endless errors and im- pieties, the principle of private interpretation of Scripture, no less than that of private inspiration of faith, has conducted men, and, of course, is ever liable to conduct them ; which circum- stance, therefore, proves, that it cannot be the rule for bringing us to religious truths, according to the self-evident maxim stated above. Nor is it to be imagined, that, previously to the formation of the different national churches, and other religious associations, which took place in several parts of Europe, at what is called " The Reformation," the Scriptures were dili- gently consulted by the founders of them, and that the ancient system of religion was exploded, and the new systems adopted, conformably with their apparent sense, as Protestant contro- vertists would have you believe. No, sir, princes and states- men had a great deal more to do with these changes, than theo- logians ; and most of the parties concerned in them were evi- dently pushed on by very different motives from those of reli- gion. As to Martin Luther, he testifies, and calls God to wit- ness the truth of his testimony, that it was not xuillinghj^ (that is, not from a previous discovery of the falsehood of his reli- gion) but from accident^ (namely, a quarrel with the Domini- can friars, and afterwards with the Pope) that he fell into his broils about religion.f With respect to the Reformation in • Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy against all Religions, &.c. Kelt's History the Interpreter of prophecy, Vol. ii. p. 158. f Casu non voluntate in has lurmas incidi : Deumtcstor." — The Protestant bistorian, Moshciin, with whom Hume agrees, admits that several of the prin- cipal agents in this revolution •' were actuated more by the impulse of pagsions and views of interests than by a zeal for true religion.'^ Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 135. He had before acknowledged that king (iustavus introduced Lutheran- ism into Sweden, in opposition to the clergy and bishops, "not only as agreea- ble to the gcniuB and spirit of the Gospel, but also as favourable to the tempo- ral state and political constitution of the Swedish dominions," pp. 79, 80. He adds, that Christicrn, who introduced the reformation into Denmark, was ani- mated by no other motive than those of ambiUon and avarice, p. 82. Groti- U8, another Protestant, testifies that it was '* sedition and violence which gave birth to the Reformation in his country," Holland. Append, de Antichnsto. Letter Fill. 39 our own countr)^, we all know that Henry VIII., who took the first step towards it, was, at the beginning of his reign, so zea- lous against it that he wrote a book, which he dedicated to Pope Leo X. In opposition to it, and in return, obtained for himself and his successors, from this pontiff, the title of Defen- der of the Faith. Becoming afterwards enamoured of one of his queen's maids of honour, Ann Bullen, and the reigning Pope refusing to sanction an adulterous marriage with her, he caused a statute to be passed, abrogating the Pope's supremacy, and declaring himself supreine head of the church of England,^ Thus he plunged the nation into schism, and opened a way for eveiy kind of heresy and impiet^\ In short, nothing is more evident than that the king's inordinate passion, and not the word of God, was the rule followed in this first important change of our national religion. The unprincipled duke of Somerset, who next succeeded to supreme power in the church and state, under the shadow of his youthful nephew, Edward VI, for his own ambitious and avaricious purposes, pushed on the Re- formation, so called, much further than it had yet been carried. He suppressed the remaining colleges and hospitals, which the profligacy of Henry had spared, converting their revenues to his own and his associates' uses. He forced Cranmer and the other bishops, to take out fresh commissions for governing their dio- ceses during his nephew's, that is, his own good pleasure.] He made a great number of important changes in the public worship by his own authority, or that of his visitors ;:j: and when he em- ployed certain bishops and divines in forming fresh articles and a new liturgy, he punished them with imprisonment if they The same was the case in France, Geneva, and Scotland. It is to be observ- ed, that in all these countries the refoiTners, as soon as they g-ot the upper hand, became violent persecutors of the Catholics. Bcrgeir defies Protes- tants to name so much as a town or village in which, when they became mas- ters of it, they tolerated a sing-le Catholic. • Archbishop Parker records, thai the bishops assembled in Synod in 1531, offered to sig-n this new title, with the irllovviiig- salvo, ♦' In gucntiim per Christi leges licet .•" but that the king- would admit of no such modification. Antiq. Brit. p. 325. In the end, they sinrcidcred the 'A'hole of their spirit- ual jurisdiction to him (all except the relig-ious bishop of Rochester, Fisher, who was put to death for his refusal) aid v.cic content to publish Articles of Religion devised by the King's Higlnas. Mcylin Hist, of Reform. ( oilier, SiC. f •' LicemJam concedimus ad nostrum beneplacitum dumtaxat duratuiam." Burnet Hist. Ref. Rec. P. II. B. i. N. 2, \ Seethe Injunctions of the Council to Preachers, published before the par- liament met, concerning' the mass in the I atin languag-e, players for tlic dead, &c. See also the order sent to the j)nm:ite ag-ainst palms, ashes, &c. inHeylin, Burnet, and Collier. The boy Edward \I.just thirteen years old, was taught by his uncle to proclaim as fellows : •' We would not have our subjects so much to mistake our judgment, &c. as though wc could not discern what is to be done, &c. Cod be praised, we know what, by his word, kf fit to be redressed,*' CeUier, toI. ii. p. 246. 40 Letter VIII. were not obsequious to his orders*. He even took on himself to alter their work, when sanctioned by parliament, in compli- ment to the church's greatest enemy, Calvin.f Afterwards, when Elizabeth came to the throne, a new reformation, differ- ent in its articles and liturgy, from that of Edward VI., was set on foot, and moulded, not according to Scripture, but to her orders. She deposed all the bishops except one, " the ca- lamity of his see ^"^ as he was called ;:|: and she required the ne\' ones, whom she appointed, to renounce certain exercises, which they declared to be agreeable to the Word of God^^ but which he found not to agree with her system of politics. She even in full parliament, threatened to depose them all, if they did not act conformably to her views. || V. The more strictly the subject is examined, the more clearly it will appear, that it was not in consequence of any investigation of the Scriptures, either public or private, that the ancient Catholic religion was abolished, and one or other of the new Protestant religions set up, in the different northera kingdoms and states of Europe, but in consequenc of the poli- tics of princes and statesmen, the avarice of the nobility and gentry, and the irreligion and licentiousness of the people, I will even advance a step further, and affirm that there is no ap- pearance of any individual Protestant, to whatever sect he be- longs, having formed his creed by the rule of Scripture alone. For do you, sir, really believe that those persons of your com- munion, whom you see the most diligent and devout.in turning over their Bibles, have really found out in them the Thirty- nine Articles, or any other creed which they happen to profess? To judge more certainly of this matter, I wish those gentlemen who are the most zealous and active in distributing Bibles among the Indians, and Africans, in their different countries, would procure, from some half dozen of the most intelligent and serious of their proselytes, who have heard nohing of the Christian faith by any other means than their Bibles, a summa- ry of what they respectively understand to be the doctrine and the morality taught in that sacred volume. What inconsi .tent and * The bishops Heath and Gardiner were both imprisoned for non-compli- ance. -j- Heylin complains bitterly of Calvin's prap^-maticai spirit, in quaiTelling- with the Eng-lish liturg-y, and soliciting" the protector to alt(*it. Preface to Hist, of Reform. His letters to Somerset on the subject may be seen in Fux^s Acts and Monum. t Anthony Kitch n, so called by Godwin, De Prxsul, and Camden. § This took place with respect to what was Xermcd prophesying, then prac- tised by many Protestants, and defended by arclibisliop Grindal and the oth^-r bishops, as agreeable to God's word: nevertheless, tlie queen oblig-ed them to suppress it. Col Eccl. Hist. P. H. p. 554, Sic. I Sec her curious speech in parliament, March 25, 1585 in Stow's Annals, Letter VIII. 41 nonsensical symbols should we not witness! The truth is, Pro- testants are tutored from their infancy, b)' the help of cate- chisms and creeds, in the systems of their resjjeclive sects ;they are guided by their parents and masters, and are inilucnced by the opinions and example of those with whom they li\e and converse , some particular texts of scripture are strongly iiu.. pressed upon their minds, and others of an apparent dilit-rent meaning, are kept out of their view, or glossed over ; and above all, it is constantly inculcated to them, that their religion is built upon Scripture alone ; hence, when they actually read the Sci ip- tures, they fancy they se€ there what they have been otherwise taught to believe ; the Lutheran for example, that Christ is re- ally present in the sacrament ; the Calvinist, that he is as far distant from "it as heaven is from earth;" the churchman, that baptism is necessary for infants ; the Baptist, that it is im- piety to confer it upon them ; and so of all the other forty sects of Protestants, enumerated by Evans, in his Sketch of the dif- ferent Denominations of Christians^ and of twice forty other sects, whom he omits to mention. When I remarked that our blessed Master Jesus Christ wrote no part of the New Testament himself, and gave no or- ders to his apostles to write it, I ought to have added that, if he had intended it, together with the Old Testament, to be the sole rule of religion, he would have provided means for their being able to follow it ; knowing, as he certainly did, that nine- ty-nine in every hundred, or rather nine hundred and ninety- nine in every thousand, in different ages and countries^ would not be able to read at all, and much less to comprehend a page of the sacred writings : yet no such means were provided by him : nor has he so much as enjoined it to his followers in ge- neral to study letters. Another observation on this subject, and a very obvious one is, that among those Christians, who profess that the Bible alone is the rule of their religion, there ought to be no articles, no catechisms, no sermons, nor other instructions. True it is, that the abolition of these, however incompatible they are with the rule itself, would quickly undermine the established church, as its clergy now begin to understand, and, if universally carried into effect, would in the end, efface the whole doctrine and morality of the Gospel:* but this consequence only shows more clearly the falsehood of that exclusive rule. In fact, the • The Protestant writers, Kett and Robinson, have shown, in the passage above quoted, how the principle of private judgment tends to undermine Christianity at large ; and archdeacon Hook, in his late Charge, shows, by au F 42 Letter VIII. most enlightened Protestants find themselves here in a dilemma, and are obliged to say and unsay, to the amusement ol* some persons, and the pity of others.* They cannot abandon tlie rule of the Bible aloiie^ as explained by each one for himself, without proclaiming their guilt in refusing to hear the Catholic .church ; and they cannot adhere to it, without opening the flood- .gates to all the impiety and immorality of the age upon their own communion. — I shall have occasion hereafter to notice the claims of the established church to authority, in determining the sense of Scripture, as well as in other religious controver- sies : in the mean time, I cannot but observe that her most able defenders are frequently obliged to abandon their own, and adopt the Catholic rule of faith. The judicious Hooker, in his defence of the church of England, writes thus, " Of this we arc right sure, that nature. Scripture, and experience itself, have taught the world to seek for the ending of contentions, by sub- mitting to some judicial and definite sentence, whereunto nei- ther party that contendeth may, under any pretence or colour, refuse to stand. This must needs be effectual and strong. As for other means, without this, they seldom prevail."! Ano- ther most clear-headed writer, and renowned defender of the establishment, whom I had the happiness of being acquainted with. Dr. Balguy,!: thus expresses himself, in a Charge to the clergy of his archdeaconry: "The opinions of the people are and must be founded more on authority than reason. Their parents, their teachers, their governors, in a great measure, de- termine for them, what they are to believe and what to prac- tise. The same doctrines uniformly taught, the same rites con- stantly performed, make such an impression on their minds, that they hesitate as little in admitting the articles of their exact statement of capital convictions in diflerent years, that the increase of immorality has kept pace with that of the Bible societies. • One of the latest instances of the distress in question was exhibited by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marsh. In his publication, The Inquiry ^ p. 4, he said, very truly, that "the poor (who constitute the bulk of mankind) cannot without assistance understand the Scriptures." Being' congratulated on this impor- tant, yet unavoidable concession, by the Rev. Mr. Gandolphy, he tacks about, in a public letter to that g'cntleman, and s.iys, that what he wrote, in his In- quiry, concerning the necessity of a further rule than mere Scripture only, regards the w/ai/w/ime/i/ of religion, not the truth of'it: just as if that rule were sufficient to conduct tlie people to the truik of religion, while he ex- pressly says they cannot, understand it. f Hooker's Eccles. Politic, Pref. art. 6. t Discourses on various Subjects, by T. Ralguy, D. D. archdeacon and prebendary of Winchester. Some of tliese discourses were preached at the consecration of bisliops, and published by order of the archbishop; some h\ Charges to the Clergy. 'I'lie wliole of tliem are dedicated to the king, whom the writer thanks for naming him to a high dignity (the bishopric of Glouct- •ter), and for permitting him to decline accepting of it. . , ..^i ,^.^ Letter VIII. 45 iaith, as in receiving the most established maxiftis of common life."* With such testimonies before your eyes, can you, dear sir, imagine that the bulk of Protestants have formed their reli- gion by the standard of Scripture ? He goes on to say, speaking of controverted points : " Would you have them (the people) think for themselves ? Would you have them hear and decide the controversies of the learned ? Would you have them enter into the depths of criticism, of logic, of scholastic divinity? You might as well expect thtm to compute an eclipse, or de- cide between the Cartesian and Newtonian philosophy. Nay, I will go farther: for I take upon myself to say, there are more men capable, in some competent degree, of understand- ing Newton's philosophy, than of forming any judgment at all concerning the abstruser questions in metaphysics and theolo- g}%" Yet the persons, of whom the doctor particularly speaks, were all furnished with Bibles; and the abstruse questions, which he refers to, are: "Whether Christ did or did not come down from heaven?" whether "he died or did not die for the sins of the world?" whether "he sent his Holy Spirit to assist and comfort us or whether he did not send him?"f The learn- ed doctor elsewhere expresses himself still more explicitly on the subject of Scripture, without church authority. He is com- bating the dissenters, but his weapons are evidently as fatal to his own church as to theirs. " It has long been held among them, that Scripture only is the rule and test of all religious ordinances ; and that human authority is to be altogether ex- cluded. Their ancestors, I believe, would have been not a little embarrassed with their own maxim, if they had not pos- sessed a singular talent of seeing- every thing in Scripture ■which they had a mind to see. Almost every sect could find there its o^vn peculiar form of church government; and xvhile they enforced only their own imaginations^ they believed th^m- selves to be executing the decrees of heaven,^'' \ I conclude this long letter, with a passage to the present pur- pose from our admired theological poet: ** As long^ as words a different sense will bear. And each may be his own interpreter, Our airy faith will no foundation find : , The words a weatliercock for every wind."§ I am. Dear Sir, &c. J. M. discourses on various Subjects, oy T, Balgiiy, D. D. p. 257. f Ibid. i Discourse VH. p. 126. § Dryden's Hind and Panther, Part I. C 44 ) LETTER IX. TO JAMES BROWN, Esq. SECOND FALSE RULE. Dear Sir, AFTER all that I have written concerning the rule of faith, adopted by yourself and other more rational Protestants, I have only yet treated of the extrinsic arguments against it. I now, therefore proceed to investigate its Ininnsic nature^ in order to show more fully the inadequacy, or rather the falsehood of it. When an English Protestant gets possession of an English Bible, printed by Thomas Basket, or other "printer to the king's most excellent majesty," he takes it in hand with the same confidence, as if he had immediately received it from the Almighty himself, as Moses received the Tables of the Law on Mount Sina, amidst thunder and lightening. But how vain is thir, confidence, whilst he adheres to the foregoing rule of faith ! How many questionable points does he assume, as proved, which cannot be proved, without relinquishing his own princi- ples and adopting ours ! I. Supposing then you, dear sir, to be the Protectant I have been speaking of; 1 begin with asking you, by what means have you learnt the canon of Scripture, that is to say, which are the books which have been written by divine inspiration ; or indeed that any books at all, have been so written? You cannot disco- ver either of these things by your rule, because the Scripture, as your great authority Hooker shows,-^ and Chillingworth al- lows cannot bear testimony to itself. You will say that the Old Testament was written by Moses and the prophets, and the New Testament by the apostles of Christ and the evangelists. But admitting all this; it does not of itself prove that the\' al- ways wrote, or indeed that the}- ever wrote, under the influ- ence of inspiration. They, were, by nature, fallible men: how have you learnt that they were infallible writers ? In the next place, you receive books, as canonical parts of the Testament, which were not written by apostles at all ; namely, the Gospels of St Mark and St. Luke, whilst you reject an authentic work of gioat exv.ellence,! written by one who is termed in Scripture j • Eccles. Polit. b. iii. sec. 8. t S<. Bamaby. See Grabe's Splclleg-. And Cotlcnis's Collect. Letter IX, 45 an apostle^ and declared to h^full of the Holy Ghost ^\ I speak of St Barnaby. Lastly, you have no sufficient authority for asserting that the sacred volumes are the genuine composition of the holy personages whose names they bear, except the tra- dition and living voice of the Catholic church, since numerous apochryphal prophecies and spurious gospels and epistles, under the same or equally venerable names, were circulated in the church, during its early ages, and accredited by different learn- ed writers and holy fathers : while some of the really canonical books were rejected or doubted of by them. In short, it was not until the end of the fourth century, that the genuine canon ■ of Holy Scripture was fixed: and then it was fixed by the tra- dition and authority of the churchy declared in the Third Coun- cil of Carthage and a Decretal of P. Innocent I. Indeed, it is so clear that the canon of Scripture is built on the tradition of. the church, that most learned Protestants,^ with Luther him- self, have§ been forced to acknowledge it, in terms almost as strong as those in the well known declaration of St Augustine.|| II. Again, supposing the divine authority of the Sacred Books themselves to be established ; how do you know that the copies of them translated and printed in your Bible are authentic I Jit is agreej.jigQn am ongst the lea rned, that the original text of Moses and the ancient prophets^ was destroyed, with the tem- ple and city of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Nebuchad- nezzar j^ and, though they were replaced by authentic copies, at the end of the Babylonish captivity, through the pious care of the prophet Esdras or Ezra, yet that these also perished in the subsequent persecution of Antiochus ;=^^ from which time we have no evidence of the authenticity of the Old Testament till this was supplied by Christ and his apostles, who transmitted it to the church. In like manner, granting, for example, that St. Paul wrote an inspired Epistle to the Romans, and another to the Ephesians; yet as the former was intrusted to an indi- vidual, the deaconess Phebe, to be conveyed by her to its des- tination,ff and the latter to his disciple Tychicus,:|::j: for the same purpose, it is impossible for you to entertain a rational conviction that these Epistles as they stand in your Testament, • Acts xiv. 24. t Acts xi. 24. % Hooker, Eccl. Polit.'C. iii. S. 8 Dr. Lardner, in Bishop Watson's Col. vol ii. p. 20. § "We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists — that with them is tiie word of God, which we received from them ; otherwise we should have known nothing at all about it." Comment, on John c. 16. B "I should not beUeve the Gospel itself, if the authority of tlie Catholic church did not oblige me to do so." Contra Epist. Fundara. 5 Brett's Dissert, in bishop Watson's Collect, vol. iii. p. 5. *• Ibid. ^ ft Rom. xvi. See Calmet, &c. 4t Ephes. vi. 21. 46 Letter IX, aj*e exactly in the state in which they issued from the apostle's pen or that they are his genuine Epistles at all, without recur- ring to the tradition and authority of the Catholic church con- cerning them. To make short of this matter, I will not lead you into the labyrinth of Biblical criticism, nor will I show you the endless varieties of readings with respect to words and whole passages, which occur in different copies of the Sacred Text, but will here content myself with referring you to your own Bible Book, as printed by authority. Look then at psalm xiv, as it occurs in the Book of Common Prayer, to which your clergy swear their "consent and assent,-'" then look at the same psalm in your Bible : you will find four whole verses in the former, which are left out of the latter ! What will you here say, dear sir? You must say that your church has added to, or else that she has taken azvai/ fro?n^ the words of this prophecy !^ III. But your pains and perplexities concerning your rule of faith must not stop even at this point : for though you had de- monstrative evidence, that the several books in your Bible are canonical and authentic, in the originals, it would still remain for you to inquire whether or no they are faithfully translated in your English copy. In fact, you are aware that they were written, some of them in Hebrew and some of them in. Greek, out of which languages they were translated, for the last time, by about fifty different men, of various capacities, learning, judgment, opinions, and prejudices.! In this inquiry, the Ca- tholic church herself can afford you no security to liuild your faith upon ; much less can any private individuals whosoever. The celebrated Protestant divine, Episcopius, was so convinced of the fallibility of modern translations, that he wanted all sorts of persons, labourers, sailors, women, &c. to learn Hebrew and Greek. Indeed, it is obvious that the sense of the text may depend upon the choice of a single word in the translation : nay, it sometimes depends upon the mere punctuation of a sentence, .;is may be seen below.| Can you then, consistently, reject the • The verses in question being- quoted by St. Paul, Rom. iii. 13, &c. there is no doubt but the common Bible is defective in this passage. — On the other hand, the bishop of Lincoln has puMished his conviction that the most im- portant passage in the New Testament, 1 John v. 7, for establishing the divinity of Jesus Christ, *' is spurious." Elem. of Theo. vol. ii. p, 90 + See a list of tliem in Ant. Johnson's Hist. Account. Theo. Collect, p. 95. \ One of the strongest passages for the divinity of Christ is the following, p& it is pointed in the Vulgate : Ex ([uibus est Christus, secundem carnem, qiu j'< super omnia Deits bentdidus in sxcula. Rom. ix. 5. But sec how Grotius Mid Socinus deprive the text of all its strength, by merely substituting a point for a comma : Ex fjuibtiH est Christus^ secundem curntm, Quie&tsuuer ?mnia Deus benedicim in ssecula. •.•••. Letter IX. 47 authority of the great universal church, and yet build upon that of some obscure translator in the reign of James I. ? No, sir ; )'ou must yourself have compared your English liible with the originals, and have proved it to be a faithful version, before you can build your faitli upon it as upon the Word of God. To say one word now of the Bibles themselves, which have been published by authorit}-, or generally used by Protestants, in this country. Those of Tindal, Coverdale, and queen Eliza- beth's bishops, were so notoriously corrupt, as to cause a general outcry against them, among learned Protestants, as well as among Catholics, in which the king (James I.) joined himself, =^ w^ho according! v ordered a new version of it to be made, being the same that is now in use, w^ith some few alterations made after the restoration.! Now, though these new transla- tors have corrected many wailful errors of their predecessors, most of which were levelled at Catholic doctrines and disci- pline,! yet they have left a sufficient number of these behind, for which I do not find that their advocates offer any excuse.^ IV. I will make a further supposition, namely, that you had the certainty even of revelation, as the Calvinists used to pre- tend they had, that your Bible is not only canonical^ authentic^ Biid faithful^ in its English garb ; yet what would all this avail you, towards establishing your rule of faith, vmless you could be equally certain of your imderstcmding' the -whole of it rightly ? For, as the learned Protestant bishop Walton says,|| "The Word of God does not consist in mere letters, whether written or printed, but in the true sense of it ;|[ which no one can bet- ter interpret than the true church, to which Christ committed this sacred pledge." This is exactly what St. Jerom and St. Augustin had said many ages before him. " Let us be per- suaded," says the former, " that the Gospel consists not in the words, but in the sense. A wrong explanation turns the Word * Bishop Watson's Collect, vol. iii. p. 98. flbid. + These may be found in the learned Greg". Martin's treatise on the subject, and in Ward's Errata to the Protestant Bible. V § Two of these I had occasion to notice, in the Inquiry into the Character of the Irish Catholics^ namely, 1 Cor. xi, 27, where the conjunctive and is put for the disjunctive or,' and Mat. xix. 11, where cannot is put forcfo not ,- to the altering of the sense, in both instances. Now, though these corruptions stand in direct opposition to the orig-inal, as the Rev. Mr. Grief and Dr. Ryan themselves quote it, yet these writers have the confidence to deny they are corruptions, because they pretend to prove, from other texts, that the citp is necessary, and that cmitinency is not necessary !! Answer to Ward's Errata, p. 13, page 33. U In the Prolegomena to his Pohglott, cap. v. \ This obvious truth shows the extreme absurdity of our Bible societies and modern schools, which regard nothing but the mere rffi«///2,ir i^/ /^^ Bihhy leaving persons to embrace the most opposite intepretations of the same texts. 48 Letter IX. of God into the word of man, and what is worse, into the word of the devil ; for the devil himself could quote the text of Scripture."" *= Now that there are in Scripture thing's hard to be understood^ which the unlearned and unstable wrest unto their own destruction^ is expressly affirmed in it.f The same thing is proved by the frequent mistakes of the apostles themselves, with respect to the words of their divine Master. These ob- scurities are so numberless throughout the sacred volumes, that the last quoted father, who was as bright and learned a divine as ever took the Bible in hand, says of it, " There are more things in Scripture that I am ignorant of than those I know.":|: Should you prefer a modern Protestant authority to an ancient Catholic one, listen to the clear-headed Dr. Balguy- His words are these : "But what, you will reply, is all this to Christians ? to those who see, by a clear and strong light, the dispensation of God to mankind t We are not as those who have 710 hope. The daif -spring from on high hath visited us. The spirit of God shall lead us ijito all truth, — To this delusive dream of human folly, founded only on mistaken interpreta- tions of Scripture ; I answer, in one word : Open your Bibles : take the first-page that occurs in either Testament, and tell me without disguise ; is there nothing in it too hard for your un- derstanding ? If you find all before you clear and easy^ you may thank God for giving you a privilege which he has denied to many thousands of sincere believers."§ Manifold is the cause of the obscurity of Holy AVrit ; 1st, the sublimity of a considerable part of it, which speaks either literally or figuratively of the Deity and his attributes ; of the Word incarnate ; of angels, and other spiritual beings ; — 2dly, the mysterious nature of prophecy in general : — 3dly, the pe- culiar Hioms of the Hebrew and Greek languages : — ^lastly^ the numerous and bold figures of speech, such as allegory, irony, hyp'^rbole, catachresis, and antiphrasis, which are so frequent wiih the sacred penmen, particularly the ancient prophets.il 1 should like to hear any one of those, who pre- tend to find the Scripture so easy, attempting to give a clear explanation of the 67th, alias the 68th, psalm ; or the last chap- ter of Ecclesiastes. Is it any easy matter to reconcile certain well-known speeches of each of the holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the incommutable pi«ecept of truth ? I may here notice, among a thousand other such difficulties, that • In. Ep ad Galat. contra Lucif. t ^ Pe^- i"- 16. t St. Aug-. Ep. adJanuar. § Dr. BaJguy's Discourses, p. 133. B See examples of these, in Bonfrcrius's Prjeloquia, and in the Appendixes to them, at the end of Menochius. • i .■• Letter IX. 49 when our Saviour sent his twelve apostles to preach the Gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he told them, according to St. Matthew x. 10, Provide neither gold nor silver — neither shoes nor yet staves : whereas St» Mark vi. says, He command- ed them that they should take nothing for their journey^ save a staff only. You may indeed answer, with Chillingworth and bishop Porteus, that whatever obscurities there may be in cer- tain parts of Scripture, it is clear in all that is necessary to be known. But on what authority do these waiters ground this , maxim ? They have none at all ; but they beg the question^ as ' logicians express it, to extricate themselves from an absurdity, ' and in so doing they overturn their fundamental rule. They profess to gather their articles of faith and morals from mere Scripture : nevertheless, confessing that they understand only a part of it ; they presume to make a distinction in it, and to say this part is necessary to be known, the other part is not ne- cessary. But to place this matter in a clearer light, it is obvi- ous that if any articles are particularly necessary to be known and believed, they are those w^hich point to the God whom we are to adore, and the moral precepts which we are to observe. Now, is it demonstratively evident, from 7nere Scripture^ that Christ is God, and to be adored as such ? Most modem Pro- testants of eminence answer NO ; and, in defence of their as- sertion, quote the following among other texts : The Father is greater than /, John xiv. 28 ; to which the orthodox divines oppose those texts of the same evangelist, / and the Father are one^ X. 30. The Word was God^ &c. i. 1. Again we find the fol- lov/ing among the moral precepts of the Old Testament : Go thy way ; eat thy bread zvithjoy^ and drink thy zvine with a merry heart : for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always ivhite^ and let thy head lack no ointjnent. Live joif- fully with the zvife whom thou lovest^ &c. Eccles. ix. 7, 8, 9. In the New Testament, we meet with the following seeming- ly practical commands. Sxvear not at all^ Mat. v. 34. Call no man father upon earth — neither be you called masters^ for one is your master^ Christy Mat. xxiii, 9. 10. If any man sue thee ■''at law^ to take away thy coat^ let him have thy cloak also^ v. 46. Give to every man that asketh of thee ; and of him that taketh avoay thy goods ask him not again^ Luke vi. 33. When thou viakest a ditiner or a supper^ call not thy friends nor thy brethren^ xiv. 12. These are a few among hundreds of other difficul- ties, regarding our moral duties, which, though confronted by other texts, seemingly of a contrary meaning, nevertheless show tliat the Scripture is not, of itself, demonstratively clear in points ot first rate importance, and that the divine law, like human G 50 Letter IX. laws, w ithout an authorized interpreter, must ever be a source of doubt and contention. V. I have said enough concerning the contentions among Pro- testants ; I will now, by way of concluding this-letter, say a v/ord or two of their doubts. In the first place, it is certain, as a learn- ed Catholic controvertist argues,* that a person who follows your rule vannot make an act of faith ^ this being, according to your great authority, bishop Pearson, an assent to the revealed articles, with a certain and full persuasion of their revealed truth ;f or, to use the words of your primate. Wake, "When I jgive my assent to what God has revealed, I do it, not only with 'a certain assurance that what I believe is true^ but with an ab- solute security that it cannot be false.''''\ Now the Protestant, who has nothing to trust to but his own talents, in interpreting of the books of Scripture, especially with all the difficulties and uncertainties which he labours under, according to what I have shown above, never can rise to this certain assurance and abso- lute security^ as to what is revealed in Scripture : the utmost he can say is. Such and such appears to me^ at the present mo- 7?ient^ to be the sense of the texts before me: and, if he is candid, he will add, but perhaps^ upon further consideration^ and upon comparing these zvith other texts^ I may alter my opinion. How iar short, dear sir, is such mere opinion from the certainty of faith ! I may here refer you to your own experience. Are you accustomed, in reading your Bible, to conclude, in your own mind, with respect to those points which appear to you most clear, I believe in these^ with a certain assurance of their truth^ and an absolute security that they cannot be false ; espe- cially vv'hen you reflect that other learned, intelligent, and sin- cere Christians have understood those passages in quite a dif- ferent sense from what you do ? For my part, having some- times lived and conversed familiarly with Protestants of this description, and noticed their controversial discourses, I never f oinid one of them absolutely fixed, for any long time together, in his mind, as to the whole of his belief. I invite you to male tlie experiment on the m.ost intelligent and religious Protestant of your acquaintance. Ask him a considerable number of ques- tions, on the most important points of his religion: note down his answers, while they are fresh in your memory. Ask him the same questions, but in a different o^^er, a month after- wards, when I can almost venture to say, you will be surprised at the difturence you will find between his former and his lat- • Slicffmaclier Zc//rcs c?'wn Docieur Cat. a un Gmtilhomme Prof. vol. i. p. 48. t On the Creed, p. 15. ^ Princip. of Christ. Rcl. p. 27. Letter IX. 51 ter creed. After all, we need not use any other means to dis- cover the state of doubt and uncertainty in which many of your greatest divines and most profound Scriptural students have passed their days, than to look into their publications. I shall satisfy myself with citing the pastoral Charge of one of them, a living bishop, to his clergy. Speaking of the Christian doc- trines, he says, '^ I think it safer to tell you xvhere they are con- tained^ than what they are. They are contained in the Bible j and if, in reading that Book, your sentiments concerning the doc- trines of Christianity should be different from those of your neighbour, or from those of the churchy be persuaded, on youj part, that infallibility appertains as little to you as it does to the church."* Can you read this, my dear sir, without shuddering? If a most learned and intelligent bishop and professor of divi- Tiit\', as Dr. Watson certainly is, after studying all the Scrip- tures, and all the commentators upon them, is forced publicly to confess to his assembled clergy, that he cannot tell them what the doctrines of Christianity are^ how unsettled must his mind have been! and, of course, how far removed from the assurance of faith ! In the next place, how fallacious must thr.t rule of the mere Bible be, which, while he recommends it to them, he plainly signifies, will not lead them to a uniformity of senti- ments one with another, not even v/ith their church ! There can be no doubt, sir, but those who entertain doubts concerning the truth of their religion, in the course of their lives, must experience the same, with redoubled anxiety, at the approach of death. Accordingly there are, I believe, few of our Catholic priests, in an extensive ministry, who have not been frequently called in to receive dying Protestants into the Ca- tholic church,f while not a single instance of a Catholic wish- ing to die in any other communion than his own can be produc- ed.:): O death, thou great enlightener! O truth-telling death, ■ • Bishop Watson's Charg-e to his Clerg-y, in 1795. f A large proportion of those grandees who were the most forward in promot- ing the Reformation, so called, and, among- the rest, Cromwell, earl of Essex, the king's ecclesiastical vicar, when they came to die, returned to the Catho- lic church. This was the case also with Luther's chief protector, the elector of Saxony, the persecuting queen of Navarre, and many other foreign Protes- tant princes. Some bishops of the estabhshed church; for instance, Good- man and Cheyney, of Gloucester, and Gordon, of Glasgow, probably also Hali- fax, of St. Asaph's, died Catholics. A long hst of titled or otherwise distin- guished personages, who have either returned to the Catholic faith, or for the first time, embraced it on their death-beds, in modern times, might be named here, if it were prudent to do so. t This is remarked by sir Toby Matthews, son of the archbishop of York, Hugh Creasy, Canon of Windsor and dean of Laughlin, F. Walsingham, and Aivt, Ulric, duke of Brunswick, all illustrious oonvens. Also by Beurier, in bis Qmfcrcnccst p. 4Q0, 52 Letter X, how powerful art thou in confuting the blasphemies, and dissi- pating the prejudices, of the enemies of God's church! — Tak- ing it for granted, that you, dear sir, have not been without your doubts and fears about the safety of the road in which you are walking to eternity, more particularly in the course of the pre- sent controversy, and being anxious, beyond expression, that you should be free from these when you arrive at the brink of that vast ocean, I cannot do better than address you in the words of the great St. Augustine, to one in your situation: " If you think you have been sufficiently tossed about, and wish to see an end to your anxieties, follow the rule of Catholic disci- pline, which came down to us through the apostles from Christ himself, and which shall descend from us to the latest posteri- ty."* Yes, renounce the fatal and foolish presumption of fan- cying that you can interpret the Scripture better than the Ca- tholic church, aided, as she is, by the tradition of all ages, and the spirit of all truth, \ But I mean to treat this latter subject Sit clue length in my next letter. I am, Dear Sir, &c. J. M. LETTER X. TO JAMES BROWN, Esq. TEE TRUE RULE. Dear Sir, I HAVE received your letter, and also two others from gentlemen of Aour society, on what I have written to you con- cerning the insufficiency of Scripture, interpreted by individu- als, to constitute a secure rule of faith. From these, it is plain that my arguments have produced a considerable sensation in * DuUtil. Cred. c. 8. J Bnssuet, In liis celebrated Conference with Clatide, which produced the conversion of Mile. Duras, ohlig-ed him to confess, that, by the Protestant rule, <' every iirtis;in ;uul hvisbaiulman may and ought to beheve that he can understand tiie Sciipturcs better than all the fathers and doctors of the church, ancient and modern, put toyelhcr. " Letter, X 5^5 the societ)*; insomuch that I find myself obliged to remind them of the terms on which we mutually entered upon this corres- pondence, namely, that each one should be at perfect lil>ertv to express his sentiments on the important subject under consider- ation, without complaint or offence of the other. 'I'he strength of my arguments is admitted by you all: yet you all Ijring in- vincible objections, as you consider them, from Scripture and other sources, against them. I think it will render our contro- versy more simple and clear, if, with your permission, I defer answering these, till after I have said all that I have to sav con- cerning the Catholic rule of faith. The Catholic rule of faith, as I stated before, is not merely the xvritten Word of God^ but the whole Word ofGod^ both xvrit- ten and unwritten ; in other words, Scripture and tradition^ and these propounded and explained by the Catholic church* This implies that we have a tzuo-fold rule^ or laiv^ and that we have an interpreter^ or judge to explain it^ and to decide upon it in all doubtful points. I. I enter upon this subject with observing that all xvritten hnvs necessarily suppose the existence of unxvritten laxvs^ and indeed depend upon them for their force and authority. Not to run into the depths of ethics and metaphysics on this subject, } ou know, dear sir, that, in this kingdom, we have common or unxvritten laxv^ and statute or xvritten laxv^ both of them binding; but that the former necessarily precedes the latter. The legis- lature, for example, makes a written statute ; but we must learn, before-hand, from the common law, xvhat constitutes the leg-isla- ture, and we must also have learnt from the natural and the di- vine laws, that the legislature is to be obeyed in all things xvhich these do not render unlaxvfuL " The municipal law of England," sa}s judge Blackstone, " may be divided intoi^.v Non Scripta^ the unwritten or common law, and the Lex Scripta^ or statute law."=^ He afterwards calls the common law, " the first ground and chief comer-stone of the laws of England."! " If," conti- nues he, " the question arises, hoxv these customs or maxims are to be knoxvn^ and byxvhom their validity is to be determined? The answer is, by the judges in the several courts ofjustice. They are the depositaries oj' the laxvs^ the living oracles^ who must decide in all cases of doubt ^ and who are bound by oath to decide according to the law of the land.":}: So absurd is the idea of binding mankind by written laws, without laying an adequate foundation for the authority of those laws, and without consti- tuting living judges to decide upon them ! * Comment, on tlie I,aws, Introduct. sect. 3. t Ibid. p. 73, 8th edit. t Ibid. p. 69. 54 Letter X. Neither has the divine wisdom, in founding the spiritual kingdom of his church, acted in that inconsistent manner. The Almighty did not send a Book, the New Testament, to Chris- tians, and, without so much as establishing the authority of that Book, leave them to interpret it, till the end of time, each one according to his ovm opinions or prejudices. But our blessed Master and legislator, Jesus Christ, having first demonstrated his own divine legation from his heavenly Father, by undenia- ble miracles, commissioned his chosen apostles, by word oj mouthy to proclaim and explain, hy word of mouth^Yns doctrines and precepts to all nations, promising to be with them, in the execution of this office of his heralds and judges, even to the end of the world. This implies the power he had given them, of ardaining successors in this office, as they themselves were only :o live the ordinary term of human life. True it is, that dur- ing the execution of their commission, he inspired some of them and their disciples to write certain parts of these doctrines and precepts, namely, the canonical Gospels and Epistles, which they addressed, for the most part, to particular persons, and on particular occasions ; but these inspired writings by no means rendered void Christ's commission to the apostles and their successors, oi preaching' and explamg his zvord to the na- tions, or his promise of beiiig with them till the end of time* On the contrary, the inspiration of these very writings, is not otherwise known, than by the viva voce evidence of these de- positaries and judges of the revealed truths. This analy- sis of revealed religion, so conformable to reason and the civil constitution of our country, is proved to be true, by the written Word itself — by the tradition and conduct of the apostles — and by the constant testimony and practice of the fathers and doc- tors of the church, in all ages. II. Nothing then, dear sir, is further from the doctrine and practice of the Catholic church than to slight the Holy Scrip- tures. So far from this, she had religiously preserved and perpetuated them, from age to age, during almost fifteen hun- dred years, before Protestants existed. She has consulted them, and confirmed her decrees from them, in her several councils. She enjoins her pastors, whose business it is to in- struct the faithful, to read and study them without intermis- sion, knowing, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God^ and is prof table for doctrine^ for reproof for correction^ for hi' struction in righteousness, 2 Tim. iii. 16. Finally, she proves her perpetual right to announce and explain the truths and pre- cepts of her divine Founder, by several of the strongest and Letter X. 55 clearest passages contained in Holy Writ.* Such, for exam- ple, is the last commission of Christ, alluded to above : Go ye therefore and leach all nations^ baptizing' them in the name cf the Father^ and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching' them to observe all things xvhatsoever I have commanded ijoiu Andlo ! I am -with you all days, even to the end of the xvorUL Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. And again, Go ye into all the ivorld, aiul preach the Gospel to every creature, Mark xvi. 15. It \n preaching and teaching xho^n, that is to say the w/zwr/f/^/i JFord^ which Christ has appointed to be the general method of propa- gating his divine truths ; and, whereas he promises to be 7vit/t his apostles to the end of the world: this proves their authority in expounding, and that the same was to descend to their legiti- mate successors in the sacred ministiy, since they themselves; were only to live the ordinary term of human life. In like jnanner, the following clear texts prove the authority of the apostles and their sncctssor?, forever -, that is to say, oi the ever- living and speaking tribunal of the church, in expounding our Saviour's doctrine; / will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, — The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name ; he shall teach you all things, and bring all thingit to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you, John xiv. 16, 26. St. Paul, speaking of both the unwritten and the written Word, puts them upon a level, where he says, There- fore, brethren, stand fast and hold the tradition ye have been taught, whether by word or our Epistle, 2. Thess. v. 13. Fi- nally, St. Peter pronounces, that. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 2 Pet. i. 20. . III. That the apostles, and the apostolical men, whom they formed, followed this method prescribed by their Master, is unquestionable ; and we have positive proofs from Scripture, as well as from ecclesiastical history^, that they did so. St. Mark, after recording the above cited admonition oi preaching the Gospel, which Christ left to his apostles, adds. And they went forth and preached every where ; the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signis following, Mark xvi. 20. St. Peter preached throughout Judea, and Syria, and last of all in Italy and at Rome ; St. Paul, throughout Lesser Asia, Greece, and as far as Spain ; St. Andrew pene- trated into Scythia ; St. Thomas and St. Bartholomev/ into Par- thia and India, and so of the others ; everj^ where concerting and instructing thousands, by xvord of mouth ; founding churches, • St. Austin uses this ar^ment against the Donatists, •« In Scripturis tli^ cimus Christum in Scripturis discimus, Ecclesiam Si Christum teneatis, q«iitr« Ecclesiam non tenetis." 56 Letter X, and ordaining bishops and priests to do the same.* If any of them wrote, it was on some particular occasion, and, for the most part, to a particular person or congregation, without either giving directions, cr providing means of communicating their Epistles or their Gospels to the rest of the Christians throughout the world. Hence, it happened, as I have before remarked, that it was not till the end of the fourth century, that the canon of Holy Scriptures was absolutely settled as it now stands. True it is, that the apostles, before they separated to preach the Gospel to different nations, agreed upon a short sym- bol or profession of faith, called The Apostles^ Creed \ but even this they did not commit to writing :f and whereas they made this, among other articles of it, / believe in the Holy Church^\ they made no mention at all of the Holy Scriptures. This cir- cumstance confirms what their example proves, that the Chris- tian doctrine and discipline might have been propagated and preserved by the unwritten Word^ or tradition, joined with the authority of the church, though the Scriptures had not beeo composed ; however profitable these most certainly dLYcfor doc* trine, for reproof for correction, and for instruction in right" eoiisness, 2 Tim. iii. 16. I have already quoted one of the ornaments of your church, who says, that "the canonical Epis» ties" (and he might have added the Gospels) " are not regular treatises upon the Christian religion j"§ and I shall have occa- sion to show, from an ancient father, that this religion did pre* vail and flourish soon after the age of the apostles,* among na- tions which did not even know the use of letters. IV. However light Protestants of this age may make of the ancient fathers, as theological authorities ^\\ they cannot object to them ^s faithful witnesses of the doctrine and discipline of the church in their respective times. It is chiefly in the latter character that I am going to bring a certain number of them • Tliey ordained them pritsts m every church. Acts xiv. 22. For this cause 1 left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the thinc;s that are wantingy and thouldst ordain priests in every city, as I had appointed thee. Tit. i. 5. The thini^H that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, tht same commit tftoa to those faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. 2. Tim. ii. 2. j- Rtimn inter Opera llieron. t The title Catholic was afterwards added, when heresies increased. 4 Klements of Theolog-y, vol. ii. •• D Jewel, Andrews, Hooker, Morton, Pearson, and other Protestant divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries laboured hard to press the fathers into their service ; but witl\ such bad success, that the succeeding' controver- sialists g-ave them up in dcsjniir. The Icunicd Protestant, Causabon, con- fes.scd that the fathers were all on tlie Catholic side ; the equally learned Obrccht testifies that, in reading their works, <* he was frequently provoked to throw them on the ground, finding- tliem so full of Popery ;" while Midtlle- ton heaps every kind of obloquy upon tliem. : Letter X. $f forward, namely, to prove that during the five first ages of the church, no less than in the subsequent ages, the unwritten Word, or tradition, was held in equal estimation by her with the Scrip- ture itself, and that she claimed a divine right of propounding and explaining them both. I begin with the disciple of the apostles, St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch ; it is recorded of him that, in his passage to Rome, where he was sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts, he ex- horted the Christians, who got access to him, "to guard them- selves against the rising heresies, and to adhere with the ut- most firmness to the tradition of the apostles,''''^ The same sentiments appear in this saint's Epistles, and also in those of his fellow martyr, St. Polycarp, the angel of the church of Smyrna,] One of the disciples of the last mentioned holy bishop was St. Irenaeus, who passing into Gaul, became bishop of Lyons. Hehas left twelve books against the heresies of his time, which a- bound with testimonies to the present purpose ; some few of which I shall here insert. — He writes, " Nothing is easier to those who seek for the truth, than to remark, in every church, the tradi- tion^ which the apostles have manifested to all the world. We can name the bishops appointed by the apostles in the several churches, and the successors of those bishops down to our own time, none of whom ever taught or heard of such dnctrinpc cli;ir;icter.s of divine visdom in it." Brief Confut. p. 9. I could have wished to ask his lordship, wliether it is by these characters that be iuLk discovered tlic Canticle or S(j>ig nf iSuluinon to be inspired bcripture ? Letter XL 63 with the Sacred Text. The Ahnighty says, " From even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath," Levit. xxiii. 32, which is the practice of the Jeus down to the present time ; but not of any Protestants that ever I heard of. Again, it is declared in Scripture to be unlawful to dress victuals on that day, Exod. xvi. 23, or even to make a fire, ExO(i,xxxv, 3. Again, where is there a precept in the whole Scripture more express than that against eating blood ? God said to Noah, Every moving' thing' that livetk shall be meat to you — hut Jiesh with the life thereof which is the blood thereof shall you not eat, Gen. ix. 4, This ])rohibition we know was confirmed by Moses, Levitt xvii. 11, Deut, xii. 23, and by the apostles, and was imposed upon the d to receive the r2 Letter XL holy sacrament at Easter ; now they could not do this without knowing whether they had been previously taught to consider this as bread and wine taken in memory of Christy or as the real bodu and blood of Christ himself. If they had originally held the former opinion, could they have been persuaded or dragooned into the latter, without violent opposition on their part, and violent persecution on that of their clergy ? Again, they could not assist at the religious services performed at the funerals of their relations, or on the festivals of the saints, with- out recollecting whether they had previously been instructed to pray for the former, and to invoke the prayers of the latter. If they had not been so instructed, would they, one and all, at the same time, and in every country, have quietly yielded to the first imposters who preached up such supposed supersti- tions to them ; as, in this case, we are sure they must ha/e done ? In a word, there is but one way of accounting for the alleged alterations in the doctrine of the church, that mention- ed by the learned Dr. Bailey ;^ which is to suppose that, on some one night, all the Christians of the world went to sleep sound Protestants, and awoke the next morning rank Papists ! IV. I now come to consider the benefits derived from the Catholic rule or method of religion. The first part of this rule conducts us to the second part ; that is to say, tradition conducts us to Scripture. We have seen that Protestants, by their own confession, are obliged to build the latter upon the former; in doing which they act most inconsistently: whereas Catholics, in doing the same thing, act with perfect consistency. Again, Protestants in building Scripture, as they do, upon tradition, as a mere human testimony, not as a rule of faith ^ can only form ^an act of human faith ^ that is to say, an opinion of its being in- spired ;f whereas Catholics, believing in the tradition of the church, as a divine rule^ are enr bled to believe, and do believe in the Scriptures with 2ifirmfaith^ as the certain Word of God. Hence the Catholic church requires her pastors, who are to preach and expound the Word of God, to study this second part of her rule no less than the first part, with unremitting diligence ; and she encourages those of her flock, who are pro- perly qualified and disposed, to read it for their edification. In perusing the books of the Old Testament, some of the most striking passages arc those which regard the prerogatives • He was son of the bishop of Bang-or, and becoming- a convert to the Ca- tholic church, wrote several works in her defence; and among- the rest, one under the title of these Letters, and another called AChalleng-e. f Chilling:worth in his Uelig-ion of Protestints, chap. ii. expressly teaches, that '*Thc books of Scripluic arc not the objects of our fiviUi," and that *'a man may bo saved, who shovdd not bcUevc them to be tlic Word of God." lettef XT. 7^ of the future kingdom of the Messiah, namely, the extent, the visibility, and indefectibility of the church : in examining the New Testament, we find in several of its clearest passages, th-j strongest proofs of its being an infallible (^uidc in the way of salvation. The texts alluded to have been already cited. Htncc^ we look upon the church with increased veneration, i nd listen to her decisions with redoubled confidence. — But here i think it necessary to refute an objection which, I believe, was first started by Dr. Stillingfleet, and has since been adopted by many other controvertists. They say to us, you argue^ in what logi- ' Clans cally a vicious circle: for you prove Scripture by your churchy and then your church by Scripture, This is like John giving a character to Thomas^ and Thomas a character to yohn. True it is, that I prove the inspiration of Scripture by the tra- dition of the church, and that I prove the infallibility of the church by the testimony of Scripture ; but you must take notice, that independently of, and prior to, the testimony of Scripture, I knew from tradition, and the general arguments of the credi- bility of Christianity, that the church is an illustrious society, instituted by Christ, and that its pastors have been appointed by him to guide me in the w ay of salvation. In a word, it is not every kind of mutual testimony which runs in a vicious cir- cle: for the Baptist bore testimony to Christ, and Christ bore testimony to the Baptist. V. The advantage, and even necessity, of having n living, speaking authority for preserving peace and order in every so- ciety is too obvious to be called in question. The Catholic church has such an authority ; the different societies of Pro- testants, though they claim it, cannot effectually exercise it, as we have shown, on account of their opposite fundamental prin- ciple of private judgment. Hence when debates arise among Catholics concerning points of faith (for as to scholastic and other questions, each one is left to defend his own opinion,) the pastors of the church, like judges in regard of civil contentions, fail not to examine them by the received rule of faith,, and to pronounce an authoritative sentence upon them. The dispute is thus quashed, and peace is restored: for if any party will not hear the churchy he is^ of course, regarded as a heathen and a publican. On the other hand, dissensions in any Pro- testant society, which adheres to its fundamental rule of reli- gious liberty, must be irremediable and endless. VI. The same method which God has appointed to keep peace in his church, he has also appointed to preseWe it in the breasts of her several children. Hence while other Christians, wlio have no rule of faith but their own fluctuating opinions, are carried about by every wind of doctrine^ and are agitated K 74 Letter XI by dreadful dou!)ts and fears, as to the safety of the road they are in ; Catholics, being inoored to the rock of Christ's church, never expricnce an)' apprehension whatsoever on this head. The truth of this may be ascertained by questioning pious Ca- tholics, and particularly those who have been seriously convert- ed from any species of ProtestanLiom: such persons are gene- rally found to spjalc in raptures of the peace and security they enjoy in the commu lion ot tlie Catholic church, compared with their doubts and fears before they embraced It. Still the death- bed is evidently the best situation for making this inquiry. I have mentioned, in my former letter, that great numbers of Protestants, at the approach of death, seek to be reconciled to the Catholic church; many instances of this are notorious, though many more, for obvious reasons, are coi caled from public notice : on the other hand, a challenge has frequently been made by Catholics (among the rest by sir Toby Mathews, Dean Cressy, F. Walsingham, Molincs di* Flechiere, and Ul- ric, duke of Brunswick, all of them converts) to the whole world to name a single Catholic, who, at the hour of death, expressed a wish to die in any other communion than his own ! I have now, dear sir, fully proved what I undertook to prove, that the rule of faith professed by rational Protestants, that of Scripture as interpreted by each person's private judgment^ is no less fallacious than the rule of fanatics, who imagine them- selves to be directed by an individual^ private inspiration, I have shown that this rule is evidently unserviceable to injinitely the greater part of mankind; that it is liable to lead men into error, and that it has actually led vast numbers of them into endless errors and shocking impieties. The proof of these points was sufficient, according to the principles I laid down at the beginning of our controversy, to disprove the rule itself: but I have, moreover, demonstrated that our divine Master, Christ, did not establish this rule, nor his apostles follow it: that the Protesant churches, and that of England, in particuh r, were not founded according to this rule: and that individual Pro- testants have not been guided by it in the choice of their reli- gion : finally, that the adoption of it leads to uncertainty and uneasiness of mind in life, and more particularly at the hour of death. — On the other hand, I have shown that the Catholic rule, that of the entire word of God, unwritten as well as writ- ten, together with the authority of the li\^g pastors of the church in explaining it, was appointed by Christ: — was follow- ed by the ai^)ostles: — was maintained by the holy fathers: — has been resorted to from necessity, in both particulars, by the Protestant congregations, though with the worst success, from the impossibility of uniting private judgment with it: — that Letter XIL 75 tradition lays a firm ground for divine faith in Scripture: that these two united together as one rule, and each bearing testi- mony to the living, speaking authority of the church in ex- pounding that rule, the latter is preserved in peace and union through all ages and nations :* — and, in short, that Catholics, by adhering to this rule and authority, live and die in peace and security, as far as regards the truth of their religion. It remains for } ou, dear sir, and your religious frienuc, who have called me into this field of controversy, to deter- mine which of the two methods you will follow, in settling your religious concerns for time and FOR ETERNITY: Were it possible for me to err in following the Catholic me- thod, with such a mass of evidence in its favour, methinks I could answer at the judgment seat of Eternal Truth, with a pious writer of the middle ages: "Lord, if I have been deceiv- ed, thou art the author of my error."f Whereas should you be found to have mistaken the right way, by depending upon your own private opinion, contrary^ to the directions of your authorized guides, what would you be able to allege in excuse for such presumption? — Think of this while you have time, and pray humbly and earnestly for God's holy grace to enlighten and strengthen you. I am, Dear Sir, &c, J. M. LETTER XII. TO JAMES BROWN, Esq. 4'c. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Dear Sik, I AM not forgetful of the promise I made in my last letter but one, to answer the contents of those which I had then re- ceived from yourself, Mr. Topham, and Mr. Askew. Within these few days I have received other letters from yourself and • ** DomiciUiiim pacis et unltatis" — S. Cyp. Ep. 46. t Hugh of St. Victor. 76 Letter XIL ' Mr. Topham, which, equally with the former, call for my atten- tion to their substance. However, it would take up a great deal of time to write separate answers to each of these letters, and, as I know, that they are arguments, and not formalities, which you expect from me, I shall make this letter a general reply to the several objections contained in them all, with the exception of such as have been answered in my last to you. Conceiving, also, that it will contribute to the brevity and perspicuity of my letter, if I arrange the several objections, from whomsoever they came, under their proper heads ; and if, on this occasion, I make use of the scholastic instead of the epistolary style, JI shall adopt both these methods. I must, however, remark, before I enter upon my task, that most of the objections appear to have been borrowed from the bishop of London's book called a Brief Confutation of the Errors of Popery, This was ex- tracted from archbishop Seeker's Sermons on the same subject; which, themselves, were culled out of his predecessor Tillot- son's pulpit controversy. Hence you may justly consider your arguments as the strongest which can be brought against the Catholic rule and religion. Under this persuasion the work in question has been selected for gratuitous distribution, by your tract societies, wherever they particularly wish to restrain or suppress Catholicity, Against the Catholic rule it is objected that Christ referred the Jews to the Scriptures : Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye hav-e eternal life: and they are they -which testify of me, John v. 35. Again, the Jews of Berea are commended by the sacred penman, in that they search the Scriptures daily ^ whether these things were so. Acts xvii, 11. Before I enter on the discussion of any part of Scripture, with you or your friends, I am bound, dear sir, in conformity with my rule of faith, as explained by the fathers, and particu- larly by Tertullian, to protest against your or their right to ar- gue from Scripture, and, of course, to deny any need there is of my replying to any objection which you may draw from it. For I have reminded you that. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private eiiterpretation; and I have proved to you that the whole business of the Scriptures belongs to the church: she has • preserved them, she vouches for them, and, she alone, by con- fronting them, and by the help of tradition, authoritatively ex- plains them. Hence it is impossible that the real sense of Scrip- ture should ever be against her and her doctrine ; and hence, of course, I might quash every objection which you can draw from any passage in it by this short reply. The church un^ derstands the passai^e differently from you; therefore you mis- take its meaninq\ Ne^•crthek'ss, as charity bearcth all things and never failcth^ I will, for tlie better satisfying of you and Letter XII, ff vour friends, quit my vantage ground for the present, and an- swer distinctly to eveiy text not yet answered by me, which any of you, gentlemen, or which Dr. Porteus himself, has brought against the Catholic method of religion. By way of answering your first objection, let me ask you, whether Christ, by telling the Jews to search the Scriptures in- timated that they were not to believe in his unwritten Wordy which he was then preaching, nor to hear his apostles and their successors^ with whom he promised to remain forever? I ask, secondly, on what particular question Christ referred to the Scripture, namely, the Old Scripture? (for no part of the New was then written) was it on any question that has been or might be agitated among Christians? No, certainly: the sole ques- tion between him and the infidel Jews^ was, whether he was or was not the Messiah : in proof that he was the Messiah, he ad- duced the ordinary motives of credibility, as they have been detailed by your late worthy rector, Mr. Carey, the miracles he wrought, and the prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in him, as likewise the testimony of St John the Bap- tist. The same is to be said of the commendations bestowed by St Luke on the Bercans ; they searched the ancient prophe- cies, to verify that the Messiah was to be born at such a time, and in such a place, and that his life and his death were to be marked by such and such circumstances. We still refer Jews and other Infidels to the same proofs of Christianit)', without saying any thing yet to them about our rule or judge of contro- versies. Dr. Porteus objects what St Luke says, at the beginning of his Gospel: It seemed good to me cdso^ having had perfect under- standing of all thingsfrom the very firsts to zvrite unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Again St. John says, c. xx. These things are writteii that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his ncnne. Answer. It is difficult to conceive how his lordship can draw- an argument from these texts against the Catholic rule. Surely he does not gather from the words of St. Luke, that Theophi-r lus did not believe the articles in which he had been instructed by word of mouth till he read this Gospel! or that the evange- list gainsayed the authority given by Christ to his disciples: He that heareth you heareth me, which he himself records, Luke-^, 16. In like manner the prelate cannot suppose that this testi- mony of St. John sets aside other testimonies of Christ's divi- nit)', or that our belief in this single article without other con- ditions, will ensure eternal life. 79 Letter XII. Having quoted these texts, which appear to meinconclusive^ the bishop adds, by way of proving that Scripture is sufhciently intelligible, " Surely the apostles were not worse "writers, with divine assistance, than others commonly are without it."* I will not here repeat the arguments and testimonies already brought! to show the great obscurity of a considerable portion of the Bible, particularly with respect to the bulk of mankind, because it is sufficient to refer to the clear words of St. Peter, declaring that there are in the Epistles of St. Paul, some things hard to be understood^ which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do all the other Scriptures^ unto their own destruction, (2 Peter iii. 16,) and to the instances, which occur in the Gos- pels, of the very apostles frequently misunderstanding the mean- ing of their divine Master. The learned prelate says, elsewhere,^: "The New Testament supposes them (the generality of the people) capable of judg- ing for themselves, and accordingly requires them not only to try the spirits whether they be of God, 1 John iv. 1, but to prove all things and holdfast that rvhich is good. 1 Thess. v. 21." Answer. True : St. John tells the Christians, to whom he writes to try the spirits whether they are of God, because, he adds, mvLYiy false prophets are gone out into the world. But then he gives them two rules for making trial: Hereby ye know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh, (which was denied by the heretics of that time, the disciples of Simon and Cerinthus) is not of God. In this, the apostle tells the Christians to see wheth- er the doctrine of these spirits was or was not conformable to that which they had learnt from the church. The second rule was. He that knoweth God, heareth us; he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spi- it of error: namely, he bid them observe whether these teach- ers did or did not listen to the divinely-constituted pastors ot the rhurch. Dr. P. is evidently here quoting Scripture /br our ^ule, not against it. The same is to be said of the other text. Prophesy was exceedingly common at the beginning of the church ; but, as we have just seen, there were false pro- phets as well as true prophets : hence, while the apostle defends this supernatural gift in general, Despise no^prophesyings, he admonishes the Thessaloniims to prove them: not certainly by their private opinions, which would be the source of endless discord; but, by the established rules of the church, and parti- cularly by that which he telib .hem to hold fast, 2 I'hess. ii. 15, namely, tradition. ■• \ • P. 4, t L< Uer Ix. ♦ P. 19 t letter Xlf. 78 Dr. P. in another place,* urges the exhortation of St. Paul to Timothy/Continue thou in the things which thou hast kam- ed and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learn- ed them : and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scrip- tures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,'&c. 2 Tim. iii. Answer. Does, t^en, the prelate mean to say, that tht^ form of sound words which Timothy had heard from St. Paul, and which he was commanded to holdfast^ 2 Tim. i. 13, was all contained in the Old Testament, the only Scripture which he could have read in his childhood ? Or that, in this he could have learned the mysteries of the Trinity and the incarnation, or the ordinances of baptism and the eucharist ? The first part of the question is a general commendation of tradition, the latter of Scripture. Against tradition. Dr. P. and yourself quotef Mark vii, where the Pharisees and Scribes asked Christ, Why walk not thy disciples according to the traditiori of the elders^ but eat bread with unwashed hands ? He answered and said to thevi^ In vain do they worship me, teaching FORX doctrines the covi- mandments of men. For, laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and tups, ^c. Answer. Among the traditions which prevailed at the time of our Saviour, some were divine, such as the inspiration of the books of Moses and the other prophets, the resurrection of the body, and the last judgment, which assuredly Christ did not condemn, but confirm. There were others, merely human, and of a recent date, introduced, as St. Jerome informs us, by Sammai, Killel, Achiba, and other Pharisees, from which the Talmud is chiefly gathered. These, of course, were never obligatory. In like manner, there are among Catholics divine traditions, such as the inspiration of the Gospels, the divine, observation of the Lord's day, the lawfulness of invoking the prayers of the saints, and other things not clearly contained in Scripture ; and there are among many Catholics, historical and even fabulous traditions. § Now, it is the former, as avow- ^ •?. 69. fP- 11- t This particle FOR, which in some degree affects the sense, is a corrupt interpolation as appears from the orig-inal Greek. N. B. The texts which Dr. P. refers to I quote from the common Bible ; his citations, of it are frequently inaccurate. § Such are the acts of several saints condemned by Pope Gelasius ; such al- so was the opinion of Christ's reign upon earth for a thousand years. 80 Letter XT/. " **^" i ed to be divine by tbe cburch, tbat we appeal : of tbe others, every one may judg;e as he thinks best. You both, likewise, quote Coloss. ii. 8. Bexvare lest any 7ncm spoil (cheat) ifou through philosophij and vain deceit^ ({ft^r . the tradition of mcn^ after the rudiments of the -world,, and not after Christ, Answer. The apostle himself informs the CoUossians what kind of traditions he here speaks of, where he says, Let no 7?ian therefore judge you in 7neat or drink,, or in respect of any holiday,, or of the new moon,, or of the Sabbath days. The an- cient fathers and ecclesiastical historians inform us, that, in the age of the apostles, many Jews and Pagan philosophers pro- fessed Christianity, but endeavoured to allay with it their res- pective superstitions and vain speculations, absolutely inconsis- tent with the doctrine of the CTOspel. It was against these St. Paul wrote, not against those traditions which he commanded his converts to holdfast to,, whether they had been taught by word or by Epistle,, 2 Thess. ii. 15; nor those traditions which he commended his other converts yor keeping,, 1 Cor. xi. 2.* Finally, the apostles, in that passage, did not abrogate this his awful sentence, noxv we command you,, brethre?i, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,, that ye zuithdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly,, and not after the tradi^ tion xvhich he received of us. 2 Thess. iii. 6. i Against the infallibility of the church in deciding questions of faith, I am referred to various other arguments jnade use of by Dr. Porteus ; and, in the first place, the following ; " Ro- manists themselves own that men must use their eyes, to find this guide ; why then must they put them out, to follow him ?"f I answer by the following comparisons. Every pru- dent man makes use of his reason, to find out an able physi- cian to take care of his health, and an able lawyer to secure his property : but having found these, to his full satisfaction, does i he dispute with the former about the quality of medicines, or with the latter about forms of law ? Thus the Catholic makes use of his reason, to observe which, among the rival communions, is the church that Christ established and promised to remain with : having; ascertained that, by the j)Iain acknowledged marks which this church bears, he trusts his soul to her uner- ring judgment, in preference to his own flipctuating opinion. Dr. Porteus adds, '' Ninety-nine parts in every hundred of their (the Catholic) communion, have no other rule to follow, but what a few priests and private writers tell them.^t Ac • The Eng-lisli Tesjianient puts tlie word ordhiance here for iraditioru, con- trary to the sense of the original Greek, and even the authority of Beza , i P. 19 - I Ibid. Letter XII, 81 cording to this mode of reasoning, a loyal subject does not make any act of the legislature the rule of his civil conduct, because, perhaps, he learns it only from a printed paper, or the proclamation of the bell-man. Most likely the Catholic peasant [earns the doctrine of the church from his parish priest ; but then he knows that the doctrine of this priest must be conforma- ble to that of his bishop, and that otherwise he will soon be called to an account for it. He knows also that the doctrine of the bishop himself must be conformable to that of the other bishops and the Pope, and that it is a fundamental maxim with them all, never to admit of any tenet but such as is beheved by^, all the bishops, and was beheved by their predecessors up to the apostles themselves. The prelate gives a ''rule for the unlearned and ignorant in religion, (that is to say of ninety-nine in every hundred of them,) which is this : Let each man improve his own judgment, and increase his own knowledge as much as he can ; and be fully assured that God will expect no more." — ^What ? If Christ has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting the saints, for the work of the ministry, Ephes. iv. 11, does he not expect that Christians should hearken to them, and obey them.^* The prelate goes on : " In matters, for which he must rely on au" thority," (mere Scripture then, and private judgment, accord- ing to the bishop himself, are not always a sufficient rule, even for Protestants, but they must in some matters rely on church authority,) " let him rely on the authority of that church which God's providence has placed him under," (that is to say, whe- ther Catholic, Protestant, Socinian, Antinomian, Jewish, &ic.) " rather than another which he hath nothing to do with," (every Christian has, or ought to have, something to do with Christ's true church,) and " trust to those, who, by encouraging free Inquiry, appear to love truth ; rather than such as, by requiring all their doctrines to be imphcitly obeyed, seem conscious that they will not bear to be fairly tried." What, my lord, would you have me trust those men, who have just now deceived me, ' by assuring me that I should not stand in need of guides at all, rather than those who told me, from the first, of the perplexities in which I find myself entangled ! Again, do you advise me to prefer these conductors, who are forced to confess that they may mislead me, to those others who assure me, and this upon such strong grounds, that they will conduct me with perfect safety ! h 82 Letter X/T. Our Episcopal controvertist finishes his admonition " to the ignorant and unlearned," with an address, calculated for the stupid and bigoted. He says, *' Let others build on fathers and Popes, on traditions and councils, what they will : let us continue firm, as we are, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Ephes. ii. What empty declamation ! Do then the fathers, Popes, and councils, profess or attempt to build religion on any other foundation than the revelation made by God to the apos- tles and prophets f His lordship knows full well that they do not, and that the only questions at issue are these three : First, Whether this revelation has not been made and conveyed by the unwritten as well as by the written Word of God ? Secondly, Whether Christ did not commit this Word to his apostles and their successors, till the end of the world, for them to preserve and announce it ? Lastly, Whether, independently of this com- mission, it is consistent with common sense, for each Protestant ploughman and mechanic to persuade himself that he, indivi- dually, (for he cannot, according to his rule, build on the opi- nion of other Protestants, though he could find any wliose faith exactly tallied with his own,) that he, I say, individually, under- stands the Scriptures better than all the doctors and bishops of the church, who now are, or ever have been since the time of the apostles !* One of your Salopian friends, in writing to me, jidicules the idea of infallibility being lodged in any mortal man, or number of men. Hence, it is fair to conclude, that he does not look upon himself to be infallible : now nothing short of a man's conviction of his own infallibility, one might think, would put him on preferring his own judgment, in matters of religion, to that of the church of all ages and all nations. Secondly, if this objection were valid, it would prove that the apostles them- selves were not infallible. Finally, I could wish your friend to form a right idea of this matter. The infallibility, then, of our church, is not a power of teUing all things past, present, and to come, such as the Pagans ascribed to their oracles ; but merely the aid of God's holy spirit, to enable her truly to decide what her faith is, and ever has been, in such articles as have been made known to her by Scripture and tradition. This definition • The grent Bossuet obliged the minister, Claude, in his conference with him* openly to avow this principle ; which, in fact, every consistent Protestant mmt avow, who maintains his private interpretation of the Bible to be the only rul« of his faith. Letter XIL 8S furnishes answers to diverse other objections and questions of Dr. P. The church does not decide the controversy concern- A«-W ing the conception of the Blessed Virgin, and several other dis- ' '^' puted points, because she sees nothing absolutely clear and ^ certain concerning them, either in the written or the unwritten ^ Word ; and therefore leaves her children to form their own Opinions concerning them. She does not dictate an exposition of the whole Bible, because she has no tradition concerning a very great proportion of it, as for example, concerning the prO' phecy of Enoch J quoted by Jwc?e, 14, and the baptism for the dead, of which St. Paul makes mention, 1 Cor. xv. 29, and the chronologies and genealogies in Genesis. The prelate urges that the words of St. Paul, where he declares that, The church of God is the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. iii. 15, may be translated a different way from that received. — ^True : they may, but not without altering the original Greek, as also the common Protestant version. He says, it was ordained in the Old Law that every controversy should be decided by the priests and Levites, Devt. xvii. 8, and yet that these avowedly erred in re- jecting Christ. — True : but the Law had then run its destined course, and the divine assistance failed the priests in the very act of their rejecting the promised Messiah, who was then before them. He adds, that St. Paul in his Epistle to the church of Rome bids her not be high minded, but fear; for (he adds) if God spared not the Jews, take heed lest he also spare not thee^ Rom. xi. — Supposing the quotation to be accurate, and that the threat is particularly addressed to the Christians of Rome ; what is that to the present purpose ? We never supposed the pro- mises of Christ to belong to them or their successors more than to the inhabitants of any other city. Indeed it is the opinion of some of our most learned commentators, that before the end of the world, Rome will relapse into its former Paganism.* In a word, the promises of our Saviour, that helVs gates shall not prevail against his church — that his Holy Spirit shall lead it in- to all truth — and that he himself will remain ivith it for ever, were made to the church of all nations, and all times, in com- munion with St. Peter and his successors, the bishops of Rome : and as these promises have been fulfilled, during a succes- sion of eighteen centuries, contrary to the usual and natural course of events, and by the visible protection of the Almighty, SO we rest assured that he will continue to fulfil them, till the * See Cornel, a Lapid. in Apocalyp. 84 Letter XII church militant shall be wholly transformed into the church triumphant in the heavenly kingdom. Finally, his lordship, with other controvertists, objects against the infallibility of the Catholic church, that its advocates are not agreed where to lodge this prerogative ; some ascribing it to the Pope, others to a general council, or to the bishops dispersed throughout the church. True, schoolmen discuss some such pomts : but let me ask his lordship, whether he finds any Ca- tholic who denies or doubts that a general council, with the Pope at its head, or that the Pope himself, issuing a doctrinal decision, which is received by the great body of Catholic bishops, is secure from error ? Most certainly not : and hence he may gather where all Catholics agree in lodging infallibili- ty. In like manner, with respect to our national constitution; some lawyers hold that a royal proclamation, in such and such circumstances, has the force of a law, others that a vote of the house of lords, or of the commons, or of both houses together, has the same strength ; but all subjects acknowledge that an act of the king, lords, and commons, is binding upon them 5 and this suffices for all practical purposes. But when, dear sir, will there be an end of the objections and cavils of men, whose pride, ambition, or interest, leads them to deny the plainest truths ! You have seen those which the inge- nuity and learning of the Porteus's, Seekers, and Tillotsons have raised against the unchangeable Catholic rule and inter- preter of faith : say, is there any thing sufficientlj^ clear and certain in them to oppose to the luminous and sure principles, on which the Catholic method is placed f Do they aflbrd you a sure footing, to support you against all doubts and fears on the score of your religion, especially under the apprehension of approaching dissolution ? If you answer affirmatively, I have nothing more to say ; but if you cannot so answer, and, if you justly dread undertaking your voyage to eternity on the pre- sumption of your private judgment, a presumption which you have clearly seen has led so many other rash Christians to cer- tain shipwreck, follow the example of those who have happily arrived at the port which you are in quest of: in other words, listen to the advice of the holy patriarch to his son : Then Tobias answered his father — / know not the may, fyc. : — then his father said — Seek thee a faithful guide. Tob. v. You will no sooner have sacrificed your own wavering judgment, and have submitted to follow the guide, whom your heavenly Father has provided for you, than you will feel a deep conviction that you are in the right and secure way ; and very soon you will be Letter XII. 85 enabled to join with the happy converts of ancient and modem times,* in this hymn of praise : " I give thee thanks O God, my enlightener and deliverer; for that thou hast opened the eyes of my soul to know thee. Alas ! too late have I known thee, O ancient and eternal truth ! too late have I known thee." I am, Dear Sir, yours, &,c. J. M. • St Austin's Soliloqiiies, c. 33, quoted by Dean Cressy, Exomol. p. 656. THE END OP RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY. PART 11. LETTER XIII. To JAMES BROWN, Es^rS^c, OJV THE TRUE CHURCH. Dear Sir, The Letters which I have received from you, and some others of your religious society, satisfy me that I have not ahogether lost my labour in endeavouring to prove to you, that the private interpretation of holy Scripture is not a more certain rule of faith, than an imaginary private inspiration is ; and, in short, that the church of Christ is the only sure expounder of the doctrine of Christ. Thus much you, sir, in particular, candidly acknow- ledge : but you ask me, on the part of some of your friends as well as yourself, why, in case you " must rely on authority," as bishop Porteus confesses " the unlearned must," that is to say, the great bulk of mankind, you should not, as he advises you, " rely on the authority of that church, which God's providence hath placed you under, rather than that of another which you have nothing to do with,"* and why you may not trust to the church of England, in particular, to guide you in your road to heaven, with equal security as to the church of Rome ? — Before I answer you, permit me to congratulate with you on your ad- vance towards the clear sight of the whole truth of revelation. As long as you professed to hunt out the several articles of this, one by one, through the several books of Scripture, and under all the difliculties and uncertainties which I4iave clearly shown to attend this study, your task was interminable, and your suc- cess hopeless : whereas, now, by taking the church of God for ♦ Confutation of Errors of Popery, p. 20. Letter XIII. 87 your guide, you have but one simple inquiry to make : Which is this church !■ a question that admits of being solved by wen of good will with equal certainty and facility. I say, there is but one inquiry to be made : Which is the true church ? because if there is any one religious truth more evident than the rest from reason, from the Scriptures, both Old^ and New,f from the apostles' creed,J and from constant tradition, it is this, that " the Catholic church preserves the true worship of the Deity ; she being the fountain of truth, the house of faith, and the tem- ple of God," as an ancient father of the churcli expresses it.<5> /Hence it is as clear as the noon-day light, that by solving thii I one question, Which is the true church ? you will at once solve every question of religious controversy that over has, or that ever can be agitatedj? You will not need to spend your life in studying the sacred Scriptures in their original languages, and their authentic copies, and in confronting passages with each other, from Genesis to Revelation, a task by no means calcu- lated, as is evident, for the bulk of mankind : you will only have to hear what the church teaches upon the several articles of her faith, in order to know with certainty what God revealed concerning them. Neither need you hearken to contending sects, and doctors of the present, or of past times : you will need only to hear the church, which, indeed, Christ commands you to hear under pain of being treated as a heathen or a publican. Matt, xviii. 17. I now proceed, dear sir, to your question ; why, admitting the necessity of being guided by the church, may not you and your friends submit to be guided by the church of England, or any other Protestant church to which you respectively belong ? — My answer is ; because no such church professes, nor, consistently with the fundamental Protestant rule of private judgment, can profess to be a guide in matters of religion. If you admit, but * Speaking of the future church of the Gentiles, the Almighty promises, by Isaiah : Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear^ Sic. : as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart and the hills j6e removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, Sic. liv. See also lix. Is, ^iii. Jerem. xxxiii. Ezech. xxxvii, Dan. ii. Psalm Ixxxix. t Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt. xvi. 18. lam with you all days even until THE END OF THE WORLD. Matt, xxviii. 20. / will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter, that he may chide with you FOR EVER, even the Spirit of Truth^he will teach you ALL TRUTH, John xiv. 16. &c. The House of God, which is the Church of the living God, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF TRUTH. 1 Tim. iii. 14. X I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Art. rx. k Lactan, De Divin. Instil. 1. 4. 88 Letter XIII. for an instant, church authority, then Lvi.xiti, (Jait. mer, with all the other founders of Protestantism, were evidently heretics, by rebelling against it. In short, no other church but the Catholic can claim to be a religious guide, because evi- dently she alone is the true church of Christ. This assertion leads me to the proof of what I asserted above, respecting the facility and certainty with which persons of good will may solve that most important question : Which is the true church ? Luther,* Calvin,f the church of England,J assign as the characteristics, or marks of the true church of Christ, Truth of doctrine, and the right administration of the sacraments. Bui ^. to follow this method of finding out the true church, would be/ to throw ourselves back into those endless controversies con- cerning the true doctrine, and the right discipline, which it is my present object to put an end to, by demonstrating, at once, which is the true church. To show the inconsistency of the Protestant method, let us suppose that some stranger were to inquire, at the levee of his neighbour, which of the personages present is the Prince Regent ? and that he was to receive for answer, it is the king^s eldest son : would this answer, however true, be of any use to the inquirer ? Evidently not. Whereas, if he were told that the prince wore such and such clothes and ornaments, and was seated in such and such a place, these ex- terior marks would, at once, put him in possession of the in- formation he was in search of. Thus we Catholic^, when we are asked,, which are the marks of the true church ? point out certain exterior, visible marks, such as plain, unlearned persons can discover, if they will take ordinary pains for this purpose, no less than persons of the greatest abilities and literature, at the same time that they are the very marks of this church, which, as I said above, natural reason, the Scriptures, the creeds, and the fathers, assign and demonstrate to be the true marks of it. , *¥es, my dear sir, these marks of the true church are so yplain in themselves, and so evidently point it out, ih^t fools can- ^^iiot err, as the prophet foretold, Isai. xxxv. 8, in their road to it. yThey are the flaming beacons, which forever shine on the moun- tain at the top of the mountains of the Lord^s house. Isai. ii. 2. J In short, the particular motives for credibility, which point out ifhe true church of Christ, demonstrate this wfth no less certitude and evidence, than the general motives of credibility demon- strate the truth of the Christian religion. '^" The chief marks of the true church, which I shall here assign, ' • Pe CoQcil. Ecolei, t lostit, 1.4L % Art 19. Letter XIIL 89 are not only conformable to reason, Scripture, and traditioDj but, which is a most fortunate circumstance, they are such a« the church of England, and most other respectable denomina- tions of Protestants, acknowledge and profess to believe in, no less than Catholics. Yes, dear sir, they are contained in those Creeds which you recite in your daily prayers, and proclaim in your solemn worship. In fact, what do you say of the church you believe in, when you repeat the Apostles' Creed ? You say, I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Again, how is this church more particularly described in the Nicene Creed, which makes part of your public liturgy ? In, tliis you say, I BELIEVE IN ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH.* Hence it evidently follows that the church which you, no less than we, profess to believe in, is possessed of these four marks : UNITY, SANCX LTY, CA- THOLICITY, and APOSTOLICITY. Ir-tT^ed upon? (hen, that all we have to do, by way of discovering the true (church, is to find out which of the rival churches, or communions^ is peculiarly ONE— HOLY— CATHOLIC— and APOSTO- LIC. Thrice happy, dear sir, I deem it, that we agree toge- tfier, by the terms of our common creeds, in a matter of such infinite importance for the happy termination of all our contrcp- versies, as are these qualities, or characters of the true churcl% which ever that may be found to be ! Still, notwithstanding tliis agreement in our creeds, I shall not omit to illustrate thesfl characters, or marks, as I treat of them, by arguments from rea- son, Scripture, and the ancient fathers. I am, dear sir, &ic. J. M. Order of Administration of the Lord's Supper. M (T ofu LETTER XIV. To MMES BROWJV, Esq. fyc. UjXity of the church. Dear Sir, Nothing is more clear to natural reason, than that God cannot be the author of different religions ; for being the Eter- nal Truth, he cannot reveal contradictory doctrines, and, being at the same time, the Eternal Wisdom, and the God of Peace^ he cannot establish a kingdom divided against itself. Hence it follows, that the church of Christ must be strictly ONE ; one octrine, one in ivorship, and one in government. This mark of unity in the true church, which is so clear from reason, is still more clear from the following passages of Holy Writ. Oiu* Saviour, then, speaking of himself, in the character of the goo shepherd, says, I have other sheep (the Gentiles) which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, and they shall hear voice, and there shall he ONE FOLD, and one shepherd, John X. 16. To the same effect addressing his heavenly Father, pre- viously to his passion, he says, / pray for all that shall believe in me, that THEY MAY BE ONE, as thou Father, art in me and I in thee, John xvii. 20, 21. In like manner St. Paul em- phatically inculcates the unity of the church, where he writes, We, being many, are OJVE BODY in Christ, and every one members one of another, Rom. xii. 5. Again he writes, There is OJVE BODY and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, OJVE FAITH, and one baptism. Ephes. iv. 4, 5. Conformably to this doctrine, respecting the necessary unity of the church, this apostle reckons HERESIES among the sins which exclude /ro/^i the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 20. and he requires that a man who is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, be rejected. Tit. iii. 10. The apostolicnl fathers, St. Polycarp and St. Ignatius, in their published Epistles, liold precisely the same language on this subject, with St. Paul, as does also tkeir disciple St. Ire- naeus, who writes thus, " No reformation can be so advantage- ous as the evil of schism is pernicious."* The great light of the third century, St. Cyprian, has left us a whole book on the •DeHter. 1. i. c. 3 '• Letter X/T. 91 unity of the church, in which, among other similar passages, he writes as follows : " There is but one God, and one Christ, and one faith, and a people joined in one solid body with the cement of concord. This unity cannot suffer a division, nor this one body bear to be disjointed. — He cannot have God for his father, who has not the church for his mother. If any <5ne could escape the deluge out of Noah's ark, he who is out of the church may also escape. To abandon the church is a crime, which blood cannot wash away. Such a one may be killed, but he cannot be crowned."* In the fourth century, the illus- trious St. John Chrysostom, writes thus : " We know that saJ- ration belongs to the church alone, and that no one can partake of Christ, nor be saved out of the Catholic church and faith.^'f The language of St. Augustin, in the fifth century, is equally strong on this subject, in numerous passages. Among others the Synodical epistle of the council of Zerta, in 412, drawn up by this saint, tells the Donatist schismatics, " JVho^ ever is separated from this Catholic church, however innocently he may think he lives, for this crime alone, that he is separated from the unity of Christ, will not have life, but the anger of God remains upon Am." J Not less emphatical to the same effect, is the testimony of St. Fulgentius and St. Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, in various passages of their writings ; I shall content myself with citing one of them. " Out of this church," says the former father, " neither the name of Christian avails, nor does baptism save, nor is a clean sacrifice offered, nor is there forgiveness of sins, nor is the happiness of eternafl life to be found. "§ In short, such has been the language of the fa- thers and doctors of the church in all ages, concerning her es- sential unity, and the indispensable obligation of being united to her. Such also have been the formal declarations of the church Jierself in those decrees, by which she has condemned and ana- ♦ Cypr. de Unit. Oxon, p. 109. t Horn, 1. in Pasc. ^ Concil. IJabbe, tom.ii. p. 15j20. ? Lib. lie Remiss. Peccat. c. 23.— N. B. This doctrine concerning' the unity of the church, and the necessity of adhering to it, under pain of damnation, ■which appears so rig^d to modern Protestants, was almost universally taught by their predecessors; as, for example, by Calvin, 1, iv. Instii. 1. and Beza- Confess. Fid. c. v. ; by the Huguenots, in their Cateriiism ; by the Scotch, in their Profession of 1568 ; by the church of England, Art. 18 ; by the celebrated bishop Pearson, &c. The last named writes thus : " Christ never appointed two ways to heaven ; nor did he build a church, io save some, and make another institution for other men's salvation. As none were saved from the deluge but such as were within the ark of Noah — so none shall ever escape the eterxial wrath of God, which belong not to tb«J church of God." — Exposit. of Creed, p. 349. 92 Letter XV, thematized the several heretics and schismatics that have dog* matized in succession, whatever has been the quality of their errors, or the pretext for their disunion. I am, dear sir, &ic. J. M. LETTER XV. To JAMES BROWJV, Esq. 8fc. PROTESTANT DISUmON. ' Dear Sir, In the inquiry I am about to make respecting the church or society of Christians, to which this mark of unity belongs, it will be sufficient for my purpose to consider, that of Protest- ants, on one hand, and that of Catholics on the other. To speak properly, however, it is an absurdity to talk of the church or society of Protestants ; for the term PROTESTANT expresses nothing positive, much less any union or association among them : it barely signifies one who protests or declares against some other person or persons, thing or things ; and in the pre- sent instance it signifies those who protest against the Catholic church. Hence there may be, and there are, numberless sects of Protestants, divided from each other in every thing, except in opposing their true mother, the Catholic church. St. Austin reckons up ninety heresies which had protested against the church before his time, that is, during the first four hundred years of her existence ; and ecclesiastical writers have counted about the same number, who rose up since that period, down to the era of Luther's protestation, which took place early in the sixteenth century : whereas, from the last mentioned era, to the end of the same century, Staphylus and cardinal Hosius enumerated two hundred and seventy different sects of Protest- ai.ts : and, alas 1 how have Protestant sects,%eyond reckoning and description, mulbplied, during the last two hundred years ! Thus has the observation of the above cited holy father been verified in modern, no \esz than it was in former ages, where he exclaims : " Into how many morsels have those sects been broken who have divided themselves from the unity of *^^ Letter XV. &3 church !"* You are not ignorant that the illustrious Bossuet has written two considerable volumes on the Variations of the Protestants ; chiefly on those of the Lutheran and the Calvin- istic pedigrees. Numerous other variations, dissensions, and ^Tiutual persecutions, even to the extremity of death, f which have taken place among them, I have had occasion to mention in my former letters and other works. J I have also quoted the lamentations of Calvin, Dudith, and other heads of the Pro- testants, on the subject of these divisions. You will recollect, in particular, what the latter writes concerning those diflerences; " Our people are carried away by every wind of doctrine. Il you know what their belief is to-day, you cannot tell what it will be to-morrow. Is there one article of religion, in which these churches, who are at war with the Pope, agree together ? If you run over all the articles, from the first to the last, you will not find one which is not held by some of them to be an article of faith, and rejected by others, as an impiety."§ With these and numberless other historical facts of the same nature before his eyes, would it not, dear sir, I appeal to your own good sense, be the extremity of folly for any one to lay the least claim to the mark of unity in favour of Protestants, or to pretend that they who are united in nothing but their hostility towards the Catholic church, can form the one church we pro- fess to believe, in the creed ! Perhaps, however, you will say, that the mark of unity, which is wanting among the endless divisions of Protestants in general, may be found in the church to which you belong, the established church of England. I • St. Aug. contra Petolian. t Luther pronounced the Sacramentarians, namely, the Calvinists, Zuing^- lians, and those Protestants in general, who denied the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, heretics^ and damned souls, for whom it is not lawful to pray. Epist. ad Arginten. Catech. Parv. Comment in Gen. His followers persecuted Bucer, Melancthon's nephew, with imprisonment, and Crellius to death, for en- deavouring to soften their master's doctrine in this point. Mosheim by Mac- laine, vol. iv. p. 341 — 353. Zuinglius, while he deified Hercules, Theseus, &;c. condemned the Anabaptists to be drowned, pronouncing this sentence on Felix Mans : " Qui iterum mergunt mergantur ;" which sentence was accord- ingly executed at Zurich. Limborch. Introd. 71. Not content with anathema- tizing and imprisoning those reformers who dissented from his system, John Calvin caused two of them, Servetus and Gruet, to be put to death. The Pres- bjrterians of Holland and New-England were equally intolerant with respect to other denominations of Protestants. The latter hanged four Quakers, one of them a woman, on account of their religion. In England itself, frequent execu- tions of Anabaptists and other Protestants took place, froaithe reign of Edward VI. till that of Charles I. ; and other less sanguinary persecutions till the time of James II. X LETTERS TO A PREBENDARY, &c i Epist. ad Capiton. inter. Epist. Bezae. 94 Letter XV, grant, dear sir, that your communion has better pretentions lO this, and the other marks of the church, than any other Pro- testant society has. She is, as our controversial poet sings, ** The least deform'' d because reform'' d the least."* You will recollect the account I have given, in a former letter,f of the material changes v\ liich this church has undergone, at diiierent times, since her first entire formation in the reign of the last Edward, and which place her at variance with herself. You will also remember the proofs I brought of Hoadlyism, in other words, of Socinianism^ that danmabh and cursed heresy, as this church termed it in her last synod, j against some of her most illustrious bishops, archdeacons, and other dignitaries of modern times. These teach, in official charges to the clergj^, in con- secration sermons, and in publications addressed to the throne, that the church herself is nothing more than a voluntary asso' ciation of certain people for the benefit of social w orship ; that they themselves are in no other sense ministers of God than civil officers are ; that Christ has left us no exterior means of grace, and that, of course, baptism and the Lord's Supper (which are declared necessary for salvation in the Catechim) produce no spiritual effect at all ; in short, that all mysteries, and among the rest those of the trinity and incarnation, (for denying which, the prelates of the church of England have sent so many Arians to the stake, in the reigns of Edward, EHzabeth, and James I.) are mere nonsense.^ "When I had occasion to expose this fatal system, (the professors of which Cranmer and Ridley w ould have sent, at once, to the stake,) I hoped it was of a local na- ture, and that defending, as I was in this point, the Articles and Liturgy of the established church as well as my own, I should, thus far, be supported by its dignitaries and other learned mem- bers : I found, however, the contrary to be generally the case,|| and that the irreligious infection was infinitely more extensive than I apprehended. In fact, I found the most celebrated pro- fessors of divinity in the universities delivering Dr. Balguy's doctrine to the young clergy in their public lectures, and the '. ♦ Dryden, Hind and Panther. t Letter viii. ' X Constitutions and Canons, A. D. 1640. Sparrow's Collect, p. 255. S See extracts from the Sermons of Bishop Iloadley, Dr. B0gy.y, and Dr. Stnr^es, in Letters to a Prebendary, Let. viii. The most perspicuous and ner- vous of these preachers, unquestionably, -was Dr. Balguy. See his Discourses and Charges preached on public occasions, and dedicated to the kin». Lockytr Davis, 178.'">. II That »reat ornament of the Episcopal bench, Dr. Ilorsley, bishop of St. Asaph's, does not fall under this censure ; M he protected the present writer, both in and out of parliament. Letter XV. 95 most enlightened bishops publishing it in their pastorals and other works. Among these, the Norrisian professor of theology at Cam- bridge carries his deference to the archdeacon of Winchester so far, as to tell his scholars : " As I distrust my own conclusions more than his, (Dr. Balguy's,) if you judge that they are not re- concileable, I must exhort you to confide in him rather than me."* In fact, his ideas concerning the mysteries of Chris- tianity, particularly the trinity and our redemption by Christ, and indeed concerning most other theological points, perfectly agree with those of Dr. Balguy. He represents the difference between the members of the established church and the Socini- ans to consist in nothing but " a few unmeaning words ;" and asserts, that " they need never be upon their guard against each other."f Speaking of the custom, as he calls it, " in the Scripture, of mentioning Father , Son, and Holy Ghost together, on the most solemn occasions, of which baptism is one," he says, " Did I pretend to understand what I say, I might be a Tritheist or an Infidel, but I could not worship the one true God, and acknowledge Jesus Christ to be Lord of all."J Another learned professor of divinity, who is also a bishop of the established church, teaches his clergy " Not to esteem any particular opinion concerning the trinity, satisfaction, and ori- ginal sin, necessary to salvation. "§ Accordingly, he equally absolves the Unitarian from impiety in refusing divine honour to our Blessed Saviour, and " the worshipper of Jesus," as he expresses himself, from idolatry in paying it to him, on the score of their common good intention.\\ This sufficiently shows what the bishop's own behef was concerning the adorable trinity, and the divinity of the second person of it. I have given, in a former letter, a remarkable passage from the above quoted charge, where bishop Watson, speaking of the doctrines of Christianity, says to his assembled clergy, " I think it safer to tell you where they are contained than ivhat they are. They are contained in the Bible ; and if, in reading that book, your sentiments should be different from those of your neighbour, or from those of the church, be persuaded that infallibility apper- tains as little to you as it does to the church." I have else- where exposed the complete Socinianism of bishop Hoadley * Lectures in Divinity, delivered in the university of Cambridge, by J. Hey, D. D. as Norrisian professor, in four volumes, 1797. Vol. ii. p. 104. t Vol. ii. p. 41. X ^^ol- "• PP- 250, 251 i Dr. Watson, bishop of Landa.T's Charge, 1795. y Collect, of Theol. Tracts, Pref. p. 17. 96 Letter XV, and his scholars,* among whom we must reckon bishop Shipley in the first rank. Another celebrated writer, who was himself a dignitary of the establishment,! arguing, as he does most powerfully, against the consistency and efficacy of public confessions of faith, among Protestants of every denomination, says, that out of a hundred ministers of the establishment, who, every year, subscribe the Articles made " to prevent diversity of opinions," he has reason to believe " that above one-fifth of this number do not subscribe or assent to these Articles in one uniform sense. "J He also quotes a Right Rev. author who maintahisthat " No two think- ing men ever agreed exactly in their opinion, even with regard to any one article of it."§ He also quotes the famous bishop Burnet, who says, that " The requiring of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles is a great imposition, || and that the greater part of the clerg}^ subscribe the Articles, without ever examining them, and others do it because they must do it, though they can hardly satisfy their consciences about some things in them. "IF He shows that the advocates for subscription, Doctors Nichols, Bennet, Waterland, and Stebblng, all vindicated it on opposite grounds ; and he is forced to confess the same thing, with re- spect to the enemies of subscription, with whom he himself ranks. Dr. Clark pretends there is a salvo in the subscription, namely, I assent to the articles in as much as they are agreeable to scrip- fttre,** though the judges of England have declared the contra- ry.f f Dr. Sykes alleges that the Articles were either purposely or negligently made equivocal.\X Another writer, whom he praises, undertakes to explain how " these Articles may be sub- scribed, and consequently believed, by a Sabellian, an orthodox Trinitarian, a Tritheist, and an Arian, so called." After this citation. Dr. Blackburn shrewdly adds : " One would wonder what idea this writer had of peace, when he supposed it might be kept by the act of subscription among men of these diflerent judgments. "§§ If you will look into Overton's True Churchman Ascertained^ you will meet with additional proofs of the repug- nance of many other dignitaries and distinguished churchmen to the articles of their own church, as well as of their disagree- ment in faith among themselves. Hence you will not wonder that a numerous body of them should, some years ago, have • Letters to a Prebendary. t Dr. Blackburn, archdeacon of CI eaveland, author of the Confessional. t Confess. 3 Ed. p. 45. k Dr. Clayton, bishop of Clogher. 5 Confess, p. 83. T P. 91. ** P. 222. ft P. 183. X\ P. 237. k\ P. 239. Letter XV, 97 petitioned the legislature to be relieved from the grievance, as they termed it, of subscribing these Articles ;"^ and that we should continually hear of the mutilation of the liturgy by so many of them, to avoid sanctioning tiiose doctrines of their church, which they disbelieve and reject, particularly the Atha- nasian Creed and the absolution.! I might disclose a still wider departure from their original confessions of faith, and still more signal dissensions among the diflerent dissenters, and particularly among the old stock of the Presbyterians and Independents, if this were necessary. Most of these, says Dr. Jortin, are now Socinians, though we all know, they heretofore persecuted that sect with fire and sword. The renowned Dr. Priestly not only denied the divinity of Christ, but with horrid blasphemy, accused him of numerous errors, weaknesses, and faults :J and when the authority of Calvin, in burning Servetus, was objected to him, he answered, " Calvin was a great man, but, if a little man be placed on the shoulders of a giant, he will be enabled to see farther than the giant himself" The doctrine now preached in the fashionable Unitarian chapels of the metropolis, I understand, greatly re- sembles that of the late Theophilanthropists of France, insti- tuted by an Infidel, one of the five directors. The chief question, however, at present is, whether the church of England can lay any claim to the first character or mark of the true church, pointed out in our common creed, that of UNITY ? On this subject I have to observe, that in addition to the dissensions among its members, already mentioned, there are whole societies, not communicating with the ostensible church of England, who make very strong and plausible pre- tensions to be, each of them, the real church of England. Such are the Non-jurors, who maintain the original doctrine of this church, contained in tlie Homilies concerning passive obedience and non-resistance, and who adhere to the first ritual of Ed- ward VI. § Such are the evangelical preachers and their dis- ciples, who insist upon it that pure Calvinism is the creed of • Tarticularly in 1772. t The omission of the Athanasian Creed, in particular, so often took place in the public service, Ihat an act of parliament has just passed, among other things, to enforce the repetition of it. But if the clergymen alluded to really believe that Christ is not God, what is the Legislature doing in forcing them to •worship him as God? ij: Theolog. Reposit. vol. 4. i To this church belonged Ken, and the other six bishops, who were deposed at the revolution. Leslie, Collier, Hicks, Bret, and many other chief ornamenta of the church of England. N 98 Letter XVI. the established church.* Finally, such are the Methodists, whom professor Hey describes as forming the old church of England, f And, even now, it is notorious that many clergy- men preach in the churches in the morning, and in the meeting houses hi the evening ; while their opulent patrons are pur- chasing as many church-livings as they can, in order to fill them with incumbents of the same description. Tell me now, dear sir, whether, from this view of the state of the church of England, or from any other fair view which can be taken of it, vou will venture to ascribe to it that first mark of the true church, which you profess to belong to her, when, in the face of heaven and earth, you solemnly declare, / believe in ONE Ca* tholic Church ? Say, is there any single mark or principle of real unity in it ? I anticipate the answers your candour will give to these questions. I am, he. J. M LETTER XVI. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. fyc CATHOLIC UmTY. Dear bin. We have now to see whether tnai nrst mark of the trtha church, which we confess in our creeds, but which we have found to be wanting to the Protestant societies, and even to the most ostensible and orderly of them, the established church of England, does or does not appear in that principal and primeval stock of Christianity, called the Catholic church. In case this church, spread, as it is, throughout the various nations of the earth, and subsisting, as it has done, through all ages, since that of Christ and his apostles, should have maintained that reli- gious wnzYy, which the modern sects, confined to a single peo*' • It is clear from the Articles and Homilies, and still more from the persecu- tion of the asscrtors of free-will in this country, that the church ^f England was Calvinistic till the end of the reign of James I. in the course of which he sent Episcopal representatives from England and Scotland to the great Protestant Synod of Dort. These, in the name of their respective churches, signed that " the faithful who fall into atrocious crimes, do not forfeit justification, or incur damnation." t Vol. ii. p. 73. Letter XVI. ^ pie, have been unable to preserve, you will allow that it must have been framed by a consummate Wisdom, and protected by an omnipotent Providence. Now, sir, I maintain it, as a notorious fact, that this original and great church is, and ever has been, strictly ONE in all the above-mentioned particulars, and first in her faith and terms gf communion. The same creeds, namely, the Apostles' Creed^V tlie Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Creed of J Pope Pius IV. drawn up in conformity with the definitions of / the Council of Trent, are every where recited and professed, tof / the strict letter ; the same articles of faith and morality are / taught in all our catechisms ; the same rule of faith, namely, th^ revealed Word of God, contained in Scripture and tradition, and the same expositor and interpreter of this rule, the Catholic church speaking by the moutli of her pastors, are admitted and proclaimed by all Catholics throughout the four quarters of the globe, from Ireland to Chili, and from Canada to India. You may convince 3 ourself of this any day, at the Royal Exchange, by conversing with intelligent Catholic merchants, from the several countries in question. You may satisfy yourself re- specting it, even by interrogating the poor illiterate Irish, and other Catholic foreigners, who traverse the countrj^ in various directions. Ask them their belief as to the fundamental articles of Christianity, the unity and trinity of God, the incarnation and death of Christ, his divinity, and atonement for sin by his passion and death, the necessity of baptism, the nature of the blessed sacrament ; question them on these and other such points, but with kindness, patience, and condescension, particu- larly with respect to their language and deliver}^ and, I will venture to say, you will not find an}^ essential variation in the answers of most of them ; and much less such as you will find by proposing the same questions to an equal number of Pro- testants, whether learned or unlearned, of the self-same deno- mination. At all events, the Catholics, if properly interrogated, will confess their belief in one comprehensive article ; namely, this, I believe ivhatever the holy Catholic church believes and teaches. Protestant divines, at the present day, excuse their dissent from the Articles which the}' subscribe and swear to, by rea- son of their alleged antiquity and obsoleteness,* though none of them are yet quite two centuries and a half old,f and they • Dr. Hey's Lectures on Divinity, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, 51, &c. t The 39 Articles were drawn ip 156'?^ and con^rmed by the queen wd tilt buhops in 107 i* 100 Letter XVL feel no difficulty in avowing that " a tacit reformation," since the first pretended reformation, has taken place among them.* This alone is a confession that their church is not one and the same; whereas all Catholics believe as firmly in the doctrinal decisions of the council of Nice, passed fifteen hundred years ago, as they do in those of the council of Trent, confirmed in /f'564, and other still more recent decisions ; because the Catho- ^ lie church, like its divine Founder, is the same yesterday, to-day, \ and for ever. Heb. xiii. 8. \ Nor is it in her doctrine only, that the Catholic church is \one and the same; she is also uniform in whatever is essentia "in her liturgy. In every part of the world, she oflers up the same unbloody sacrifice of the holy mass, which is her chief act of divine worship ; she administers the same seven sacraments, provided by infinite wisdom and mercy for the several wants of the faithful ; the great festivals of our redemption are kept holy on the same days, and the apostolical fast of Lent is every where proclaimed and observed. In short, such is the unity of the Catholic church, that when Catholic priests or laymen, landing at one of the neighbouring ports, from India, Canada, ur Brazil, come to my chapel,f I find them capable of joining with me in every essential part of the divine service. Lastly, as a regular, miiform, ecclesiastical constitution and government, and a due subordination of its members, are re- quisite to constitute a uniform church, and to preserve unity of doctruie and liturgy in it, so these are undeniably evident in the Catholic church, and in her alone. She is, in the language of St. Cyprian, " The habitation of peace and unity,"J and in that of the inspired text, like an army in battle array. '^ Spread, as the Catholics are, over the face of the earth, according to my former observation, and disunited, as they are in every other respect, they form one uniform body in the order of re- ligion. Whether roaming in the plains of Paraguay, or con- fijied in the palaces of Pekin, each simple Catholic, in point of ecclesiastical economy, is subject to his pastor ; each pastor submits to his bishop, and each bishop acknowledges the supre- macy of the successor of St. Peter, in matters of faith, morality, and spiritual jurisdiction. In case of error, or insubordination, which, from the frailty and malice of the human htart, must, ii'Om time to time, disturb her, there are found canons and ec- clesiastical tribunals, and judges, to correct and put an end to • Hey, p. 48. t At Winchester, where the writer resided when this letter was written. % " Domiciliwm pacjs ©t uuitatis." St. Cyp, t Cant.vi. 4. Letter XVI, 101 the evil, while similar evils in other religious societies are found to be interminable. I have said little or nothing of the varieties of Protestants in regard to their liturgies and ecclesiastical governments, be- cause these matters being very intricate and obscure, as well as diversified, would lead me too far a-field for my present plan. It is sufficient to remark, that the numerous Protestant sects expressly disclaim any union with each other in these points. That a great proportion of them reject every species of liturgy and ecclesiastical government whatever, and that, in the church of England herself, very many of her dignitaries, and other dis- tinguished members, express their pointed disapprobation of certain parts of her liturgy, no less than of her Articles,* and that none of them appear to stand in awe of any authority, ex- cept that which is enforced by the civil power. Upon a review of the whole matter of Protestant disunion and Catholic unity, I am forced to repeat with TertuUian, " It is the character of error to vary ; but when a tenet is found to be one and the same among a great variety of people, it is to be considered not as an error but as a divine tradition."f I am, dear sir, &ic. J. M. ♦ Archdeacon Paley very naturally complains, that " the doctrine of the Articles of the church of England," which he so pointedly objects to, " are interwoven, with much industry, into her forms of public worship." I have not met with a Protestant bishop, or other eminent divine, from archbishop Tillotson down to the present bishop of Lincoln, who approves altogether of the Athanasian Creed, which, however, is appointed to be said or sung on thirteen chief festivals in the year. t De Prascrip, contra Haer. The famous bishop Jewel, in excuse for the acknowledged variations of his own church, objects to Catholics that there are varieties in theirs ; namely, some of the friars are dressed in black, and some in white, and some in blue : that some of them live on meat, and some on fish, and some on herbs : they have also disputes in their schools, as Dr. Porteus also re- marks ; but they both omit to mention, that these disputes are not about articles of «aitb. [ 102] LETTER XVII. From JAMES BROWN, Esq, fyc. OBJECTION'S TO THE CLAIM OF EXCLUSIVE SALVATION. Reverend Sir, I AM too much taken up myself with the present subject of your letters, willingly to interrupt the continuation of them : .but some of the gentlemen, who frequent New Cottage, having communicated your three last to a learned dignitary who is upon a visit in our neighbourhood, and he having made certain remarks upon them, I have been solicited by those gentlemen to forward them to you. The terms of our correspondence render an apology from me unnecessary, and still more the conviction that I believe you entertain of my being, with sincere respect and regard, Rev. Sir, &;c. JAMES BROWN. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. JV. JV. Prebendary ofJV. to Mr. JV, It is well known to many Roman Catholic gentlemen, with whom 1 have lived in habits of social intercourse, that I was al- ways a warm advocate for their emancipation, and that, so far from having any oljjections to their religion, I considered their hopes of future bliss as well founded as my own. In return, I thought I saw in them a corresponding liberality and charity. But these letters which you have sent me from the correspondent of your society at Winchester, have quite disgusted me with their bigotry and uncharitableness. In opposition to the Chrysos- tomes and Augustines, whom he quotes so copiously, for his doctrine of exclusive salvation, I will place a modern bishop of my church, no way inferior to them. Dr. Watson, who says, ** Shall we never be freed from the narrow-minded contentions of bigots, and from the insults of men who know i%t what spirit they are of when they stint the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, and bar the doors of heaven against every sect but their own ? Shall we never learn to think more humbly of our- selves and less despicably of others ; to believe that the Father of the Universe accommodates not his judgments to the wretch- Letter XVUt 103 ed wranglings of pedantic theologues ; but that every one, who, with an honest intention, and to the best of his abilities, seeketli truth, whether he findeth it or not, and worketh righteousness, will be accepted of by him ?"* These, sir, are exactly my sentiments, as they were those of the illustrious Hoadley, in his celebrated sermon, which had the eflect of stifling most of the remaining bigotry in the established church.f There is not any prayer which I more frequently or fervently repeat than that of the liberal minded poet, who himself passed for a Roman Catholic, particularly the following stanza of it : *' Let not this weak and erring hand Presume thy bolts to throw, And deal damnation round the land On each I judge thy foe."| I hope your society will require its Popish correspondent, be- fore he writes any more letters to it on other subjects, to answer what our prelate and his own poet have advanced against the bigotry and uncharitableness of excluding Christians of any denomination from the mercies of God and everlasting happi- ness. He may assign whatever marks he pleases of the true church, but I, for my part, shall ever consider charity as the only sure mark of this, conformably with what Christ says : By this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another, John xiii. 35. LETTER XVIII. To JAMES BROWJV, Esq. ^-c. OBJECTION'S ANSWERED, Dear Sir, xN answer to the objections of the Reverend prebendary to my letters on the mark of unity in the true church, and the ne- • Bishop Watson's Theolog. Tracts, ?ref. p. 17. t Bishop Hoadley's Sermon on the Kingdom of Christ. This made the choice of religions a thing indifferent, and subjected the whole business of religion to the civil power. Hence sprung the famous Bangorian Controversy, which, when on the point of ending in a censure upon Hoadley from the Convocation, •^6 latter was interdicted by ministry, and has never since, in the course of a. (ttndred years, been allowed to meet again. t Pope's Universal Prayer. 104 Letter XVIIL eesslty of being incorporated in tliis church, I must observe, lo the first place, that nothing disgusts a reasoning divine more than vague charges of bigotry and intolerance, inasmuch as they have no distinct meaning, and are equally appHed to all sects and individuals, by otliers, whose religio'as opinions are more lax than their own. These odious accusations which your churchmen bring against Catholics, the Dissenters bring against you, who are equally loaded with them by Deists, as these are, in their turn, by Atheists and Materialists. Let us then, dear sir, in the serious discussions of religion, confine ourselves to language of a defined meaning, leaving vague and tinsel terms to poets and novelists. It seems, then, that bishop Watson, with the Rev. N. N. and other fashionable latitudinarians of the day, are indignant at the idea of " stinting the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, and barring the doors of heaven against any sect," however heterodox or impious. Nevertheless, in the very pas- sage which I have quoted, they themselves stint this mercy to those who " work righteousness," which implies a restraint on men's passions. JVIethinks I now hear some epicure Dives or elegant libertine retorting on these liberal, charitable, divines, in their own words. Pedantic theologues, narrow minded bigots, who stint the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, and bar the doors of heaven against me, for following the impulse which he himself has planted in me ! The same language may, with equal justice, be put into the mouth of Nero, Judas Iscariot, and of the very demons themselves. Thus, in pretending to mag- nify God's mercy, these men would annihilate his justice, his sjuictity, and his veracity ! Our business, then, is, not to form arbitrary theories concerning the divine attributes, but to attend to what he himself has revealed concerning them and the exer- cise of them. What w ords can be more express than those of Christ, on this point, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned ! Mark xvi. 16, or than those of St. Paul : Without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. xi. 6. Conformably to this doctrine, the same apostle classes heresies with murder and adultery ; con- cerning which he says, they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 20, 21. Accordingly^ he orders that a man, who is a heretic, shall be rejected. Tit. iii. 10, and the apostle of charity, St. John, forbids the faithful to receive him into their houses ; or even to bid him God speed ivho bring" eth not this doctrine of Christ, 2 John i. 10. This apostle acted up to his rule, with respect to the treatment of persons out of Letter XVIIL 105 the church, when he hastily withdrew from a public building, in which he met the heretic Cerinthus, " lest," as he said, " it should fall down upon him."* I have given, in a former letter, some of the numberless pas- sages in which the holy fathers speak home to the present point, and, as these are far more expressive and emphatical than what I myself have said upon it, I presume they have chiefly contributed to excite the bile of the Rev. prebendary. How- ever he may slight these venerable authorities, yet, as I am sure that you, sir, reverence them, I will add two more such quotations, on account of their peculiar appositeness to the pre- sent point, from the great doctor of the fifth century, St. Au- gustine. He says : " All the assemblies, or rather divisions, who call themselves churches of Christ, but which, in fact, have separated themselves from the congregation of unity, do not belong to the true church. They might indeed belong to her, if the Holy Ghost could be divided against himself : but as this is impossible, they do not belong to her."f In like manner, addressing himself to certain sectaries of his time, he says : " If our communion is the church of Christ, yours is not so ; for the church of Christ is one, whichsoever she is ; since it is said of her, My dove, my undejiled is one ; she is the only one of her mother.''^ Cantic. v'l. 9. But, setting aside Scripture and tradition, let us consider this matter, as bishop Watson and his associates affect to do, on the side of natural reason alone. These modern philosophers think it absurd to suppose that the Creator of the Universe concerns himself about what we poor mortals do or do not be- lieve ; or, as the bishop expresses himself, that he " accommo- dates his judgments to the wrangling of pedantic theologues." With equal plausibility certain ancient philosophers have repre- sented it as unworthy the Supreme Being to busy himself about the actions of such reptiles as we are in his sight ; and thus have opened a door to an unrestrained violation of his eternal and immutable laws ! In opposition to both these schools, I maintain, as the clear dictates of reason, that as God is the au- thor, so he is necessarily the supreme Lord and Master of all beings, with their several powers and attributes, and therefore of those noble and distinguishing faculties of the human soul, reason and free ivill ; that he cannot divest himself of this su^ preme dominion, or render any being or any faculty indepen-« dent of himself or of his high laws, any more than he can cease to • S. Iren. 1. iii. Euseb. Hist. 1. iii. t De Verb. Dow. Ser«. q, O 106 Letter XVIIL be God ; that, of course, he does and must require our reason to believe in his divine revelations, no less than our will to sub- mit to his supreme commands ; that he is just, no less than he is merciful, and therefore that due atonement must be made to liim for every act of disobedience to him, whether by disbeliev- ing what he has said, or by disobeying what he has ordered. I advance a step further, in opposition to the Hoadley and Watson school, by asserting, as a self-evident truth, that there being a more deliberate and formal opposition to the Most High, in saying, I will 7iot believe what thou hast revealed, thdm in saying, / will not practice what thou hast commanded, so, ceteris jmrihus, WILFUL-infidelity and heresy involve greater guilt than immoral frailty. You will observe, dear sir, that in the preceding passage, I have marked the word wilful ; because Catholic divines and the holy fithers, at the same time that they strictly insist on the necessity of adhering to the doctrine and communion of the Ca- tholic church, make an express exception in favour of what is termed invincible ignorance, which occurs, when persons out of the true church are sincerely and firmly resolved, in spite of all worldly' allurements on one hand, and opposition to the con- trary on the other, to ^ntcr into it, if they could find it out, and when they use their best endeavours for this purpose. This exception, in favour of the invincibly ignorant, is made b}' the same St. Austin who so strictly insists on the general rule, H\5 words are these : '* The apostle has told us to rejee^ a man thai is a heretic: but those who defend a false opinion, without per^ tinacious obstinacy, especially if they have not themselves in- vented it, but have derived it from their parents, and who seek the truth with anxious solicitude, being sincerely disposed to re-< nounce their error as soon as they discover it, such person?, are- not to be deemed heretics."* Our great controvertist, Bt i'ar- mine, asserts, that such Christians, '^ in virtue of the disposition of their hearts, belong to the Catholic church. "f Who the individuals, exteriorly of other communions, but by the sincerity of their dispositions, belonging to the Catholic church, who, and in what numbers they are, it is for the Search'^ er of hearts, our future Judge, alone to determine : far be it from me, and from Qwn-y other Cadiolic, to <' deal^amuation** on any person in particular : still thus much, on the grounds already stated, I am bound, not only in truth, but also in chari- ty, to say and to proclaim, that nothing short of the sincere dis« ♦ Epist,ad Episc, Donat. t Contrpv. torn- ".lib. jii, c. 6. Letter XVITI. 107 ))Ositlon in question, and the actual use of such means as Pro- vidence respectively aftbrds for discovering the true church to those who are out of it^ can secure their salvation ; to say no- thing of the Catholic sacraments and other helps for this pur- pose, of which such persons are necessarily deprived. I just mentioned the virtue of charity ; and 1 must here add, that on no one point are latitudinarians and genuine Catholics more at variance than upon this. The former consider them- selves charitable, in proportion as they pretend to open the gat€ of heaven to a greater number of religionists of various descriptions : but, unfortunately, they are not possessed of the keys of that gate; and when they fancy they have opened the gate as wide as possible, it still remains as narrow, and the way to it as strait, as our Saviour describes these to be in the Gospel, Mat. vii. 14. Thus they lull men into a fatal indifference about the truths of revelation, and a false security as to their salvation. Genuine CathoUcs, on the other hand, are persuad- ed, that as there is but one God, one faith, and one baptism^ Ephes. iv, 5. so there is but ONE SHEEP-FOLD, namely, ONE CHURCH. Hence, they omit no opportunity of alarm- ing their wandering brethren on the danger they are in, and of bringing them into this onefold of the one Shepherd, John x. 16. To form a right judgment in this case, we need but ask. Is it charitable or uncharitable in the physician, to warn his patient of his danger in eating unwholesome food ? Again, is it cha- ritable or uncharitable in the watchman who sees the sword com- ing to sound the trumpet of alarm ? Ezech. xxxiii. 6. But to conclude, the Rev. prebendary, with most modern Protestants, may continue to assign his latitudinarianism, which admits all religions to be right, thus dividing truth, that is essen- tially indivisible, as a mark of the truth of his sect ; in the meantime, the Catholic church ever will maintain, as she ever has maintained, that there is only one faith and one true church, and that this her uncompromising firmness, in retaining and professing this unity, is the first mark of her being this church. The subject admits of being illustrated by the well known judg- ment of the wisest of men. Two women dwelt together, each of whom had an infant son ; but, one of these dying, they both contended for possession of the living child, and carried their cause to the tribunal of Solomon. He, finding them equally contentious, ordered the infant they disputed about to be cut in two, and one-half of it to be given to each of them 5 which order the pretended mother agreed to, exclaiming. Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then spake the woman, whose the iOB Letter XIX. living child was, unto the king; for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the livimr child, and in no wise slay it ; SHE IS THE MO^ THER THEREOF ! 1 Kings iii. 26, 27. I am, Dear Sir, he. J. M. LETTER XIX. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. Src. 0^' SAJiCTITY OF DOCTRIKE. Dear Sir, The second mark by which you, as well as I, describe the church in which you believe, when you repeat the Apostles' Creed, is that of SANCTITY: we, each ol'us, say, I believe in the HOLY Catholic church. Reason itself tells us, that the God of purity and sanctity could not institute a religion desti- tute of this character ; and the inspired apostle assures us, that Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water, by the Word ; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, n»t having spot or wrinkle. Ephes. v. 25. 27. The comparison which I am going to institute between the Catholic church and the leading Protestant societies in the article of sanctity, will be made on these four heads : 1st. The doctrine of holiness ; 2dly. The means of holiness ; 3dly. The fruits of holiness ; and, lastly, The divine testimony of holiness. To consider, first, the doctrine of the chief Protestant com- munions : this is well known to have been originally grounded in the pernicious and impious principles, that God is the author and necessitating cause, as well as the everlasting punisher, o sin ; that man has no free will to avoid sin ; and that justi iication and salvation are the effects of an enthusiastic per- suasion, under the name of faith, tliat the person is actually justified and saved, without any real belief in the Revealed truths, without hope, charity, repentance for sin, benevo- lence to our fellow-creatures, loyalty to our king and coun- try, or any other virtues, all which were censured by the first reformers, as they are by the strict Methodists still, under the Letter XIX, 100 name of works, and by many of them declared to be even hurt- ful to salvation. It is asserted, in the Harmony of Confessions, a celebrated work, published in the early times of the Reformi tion, that " all the confessions of the Protestant churches teacL this primary article (of justification) with a holy consent;" whicli seems to imply, says archdeacon Blackburn, " that this was the single article in which they all did agree."* Bishop Warburton expressly declares, that *' Protestantism was built upon it :"f and yet, " what impiety can be more execrable," we may justly exclaim with Dr. Balguy, " than to make God a tyrant !"J And what lessons can be taught more immoral, than that men are not required to repent of their sins to obtain their forgiveness, nor to love either God or man to be sure of their salvation ! To begin with the father of the Reformation, Luther teaches that " God works the evil in us as well as the good," and that " the great perfection of faith consists in believing God to be just, although, by his own ivill, he necessarily renders us worthy of damnation^ so as to seem to take pleasure in the torments of the miserable,^^^ Again he says, and repeats it, in his work De Servo Arhitrio, and his other works, that " free will is an empty name ;" adding, " If God foresaw that Judas would be a trai- tor, Judas necesmrily became a traitor : nor was it in his power to be otherwise."",! " Man's will is like a horse : if God sit upon it, it goes as God would have it ; if the devil ride it, it goes as the devil would have it : nor can the will choose its ri- der, but each of them strives which shall get possession of it. "IF Conformably to this system of necessity he teaches, " Let this be your rule in interpreting the Scriptures ; whenever they command any good work, do you understand that they forbid it, because you cannot perform it."** " Unless faith be without the least good work, it does not justify : it is not faith."f f *' See how rich a Christian is, since he cannot lose his soul, do what he will, unless he refuses to believe : for no sin can damn him but unbelief."Jf Luther's favourite disciple and bottle com- panion, Amsdorf, whom he made bishop of Nauburg, wrote a book, expressly to prove that good works are not only unneces- sary, but that they are hurtful to salvation ; for which doctrine * Archdeacon Blackburn's Confessional, p. 16. t Doctrine of Grace, cited by Overton, p. 31. ^ Discourse?, p. 59. i Luth. Opera, ed. Wittetnb. torn. ii. fol. 437. 11 Dp Serv. Arbit. fol. 460. IT Ibid. torn. ii. ^^ Ihid. torn. iii. fol. /7l. tt Ibid. torn. i. fol. 361. iX De Captiv. Babyl. torn. ii. fol. 74. 110 Letter XIX. he quotes his master's works at large.* Luther himself made so great account of this part of his system which denies free will, and the utility and possibility of good works, that, writing against Erasmus upon it, he affirms it to be the hinge on which the whole turns, declaring the questions about the Pope's su- premacy, purgatory, and indulgences, to be trifles, rather than subjects of controversy.! In a former letter I quoted a re- markable passage from this patriarch of Protestantism, in which he pretends to prophesy that this article of his, shall subsist for ever, in spite of all the emperors, Popes, kings, and devils ; concluding thus : " If they attempt to weaken this article, may hell-fire be their reward; let this be taken for an inspiration of the Holy Ghost, made to me, Martin Luther." However, in spite of these prophecies and curses of their fa- ;her, the Lutherans in general, as I have before noticed, shock- id at the impiety of this his primary principle, soon abandoned it, and even went over to the opposite impiety of Semi-pelagian- ism, which attributes to man the fiist motion^ or cause of con- version and sanctification. Still it will always be true to say, that Lutheranism itself originated in the impious doctrine de- scribed above. J As to the second branch of the Reformation, Calvinism, where it has not sunk into Latitudinarianism or So- cinianism,§ it is still distinguished by this impious system. To give a few passages from the works of this second patriarch of Protestants, Calvin says : " God requires nothing of us but faith ; he asks nothing of us, but that we believe. "|| *" I do not hesitate to assert that the will of God makes all things neces- sary."!! " It is plainly wrong to seek for any other cause of damnation than the hidden counsels of God."** " Men, by the free will of God, without any dement of their own, are predes- tinated to eternal death. "f-j- It is useless to cite the disciples of Calvin, Beza, Zanchius, he. as they all stick close to the doc- trine of their master, still I will give the following remarkable passage from the works of the renowned Beza : " Faith is pe- culiar to the elect, anri consists in an absolute dependence each one has on the certainty of his election, which implies an assu- rance of his perseverance. Hence we have it in our power to * See Brirrley's Protest. Apol. 393. See also Mosheim and Maclaine, Ec- cles. Hist. vo!. vi. pp. 324, 32H. ^ t See ilie jass-.tp-e^ extracted from the work Dt Servo Arbitrio, in Letter* to a Prebendnry, Letter V, X BoHsuet's Variat. 1. viii. pp. 23, 54, &c. Mosheim and Maclaine, vol, Y. pr 446, &c. \ Ibid. p. 458. (I Calv. in Joan. vi. Rom. i. Galat. ii. 1 losLil. l.iii. c.iJ3. *• Ibid. tt Ibid. Letter XIX. H know whether v/e be predestinated to salvation, not by fancy, but by conclusions as certain as if we had ascended into heaven to hear it from the mouth of God himself."*" And is there a man that,having being worked up by sucli dogmatizing, or by his own fancy, to tliis full assurance of indefeasible predestination and impeccability, who, under any violent temptation to break tlie laws of God or man, can be expected to resist it ! After all the pains which have been taken by modern divines of the church of England to clear her from this stain of Calvin- ism, nothing is more certain than that she was, at first, deeply infected with it. The 42 Articles of Edward VI. and the 39 Articles of Elizabeth are evidently grounded in that doctrine,f which, however, is more expressly inculcated in the Lambeth Articles, J approved of by the two archbishops, the bishop of London, &;c. in 1595, " whose testimony," says the renowned Fuller, " i? an infallible evidence, what was the general and re- ceived do<-r"n;p of the church of England in that age about the forenamed controversies. "§ In the History of the University of Cambridge, by this author, a strict churchman, we have evident proof that no other doctrine but that of Calvin was so much as tolerated by the established church, at the time I have been speaking of. " One W. Barret, fellow of Gonvile and Caius college, preached «J Clerum for his degree of bachelor of divi- nity, wherein he vented Siir.l; doctrines for which he was sum- jno])^rl, six days after, before the consistory of doctors, and there e j>joined the following retraction : — 1st, / said that^ no man. i.s so strongly underprojjped by the certainty of faith, as to be assured of his salvation : but, now, I protest, before God, that they which are justified by faith, are assured of their salva- tion with the certainty of faith. 3dly, I said that, certainty con- cerning the time to come is proud: hut now I protest i\\dit justi- fied faith can never be rooted out of the minds of the faithful. 6thly, These words escaped me in my sermon : / believe against Calvin, Peter Martyr, Sfc. that sin is the true, proper, and first cause of reprobation. But, now, being better instructed, I say that the reprobation of the wicked is from everlasting ; and I am ♦ Exposit. cited by Bossuet, Variat. ]. xiv. pp. 6, 7. t Particularly the 1 1th, 12th, ISlh, aal I7th of the 39 Articles. By the tenor of the 13th, arnonof the 30, it would appear, that the patience of Socrates, the inte.g;rity of Aristides, the continence of Scipio, and the patriotism of Cato " had the nature of sin," hecause they were ''works done before the grace of Christ." X Fuller's Church Flistory, p, 230. \ Fuller, p. 232.— N. B. On the point in question, Dr. Hey, vol. iy. p. 6, quotes t()f well-known speech of the ^reat lord Chathtim in parliament ; " W« ^re a C?>lvini9tic creed, aud an Arminian clergy." 112 Letter XIX. of the same mind roncerninc: election, as the church of England teachcth in the Articles of faith. Last of all, I uttered these words rasldy ai:!:ainst Calvin, a man that hath very well deserved of the church of God : that he durst presume to lift himself above the IIii(h God : by n hich words I have done great injury to that le^iriied and right-godly man. I have also uttered many bitter words against Peter Martyr, Theodore Beza, kc. being" the lights and ornaments of our church, calling them by the odious name of Calviuists, kc."* Another proof of the former intolerance of the church of England, with respect to that mo- derate system, whicli all her present dignitaries hold, is the order drawn up by the archbishops and bishops in 1566, for government to act upon, namely, that " All incorrigible free will men, fcc. should be sent into some castle into North Wales, er at Wallngford, there to live of their own labour, and no one to be suffei-ed to resort to them, but their keepers, until they be foxnid to repent their errors. "f A still stronger, as well as more authentic evidence of the former Calvinism of the EngHsh clmrch is furnished by the history and acts of the general Cal- vinistic Synod of Dort, held against Vorstius, the successor of Arminius, who had endeavoured to modify that impious system. Our James I. who had the principal share in assembling this Synod, was so indignant at the attempt, that in a letter to the States of Holland, he termed Vorstius, " the enemy of God,'* and insisted on his being expelled, declaring, at the game time, that '' it was his own duty, in quality of defender of the faith, with which title," he said, *' God had honoured him., to extirpate those cursed heresies, and to drive them to hell !"f To be brief, he sent Carlton and Davenport, the former being bishop of Landaff, the latter of Salisbury, with two other dignitaries of tlie church of England, and Bancanqual, on the part of the church of Scotland, to the Synod, where they appeared amon^ tlie foremost in condemning the Arminians, and in defining that " God ^ives true and lively faith to those whom he resolves to withdraw from the common damnation, and to them alone ) and that the true faitiiful, by atrocious crimes, do not forfeit the grace (4' adoption and the state of justification /"§ It might have been expected that the decrees of this Synod • Fuller's Hist, of Univ. of Camb. p. 150.— N. R. It will be evident to the reader, that I h;ive p^rea'.ly abridged this curious recantation, which was loO lonp^ to be quoted at lonxlh. t .Strypc's Annals of lleform. vol. i.p. 214. X Hift. Abreg:. de Clerard Brandt, torn. i. p. 4J7. totn.ii. p. 2, ♦ liosjuet's Variat, vol. ii. pp. 291, 294, 304. Letter XIX, ll3 VouW have greatly strengthened the system of Calvinism ; whereas it is from the termination of it, wliich corresponds with the concluding part of the reign of James I. that we are to date the decline of it, especially ni England.* Still greater num- bers of its adherents, under the name of Calvinists, and pro- fessing, not without reason, to maintain the original tenets of the church of England, subsist in this country, and their minis- ters arrogate to themselves the title of Evangelical Preachers. In like manner the numerous and diversified societies of Metho- dists, whether Wesleyans or Whitfieldites, Moravians or Revi- valists, New Itinerants or Jumpers,! are all partisans of the impious and immoral system of Calvin. The founder of the first mentioned branch of these sectaries witnessed the follies and crimes which flowed from it, and tried to reform them by means of a laboured but groundless distinction. J After all, the first and most sacred branch of holy doctrine consists in those articles which God has been pleased to reveal concerning his own divine nature and operations, namely, the articles of the unity and trinity of the Deity, and of the incarna' tion, death, and atonement of the consubstantial Son of God. It is admitted, that these mysteries have been abandoned by the Protestants of Geneva, Holland, and Germany. With respect to Scotland, a well informed writer says : "It is certain that Scotland, like Geneva, has run from high Calvinism to almost as high Arianism or Socinianism : the exceptions, especially in the cities, are few." It will be gathered from many passages, which I have cited in my former letters, how widely extended throughout the established church is that " tacit reform," which a learned professor of its theology signifies to be the same thing with Socinianism. A judgment may also be formed of the pre- valence of this system, by the act of July 21, 1813^, exempting the professors of it from the penalties to which they were before subject. And yet this system, as I have before observed, is pronounced by the church of England, in her last made canons* " damnable and cursed heresy, being a complication of many former heresies and contrariant to the articles of religion now established in the church of England. "§ I ^>ay nothing of the numerous Protestant victims, who have been burnt at the stake in this country, during the reigns of Edward VI. Elizabeth, and James I. for the errors in question, except to censure the incon- ♦ xMoshicm and Maclaine, vol. v, pp. 369, 389. t See Evans's Sketch of all Religions. ^ Postscript, p. 56. t Constit. and Can. A. D. 1640. P 114 Lttter XIX. tistency and cruelty of the proceeding : all that I had occasion to show was, that most Protestants, and, among the rest, those of the English church, instead of uniformly maintaining at all times the same holy doctrine, heretofore abetted an impious and immoral system, namely, Calvinism, which they have since been constrained to reject, and that they have now compromised with impieties, which formerly they condemned as " damnable here- sies," and punished with fire and faggot. But it is time to speak of the doctrine of the Catholic church. If this was once holy, namely, in the apostolic age, it is holy still ; because the church never changes her doctrine, nor suf- N fers any persons in her communion to change it, or to question any part of it. Hence, the adorable mysteries of the trinity, the incarnation, &ic. taught by Christ and his apostles, and de- fined by the four first general councils, are now as firmly be- lieved by every real Catholic, throughout her whole commu- nion, as they were when those councils were held. Concerning the article of man's justification, so far from holding the impious and absurd doctrines imputed to her by her unnatural children, (who sought for a pretext to desert her,) she rejects, she con- demns, she anathematizes them ! It is then false, and notorious- ly false, that Catholics believe, or in any age did believe, that they could justify themselves by their own proper merits ; or that they can do the least good, in the order of salvation, with- out the grace of God, merited for them by Jesus Clyist ; or that we can deserve this grace, by any thing we have the power of doing ; or that leave to commit sin, or even the pai'don of any sin, which has been committed, can be purchased of any person whomsoever ; or that the essence of religion and our hopes of salvation consist in forms and ceremonies, or in other exterior things. These, and such other calumnies, or rather blasphemies, however frequently or confidently repeated in popular sermons and controversial tracts, there is reason to think are not really believed by any Protestant of learning.* In fact, what ground is there for maintaining them ? Have they been defined by our councils ? No : they have been condemned by them, and par- ticularly by that of Trent. Are they taught in our catechisms, • The Norrisian Professor, Dr. Hey, says : " The reformedlhave departed •omuch from the rifjour of their doctrine about faith, and the Romanists from theirs about good works, that there serms very little difference between them." Lect. \o\. iii. p. 262. True, most of the reformers, after buildinj* their religion on faith alone, have now gone into the opposite heresy of Pelas;ia7iism, or at least Semi-Fela^ianism : but Catholics hold exactly the same tenets r'^iianlinj good works, which they over held, and which were always very different from what Dr. Hey diescribcs them to have been. Vol. iii. p. 261. Letter XIX, 116 4uch as the Catechismus ad Parochos^ the General Catechism of Ireland, the Douay Catechism ; or in our books of devotion, for example, those written by an a Kempis, a Sales, a Granada, and a Challoner ? No : the contrary doctrine is, in these, and in our other books, uniformly maintained. In a word, the Ca- tholic church teaches, and ever has taught, her children to trust for mercy, grace and salvation, to the merits of Jesus Christ ; nevertheless she asserts that we have free will, and that this being prevented by divine grace, can and must co-operate to our justification by faith, sorrow for our sins, and other corres- ponding acts of virtue, which God will not fail to bestow upon us, if we do not throw obstacles in the way of them. Thus is all honour and merit ascribed to the Creator, and every defect and sin attributed to the creature. The Catholic church incul- cates moreover, the indispensable necessity of humility as a vir- tue, by which, says St. Bernard, "from athorough knowledge of ourselves we become little in our own estimation," as the ground-work of all other virtues. I mention this Catholic les- son, in particular, because however strongly it is enforced by Christ and his disciples, it seems to be quite overlooked by Protestants, insomuch that they are perpetually boasting in their speeches and writings of the opposite vice, pride. In like manner, it appears from the above montioned catechisms and spiritual works, what pains onr church bestows in regulating the interior no less than the c?iterior of her children, by re- pressing every thought or idea, contrary to religion or morah- ty ; of which matter, I perceive little or no notice is taken in the catechisms and tracts of Protestants. Finally, the Catholic church insists upon the necessity of being perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect, Mat. v. 48, by such an entire subju- gation of our passions and conformity of our will with that of God, that our conversation may he in heaven, while we are yet living here on earth. Philip, v. 20. I am, &c. J. M. ' POSTSCRIPT TO LETTER XIX. [The Life of the late Rev. John Wesley, founder of the Me- thodists, which has been written by Dr. Whitehead, Dr. Coke, and others of his disciples, shows, in the clearest light, the er- rors and contradictions to which even a sincere and religious 116 Letter XIX. mind is subject, that is destitute of the clue to revealed truth, the liviniu: autliority of the Catholic church, as also the impiety and immorality of Calvinism. At first, that is to say, in thc- year 1729, Wesley was a modern church of England man, dis- tinguished from other students at Oxford by nothing but a more strict and methodical form of life. Of course his doctrine then- was the prevailing doctrine of that church ; this he preached in England and carried with him to America, whither he sailed to convert the Indians. Returning, however, to England in 1738, he writes as follows : " For many years I have been tossed about by various winds of doctrine," the particulars of which, and of the different schemes of salvation, which he was inclined to trust in, he details. Falling, at last, however, into the hands of Peter Bohler and his Moravian brethren, who met in Fettei'- lane, he became a warm proselyte to their system, declaring at the same time, with respect to liis past religion, that hitherto he had been a Papist without knowing it. We may judge of his ardour by his exclamation when Peter Bohler left England : " O what a work hath God begun since his (Bohler's) coming to England ; such a one as shall never come to an end till hea- ven and earth shall pass away." To cement his union with this society, and to instruct himself more fully in its mysteries, he made a journey to Hernhuth in Moravia, which is the chief seat of the United Brethren. It was whilst he was a Moravian, namely, " on the 24th of May, 1738, a quarter of an hour be- fore nine in the evening," that John Wesley, by his own ac- count, was " saved from the law of sin and death." This all important event happened " at a meeting house, in Aldergate- street, while a person was reading Luther's Preface to the Galatians." Nevertheless, though lie had professed such deep obligations to the Moravians, he soon found out and declared that theirs was not the right way to heaven. In fact he found them, and " nine parts in ten of the Methodists" who adhered to them, " swallowed up in the dead sea of stillness, opposing the ordinances, namely, prayer, reading the Scripture, frequent- ing the sacrament and public worship, selling their Bibles, he. in order to rely more fully ' on the blood of the Lamb.' " In short, Wesley abandoned the Moravian connexion, and set up that which is [)roperly his own religion, as it is (Retailed by Nightingale, in his Portrait of Methodism. This happened in 1740, soon after which he broke off from his rival Whitfield : in fact they maintained quite opposite doctrines on several es- sential points : still the tenet of instantaneous justification, with- out repentance, charity, or other good works, and the actual Letter XIX. iy$ feeling and certainty of this and of everlasting happiness, con- tinued to be the essential and vital principles of Wesley's sys- tem, as they are of the Calvinistic sects in general ; till having witnessed the horrible impieties and crimes to which it conduct- ed, he, at a conference or synod of his preachers, in 1744, de- clared that he and they had " leaned too much to Calvinism and Antinomianism." In answer to the question " What is Antino- mianism?" Wesley, in the same conference, ansvrers, " The doctrine which makes void the law through faith. Its main pillars are that Christ abolished the moral law ; that, therefore. Christians are not obliged to keep it ; that ChristiLn liberty, is liberty from obeying the commands of God ; that it if. bondage to do a thing because it is commanded, or forbear it because it is forbidden ; that a believer is not obliged to us'i the ordi fiances of God, or to do good \. orks, that a preachei* ought not to exhort to good works," he. See here the '^ssenticJ morality of the religion which Wesley had hitherto follo'./ed and pleach- ed, as drawn by his own pen, and which :,till continues to be preached by the other sects of Methodists ! We shall hereafter see in what manner he changed it. The very mention, how- ever, of a change in this ground-work of jf.lethodism, inflamed all the Methodist connexions ; accordingly, the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Shirley, chaplain to lady Huntingdon, in a circular letter, written at her desire, declared against the dreadful heresy of Wesley, which, as he expressed himself, " injured the founda" 4ion of Christianity.'^'' He, therefore, summoned another con- ference, which severely censured Wesley. On the other hand, this patriarch was strongly supported, and particularly by Fletcher of Madele}^, an able writer, whom he had destined to succeed him, as the head of his connexion. Instead of being of- fended at his master's change, Fletcher says, " I admire the can- dour of an old man of God, who, instead of obstinately maintain- ing an old mistake, comes down like a little child, and acknow» ledges it before his preachers, whom it is his interest to secure." The same Fletcher published seven volumes of Checks to Antino- mianism, in vindication of Wesley's change in this essential point of his religion. In these he brings the most convincing proofs and examples of the impiety and immorality, to which the en- thusiasm of Antinomian Calvinism had conducted the Metho- dists. He mentions a highwayman, lately executed in his neighbourhood, who vindicated his crimes upon this principle. He mentions other more odious instances of wickedness, which, to his knowledge, had flowed from it. All these, he says, arf represented by their preachers to be " damning sins in Tur^ 118 Letter XIX, and Pagans, but only spots in God's children." He adds, " There are few of our celebrated pulpits, where more has not been said for sin than against it /" He quotes an Hon. M. P. " once my brother," he says, " but now my opponent," who, in his published treatise, maintains that " murder and adultery do not hurt the pleasant children, (tl»e elected,) but even work for their good :" adding, " My sins may displease God, my person is always acceptable to him. Though I should outsin Manas- ses himself, I should not be less a pleasant child, because God always views me in Christ. Hence, in the midst of adulteries, murders and incests, he can address me with. Thou art all fair, my love, my undefiled ; there is not a spot in thee. It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins according to the fact, not according to the person. Though I highly blame those who say, let us sin that grace may abound; yet adultery, incest and murder, shall, upon the whole, make me holier on earth and merrier in heaven !" It only remains to show in what manner Wesley purified his religious system, as he thought, from the defilement of Antinomianism. To be brief, he invented a two-fold mode of justification, one without repentance, the love of God, or other works ; the other, to which these works were essential : the former was for those who die soon after their pretended experience of saving faith, the latter for those who have time and opportunity of performing them. Thus, to say no more of the system, according to it a Nero and a Robespierre might have been established in the grace of God, and in a right to the realms of infinite purity, without one act of sorrow for their enormities, or so much as an act of their behef in God !] [ 119 ] LETTER XX. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. ON THE MEATUS OF SANCTITY. Dear Sir, The efficient cause of justification, or sanctity, according to the Council of Trent,* is the mercy of God through the merits of Jesus Christ ; still, in the usual economy of his grace, he makes use of certain instruments or means, both for conferring and increasing it. The principal and most efficacious of these are THE SACRAMENTS. Fortunately, the established church agrees in the main sense with the Catholic and other Christian churches, when she defines a sacrament to be " an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, and ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us there- of."f But, though she agrees with other Protestant commu- nions in reducing the number of these to two, baptism and tht Lord's Supper, she differs with all others, namely, the Catholic, the Greek, the Russian, the Armenian, the Nestorian, the Euty- chian, the Coptic, the Ethiopian, &z;c. all of which firmly main- tain, and ever have maintained, as well since as before their respective defections from us, the whole collection of the seven sacraments. \ This fact alone refutes the airy speculations of Protestants concerning the origin of the five sacraments, which they reject, and thus demonstrates that they are deprived of as many divinely instituted instruments or means of sanctity. As these seven channels of grace, though all supplied from the same fountain of Christ's merits, supply, each of them, a sepa- rate grace, adapted to the different wants of the faithful, and as each of them furnishes matter of observation for the present discussion, so I shall take a cursory view of them. , The first sacrament, in point of order and necessity, is bap- • Sess. vi. cap. 7. t Catechism in Com. Prayer. — N. B. The last clause in this definition is far too strong, as it seems to imply, that every person who is partaker of the out- ward part of a sacrament, necessarily receives the §Tace oi it, whatever maybe his dispositions ; an impiety which the bishop of Lincoln calumniously attributes t6 the Catholics. Elements of Theol. vol. ii. p. 436. X This important fact is incontrovertibly proved, in the celebrated work Lm Ptrpetuiti de la Foi, from original documents, procured by Louis XIV. aad preserved in the king's library at Paris. 120 Letter XX, tism. In fact, no authority can be more express than that of the Scripture, as to this necessity. Except a man be horn of water and of the spirit, says Christ, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John iii. 5. Repent, cries St. Peter, and he baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus, for the remission of sins. Acts ii. 38. Arise, answered Ananias to St. Paul, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16. This ne- cessity was heretofore acknowledged by the church of England, at least, as appears from her Articles, and still more clearly from her liturgy,* and the works of her eminent divines. f Hence, as baptism is valid, by whomsoever it is conferred, the English church may be said to have been upon an equal foot- ing with the Catholic church, as much as concerns this instru- ment or means of holiness : but the case is diiierent now, since that tacit reformation, which is acknowledged to have taken place in her. This has nearly swept out of her both the belief of original sin, and of its necessary remedy, baptism. " That we are born guilty," the great authority, Dr.Balguy, says, " is either unintelligible or impossible." Accordingly, he teaches, that '' the rite of baptism is no more than a representation of our entrance into the church of Christ." Elsewhere, he says, " The sign (of a sacrament) is declaratory, not effLcient.y Dr. Hey says, the negligence of the parent, with respect to pro* curing baptism, " may affect the child : to say it will aifect him, is to run into the error I am condemning. "<5. Even the bishop of Lincoln calls it " an unauthorized principle of Pa- pists, that no person whatsoever can be saved who has not been baptized."|| Where the doctrine of baptism is so lax, we may be sure the practice of it will not be more strict ; accordingly, we have abundant proofs that, from the frequent and long de- lays, respecting the administration of this sacrament, which oc- cur in the establishment, very many children die without receiv- ing it ; and that, from the negligence of ministers, as to the right matter and form of words, many more children receive it invalidly. Look, on the other hand, at the Catholic church : you will find the same importance still attached to this sacred rite, on the part of the people and the clergy, which is observ- • Common Prayer. ^ t See B. rearson on tbo Creed. Arl. x. Hooker, Eccl. Polit. B. r. p. 60. X Charg:r vii. pp. 20H,3Of>. \ Lectures in Divinity, vol. iii.j). If52. fj Vol. ii. p. 470, The Ipftrned prelate ran hardly be su|iposed ignorant that many of our martyrs, recorded iTi our Martyrolo^y and our Breviary, are ex- pressly declared not to have horn (irfuaf/i/ l.a])li7.ed ; or that our divines unani- mously teacb. thr^t not otiK- Die l-aplism olhloodhy martyrdom, but also a sin- oere deflire of bning bHptivi»d, .snnice.*, where th«» means of baptitm are wanting. Letter XX, 12i able in the Acts of the apostles and in the writings of the lioly fathers ; the former being ever impatient to have their chiklrea baptized, the latter equally solicitous to administer it in due time, and with the most scrupulous exactness. Thus, as mat- ters stand now, the two churches are not upon a level with re- spect to this first and common means of sanctification : the members of one have a much greater moral certainty of the re- mission of that sin in which we were all born, and of their hav- ing been heretofore actually received into the church of Christ, than the members of the others have. It would be too tedious a task to treat of the tenets of other Protestants on this and the corresponding matters. Let it suffice to say, that the famous Synod of Dort, representing all the Calvinistic states of Eu- rope, formerly decided that the children of the elect are include ed in the covenant made with their parents, and thus are ex- empt from the necessity of baptism, as likewise of faith and morality ; being thus ensured, themselves and all their posteri- ty, till the end of time, of their justification and salvation !* Concerning the second channel of grace or means of sanctity, confirmation, there is no question. The church of England, which, among the difierent Protestant societies, alone, I be- lieve, lays claim to any part of this rite, under the title of the ceremony of laying on of hands, expressly teaches, at the same time, that it is no sacrament, as not being ordained by God, or an effectual sign of grace.-\ But the Catholic church, instruct- ed by the solicitude of the apostles to strengthen the faith of those her children who had received it in baptism, { and by the lessons of Christ himself, concerning the importance of receiv- ing that holy spirit, which is communicated in this sacrament,^ religiously retains and faithfully administers it to them, for the self-sanie purpose, through all ages. In a word, those who are true Christians, by virtue of baptism, are not made perfect Christians, ex^.ept by virtue of the sacrament of confirmation, which none of the Protestant societies so much as lays a claim to. Of the third s^crament, indeed, the Lord's Supper, as they call it, the Protestant societies, and particularly the church of England, in her Prwyer Book, say great things : nevertheless, what is it, after all, upon her own showing ? Mere bread and wine, received in memory of Christ's passion and death, in or- der to excite the receiver's faith in him : that is to say, it is a • Bossuet, Variat. Book xiv. p. 46, t Art. XXV. ± Actsviii. 14.— xix. 2. ♦ John xvi. Q 122 Letter XX. bare type or memorial of Christ. Aiiy thing may be instituted to be the type or memorial of another thing; but certainly the Jews, ill their pasclial lamb, had a more lively figure of the death of Christ, and so have Christians in each of the four evangelists, than eating bread and drinking wine can be. Hence, I infer that the communion of Protestants, according to their belief and practice in this country, cannot be more than a feeble excitement to their devotion, and an inefficient help to their sunctification. But if Christ is to be believed upon his own solemn declaration, where he says. Take ye and eat; this is my body : — drink ye all of this ; for this is my blood, Mat. xxvi. 26. — My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed^ John vi. 5G. Then the holy communion of Catholics is, be- yond all expression and all conception, not only the most pow- erful stimulative to our faith, our hope, our love, and our con- trition ; but also the most efficacious means of obtaining these and all other graces from the divine bounty. Those Catholics who frequent this sacrament with the suitable dispositions, are the best judges of the truth of what I here say : nevertheless, many Protestants have been converted to the Catholic church, from the ardent desire they felt of receiving their Saviour Christ himself into their bosoms, instead of a bare memorial of him, and from a just conviction of the spiritual benefits they would derive from this intimate union with him. The four remaining instruments of grace, penance, extreme unction, order, and matrimony, Protestants, in general, give up to us, no less than confirmation. The bishop of Lincoln,* Dr. Hey,f and other controvertists, pretend that it was Peter Lom- bard, in the 12th century, who made sacraments of tliem. True it is, that this industrious theologian collected together the dif- ferent passages of the fathers, and arranged them, with proper definitions of each subject, in their present scholastic order, not only respecting the sacraments, but likewise the ether branches of divinity, on which account he is called the master of the sen- fences ; but this writer could as soon have introduced Mahomet- anism into the church as the belief of any one sacrament which it had not before received as such. Besides, supposing him to have deceived the Latin church into this belief, I ask by what means were the schismatical Greek churches fascinated into it.'* In short, though these holy rites had not been endued by Christ with a sacramental grace, yet, practised as they are in the Ca- • Elcm. Tol. ii. p. 414. t Lect. vol. iv. p. 199. Letter XX. 123 tholic church, they would still be great helps to piety and Christian morality. What I have just asserted concerning these five sacrajnents, in general, is particularly true, with respect to the svicranient of penance. For what does this consist of? and what is the pre- paration for it, as set forth by all our councils, catechisms, and prayer books ? There must first be fervent prayer to God for his light and strength; next an impartial examinati.').n of the conscience, to acquire that most important of all sciences, the knowledge of ourselves ; then true sorrow for our sins, with a firm purpose of amendment, which is the most essential part of the sacrament. After this there must be a sincere exposure of the state of the interior to a confidential, and at tiie same time, a learned, experienced, and disinterested director. If he coul^ afford no other benefit to his penitents, yet how inestimable are those of his making known to them many defects and many du- ties, which their self-love had probably overlooked, of his prescribing to them the proper remedies for their spiritual mala- dies, and of his requiring them to make restitution for every injury done to each injured neighbour ! But we aie well as- sured that these are far from being the only benefits which the minister of this sacrament can confer upon the subject of it : for it was not an empty comphment which Christ paid to his apostles, when. Breathing on them, he said to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost, ivhose sins you shall remit, they are remiitedy and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. John xx. 22, 23. O sweet balm of the wounded spirit ! O sovereign restora- tive of the soul's life and vigour ! best known to those who faithfully use thee, and not unattested by those who neglect and blaspheme thee !^ It might appear strange, if we were not accustomed to similar inconsistencies, that those who profess to make Scripture, in its plain obvious sense, the sole rule of their faith and practice, should Aeny extreme unction to be a sacrament, the external sign of which, anointing the sick, and the spiritual efl'ect of which, the forgiveness of sins, are so expressly declared by St. James, in his Epistle v. 14. Martin Luther, indeed, who had taken offence at this Epistle, for its insisting so strongly ou good works,f rejected the autliority of this Epistle, alleging that it was ** not lawful for an apostle to institute a sacra- * See the form of onlaining' priests In bishop Sparrow's Collect, p. 158, also the form of absolution, in the visitation of the sick, in the CoiTimon Prayer. t Luther, in the orig'inal Jena edition of his worlis, palls this Epistle "a dry aD4 chaffy EpistJe, unworthy ao aposUe " 124 Letter XX. ment."* But, I trust, that you, dear sir, and your conscien- tious society, will agree with me, that it is more incredible that an apostle of Christ should be ignorant of what he was authorized by him to say and do, than that a profligate German friar €hould be guilty of blasphemy. Indeed, the church of England, in the first form of her Common Prayer in Edward's reign, en- joined the unction of the sick, as well as the prayer for them.f It was evidently well worthy the mercy and bounty of our di- vine Saviour, to institute a special sacrament for purifying and strengthening us at the time of our greatest need and terror. Owing to the institution of this, and the two other sacraments |f penance and the real body and blood of our Lord, it is a fact,'*^ tliat few, very few Catholics die without the assistance of their clergy ; which assistance the latter are bound to aflbrd, at the expense of ease, fortune, and life itself, to the most indigent and fibject of their flock, who are in danger of death, no less than 40 the rich and the great : while, on the other hand, very few Protestants, in that extremity, partake at all of the cold rites of tlieir religion ; though one of them is declared, in the Cate- chism, to be " necessary for salvation !" It is equally strange that a clergy, with such high claims and important advantages as those of the establishment, should deny that the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, are sacrament- al, or that the Episcopal form of church government, and of ordaining the clergy, is in preference to any other required by Scripture. In fact, this is telling the legislature and the nation that, if they prefer the less expensive ministry of the Presbyte- rians or Methodists, there is nothing divine or essential in the ministry itself, which will be injured by the change ; and that clergymen may be as validly ordained by the town-crier with his bell, as by the metropolitan's imposition of hands ! Never- theless, this is the doctrine, not only of Hoadley's Socinian school, as I have elsewhere demonstrated, J but also of those mo- dern divines and dignitaries, who are the standard of ortho- doxy. (^^ Thus are the clergy of the English church, as well as all other Protestant ministers, by their own confession, desti- tute of all sacramental grace for performing their functions ho- Jily and beneficially. || But we know, conformably to the doc- trine of St. Paul, in both his Epistles to Timothy, t Tim, iv. • Luther's works, Jena edition. t See Collier's Frrles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 257. t Dr. Halxuy, Dr. Hey, kc. i The bishop of Linnohrs Klom. of Theol. vol. ii. pp. 376, 39(J. H See Letters to a Prebendary, Letter VUI. Letter XX. * 125 vl. 2 Tim. i. 6. with the constant doctrine of the CathoUt church, and of all other ancient churches, that this grace is con- ferred on those who are truly ordained and in fit dispositions to receive it. We know, moreover, that the persuasion which the faithful entertain of the divine character and grace of their clergy, gives a great additional weight to their lessons and ministry. — In like manner, with respect to matrimony, which the same apostle expressly calls a sacrament, Ephes. v. 32, in* dependently of its peculiar grace, the very idea of its sanctity, is a preparation for entering into that state with religious disr positions. Next to the sacraments of the Catholic church, as helps to holiness and salvation, I must mention her public service. We continually hear the advocates of the establishment crying up the beauty and perfection of their liturgy ;* but, they have nol the candour to inform the public that it is all, in a manner, bor- rowed from the Catholic Missal and Ritual. Of this any one may satisfy himself who will compare the prayers, lessons and Gospels, in these Catholic books, with those in the Book of Common Prayer. But, though our service has been thus pur- loined, it has, by no means been preserved entire : on the con«- trary, we find it, in the latter, eviscerated of its noblest parts ; particularly with respect to the principal and essential worship of all the ancient churches, the holy mass, which, from a true propitiatory sacrifice, as it stands in all their Missals, is cut down to a mere verbal worship in The Order for Morning Prayer. Hence, our James I. pronounced of the latter, that it is an ill-said mass. The servants of God had, by his appoint- ment, SACRIFICE both under the law of nature and the writ- ten law; it would then be extraordinary, if under the law of grace they were left destitute of this the most sublime and ex- cellent act of religion, which man can offer to his Creator. But we are not left destitute of it : on the contrary, that prophecy of Malachy is fulfilled, Mai. i. \\. In every place fromthe rising to the setting of the sun, sacrifice is offered and a pure oblation ; even Christ himself, who is really present and mystically offer- ed on our altars in the sacrifice of the mass. I pass over the solemnit}^, the order and the magnificence off our public worhip and ritual in Catholic countries, which most candid Protestants, who have witnessed them, allow to be ex- ceedingly impressive, and great helps to devotion, and which, • Dr. Rennel calls the church liturgy " the most perfect of human composi- Hons and tlie sacred legacy of the first reformers." Disc. p. 237. t86 Letter XXI. rertainly, in most particulars, find their parallel in the worship ind ceremonies of the Old Law, ordained by God himself. Nevertheless, it is a gross calumny to assert that the Catholic •hurch does, or ever did make the essence of religion to con- ist in these externals ; and we challenge them to our councils md doctrinal books in refutation of the calumny. In like man- ler, I pass over the many private exercises of piety which are generally practised in regular Catholic families and by indivi- duals, such as daily meditation and spiritual reading, evening prayers and examination of the conscience, &:c. These, it will not be denied, must be helps to obtain sanctity for those who are desirous of it. — But I have said more than enough to con- vince your friends in which of the rival communions the means of sanctity are chiefly to be found. I am, Dear Sir, &:c. J. M. LETTER XXI. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. OK THE FRUITS OF SANCTITY, » Dear Sir, The fruits of sanctity are the virtues practised by those who are possessed of it. Hence the present question is, whether these are to be found, for the most part, among the members of the ancient Catholic church, or among the diflerent innovators, who undertook to reform it in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? In considering the subject, the first thing which strikes me is, that all the saints, and even those who are record- ed as such in the calendar of the church of England, and in whose names their churches are dedicated, lived and died strict members of the Catholic church, and zealously attached to her doctrhie and discipline.* For an example, in this calendar, we meet with a Pope Gregory, March 12, the zealou* assertor of • I must exrcpl king Charles I. who is rubricated as a martyr on Jan. 30: nevertheless, it is confessed that he whs far from possessing either the purity of a saint or the constancy of a martyr : for he actually gave up Episcopacy, and other essentials of the established religion, by his last treaty in the Isle of Wight. Letter XXI. 1^ the papal supremacy,* and other Catholic doctrines; a St Benedict, March 21, the patriarch of the western monks and nuns; a St. Dunstan, May 19, the vindicator of clerical celi- bacy ; a St. Augustine of Canterbury, May 26, the introducer of the whole system of Catholicity into England, and a venera- ble Bede, May 27, the witness of this important fact. It is sufficient to mention the names of other Catholic saints, for example, David, Chad, Edward, Richard, Elphege, Martin, Swithun, Giles, Lambert, Leonard, Hugh, Etheldreda, Remi- gius, and Edmund, all of which are inserted in the calendar, and give names to the churches of the establishment. Besides these, there are very many of our other saints, whom all learned and candid Protestants unequivocally admit to have been such, for the extraordinary purity and sanctity of their lives. Even Luther acknowledges St. Anthony, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Bonaventure, &;c. to have been saints, though avowed Catholics, and defenders of the Catholic church against the heretics and schismatics of their times. But, independently of this and of every other testimony, it is certain that the su- pernatural virtues and heroical sanctity of a countless number of holy personages of different countries, ranks, professions, and sexes, have illustrated the Catholic church in every age, frith an effulgence which cannot be disputed or withstood. Your friends, I dare say, are not much acquainted with the histories of these brightest ornaments of Christianity : let me then invite them to peruse them ; not in the legends of obsolete writers, but in a work which, for its various learning and lu- minous criticism, was commended even by the Infidel Gibbon. I mean The Saints^ Lives, in twelve octavo volumes, written by the late Rev. Alban Butler, president of St. Omer's collcue. Protestants are accustomed to paint in the most frightful colours the alleged depravity of the church, when Luther erected his standard, in order to justify him and his followers' defection from it : but to form a right judgment in the case, let them read the works of the contemporary writers, an a Kempis, a Gerson, ~ an Antoninus, 4'C. or let them peruse the lives of Vincent Ferrer, St. Laurence Justinian, St. Fi aiicis Paula, St. Philip Neri, St. Cajetan, St. Teresa, St. Francis Xavier, and of those other saints, who illuminated the church about the period in question ; • Many Protestant writers pretended that St. Gregrory disclaimed the su- premacy, because he asserted against John of C P. that neither he nor any other prelate ought to assume the title of Universal Bishop ; but that he clairi- ed and exercised the supremacy, his own works and the hittory of Bede iacou- trovertibly demonstrate. 128 Letter XXI. or let them, from the very accounts of Protestant historians, compare, as to religion and morality, archbishop Cranmer with his rival bishop Fisher; protector Seymour with chancellor More, Ann Bullen with Catliarine of Arragon, Martin Luther and Calvin with Francis Xavier and cardinal Pole, Beza with St. Francis of Sales, queen Elizabeth with Mary queen of Scots ; these contrasted characters having more or less relation with each otlier. From such a comparison, I have no sort of doubt what the decision of your friends will be concerning them, in point of their respective holiness. I have heretofore been called upon to consider the virtues and merits of the most distinguished reformers ;* and certainly we have a right to expect from persons of this description finish- ed models of virtue and piety. But instead of this being the case, I have shown that patriarch Luther was the sport of his unbridled passions, f pride, resentment, and lust ; that he was turbulent, abusive, and sacrilegious, in the highest degree ; that he was the trumpeter of sedition, civil war, rebellion, and deso- lation ; and finally, that by his own account, he was the scholar of Satan, in the most important article of his pretended Re- formation. J I have made out nearly as heavy a charge against his chief followers, Carlostad, Zuinglius, Ochin, Calvin, Beza, and Cranmer. With respect to the last named, who under Ed- ward VI. and his fratricide uncle, the duke of Somerset, was the chief artificer of the Anglican church, I have shown that, from his youthful life in a college, till his death at the stake, he exhibited such a continued scene of libertinism, peijury, hy- pocrisy, barbarity, (in burning his fellow Protestants,) profli- gacy, ingratitude, and rebellion, as is, perhaps, not to be matched in history. I have proved that all his fellow-labour- ers and fellow-sufferers were rebels like himself, who would have been put to death by Elizabeth, if they had not been exe- cuted by Mary. I adduced the testimony not only of Erasmus and other Catholics, but also of the gravest Protestant histori- ans, and of the very reformers themselves, in proof that the morals of the people, so fnr from being changed for the better, by embracing the new religion, were greatly changed for the worse. ^ The pretended Reformation, in foreign countries, as • Reflections on Popery, by Dr. Stnrge?, L. L. D. &c. t Letters to a Preb. Let. V. p. 178. \ Ibid, p. 183, where Satan's conference with Luther, and the arguments by which he induced this reformer to abolish the mass, are detailed, from Luther's works. Tom. vii. p. 228. ♦ Letteri to a Prebendary, Letter V. Letter XXI. 1^^ in Germany, the Netherlands, at Geneva, in Switzerland, France, and Scotland, besides producing popular insurrections fackages, demolitions, sacrileges, and persecution beyond des- cription, excited also open rebellions and bloody civil wars.* In England, where our writers boast of the orderly manner in which the change of religion was carried on, it, nevertheless, most unjustly and sacrilegiously seized upon, and destroyed, in the reign of Henry VIII. six hundred and forty-five monasteries, ninety colleges, and one hundred and ten hospitals, besides the bishopric of Durham ; and, under Edward VI. or rather his profligate uncle, it dissolved two thousand three hundred and seventy-four colleges, chapels, or hospitals, in order to make princely fortunes of their property for that uncle and his un- principled comrades, who, like banditti, quarrelling over their spoils, soon brought each other to the block. Such were the fruits of sanctity, every where produced by this Reformation ! I am, &ic. J. M. • The Huguenots in Dauphiny alone, as one of their writers confesses, burnt down 900 towns or tpUages, and murdered 378 priests or religious, in the course of one rebellion. The number of churches destroyed by them throughout France, is computed at 20,000. The history of England's reformation (though this was certainly more orderly than that of other countries) has caused the conversion of many English Protestauts: it produced this effect on James II. and his first consort, the mother of queen Mary, and queen Ann. The following is the account which the latter has left of this change, and which is to be found in Dodd's last volume, and in the Fifty Reasons of the duke of Brunswick. " See- ing much of the devotion of the Catholics, I made it my constant prayer that if I tvere not, I might, before I died, be in the true religion. I did not doubt but that I was so till November last, when, reading a book called The History of tlu Reformation, by Dr. Heylin, which I had heard very much commended, and had been told, if ever I had any doubts in my religion that would settle me : instead of which I found it the description of the horridest sacrileges in the world ; and could find no cause why we left the church, but for three, the most abominable ones.: 1st, Henry VIII. renounced the Pope, because he would not give him leave to part with his wife and marry another : 2dly, Edward VI. was a child and governed by his uncle, who made his estate out of the church lands : 3dly, Elizabeth not being lawful heiress to the crown, had no way to keep it but by renouncing a church which would not suffer so unlawful a thing. I coufett I iaumotthi^ the Holy Ghost could ever be in such couacila." R [ 130 ] LETTER XXII. To Mr. J. TOULMIjy. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Dear Sir, I HAVE received your letter, animadverting upon mine to our common friend, Mr. Brown, respecting the fruits of sanctity, as they appear in our respective communions. I observe, you do not contest my general facts or arguments, but resort to objec- tions which have been already answered in \\\q>k\ or in my other letters now before the public. You assert, as a notorious fact, that for several ages, prior to the Reformation, the Catho- .lic religion was sunk into ceremonies and pageantry, and that it sanctioned the most atrocious crimes. In refutation of these calumnies, I have referred to our councils, to our most accre- dited authors of religion and morality, and to the lives and deaths of our most renowned saints, during the ages in ques- tion. I grant, sir, that you hold the same language on this subject that other Protestant writers do ; but I maintain that none of them make good their charges, and that their motive for advancing them is to find a pretext for excusing the irreli- gion of the pretended Reformation. You next extol the alleged sanctity of tiie Protestant sufferers, called martyr^, in the un- happy persecution of queen Mary's reign. I have discussed this matter at some length in The Letters to a Prebendary, and have shown, in opposition to John Fox and his copyists, that some of these pretended martyrs were alive when he wrote the history of their death ;* that otiiers of them, and the five bi- shops in particular, so far from being saints, were notoriously de- ficient in the ordinary duties of good subjects and honest men ;f that others again were notorious assassins, as Gardener, Flower, and Rougli ; or ro})bers, as Debenham, King, Marsh, Cauches, Gilbert, Masse}^ hi\\ while not a few of them retracted their errors, as Bilney, Taylor, Wassalia, and died, to all appear- ance, Catholics. To the whole ponderous folio of Yo\h false- hoods I have opposed the genuine and edifying Jitemuirs of Missionary Priests and other Catholics^ who suffered death for their Religion during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts. Finally, you reproach me with the scandalous lives of some of • See Letter IV. on PersetMition. t See Letter V. on the Reformation. t Letter IV. L,etter XXII, 131 our Popes, during the middle ages, and of very man> Catho- lics of different descriptions, througliout the church at the pre- sent day; and you refer me to the edifying lives of a great num- ber of Protestants, now living, in this country. My answer, dear sir, in brief, to your concluding objections, is that I, as well as Baronius, Bellarmia, and other Catholic writers, have unequivocally admitted that some few of our pon- tiffs have disgraced themselves by their crimes, and given just cause of scandal to Christendom;* but I have remarked that the credit of our cause is not affected by the personal conduct of particular pastors, who succeed one another in a regular way, in the manner that the credit of yours is by the behaviour of your founders, who professed to have received extraordinary commission from God to reform religion. ^ I acknowledge, with the same unreservedness, that the lives of a great proportion of Catholics in this and other parts of the church, is a disgrace to that holy Catholic church which they profess to believe in. Unhappy members of the true religion, by whom the name of God (and his holy church) is blasphemed among the nations ! Rom. ii. 24. Unhappy Catholics, who live enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, who mind only earthly things! Philip iii. 18. But, it must needs be that scandals should come : nevertheless, wo to that man by whom the scandal Cometh! Mat. xviii. 7. In short, I bear a willing testimony to the public and private worth of very many of my Protestant countrymen, of different religions, as citizens, as subjects, as friends, as children, as parents, as moral men, and as Chris- tians, in the general sense of the word ; still I must say that I find the best of them far short of the holiness, which is prescrib- ed in the Gospel and is exemplified in the lives of those saints, whom I have mentioned. On this subject I will quote an au- thority which I think you will not object to. Dr. Hey says : " In England, I could almost say, we are too httle acquainted with contemplative religion. The monk painted by Sterne, may give us a more favourable idea of it, than our prejudices generally suggest. I once travelled with a recolet, and con- versed with a minim at his convent : and they both had that kind of character which Sterne gives to his monk: that refine- ment of body and mind ; that pure glow of meliorated passion, that polished piety and humanity. "J In a former letter to your society, I have stated that sincere humihty, by which, from a • See Letter II. on Supremacy. t Ibid. X Lectures ia Divinity, vol. i. p. 364. 132 Letter XXIL thorough knowledge of our sins and misery, we become little m our own eyes, and try to avoid, rather than to gain the praise and notice of others, is the very groundwork of all other Chris- tian virtues. It has been objected to Protestants, ever since the defection of th'^ir arrogant patriarch, Luther, that they have said little, and lidve appeared to understand less, of this essen- tial virtue. I might say the same with respect to the necessity of an entire subjugation of our other congenial passions, avarice, lust, anger, intemperance, envy, and sloth, as I have said of pride and vain glory ; but I pass over these, to say a few words of certain maxims expressly contained in Scripture. It cannot then be dcmed that our Saviour said to the rich young man, If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in heaven ; or that he de- clared, on another occasion, There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs (continent) for the kingdom of heavenh sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. Mat. xix. 12. Now it is notorious that this life of voluntary poverty and per- petual chastity, continues to be vowed and observed by great numbers of both sexes in the Catholic church ; while it is no- thing more than a subject of ridicule to the best of Protestants. Again : " that we ought to fast, is a truth mote manifest than it should here need be proved." I here use the words of the church of England, in her Homily iv. p. 11 ; conformably with which doctrine, your church enjoins, in her Common Prayer Book, the same days of fasting and abstinence as the Catholic church does, namely, the forty days of Lent, the em- ber daysj all the Fridays in the year, he. ; nevertheless, where is the Protestant to be found, who will submit to the mortifica- tion of fasting, even to obey his own church ? I may add, that Christ enjoins constant prayer, Luke xviii. 1 ; conformably to which injunction, the Catholic church requires her clergy, at least, from the subdeacon up to the Pope, daily to say the seven canonical hours, consisting chiefly of Scriptural psalms and lessons, and which take up in the recital, near an hour and a half, in addition to their other devotions : now what pretext had the Protestant clergy, whose pastoral duties are so much light- er then ours, to lay aside these inspired prayers, except in devo- tion ? Luther himself said his office, for some time \fter his apostasy. — But to conclude , as it is of so much importance to ascertain which is the holy church, mentioned in your creed ; and as you can follow no better rule for this purpose than to judge of the tree by its fruits, so let me advise you and your friends to make use of every means in your power to compare Letter XXIII. 133 regular families, places of education, and especially ecclesiasti- cal establishments of the different communions, with each other, as to morality and piety, and to decide for yourselves according to what you observe in them. I am, he. J. M. LETTER XXIII. To JAMES BROWJV, Esq. ^c. OJV DIVINE ATTESTATION" OF SANCTITY. Dear Sir, Having demonstrated the distinctive holiness of the Catholic church, in her doctrine, her practices, and \\ev fruits of sanctity, I am prepared to show that God himself has borne testimony to her holiness, and to those very doctrines and practices, which Protestants object to as unholy and superstitious, by the many incontestable miracles he has wrought in her and in their fa- vour, from the agjjl of the apostles down to the present age. The learned Protestant advocates of revelation, such as Gro- tius, Abbadie, Paley, Watson, Stc. in defending this common cause against Infidels, all agree in the sentiment of the last named, that " Miracles are the criterion of truth." Accordingly they observe, that both Moses, Exod. iv. xiv. JVumh.xvi. 29, and Jesus Christ, JoAw 37, 38. — xiv. 12. — xv.24. constantly appealed to the prodigies they wrought, in attestation of their divine mis- sion and doctrine. Indeed the whole history of God's people, from the beginning of the world down to the time of our Bless- ed Saviour, was nearly a continued series of miracles.* The latter, so far from confining the power of working them to his own person or time, expressly promised the same, and even a greater power of this nature to his disciples, Mark xvi. 17. .i^ohn xiv. 12. For both the reasons here mentioned, namely, that the Almighty was pleased to illustrate the society of his chosen servants, both under the law of nature and the written law, with frequent miracles, and that Christ promised a cod- • To say nothing of the Urim and Thummim, the Water of Jealousy, and the superabundant harvest of the sabbatical year, it is incontestable, from the Goe- pel of St. John v. 2, that the probatical pond was endowed by an angel with a miraculous power of healing every kind of disease, in the time of Christ 134 Letter XXIIL tlimance of them to his disciples under the new law, we are led to expect that the true church should be distinguished by mira- cles, wi-oujuht in her, and in proof of her. Accordingly the t'atljcrs and doctors of the Catholic church, among other proofs in her favour, have constantly appealed to miracles, by which she is i!li;itrated, and reproached their contemporary heretics and scliisinntics with tlie want of them. Thus St. Irengeus, a di>cipie of St. Polycarp, who himself was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, reproaches the heretics, against whom he writes, that they could not give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cast out devils, or raise the dead to life, as he testifies was fre- quently done in the true church.^ Thus also his contemporary, Tertullian, speaking of the heretics, says : " I wish to see the miracles they have wrought."f St. Pacian, in the fourth cen- tur\-, writing against the schismatic Novatus, scornfully asks : " Has he the gift of tongues or prophecy ? Has he restored the dead tolifeP"| The great St. Augustin, in various passages of his works, refers to the miracles wrought in the Catholic church, in evidence of her veracity.^ St. Nicetas, bishop of Treves, in the sixth century, advises queen Clodosind, in order to convert her husband, Alboin, king of the Lombards, from Arianism, to induce him to send confidential messengers to wit- ness the miracles wrought at the tombs of St. Martin, St. Ger- inanus, or St. Hilary, in giving sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, he. ; adding : " Are such things done in the churches of the Arlans r"|| About the same time, Levigild, king of the Goths in Spain, an Arian, who was converted, or nearly so, by his Catholic son, St. Hermengild, reproached his Arian bishops that no miracles were wrought among them, as was the case, he said, among the Catholics.^ The seventh century was il- lustrated by the miracles of our apostle St. Augustin, of Can- terbury, wrought in confirmation of the doctrine which he taught, as was recorded on his tomb 5^* and this doctrine, by ♦ Lib. ii. contra Haer. c. 31. t Lib. De Praescr. ^ E|). ii. ad Syinphor. i " Dubitamiip nos ejus Erclesiae condere g^remio, quse usque ad confessionem generis humaui ad Apostolica sede, per successionem Episcoporum (frustra baeretici? circurnlutraiitil)U.«, et partim plebis ipsius judicio, partim^oncilioruxn gravitate, pr»rtim oi'vAmMiraculorum m///ci/a/e daranatis) culmen auctoritatiaob- tinuit."— De Utilit. Cre.f. c. iv. II Labbe'? ('on(;il. torn v. \\ }{3o. If f'i'eg;. Turon. \. ix. c, 15. •* " Hie requiescit 1). Ausfiiiitiiius, &r. qtn operatione miraculorum suffultus, Fdclberthum Hcgem ar s:ciitem illiuF ab idolonim cultu ad fidem Christi con- Vertit." — Bed. Erdos. Hi?t, 1. ii. c 3. See, in particular, the account of this eaint^s restoring u^hi to a blind man in confirmation of his doctrine. Ibid. c. 2. Letter XXIII. 135 the confession of tiie learned Fs-yt^staiUg, was purely tiie Roman Catholic.* In the eleventh eoiitury, we hear a celvbrated doctor, speaking of the proofs of th,e Catholic, religion, exclaim thus : " O Lord ! if what we believe is an error, thou art the author of it, since it is confirmetVainpngst .us by those sis^ns and prodigies which could not be wrought but by thee."f In short, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Xavier,,vSic. all appealed to the miracles, which God wrought I'V their hands in proof of the Cathohc doctrine. 1 need not incntiovi tiie controversial works of Bellarmin and other modern sclioolinen ;. nev^ertljei ess, I can- not help observing, that even Lutjier, when. Uie Anabaptists, adopting hb, own principles, had proceeded to excesses of doc- trine and practice which he disapproved ol', ^x^quired them to prove their authority for their lijuovations by the performance of miracles !J You will naturally ask, dear sir^ how Luthet himself got rid of the argunu-nt implied by this requisition, which it is evident, bore as strongly against him, as against the Anabaptists ? On one occasion, lie an&wered thus : " I have made an agreement with the Lord not to send me any visions, or dreams, or angels, "§ he. On auother occasion, he boasts of his visions as follows: " I also was in spirit," and, *' if I must glory in what belongs to me, I have seen more spirits than ihey (the Swinkfeldians, who denied the real presence) mil see in a whole yeiir."|| Such has beei the doctrine of the fathers and Catholic wri- ters concerning afiiracles in general, as divine attestations in fa- vour of that church in which God is pleased to work them. I will now mention, ^r refer to a few particular miraculous events of unquestionable evidence, which have illustrated this church, during the eighteen centuries of her existence. No Christian quesiions the miracles and prophecies of the apostles ; and if they do not, why should any Christian question the vision and prophecy of the apostolic saint Polycarp, the angel of the church of Srjyrna, Rev. ii. 8, concerning the man- ner of his future martyrdom, namely, by fire FIT or the testi- mony of his episcopal correspondent, who was likewise a disci- ple of the apostles, St. Ignatius bishop of Antioeh, who testifies that the wild beasts, let loose upon the martyrs, were frequently restrained by a divine power from hurting them ? In conse * The Centuriaiors of Magdeburg, Saac. 6. Bale. In Act. Rom. Pont. Hum- phrey's Jesuit, &c. t Ric. a S. Vict, de Trinit. 1. i. t Sleidan. i Manliua in loc. oommun. See Brierley's Apology, p. 448. I] hwih, ad Senat. GivU, Germ. ^ Genuine Acts, by Ruinart, 136 Letter XXIIL quence of this he prayed that it might not be the case with bini.* St. Irena^us, bishop of Lyons, was the disciple of St- Poly carp, and hke him, an illustrious martyr : shall we then call in question his testimony, when he declares, as I have no- ticed above, that miracles, even to the revival of the dead, fre- quentl3' took place in the Catholic church, but never among the heretics?! Or shall we disbelieve that of the learned Origen, in the next century, who says tliat it was usual with the Chris- tians of his time to drive away devils, heal the sick, and foretel things to come : adding, " God is my witness, I would not re- <:ommend the religion of Jesus by fictitious stories, but only b^ clear and certain facts. "| One of Origen's scholars was St. Gregory, bishop of Neocesarea, surnamed Thaumaturgus^ or Wonderworker, for the numerous and astonishing miracles whicli God wrought by his means. Many of these, even to the •topping the course of a flood, and the moving of a mountain, are recorded by the learned fathers, who, soon after, wrote his life.<^ St. Cyprian, the great ornament of the third century, recounts several miracles which took place in it, some of which prove the blessed eucharist to be a sacrifice, and the lawfulness of receiving it under one kind. In the middle of the fourth century happened that wonderful miracle, when the emperor Julian the Apostate, attempting to rebuild the temple of Jerusa- lem, in order to disprove the prophecy of Daniel, concerning it, Dan. ix. 27, tempests, whirlwinds, earthquakes,, and fiery eruptions convulsed the scene of the undertaking, maiming or blasting the thousands of Jews and other labourers employed in the work, and, in short, rendering the completion of it utterly impossible. In the mean time a luminous cross, surrounded with a circle of rays, appeared in the heivens, and numerous crosses were impressed on the bodies and garments of the per- sons present. These prodigies are so sfrongly attested by al- most all the authors of the age, Arians md Pagans, no less than Catholics, II that no one but a downrigkt sceptic can call them in question. They have accordingly been acknowledged by the most learned Protestants. IT Another miracle, which may vie • Ep. ad Roman, t CoQtra Haor. 1, ii. c. 31. I Contra Cels. 1. i, ^ i Gre°^. Nys8. Euseb. 1. vi. St. Basil, St. Jerom. II Besides the testimony of the Fathers, St, Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysoft- ttoai, St. Aml)ro«e, and of the hJHtorians Bocrfttes, Sozomen Theodoret, &c. the»« events are al.xo acknowledged by Philostorgius tlie Arian, Ammianus Marcelli- nu? the Pagan, &;c. T i3i?hoj) Warburton published a Ixsok, called Julian, in proof of these mira* flies. They uro also acknowledged by Bishop Halifax, Disc. p. 23. Letter XXIII. 137 with the above mentioned, for the number and quality of its witnesses, took place in the following century, at Typassus in Africa ; where a whole congregation of Catholics being assem- bled to perform their devotions, contrary to the orders of the Arian tyrant, Hunnerick, their right hands were chopped off, and their tongues cut out to the roots, by his command: nevertheless .they continued to speak as perfectly as they did before this barbarous act.* I pass over numberless miracles recorded by SS. Basil, Athanasius, Jerom, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustin, and the other illustrious fathers and church historians, who adorned the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries of Christianity ; and shall barely mention one miracle, which both the last men- tioned holy bishops relate, as having been themselves actual witnesses of it, that of restoring sight to a blind man, by the application to his eyes of a cloth which had touched the relics of SS. Gervasius, and Protasius.f The latter saint, one of the most enlightened men who ever handled a pen, gives an ac- count, in the work to which I have just referred^ of a great number of miracles, wrought in Africa, during his episcopacy, by the relics of St. Stephen, and among the rest, of seventy wrought in his own diocese of Hippo, and some of them in his own presence, in the course of two years ; among these was the restoration of three dead bodies to life. From this notice of the great St. Augustin of Hippo, in the fifth century, I proceed to observe, concerning St. Augustin of Canterbury, at the end of the sixth, that the miracles wrought by him, were not only recorded on his tomb, and in the history of the venerable Bede and other writers, but that an account of them was transmitted, at the time they took place, by St. Gre- gory to Eulogius, patriarch of St. Alexandria, in an Epistle, still extant, in which this Pope compares them with those per- formed by the apostles.§ The latter saint wrote hkewise an Epistle to St. Augustin himself, which is still extant in his works, and in Bede's history, cautioning him against being elated with vain glory, on the occasion of these miracles, and » The vouchers for this miracle are Victor Vitensis, Hist. Persec. Vandal. 1. ii. the emperor Justinian, who declares that he had seen some of the sufferers. Codex Just. Tit. 27, the Greek historian Procopius, who says he had conversed with them, L. i. de Bell. Vand. c. 8. ^Eneas of Geza, a Platonic philosopher, who having examined their mouths, protested that he was not so much surprised at their being able to talk as at their being able to live. De Immort. Anim. Victor. Turon. Isid. Hispal. Greg. Magn. &c. The miracle is admitted by Abbadie, Dodwell, Mosheim, and other learned Protestants, t Aug. De Civit. Dei, 1. xxii. p. 8. t Ibid. 1. xxiu ) Epist. S. Greg. 1. vii. 138 Letter XXIII. reminding him that God had bestowed the power of working them, not on his own account, but for the conversion of the English nation.* On the supposition that our apostle had wrought no miracles, what farces must these Epistles have ex- hibited among the first characters of the Christian world. Among the numberless and well attested miracles which the histories of the middle ages present to our view, I stop at those of the illustrious abbot St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, to whose sanctity the most eminent Protestant writers have borne high testimony.! This saint, in the life of his friend, St. Ma- lachy of Armagh, among other miracles, mentions the cure of the withered hand of a youth, by the application of his friend's dead hand to it. J But this, and all the miracles which St, Bernard mentions of other saints, quite disappear, when com- pared with those wrought by himself; which for their splendour and publicity, never were exceeded. All France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy bore testimony to them ; and prelates, princes, and the emperor himself were often the spectators of them. In a journey which the saint made into Germany, he was followed by Philip, archdeacon of Liege, who was sent by Sampson, archbishop of Rheims, to observe his actions. § This writer accordingly, gives an account of a vast nn 'Tiber of in- stantaneous cures, wliich the holy abbot performed on the lame, the blind, the paralytic, and other diseased persons, with all the circumstances of them. Speaking of those Awought at Cologne, he says : *' They were not performed in a corner ; but the whole city was witness to them. If any one doubts or is curious, he may easily satisfy himself on the spot, especially as some of them were wrought on persons of no inconsiderable rank and reputation. "|| A great number of these miracles were jjerformed in express confirmation of the Catholic doctrine which he defended. Thus preaching at Sarlat against the im- pious and impure Henricians, a species of Albigenses, he took some loaves of bread and blessed them : after which he said : " By this you shall know that I preach to you the true doc- trine, and llie heretics ?. false doctrine : all your sick^ who shall eat of ihis bread, shall rtcovcr their health ;" which prediction • Ibid, etilist. Bed,l.i. 0.31. ^ X Luther, Calvin, Bucer, (Tcolompadius, Jewel, Whitaker, Mosheim, &c. \ Vita Maliioh. inter Oper. Bern. \ St. Bernard's Life was written by his three contemporaries, William, ab- bot of St. 1 liierry, Arnold, abbot of Bonevaux, and Geoffery, the saint's secre- tary, and by other early writers : his own eloquent Epistles, and other works* furnish many particulars. Jl Published by Mabillon. Letter XXIII. 130 was confirmed by the event.* St. Bernard himself, in the most celebrated of his works,f addressed to Pope Eugenius III. re- fers to the miracles, which God enabled him to work, by way of justifying himself for having preached up the second cru- sade ; J and, in his letter to the people of Thoulouse, he men- tions his having detected the heretics among them, not only by words, but also by miracles. § The miracles of St. Francis Xavier, the apostle of India, who was cotemporary with Luther, in number, splendour, and pub- licity, may vie with St. Bernard's. They consisted in foretell- ing future events, speaking unknown languages, calming tem- pests at sea, curing various maladies, and raising the dead to life ; and though they took place in remote countries, yet they were verified in the same, soon after the saint's death, by vir- tue of a commission from John III. king of Portugal, and they were generally acknowledged, not only by Europeans of differ- ent religions in the Indies, || but also by the native Mahometans and Pagans. IT At the same time with this saint lived the holy contemplative St. Philip Neri, in proof of whose miracles three hundred witnesses, some of them persons of high rank, were juridically examined.** The following century was illustra- ted by the shining virtues and attested miracles, even to the resurrection of the dead, of St. Francis of Sales,f f as it was also by those of St. John Francis Regis, concerning which, twenty-two bishops of Languedoc wrote thus to Pope Clement XI : " We are witnesses that, before the tomb of F. J. F. Regi?, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak." J J You will understand, dear sir, that I mention but a few of the saints, and with respect to these, but a few of their miracles, as my object is to prove the single fact that God has illustrated the Catholic church, chiefly by means of his saints, with unde- niable miracles, in the different ages of her existence. What now will you, dear sir, and your friends pay to the evidence, here adduced ? Will you say that all the holy fathers, up to the apostolic age, and that all the ecclesiastical writers down to' the Reformation, and, since this period, that all Catholic au- thors, prelates and officials, have been in a league to deceive • Geof.inVit. Bern. t De Consideratione. $ De Consid. 1. ii. * Ad Tolos. Ep. 241. 11 See the testimonies of Hackluyt, Baldeus, and Tavernier, all Protestaala^ in Bouhour's Life of St. Xavier, translated by the poet Dryden. ^ Ibid. •» See Butler's Saints' Lives, May 26. tt Sec MarsoUier's Life of St. F. de Sales, translated by Dr. Coombea. U See his Life by Daubenton, which is abridged by Butler, June 16. 140 Letter XXIIL mankind ? In short, that they are all liars and impostors alike ? Such, in fact, is the absurd and horrible system, which, to get rid of the DIVINE ATTESTATION, in favour of the Catho- lic church, the celebrated Dr. Conyers Middleton has declared for ; as have most Protestant writers who have handled the sub- ject, since the publication of his Free Inquiry. This system, however, which is a libel on human nature, does not only lead to general scepticism in other respects, but also undermines the credit of the Gospel itself. For if all the ancient fathers and other writers are to be disbelieved, respecting the miracles of their times, and even those which they themselves witnessed, upon what grounds are we to believe them, in their report of the miracles which they had heard of Christ and his apostles, those main props of the Gospel and our common Christianity ? Who knows but they may have forged all the contents of the former, and tlie whole history of the latter f It was impossible these consequences should escape the penetration of Middleton : but a worse consequence, in his opinion, which would follow from admitting the veracity of the holy fathers, namely, a divine at- testation of the sanctity of the Catholic church, banished his dread of the former. Let him now speak to this point for him- self, in his own flowing periods. He begins with establishing an important fact, which I also have been labouring to prove, where he says : " It must be confessed that the claim to a mira- culous power was universally asserted and believed 'n\ all Chris- tian countries and in all ages of the church, till the time of the Reformation ; for ecclesiastical history makes no difference be- tween one age and another, but carries on the succession of its miracles, as of all other common events, through all of them in- differently to that memorable period.* As far as church histo- rians can illustrate any thing, there is not a single point, in all history, so constantly, explicitly, and unanimously affirmed by them as the continual succession of those powers, through all ages, from the earliest father, who first mentions them, down to the Reformation ; which same succession is still further deduced by persons of the same eminent character for probity, learning and dignity, in the Romish church, to this very day ; so that the only doubt which can remain with us is, whether church historians are to be trusted or not : for if any credJl be due to them in the present case, it must reach to all or none : because the reason for believing them in any one age will be found to be of equal force in all, as far as it depends on the character of • Free Inquiry, Introduct. Disc. p. xlv. Letter XXIIL 14l the persons attesting, or on the thing attested."* We shall now hear Dr. Middleton's decision on this weighty matter, and upon what grounds it is formed. He says : " The prevaihng opinion of Protestants, namely, of Tillotson, Marshal, Dodwell, &c. is, that miracles continued during the three first centuries. Dr. Waterland brings them down to the fourth, Dr. Beriman to the fifth. These unwarily betrayed the Protestant cause into die hands of its enemies : for it was in those primitive ages, particularly in the third, fourth, and fifth, those flourishing times of miracles, in which the chief corruptions of Popery monkery, the worship of relics, invocation of saints, prayers fof . the dead, superstitious use of images and of sacraments were introduced. "f " We shall find, after the conversion of the Roman empire, the greater part of their boasted miracles were wrought either by monks, or relics, or the sign of the cross, &c. : wherefore, if we admit the miracles, we must admit the rites for the sake of which they were wrought : they both rest on the same bottom. "f " Every one may see what a resem- blance the principles and practice of the fourth century, as they are described by the most eminent fathers of that age, bear to the present rites of the Popish church.''''^ " When we reflect on the surprising confidence with which the fathers of the fourth hge aflirmed, as true, what they themselves had forged, or knew to be forged, it is natural to suspect that so bold a defiance of truth could not be acquired or become general at once, but must have been gradually carried to that height by the exam- ple of former ages."|| Such are the grounds on which this shameless declaimer accuses all the most holy and learned men, whom the world has produced during 1800 years, of forgery and a combination to cheat mankind. He does not say a word to show that the combination itself is either probable or possi- ble ; all he advances is, that this libel on human nature, is necessary for the support of Protestantism ; for he says, and this with evident truth : " By granting the Romanists but a single age of miracles, after the time of the apostles, we shall be entangled in a series of difliculties, whence we can never fairly extricate ourselves, till we allow the same powers also to the present age."ir Methinks I hear some of your society thus asking me, Bo you Aen pretend that your church possesses the miraculous powers at • Ibid. Preface, p. xv. + Introd. p. li. ± Introd. p, Ixvi. ♦ Ibid. Ixy. Ibid, p, Ixxxiv. T Ibid. p. xcn. ! 142 Letter XXIIL the present day 9 I answer, that the church never possessed miraculous powers in the sense of most Protestant writers, so as to be able to eflect cures or other supernatural events at her mere pleasure : for even the apostles could not do this, as we learn li'om the history of the lunatic child, Mat. xvii. 16 : but this I say, that the Catholic church, being always the beloved spouse of Christ, Rev. xxi. 9, and continuing at all times to bring forth children of heroical sanctity, God fails not in this, any more than in past ages, to illustrate her and them by unquestionable miracles : accordingly in those processes which are constantly going on, at the apostolical See, for tlie canonization of new saints,* fresh miracles of a recent date continue to be proved with the highest degree of evidence, as I can testify from having perused, on the spot, the oiFicial printed account of some of them. f For the further satisfaction of your friends, I will inform them that I have had satisfactory proof that the astonishing catastrophe of Louis XVI. and his queen, in being beheaded on a scaffold, was foretold by a nun of Fougeres, Sulhu- Nativite, twenty years before it happened, and that the banishment of the 1^'rench clergy from their country, long before it happened, was predicted by the holy French pilgrim, Benedict Labre, whose miracles caused the conversion of the late Rev. IMr. Thayer, an American clergyman, who being at Rome, witnessed several of them. With respect to miraculous cures of a late date, I have the most respectable at- testation of several of them, and 1 am well acquainted with four or five persons who have experienced them. The following facts are respectfully attested, but at much greater length, by the Rev. Thomas Sadler, of Trafford, near Manchester, and the Rev. J. Cradiorne, of Garswood, near Wigan : — Joseph Lamb, of Eccles, near Manchester, now twenty-eight years old, on the 12th of August, 1814, fell from a ha3'-rick, four yards and a half high, by which accident it was conceived the spine of his back was broken. Certain it is, that he could neither walk nor stand without crutches, down to the second of October, and that he described himself as feeling the most exquisite pain in his back. On that day, having prevailed with much difficulty upon • Among the late ranoniV^tions are those, in 1R07 and 1808, oTs. F. Carac- riolo, founder of the Re°;ular Clorlcs ; of St. Angela de Mercis, foundress of the Ursuline Nuni, of St. Mary of tlie Incarnation, Mile. Acarie, Sic. One of the latest beatifications is that of B. AUoiiso Liguori, bishop of St. Agata de Goti. t One of these, proved in the ])rorei» aries were found to be of the same faith and religion, not only with the Irish, Picts, and Scots, who were converted almost two centuries before them, but also with the Britons or Welsh, who became Christians in the second century, so as only to diffef from them about the time of keeping Easter and a few other ui>- essential points, this circumstance alone proves the Catholic re- ligion to have been that of the church in the aforesaid early age. Still the most demonstrative proofs of the antiquity and originality of our religion are gathered from comparing it with that contained in the works of the ancient fathers. An attempt was made, during a certain period, by some eminent Protest- ants, especially in this country, to press the fathers into theif service. Among these, bishop Jewel of Sarum, was the most coor spicuous. He not only boasted that those venerable witnesses of the primitive doctrine were generally on his side, but also published the following challenge to the Catholics : " Let them show me but one only father, one doctor, one sentence, two lines, and the field is theirs. "§ However, this his vain boast- ing, or rather deliberate impugning of the known truth, only served to scandalize sober and learned Protestants, and among others, his biographer. Dr. Humphreys, wlio complahis that he thereby " Gave a scope to the Papists, and spoiled himself and the Protestant church. "|| In fact, this hypocrisy, joined with his shameful falsification of the fathers, In quotmg them, occa^ sioned the conversion of a beneficed clergyman, and one of tha • Habak. ii. 11. t Hist. Eccles. :j: Bishop Bale. Humphreys the Centur, of Magfdeb. &c. i Jewel's Sermon at St. Paul's Cross ; likewise his Answers to Dr. Cole. }l Life of Jewel, quoted by Walsingham, in his invaluable Search inioMaUtn ^Religion, p. 172. t62 Letter XXVff. «blest writers of his age, Dr. W. Reynolds.* Most Protestant writers of later timesf follow the late Dr. Middleton, and Lu- ther himself, in giving up the ancient fathers to the Catholics without reserve, and thereby the faith of the Christian church during the six first centuries, of which faith these fathers were the witnesses and the teachers. Among other passages to this purpose, the above named doctor writes as follows : " Every one must see what a resemblance the principles and practice of the fourth century bear to the present rites of the Popish church."! Thus, by the confession of her most learned adver- faries our churA is not less CATHOLIC or Universal, as to timCf than she is with respect to name, locality, and numbers, I am, he. J.M. LETTER XXVIL To JAMES BROWN, Esq. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Dear Sir, I HAVE received the letter written by your visitel*, the Rev. Joshua Clark, B. D. at the request, as he states, of certain mem- bers of your society, animadverting on my last to you ; an an- «wer to which letter I am requested to address to you. The Reverend gentleman's arguments are by no means consistent one with another; for like other determined controvertists, he attacks his adversary with every kind of weapon that comes to his hand, in the hopes joer/a^ ct nefas of demolishing him. He maintains, in the first place, that, though Protestantism was not visible before it was unveiled by Luther, it subsisted in the hearts of the true faithful, ever since the days of the apostles, and that the believers in it constituted the real primitive Catho- lic church. To this groundless assumption I answer, that an invisible church is no church at all ; that the idea of such a church is at variance with the predictions of the prophets re- specting Jesus Christ's future church, where they describe it at • Dodd's Church Hist. vol. ii. f See the acknowledgment, on this head, of tl^e learned Protestants, Obretcht, Dumoulin, and Caustibon, % Inquiry into Miracles, Introd. p. 45. Letter XXVIL 103 a mountain on the top of mountains, Is. ii. 2. Mic. iv. 2. and sii a city, whose watchmen shall never hold their peace, Is. Ixii. 6. and, indeed, with the injunction of our Lord himself, to tell the church, Mat. xviii. 17, in a certain case, which he mentions. It is no less repugnant to the declaration of Luther, who says of himself, " At first I stood alone :"* and to that of Calvin, who says, " The first Protestants were obliged to break off from the whole world ;"f as also to that of the church of England in her Homilies, where she says, " Laity and clergy, learned and un- learned, all ages, sects and degrees, have been drowned in abominable idolatry, most detested by God and damnable to man, for eight hundred years and more. "J As to the argument in favour of an invisible church, drawn from 1 Kings xix. 18. where the Almighty tells Elijah, / have left me seven thousand in Israel, whose knees have not been howed to Baal; our divines fail not to observe, that however invisible the church of the Old Law was in the schismatical kingdom of Israel, at the time here spoken of, it was most conspicuous and flourishing in its proper seat, the kingdom of Judah, under the pious king Josaphat. Mr. Clark's second argument is borrowed from Dr. Porteus, and consists in a mere quibble. In answer to the question; ** Where was the Protestant religion before Luther?" this pre- late replies, " It was just where it is now : only that then it was corrupted with many sinful errors, from which it is now reform- ed."*^ But this is to fall back into the refuted system of an in- visible church; it is also to contradict the Homilies, or else It is to confess the real truth, that Protestancy had no existence at all before the sixteenth century. The Reverend gentleman next maintains, on quite opposite grounds, that there have been large and visible societies of Pro- testants, as he calls them, who have stood in opposition to the church of Rome, in all past ages. True, there have been here- tics and schismatics of one kind or other during all that time, from Simon Magus, down to Martin Luther; many sects of whom, such as the Arians, the Nestorians, the Eutychians, the Monotholites, the Albigenses, the Wicklifiites, and the Hussites, have been exceedingly numerous and powerful in their turns, though most of them now have dwindled away to nothing : but observe, that none of the ancient heretics held the doctrines of any description of modem Protestants, and all of them main- tained doctrines and practices which modern Protestants repro- • Opera. Pref. t Epist. 171, J Perils of Idolatry, p» iii 4 Confut. p. 79. 164 Letter XXFH, bate, as much as Catholics do. Thus the Albigenses were real Manicheans, holding two First Principles, or Deities, attributing the Old Testament, the propagation of the human species, t.6 Satan, and acting up to these diabolical maxims.^ The Wick- liffites and Hussites were tlie levelling and sanguinary Jacobins of the times and countries in which they lived ;f in other re- spects these two sects were Catholics, professing their belief in the seven sacraments, the mass, the invocation of saints, purga- tory, he. If, then, your Reverend visiter is disposed to admit such company into his religious communion, merely because they protested against the supremacy of the Pope, and some other Catholic tenets, he must equally admit Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans into it, and acknowledge them to be equally Pro- testants with himself. Your Reverend visiter concludes his letter with a long disser- tation, in which he endeavours to show, that however we Catho- lics may boast of the antiquity and perpetuity of our church in past times, our triumphs must soon cease by the extinction of this church, in consequence of the persecution now carrying on against it in France, and other parts of the continent, J and also from the preponderance of the Protestant power in Europe, and particularly that of our own country, which, he says, is nearly as much interested in the extirpation of Popery as of Jacobin^ Jsm. My answer is this : I see and bewail the anti-Catholic persecution which has been, and is carried on in Fraace and its dependent states, where to decatholicize is the avowed order of the day. This was preceded by the less sanguinary, though equally anti-Catholic persecution of the emperor Joseph II. and his relatives in Germany and Italy. I hear the exultations and nenaces on this account, of the Wranghams, De Coetlegons, Powsons, Bichenos, Ketts, Fabers, Daubenys, and a crowd of other declamatory preachers and writers, some of whom pro- claim that the Romish Babylon is on the point of falling, and others that she is actually fallen. In the mean time, though more living branches of the mystical vine should be cut off by / the sword, and more rotten branches should fall off, from their 'i own decay ,<^ I am not at all fearful for the life of the tree itself; ♦ See an account of them, and the authorities on which this rests, in Lettert to a Prebendary, Letter IV. t Ibid. X Namely, in 1802. ♦ Since the present letter was written, many circumstances have occurred to show the mistaken politic^ of our rulers, in endeavouring to weaken and supplant the reli^on of their truly loyal and conscientious Catholic subjects. Among Other measures for this purpose, may be mentioned the late instructions sent to Letter XXVIL ^^ since the divine veracity is pledged for its safety, as long as the sun and moon shall endure, Ps. Ixxxix. ; and since the experience of eighteen centuries has confirmed our faith in these divine promises. During this long interval, kingdoms and empires have risen and fallen, the inhabitants of every country have been repeatedly changed ; in short, every thing has changed except the doctrine and jurisdiction of the Catholic church, which are precisely the same now as Christ and his apostles left them. In vain did Pagan Rome, during three centuries, exert its force to drown her in her own blood ; in vain did Arianism and other heresies sap her foundations, during two centuries more ; in vain did hordes of barbarians, from the north, and of Mahometans, from the south, labour to overwhelm her ; in vain did Luther swear that he himself would be her death :* she has survived these, and numerous other enemies equally redoubtable ; and she will survive even the fury and machinations of anti-christian philosophy, though directed against her exclusively : for not a drop of Protestant blood has been shed in this impious persecution. Nor is that church which, in a single kingdom, the very head quarters of infidelity, could at once furnish twenty-four thousand martyrs and sixty thousand voluntary exiles, in defence of her faith, so likely to sink under external violence, or internal weakness, as your Rev. visiter supposes. Alluding to the then recent attempt of the emperor Julian to falsify the prophecy of Daniel by rebuilding the Jewish temple, St. John Chrysostom exclaimed, " Behold the temple of Jerusalem ; God has destroyed it, and have men been able to restore it ? Behold the church of Christ ; God the governor of Canada, which Catholic province alone remained faithful at the time of trial, when all the Protestant provinces abjured their allegiance. To the same intent may be cited the letter of Dr. Kerr, senior chaplain of fort St. George, quoted in the late Parliamentary Report. By this it appears that th« Catholics in that province generally converted about three hundred Infidels to Christianity every year, and that there was a prospect of their converting many of the Hindoo chiefs, but that our government set its face against these conrer- Hotu. Thus is the infamous worship of Juggernaut itself preferred to the religion which converted and civilized our ancestors. Juggernaut, as Dr. Buchanan in- forms us, is a huge idol, carved with the most obscene figures round it, and pub- licly worshipped before hundreds of thousands with obscene songs and unnatural rites, too gross to be described. It is placed on a carriage, under the wheels of which great numbers of its votaries are encouraged to throw themselves in order to be crushed to death by them. Now this infernal worship is 7iot barely permit' tedf but even supported by our government in India, as it takes a tribute from «ach individual who is present at it, and likewise defrays the expense ofity to th« amount, says Dr. Buchanan, of 8,700/. annually, including the Iteep of the pros- titutes, &o. • Luther ordered this epitaph to be engraved on hii tomb : Pcttiterem rtvem^ moritiu ero morsiuay Papa. 166 Letter XXVIIL .has built it, have men been able to destroy it?" Should the Almighty permit such a persecution to befall any of the Pro- testant communions, as we have beheld raging against the Ca- tholic church on the continent, does your visiter really believe they will exhibit the same constancy, in suffering for their re- spective tenets, that she has shown in defence of hers ? In fact ; for what tenets should their members suffer exile and death, since, without persecution, they have all, in a manner, abandon- ed their original creeds, from the uncertainty of their rule of faith, and their own natural mutability ? Human laws and pre- miums may preserve the exterior appearance, or mere carcass of a churchy as one of your divines expresses it ; but, if the pastors and doctors of it should demonstrate by their publications that they no longer maintain her original fundamental articles, caa we avoid subscribing to the opinion, expressed by a late digni- tary, that " the church in question, properly so called, is not in eiustence ?"* I am, &;c. J. M. LETTER XXVIIL To JAMES BROWJy, Esq. OJr THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Dear Sir, The last of the four marks of the church, mentioned in our common Creed, is Apostolicity. We each of us declare, in our solemn worship, I believe in one, holy, Catholic and APOS^ TOLICAL church. Christ's last commission to his apostles was this : Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: and, lo ! I am with you always, even unto THE EJVD OF THE WORLD. Mat. xxviii. 20. Now the event has proved, as I have already observed, that the apostles, themselves,^were only to live the ordinary term of man's life ; therefore, the commis- sion of preaching and ministering, together with the promise of the Divine assistance, regards the successors of the apostles, no less than the apostles themselves. This proves that there must • Confessional, p. S44. Letter XXV III. 167 have been an uninterrupted series of such successors of the apostles in every age since their time, that is to say, successor! to their doctrine^ to their jurisdiction, to their orders, and to their mission. Hence it follows that no religious society what- ever, which cannot trace its succession, in these four points, up to the apostles, has any claim to the characteristic title, APOS- TOLICAL. Conformably with what is here laid down, we find the fathers and ecclesiastical doctors of every age referring to this mark of apostolical succession, as demonstrative of their belong- ing to the true church of Christ. St. Irengeus of Lyons, the disciple of St. Polycarp, who himself appears to have been con- secrated by St. John the evangelist, repeatedly urges this argu- ment against his contemporary heretics. " We can count up,'* he says, " those who were appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles and their successors down to us, none of whom taught this doctrine. But as it would be tedious to enumerate the succession of Bishops in the diflerent churches, we refer you to the tradition of that greatest, most ancient, and universally known church, founded at Rome by St. Peter and St. Paul, and which has been preserved there through the succession of its bishops down to the present time." He then recites the names of the several Popes down to Eleutherius, who was then living.* Tertullian, who also flourished in the same century, argues in the same manner, and challenges certain heretics, in these terms: " Let them produce the origin of their church 5 let them display the succession of their bishops, so that the first of them may appear to have been ordained by an apostolic man, who persevered in their communion." He then gives a list of the pontiffs in the Roman See, and concludes as follows : ** Let the Heretics feign any thing like this."f The great St. Au- gustin, who wrote in the fifth century, among other motives of credibility in favour of the Catholic religion, mentions the one in question: " I am kept in this church," he says, " by the suc- cession of prelates from St. Peter, to whom the Lord committed J the care of his sheep, down to the present bishop. "| In like * manner St. Optatus, writing against the Donatists, enumerates all the Popes from St. Peter down to the then living Pope, Siricius, '* with whom," he says, " we and all the world are imited in communion. Do you, Donatists, now give the history ♦ Lib. iii. advers, Haer. c. iii. t " Fingant tale aliquid haeretici,** Prsescript. % Contra Epist. Fuudam. 168 Letter XXVIIL of your episcopal ministry."* In fact, this mode of proving the Catholic church to be apostolical is conformable to common sense and constant usage. If a prince is desirous of showing his title to a throne, or a nobleman or gentleman his claim to an estate, he fails not to exliibit his genealogical table, and to trace his pedigree up to some personage whose right to it was imquestionable. I shall adopt the same precise method on the present occasion, by sending your society a slight sketch of our apostolical tree, by which they will see, at a glance, an abridg- ment of the succession of our chief bishops in the apostolical See of Rome, from St. Peter up to the present edifying pontiff, Pius VII, as likewise that of other illustrious doctors, prelates and saints, who have defended the apostolical doctrine by their preaching and writings, or who have illustrated it by their lives. They will also see the fulfilment of Christ's injunction to the apostles and their successors in the conversion of nations and people to his faith and church. Lastly, they will behold the unhappy series of heretics and schismatics, who, in difterent ages, have fallen oft' from the doctrine or communion of the apostolic church. But as it is impossible, in so narrow a com- pass as the present sheet, to give the names of all the Popes, or to exhibit the other particulars here mentioned in the distinct and detailed manner which the subject seems to require, I will try to supply the deficiency by the subjoined copious note.f * Contra Parmen. lib. ii. t Within the first century from the birth of Christ, this long expected Mes- siah founded the kingdom of his holy church in Judaea, and chose his apostles to propagate the same throughout the earth, over whom he appointed Simon, as the centre of union and head pastor ; charging him to feed his whole flock, sheep as well as lambs, giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and changing his name into that of PETER, or ROCK; adding, on {his rock I will build my »kurch. Thus dignified, St. Peter first established his See at Antioch, the head city of Asia, whence he sent his disciple St. Mark to establish and govern the See of Alexandria, the head city of Africa. lie afterwards renioveil liis own See to Rome, the capital of Europe and the world. Here, having, with St. Paul, seal- ed the Gospel with his blood, he transmitted his prerogative to St. Linus, from whom it descended in succession to St. Cletus and St. Clement. Among the other illustrious doctors of this age are to be reckoned, first, the other apostles, then SS. Mark, Luke, Barnaby, Timothy, Titus, Hernias, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna. From the few remaining writings of thejo may be gathered the necessity of unity and submission to bishops, tradition, th« real presence, the sacrifice of the mass, veneration for relics, itc. ▼ In this aige, churches were founded, besides the above-mentioned places, in Samaria, throughout lesser Asia, in Armenia, India, Grvpc.e, Eg}'pt, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain, and Gaul; in this apoftolical age, aho, and as it were under the eyes of the apostles, different proud innovators pretended to reform the doctrine which they taught. Among these were Simon the Magician, Hymeneus and Fhiletui^ I the iacontineJtit Nicolsdtes, CerinUius, Ebion, and Meander. Letter XXVIII. I59 I do not, dear sir, pretend to exhibit a history of the church nor even a regular epitome of it, in the present note, any mort CENT. 11. The succession of chief pastors in the chair of Peter was kept up through thii century by and priests, thus renouncing their former ministerial character, and acknowledging that they had hitherto been mere la3men.§ In like manner, on the accession of king William, who was a Dutch Calvinist, to the throne, when a commission of ten bi- shops and twenty divines was appointed to modify the articles and liturgy of the established church, for the purpose of form- • Ecclesiaat. Politic. B. v. Art. 77. t Stat. 13 and 14 Car. 2, c. 4. 4: " Curam et reg^imen animarum parochianorum tibi commiltimus." i Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. ii. p. 887. It appears from the same history that four other Scotch ministers, who had formerly permitted themselves to be con- •ecrated bishops, were, oa that account, excommunicated and degraded by th« l»irk. Records, N. cxiii. Letter XXIX. I79 ing a coalition with the dissenters, it appeared that the most lax among them, such as Tillotson and Burnet, together with chief baron Hales and other lay lords, required that the dissenting ministers should, at least be conditionally ordained * as beinir thus far mere laymen. In a word, it is well known to be the practice of the established church, at the present day, to ordain all dissenting Protestant ministers of every description, who go over to her, whereas, she never attempts to re-ordain an apos- tate Catholic priest, who offers himself to her service, but is satisfied with his taking the oaths prescribed by law.f This doctrine of the establishment, evidently unchurches, as Dr. Hey- lin expresses it, all other Protestant communions ; as it is an established principle that, JVo ministry no church,\ and with equal evidence, it vnchristians them also ; since this church una- nimously resolved, in 1575, that baptism cannot be performed by any person but a lawful minister. § But dismissing these uncertain and wavering opinions, we know what little account all other Protestants, except those of England, have made of apostolical succession and episcopal ordination. Luther's principles on these points are clear from his famous Bull against the FALSELY CALLED order of bi- shops^w where he says, " Give ear now, you bishops, or rather you visors of the devil : Dr. Luther will read you a Bull and a Reform, which will not sound sweet in your ears. Dr. Luther's Bull and Reform is this, whoever spend their labour, persons and fortunes, to lay waste your episcopacies, and to extinguish the government of bishops, they are the beloved of God, true Christians, and opposers of the devil's ordinances. On the other hand, whoever support the government of bishops, and willingly obey them, they are the devil's ministers," &tc. True it is, that afterwards, namely, in 1542, this arch-reformer, to * Life of Tillotson by Dr. Birch, pp. 42. 176. t Notwithstanding these proofs of the doctrine and practice of the established church, a great proportion of her modern divines consent, at the present day, to sacrifice all her pretensions to divine authority and uninterrupted succession. It has been shown in The Letters to a Prebendary, that in the principles of the cele- brated Dr. Balguy, a priest or a bishop can jis well be made by the town crier, if commissioned by the civil power, as by the metropolitan. To this system, Dr. Sturges, Dr. Hey, Dr. Paley, and a crowd of other learned theologians subscribe their names. Even the bishop of Lincoln, in maintaining Episcopacy to be an apostolical institution, denies it to be binding on Christians to adopt it : which, in fact, is to reduce it to a mere civil and optional practice. Elem. Vol. ii. Art. 23. \ " Ubi nuUus est Sacerdos nulla est Ecclesia." St. Jerom, &c, « Elem. of Theol. Vol. ii. p. 471. '' Adversus falso Nomin. Tom. ii. Jen. A. D. 1525. 180 Letter XXIX. gratify liis chict' patron, the Elector of Saxony, took upon him- self to consecrate his bottle compniiicn, Amsdorf, bishop of Naumbiir£rh :* but, then, it is notorious, from the whole of his conthut, that Luther set himself above all law, and derided con- sistency and decency. Nearly the same may be said of ano- ther later reformer, John Wesley, who, professing himself to be a Prestrijtcr of the church of England, pretended to ordain ?.Iessrs. Whatcoat, Vesey, he. priests, and to consecrate Dr. Coke n bishop /f With equal inconsistency, the elders of Hern- huth in Moravia, profess to consecrate bishops for England and other kinudoms. On the other hand, how averse the Calvin- ists, and other dissenters, are to the very niiine as well as the office of bishops, all modern histories, especially those of En- gland a!id Scotland, demonstrate. But, in short, by whatever name, whether of bishops, priests, deacons, or pastors, these ministers respectively call themselves, it is undeniable, that they are all self-appointed, or, at most, tliey derive their claim from other men, who themselves were self-appointed, filleen, sixteen, or seventeen hundred years subsequent to the time of the apos- tles. The chief question which remains to be discussed concerns the ministry of the church of England; namely, whether the first Protestant bishops, appointed by queen Elizabeth, when the Ca- tholic bishops were turned out of their Seer., did or did not re- ceive valid consecration from some other b-ishop, who, himself, was validly consecrated.^ The discussion of this question has filled many volumes, the result of \\hich is, that the orders are, to say the least, exceedingly doubtful. For, first, it is certain that the doctrine of the fathers of tins church v^as very loose, as to the necessity of consecration and ordination. Its chief founder, Cranmer, solemnly subscribed his name to the position, that princes ar.d governors, no less tlian bishops, can make priests, ;uid that no consecration is n|3poiiUcd by Scripture to n)akc a bishop or priest. t In like manner, Knrlow, on the va- lidity of whose consecration that of JMalhew Parker and of all succeeding Anglican bishops chieliy rests, preached openly that • Rlcubn, Comment. L. 14. f t Dr. \'.'hiteh'':\d's Life of Charles and John '\^V'cley. It appenrs that Charles ■waa horrif'ly «(i'nt1rili/eil at this stf-p of his l.rotlipr' Jo'nii, and that a lasting schism among Ine Wf-lryiMi >!clhoJiit« whs the ronsoquenreof it. X Hurnf't's IH«f. of I'riortn. Record?, H. lii, N. VM. Soc also his Rec. Part ii. N. t», by whirh it ap{)r:irs that Cranmer and fho otlier romp'iyinj:^ prelates took out fresh romini sions on thf- drtilli of llcfry ^■|[^ from Tdward VI, to govern thfiir fhoctes, durante bitifihu iti;. like mere civil olliccrs. Letter XXIX. 181 the king's appointment, without any orders whatsoever, suffices to make a bishop.* This doctrine seems to have been broach- ed by him to meet the objection that he himself had never been consecrated : in fact, the record of such a transaction has been hunted for in vain, during these two hundred years. Secondly, it is evident, from the books of controversy, still extant, that the Catholic doctors, Harding, Bristow, Stapleton, and Cardinal Allen, who had been fellow-students and intimately acquainted with the first Protestant bishops, under Elizabeth, and particu- larly with Jewel, bishop of Sarum, and Home, bishop of Win- ton, constantly reproached them, in the most pointed terms, that they never had been consecrated at all, and that the latter, in their voluminous replies, never accepted of the challenge or refuted the charge, otherwise than by ridiculing the Catholic consecration. Thirdly, it appears that after an interval of fifty years from the beginning of the controversy, namely in the year 1613, when Mason, chaplain to archbishop Abbot, published a work, referring to an alleged Register at Lambeth, of archbi- shop Parker's consecration by Barlow, assisted by Coverdale and others, the learned Catholics universally exclaimed that the Register was a forgery, unheard of till that date, and asserted, among other arguments, that, admitting it to be true, it was of no avail, as the pretended consecrator of Parker, though he had sat in several Sees, had not himself been consecrated for any of them.f These, however, are not the only exceptions which Catholic divines have taken to the ministerial orders of the church of England. They have argued, in particular, against the form of them, as theologians term it; in fact, according to the ordinal of Edward VI, restored by Elizabeth, priests were ordained by the power o^ forgiving sins^X without any power of offering up sacrifice, in which the essence of the sacerdotium, or priesthood consists ; and, according to the same ordinal, bishops were consecrated without the communication of any fresh power whatsoever, or even the mention of episcopacy, by ^form which might be used to a child, when confirmed or baptized.^ This • Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol.ii. p. 135. t Richardson, in his notes on Godwin's Commentary, is forced to confess as follows: " Dies consecrationis ejus (Barlow) nondum apparet." p. 642. :{: " Receive the Holy Ghost : whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained: and be thou a faithful dis- penser of the word of God, and of his Holy Sacraments." Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 158. i '' I'ake the Holy Ghost, and remember that thou stir up the grace of God, which is in thee by the imposition of hands." — Ibid. p. 164. ^ 182 Letter XXIX. was agreeable to the maxims of the principal author of that ordinal, Crannier, who solemnly decided that "bishops and prlt sts were no two thinij^s, but one and the same office."* On this subject our controvertists urge, not only the authority of all tiie Jiatin and Greek ordinals, but also the confession of the above-mentioned Protestant divine, Mason, who says, with evi- dent truth, '' Not every form of words will serve for this institu- tion (conveying orders) but such as are significant of the power conveyed by the order."f In short, these objections were so )werVuily urged by our divines. Dr. Chanipney, J. Lewgar, S. . B.J and others, that ahnost immediately after the last named had published his work containing them, called Erasius Senior, namely, in 1662, the convocation, being assembled, it altered the form of ordaining priests and consecrating bishops, in order to obviate these objections. § But admitting that these altera- tions are sufficient to obviate all the objections of our divines to the ordinal, which they arc not, they came above a hundred years too late for their intended purpose; so that if the priests and bishops of Edward's and Elizabeth's reigns were invalidly ordained and consecrated, so must those of Charles 11. 's reign, and their successors, have been also. However long I have dwelt on this subject, it is not yet ex- hausted : the case is, there is the same necessity of an apostoli- cal succession of mission or authority, to execute the functions of holy orders, as there is of the hoi}- orders themselves. This mission, or authority, was imparted by Christ to his apostles, when he said to them, ,j^s the Father hath sent me, I also send you, Mat. XX. 21, and of this St. Paul also speaks, where he says of the apostles, How can they preach unless they are sentl Rom. X. 15. I believe, sir, that no regular Protestant church, or society, admits its minister, to have, by their ordination or appointment, unlimited authority in every place and congrega- tion: certain it is, from the ordinal and articles of the establish- • Biirnot^ Hist, of Reform, vol. i. Record, b. iii. n. 21, quest. 10. t Il.id. n. ii. r. 16. ^ Lowgrnr was the friend of Chillingworth, and by him converted to the Ca- tholic fiith, wliich, liowover, he refused to abandon, when tlie latter relapsed into r.atitiiilinariaiiiMn. 4 The f-.rni nfonlainin;? a priest was thus altered : " Receive the|TToly Ghost fortheofTiip rtiid work of a j)ric5t in the cliumh of God, now committed to thee by the impo'ition of our hands: Whose sins thou shalt forgive, they are for- given," kr.—'V\\o form of consecratinj^ a bishop was thus en];ir^ed : " Receive tJic Holy Ghost for the ofTire and work of a bishop in the churcli of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands, in the name of the Father, and of tlip Son, an.) of tho Holy Ghost; and remember, that thou stir up the grace of (Jod, M'hich is in ihcc.'' Letter XXIX, 183 ed church, that she confines the jurisdiction of her ministers to ** the congregation to which they shall be appointed."* Con- formably to this, Dr. Berkley teaches, that " a defect in the mission of the ministry, invalidates the sacraments, aflects the purity of public worship, and therefore deserves to be investi- gated by every sincere Christian."! To this archdeacon Daubeny adds, that " Regular mission only subsists in the churches which have preserved apostolical succession." I moreover believe that in all Protestant societies the ministers are persuaded that the authority by which they preach and per form their functions is, some how or another, divine. But, on this head, I must observe to you, dear sir, and your society, that there are only two ways by which divine mission or au- thority can be proved or communicated 5 the one ordinary, the other extraordinary. The former takes place when this au- tliority is transmitted in regular succession from those who ori- ginally received it from God ; the other, when the Almighty interposes, in an extraordinary manner, and immediately com- missions certain individuals to make known his will to men. The latter mode evidently requires indisputable miracles to at- test it ; and accordingly Moses and our Saviour Christ, who were sent in this manner, constantly appealed to the prodigies they wrought in proof of their divine mission. Hence, even Luther, when Muncer, Storck, and their followers, the Ana- baptists, spread their errors and devastations through Lower Germany, counselled the magistrates to put these questions to them, (not reflecting that the questions were as applicable to himself as to Muncer,) '^ Who conferred upon you the office of preaching ? And who commissioned you to preach ? If they answer, God^ then let the magistrates say, prove this to us by some evident miracle : for so God makes known his will, when he changes the institutions, which he had before established. "J Should this advice of the first reformer to the magistrates be followed in this age and country, what swarms of sermonizers . and expounders of the Bible would be reduced to silence ! For, on one hand, it is notorious, that they are self-appointed pro- phets, who run without being sent ; or, if they pretend to a commission, they derive it from other men, who themselves had received none, and who did not so much as claim any, by regu^ lar succession from the apostles. Such was Luther himself; such also were Zuinglius, Calvin, Muncer, Menno, Jolrn Knox, • Article 23. Form of ordering priests ap't deacons, t Berm. at Consecr, of bishop Home. t ''^''■'-l^n. n« stat= Reii». 1, ▼ 184 Letter XXIX, George Fox, Zlnzendorf, Wesley, Whitfield, and Swedenborg. None of these preachers, as I have signified, so much as pre- tended to have received their mission from Christ in the ordir- nary ivay, by uninterrupted succession from the apostles. On the otlier hand, they were so far from undertaking to work real miracles, by way of proving they have received an extraordi- nary mission from God,t\mt, as Erasmus reproached them, they could not so much as cure a lame horse, in proof of their divine legation. Should your friend, the Rev. Mr. Clark, see this letter, he will doubtless exclaim, that, whatever may be the case with dissenters, the church of England, at least, has received her mission and authority, together with her orders, by regular succession from the apostles, through the Catholic bishops, in the ordinary way. In fact, this is plainly asserted by the bi- shop of Lincoln.* But take notice, dear sir, that though we were to admit of an apostolical succession of orders in the esta- blished church, we never could admit of an apostolical succes- sion of mission, jurisdiction, or right to exercise those orders in that church : nor can its clergy, with any consistency, lay the least claim to it. For, first, if the Catholic church, that is to say, its " Laity and clergy, all sects and degrees, were drowned in abominable idolatry, most detested of God and damnable to man, for the space of eight hundred years," as the KOiuilies affirm.! how could she retain this divine mission and jurisdiction, all this time, and employ them in commissioning her clergy all this time to preach up this *' detestable idola- try ?" Again, was it possible for the Catholic church to give jurisdiction and authority, for example, to archbishop Parker, and t!ie bishops Jewel and Home, to preach against herself? Did ever any insurgents against an established government, ex- cept the regicides in the grand rebellion, claim authority from that very government to fight against it, and destroy it ? In a word, we perfectly well know, from history, that the first English Protest- ants did not profess, any more than foreign Protestants, to derive any mission or authority whatsoever from the apostles, through the existing Catholic church. Those of Henry's reign preach- ed and ministered in defiance of all authority, ecclesiastical and civil. J Their successors in the reign of Edward and^EHzabeth claimed their whole right and mission to preach and to minis- • Elena, of Theol. vol. ii. p. 400. t Against the Perils of Idolatry, P. iii X Collier's Hist. vol. ii. p. 81. Letter XXIX. 165 ter from the civil power only.* This latter point is demonstra- tively evident from the act and the oath of supremacy, and from the homage of the archbishops and bishops to the said Elizabeth, in which the prelate elect " acknowledges and con- fesses, that he holds his bishopric, as well in spirituals as in temporals, from her alone and the crown ro} al." The same thing is clear from a series of royal ordinances respecting the clergy in matters purely spiritual, such as the pronouncing on doctrine^ the prohibition of prophesying, the inhibition of all preaching, the giving and suspending of spiritual faculties, he. Now , though I sincerely and cheerfully ascribe to my sovereign all the temporal and civil power, jurisdiction, rights, and au- thority, which the constitution and laws ascribe to him, I can- not believe that Christ appointed any temporal prince to feed his mystical flock, or any part of it, or to exercise the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven at his discretion. It was fore- told by bishop Fisher in Parliament, that the royal ecclesiasti- cal supremacy, if once acknowledged, might pass to a child or to a woman, f as, in fact, it soon did to each of them. It was afterwards transferred, with the crown itself, to a foreign Cal- vinist, and might have been settled, by a lay assembly, on a Mahometan. All, however, that is necessary for me here to remark is, that the acknowledgment of a royal ecclesiastical supremacy " in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things or causes, "J (as when the question is, who shall preach, baptize, &c. and who shall not; what is sound doctrine, and what is not,) is decidedly a renunciation of Christ's commission given to his apostles, and preserved by their successors in the Catholic apostolic church. Hence it clearly appears that there is and can be no apostoliccd succession of ministry in the established church more than in the other congregations or societies of Protestants. All their preaching and ministering, in their several degrees, is performed by mere human authority.^ On the other hand, not a sermon is preached, nor a child baptized, nor a penitent absolved, nor a priest ordained, nor a bishop * Archbishop Abbot having incurred suspension by the canon law, for acci- dentally shooting a man, a royal commission was issued to restore him. On ano- ther occasion he was suspended by the king himself, for refusing to license a book. In Elizabeth's reign, the bishops approved o( prophesying, as it was called, the queen disapproved of it, and she obliged them to condemn it. t See his Life by Dr. Bailey : also Dodd's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. i Oath of supremacy. Homage of bishops, &c. ^ It is curious to see in queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, and in the 37th Article, the disclaimer of her " actually ministeri7ig the Word and the Sacrament.'''' The question was not about this, but about the jurisdiction or mission of the ministry. 2 A 186 Lttter XXX. consecrated, throughout the whole extent of the Catholic church, without the minister of such function being able to show his authority from Christ for what he does, in the commission of Christ to his apostles : All power in heaven and on earth is given to me : Go therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them, ^c. Mat. xxviii. 19; and without being able to prove his claim to that commission of Christ, by producing the table of his unin- terrupted succession from the apostles. I will not detain you by entering into a comparison, in a religious point of view, be- tween a ministry, which officiates by divine authority, and others which act by mere human authority; but shall conclude this subject by putting it to the good sense and candour of your so- ciety, whether, from all that has been said, it is not as evident, which, among the different communions, is THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH we profess to believe in, as which is THE CA- THOLIC CHURCH.? I am, &c. J.M. LETTER XXX. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Dear Sir, I FIND that your visiter, the Rev. Mr. Clark, had not left you at the latter end of last week ; smce it appears, by a letter which I have received from him, that he had seen my two last letters, addressed to you at New Cottage. He is much dis- pleased with their contents, which I am not surprised at ; and he uses some harsh expressions against them and their author, of which I do not complain, as he was not a party to the agree- ment entered into at the bei]finning of our correspondence, by the tenor of wliich I was left at ifull liberty to follow up my arguments to wluitever lengtlis they might conduct lile, without any person of the society being offended with me on that ac- count. I shall pass over the passages in the letter wliich seem to have been dictated by too warm a feeling, and shall confine my answer to those wliich contain something like argument against what I have advanced. Letter XXX. 187 The Reverend gentleman, then, objects against the claim of our pontiffs to the apostolic succession; that in different ages this succession has been interrupted, by the contentions of rival Popes ; and that the lives of many of them have been so crimi- nal, that according to my own argument, as he says, it is in- credible that such pontiffs should have been able to preserve and convey the commission and authority given by Christ to his apostles. I grant, sir, that, from the various commotions and accidents to which all sublunary things are subject, ther*- have been several vacancies, or interregnums in the Papacy ; but none of them have been of such a lengthened duration as to prevent a moral continuation of the Popedom, or to hinder the execution of the important offices annexed to it. I grant also, that there have been rival Popes and unhappy schisms in the church, particularly one great schism, at the end of the four- teenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century : still the true Pope was always clearly discernible at the times we are speak- ing of, and in the end was acknowledged even by his oppo- nents. Lastl}^, I grant that a few of the Popes, perhaps a tenth part of the whole number, swerving from the example of the rest, have, by ihe'iv personal vices, disgraced their holy station : but even these Popes always fulfilled their public duties to th« church by maintaining the apostolical doctrine, moral as well an speculative, the apostolical orders, and the apostolical mission; so that their misconduct chiefly injured their own souls, and did not essentially affect the church. But if what the Homihes afHrm were true, that the whole church had been " drowned in idolatry for eight hundred years," she must have taught and commissioned all those, whom she ordained to teach this ho^ rible apostasy, which she never could have done, and at the same time retained Christ's commission and authority to teach all nations the Gospel. This demonstrates the inconsistency of those clergymen of the establishment, who accuse the Catholic church of apostasy and idolatry, and at the same time boast of having received, through her, a spiritual jurisdiction and mini8»7~ try from Jesus Christ. Your visiter next expatiates, in triumphant strains, on the ex- ploded fable of Pope Joan ; for exploded it certainly may he termed, when such men as the Calvinist minister Blondel, and the infidel Bayle, have abandoned and refuted it. But the cir- cumstances of the fable themselves sufficiently refute it. Ac- cording to these, in the middle of the ninth century, an Engliik 188 Letter XXX. woman J born at Mentz, in Germany,* studied philosophy at •Athens, wliere there was no school of philosophy in the ninth century, more than there is now, and taught divinity at Rome, It is pretended that, being elected Pope, on the death of Leo IV in S55, she was delivered of a child, as she was walking in a solemn procession near the Colliseum, and died on the spot ; and moreover, that astahie o/Aer was there erected in memory of the disgraceful event! There have been great debates among the learned concerning the first author of this absurd tale, and concerning the interpolations in the copies of the first chronicles which mention it.f At all events, it was never heard of for more than two hundred years after the period in question : and in the mean time, we are assured, from the genuine works of contemporary writers and distinguished prelates, some of whom then resided at Rome, such as Anastasius the librarian, Luitprand, Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, Photius of C. P. Lupis Ferrar, &:c. that Benedict III. was canonically elected Pope in the said year 855, only three days after the death of Leo IV, which evidently leaves no interval for the pontificate of the fabulous Joan. From the warfare of attack, my Reverend antagonist passes to that of defence, as he terms it. In this he heavily complains of my not having done justice to the Protestants, particularly in the article of foreign missions. On this head, he enumerates the different societies, existing in this* country, for carrying them on, and the large sums of money which they annually raise for this purpose. The societies, I learn from him, are the following: 1st, the Society for promoting Chris- tian Knowledge, called the Bartlet Building Society, which, though strictly of the Establishment, employs missionaries in India to the number of six, all Germans, and it should seem, all Lutherans. 2dly, There is the Society for propagating Chris- tianity in the English colonies ; but I hear nothing of its do- ings. 3dly, There is another for the conversion of negro slaves, of which I can only say, ditto. 4thly, There is another for sending missionaries to Africa and the East, concerning which we are equally left in the dark. 5thly, There is the London Missionary Society, which sent out the ship PufT, with certain preachers and their wives, to Otaheite, Tongabatoo, and the Marquesas, and published a journal of the voyage, by • Ita Pseudo Marti nus PolonU8, kc. i See Breviarium Hi3torico--Chronologico— criticum Pontif. Roman, stod^ IL F. Pagi, torn. ii. p. 72. Letter XXX. 189 whkh it appears that they are strict Calvinists, and Indepen- dents. 6thly, The Edinburgh Missionary Society fraternizes with the last mentioned. 7thly, There is an Arminian Mission- ary Society under Dr. Coke, the head of the Wesleyan Method- ists. 8thly, There is a Moravian Missionary Society, which appears more active than any others, particularly at the Cape, and in Greenland and Surinam. To these, your visiter says, must be added, the Hibernian Society for diffusing Christian knowledge in Ireland ; as also, and still more particularly, the Bible Society, with all its numerous ramifications. Of this last named, he speaks glorious things, foretelling that it will, in its progress, purify the world from infidelity and wickedness. In answer to what has been stated, I have to mention several marked differences between the Protestant and the Catholic missionaries. The former preached various discordant reli* gions ; for what religions can be more opposite than the Calvin- istic and the Arminian ? And how indignant would a church- man feel, if I were to charge him with the impiety and obscen- ity of Zinzendorf and his Moravians ? The very preachers of the same sect, on board of the Duff, had not agreed upon the creed they were to teach, when they were within a few days sail of Otaheite.* Whereas the Catholic missionaries, whether Italians, French, Portuguese, or Spaniards, taught and planted precisely the same religion in the opposite extremities of the globe. Secondly, the envoys of those societies had no com- mission or authority to preach, but what they derived from the men and women, who contributed money to pay for their voy- ages and accommodations. I have not sent these prophets, says the Lord, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied, Jer. xxiii. 21. On the other hand, the apostolical men, who, in ancient and in modern times, have converted the nations of the earth, all derived their mission and authority from the centre of the apostolic tree, the See of Peter. Third- ly, I cannot but remark the striking difference between the Protestant and the Catholic missionaries, with respect to their qualifications and method of proceeding. The former were, for the most part, mechanics and laymen, of tlie lowest order, without any learning infused or acquired, beyond what they could pick up from the English translation of the Bible ; they were frequently incumbered with wives and children, and arm- • " By the middle of January, the Committee of eight (among the 30 mission«. dries) had nearly finished the articles of/aiih. Two of the number diss6Qt«d| but gave in." — Journal of the Duff. 190 Letter XXX cd with muskets and bayonets, to kill those whom they could not convert.* Whereas the Catholic missionaries have always been priests, or ascetics, trained to literature and religious ex* ercises, men of continency and self-denial, who have had no other defence than their breviary and crucifix, no other weapon than the sword of the sjnrit, which is the word of God, Ephes. vi. 17. Fourthly, I do not find any portion of that lively faith and heroical constancy, in braving poverty, torments, and death, for the Gospel, among the few Protestant converts, or even among their preachers, which have so frequently illustrat- ed the different Catholic missions. Indeed, I have not heard of a single martyr of any kind, in Asia, Africa, or America, who can be considered as the fruit of the above-named societies, or of any other Protestant mission whatsoever. On the other hand, few are the countries in which the Christian religion has been planted by Catholic priests, without being watered with some of their own blood and of that of their converts. To say nothing of the martyrs of a late date in the Cathoiic liiissions of Turkey, Abyssinia, Siam, Tonquin, Cochinchina, &:c., there has been an almost continual persecution of the Catholic* in the empire of China, for about a hundred years past, whlcb, be- sides confessors of the faith, who have endured various tor- tures, has produced a very great number of mart3'rs, native Chinese as well as Europeans ; laity as well as priests and bi- shops. f Within these two years,J the wonderful apo^le of the great Peninsula of Corea, to the east of China, James Ly, with as many as one hundred of his converts, has suffered death for the faith. In the islands of Japan, the anti -christian perse- cution, excited by the envy and avarice of the Dutch, raged with a fury unexampled in the records of Pagan l?ome. It began with the crucifixion of twenty-six martyrs, nii st of them missionaries. It then proceeded to other more horribJe martyr- doms, and it concluded with putting to death as many as eleven • The eighteen preachers who remained at Otaheite " took up arms bi/ way of precaution.'''' — Ibid. It appears, from subsequent accounts, that the preachers made use of their arms, to protect their wives from the men whom they came to convert. Of the nine preachers destined for Tor.gabatoo, six were for carrying fire arms on shore, and three against it. — Journal. « t Hist, de TEglise par Berault Bercastel, torn. 22, 23. Butler's Lives of the Saints, Fel). 5. Mem. Ecclcs. pour le 18 Si('c. X Namely, in 1801. While this work is in the press, we receive an account of the martyrdom of Mgr. Dufresse, bishop of Tabraca, and Vicar apostolic of Sutrhuen, in China, wlio was beliended there Sept. 14, 1815, and of F. J. de ^Vior, missionary in Chiansi. who. after various torments, was strangled, Feb. 13, lOlG. Letter XXX. 191 hundred thousand Christians.* Nor were those numerous and splendid victories of the Gospel in the provinces of South America achieved without torrents of Catholic blood. Many of the first preachers were slauc^htered by the savages to whom they announced the Gospel, and not unfrequently devoured by them, as was the case with the first bishop of Brazil. In the last place, the Protestant missions have never been attended with any great success. Those heretofore carried on by the Dutch, French, and American Calvinists, seemed to have been more levelled at the destruction of the Catholic missions, than at the conversion of the Pagans. f In later times, the zealous Wesley went on a mission to convert the savages of Georgia, but returned without making one proselyte. His companion Whitfield afterwards went to the same country on the same er- rand, but returned without any greater success. Of the mis- sionaries who went out in the Dufi', those who were left at the Friendly Islands and the Marquesas abandoned their posts in despair, as did eleven of the eighteen left at Otaheite. The remaining seven had not, in the course of six ^^ears, baptized a single Islander. In the mean time, the depravity of the natives in killing their infants and other abominations increased so fast, as to threaten their total extinction. In the Bengal govern- ment, extending over from thirty to forty millions of people, with all its influence and encouragement, not more than eighty converts have been made by the Protestant missionaries in seven years, and those were almost all Chandalas or outcasts from the Hindoo religion, who were glad to get a pittance for their support,! " for the perseverance of several of whom," * Berault Bercastel says two millions, torn. 20. t It is generally known, and not denied by Mosheim himself, that the exter- mination uf the flourishing missions in Japan is to be ascribed to the Dutch. When they became masters of the Portuguese settlements in India, they endea- voured, by persecution as well as by other means, to make the Christian natives abandon the Catholic religion to which St. Xavier and his companions had con- verted them. The Calvinist preachers having failed in their attempt to prose- lyte the Brazilians, it happened that one of their party, James Sourie, took a merchant vessel at sea with forty Jesuit missionaries, under F. Azevedo, on board of it, bound to Brazil, when, in hatred to them and their destination, he put them all to death. The year following, F. Diaz, with eleven companions, bound on the same mission, and falling into the hands of the Calvinists, ni<»t with the same fate. Incredible pains were taken by the ministers of New England to induce the Hurons, Iroquois, and other converted savages, to abandon the Ca- tholic religion, when the latter answered them : " You never preached the word to us while we were Pagans ; and now that we are Christians, you try to deprive us of it." X Extract of a Speech of C. Marsh, Esq. in a committee of the H. of C. July I, 1815. See also Major Waring's remarks on Oxford Sermons. 192 Letter XXX. their instructors say, " they tremble."* How different a scene do the Catholic missions present! To say nothing of ancient Christendom, all the kingdoms and states of which were re- claimed from Paganism and converted to Christianity by Ca- tholic preachers, and not one of them by preachers of any other description : what extensive and populous islands, provinces and states, were wholly, or in a great part reclaimed from idolatry, in the East and in the West, soon after Luther's revolt, by Ca- tholic missionaries ! But to come still nearer to our own time : F. Bouchet, alone, in the course of his twelve years labours in Madura, instructed and baptized twenty thousand Indians, while F. Britto, within fifteen months only, converted and re- generated eight thousand, when he sealed his mission with his blood. By the latest returns which I have seen from the East- ern missionaries to the directors of the French Missions Etran- geres, it appears that in the western district of Tonquin, during the five years precedhig the beginning of this century, four thousand one hundred and one adults, and twenty-six thousand nine nundred and fifteen children, were received into the church by baptism, and that in the lower part of Cochinchina, nine hundred grown persons had been baptized in the course of two years, besides vast numbers of children. The empire of China contains six bishops and some hundreds of Catholic priests. In a single province of it, Sutchuen, during the year 1796, fifteen hundred adults were baptized, and two thousand five hundred and twenty-seven Catechumens were received for instruction. By letters of a later date from the above mentioned martyr Dufresse, bishop of Tabraca and Vic. Ap. of Sutchuen, it ap- pears, that during the year 1810, in spite of a severe persecu- tion, nine hundred and sixty-five adults were baptized, and du- ring 1814, though the persecution increased, eight hundred and twenty-nine, without reckoning infants, received baptism. Bi- shop Lamote, Vic. Ap. of Fokien, testifies that, in his district, during the year 1810, ten thousand three hundred and eighty- four infants, and one thousand six hundred and seventy-seven grown persons, were baptized, and two thousand six hundred and seventy-four Catechumens admitted. From this short specimen, I trust, dear sir, it will appear manifest to you, on which Christian society God bestows' his grace to eltecute the work of the apostles. a^j well as to preserve their doctrine^ theW orders and th(?ir mission. As to the wonderftd effects which your visiter expects from ♦ Transact, of Prot. Miss, quoted in Edinb. Review, April, 180S. IZciicr XXX. 193 tbe Bible Society, and the lliree score and three transhitious into foreign tongues of the Enghsh translation of the BibJe, in the conversion of the Pagan world, I beg leave to ask him, who is to voneh to the Tartars, Turks, and idolaters, that the Testa- ments and Bibles, which the society is pouring in upon them, were inspired by the Creator ? Who is toi answer for these translations, made by officers, merchants, and merchants' clerks, being accurate and faithful 'f Who is to teach these barbarians to read, and, after that, to make any thing like a connected sense of the mysterious volumes? Docs Mr. C. really think that an inhabitant of Otaheite, when he is enabled to read the Bible, will extract the sense of the 39 Articles or of any other Christian system whatever from it ? In short, has the Bible Society, or any of the other Protestant societies, converted a single Pagan or Mahometan by the bare text of Scripture? When such a convert can be produced, it will be time enough for me to propose to him those further gravelling questions which result from my observations on the Sacred Text in a former letter to you. In the mean time let your visiter rest assured, that the Catholic church will proceed in the old and successful manner, by which she has converted all the Christian people on the face of the earth ; the same, which Christ deli- vered to his apostles and their successors : Go ye into all the fvorld and ^jreach the Gospel to every creature. Mark. xvi. 15. On the other hand, how illusory the gentleman's hopes are, that the depravity of this age and country will be reformed by the efforts of the Bible Society, has been victoriously proved by the Rev. Dr. Hook, who, with other clear sighted church- men, evidently sees that the grand principle of Protestantism, strictly reduced to practice, would undermine their establish- ment. One of his brethren, the Rev. Mr. Gisborne, had pub- licly boasted, that in proportion to the opposition, which the Bible Society had met with, its annual income had increased, till it reached near a hundred thousand pounds in a year: Dr. Hook, in return, showed, by lists of the convictions of criminals during the first seven years of the society's existence, that the wickedness of the country, instead of being diminished, had almost been doubled !* Since that period up to the pre- * List of capital convictions, in London and Middlesex, in the following years, from Dr. Hook's Charge, and the London Chronicle :— In the year|l808 Convictions I 728 1809 863 ISIO 884 1811 1812 181311814 872 998 1012 1027 [1815[1616|1S17 2299 '2592 3177 194 Letter XXX. sent year, it has increased three-fold and four-fold, compared mth its state before the society began. POSTSCRIPT. I HAVE now, dear sir, completed the second task which I un- dertook, and therefore proceed to sum up my evidence. Hav- ing then proved in my twelve former letters, the rough copies of which I have preserved, that the two alleged rules of faith, tliat o( private inspiration and that of private interpretation of Scrijjture, are equally fallacious, and that there is no certain way of coming to the truth of divine revelation but by hearing that church which Christ built on a rock and promised to abide with for ever ; I engaged, in this my second series of letters, to demonstrate, which, among the dillerent societies of Christians, is the church that Christ founded and still protects. For this purpose I have had recourse to the principal characters or marks of ChrisVs church, as they are pointed out in Scripture and formally acknowledged b}' Protestants of nearly all descrip- tions, no less than by Catholics, in their articles and in those creeds, which form part of their private prayers aid public liturgy, namely, unity, sanctity, Catholicity and apostolicity. In fact, this is what every one acknowledges who says in the apos- tles' Creed, 1 believe in the holy Catholic church; and, in the Nicene Creed,* / believe one Catholic and apostolic church. Treating of the first mark of the true church, I proved from natural reason. Scripture, and tradition, that unity is essential to her ; I then showed that there is no union or principle of union among the difterent sects of Protestants, except their com- mon protestation against their mother church, and that the church of England, in particular, is divided against itself in such manner, that one of its most learned prelates has declared himself afraid to say, what is its doctrine. On the other hand, Capital convictions in England and Wales, during the former seve^ years, from Dr. Hook's Charge : — |2723J3238|3158|3163'3913|4422J4025| N. B. To the convictions, during the three last years, in London and MiddleseXt are added those of Surry, in the London Chronicle, March 9, 1818. ♦ See the Communion Service, in Com. Prayer. Letter XXX, Iftl I have shown that the Catholic church, spread as she is ovet the whole earth, is one and the same in her doctrine^ in her lituT- gy^ and in her government ; and, though I detest rehgious per- secution, I have, in defiance of ridicule and clamour, vindicated her unchangeable doctrine, ajid the plain dictate of reason, aa to the indispensable obligation of believing what God teaches; in other words, of a right faith : I have even proved that her adherence to this tenet is a proof both of the truth and the charity of the Catholic church. On the subject of holiness, I have made it clear that the pretended Reformation every where! originated in the pernicious doctrine of salvation hy faith alonSy without good works; and that the Catholic church has ever taught the necessity of them both ; likewise that she possesses many peculiar means of sanctity, to which modern sects do not make a pretension, likewise that she has, in every age, pro- duced the genuine fruits of sanctity ; while the fruits of Pro- testantism have been of quite an opposite nature: finally, that God himself has bore witness to the sanctity of the Catholic church, by undeniable miracles, with which he has illustrated her in every age. It did not require much pains to prove that the Catholic church possesses, exclusively, the name of CA- THOLIC, and not much more to demonstrate that she alone has the qualities signified by that name. That the Catholic church is also APOSTOLICAL, by descending in a right line from the apostles of Christ, is as evident as that she is Catholic. However, to illustrate this matter, I have sketched out a genea- logical, or, as I call it, the apostolical tree, which, with the help of a note subjoined, shows the uninterrupted succession of the Catholic church in her chief pontiffs and other illustrious prelates, doctors, and renowned saints, from the apostles of Christ, during eighteen centuries, to the present period; to- gether with the continuation in her of the apostolical work of converting nations and people. It shons also a series of un- happy heretics and schismatics, of different times and countries, _ who, refusing to hear her inspired voice and to obey her divine authority, have been separated from her communion and have withered away, like brandies, cut off from a vine, which are fit for no human use. Ezek. xv. Finally, I have shown the ne- fcessity of an uninterrupted succession from the apostles, of holy orders and divine mission, to constitute an apostolical church, and have proved that, these, or at least the latter of them, can only be found in tlie holy Catholic church. Having demon-^ strated all this in the fore,ir«>ing letters, ] am Justifi<'d, dear sir, in affirming that the motives uf credibility, in favour cf the Chris- 196 Letter XXX, ti'an religion, in general, are not one whit more clear and cer- tain than those in favour of the Catholic religion in particular. But without inquiring into the degree of evidence attending the latter motives, it is enough for my present purpose that they are sufficiently evident to influence the conduct of dispassionate and reasonable persons, who are acquainted with them, and who are really in earnest to save their souls. Now, in proof, that tiiese motives are at least so far clear, I may again appeal to ♦jie conduct of Catholics on a death bed, who, in that awful iituation, never wish to die in any religion but their own : I may also appeal to the conduct of so many Protestants in the same situation, who seek to reconcile themselves to the Catholic church. Let us, one and all, my dear sir, as far as is in our power, adopt these sentiments in every respect now, which we shall entertain, when the transitory scene of this world is closing to our sight, and during the countless ages of eternity. O the length, the breadth, and the depth of the abyss of ETERNI- TY ! " JVb security ^^^ says a holy man, " can he too great where eternity is at stake^^ I am, &c. J.M. ♦ "Nulla satis magna securitas ubi periclitatur Eternitas.'* THE END OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY, PART III. LETTER XXXI. FromMMES BROJVjY, Esq. to the Rev, J. M, I). D, F. S. A. INTRODUCTION. Reverend Sir, The whole of your letters have again been read over in our society ; and they have produced important though diversified eflects on the minds of its several members. For my own part, I am free to own, that, as your former letters convinced me in the truth of your rule of faith, namely the entire Word of God, and of the right of the true church to expound it in all questions concerning its meaning; so your subsequent letters have satis- fied me that the characters or marks of the true church, as thev are laid down in our common creeds, are clearly visible in the Roman Catholic church, and not in the collection of Protest- ant churches, nor in any one of them. This impression was, at first, so strong upon my mind that I could liave answered you nearly in the words of king Agrippa, to St. Paul : almost thou persuadest me to become a Catholic, Acts xxvi. 28. The san)« appear to be the sentiments of several of my friends : but when, on comparing our notes together, we considered the heavj charges, particularly of superstition and idolatry, brought against your church by our eminent divines, and especially by the bishop of London (Dr. Porteus,) and never, that we hav« heard of, refuted or denied, we cannot but tread back the step* we have taken towards you, or rather stand still, where we are, rt8 Letter XXXL in suspense, till we hear what answer you will make to them : I speak of those contained in the bishop's well known treatise called A Brief Confutation of the Errors of the Church of Rome, With respect to certain other members of our society, I am sorry to be obliged to say, that, on this particular subject, I mean the arguments in favour of your religion, they do xwt manifest the candour and good sense, which are natural to them, and which they show on every other subject. They pro- nounce, with confidence and vehemence, that Dr. Porteus's charges are all true, and that you cannot make any rational an- swer to them ; at the same time, that several of these gentle^ men, to my knowledge, are very little acquainted with the sub- stance of them. In short, they are apt to load your religion and the professors of it, with epithets and imputations too gross and injurious for me to repeat, convinced as I am of their false- hood. I shall not be surprised to hear that some of these impu- tations have been transmitted to you by the persons in questioB, as I have declined making my letters the vehicle of them ; it is ft justice, however, which I owe them, to assure you. Rev. sir, that it is only since they have understood the inference of your arguments to be such as to imply an obligation on them of re- nouncing their own respective religions, and embracing yours, that they have been so unreasonable and violent. Till this pe- riod they appeared to be nearly as liberal and charitable with respect to your communion as to any other. , I am, Rev. Sir, he. JAMES BROWN. [ 199] LETTER XXXIL To JAMES BROWJV, Esq. 0)r THE CHARGES AGdlJ^ST THE CATHOLIC CHURCB. Dear Sir, I SHOULD be guilty of deception were I to disguise the satis- faction I derive from your and your friends, near approacli to the house of unity and peace, as St. Cyprian calls the Catholic church: for such I must judge 37our situation to be from the tenour of your last letter, by which it seems to me, that your entire reconciliation with this church depends on my refuting Bp. Porteus's objections against it: and yet, dear sir, if I were* to insist on the strict rules of reasoning, I might take occasion of complaining of you from the very concessions which afford me so much pleasure. In fact, if you admit that the church of God, is, by his appointment, the interpreter of the entire Word of God, you ought to pay attention to her doctrine on every point of it, and not to the suggestions of Dr. Porteus or your own fancy in opposition to it. Agriin, if you are convinced that the one, holy. Catholic and apostolical church is the true church of God, you ought to be persuaded that it is utterly im- possible she should inculcate idolatry, superstition, or any other wickedness, and, of course, that those who believe her to be thub guilty are and must be in a fatal error. I have proved from reason, tradition, and holy Scripture, that, as individual Chris-- tians cannot of themselves judge with certainty of matters of faith, God has therefore provided them with an unerring guide, in his holy church ; and hence that Catholics, as Tertullian and St. Vincent of Lerins emphatically pronounce, cannot strictly and consistently, be required by those who are not Cathohcs. to vindicate the particular tenets of their belief, either from Scripture or any other authority : it being sufficient for them to ' show that they hold the doctrine of the true church which all Christians are bound to hear. Nevertheless, as it is my dut> , after the example of the apostle, to become all things to all men, 1 Cor. ix* 22, and as we Catholics are conscious of being able to meet our opponents on their own ground, as well as on ours, I am willing, dear sir, for your and your friends' satisfaction, to enter on a brief discussion of the leading points of controversy which are agitated between the Catholics and the Protestants, particularly those of the church of England. I must, however^ 200 Letter XXXIL previously stipulate with you for the following conditions, which I trust you will find perfectly reasonable. 1st. I require that Catholics should be permitted to lay down their own principhs of belief and practice, and, of course, to distinguish between their articles of faith in which they must all agree, and mere scholastic ojjinions, of which every individual may judge for himself; as, likewise, between the authorized liturgy and discipline of the church and the unauthorized devo- tions and, practices of particular persoiis. I insist upon, this preliminary, because it is the constant practice of your contro- versialists to dress up a hideous figure, composed of their own misrepresentations, or else of those undefined opinions and un- authorized practices, which they call Popery; and then to amuse their readers or hearers with exposing the deformity of it and pulling it to pieces; and I have the greater right to insist upon this preliminary, because our creeds and professions of faith, the acts of our councils and our approved expositions and Catechisms, containing the principles of our belief and practice, from which no real Catholic in any part of the world can ever depart, are before the public and upon constant sale among booksellers. 2dly. It being a notorious fact that certain individual Chris- tians, or bodies of Christians, have departed from the faith and communion of the church of all nations, under pretence that they had authority for so doing, it is necessary tiiat»their al- leged authority should be express, and incontrovertible. Thus, for example, if texts of Scripture are brought for this purpose, it is evidently necessary that such texts should be clear in them- selves and not contrasted by any other texts seemingh* of an op- posite meaning. In like manner, when any doctrine or prac- tice appears to be undenialdy sanctioned by a father of the church, for example, of the third or the fourth century, without an appearance of contradiction from any other father, or eccle- siastical writer, it is unreasonable to affirm that he or his con- temporaries were the authors of it, as Protestant divines are in the habit of alfirming. On the contrary, it is natural to sup- pose that such father has taken up this with the other points of his religion from his predecessors, who received them from the apostles. This is the sentiment of that bright lumTnary St. Augustin, who says, " Whatever is found to be held by the Universal church, and not to have had its beginning in bishops Letter XXXIT. iO| und councils, must be esteemed a tradition from those by whom the church itself was founded."* You judged right in supposing that I have received some let- ters, containing virulent and gross invectives against the Ca- tholic religion, from certain members of your society. These do not surprise or hurt me, as the writers of them have probably not yet had an opportunity of knowing much more of this reli- gion than what they could collect from fifth of November, and other sermons of the same tendency, and from circulated pamphlets expressly calculated to inflame the population against it and its professors ; but what truly surprises and af- flicts me is, that so many other personages in a more elevated rank of life, whose education and studies enable them to form a more just idea of the religious and moral principles of their an- cestors, benefactors, and founders, in short of their acknowledg- ed fathers and saints, should combine to load these fathers and saints with calumnies and misrepresentations which they must know to be utterly false. But, a bad cause must be supported by bad means 5 they are unfortunately implicated in a revolt against the true church ; and not having the courage and self- denial to acknowledge their error and return to her communion, they endeavour to justify their conduct by interposing a black and hideous mask before the fair countenance of this true mo- ther, Christ's spotless spouse. This is so far true, that when, as it often happens, a Protestant is, by dint of argument, forced out of his errors and prejudices against the true religion, if he be pressed to embrace it, and wants grace to do it, he is sure to fly back to those very calumnies and misrepresentations which he had before renounced. The fact is, he must fight with these, or yield himself unarmed to his Catholic opponent. That you and your friends may not think me, dear sir, to have complained without just cause of the publications and ser- mons of the respectable characters I have alluded to, I must in- form you that I have now lying before nve a volume called Good Advice to the Pulpits, consisting of the foulest and most malignant falsehoods against the Catholic religion and its pro- fessors, which tongue or pen can express, or the most enve- nomed heart conceive. It was collected from the sermons and treatises of prelates and dignitaries, by that able and faithful writer, the Rev. John Gother, soon after the gall of caUimnious ink had been mixed up with the blood of slaughtered Catholics; a score of whom were executed as traitors for a pretended plot ♦ Lib. ii. De BapL -^^ ^ % C fOf Letter XXXII. to murder their friend and proselyte, Charles II ; a plot which was liatched by men who themselves were soon after convicted of a real assassination plot against the king. At that time, the parliaments were so blinded as repeatedly to vote the reality of the plot in question : hence it is easy to judge with what sort of language the pulpits would resound against the poor devoted Catholics at that period. But without quoting from former records, I need only refer to a few of the publications of the present day to justify my complaint. To begin with some of tlie numberless slanders contained in the No Popery Tract of tlie bishop of London, Dr. Porteus : he charges CathoHcs with " senseless idolatry to the infinite scandal of religion;"* with trying " to make the ignorant think that indulgences deliver the dead from hell ;"t and that by means of " zeal for holy church, the worst man may be secured from future misery :"{ and the bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Halifax, charges Catholics with " Antichristian idolatry,^ the worship of demons, || and idol mediators. "IF He, moreover, maintains it to be the doc- trine of the church of Rome, that " pardon for svery sin, whe- ther committed or designed, may be purchased for money.** The bishop of Durham, Di-. Shute Harrington, accuses them of " idolatry, blasphemy, and sacrilege."ff The bishop of Lan- daff. Dr. Watson, impeaches the CathoHc priests, martyrolo- gists, and monks, without exception, of the " hypocrisy of liars ;"f J and he lays it down, as the moral doctrine of Ca- tholics, that " humility, temperance, justice, the love of God and man, are not laws for all Christians, but only counsels of perfection. "§§ He elsewhere says, " that the Popish rehgion is the Christian religion, is a false position. "|||| He has, more- over, adopted and republished the sentiments of some of his other mitred brethren to the same purpose. One of these as- serts, that, " instead of worshipping God through Christ, they (the Catholics) have substituted the doctrine of demons. "ITIT " They have contrived numberless ways to make a holy life needless, and to assure the most abandoned of salvation, with- out repentance, provided they will sufficiently pay the priest for absolution."*** " They have consecrated murders, &ic."f f f " The Papists stick fast in filthy mire — by the affection they ♦ Confulalion, p. 30, edit. 179C. t Ibid. p. 53. X Ibid. p. 53. *i Warburton's Lectures, p. 191. |J Ibid. p. 35S. % Ibid. p. 358L ♦* Ibid. p. 347. ft Charge,?. 11. XX Letter II. to Gibbou, H Bishop Watson's Tract*;, vol. i. HO Ibid. vol. v. Contents. iT Bishop Benson's Tracts, vol. v. p. 272, •*♦ Ibid. p. 273. ttt Ibid. p. 282, Letter XXXII. 206 bear to othei* lusts, which their errors are fitted to gratify."* " It is impossible that any sincere person should give an im- plicit assent to many of their doctrines : but, whoever can prac- tice upon them, can be nothinj:^ better than a most shamefully debauched and immoral wretch. "f Another prelate, of later promotion, gives a comprehensi\e idea of Catholics, where he calls them " Enemies of all law, human and divine. "J If such be the tone of the Episcopal bench, it would be vain to expect more moderation from the candidates for it : but I must con- tract my quotations in order to proceed to more important mat- ter. One of these, who, while he was content with an inferior dignity, acted and preached as the friend of Catholics, since he has arrived at the verge of the highest, proclaims " Popery to be idolatry and Antichristianism ;" maintaining, as does also the bishop of Durham, that it is " the parent of Atheism, and of that antichristian persecution" (in France) of which it was ex- clusively the victim. § Another dignitary of the same cathedral, taking up Dr. Sparke's calumny, seriously declares that the Catholics are Aniinom{ans,\\ which is the distinctive charac- ter of the Jumpers, and other rank Calvinists. Finally, the celebrated city preacher, C. De Coetlogon, among similar graces of oratory, pronounces that " Popery is calculated only fbr the meridian of hell. To say the best of it that can be said, Popery is a most horrid compound of idolatry, superstition, and blasphemy."^ " The exercise of Christian virtues is not at all necessary in its members , nay, there are many heinous crimes, which are reckoned virtues among them, such as perjury and murder, when committed against heretics."^* And is such then, dear sir, the real character of the great body of Christians throughout the world ? Is such a true picture of our Saxon and English ancestors ? Were such the clergy from whom these modern preachers and writers derive their liturgy, their ritual, their honours and benefices, and from whom they boast of deriving their orders and mission also? But, after all, do these preachers and writers themselves seriously believe such to be the true character of their Catholic countrymen, and the primitive religion ? No, sir, they do not seriously believe it iff * Bishop Fowler, vol. vi. p. 386.. t Ibid. p. 3S7. J Dr. Sparke, Bishop of Ely, Cmcio. ad Synod. 1807. ^ Discourses of Dr. Rennel, dean of Winchester, p. 140, &c. I Charge of Dr. Hook, archdeacon, &c. p. 5, &c. % Seasonable Caution against the abominations of the Churcli of Rome, Pref. p. 5 ** Ibid. p. 14. ft This may be exemplified by the conduct of Dr. Wake, archbishop of Cantcr- kury. Few writers had misrepresented the Catholic relig-ion more foully tlian he 204 Letter XKXIL but being unfortunately engaged, as I said before, in an here- ditary revolt against the church, which shines forth conspicuous, with every feature of truth in her countenance, and wanting the rare grace of acknowledging their error, at the expense of tenii)oral advantages, they have no other defence for themselves but clamour and calumny, no resource for shrouding those beauteous features of the church, but by placing before them the hideous mask of misrepresentation ! Before I close this letter, 1 cannot help expressing an earnest wish that it were in my power to suggest three most important considerations to all and every one of the theological calumnia- tors in question. I pass over their injustice and cruelty towards us; thougli this bears some resemblance with the barbarity of Nero towards our predecessors, the first Christians of Rome, who disguised them in the skins of wild beasts, and then hunted them to death with dogs. But Christ has warned us as follows: It is enough for the disciple to be as his master ; if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub: how much more them of his household. In fact, we know that those our above-men- tioned predecessors were charged with worshipping the head of an ass, and of killing and eating children, &ic. The first observation which 1 am desirous of making to these controvertists, is, that their charges and invectives against Ca«' tliolics never unsettle the faith of a single individual amongst us ; much less do they cause any Catholic to quit ouf commu- nion. This we are sure of, because, after all the pains and ex- bad done in his controversial works : even in his commentary on the Catechism, he accuses it of heresy, schism, and idolatry: but, having entered into a correspond- ence with Dr. Dupin, for the pui-pose of uniting their respective churches, he osh »ures the Catholic divine, in his last letter to him, aa follows: " In dogmatibus, prout a te candide proponuntur, non admodum dissentimus : in regimine eccle- •iastico minus; in fundamcntalibus, sive doctrinam, sive disciphnam spectemua^ Tix omnino." Append, to Mosheim'.s Hist. vol. vi. p. 121. The present writer hxs been informed, on good authority, that one of the bishops, whose calumnies are here quoted, when he found himself on his deatlibed, refused the proffered ministry of the primate, and expressed a great wish to die a Catholic. When urged to satisfy his conscience, he exclaimed : JVhat then will become of my lady and my children! Certain it is that very many Protestants, who had been the most ▼ioicnt in their language and conduct against the Catholic church, as for example, John, Elector of Saxony, Margaret, Queen of Navarre, Cromwell, Lord Essex, Dudley, Earl of Northumberland, king Charles II, the late Lords Moptague, Nu- jrent, Dunboyne, &c. did actually reconcile themselves to the Cathonc church in that situation. The writer may add, that another of the calumniators here quoted, being desirotis of stifling the suspicion of his having written an anonymous No Pi>j)ery publication, when first l)e took part in that cause, privately addressed him- i'A\to tlic writer in tli^se terms : How can you suxpect me of tcriting agxiinst your rfli'^on, when yon so veil knotr my attachment to it! In fact, this modern Luther, »Ti;ong otljcr similar concessions, hxs said thus to the writer: 1 tucLtdin • lovtfrr the Catholic rrlisivn uith my mother't milk. Letter XXXII. 205 penses of the Protestant societies to distribute Dr. Porteus's Confutation of Popery ^ and other tracts, in the houses and cot- tages of Catholics, not one of the latter ever comes to us, their pastors, to be furnished with an answer to the accusations con- tained in them ; the truth is, they previously know from their catechisms, the falsehood of them. Sometimes, no doubt, a dissolute youth, from " libertinism of principles and practice," as one of the above-mentioned lords loudly proclaimed of him- self, on his deathbed ; and sometimes an ambitious or avaricious nobleman or gentleman, to get honour or wealth ; finally, some- times a profligate priest, to get a wife, or a living, forsakes our communion ; but, I may challenge Dr. Porteus to produce a single proselyte from Popery throughout the dioceses of Chester and London, who has been gained by his book against it : and I may say the same with respect to the bishop of Durham's wVo Popery Charges, throughout the dioceses of Sarum and Durham. A second point of still greater importance for the considera- tion of these distinguished preachers and writers is, that their flagrant misrepresentation of the Catholic religion, is constant- ly an occasion of the conversion of several of their own most epright members to it. Such Christians, when they fall into company with Catholics, or get hold of their books, cannot fail of inquiring whether they are really those monsters of idolatry, irreligion and immorality, which those divines have represent- ed them to be ; when, discovering how much they have been deceived in these respects, by misrepresentation ; and, in short, viewing now the fair face of the Catholic church, instead of the hideous mask which had been placed before it, they seldom fail to become enamoured of it, and, in case religion is their chief concern, to become our very best Catholics. The most important point, however, of all others for the con- sideration of these learned theologues, is the following: W$ must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to be ex- amined on our observance of that commandment, among the rest, thou shalt not bear false vntness against tky neighbour; supposing then these their clamorous charges against their Ca- tholic neighbours, of idolatry, blasphemy, perfidy, and thirst of blood, should then appear, as they most certainly will appear^ to be calumnies of the woifst sort, what will it avail their au- thors that these have answered the temporary purpose of pre- venting the emancipation of Catholics, and of rousing th« po- 206 Letter XXXIIL pular hatred and fury against them ! Alas ! wha^ will it avail them ' I am, Dear Sir, yours, &ic. J. M. LETTER XXXIII. To MMES BROWN, Esq. 0^ THE INVOCATIOJ^ OF S^IJ^TS, Dear Sir, The first and most heavy charge which Protestants bring against Catholics, is that of idolatry. They say, that the Ca- tiiolic church has been guilty of this crime and apostasy, by sanctioning the invocation of saints, and the worship of images and pictures : and that on this account they have been obliged to abandon her communion, in obedience to the voice from hea- ven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rev. xviii. 4. Nevertheless, it is certain, dear sir, that Protestantism was not founded on this ground either in Germany or in England : for Luther warmly defended the Catholic doctrine in both the aforesaid particulars, and our English reformers, particularly king Edward's uncle, the duke of Somerset, only took up this pretext of idolatry, as the most popular, in order to revolution- ize the ancient religion, which they were carrying on from mo- tives of avarice and ambition. The same reasons, namely, that tliis charge cf idolatry is best calculated to inflame the ignorant against the Catholic church, and to furnish a pretext foi' de- serting her, have caused Protestant controvertists to keep up tJie outcry against her ever since, and to vie with each other in the foulness cf their misrepresentation of her doctrine in this particular. To speak f»rst of the invocation of saints : archbisHop Wake, [who afterwarJ, as we have seen, acknowledged to Dr. Dupin, that there was no fundamental difference between his doctrine and that of Catholics] in his popular Commentary on the Letter XXXIIL JOt Church Catechism, maintains, that " The church of Rome hai other Gods besides the Lord."* Another prelate, whose work has been lately republished by the bishop of Landaff, pronounce* of Catholics, that, " Instead of worshipping Christ, they have substituted the doctrine of demonsy\ In the same blasphe- mous terms, Mede, and a hundred other Protestant controvert- ists, speak of our communion of saints. The bishop of London, among other such calumnies, charges us with " Bringing back th« heathen multitude of deities into Christianity ;" that we " Re- commend ourselves to some favourite saint, not by a religious Hfe, but by flattering addresses and costly presents, and often depend much more on his intercession, than on our blessed Saviour's j" and that, "being secure of the favour of these courtiers of heaven, we pay little regard to the King of it."J Such is the misrepresentation of the doctrine and practice of Catholics on this point, which the first ecclesiastical characters in the nation publish ; because, in fact, their cause has not a leg to stand on, if you take away misrepresentation! Let us now hear what is the genuine doctrine of the Catholic church in this article, as solemnly defined by the Pope, and near three hundred prelates of different nations, at the council of Trent, in the fac6 of the whole world ; it is simply this, that '* The saints reign- ing with Christ offer up their prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and to have re- course to their prayers, help, and assistance, to obtain favours from God, through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alorm our Redeemer and Saviour."^ Hence the Catechism of the council of Trent, published in virtue of its decree, || by order of Pope Pius V, teaches, that " God and the saints are not to be prayed to in the same manner ; for we pray to God that he himself would give us good things, and deliver us from evil things ; but we beg of the saints, because they are pleasing to God, that they would he our advocates, and obtain from God what we stand in need of."ir Our first English Catechism for the instruction of children, says, "We are to honour saints and angels as God's special friends and servants, but not with the honour which belongs to God." Finally, The Papist Misrt- presented and Represented, a work of great authority among Catholics, first published by our eminent divine Gother, and re- published by our venerable bishop, Challoner, pronounces tht ♦ Sect, 2—3. t Bishop Watson's Theol. Tracts, vol. r, p. 272. X Brief Confut. pp. 23, 25. ^ Concil. Trid. Sese. 25. de Ini«a I ISf 5,5, 5J4, de Ref. c. 7. 5 Pars IV. Qui« orandus. 108 Letter XXXIIT. following anathema against that idolatrous phantom of Catbo* licity, which Protestant controvertists have held up for the identical Catholic church . " Cursed is he that believes the saints in heaven to be his redeemers, thr .■ prays to them as such, or that gives God's honour to them, or to any creature whatso- ever. Amen." " Cursed is every goddess worshipper, that believes the B. Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature; that worships her, or puts his trust in her more than in God, *Jiat believes her above her Son, or that she can in any thing command him. Amen."* You see, dear sir, how widely different the doctrine of Ca- tliolics, as defined by our church, and really held by us, is from the caricature of it, held up by interested preachers and con- trovertists, to scare and inflame an ignorant m altitude. So far from making gods and goddesses of the saints, »v'e firmly hold it to be an article of faith, that, as they have no virtue or excel- lence but what has been gratuitously bestowed upon them by God, for the sake of his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, so they can procure no benefit for us, but by means of their prayers to the Giver of all good gifts ^ through their and our common Sa^ viour, Jesus Christ. In short, they do nothing for us mortals io heaven, but what they did while they were here on earth, and what all good Christians are bound to do ior each other, namely, they help us by their prayers. The only difference is, that ai the saints in heaven are hee from every ' -in of sin a^nd imper- fection, and are confirmed in grace and glory, so their prayers are far more efficacious for obtaining what they ask for, than are the prayers of us imperfect and sinful mortals. In short, our Protestant bretliren will not deny that St. Paul was in the practice of begging for the prayers of the churches to which he addressed his epistles, Rom. xv. 30, &lc. and that the Almighty himself commanded the friends of Job to obtain his prayers for the pardon of their sins, Job xlii. 8; and moreover, that they themselves are accustomed to pray publicly for one another. Now tliese concessions, together with the authorized exposition, of our doctrine, laid down above, are abundantly sufficient to^ refute most of the remaining objections of Protestants against it. In vain, for example, does Dr. Porteus quote the text of St. Paul, 1 Tim. ii. 5, There is one Mediator between Godtand men, the man Christ Jesus; for we grant that Christ alone is the Me' diaior of salvation ; but if he argues, from thence, that there is BO other mediator of. intercession, he would condemn the con- • Pap. Misrep. Abrid^. p. 78. Letter XXXIIL 200 duct of ft. Paul, of Job's friends, and of his own church. In vain does he take advantage of the ambiguous meaning of the word worship, in Mat. iv. 10 ; because, if the question be about a divine adoration, we restrain this as strictly to God, as he can do ; but if it be about merely honouring the saints, we cannot censure that, without censuring other passages of Scripture,* and condemning the bishop himself, who expressly says, " The saints in heaven we love and honoury^ In vain does he quote Revel, xix. 10, where the angel refused to let St. John prostrate himself, and adore him ; because, if the mere act itself, inde- pendently of the evangelist's mistaking him for the Deity, was forbidden, then the three angels, who permitted Abraham to ^ hoiv himself to the ground before them, were guilty of a crime, Gen. xviii. 2, as w^as that other angel, before whom Josuah fell on his face and worshipped. Jos. v. 14. The charge o( idolatry against Catholics, for merely honour- ing those whom God honours, and for desiring them to pray to God for us, is too extravagant, to be any longer published by Protestants of learning and character ; accordingly the bishop of Durham is content with accusing us of blasphemy, on th« latter part of thor charge. What he says is this: " It is blas- phemy, to ascribe to angels and saints, by praying to them, th« divine attribute of universal presence."}; To say nothing of his lordship's new invented blasphemj^ I should be glad to ask him, how it follows, from my praying to an angel or a saint in any place, that I necessarily believe the angel or saint to be in that place ^ Was Elisha really in Syria when he saw the am- bush prepared there for the king of Israel ? 2 Kings vi. 9. Again, we know that There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, Luke xv. 10. Now, is it by visual rays, or undulating sounds, that these blessed spirits in heaven know what passes in the hearts of men upon earth ? How doe» his lordship know, that one part of the saint's felicity may not ♦ The word worship, in this place, is used for supreme divine homage; as appears by the original Greek: whereas in St. Luke xiv. 10, the English translators make use of it for the lowest degree of respect: Thou shall have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat xdth thee. The latter is the proper meaning of the Avord Avor- ship, as appears by the marriage service : With my hody I thee icorship, and by \ha designation of the lowest order of magistrates, his worship Mr. Aldermaji N. Nevertheless, as the word may be differently interpreted. Catholics abstain from applying it to persons or things inferior to God: making use of the words konow and 'veneration in their regard ; words wliich, so applied, even bishop Porteus ap- proves us. Thus it appears, that the heinous charge of idolatiij brought against Catholics for their respect towards the saints, is grounded on nothing but tb« mis^ taken meaning of a word ! i P as. : Charge 1810, p. 12. 2D flO Letter XXXUI. consist in contemplating the wonderful ways of God's provi- dence with all his creatures here on earth? But, without recur- ring to this supposition, it is sufficient for dissipating the bi- shop's uncharitable phantom of blasphemy, and Calvin's profane jest about the length of the saint's ears, that God is able to re- veal to them the prayers of Christians who address them here on earth. In case I had the same opportunity of conversing with this prelate, which I once enjoyed, I should not fail to make the following observation to him : my lord, you publicly maintain, that the act of praying to saints, ascribes to them the divine attribute of universal presence ; this you call blasphemy : now it appears, by the articles and injunctions of your church, that you believe in the existence and efficacy of " sorceries, en- chantments, and witchcraft, invented by the devil, to procure his counsel or help,"* wherever the conjuror or witch may chance to be ; do you, therefore, ascribe the divine attribute of universal presence to the devil? You must assert this, or you must withdraw your charge of blasphemy against the Catholics for praying to the saints. That it is lawful and profitable to invoke the praj^ers of tire angels, is plain from Jacob's asking and obtaining the angel's blessing, with whom he had mystically wrestled. Gen. xxxii. 26, and from his invoking his own angel to bless Joseph's sons, Gen. xlvii. 16. The same is also sufficiently plain, with respect to the saints, from the Book of Revelations, where tli^ four and twenty elders in heaven are said to have, golden vials full of odours, ivhich are the prayers of the saints. Rev. v. 8. The church, however, derived her doctrine on this and other point* immediately from the apostles, before any part of the New Testament was written. The tradition was so ancient and uni- versal, that all those Eastern churches, which broke off from tlie central church of Rome, a great many ages before Protestantism was heard of, perfectly agree with us in honouring and invoking the angels and saints. I have said that the patriarch of Pro- testantism, Martin Luther, did not find any thing idolatrous in the doctrine or practice of the church with respect to the saints So far from this, he exclaims, " Who can deny that God worka great miracles at the tombs of the saints ? I therefore, with the whole Catholic church, hold that the saints are to Be honour- ed and invocated by us."f In the same spirit he recommeodi ^ Injunctions, A. 1). 1559, Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 89. Aitiele?, ibki p. 180. t In Purg. quoramd. Artit. Tom. L Gcrmet. Ep. ad Gcorg. SpalaL Letter XXXIU. 2Ut this devotion to dying persons, " Let no one omit to call upon the B. Virgin and the angels and saints, that they may inter- cede with God for them at that instant."* I may add that se- yeral of the brightest lights of the established church, such as archbishop Sheldon and the bishops Blandford,f Gunning.J Montague, Sic. have altogether abandoned the charge of idola- try against Catholics on this head. The last mentioned of them says, '' I own that Christ is not wronged in his mediation. It is no impiety to say, as they (the Catholics) do, Holy Mary, pray for me ; Holy Peter, pray for me ;"§ whilst the candid preben- dary of Westminster warns his brethren " not to lead people by the nose, to believe they can prove Papists to be idolaters when they cannot." II In conclusion, dear sir, you will observ^e that the council of Trent, barely teaches that it is good and profitable to invoke the prayers of the saints ; hence our divines infer that there is no positive law of the church, incumbent on all her children to pray to the saints ilT nevertheless, what member of the Catholic church militant will fail to communicate with his brethren of the church triumphant? What Catholic, believing in the communion of saints, and that " the saints, reigning with Christ pray for us, and that it is good and profitable for us to invoke their prayers," will forego this advantage ! How sublime and consoling! how animating is the doctrine and practice of true Catholics, compared with the opinions of Protestants! We hold daily and hourly converse, to our unspeakable comfort and advantage, with the angelic choirs, with the venerable pa- triarchs and prophets of ancient times, with the heroes of Christianity, the blessed apostles and martyrs, with the bright ornaments of it in later ages, the Bernards, the Xaviers, the Teresas, and the Sales's : they are all members of the Catholic church. Why should not you partake of this advantage? Your soul, you complain, dear sir, is in trouble; you lament that your prayers to God are not heard: continue to pray to him with all the fervour of your soul : but why not engage his friends and courtiers to add the weight of their prayers to your own? Perhaps his Divine Majesty may hear the prayers of the Jobs, when he will not listen to those of an Eliphaz, a Bildad, * Luth. Prep, ad Mort. t See Duchess of York's Testimony in Brunswick*s 50 Reasona» t Burnet's Hist, of his own Times, Vol. i. p. 437. ^ Treat, of Invoc. of Saints, p. 118. i Thorndike, Just Weights, p. 10. H Petavius, Suarez, Wallenburg, Muratori, Nat Alex. 312 Letter XXXIIL or a Zophar. Job xlii. You believe, no doubt, that you have an angel guardian, appointed by God to protect you, conform- ably to what Christ said of the children presented to him : Their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven, Mat. xviii. 10 ; address yourself to this blessed spirit with gra- titude, veneration, and confidence. You believe also, that, among the saints of God, there is one of supereminent purity and sanctity, pronounced by an archangel to be, not only gra- cious, but " full of grace;" the chosen instrument of God in the incarnation of his Son, and the intercessor with this her Son, in obtaining his first miracle, that of turning water into wine, at a time, when his " time" for appearing to the world by miracles, was " not yet come." John ii. 4. " It is impossible," as one of the fathers says, " to love the son, without loving the mo- ther :" beg of her, then, with affection and confidence, to inter- cede with Jesus, as the poor Canaanites did, to change the tears of your distress into the wine of gladness, by affording you the light and grace you so much w ant. You cannot re- fuse to join with me in the angelic salutation : Hail full of grace, our Lord is with thee,^ nor in the subsequent address of the inspired Elizabeth : Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Luke i. 42 : cast aside, then, I beseech you, dear sir, prejudices, which are not only ground- less but also hurtful, and devoutly conclude with me, in the words of die whole Catholic Church, upon earth : Holy Mary^ mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hcfur of our death. Amen. I am, he, J. M. ♦ Luke i. 28. The Catholic version is here used, as more conformable to the Greek as well as the Vulgate, than the Protestant, which renders the passage: Hail thou who art highly favoured. [213 ] LETTER XXXIV. To JAMES BROWJV, Esq. OX RELIGIOUS MEMORIALS, Dear Sir, If the Catholic church has been so grievously injured by the misrepresentation of her doctrine respecting prayers to the saints, she has been still more grievously injured by the prevail- ing calumnies against the respect which she pays to the memo- rials of Christ and his saints, namely to crucifixes, relics, pious pictures and images. This has been misrepresented, from al- most the first eruption of Protestantism,* as rank idolatry, and as justifying the necessity of a Reformation. To countenance guch misrepresentation in our own country, in particular, avari- cious courtiers and grandees seized on the costly shrines, Btatues and other ornaments of all the churches and chapels, and authorized the demolition or defacing of all other rehgious memorials of whatever nature or materials, not only in places of worship, but also in market places and even in private houses. In support of the same pious fraud, the Holy Scriptures were corrupted in their difierent versions and editions,f till religious *" Martin Luther, ■with all his hatred of the Catholic church, found no idolatry ift her doctrine respecting crosses and images : on the contrary, he warmly de- fended it against Carlostadius and his associates, who had destroyed those in the diurches of Wittenberg. Epist. ad Gasp. Guttal. In the titlepages of his vo. lumes, published by Melancthon, Luther is exhibited on his knees before a cruci- fix. Queen EUzabeth persisted for many years in retaining a crucifix on the al- tar of her chapel, till some of her Puritan courtiers engaged Patch, the fool, to break it : " no wiser man," says Dr. Heylen, (Hist, of Reform, p. 124,) " daring to undertake such a service." James I. thus reproached the Scotch bishops, when they objected to his placing pictures and statues in his chapel at Edinburgh : "You can endure Lions and Dragons (the supporters of the royal arms) and Devils, (Q. Elizabeth's Griffins) to be figured in your churches, but will not allow the like place to patriarchs and apostles." Spotswood's History, p. 5.30. t See in the present English Bible, Colos. iii, 5. Covetousness whichis idolatry t this, in the Bibles of 1562, 1577, and 1579, stood thus: Covetousness %nhich is the worshipping of images. In like manner where we read, a covetous man, who is an idolater, in the former editions we read, a covetous man which is a xrorshipper of idols. Instead of. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols, 2 Cor. vi. 16 : it used to stand, Hoio agreeth the temple of God with images. Instead of. Little chil- dren keep yourselves from idols, 1 John v. 21 : it stood, during the reigns of Edward end Elizabeth, Babes keep yourselves from images. There were several other mani- Ibst corruptions in this as well as in otlier points in the ancient Protestant Bibk»i of which remain in the present verwoa. 214 Letter XXXIIL Protestants, themselves, became disgusted with them,* and loudly called for a new translation. This was accordingly made, at the beginning of the first James's reign. In short, every passage in the Bible, and every argument which common sense suggests against idolatry, was applied to the decent re- spect which Catholics show to the memorials of Christianity. The misrepresentation, in question, still continues to be the cliosen topic of Protestant controvertists, for inflaming the minds of the ignorant against their Catholic brethren. Accord- ingly, there is hardly a lisping infant, who has not been taught that the Romanists pray to images, nor is there a secluded pea- sant who has not been made to believe, that the Papists worship wooden gods. The Book of Homilies repeatedly affirms that our images of Christ and his saints are idols ; that we " pray and ask of them what it belongs to God alone to give ; and that " images have beene and bee worshipped, and so, idolatry com- mitted to them by infinite multitudes to the great offence of God's majestie, and danger of infinite soules; that idolatrie can not possibly be separated from images set up in churches, and that God's horrible wrath, and our most dreadful danger, cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolition of all such images and idols out of the church and temple of God."f Archbishop Seeker teaches that " The church of Rome has other Gods, besides the Lord," and that " there never was greater idolatry among heatiiens in the business of in>age-wor- shipping than in the church of Rome."{ Bishop Porteus, though he does not charge us with idolatry, by name, yet he intimates the same thing, where he applies to us one of the strongest passages of Scripture against idol worship : They that make them are like unto them ; and so is every one that trusteih in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. Ps. cxiii.^^i Let us now hear what the Catholic church herself has so- lemnly pronounced on the present subject, in her general coun- * See the account of what passed on this subject, at the Conference of Hampton Court, in Fuller's and Collier's Church Histories, and in Neal's History of the Pu- ritans. t Apainst the Perils of Idol. P. iii.— This admonition was quickly carried into eflect, throughout Kne^lund. All statues, bas-relievos, and crosses, were demolish- ed in all the churches, and all pictures wei-e defaced ; while they Continued to hold their places, as they do still, in the Protestant churches of Germany. At length common sense rcffained its ri^^lits, even in this country. Accordingly, we see the cross exalted ut the lop of its principal church (St. Paul's,) which is alsQ ornamented, all round it, with the statues of saints; most of tiie catheQuay Catech. &c Letter XXXIX. 241 this corruption and the importance of the genuine text, it is in- excusable in him to have passed it over unnoticed. The whole series of ecclesiastical history proves that the Ca- tholic church, from the time of the apostles down to the present, ever firmly believing that the whole body, blood, soul and di- vinity of Jesus Christ equally subsist under each of the species or appearances of bread and wine, regarded it as a mere matter of discipline, which of them was to be received in the holy sa- crament. It appears from Tertullian, in the second century,* from St. Dennis of Alexandria! and St. Cyprian, J in the third; from St. Easily and St. Chrysostom, in the fourth, &z,c.|| that the blessed sacrament, under the form of bread, was preserved in the oratories and houses of the primitive Christians, for pri- vate communion, and for the viaticum in danger of death. There are instances also of its being carried on the breast, at sea, in the orarium or neckcloth. IT On the other hand, as it was the custom to give the B. Sacrament to baptized children, it was administered to those who were quite infants, by a drop out of the chalice.** On the same principle, it being discover- ed, in the fifth century, that certain Manichaean heretics, who had come to Rome from Africa, objected to the sacramental cup, from an erroneous and wicked opinion. Pope Leo ordered them to be excluded from the communion entirely,! f and Pope Gelasius required all his flock to receive under both kinds. jj It appears, that in the twelfth century, only the officiating priest and infants received under the form of wine, which dis- cipline was confirmed at the beginning of the fifteenth by the Council of Constance,'^'^ on account of the profanations, and other evils resulting from the general reception of it in that form. Soon after this, the more orderly sect of the Hussites, namely, the Calixtins, professing their obedience to the church in other respects, and petitioning the council of Basil to be in- •: * Ad Uxor. 1. ii. t Apud Euseb. 1. iv. c. 44. X De Lapsis ^ Epist. ad Cesar. II Apud Soz. 1, viii. c. 5. % St. Ambros. In obit. Frat.— It appears also that St. Birinus, the apostle of the "West Saxons, brought the blessed sacrament with him into this Island in an Orari- um. Gul. Malm. Vit. Pontif. Florent. Wigorn, Iligden, &c. ** St. Cypr. de Laps. tt Sermo, iv. de Quadrag. It Decret. Comperimus Dist. iii. §§ Dr. Porteus, Dr. Croomber, Kemnitius, &c. accuse this council of decrcping that " notwithstanding (for so they express it) our Saviour ministered in both kinds, one only shall, in future, be adminstered to the laity :" as if the council opposed its authority to that of Christ ; whereas it barely defines that some circumstances of the institiUion (namely, that it took place, qfter sxtpper, that the apostles receive«I mthord being fasting, and thai both species were co?isecrafed^ are not obligatory on all Christians. See Can. xiii. 2 H S4S Letter XXXnC ' dulged in the use of the chalice, this was gfanted them.* In like manner Pope Pius IV, at the request of the emperor Fer- dinand, authorized several bishops of Germany to allow the use of the cup to those persons of their respective dioceses who de- sired it.f The French kings, since the reign of Philip, have had the privilege of receiving under both kinds, at their coro- nation and at their death. J The officiating deacon and sub- deacon of St. Dennis, and all the monks of the order of Cluni, who serve the altar, enjoy the same.§ From the above statement bishop Porteus will learn, if not that the manner of receiving the sacrament under one or the other kind, or under both kinds, is a mere matter of variable discipline, at least that the doctrine and the practice of the Ca- thohc church are consistent with each other. I am now going to produce evidence of another kind, which, after all his, and the bishop of Durham's anathemas against us, on account of this doctrine and discipline, will demonstrate, that, conformably with the declarations of the three principal denominations of Protestants, the point at issue is a mere matter of discipline, or else that they are utterly inconsistent with themselves. To begin with Luther: he reproaches his disciple Carlostad, wf\\o in his absence had introduced some new religious changes 'at Wittenberg, with having " placed Christianity in things of no account, such as communicating under both kinds " &£c.|| On another occasion, he writes, " if a council did ordain or permit both kinds, in spite of the council, we would take but one, or take neither, and curse those who should take both. "IT Secondly, the Calvinists of France, in their synod at Poictiers in 1560, decreed thus : " the bread of our Lord's Supper ought to be administered to those who cannot drink ivine, on their making a protestation that they do not refrain from contempt.** Lastl}', by separate acts of that parliament and that king, who established the Protestant religion in England, and by name, communion in both kinds, it is provided that the latter should only be commonly so delivered and ministered, and an exception is made in case " necessity did otherwise require."tt Now 1 * Sess. ii. t Mem. Granv. t. xiii. Odorhainal. t Annal. Pagi. § Nat. Alex. t. i. p. 430. * - B Epist. ad Gasp. Gustol. IT Form. Miss. t. ii. pp. 384, 386. ♦♦ On the Lord's Supper, c. iii. p. 7. ■ft Burnet's Hist, of Reform. Part ii. p. 41. Heylin's Hist, of Reform, p. 58. FcRT tlie proclamation, see bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 17.— N. B. The writer has heard of Jintish made wine being frequently used by Church ministers in their sjh crament, for real wine. The missionaries, who were sent to Otaheite, used tho ^tadJntit for real bread on the like occasion. See Voyage of the ship Du£C Letter XJL. t^l^ need not observe, that, if the use of the cup were, by the ap- jpointment of Christ, an essential part of the sacrament, no ne- cessity can ever be pleaded in bar of that appointment, and men might as well pretend to celebrate the eucharist without bread as without wine, or to confer the sacrament of baptism without water. The dilemma is inevitable. Either the ministration of the sacrament under one or under both kinds is a matter of changeable disciphne, or each of the three principal denomina- tions of Protestants has contradicted itself. I should be glad to know what part of the alternative his lordship may choose. I am, &tc. J. M. LETTER XL. To JAMES BROWJV, Esq. OJV THE SACRIFICE OF THE :N'EW UlWl Dear Sir, The bishop of London leads me next to the consideration of the sacrifice of the new law, commonly called THE MASS, on which, however, he is brief, and evidently embarrassed. As I have already touched upon this subject, in treating of the means of sanctification in the Catholic church, I shall be as brief upon U as I well can. A sacrifice is an oflering up and immolation of a living ani- mal, or other sensible thing, to God, in testimony that he is the master of life and death, the Lord of us and all things. It is evidently a more expressive act of the creature's homage to his Creator, as well as one more impressive on the mind of the creature itself than mere prayer is, and therefore it was reveal- ed by God to the patriarchs, at the beginning of the world, and afterwards more strictly enjoined by him to his chosen people, in the revelation of his written law to Moses, as the most ac- ceptable and efficacious worship that could be oflered up to his Divine Majesty. The tradition of this primitive ordinance, and the notion of its advantageousness, have been so universal, that it has been practiced, in one form or other, in every age 244 Letter XL. from our first parents down to the present, and by every people whether civilized or barbarous, except modern Protestants. For when the nations of the earth changed the glory of the in- corruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds and fourfooted beasts, Rom. i. 23, they continued tlie rite of sacrifice, and transferred it to these unworthy objects of their idolatry. From the whole of this 1 infer, that it would bave been truly surprismg, if, under the most perfect dispensa- tion of God's benefits to men, the new law, he had left them destitute of sacrifice. But he has not so left them ; on the con^- trary, that prophecy of Malachy is evidently verified in the Ca- tholic church, spread as it is over the surface of the earth : From the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof my name is great among the Gentiles; and, in every place, there is sacrifice ; and there is offered to my name a clean oblation. Malac. !► 11. If Protestants say, we have the sacrifice of Christ's death ; I answer, so had the servants of God under the law of nature and the written law : for it is impossible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should he taken away: nevertheless, they had perpetual sacrifices of animals to represent the death of Christ, and to apply the fruits of it to their souls ; in the same manner. Catholics have Christ himself really present, and mystically ofiered on their altars daily, for the same ends, but in a far more eflicacious manner, and, of course, a true propiiia^ tory sacrifice. That Christ is truly present in the bfessed eu- charist, I have proved by many arguments ; that a mystical immolation of him takes place in the holy mass, by the separate consecration of the bread and of the wine, which strikingly re- presents the separation of his blood from* his body, I have like- wise shown : finally, I have shown you that the ofliciating priest performs these mysteries by command of Christ, and in memory of what he did at the last supper, and what he endured on Mount Calvary: DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME. Nothing then is wanting in the holy mass, to constitute it the true and propitiatory sacrifice of the new law, a sacrifice which as much surpasses, in dignity and efiicacy, the sacrifices of the old law, as the chief priest and victim of it, the incarnate Deity, surpasses, in these respects, the sons of Aaron, and tlie animals which they sacrificed. No wonder then, that, as the lathers of the church, from the earliest times, have borne testimony to the Ideality of this sacrifice,* so they should speak, in such lofty • St. Justin, who appears to have been, in his youth, contemporary with St. Joha the Evan^dist, says, that " Christ instituted a sacrifice in bread and wine, which Letter XL, ^^ tenns, of its awfulness and efficacy : no wonder that the church of God should retain and revere it as the most sacred, and tlio very essential part of her sacred liturgy : and I will add no wonder that Satan should have persuaded Martin Luther to at- tempt to abrogate this worship, as that which, most of all, it offensive to him."'^ The main arguments of the bishops of London and Lincoli\ end of Dr. Hey, with other Protestant controvertists, against the sacrifice of the new law, are drawn from St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, where, comparing the sacrifice of our Saviour with the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, the apostle says, that Christ being come a high priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation : neither by the blood of goats, or of calves^ but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtairh" ed eternal redemption. Heb. ix. 11, 12. JVor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holies every year. Ver. 25. Again, St. Paul says, Every priest standeth in^ deed daily ministering and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins : but this man offering one so- crifice for sins, sitteth at the right hand of God. Chap. x. 11, 12. Such are the texts, at full length, which modern Protestants arge so confidently against the sacrifice of the new law; but in which neither the ancient fathers, nor any other descrip- tion of Christians, but themselves, can see any argument against it. In fact, if these passages be read in their context, it will appear that the apostle is barely proving to the Hebrews (whose lofty ideas and strong tenaciousness _of their ancient rites ap- pear from different parts of the Acts of the Apostles) how infi- nitely superior the sacrifice of Christ is, to those of the Mosaic Law ; particularly from the circumstance, which he repeats, in Chrisians ofter up in every place," quoting: Malachy i. 19. Dialog, cum Tryphon. St. Ireiaeus, whose master, Polycarp, was a disciple of that Evang:elist, says, that " Christ, in consecrating bread and wine, has instituted the sacrifice of the New Law, whhh the church received from the apostles, according to the prophecy of Malachy," T^. iv. 32. St. Cyprian calls the Eucharist " A true and full sacrifice ;* and says, thaf " as Melchisedech offered bread and wine, so Christ offered th« «ame, namely, his body and blood." Epist. 63. St. Chrysostom, St. Austin, St Ambrose, &c. ar^ equally clear and expressive on tliis point. Tlie last mentioned calls this sacrifice by the name of J\Iissa or mass, so do St. Leo, St. Gregory, our Ven. Bede, &c. * Luther, in his liook De Unct. et Miss. Priv. tom. vii. fol. 229, gives an a*" count of the motive whv^h induced him to suppress the sacrifice of the mass among his followers. He says tiiat the Devil appeared to him at midnight, and in a long conference with him, the whole of which he relates, convinced him that the woj- ship of the mass is idolatry. See Letters to a Prebendary. Let. y 246 Letter XL. different forms, namely, that there was a necessity of their sa- crifices being often repeated, which, after all, could not of them- selves, and independently of the one they prefigured, take away sin ; whereas the latter, namely, Christ's death on the cross, oh- literated at once the sins of those who availed themselves of it. Such is the argument of St. Paul to the Jews, respecting their sacrifices, which in no sort militates against the sacrifice of the mass ; this being the same sacrifice with that of the cross, as to the victim that is ofiered, and as to the priest who oflers it, dif- fering in nothing but the manner of ofiering ;* in the one there being a real, and in the other a mystical, eflusion of the victim's blood, f So far from invalidating the Catholic doctrine on this point, the apostle confirms it, in this very Epistle ; where quot- ing and repeating the sublime Psalm of the royal prophet con- cerning the Messiah ; Thou art a priest for ever ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDECH, Ps, 109, alias 110, he enlarges on the dignity of this sacerdotal patriarch, to whom Aaron himself, the high priest of the old law, paid tri- bute, as to his superior, through his ancestor Abraham, Heb.v. vii. Now in what did this order of Melchisedech consist.'* In what, I ask, did his sacrifice difi^er from those which Abraham himself and the other patriarchs, as well as Aaron and his sons ofiered f Let us consult the sacred text, as to what it says con- cerning this royal priest, when he came to meet Abraham, on his return from victory : Melchisedech, the king *of Salem, bringing forth BREAD AND WINE, /or Ae was the priest of the most High God; blessed him. Gen. xiv. 18. It was then in offering op a sacrifice of bread and wine,'l instead of slaughtered animals, that Melchisedech's sacrifice differed from the generality of those in the Old Law, and that he prefigured the sacrifice, which Christ was to institute in the New Law, from the same elements. No other sense but this can be elicited from t?ie Scripture as to this matter, and accordingly, the holy fatl^ers unanimously adhere to this meaning.^ In finishing this letter, I cannot help, dear sir, making wo or three short, but important observations. The first regards the deception practised on the unlearned by the above-samed bi- shops. Dr. Hey, and most other Protestant controv^rtists, in ♦ Concil. Trid. Sess. xxii. cap. 2, t Cat. ad Faroe. ?. ii. p. 81. X The sacrifice of Cain, Gen. iv. 3. and that ordered in Zevit. ii. 1, of flour, oil, and incense, prove that inanimate things were sometimpd of old offered in sacrip* fice. § St. Cypr. Ep. 63. St. Aug. in Ps. xxxiii. St. Chry?. Horn. 35. St. Jerom, Ep» 126, &c Letter XL. ' 347 talking, on every occasion, of the Popish mass, and represent- ing the tenets of the real presence, transubstamiation, and a subsisting true propitiatory sacrifice, as peculiar to CatJioiu.H ; whereas, if they are persons of any learning, tliey must know that these are and have always been held by all the Christians in the world, except the comparatively few who inhabit the northern parts of Europe. 1 speak of the Melchite or common Greeks of Turkey, the Armenians, the Muscovites, the Nesto- rians, the Eutychians or Jacobites, the Christians of St. Thomas in India, the Cophts and Ethiopians in Africa ; all of whom maintain each of those articles, and almost every other on w hich Protestants difler from Catholics, with as much firmness as we ourselves do. Now as these sects have been totally separated from the Catholic church, some of them eight hundred and some fourteen hundred years, it is impossible they should have derived any recent doctrines or practices from her; and, divided, as they ever have been among themselves, they cannot have com- bined to adopt them. On the other hand, since the rise of Pro- testantism, attempts have been repeatedly made to draw some or other of them to the novel creed; but all in vain. Melanc- thon translated the Ausburg Confession of Faith into Greek, and sent it to Joseph, patriarch of C. P., hoping he would adopt it ; whereas the patriarch did not so much as acknow- ledge the receipt of the present.* Fourteen years later, Cru- sius, professor of Tubigen, made a similar attempt on Jeremy, the successor of Joseph, who wrote back, requesting him to write no more on the subject, at the same time making the most ex- pHcit declaration of his belief in the seven sacraments, the sa- crifice of the mass, transubstantiation, Uc.\ In the middle of the seventeenth century, fresh overtures being made to tjie Greeks by the Calvinists of Holland, the most convincing evi- dence of the orthodox belief of all the above-mentioned commu- nions, on the articles in question, were furnished by them, the originals of which were deposited in the French king's hbrary at Paris. J I have to remark, in the second place, on the in- " consistencies of the church of England, respecting this point ; she has priests,^ but, no sacrifice! She has altars,\\ but, no victim! She has an essential consecration of the sacramental elementSjir without any the least effect upon them ! Not to dive * Sheffmae. torn. ii. p. 7. t Ibid. : perpetuitede la Foi. § See the Rubrics of the communion service. H See ditto in Sparrow's Collea p. 20. IT " If the consecrated bread or wine be all spent, before all have communicated, file priest is to consecrate more.*' Ruhr. N. B. Bishop Warburton and bishop 248 Letter XL. deeper into this chaos, I would gladly ask bishop Porteus,- what hinders a deacon, or even a layman, from consecrating the sacramental bread and v/ine as validly as a priest or a bi- shop can do, agreeably to his system of consecration? There is evidently no obstacle at all, except such as the mutable law of the land interposes. In the last place, I think it right to quote some of the absurd and irreligious invectives of the re- nowned Dr. Hey against the holy mass, because they show the extreme ignorance of our religion, which generally prevails among the most learned Protestants, who write against it. The doctor first describes the mass as " blasphemous, in dragging down Christ from heaven," according to his expression; 2dly, as " pernicious, in giving men an easy way," as he pretends, " of evading all their moral and religious duties ;" 3dly, as " promoting infidelity :" in conformity with which latter asser- tion, he maintains that " most Romanists of letters and science are infidels." He next proceeds seriously to advise Catholics to abandon this part of their sacred liturgy, namely, the ador- able sacrifice of the New Law; and he then concludes his theo- logical farce with the following ridiculous threats against this sacrifice : " If the Romanists will not listen to our brotherly ex- hortations ; leWh^ra fear our threats. The rage oi paying for masses will not last for ever : as men improve, (by the French Revolution,) it will continue to grow weaker ; as philosophy (that of Atheism) rises, masses will sink in price and iupersti- tion pine away."* I wish I had an opportunity of telling the learned professor, that I should have expected, from the failure of patriarch Luther, counselled and assisted as he was by Satan himself, in his attempts to abolish the holy mass, he would have been more cautious in dealing prophetic threats against it ! [In fact he has lived to see this divine worship publicly restored in every part of Christendom, where it was proscribed, when he vented his menaces : for as to the private celebration of mass^ this was never intermitted, not even in the depth of the gloomi- est dungeons, and where no pay could be had by the Catholic priesthood. What other religious worship, I ask, could have triumphed over such a persecution ! The same will be the case in ,the latter days ; when the man of sin shall have indignation Cleaver earnestly contend that the Eucharist is a feast upon a sacrifice : but as, i« their dread of Popery, they admit no change, nor even the reality of a victim, their fea^^t is proved Uj be an imaginary banquet on an ideal viand. * Dr. Hey's Thcol. Lectures, vol. iv. p. 385. The professor tells us in a note, that'this lecture was delivered in the year 1792; the hey-day of that antichristiaii and antisocial philosophy, which attempted, through an ocean of blood, to subvert every altar and every throne. Letter XLL 249 against the covenant of the sanctuary, — and shall take away the continual sacrifice, Dan. xi. 30, 34; for even then, the mystical woman who is clothed with the sun, and has the moon under her feet, — shall fly into the wilderness. Rev. xii. 1, 6, and perform the divine mysteries of an incarnate Deity in caverns and cata- combs, as she did in early times, till that happy day, when her heavenly spouse, casting aside those sacramental veils, under which his love now shrouds him, shall shine forth in the glory of God the Father, the Judge of the living and the dead.^ I am, he. J.M. LETTER XLL To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTOJ^, M. A. OJV .^BSOLUTIOJ^ FROM Sm. Dear Sir, I PERCEIVE that you chiefly follorvv B. Porteus, who mixes in the same chapter the heterogeneous subjects of the mass and the forgiveness of sins, in the selection of 3^our objections against the church, though you adopt some others from the Tracts of bishop Watson, and even from writers of such little repute as the Rev. C. De Coetlogon. This preacher, in vent- ing the horrid calumnies, which a great proportion of other Protestant preachers and controvertists of diflerent sects, equal- ly with himself, instil into the minds of their ignorant hearers and readers, expresses himself as follows : "In the church of Rome you may purchase not only pardons for sins already committed, but for those that shall be committed ; so that any one may promise himself impunity, upon paying the rate that is set upon any sin he hath a mind to commit. And so truly is Popery the mother of abominations, that if any one hath wherewithal to pay, he may not only be indulged in his present transgressions, but may even be permitted to transgress in fu- ture."* And arc these shameless calumniators real Christians, * Abominations of the church of Rome, p. 13. The preacher goes on to state ['athol 2 I the sums of money for which, he says, Catholics believe they may commit the moj^ 260 Letter XLL who believe in a judgment to come ! And do they expect to make us Catholics renounce our religion, by representing it to us as the very reverse of what we know it to be I It is true, bi- shop Porteus does not go the lengths of the pulpit-declaimer above quoted, and of the other controvertists alluded to, in his attack upon the Catholic doctrine of absolution and justifica- tion : still he is guilty of much gross misrepresentation of it. As his language is confused, if not contradictory on the sub- ject, I will briefly state what the Catholic church has ever be- lieved, and has solemnly defined in her last general council concerning it. The council of Trent, then, teaches, that " All men lost their innocence and become defiled and children of wrath, in the pre- varication of Adam; that, not only the Gentiles were unable, by the force of nature, but that even the Jews were unable, by the Law of Moses, to rise, notwithstanding free-will was not extinct in them, however weakened and depraved :"* that " The hea- venly Father of mercy and God of all consolation sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to men, in order to redeem both Jews and Gen- tiles ;"t that " Though he died for all, yet all do not receive the benefit of his death ; but only those to whom the merit of his passion is communicated ;"{ that, for this purpose, " Since the preaching of the Gospel, baptism, or the desire of it, is ne- cessary ;"§ that " The beginning of justification, in adult per- sons (those who are come to the use of reason) is to be derived from God's preventing grace, through Jesus Christ, by which, without any merits of their own, they are called ; so that they who, by their sins, were averse from God, by his exciting and assisting grace, are prepared to convert themselves to their justification, by freely consenting to and co-operating with his atrocious crimes; " For incest, &c. five sixpences; for debauching a virgin, six sixpences ; for perjury, ditto ; for him who kills his father, mother, &c. one crown and five groats !" This curious account is borrowed from the Taxa Cmicellarice Romance, a book which has been frequently pubhshed, though with great variations both as to the crimes and the prices, by the Protestants of Germany and France, and as frequently condemned by the See of Rome. It is proper that Mr. Claj-ton and his friends should know, that the Pope's Court of Chancery has no more to do, nor pretends to have any more to do, with the forgiveness of sins, than his Ma- jesty's court of chancery does. In case there ever was the least real gi|pundwork of this vile book, which I cannot find there was, the- money paid into the papal chancery could be nothing else but ihe fees of office, on restoring certain culprits to the civil piiviteses which they had forfeited by their crimes. When the proceed- ings in doctors commons, in rnsc of incest, are suspended (as I have known thenx iuspended during the whole life of one of the accused parties) fees of office are al- ways requirerl : but wouhl it not 1)0 a vile calumny to say, that leave to con^put incest may be purchased in En.:^lund for certain sums of money? * Se6!i. Ti. cup. i. t Cup. ii. t Cap. iii, ^ Cap. ir. Letter XLL 251 grace :"* that, '* Being excited and assisted ])y divine grace, and receiving faith from hearing, they are freely moved towards God, believing the things which have been divinely revealed and promised — they are excited to hope that God will be mer- ciful to them for Christ's sake, and they begin to love him, as the fountain of all justice ; and therefore are moved to a certain hatred and detestation of sins." Lastly, " They resolve on re- ceiving baptism, to begin a new life and keep God's command- ments. "f Such is the doctrine of the church concerning the justification of the adult in baptism ; with respect to the par- don of sins committed after baptism, the church teaches, that " The penance of a Christian, after liis fall, is very dillerent from that of baptism, and that it consists, not only in refraining from sins and a detestation of them, namely, a contrite and humble hearty but also in a sacramental confession of them, at least in desire, and, at a proper time, and the priestly absolu- tion ; and likewise in satisfaction, by fasting, alms, prayers, and other pious exercises of a spiritual life ; not indeed for the eter- nal punishment, which, together with the crime, is remitted in the sacrament, or the desire of the sacrament, but /or the tem- poral punishment, which the Scripture teaches is not always and wholly remitted, as in baptism. "J Such is and always was the doctrine of the Catholic church, which thus ascribes the whole glory of man's justification, both in its beginning and its pro- gress, to God, through Jesus Christ ; in opposition to Pelagians and modern Lutherans, who attribute the beginning of conver- sion to the human creature. On the other hand, this doctrine leaves man in possession of his free will, for co-operating in this great work ; and thereby rejects the pernicious tenet of the Calvinists, who deny free will, and ascribe even our sins to God. In short, the Catholic church equally condemns the enthusiasm of the Methodist, who fancies himself justified, in some unexr pected instant, without faith, hope, charity, or contrition ; and the presumption of the unconverted sinner, who supposes that exterior good works and the reception of the sacrament will avail him, without any degree of the above-mentioned divine virtues. Such, I say, is the Catholic doctrine, in s])ite of De Coetlogon and bishop Porteus's cahnnnies. This prelate is chiefly bent on disproving the necessity of sacramental confes- sion, and on depriving the sacerdotal absolution of all ellicacjr whatsoever. Accordingly, he maintains that when Christ breathed upon his apostles and said to them: Receive ye th^ Holy Ghost: WHOSE SINS YOU SHALL FORGIVE. * Cap. V. t Cap. \l t John xx. 2'2, 23. Sr52 Letter XLt THEY ARE FORGIVEN TO THEM; AND WHOSE SINS YOU SHALL RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAIN- ED, John XX. 22, 23, he did not give them any real power to remit sins, but only " a power of declaring who were truly penitent, and of inflicting miraculous punishments on sinners ; as likewise of preaching of the word of God," Sic* And is this, I appeal to you, Rev. sir, following the plain and natural sense of the written word ? But, instead of arguing the case myself, I will produce an authority against the bishop's vague and arbitrary gloss on this decisive passage, which I think he cannot object to or withstand ; it is no other than that of the renowned Protestant champion, Chillingworth. Treating of this text he says, "Can any man be so unreasonable as to ima- gine, that, when our Saviour, in so solemn a manner, having first breathed upon his disciples, thereby conveying and insinu- ating the Holy Ghost into their hearts, renewed unto them, or rather confirmed that glorious commission, he. whereby he delegated to them an authority of binding and loosing sins upon earth, &;c.; can any one think, I say, so unworthily of our Sa- viour as to esteem these words of his for no better than compli- ment ? Therefore, in obedience to his gracious will, and as I am warranted and enjoined by my holy mother, the church of Eng- land, I beseech you, that, by your practice and use, you will not suffer that commission, which Christ hath giv^n to his ministers, to be a vain form of words, without any sense under them. When you find yourselves charged and oppressed, &ic. have recourse to your spiritual physician, and freely disclose the nature and malignancy of your disease, &ic. And come not to him, only with such a mind as you would go to a learned man, as one that can speak comfortable things to you ; but as to one that hath authority, delegated to him from God himself^ to ab" solve and acquit you of your sins.^^j Having quoted this great Protestant authority against the prelate's cavils concerning sacerdotal absolution, I shall pro- duce one or two more of the same sort, and then return to the more direct proofs of the doctrine under consideration. The Lutherans, then, who are the elder branch of the Reformation, in their Confession of Faith and apology for that Coilfession, expressly teach that absolution is no less a sacrament than bap- tism and the Lord's Supper, that particular absolution is to be retained in confession, that to reject it is the error of the Nov;ei- tian heretics; and that, by the power of the keys, Mat, xvi. 19, ♦ p. 45. t SemL rii. Folig. pp. 408, 409. Letter XLF. 253 sins are remitted, not only in the sight of the church, but also in the sight of God.^ Luther himself, in his Catechism, required that the penitent, in confession, should expressly declare that he believes ^^ the forgiveness of the priest to be the forgiveness of Qody\ What can bishop Porteus and other modern Protest* ants say to all this, except that Luther and his disciples were infected with Popery? Let us then proceed to inquire into the doctrine of the church itself, of which he is one of the most dis- tinguished heads. In The Order of the Communion, composed by Cranmer, and published by Edward VI, the parson, vicar or curate, is to proclaim this among other things : " If there be any of you whose conscience is troubled and grieved at any thing, lacking comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned priest, and confess and open his sin and grief secretly, &ic. and that of us, as a minister of God and of the church, he may receive comfort and ahsolution.'^^\ Conformably with this admonition, it is ordained in the Com- mon Prayer Booh that when the minister visits any sick person, the latter " should be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feels his conscience troubled with any weighty matter; after which confession, the priest shall absolve him, if he humbly and heartily desire it, after this sort : Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his church to absolve all sinners, who trip* ly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy, forgive thee thine offences : and, by his authority committed to me, I ABSOLVE THEE FROM ALL THY SINS, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. ^mew."§ I may add, that, soon after James I. became, at the same time, the member and the head of the English church, he desired his prelates to inform him, in the conference at Hampton Court, what authori- ty this church claimed in the article of absolution from sin, when archbishop Whitgift began to entertain him with an ac- count of the general confession and absolution, in the commn- nion service; with which the king not being satisfied, Bancroft, at that time bishop of London, fell on his knees, and said, *' It becomes us to deal plainly with your majesty : there is also in the book a more particular and personal absolution in the visit- ation of the sick. Not only the confession of Augusta, (Au^burg) * Confess. August. Art. xi. xii. xiii. Apol. t In Catech. Parv. See also Luther's Table Talk, c. xviii. on Auricular Coiy fiession. t Bishop Sparrow*s Collect, p. 20. § Order for the Visitation of the Sick. N. B. To encourage the secret confes- gion of sins the church of England has made a Canon, requiring her ministers not to reveal the same. SeeCanones Eccles. A. D. 1692,n. 113. 264 Letter XLl Bohemia and Saxony, retain and allow it, but also Mr. Calvin doth approve both such a general and such a private confession and absolution." To this the king answered, I exceedingly well approve it, being an apostolical and Godly ordinance, given in the name of Christ to one that desireth it upon the clearing of his conscience."^ I have signified that there are other passages of Scripture, besides that quoted above from John xx. in proof of the au- thority exercised by the Catholic church in the forgiveness of sin; such as St. Mat. xvi. 19, where Christ gives the keys oj the kingdom of heaven to Petei*; and chap, xviii. 18, where he declares to all his apostles : T^erily I say unto you ; whatsoever ye shall hind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and ivhatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. But here also Bp. Porteus and modern Protestants distort the plain meaning of Scripture, and say, that no other power is expressed by these words, than those of inflicting miraculous punishments, and of preaching the word of God ! Admitting, however, it were pos- sible to affix so foreign a meaning to these texts, I would gladly ask the bishop, why, after ordaining the priests of his church by this very form of words, he afterwards, by a separate form, commissions them to preach the word, and to minister ?f " No one," exclaims the bishop, " but God, can forgive sins." True; but as he has annexed the forgiveness of sins committed before baptism, to the reception of this sacrament with the*requisite dispositions : Do penance, said St. Peter to the Jews, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, Acts ii. 38 ; so he is pleased to forgive sins committed after baptism, by means of contrition, confes- sion, satisfaction, and the priest's absolution. Against the obligation of confessing sins, which is so evident- ly sanctioned in Scripture : Many that believed, came and con- fessed, and declared their deeds. Acts xix. 18; and so expressly commanded therein, confess your sins one to another, James v 16, the bishop contends that " It is not knowing a person's sins that can qualify the priest to give him absolution, but knowing he hath repented of them."J In refutation of this objection, I do not ask, why, then, does the English church move \j^e dy~ » Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. x. p. 9. See the Defence of Bancroft's Sucessor in the See of Canterbury, Dr. Laud, who endeavoured to enforce auricular Confession, in Heylin's life of Laud, P. ii. p. 41'). It appears from tliis writer, that Laud waa Confessor to the duke of Buckingham, and from Burnet, that bishop Morley was Confessor to the Dutchess of York when a Protestant. Hist, of hi« own Times. t See the Form of Ordering Priesta. t P. 46 Letter XLL 9^ tug man to confess his sins ? but I say, that the priest, being vested by Christ with a judicial power to bind or to loose^ to forgive or to retain sins, cannot exercise that power, without taking cognizance of the cause on which he is to pronounce, and without judging in particular of the dispositions of the sin- ner, especially as to his sorrow for his sins, and resolution to refrain from them in future : now this knowledge can only be gained from the penitent's own confession. From this may be gathered, whether his offences are those o{ frailty or of malice j whether they are accidental or habitual; in which latter case they are ordinarily to be retained, till his amendment gives proof of his real repentance. Confession is also necessary, to enable the minister of the sacrament to decide whether a public reparation for the crimes committed be or be not requisite ; and whether there is or is not restitution to be made to the neighbour who has been injured in person, property, or reputa- tion. Accordingly, it is well known that such restitutions are frequently made by those who make use of sacramental confes- sion, and very seldom by those who do not use it. I say no- thing of the incalculable advantage it is to the sinner in the business of his conversion, to have a confidential and experi- enced pastor, to withdraw the veils behind which self-love is apt to conceal his favourite passions and worst crimes, and to ex- pose to him the enormity of his guilt, of which before he had perhaps but an imperfect notion ; and to prescribe to him the proper remedies for his entire spiritual cure. After'' all, it is for the holy Catholic church, with whom the Word of God and the sacraments were deposited by her divine spouse, Jesus Christ, to explain the sense of the former, and the constituents of the latter. In short, this church has miiformly taught, that confession and the priest's absolution, where they can be had, are required of the penitent sinner, as well as contrition and a firm purpose of amendment. But, to believe the bishop, our church does not require contrition at all, though she has de- clared it to be one of the necessary parts of sacramental pe- nance, nor " any dislike to sin or love to God,"* for tlie justifi- cation of the sinner. I will make no farther answer to this shameful calumny, than by referring you and your friends to my above citations from the council of Trent. In these, you have seen that she requires " a hatred and detestation of sin ;'* ia short; " a contrite and humble heart j which God never (fe- ♦ p. 47. 266 Letter XLL spises ;" and moreover, " an incipient love of God, as the fouii>- tain of all justice." Finally, his lordship has the confidence to maintain, that ^ The primitive church did not hold confession and absolution of this kind to be necessary," and that " Private confession was never thought of as a command of God, for nine hundred years after Christ, nor determined to be such till after 1200."* The few following quotations from ancient fathers and councils, will convince our Salopian friends what sort of trust they are to place in this prelate's assertions on theological subjects. Ter- tuUian, who lived in the age next to that of the apostles, and is ' tJie earliest Latin writer, whose works we possess, writes thus: " If you withdraw from confession, think of hell-fire, which confession extinguishes."! Origen, who wrote soon after him, inculcates the necessity of confessing our most private sins, even those of thoughtjj and advises the sinner " to look carefully about him in choosing the person to whom he is to confess his sins."§ St. Basil, in the fourth century, wrote thus : " It is necessary to disclose our sins to those to whom the dispensa- tion of the divine mysteries is committed." || St. Paulinus, the disciple of St. Ambrose, relates, that this holy doctor used to ^ weep over tke penitents whose confessions he hep.rd, but never disclosed their sins to any but to God alone. "IT The great St. Austin writes, " Our merciful God wills us to confess in this world, that we may not be confounded in the othet-;** and elsewhere he says, '* Let no one say to himself, I do penance to God in private. Is it then in vain that Christ has said. What' soever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven ? Is it in vain that the keys have been given to the church r"ff I could produce a long list of other passages to the same effect, from fathers and doctors, and also from councils of the church, an- terior to the periods he has assigned to the commencement and confirmation of the doctrine in question: but I will have re- course to a shorter, and perhaps more convincing proof, that this doctrine could not have been introduced into the church at any period whatsoever subsequent to that of Christ and his apostles. My argument is this : it is impossible it should have been at any time introduced, if it was not from the first neces- sary. The pride of die human heart would at all time^ have * Ibid. t Lib. de Poenit. t Horn. 3 in Levit f) Horn. 2 in Ps. xxxvii. || Rule 229. m In Vit. Ambros. ♦* Horn. 20. tt Horn. 49. LtiUr XLL 257 -J revolted at the imposition of such a humiliation, as that of con- fessing all its most secret sins, if Christians had not previously believed that this rite is of divine iii6titution, and even necessary for the pardon of them. Supposing, however, that the clergy, at some period, had fascinated tlie laity, kings and emperors, as well as peasants, to submit to this yoke; it will still lemaiii to be accounted for, how they look it up themselves; for monks, priests and bishops, and the Pope himself, must equally confess their sins with the meanest of the people. And if even this could be explained, it would still be necessary to show how the numerous organized churches of the Nestorians and Euty- cJiians, spread over Asia and Africa, from Bagdad to Axum, all of whom broke from the communion of the Catholic church in the fifth century, took up the notion of penance being a sacra- ment, and that confession and absolution are essential parts of it, as they all believe at the present day. With respect to the main body of the Greek Christians, they separated from the Latins much about the period which our prelate has set down for the rise of this doctrine; but though they reproached tl>e Latin Christians with shaving their beards, singing Allelujah at wrong seasons, and other such like minutiae, they never ac- cused them of any error respecting private confession or sacer- dotal absolution. To support the bishop's assertions on this and many other points, it would be necessary to suppose, as 1 have said before, that a hundred millions of Greek and Latin Christians lost their senses on some one and the same day or night ! In finishing this letter, I take leave, Rev. sir, to advert to the case of some of your respectable society, who, to my know- ledge, are convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion, but are deterred from embracing it, by the dread of that sacrament of which I have been treating. Their pitiable case is by no means singular : we continually find persons, who are not only desirous of reconciHng themselves to their true mother, the Ca- tholic church, but also of laying the sins of their youth and their ignorances, Ps. xxiv. alias xxv. 7, at the feet of some one or other of her faithful ministers, convinced that thereby they would procure ease to their afflicted souls, yet have not the courage to do this. Let the persons alluded to humbly and fervently pray to the Giver of all good gifts for his strengther>- ing grace, and let them be persuaded of the truth of what an unexceptionable witness says, who kad experienced, while he Was a Catholic, the interior joy he describes, where, persuading the penitent to go to his confessor " not as to one that can 2K 2&S Letter XLU, speak comfortable and quieting words to him, but as to one that hath authority delegated to him from God himself, to ab- solve and acquit him of his sins," he goes on, " If you shall do this, assure ^our souls, that the understanding of man is not able to conceive that transport, and excess of joy and comfort, which shall accrue to that man's heart, who is persuaded he hath been made partaker of this blessing."* On the other hand, if such persons are convinced, as I am satisfied they are, tliat Christ's words to his apostles, Receive the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall remit, they are remitted, mean what they express, they must know, that confession is necessary to buy off overwhelming confusion, as the fathers I have quoted signify, at the great day of manifestation, and with this never-ending punishment. I am, &1C. J.M. LETTER XLII. To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. ox ij^dulge:n'ces. Rev Sir, I TRUST you will pardon me, if I do not send a special an- swer to the objections you have stated against my last letter to you, because you will find the substance of them answered in this and my next letter concerning indulgences and purgatory. Bishop Porteus reverses the proper order of these subjects, by treating first of the latter : indeed his ideas are much confused, and his knowledge very imperfect concerning them both. This prelate describes an indulgence to be, in the belief of Catholics, (without, however, giving any authority whatever fomhis de- scription) ** a transfer of the overplus of the saints' goodness, joined with the merits of Christ, he, by the Pope, as head of the church, towards the remission of their sins, who fulfil, in their lifetime, certain conditions appointed by him, or whose ♦ Chfllingworth, Sermon vii. p. 409. Lttter XLIL 25d friends will fulfil them, after their death."* He fpeaks of it as " a method of making poor wretches believe that wickedness here may become consistent witli happiness hoieafter-»-that re- pentance is explained away or overlooked among other thinus joined with it, as saying so many prayers and paying so mucii money. "f Some of the bishop's friends have published much the same description of indulgences, but in more perspicuous language. One of them, in liis attempt to show that each Pope, in succession, has been the man of sin, or Antichrist, says, *' Besides their own personal vices, by their indulgences, pardons, and dispensations, which they claim a power from Christ of granting, and which they have sold in so infamous a manner, they have encouraged all manner of vile and wicked practices. They have contrived numberless me- thods of making a holy life useless, and to assure the most abandoned of salvation, provided they will sufficiently pav the priests for absolution. "{ With the same disregard of charity and truth, another eminent divine speaks of the matter thus, " the Papists have taken a notable course to secure men from the fear of hell, that of penances and indulgences. To those, who will pay the price, absolutions are to be had for the most abominable and not to be named villanies, and license also for not a few wickednesses. "§ In treating of a subject, the most intricate of itself among the common topics of contro- versy, and which has been so much confused and perplexed by the misrepresentations of our opponents, it will be necessary, for giving you. Rev. sir, and my other Salopian friends, a clear and just idea of the matter, that I should advance, step by step, in my explanation of it. In this manner I propose showing you, first, what an indulgence is not, and, next, what it really is. I. An indulgence, then, never was conceived by any Catholic to be a leave to commit a sin of any kind, as De Coetlogon, bishop Fowler, and others charge them with believing. The first principles of natural religion must convince every rational being that God himself cannot give leave to commit sin. The idea of such a license takes away that of his sanctity, and, ol course, that of his very being. 11. No Catholic ever believed it to be a pardon for future sins, as Mrs. Hannah More, and a great part of other Protestant writers represent the matter. ♦ P. 53. t P. 54, Benson on the Man of Sin, republished by bishop Watson, TractSi voL r p. 273. t Bishop Fowler's Design of Christianity, Tracts, vol. n. p. 382. ^ Benson on the Man of Sin, Collect. m 260 Letter XLU. This lady describes the Catholics as " procuring indemnity for future gratifications by temporary abstractions and indulgences, purchased at the court of Rome."* Some of her fraternity, indeed, have blasphemously written, " Believers ought not to mourn for sin, because it was pardoned before it was commit- ted ;"f , but every Catholic knows that Christ himself could not pardon sin before it was committed, because this would imply thai he forgave the sinner without repentance. III. An indul- gence, according to the doctrine of the Catholic church, is not, and does not include the pardon of any sin at all, little or great, past, present, or to come, or the eternal punishment due. to it, as all Protestants suppose. Hence, if the pardon of sin is mentioned in any indulgence, this means nothing more than the remission of the temporary punishments annexed to such sin. IV. We do not believe an indulgence to imply any exemption from repentance, as B. Porteus slanders us; for this is always enjoined or implied in the grant of it, and is indispensably ne- cessary for the effect of every grace ;J nor from the works of penance, or other good works ; because our church teaches that the " life of a Christian ought to be a perpetual penance,§ and that to enter into life, we must keep God''s commandments, \\ and must abound in every good worA:."ir Whether an obligation of all this cart be reconciled with the articles of being " justified by faith only,"** and that " works done before grace partake of the nature of sin,"f f I do not here inquire. V. It*is incon- sistent with our doctrine of inJierent justificatlon,\\ to believe, as the same prelate charges us, that the effect of an indulgence is to transfer " the overplus of the goodness," or justification of the saints, by the ministry of the Pope, to us Catholics on earth. Such an absurdity may be more easily reconciled with the system of Luther and other Protestants concerning imputed justification ; which, being like a " clean, neat cloak, thrown over a filthy leper,"§§ may be conceived transferable from one person to another. Lastly, whereas the council of Trent calls ♦ Strictures on Female Education, vol. ii. p. 239. t Eaton's IIonLycomb of Salvation. See al!^a Sir Richard Hill's Letters. X Concil. Trid. Sesa. vi. c. 4, c. 13, &c. ^ Sess. xiv. De Extr. Unc. I! Sess. vi. can. 19. ^ IT Ibid. cap. IG.— N. B. 'I'licreare eiglit Tndulgrences jrranted to Catholics at the chief festivals, &c. in every year ; the conditions of which are, confession icith sin- cere repentance, tlie II. Communion, alms to the poor, (without distinction of their religion) prayers for the church and strayed souls, the peace of Christendom, and l.ie blessin? of God on this nation ; finally, a disposition to hear the word of God, and to assist the sick. See Laity's Directory, Keating: and Brown. ** Art. XL of 39 Art. tt Art. XIII. XX Trid. Sess. vi. can. xi. ^^ Becanus dc Justi£ Letter XLII. 201 indulgences heavenly treasures* we hold that it would be a sacrilegious crime in any person whomsoever lo be concerned in buying or selling them. I am far, however, Rev. sir, from denying that indulgences have ever been soldf — alas ! wiiat is so sacred that the avarice of men has not put up to sale ! Christ himself was sold, and that by an apostle, for thirty pieces of silver. I do not retort upon you the advertisements 1 frequent- ly see in the newspapers about buying and selling benefices, with the cure of souls annexed to them, in your church ; but this I contend for, that the Catholic church, so far from sanc- tioning this detestable simony, has used her utmost pains, par- ticularly in the general councils of Lateran, Lyons, Vienne, and Trent, to prevent it. To explain, now, in a clear and regular manner, what an in- dulgence is; I suppose, first, that no one will deny that a sove- reign prince, in showing mercy to a capital convict, may either grant him a remission of all punishment, or may leave him sub- ject to some lighter punishment : of course he will allow that the Almighty may act in either of these ways with respect to sinners. II. I equally suppose that no person, who is versed in the Bible, will deny that many instances occur there of God's remitting the essential guilt of sin and the eternal punishment due to it, and yet leaving a temporary punishment to be en- dured by the penitent sinner. Thus, for example, the sentence of spiritual death and everlasting torments was remitted to our first father, upon his repentance, but not that of corporal death. Thus, also when God reversed his severe sentence against the idolatrous Israelites, he added, JVevertkeless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Exod. xxxii. 34. Thus, again, when the inspired Nathan said to the model of penitents, David, The Lord hath put aivay thy sin, he added, nevertheless, the child that is born unto thee shall die. 2 Kings, alias Sam. xii. 14. Finally, when David's heart smote him, after he had num- bered the people, the Lord, in pardoning him, offered him by his prophet. Gad, the choice of three temporal punishments, war, famine, and pestilence. Ibid. xxiv. III. The Catholic church teaches that the same is still the common course of God's mercy and wisdom, in the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism ; since she has formally condemned the proposi- ♦ Sess. xxi. c. 0, t The bishop tells us that he is in possession of an indulgence, lately granted at Rome, for a small sum of money; but he does not say who ^'ranted it. In like manner he may buy forged Bank notes and counterfeit coin in London very cheap, if he pleases. ^ 262 Letter XLU, tion, that " every penitent sinner, who, after the grace of Justi- fication, obtains the remission of his guilt and eternal punish- ment, obtains also the remission of all temporal punishment."* The essential guilt and eternal punishment of sin, she declares, can only be expiated by the precious merits of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ; but a certain temporal punishment God reserves for the penitent himself to endure, " lest the easiness of his par- don should make him careless about falling back into sin."f Hence satisfaction for this temporal punishment has been insti- tuted by Christ as a part of the sacrament of penance; and hence " a Christian life," as the council has said above, " ought to be a penitential life." This council at the same time, declares, that this very satisfaction for temporal punish- ment is only efficacious through Jesus Christ.^ Nevertheless, as the promise of Christ to the apostles, and St. Peter in particu- lar, and to their successors, is unlimited : WHATSOEVER you shall loose upon earth, shall he loosed also in heaven, Mat. xviii. 18 — xvi. 19; hence the church believes and teaches that her jujrisdiction extends to this very satisfaction, so as to be able to remit it wholly or partiall} , in certain circumstances, by what is called an INDULGENCE.^ St. Paul exercised this power in behalf of the incestuous Corinthian, at his conversion and the prayers of the faithful, 2 Cor. ii. 10; and the church has claimed and exercised the same power ever since the time of the apostles down to the present. || V. Still this power, like that of absolution, is not arbitrary; there must be a just cause for the exercise of it, namely, the greater good of the penitent, or of the faithful, or of Christendom in general ; and there must be a certain proportion between the punishment remitted and' the good work performed. IT Hence no one can ever be sure that he has gained the entire benefit of an indulgence, though he has performed all the conditions appointed for this end :** and hence, of course, the pastors of the church will have to an- swer for it, if they take upon themselves to grant indulgences for unworthy or insufficient purposes. VI. Lastly, it is the re-, ceived doctrine of the church that an indulgence, when truly gained, is not barely a relaxation of the canonical penance en- joined by the church, but also an actual remission by God of the * CJonc. Trid. Sess. vi. can. 30, I Sess. vi. cap. 7, cap. 14. Sess. xir. cap. 8. t Sess. xiv. 8. ^ Trid. Sess. xxt. Do Indulg. D Tertul. in Lib. ad Mart>r. c. i. St. Cypr. 1. 3. Epist. Concil. i. Nic. Ancyr. &C. V Bellarm. Lib. i. De Indul^. c. 12. ♦* Ibid. Letter XLII. 263 whole or part of the temporal punishment due to it in his sight. The contrary opinion, though held by some tiieologians, hus been condemned by Leo X,* and Pius VI :f und indeed, with- out the eflect here mentioned, indulgences would not be heaven- ly treasures, and the use of them woidd not be beneficial, but ra- ther j^enu'aoM* to Christians, contrary to two declarations of the last general council, as Bellarmin well argues. J The above explanation of an indulgence, conformably to the doctrine of Theologians, the decrees of Popes, and the defini- tions of Councils, ought to silence the objections and suppress the sarcasms of Protestants on this head : but if it be not su/H- cient for such purpose, I would gladly argue a few points with them concerning their own indulgences. Methinks, Rev. sir, I see you start at the mention of this, and hear you ask, what Pro- testants hold the doctrine of indulgences r — I answer you ; all the leading sects of them, with which I am acquainted. To be- gin with the church of England : one of the first articles I meet with in its canons, regards indulgences and the use that is to be made of the money paid for them.^^ In the synod of 1640, a canon was made which authorized the employment of commu- tation-money, namely, of such sums as were paid for indulgen- ces from ecclesiastical penances, not only in charitable, but also in public uses.|| At this period the established clergy were de- voting all the money they could any way procure to the war which Charles I. was preparing in defence of the church and state against the Presbyterians of Scotland and England: so that, in fact, the money then raised by indulgences w^as employ- ed in a real crusade. It has been before stated that the second offspring of Protestantism, the Anabaptists, claimed an iudul« ♦ Art. 19, inter Art. Damn. Lutheri. t Const. Auctiyr. Fid. t L. i. c. 7, prop. 4. § " Ne quae fiat posthac solemnis penitentiae commutatio nisi n-.lionibus, gravio- ribus que de causis, &c. Deinde quod mulcta ilia pecuniariavel in rclevam pau- perum, vel in alios pios usus ero,2:etur." Articuli pro Clero, A. D. l;iS4, Sparrow, ^.194. The next article is, " De moderandis quibusdam indulgentiis procele- bratione matrimonii," &c. p. 195. These indulgences were renewe(}, under the same titles, in the Synod held in London in 1597. Sparrow, pp. 248. 25'2. D " That no Chancellor, Commissary or Ollicial, shall have power to commute any penance, in whole or in part ; but either, togethiir with the bishop, &.c. that he shall give a full and just account of sucli commutations, to the bishop, who shall see that all such moneys shall be disposed of for charitable and public uses, accord- ing to law— saving always to ecclesiastical officers their Jrte arid accustomable fees.^ Canon 14, Sparrow, p. 368 — In the remonstrance of grievances presented by a committee of the Irish parliament to Charles I, one of them was, that " Several bi- ^ops received great sums of money/or commntalion of penance (that Ls for indulgen- ees) which they converted to their own use.'* Commons Jouru. quoted by CuirT> Val.up. 163. 264 Letter XLH. gence from God himself, in quality of bis chosen ones, to despoil the impious, namely, all the rest of mankind, of their property; while the genuine Calvinists, of all times, have ever maintained that Christ has set them free from the observance of every law of God as well as of man. Agreeebly to this tenet, sir Richard Hill says, " It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the person."* With respect to patriarch Luther, it is notorious that he was in the habit of granting indulgences, of various kinds, to himself and his disciples. Thus, for example, he dis- pensed with himself and Catharine Boren from their vows of a religious life, and particularly that of celibacy : and even preached up adultery in his public sermons. f In like manner he published Bulls, authorizing the robbery of bishops and bi- shoprics, and the murder of Popes and cardinals. But the most celebrated of his indulgences is that which, in conjunction with Bucer and Melancthon, he granted to Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, m consideration of the latter's protection of Protestant- ism, for so it is stated, to marry a second wife, his former being living. J But if any credit is due to this same Bucer, who, for his learning, was invited by Cranmer and the duke of Somerset into England, and made the divinity professor of Cambridge, the whole business of the pretended Reformation was an indul- gence for libertinism. His words are these : " The greater part of the people seem only to have embraced the Orospel, in order to shake oft' the yoke of discipline and the obligation of fasting, penance, &,c. which lay upon them in Popery, and to live at their pleasure, enjoying their lusts and lawless appetites, without controul. Hence they lent a willing ear to the doc- trine that we are saved by faith alone, and not by good works, having no relish for them."§ I am, &c. J.M. * Fletcher's Checks, vol. iii. t " Si nolit Domina, veniat ancilla, &c." Serin. De Matrim. t v. X This infamous indulgence, with the deeds helonging to it, waa publ •^h'id from the original by permission of a descendant of the Landgrave, and republiabed by Bosauet Variat book vi ^ Bucer. De Regn. Chiis. L i. c. 4. t 265 ] LETTER XLIII. To the Rev. ROBERT CLA YTON, M, A. OJ^ PURGATORY AJ^D PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. Rev. Sir, In the natural order of our controversies, this is the proper place to treat of purgatory and prayers for the dead. On this subject, bishop Porteus begins with saying, " There is no Scripture proof of the existence of purgatory : heaven and hell \\e read of perpetually in the Bible; but purgatory we never meet with: though surely, if there be such a place, Christ and his apostles would not have concealed it from us."* I might expose the inconclusiveness of this argument by the following parallel one; the Scripture nowhere commands us to keep the first day of the week holy : we perpetually read of sanctifying the Sabbath^ or Saturday; but never meet with the Sunday, as a day of obligation; though, if there be such an obhgation, Christ and his apostles would not have concealed it from us ! I might likewise answer, with the bishop of Lincoln, that the in- spired Epistles (and I may add the Gospels also) " are not to be considered as regular treatises upon the Christian religion."t But I meet the objection in front, by saying, first, that the apostles did teach their converts the doctrine of purgatory, among their other doctrines, as St. Chrysostom testifies, and the tradition of the church proves ; secondly, that the same is demonstratively evinced from both the Old and the New Tes- tament. To begin with the Old Testament ; I claim a right of consi- dering the two first Books of Machabees as an integral part of them; because the Catholic church so considers them. J from whose tradition, and not from that of the Jews, as St. Austin signifies,§ our sacred canon is to be formed. Now in the second of these books, it is related that the pious general, Judas Machabeus, sent twelve thousand drachmas to Jerusalem for sacrifices, to be offered for his soldiers, slain in battle, afle * Confut. p. 48. f Elem. of Theol. vol. i. p. 277. X Concil. Cartag. iii. St. Cyp. St. Aug. lonoc. I. Gelas, &c. » Lib. 18. De Civ. Dei. 2L 266 jMter XLTIL f which ttarration, the inspued writer concludes thus t tt is there' fore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, thai they may be loosed from their sins. 2 Mac. xii. 46. I need not point out the inseparable connexion there is between the prac- tice of playing for the dead and the belief of an intermediate state of souls, since it is evidently needless to pray for the saints in heaven, and useless to pray for the reprobate in hell. But, even Protestants, who do not receive the Books of Machabees, as canonical Scripture, venerate them as authentic and holy records: as such, then, they bear conclusive testimony of the belief of God's people, on this head, one hundred and fifty years before Christ* That the Jews were in the habit of prac- tising some religious rites for the relief of the departed, at the beginning of Christianity, is clear from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, who mentions them, without any censure of them ;* and that this people continue to pray for their de- ceased brethren, at the present time, may be learned from any living Jew. To come now to the New Testament : what place, I ask, must that be, which our Saviour calls Abraham^s bosom, where the soul of Lazarus reposed, LuJce xvi. 22, among the other just souls, till he by his sacred passion paid their ransom ? Not heaven, otherwise Dives would have addressed himself to God instead of Abraham ; but evidently a middle state, as St. Austin teaches. f Again, of what place is it that St. Petej; speaks^ where he says, Christ died for our sins ; being put io death in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit ; in which also coming, he preached to those spirits that were in prison. 1 Pet. iii. 19. It is evidently the same which is mentioned in the apostles' creed : He descended into hell : not the hell of the damned, to suffer tlieir torments, as the blasphemer, Calvin, asserts,J but the prison above-mentioned, or Abraham's bosom, in short, a middle, state. It is of this prison, according to the holy fathers,^ our blessed Master speaks, where he says, / tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite. Luke xii. 59. Lastly, what other sense can that passage of St. Paul's Epistle to tlie Corinthians bear, than that which the holy fa- tliers affix to it,|| where the apostle says, The day of the Lord * Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if f/»e dead rise 10SI at alU Why are they tlun baptized for theml 1 Cor. xv. 29. t De Civit. Dei, 1. xv. c. 20. X Instit. 1. ii. c. 16. ^ Tertul. St. Cypr. Origen, St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, &c. B Origen, Horn 14 in Levit. &c. St. Ambrose in Ps. 1 18. St. Jerom, 1. 2. con- tra Jovin. St. Aug. in Ps. 37, where l:o nrt>.»c ihns : " Purify me, Lortl '-^ thU Letter XL III. 267 shall he revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work be burnt, he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. 1 Cor. iii. 13 15 The prelate's diversified attempts to explain away these Scrip- tural proofs of purgatory, are really too feeble and inconsistent to merit being even mentioned. I might here add, as a further proof, the denunciation of Christ, concerning blasphemy against the Holy Ghost : namely, that this sin shall not be forgiven either in this world or in the ivorld to come, Mat. xii. 32 : which words clearly imply, that some sins are forgiven in the world to come, as the ancient fathers show :* but I hasten to the proofs of this doctrine from tradition, on which head the prelate is so ill advised as to challenge Catholics. II. Bp. Porteus, then, advances, that " Purgatory, in the present Popish sense, was not heard of for four hundred years after Christ; nor universally received for one thousand years, nor almost in any other church than that of Rome to this day."f Here are no less than three egregious falsities, which I proceed to show, after stating what his lordship seems not to know, namely, that all which is necessary to be believed, on this sub- ject, is contained in the following brief declaration of the coun- cil of Trent : " There is a purgatory, and the souls, detained there, are helped by the prayers of the faithful, and particularly by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar. "{ St. Chrysostom, tlie light of the eastern church, flourished within three hundred years of the age of the apostles, and must be admitted as an unexceptionable witness of their doctrine and practice. Now he writes as follows : " It was not without good reason OR- DAINED BY THE APOSTLES, that mention should be made of the dead in the tremendous mysteries, because they knew well that these would receive great benefit from it."§ TertuUian, who lived in the age next to that of the apostles, speaking of a pious widow, says, " She prays for the soul of her husband, and begs refreshment || for him." Similar testi- monies of St. Cyprian, in the following age are numerous ; I shall satisfy myself with quoting one of them, where, describing the difierence between some souls, which are immediately ad- mitted into heaven, and others, which are detained in purga- life, that I may not need the chastising fire of those who will be saved, yet so as by fire,'' ♦ St, Aug. De Civit. Dei. 1. 21, c. 24. St. Greg. 1. 4. Dialog. Bed in cap. 3, Marc. t P. 50. I Sess.xxY. DePurg. i In cap. i. Phiilp. Horn, 3, II L. De Monogam. c. 10. 268 Letter XLIU. tory, be says, " It is one thing to be waiting for pardon ; an- other to attain to glory : one thing to be sent to prison, not to go from thence till the last farthing is paid ; another to receive immediately the reward of faith and virtue : one thing to suffer lengthened torments for sin, and to be chastised and purified for a long time in that fire ; another to have cleansed away all sin by suffering,"* namely, by martyrdom. It would take up too much time to quote authorities on this subject from St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin, and several other ancient fathers and writers, who demonstrate, that the doctrine of the church was the same tha it is now, not only within a thousand, but also within four hun- dred years from the time of Christ, with respect both to pray- ers for the dead, and an intermediate state, which we call pur- gatory. How express is the authority of the last named father, in particular, where he says and repeats, " Through the pray- ers and sacrifices of the church and alms-deeds, God deals more mercifully with the departed than their sins deserve !"f How affecting is this saint's account of the death of his mother, St. Monica, when she entreated him to remember her soul at the altar, and when, after her decease, he performed this duty, in order, as he declares, " to obtain the pardon of her sins !"J As to the doctrine of the oriental churches, which the bishop signi- fies is conformable to that of his own, I affirm, as a fact, which has been demonstrated,^ that there is not one of them which agrees with it, nor one of them which does not agree with the Catholic church, in the only two points defined by her, namely, as to there being a middle state, which we call purgatory, and as to the souls, detained in it, being helped by the prayers of the living faithful. True it is, they do not generally believe, that these souls are punished by a material fire ; but neither does our church require a belief of this opinion j and accord- ingly, she made a union with the Greeks in the council of Florence, on their barely confessing and subscribing the afore- said two articles. III. I should do an injury. Rev. sir, to my cause, were I to pass over the concessions of eminent Protestant prelates and other writers on the matter in debate. On some occasions Lu- ther admits of purgatory, as an article founded on Scripture. || Melancthon confesses that the ancients prayed for the de#d, and ♦ S. Cypr. 1. 4. ep. 2. t Serm. 172. Enchirid. cap. 109, 110. X Confess. 1. ix. c. 13. ^ See the Confessions of the different Oriental churches in the Pcrpetuitc, &c II Assertiones, Art. 37. Disput. Leipsic. Letter XLIIL 269 says that the Lutherans do not find fault with it.* Calvin inti- mates, that the souls of all the just are detained in Abraliam's bosom till the day of judgment. f In the first liturgy of the church of England, which was drawn up by CranintT and Rid- ley, and declared by act of parliament to have hnQw framed by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, there is an express pray tr fur the departed, that " God would grant them mercy and everlasting peace."J It can be shown that the following bishops of your church believed that the dead ought to be prayed for, Andrews, Usher, Montague, Taylor, Forbes, Sheldon, Barrow of St. Asaph's and Blandford.§ To these I may add the religious Dr. Johnson, whose published Meditations prove, that he constantly prayed for his deceased wife. But what need is there of more words on the subject, when it is clear that modern Protestants, in shutting up the Catholic purgatory for imperfect just souls, have opened another general one for them, and all the wicked of every sort whatsoever ! It is well known that the disciples of Calvin, at Geneva, and, perhaps, every where else, instead of adhering to his doctrine, in condemning mortals to eternal torments, without any fault on their part, now hold that the most confirmed in guilt and the^ finally impenitent shall, in the end, be saved :|| thus establishing, as Fletcher of Madeley ob- serves, " a general purgatory."1[ A late celebrated theologi- cal, as well as philosophical writer of our own country, Dr, Priestly, being on his deathbed, called for Simpson's work On the Duration of Future Punishment, which he recommended in these terms : " It contains my sentiments : we shall all meet finally : we only require different degrees of discipline, suited to our different tempers, to prepare us for final happiness."** Here again is a general Protestant purgatory : and why should Satan and his crew be denied the benefit of it ? But to confine myself to eminent divines of the estabUshcd church. One of its celebrated preachers, who, of course, " never mentions hell to ears polite," expresses his wish, " to banish the subject of everlasting punishment from all pulpits, as containing a doc- trine, at once improper and uncertain,"f f which sentiment is applauded by another eminent divine, who reviews that sermon * Apolog. Conf. Aug. t Instit. 1. iii. c. 5. i See the form in' Collier's Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 257. (j Collier's Hist~N. B. The present bishop of Exeter, in a sermon just publish- ed, prays for the soul of our poor princess Charlotte, " as far as this is lawful and profitable." II Encyclo. Art. Geneva. H Checks to Antinom. vol. 4. ** See Edinb. Review. Oct. 1806. tt SermonsbyRev. W. GilpiB,Preb. ofSarum. i70 Letter XLIIL in the British Critic* Another modern divine censures ** th« threat of eternal perdition as a cause of infidelity."! The re- nowned Dr. Paley, (but here we are getting into quite novel systems of theology, which will force a smile from its old stu^ dents, notwithstanding the awfulness of the subject) Dr. Paley, I say, so far softens the punishment of the infernal regions, as to suppose that, " There may be very little to choose between the condition of some who are in hell, and others who are in heaven !"J In the same liberal spirit the Cambridge professor of divinity teaches, that " God's wrath and damnation are more terrible in the sound than the sense !§ and that being damned does not imply any fixed degree of evil." |] In another part of his Lectures, he expresses his hope, and quotes Dr. Hartley, as expressing the same, that " all men will be ultimately happy, when punishment has done its work in reforming principles and conduct."ir If this sentiment be not sufficiently explicit in fa- vour of purgatory, take the following, from a passage in which he is directly lecturing on the subject. " With regard to the doc- trine of purgatory, though it may not be founded either in rea- son or in Scripture, it is not unnatural. Who can bear the thought of dwelling in everlasting torments ? Yet who can say that a God everlastingly just, will not inflict them ? The mind of man seeks for some resource : it finds one only ; in conceiv- ing that some temporary pmilshment, after death, may purify the soul from its moral pollutions, and make it, at last, accept'- able, even to a deity. Infinitely pure."** IV. Bishop Porteus intimates that the doctrine of a middle state of souls was borrowed from Pagan fable and philosophy. — In answer to this, I say, that, if Plato,y-j- Virgil, and other heathens, ancient and modern, as likewise Mahomet and his disciples, together with the Protestant writers quoted above, have embraced this doctrine, it only shows how conformable it is to the dictates of natural religion. I have proved, by va-, rious arguments, that a temporary punishment generally re- mains due, to sin, after the guilt and eternal punishment due to It, have been remitted. Again, we know from Scripture, thai even the just man falls seven times, Prov. xxiv. 17, and that men ♦ British Critic, Jan. 1802. -#" t Rev. Mr. Polwhele's Let. to Dr. Hawker. X MoraJ andPolit. Pl)ilos. ^ Lect. vol. iii.p. 154. B Ibid. % Vol. ii. p. 390. It is to be observed that the doctrine of the final salvation Of the wicked is expressly condemned in the 42d Article of the church of England, A. D. 1552. ** Vol. iv. p. 112. t1 Plato in Gorgia, Virgil's Mueid, 1. 6, the Koran. Letter XLIII. 271 must give an account of every idle tvord that they speak, Mat. xii- 36. On the other hand, we are conscious that there is not aa instant of our Hfe, in which this may not suddenly terniinair, without the possibility of our calling upon God for mercy! What then, I ask, will become of souls which are surprised in either of those predicaments ? We are sure from Scripture and reason that nothing defiled shall enter heaven, Rev. xxi. 27 : will then our just and merciful Judge make no distinction in guiltiness, as bishop Fowler and other rigid Protestants main- tain f* Will he condemn to the same eternal punishment the poor child who has died under the guilt of a lie of excuse, and the abandoned wretch who has died in the act of murdering his father ? To say that he will, is so monstrous a doctrine in it- self, and so contrary to Scripture, which declares that God will render to every man according to his deeds, Rom. ii. G, that it seems to be universally exploded. f The evident consequence of this is, that there are some venial or pardonable sins, for the expiation of which, as well as of the temporary punishment due to other sins, a place of temporary punishment is provided in the next life, where, however, the souls detained may be relieved, by the prayers, alms, and sacrifices of the faithful here on earth. O ! how consoling is the belief and practice of Catholics in this matter, compared with those of Protestants ! The latter show their regard for their departed friends in costly pomp and fea- thered pageantry ; while their burial service is a cold, discon- solate ceremony ; and as to any further communication with tlie deceased, when the grave closes on their remains, they do not so much as imagine any. On the other hand, we Catholics know, that death itself cannot dissolve the communion of saints, which subsists in our church, nor prevent an intercourse of kind and often beneficial offices between us and our departed friends. Oftentimes we can help them more ellcctually, in the other world, by our prayers, our sacrifices, and our alms-deeds, than we could in this by any temporary benefits we could be- stow upon them. Hence we are instructed to celebrate the ob- sequies of the dead by all such good works; and, accordingly, our funeral service consists of psalms and prayers, ofl'6-ed up for their repose and eternal felicity. These acts of devotion, pious Catholics perform for the deceased, who were near and dear to them, and indeed for the dead in general, every day, but particularly on the respective anniversaries of the deceased. * Calvin,!, iii. c. 12. Fo-vvlw in Watson's Tra.ts, vol. vL p. 3S2. t See Dr. Hey, vol. Ui. pp. 384,451, 453. 272 Letter XLIV. Such benefits, we are assured, will be paid with rich interest, by those souls to whose bliss we have contributed, when they attain to it ; and if they should not be in a condition to help us, the God of mercy at least will abundantly reward our charity. On the other hand, what a comfort and support must it be to our minds, when our turn comes to descend into the grave, to reflect that we shall continue to live in the constant thoughts and daily devotions of our Catholic relatives and friends ! I am, &c. J. M LETTER XLIV. To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. EXTREME VKCTIOK, Rev. Sir, The Council of Trent terms the sacrament of extreme unc- tion, the Consummation of Penance, and therefore, as bishop Porteus makes this the subject of a charge against our church, here is the proper place for me to answer it. His lordship writes a long chapter upon it, because his business is to gloss over the clear testimony which the apostle St. James bears to the reality of this sacrament : in return, I shall write a short let- ter in refutation of his chapter, because I have little more to do than to cite that testimony, as it stands in the New Testament : it is this : Is any man sick among you, let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man ; and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him, James v. 14, 15. Here we see all that is requisite, according to the English Protestant Cate- chism, to constitute a sacrament,* for there " is an outward visible sign," namely, the anointing with oil : there " is an in- ward spiritual grace, given unto us," namely, the saving of the sick and the forgive7ieis of his sins. Lastly, there is the Ordina- ♦ In the Book of Common Prayer. Letter XLIV. 573 tion of Christ, as the means hy which the same is received;^'' un- less the bishop chooses to allege, that the holy apostle fabricated a Sacrament, or means of grace, without any authority for this purpose from his heavenly Master. What then does his lord- ship say, in opposition to this divine warrant for our Sacra- ment ? He says, that the anointing of the sick by elders or old men, was the appointed method of miraculously curing them in primitive times, which would imply, that no Christian died in those times, except when either oil or old men were not to be met with ! He adds, that the forgiveness of the sick manh sim^^ means the cures of his corporal diseases!* And after all thig,' he boasts of building his religion on mere Scripture, in its plain, unglossed meaning!! In reading all this, I own I cannot help revolving in my mind the above quoted profane parody of Lu- ther, on the first words of Scripture, in which he ridicules the distortion of it by many Protestants of his time.J With the same confidence his lordship adds : " Our laying aside a cere- mony (the anointing) which has long been useless, &,c. can be no loss, while every thing that is truly valuable in St. James's di- rection is preserved in our office for visiting the sick."§ Ex- actly in tliis manner our friends, the Quakers, undertake to prove, that, in laying aside the ceremony of washing catechu- mens with water, they " have preserved every thing that is truly valuable" in the sacrament of Baptism! || But where shall we find an end of the inconsistencies and impieties of de- luded Christians, who refuse to hear that church which Christ has appointed to explain to them the truths of religion ? There is not more truth in the prelate's assertion, that there is no mention of anointing with oil, among the primitive Chris- tians, except in miraculous cures, during the first 600 years : for the celebrated Origen, who was born in the age next to that of the apostles, after speaking of an humble confession of sins, as a mean of obtaining their pardon, adds to it, the anointing with oil, prescribed hy St. James,^ St. Chrysostom, ^vho lived in the fourth century, speaking of the power of priests in remit- ting sin, says, they exert it when they are called in to perform the rite mentioned by St. James, &c.' * The testimony of Pope Innocent I. in the same age, is so express as to the warrant for this sacrament, the matter, the minister, and the subjects of * p. 59. t P- 69. X *' In principio Deus creavit caelum et terram : In the beginning the euckoo devoured the sparrow and its feathers. S P. 61. n Barclay's Apology, Prop. 12. H Horn. a. m Lcrit ** De Sacerd. 1. m. 3M 174 LeUer XLIT. t ;* that though the bishop alluded to the testimony, he does not choose to grapple with it, or even to quote it.f I pass over the irrefragable authorities of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Victor of Antioch, St. Gregory the Great, and our Venerable Bede, in order once more to recur to that short but convincing proof, that the Catholic church has not invented those sacraments and doctrines in latter ages, which Protestants assert were unknown in the primitive ages. The Nestorians then broke off from the communion of the church in 431, and the Eutychians in 451 : these rival sects exist, in numerous congregations, throughout the east, at the present day, and they both, as well as the Greeks, Armenians, he. maintain, in belief and practice, £a;^reme Unction as one of the seven sacraments. Nothing can so satis- factorily vindicate our church from the charge of imposition or innovation, in the particulars mentioned, as these facts do. How much more consistently has the impious Friar, Martin Lu- ther, acted in denying at once the authority of St. James's Epistle, and condemning it as " a chaffy composition, and un- worthy an apostle,"J than Bp. Porteus, with his confederates do, who attempt to explain away the clear proofs of extreme unction, contained in it ? In the mean time, in spite of them all, pious Catholics will continue to reap inestimable consola- tion and grace, in the time of man's greatest need, for the sake of which this and the other helps of their church, were provided by our Saviour Jesus Christ. • I am, he, J. M. Epist. ad Decent. Eu^b. t P. 61. " Stramminosa." Prefat. in Ep. Jac. Jense de Captir. Babyl. [ 275 ] LETTER XLV. To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTOjY, M. A, WHETHER THE POPE BE A:N'TICHRIST. Rev. Sir, There remains but one more question of doctrine to be dis- cussed between me and your favourite controvertist, bishop Porteus, which is concerning the character and power of the Pope ; and this he compresses into a narrow compass, among a variety of miscellaneous matters, in the latter part of his book. However, as it is a doctrine of first-rate importance, against which I make no doubt but several of your Salopian Society have been early and bitterly prejudiced, I propose to treat it, at some length, and in a regular way. To do this, I must begin with the inquir}^, whether the Pope be really and truly, the man of sin, and the son of jyerdition, described by St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 1, 10; in short, the Antichi'ist spoken of by St. John, 1 John ii. 18, and called by him, A beast with seven heads and ten horns, Revel, xiii. 1, whose See or church is the great harlot, the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth, Ibid- xvii. 5. I shudder to repeat these blasphemies, and I blush to hear them uttered by my fellow Christians and countrymen, who derive their Iitur|2:y, their ministry, their Christianity, and civilization, from the Pope and the church of Rome ; but they have been too generally taught by the learned, and believed by the ignorant, for me to pass them by in silence on this occasion. One of bishop Porteus's colleagues, bishop Hallifax, speaks of this doctrine concerning the Pope and Rome, as long being " the common symbol of Protestantism."* Certain it is, that the author of it, the outrageous Martin Luther, may be said to have established Protestantism upon this principle : he had at first submitted his religious controversies to the decision of (he Pope, protesting to him thus : " Whether you give life or death, approve or reprove, as you may judge best, I will hearken to your voice, as to that of Christ himself :"f but no sooner did Pope Leo condemn his doctrine, than he published ♦ Sermons by bishop Hallifax, preached at the Lecture founded by the late bi- shop Warburton, to prove the apostasy of Papal Rome, p. 27. t Epist. ad LeoQ X. A. D. 1518. 276 Letter XLV. his book " Against the execrable Bull of Antichrist,"* as he qualified it. In like manner, Melancthon, Bullinger, and many others of Luther's followers, publicly maintained, that the Pope is Antichrist, as did afterwards Calvin, Beza, and the writers of that party in general. This party considered this doctrine so essential, as to vote it an article of faith, in their synod of Gap, held in 1603.f The writers in defence of this impious tenet in our island, are as numerous as those of the whole continent put together, John Fox, Whitaker, Fulke, Willet, sir Isaac Newton, Mede, Lowman, Towson, Bicheno, Kett, &ic. with the bishops. Fowler, Warburton, Newton, Hallifax, Hurd, Watson, and others, too numerous to be here mentioned. One of these wri- ters, whose work has but just appeared, has collected a new and quite whimsical system from the Scriptures concerning Anti- christ. Hitherto, Protestant expositors have been content to apply the character and attributes of Antichrist to a succession of Roman pontifl's; but the Rev. H. Kett professes to have dis- covered, that the said Antichrist is, at the same time, every Pope who has filled the See of Rome, since the year 756, to the number of one hundred and sixty, together with the whole of what he calls " the Mahometan power," from a period more remote by a century and a half, and the whole of infidelity, which he traces to a still more ancient origin than even Ma- hometanism.J That the first Pope, St. Peter, on whom Christ (feclared, that he built his church. Mat. xvi. 18, was not Antichrist, I trust I need not prove, nor, indeed, his third successor in the Pope- dom, St. Clement, since St. Paul testifies of him, that his name is written in the book of life, Phil. iv. 3. In like manner, there is no need of my demonstrating, that the See of Rome was not the harlot of Revelations, when St. Paul certified of its mem- ders, that their faith ivas spoken of throughout ike ivhole world, Rom. i. 8. At what particular period, then, I now ask, as I asked Mr. Brown, in one of my former letters, did the grand apostasy take place, by which the head pastor of the church of Christ, became his declared enemy, in short, the Antichrist, and by which the church, whose faith had been divinely authenti- cated, became the great harlot, full of the names of blasphemy ^ This revolution, had it really taken place, would have been the * Tom.iL t Bossuet'a Variat. P. ii. B. 13. \ Histofy of the Interpreter of Prophecy, by H. Kett, B. D. This writer's at. tempt to transform the great supporters of the Pope, St. Jerom, Pope Gregory I, St. Bernard, &c. into witnesses that the Pope is Antichrist, because they pon- denin certain acta as Anticliristian, is truly richculous. Letter XLV, 277 greatest and the most remarkable that ever happened since the deluge : hence, we might expect, that the witnesses, who profess to bear testimony to its reality, would agree, as to the time of its taking place. Let us now observe how far this is the fact. The Lutheran Braunbom, who writes the most copiously, and the most confidently of this event, tells us, that the Popish An- tichrist was born in the year of Christ 86, that he grew to his full size in 376, that he was at his greatest strength in 636, that he began to decline in 1086, that he would die in 1640, and that the world would end in 1711.* Sebastian Francus af- firms, that Antichrist appeared immediately after the apostles, and caused the external church, with its faith and sacraments, to disappear.! The Protestant church of Transylvania pub- lished that Antichrist first appeared A. D. 200. J Napper de- clared that his coming was about 313, and that Pope Silvester was the man.§ Melancthon says, that Pope Zozimus, in 420, was the first Antichrist, || while Beza transfers this character to the great and good St. Leo, A. D. 440.^ Fleming fixes on the year 606 as the year of this great event, Bp. Newton on the year 727 ; but all agree, says the Rev. Henry Kett, " that the Antichristian power was fully established in 757, or 758."** Notwithstanding this confident assertion, Cranmer's brother-in- law, Bullinger, had, long before, assigned the year 763 as the era of this grand revolution,ff and Junius had put it off to 1073. Musculus could not discover Antichrist in the church till about 1200, Fox not till 1300,J{ and Martin Luther, as \ye have seen, not till his doctrine was condemned by Pope Leo in 1520. Such are tlie inconsistencies and contradictions of those learned Protestants, who profess to see so clearly the verifica- tion of the prophecies concerning Antichrist in the Roman pon- tifls. I say contradictions, because those among them who pro- nounce Pope Gregory, or Leo the Great, or Pope Silvester, to have been Antichrist^ must contradict those others, who admit them to have been respectively Christian pastors and saints. Now what credit do men of sense give to an account of any sort, the vouchers for which contradict each other ? Certainly none at all. Nor are the predictions of these egregious interpreters, con- cerning the death of Antichrist, and the destruction of Popery, more consistent with one another, than their accounts of the * Bayle's Diet. Braunbom. t De Alvegand. Stat. Ecdes. X De Abolend. Christ, per Antichris. ^ Upon the Revel. H In locis postremo edit. ^ In Confess General. ♦* Vol. ii. p. 58. tt In Apoc. U In Eandem. 278 Letter XLV* birth and progress of them both. We have seen above, that Braunbom prognosticated that the death of the papal Anti- christ would take place in the year 1640. John Fox foretold it would happen in 1666. The incomparable Joseph Mede, as bishop Hallifax calls him,* by a particular calculation of his own invention, undertook to demonstrate that the Papacy would be finally destroj^ed in 1653.f The Calvinist minister Jurieau, who had adopted this system, fearing that the event would not verify it, found a pretext to lengthen the term, first to 1690, and afterwards to 1710. But he lived to witness a disappoint- ment at each of these periods. J Alix, another Huguenot preacher, predicted that the fatal catastrophe would certainly take place in 1716.§ Whiston, who pretended to find out the longitude, pretended also to discover that the Popedom would terminate in 17H : finding himself mistaken, he guessed a se- cond time, and fixed on the year 1735.|| At length, Mr. Kett, from the success of his Antichrist of Infidelity against his Anti- christ of Popery, about twenty years ago, (for he feels no diffi- culty in dividing Satan against himself Mat. xii. 6,) foretold that the long wished for event was at the eve of being accon>- plishedjir and Mr. Daubeny having, with several other preach- ers, witnessed Pope Pius VI. in chains, and Rome possessed by French Atheists, sounds the trumpet of victory, and exclaims, all is accomplished.** Empty triumph of the enemies of the church ! They ought to have learned, from her Itngthened history, that she never proves the truth of Christ's promises so evidently as when she seems sinking under the waves of perse- cution ; and that the chair of Peter never shines so gloriously, as when it is filled by a dying martyr, like Pius VI, or a cap- tive confessor, like Pius VII ; however triumphant for a time, their persecutors may appear ! But these dealers in prophecy undertake to demonstrate from the characters of Antichrist, as pointed out by St. Paul and St. John, that this succession of Popes is the very man in question : accordmglv the bishop of Landaff* says; " I have known the infideiiiy ol more than one young man happily removed, by showing him the characters of Popery delineated by St. Paul, in his prophecy concerning The Man of Sin, 2 Thess. ii. and * P. 286. t Bayle's Diet t Ibid. § Ibid^ Esasyon Revel. IT Vol. ii. chap. 1. "■^Th^' fall of Papal Rome. In like manner G. S. Faber, in his two Sermons before the University of Oxford, in 1799, boasts that " the immense Gothic struo- ture of Popery, built on superstition and buttressed with tortures, has crumbled to dust" Letter XLV. 279 iQ that concerning the apostasy of the latter times, 1 Tim. iv. 1."* In proof of this point, he repubhshes the Dissenter, Benl 5on's Dissertation on The man of Sin;f I purpose, therefore making a few remarks on the leading points of this adopti\4 child of his lordship, as also upon some of the Rev. Mr. Rett's illustrations of them. Fii:st, then, we all know that the Revela- tion of the Man of Sin will be accompanied with a revolt or falling off, in other words, with a great apostasy ; but it is a question to be discussed between me and bishop Watson, whe- ther this character of apostasy is more applicable to the Ca*' tholic church, or to that class of Religionists who adopt his opinions ? To decide this point, let me ask, what are the first and principal articles of the three creeds professed by his church as well as by ours, that of the apostles, that of Nice, and that of St. Athanasius, as likewise of his articles, his liturgy, and his canons ^ Incontestably those which profess a belief in the blessed Trinity, and the incarnation of the consubstantial Sod of the eternal Father. Now it is notorious, that every Catholic throughout the world, holds these the fundamental articles of Christianity as firmly now as St. Athanasius himself did fifteen hundred years ago : but what says his lordship, with number- less other Protestant Christians of this country, on these heads.'* Let the preface to his Collection be consulted,| in which, if he does not openly deny the Trinity, he excuses the Unitarians, who deny it, on the ground that they are afraid of becoming idolaters hy worshipping Jesus Christ.^ Let his charges be ex- amined : in one of which he says to his clergy, that " he does not think it safe to tell them what the Christian doctrines are ;"[| no, not so much as the unity and trinity of God. In another charge, however, the bishop assumes more courage, and in- forms his clergy, that *' Protestantism consists in believing what each one pleases, and in professing what he berieves.** How much should I rejoice to have this question o/ apostasy, between the bishop of Landaft' and me, decided by Luther, » ^ Calvin, Beza, Cranmer, Ridley, and James I, only for the •: proofs which history affords me, that, not content with exclud- ing him from the class of Christians, they would assuredly burn him at the stake as an apostate. The second character of Antichrist, set down by St. Paul, is, that he opposeth and i$ lifted up above all that is called God^ or that is worshipped, so • Bp, Watson's Collect, p. 7. t Ibid. p. 268* : Vol. i. Pref. p. 15, &c. ^ P. 17. jl Bishop WatsoD'3 Charge, 1795. 280 Letter XLF. that he sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself as if he were God, 2 Thess. ii. 4. This character Mr. Benson and bi- shop Watson think applicable to the Pope, who, they say, claims the attributes and homage due to the Deity. I leave you. Rev. sir, and your friends, to judge of the truth of this character, when I inform you, that the Pope has his confessor, like other Catholics, to whom he confesses his sins in private j and that every day, in saying mass, he bows before the altar, and in the presence of the people confesses, that he has " sinned in thought, word, and deed," begging them to pray to God for ^ him, and that afterwards, in the more solemn part of it^ he pro- fesses " his hopes of forgiveness, not through his own merits, but through the bounty and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord."* The third mark of Antichrist is, that his coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying won- ders, 2 Thess. ii. 9. From this passage of Holy Writ, it ap- pears that Antichrist, whenever he does come, will work false, illusive prodigies, as the magicians of Pharaoh did ; but, from the divine promises, it is evident that the disciples of Christ would continue to work true miracles, such as he himself wrought ; and from the testimony of the holy fathers and all ecclesiastical writers, it is incontestible, that certain servants of God have been enabled to work them, from time to time, ever since this his promise. This I have elsewhere demonstrated, as likewise, that the fact is denied by Protestants, not for want of evidence, as to its truth, but because this is necessary for the defence of their system.f Still it is false that the Catholic church ever claimed a power of working miracles in the order of nature, as her opponents pretend : all that we say is, that God is pleased, from time to time, to illustrate the true church with real miracles, and thereby to show, that she belongs to him. The latest dealer in prophecies, who boasts that his books have been revised by the bishop of Lincoln, J by way of showing the con- formity between Antichristian Popery and the least, that did great signs, so that he made fire to come down from heaven unto the earth, in the sight of men. Rev. xiii. 13, says of the former, " even fire is pretended to come down from heaven, as in the case of St. Anthony^s fire."^ I am almost ashamed to refute 80 illiterate a cavil. True it is, that the hospital monks of Su Anthony were heretofore famous for curing the Erysipelasyvith ^ peculiar ointment, on which account that disease acquired tllQ ♦ Canon of the Mass, t Part ii. Letter. 3UuiL t Inrerpret. of Prophecy, by H. Kett, LL. B. Pref. f> Kett, vol.ii, 22. Letter XLV. 281 name of St, Anthony^s fire ;* but neither these monks, nor any other Catholics, were used to invoke that inflammation, or any other burning whatsoever, from heaven or elsewhere. 1 beg that you and your friends will suspend your opinion of the fourth alleged resemblance between Antichrist and the Pope, that of persecuting the saints, till I have leisure to treat that subject in greater detail than I can at present. I shall take no notice at all of this writer's chronological calculations, nor of the anagrams and chronograms by which many Protestant ex- pounders have endeavoured to extract the mysterious number six hundred and sixty-six from the name or title of certain Popes, farther than to observe, that ingenious Catholics have extracted the same number from the name Martinus Lutheru^^ and even from that of David Chrytheus, who was the most cele- brated inventor of those riddles. Such are the grounds on which certain refractory children, in modern ages, have ventured to call their true mother a pros- titute, and the common father of Christians, the author of their own conversion from Paganism, The Man of Sin, and the very Antichrist. But they do not really believe what they declare; their object being only to inflame the ignorant multitude. I have sufficient reason to think this, when I hear a Luther threatening to unsay all that he had said against the Pope, a Melancthon lamenting, that Protestants had renounced him, a Beza negotiating to return to him, and a late Warburton-lectur- er lamenting, on his deathbed, that he could not do the same. I am, he. J. M. * Paquotius, In MolanumDe Sacr. Tmag N 2 [ 282 ] LETTER XLVI. To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTOJ^, M. A OY THE POPE'S SUPREMACY. Rev. Sir, This acknowledges the honour of three different letters from you, which I have not, till now, been able to notice. The ob- jections, contained in the two former, are either answered, or will, with the help of God, be answered by me. The chief purport of your last, is to assure me, that the absurd and impious tenet, of the Pope being Antichrist, never was a part of your faith/ nor even your opinion ; but that having read over Dr» Barrow's Treatise of the Pope^s Supremacy, as well as what bishop Por- teus has published upon it, you cannot but be of archbishop Tillotson's mind, who published the above named treatise, namely, that " The Pope's Supremacy is not only an indefensi- ble, but also an impudent cause ; that there is not one tolerable argument for it, and that there are a thousand invincible rea- sons against it."* Your liberality. Rev. sir, on the former point, justifies the idea I had formed of you : with respect to the second, whether the Pope's claim of Supremacy, or Tillot^ son's assertion concerning it, is impudent, I shall leave you to determine, when you shall have perused the present letter. But, as this, like other subjects of our controversy, has been enve- loped in a cloud of misrepresentation, I must begin with dissi- pating this cloud, and with clearly stating what the faith of the Catholic church is concerning the matter in question. It is not, then, the faith of this church, that the Pope has any civil or temporal supremacy, by virtue of which he can depos« princes, or give or take away the property of other persons, out of his own domain : for even the incarnate Son of God, from whom he derives the supremacy, which he possesses, did not claim, here upon earth, any right of the above-mentioned kind : on the contrary, he positively declared, that his kingdom is not of this world ! Hence, the Catholics of both our Isfimds, have, without impeachment even from Rome, denied, upon oath, that " the Pope has any civil jurisdiction, power, superi- ♦ TilloUon'a Freface to Barrow's Treatise, Letter XLVL 283 ority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this realm."* But, as it is undeniable, that different Popes, la former ages, have pronounced sentence of deposition against certain contemporary princes, and, as great numbers of llieolo- gians have held (though not as a matter of faith) iliat they had a right to do so, it seenis proper, by way of mitigating the odi- um which Dr. Porteus and other Protestants raise against them, on this head, to state the grounds, on which the pontiffs acted and the divines reasoned in tiiis business. Heretofore, the kingdoms, principalities, and states, composing the Lathi church, when they were all of the same religion, formed, as it were, one Christian republic, of which the Pope was the ac- credited head. Now, as mankind have been sensible at all times, that the duty of civil allegiance and submission cannot extend beyond a certain point, and that they ought not to sur- render their property, lives and morality, to be sported with by a Nero or a Heliogabalus ; instead of deciding the nice point for themselves, when resistance becomes lawful, they thought it right to be guided by their chief pastor. The kings and prin- ces themselves acknowledged this right in the Pope, and fre- quently applied to him to make use of his indirect, temporal power, as appears in numberless instances. f In latter ages, however, since Christendom has been disturbed by a variety of religions, this power of the pontiff has been generally with- drawn : princes make war upon each other, at their pleasure, and subjects rebel against their princes, as their passions dic- tate,! to the great deti-iment of both parties, as may be gather- * 31. Geo. III. c. 32. t See in Mat. Paris, A. D. 1195, the appeal of our king Richard I, to Pope Ce- Icstin III, against the duke of Austria for having detained him prisoner at TrivaJiis, and the Pope's sentence of excommunication against that duke for refusing to do him justice. X In every country, in which Protestantism -was preached, sedition and rebellion, with the total or partial deposition of the lawful sovereign, ensued, not without the active concurrence of the preachers themselves. Luther formed a league of prin- ces and states in Germany against the emperor, which desolated the empire for more than a century. His disciples, Muncer and Stork, taking advantage of the pretended evangelical Ubcrty, which he taught, at the head of 40,000 Anabaptists, claimed the empire and possession of the world, in quality of the meek orus, and enforced their dem^ind with fire and sword, dispossessing princes and lawful own- ers, &c. Zuinglius Ughted up a simUar flame throughout Switzerland, at Geneva, &c and died fighting, sword in hand, for the ReforraaUon, which he prearfied. The United States embraced Protestantism and renounced their sovereign, Plnhp, •at the same time. The Calvinists of Franco, in conformity with the doctrine of their master, namely, that " princes deprive themselves of their power, when they r^ist God, and that it is better tD spit in their faces than obey tliem," Dan. vi. 22, AS soon as they found 'themselves strong enough, rose in arms a»unst their sove- reigng, and dispossessed them of half their dominion;s. Knox, Goodman, Buchan- an, and the other preachers of Presbytorianism in Scotland, havmg Uiught the peo- 284 Letter XLVL ed from what sir Edward Sandys, an early and zealous Pro- testant writes. " The Pope was tlie common Father, adviser, and conductor of Christians, to reconcile their enmities, and de- cide their differences."* 1 have to observe, secondly, that the question here is not about the personal qualities, or conduct of any particular Pope, or of the Popes in general ; at the same time, it is proper to state, that in a list of two hundred and fifty-three Popes, who have successively filled the chair of St. Peter, only a small comparative number of them, have dis- graced it, while a great proportion of them have done honour to it, by their virtues and conduct. On this head, I must again quote Addison, who says ; " the Pope is generally a man of learning and virtue, mature in years and experience, who has seldom any vanity or pleasure to gratify at his people's ex- pense, and is neither encumbered with wife and children, or mistresses."! In the third place, I must remind you and my other friends, that I have nothing here to do with the doctrine of the Pope^s individual infallibility, (when pronouncing Ex Cathedra, as the term is, he addresses the whole church, and delivers the faith of it upon some contested article,)J nor would you, in case you were to become a Catholic, be required to believe in any doc- trines, except such as are held by the whole Catholic church, with the Pope at its head. But, without entering into this or pie, that " princes may be deposed by their subjects, if they be tyrants against God and his truth :" and that " It is blasphemy to say that kings are to be obeyed, good or bad," disposed them for the perpetration of those riots and violences, including the murder of Cardinal Beaton, and the deposition and captivity of their lawful sovereign, by which Protestantism was established in that country. With respect to England, no sooner was the son of Henry dead, than a Protestant usurper, lady Jane, was set up, in prejudice of his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and supported by Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Sandys, Poynet, and every Reformer of any note, because she was a Protestant. Finally, it was upon the principles of the Reforma- tion, especially that of each man's explaining the Scripture for himself, and a ha- tred of Popery, that the Grand aebellion was begun and carried on, till the king was beheaded and the constitutioft destroyed. Has then the cause of humanity, or that of peace and order, been beneHtted by the change in question? * Survey of Europe, p. 202. \ •t Remarks on Italy, p. 112. X The following is a specimen of Burrow's and Tillotson's chicanery m their Treatise of the Supremacy. Bellarmin, in working up an argument on the Pope's infallibility, says, hypothetically by way of proving the falsehood of his opponent's doctrine, ^at " this doctrine would oblige the church to believe rices to be good, and virtues to be bad, in case the Pope were to err in teaching this." Bell. D^lom. Pont. 1. iv. c. 5. Hence these writers take occasion to affirm, that Bellarmin posi- tively teaches, that " if the Pope should err, by enjoining vices, or forbidding vir- tues, the church should be bound to believe vices to be good and virtues evil!" p. 203. This shameful misrepresentation has been taken up by most subsequent Pro^ testant controvertists. Letter XLVI. 185 any other scholastic question, I shall content myself with ob- serving, that it is impossible for any man of candour and learn- ing, not to concur with a celebrated Protestant author, namely, Causabon, who writes thus : " No one, who is the least versed in ecclesiastical history, can doubt, that God made use of the holy See, during many ages, to preserve the doctrines of faith!"* At length we arrive at the question itself, which is, whether the bishop of Rome, who, by pro-eminence, is called Pajya (Pope, or father of the faithful) is or is not entitled to a supe- rior rank and jurisdiction, above other bishops of the Christian church, so as to be its spiritual head here upon earth, and so that his See is the centre of Catholic unity ^ All Catholics ne- cessarily hold the affirmative of this question, while the above- mentioned tergiversating primate denies, that there is a tolera- ble argument in its favour.f Let us begin with consulting the New Testament, in order to see, whether or no the first Pope or bishop of Rome, St. Peter, was any way superior to the other apostles. St. Matthew, in numbering up the apostles, expressly says of him, THE FIRST, Simon, who is called Peter, Mat. X. 2. In like manner, the other EvangeHsts, while they class the other apostles differently, still give the first place to Peter. J In fact, as Bossuet observes,^ " St. Peter was the first to con- fess his faith in Christ ;1| the first to whom Christ appeared, after his resurrection ;ir the first to preach the belief of this to the people ;** the first to convert the Jews;f f and the first to receive the Gentiles."Jt Again I would ask, is there no dis- tinction implied, in St. Peter's being called upon by Christ to declare three several times, that he loved him, and even that he loved him more than his fellow apostles, and in his being each time charged to feed Chrisfs lambs, and, at length, to feed his 9heep also, whom the lambs are used to follow ?§<^ What else is here signified, but that this apostle was to act the part of a shepherd, not only with respect to the flock hi general, but also * Exercit xv. ad Anna!. Baron. t Tillotson's father was an Anabaptist, and he himself was professedly a Puritan preacher, till the Restoration, so that there is reason to doubt whether he ever re- ceived either Episcopal Ordination or Baptism. His successor, Seeker, was also a Dissenter, and his baptism has been called in question. The former, with bishop Butnet, was called upon to attend lord Kusscl at his execution, when they abso- lutely insisted, as a point necessary for salvation, on his disclaiming the lawfulness of resistance in any case whatever. Presently after, the revolution happening, they themselves declared for lord Russel's principles. J Mark iii. 16, Luke vi. 14. Acts i. 13. ^ Orat. ad Cler. n Mat. xvi. 16. IT Luke xxiv. 34. ** Act«. ii. 14. a Ver. 37. XI Ibid. x. 47. ^ Johnxxv 1&. 286 Letter XLVI. with respect to the pastors themselves ? The same is plainly signified by our Lord's prayer for the faith of this apostle, ia particular, and the charge that he subsequently gave him : Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you, as wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not ; and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. Luke xxii. 32. Is there no mysterious meaning in the circumstance, marked by the Evangelist, of Christ's entering into Simon's ship, in preference to that of James and John, in order to teach the people out of it, and in the subsequent miraculous draught; of fishes, together with our Lord's prophetic declaration to Si- mon ; Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. Luke v. 3. 10. But the strongest proof of St. Peter's superior dignity and jurisdiction consists in that explicit and energetical declara- tion, of our Saviour to him, in the quarters of Cesarea PhiHp- pi, upon his making that glorious confession of our Lord's di- vinity : Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. Our Lord had mysteriously changed his name, at his first interview with him, when Jesus looking upon him, said. Thou art Simon, the Son of Jona ; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter, John i. 42 : and, on the present occasion, he explains the mystery, where he says, Blessed art thou Simon, Bar- Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Fa- ther, who is in heaven: And I say to thee: that thou art Peter (a rock,) and UPOJV THIS ROCK I WILL^BUILD MY CHURCH, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven » and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in hea- ven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be looset also in heaven. Mat. xvi. 17, 18, 19. Where now, I ask, is the sincere Christian, and especially the Christian who professes to make Scripture the sole rule of his faith, who, with these pas- sages of the inspired text before his eyes, will venture, at the risk of his soul, to deny that any special dignity or charge was conferred upon St. Peter, in preference to the other apostles ? I trust no such Christian is to be found in your society. Now, as it is a point agreed upon, at least in your church and mine, that bishops, in general, succeed to the rank and functions of the apostles, so, by the same rule, the successor of St. Peter, in the See of Rome, succeeds to his primacy and jurisdictioj. This cannot be questioned by any serious Christian, who re- flects, that, when our Saviour gave his orders ahoni fcedtJig his flock, and made his declaration about buildiny, his church, he was not establishing an order of things to last during the few Letter XLVI. 287 years that St. Peter had lo live, but one that was to last as long as he should have a flock and a church on earth, iliat is to the end of time ; conformably with l)is promise to the apostles, and their successors, in the concluding words of St. Matthew : Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Mat. xxviii. 20. That St. Peter (after governing for a time, the patriarchate of Antioch, the capital of the East, and thence sending bis disciple, Mark, to establish that of Africa at Alexandria) final- ly fixed his own See at Rome, the capital of the world, that his successors there have each of thejn exercised the power of su- preme pastor, and have been acknowledged as such by all Christians, except by notorious heretics and schismatics, from the apostolic age down to the present, the writings of the fa- tliers, doctors, and historians of the church unanimously testify. St. Paul, having been converted, and raised to the apostleship in a miraculous manner, thought it necessary to go up to Jeru» salem to see Peter, where he abode with him fifteen days. Galat. i. 18. St. Ignatius, who was a disciple of the apostles, and next successor, after Evodius, of St. Peter in the See of Anti- och, addresses his most celebrated epistle to the church, which he says, "PRESIDES in the country of the Romans."* About the same time, dissensions taking place in the church of Corinth, the case was referred to the church of Rome, to which the Holy Pope Clement, zvhose name is written in the book of life, Philip, iv. 3, returned an apostolical answer of exhortation and instruction. f In the second century, St. Irenaeus who had been instructed by St. Polycarp, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist, referring to the tradition of the apostles, preserved in the church of Rome, calls it ** the greatest, most ancient, and most universally known, as having been founded by St. Peter and St. Paul ; to which (he says) every church is bound to conform, by reason of its superior authority."! Tertullian, a priest of the Roman church, who flourished near the same time, calls St. Peter, " the rock of the church," and says, that " the church was built upon him."§ Speaking of the bishop of Rome, he terms him in different places, " the blessed Pope, the high priest, the apostolic pre- late, fee." I must add, that, at this early period. Pope Victor exerted his superior authority, by threatening the bishops of Asia with excommunication for their irregularity in celebrating * nfox«Or)T«<, Epist. Ignat. Cotclcro. t Coteler. X "Ad banc ecclesiam conveiiire ncccsse est omnem ecclesiam." Contra Haeres. 1. iii. c. 3. § Presci ip. 1. i. c. 22. De Monosaui. 288 Letter XLVL Easter, and the other moveable feasts, from which rigorons measure he was deterred, chiefly by St. Irenaeus.* In the third century, we hear Origenf and St. Cyprian repeatedly affirm- ing, that the church was " founded on Peter," that he " fixed his chair at Rome," that this is " the mother church," and " the root of Catholicity." J The latter expresses great indig- nation that certain African schismatics should dare to approach " the See of Peter, the head church and source of ecclesiastical unity."§ It is true, this father afterwards had a dispute with Pope Stephen, about rebaptizing converts from heresy; but this proves nothing more than that he did not think the Pope's aur thority superior to general tradition, which, through mistake, he supposed to be on his side. To what degree, however, he did admit this authority, appears by his advising this same Pope, to depose Marcian, a schismatical bishop of Gaul, and to appoint another bishop in his place. |[ At the beginning of the fourth century we have the learned Greek historian, Eusebius, explaining in clear terms, the ground of tlie Roman pontifl''s claim to superior authority, which he derives from St. Peter jIT we have also the great champion of orthodoxy and the patriarch of the second See in the world, St. Athanasius, ap- pealing to the bishop of Rome, which See he terms " the mo- ther and the head of all other churches."** In fact, the Pope reversed the sentence of deposition, pronounced by the saint's enemies, and restored him to his patriarchal chair.f f Soon after this, the council of Sardica confirmed the bishop of Rome, in his right of receiving appeals from all the churches in the world. JJ Even the Pagan historian, Ammianus, about the same time, bears testimony to the superior authority of the Ro- ipan Pontifi'.<§§ In the same century, St. Basil, St. Hilary, St. Epiphanius, St. Ambrose, and other fathers and doctors, teach the same thing. Let it suffice to say, that the first name^ of these scruples not to advise, that the Pope should send visit- ers to the eastern churches, to correct the disorders, which the Arians had caused in them,|l|| and that the last mentioned re- presents communion with the bishop of Rome, as communion with the Catholic church. HIT I must add, that the great St. Chrysostom, having been, soon after, unjustly deposed from his seat in the Eastern Metropolis, was restored to it by the au- * Euseb. Hist Eccles. 1. v. c. 24. t Horn. 5 iuExod. Horn. 17 in Luc t Ep. ad Cornel. Ep. ad Anton, De Unit &c § Ep. ad Cornel. 55. ■ II Ep. 29. 11 Euseb. Chroo. An. 44. *♦ Epist &d Marc. tt SocraL Hist. 1. il c, 2. Zozom. tt Can. 3. ^ Bcrum Geat. Lxv. U]| Epist 5?. 5I1I Orat. in Obit SatjiA Letter XLVI. J90 thority of Pope Innocent ; that Pope Leo termed his church " the head of the world, because its spiritual power, as he al- leged, extended farther than the temporal power of Rome had ever extended."^ Finally, the learned St. Jerom, feeing dis- tracted with the disputes among three parties, which divided the church of Antioch, to which church he was then subject, wrote for directions, on this head, to Pope Damasus, as follows: ** I, who am but a sheep, apply to my shepherd for succour. I am united with your hoHness, that is to say, with the chair of Peter, in communion. I know that the cimrch is built upon that rock. He who eats the Paschal Lamb out of that house, is profane. Whoever is not in Noah's Ark will perish by the deluge. I know nothing of Vitalis, I reject Melitius, I am ig- norant of Paulinus : he who does not gather with thee, scat- ters," &ic.f It were useless, after this, to cite the numerous testimonies to the Pope's supremacy, which St. Augustln, and all the fathers, doctors, and church historians, and all the ge- neral councils bear, down to the present time. However, as the authority of our apostle, Pope Gregory the Great, is claimed by most Protestant divines on their side, and is alluded to by Bp. PorteuSjJ merely for having censured the pride of John, patriarch of C. P. in assuming to himself the title of (Echumenical or universal bishop; it is proper to show, that this Pope, like all the others who went before him, and came after bim, did claim and exercise the power of supreme pastor, tliroughout the church. Speaking of this very attempt of John, he says, " The care of the whole church was committed to Peter, and yet he is not called the universal apostle. "§ With respect to the See of C. P. he says, " Who doubts but it is subject to the apostolic See;" and again, " When bishops com- mit a fault, I know not what bishop is not subject to it," (ths See of Rome.)\\ As no Pope was ever more vigilant, in dis- charging the duties of his exalted station, than St. Gregory, so none of them, perhaps, exercised more numerous or widely ex- tended acts of the supremacy, than he did. It is sufficient to cite here his directions to St. Austin of Canterbury, whom Iw had sent into this island, for the conversion of our Saxon ai>- cestors, and who had consulted him, by letter, how he was to act with respect to the French bishops, and the bishops of this ♦ Sertn. de Nat Apos. This sentiment, another father of the church, in the fbK lowing century, St. Prosper, expressed in these lines : " Sedes Roma Petri, qose pastoralis honoris ; Facta caput mundo, quidquid non possidct armis ; fteligionc totiet" t Ep ad Damas. 4 P. 78. ^ Ep. Greg. L t. 20. U L. ix. 59. 2 590 Letter XLVL island, namely, the British prelates in Wales, and the Pict'ish and Scotch in the northern parts. To this question Pope Gre- gory returns an answer in the following words : " We give you no jurisdiction over the bishops of Gaul, because, from ancient times, my predecessors have conferred the Pallium (the ensign of legatine authority) on the bishop of Aries, whom we ought not to deprive of the authority he has received. But we com- mit all the bishops of Britain to your care, that the ignorant among them may be instructed, the weak strengthened, and the perverse corrected by your authority."* After this is it pos- sible to believe that Bp. Porteus and his fellow writers ever read Venerable Bede's History of the English nation ? But if they could even succeed in proving that Christ had not built his church upon St. Peter and his successors, and had not given them the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; it would still remain for them to prove, that he had founded any part of it on Henry VIII, Edward VI, and their successors, or that he had given the mystical keys to Elizabeth and her successors. I have shown, in a former letter, that these sovereigns exercised a more despotic power over all the ecclesiastical and spiritual affairs of this realm, than any Pope ever did, even in the city of Rome, and that the changes in Religion, which took place in their reigns, were effected by them and their agents, not by the bishops or any clergy whatever; and yet no one will pretend to show from Scrip- ture, tradition, or reason, that these princes had received any greater power from Christ over the doctrine and discipline of his church, than he conferred upon Tiberius, Pilate, or Herod, or than he has given at the present day, to the great Turk or the Lama of Thibet, in their respective dominions. Before I close this letter I think it right to state the senti- ments of a iew eminent Protestants respecting the Pope's su- premacy. I have already mentioned, that Luther acknowledged it, and submissively bowed to it, during the three first years of his dogmatizing about justification ; and till his doctrine was condemned at Rome. In like manner, our Henry VIII. assert- ed it, and wrote a book in defence of it, in reward of which the Pope conferred upon him and his successors the new title of Defender of the Faith. Such was his doctrine ; till, becoming amorous of his queen's maid of honour, Ann Bullen, and finduig the Pope conscientiously inflexible in refusing to grant him a divorce from the former, and to sanction an adulterous con- nexion with the latter, he set himself up, as supreme head of the * Hist Bed. L i. c 27. Resp. 9. SpelnL Concil p. 98. Letter XLVL 291 church of England, and maintained his claim by the argumenti of halters, knives, and axes. James I, in his first speech in par- liament, termed Rome " the mother church," and in his writ- ings allowed the Pope to be " The patriarch of the West." The late archbishop Wake, after all his bitter writings against the Pope and the CathoHc church, coming to discuss the terms of a proposed union between this church and that of England, expressed himself willing to allow a certain superiority to the Roman pontifi'.* Bishop Bramhall had expressed the same sentiment,f sensible as he was, that no peace or order could subsist in the Christian church, any more than in a political state, withotit a supreme authority. Of the truth of this maxim, two others, among the greatest men whom Protestantism has to boast of, the Lutheran Melancthon, and the Calvinist Hugo Grotius, were deeply persuaded. The former had written to prove the Pope to be Antichrist ; but seeing the animosities, the divisions, the errors, and the impieties of the pretended re- formers, with whom he was connected, and the utter impossi- bility of putting a stop to these evils, without returning to the ancient system, he wrote thus to Francis I, of France : " We acknowledge, in the first place, that ecclesiastical government is a thing holy and salutary : namely, that there should be cer- tain bishops to govern the pastors of several churches, and tha# THE ROMAN PONTIFF should be above all the bishops. For the church stands in need of governors, to examine and ordain those who are called to the ministry, and to watch over their doctrine ; so that, if there were no bishops, they ought to be created. "J The latter great man, Grotius, was learned, wise, and always consistent. In proof of this he wrote as fol- lows, to the minister, Rivet : " All who are acquainted with Grotius, know how earnestly he has wished to see Christians united together in one body. This he once thouglit miglit have been accomplished by a union among Protestants, but after- wards, he saw that this is impossible. Because, not to mention the aversion of Calvinists to every sort of union, Protestants are not bound by any ecclesiastical government, so that they can neither be united at present, nor prevented from splitting into fresh divisions. Therefore Grotius now is fully convinced, * • Suo Gaudeat qualicunque Primatu." Se« Maclain's Third Appendix to Mosheim's Eccl. Hist, vol. v. t Answer to Militiere. X D'Argentre, Collect. Jud. t. i. p. 2.— Berca.stcl and Frlloi' relate, that >folano- thon's mother, who was a Catholic, having cousuUed him about her religioni ha persuaded ber to Qontioue in it. 202 Letter XLVIL as many others are also, that Protestants never can be united among themselves, unless they join those who adhere to the Roman See; without which there never can be any general church government. Hence he wishes that the revolt and the causes of it may be removed, among which causes, the primacy of the bishop of Rome was not one, as Melancthon confessed who also thought that primacy necessary to restore union."* I am^ &z^. J.M. LETTER XLVIL To JAMES BROWJY, Jun. Esq. OJV THE LAJ^GU^GE OF THE LITURGY Am) OK REJWIJiG THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. Dear Sir, I AGREE with your worthy father, that the departure of the Rev. Mr. Clayton, to a foreign country, is a loss to your Sa- lopian Society in more respects than one ; and as it is his wish that 1 should address the few remaining letters I have to write, m answer to bishop Porteus's book, to you, sir, who, it seems, agree with him in the main, but not altogether, on religious subjects, I shall do so, for your own satisfaction and that of your friends, who are still pleased to hear me upon them. In- deed the remaining controversies between that prelate and my- self are of light moment, compared with those I have been treating of, as they consist chiefly of disciplinary matters, sub- ject to the control of the church, or of particular facts misre- presented by his lordship. The first of these points of changeable discipline, which the bishop mentions, or rather declaims upon throughout a whole chapter, is the use of the Latin tongue in the public liturgy of the Latin church. It is natural enough that the church of England, which is of modern date, and confined to its own do- main, should adopt its own language, in its public worship ) ♦ Apol ad RIvaU Letter XLVII. 293 and, for a similar reason, it is proper that the great Western or Latin church, which was established by the apostles, when the Latin tongue was the vulgar tongue of Europe, and which still is the common language of educated persons in every part of it, should retain this language in her public service. When the bishop complains of " our worship being performed in an un- known tongue,^^* and of our " wicked and cruel cunning in keeping people in darkness,''^\ by this means, under pretext that *' they reverence what they do not understand, "J he must be conscious of the irreligious calumnies he is uttering : knowing, as he does, that Latin is, perhaps, still the most general lan- guage of Christianity,^ and that, where it is not commonly understood, it is not the church which has introduced a foreign language among the people, but it is the people who have /or- gotten their ancient language. So far removed is the Catholic church from " the wicked and cruel cunning of keeping people in ignorance," by retaining her original apostolical languages, the Latin and the Greek ; that she strictly commands her pas- tors every where, " to inculcate the word of God, and the les- sons of salvation, to the people, in their vulgar tongue, every Sunday and festival throughout the year,"|| and " to explain to them the nature and meaning of her divine worship as fre- quently as possible. "If In like manner, we are so far from imagining that the less our people understand of our liturgy, the more they reverence it, that we are quite sure of precisely the contrary; particularly with respect to our principal liturgy, the adorable sacrifice of the mass. True it is, that a part of this is performed by the priest in silence, because, being a sa- cred action, as well as a form of words, some of the prayers which the priest says, would not be proper or rational in the mouths of the people. Thus, the high priest of old went alone into the tabernacle, to make the atonement ;** and thus Za- chary offered incense in the temple by himself; while the mul- titude prayed without.f f ^^^ this is no detriment to the faith- ful, as they have translations of the liturgy, and other books in their hands, by means of which, or of their own devotion, they can join with the priest in every part of the solemn worship ; as ♦ P. 76. t P. 63. } P. 65. ^ The Latin language is vernacular in Hungary and the neighbouring countries : it is taught in aU the Catholic settlements of the universe, and it approaches so near to the Italian, Spanish, and French, as to be understood, in a general kind of ivay, by those who use these languages. H Concil. Trid. Sess. xxiv. c 7. ^ Idem. Sess. xxi. c S. ♦♦ Levit xvi. 17. tt Luke i. 10. 294 Letter XLTU. the Jewish people united with their priests, in the sacrifices above-mentioned. But we are referred by his lordship to 1 Cor. xiv. in order '* to see what St. Paul would have judged of the Romanists practice" in retaining the Latin liturgy, (which, after all, he himself and St. Peter established where it now prevails ;) I an- $%ver, that there is not a word in that chapter which mentions or alludes to the public liturgy, which at Corinth was, as it is still performed in the old Greek ; the whole of it regarding an imprudent and ostentatious use of the gift of tongues, in speak- ing all kinds of languages, which gift many of the faithful pos- sessed, at that time, in common with the apostles. The very reason, alleged by St. Paul, for prohibiting extemporary pray- ers and exhortations, which no one understood, namely, that all things should be done decently and according to order, is the principal motive of the Catholic church, for retaining, in her worship, the original languages employed by the apostles. She is, as I before remarked, a universal church, spread over the face of the globe, and composed of all nations, and tribes, and tongues. Rev. vii. 9, and these tongues constantly changing ; so that instead of the uniformity of worship, as well as of faith^ which is so necessary for that decency and order, there would be nothing but confusion, disputes, and changes in every part of her liturgy, if it were performed in so many different languages, and dialects; with the constant danger of some alteration or other in the essential forms, which would vitiate the very sacra- ment and sacrifice. The advantage of an ancient language, for religious worship, over a modern one, in this and other re- spects, is acknowledged by the Cambridge professor of divinity, Dr. Hey. He says, that such a one " is fixed and venerable, free from vulgarity, and even more perspicuous."* But to re- turn to bishop Porteus's appeal to the judgment of St. Paul, concerning " the Romanists practice" in retaining the lan- guage with the substance of their primitive liturgy, I leaTe yon, dear sir, and your friends, to pronoimce upon it, after I shall have stated the following facts : 1st, that St. Paul himself wrote an Epistle, which forms part of the liturgy of all Christian churches, to these very Romanists, in the , Greek language^ though they themselves made use of the Latin :f 2dly, that the Jews, after they had exchanged their original Hebrew for the Chaldaic tongue, during the Babylonish captivity, continued to perform their liturgy in the former language, though the vulr * Lectures, vol. iv, p. 191. t St Jerom, Epist 123. Letter ^Vlt. m.. gat did not understand it,* and tliat our Saviour Christ, as Veil as his apostles, and other devout friends, attended thib ser- Vrce in the temple, and the synagxjgue, without ever ce1lsuriil^ it: -Sdly, that tlie Greek churches, in general, no less Uian the Latin church, retain their Original pure Greek tongue in their liturgy, thougil tlie common people have forgotten it, and adopted different barbarous dialects instead of it:f 4thly, ilial patriarch Luther maiVitained, against Carlostad, that the lan- guage of public worship, was a matter of indifference : henc«, his disciples professed, in theit Ausburg Confession, to retail the Latin language in certain |^arts of their service : lastly, ijKit when the establishrtient endeavoured, under Elizabelli, and afterwards, uwder Charles L to force their liturgy upon iln« Irish Catholics, it was not thought necessary to transiate it into Irish, but it was constantly read in English, of which the na- tives did not understand a word: thus " furnishing the Papist with an excellent argument against thetnselves," as Dr. Heyliu observes, f The bishop has next a long letter on what ^e calls, the pro*- hihition of the Scriptures^ by the Romanists, in which he con- fuses and disguises the subjects he treats of, to beguile and in- flame ignorant readers. I have treated this matter, at some length, in a former letter, and therefore shall be brief in what I write upon it in this : but what I do Write shall be explicit and clear. It is a wicked calumny, then, that the Catholic church undervalues the Holy Scriptures, or prohibits the use of them: on the contrary, it is she that has religiously preserved them, as the inspired word of God, and his invaluable gift to man, during these eighteen centuries : it is she alone, that can and does vouch for their authenticity, their purity, and their inspi^ ration. But, then, she knows that there is an unwritten word of God, called tradition, as well as a written word, the Scrip- tures ; that the former is the evidence for the authority of the latter, and that, when nations had been converted, and churches formed by the unwritten word, the authority of this was no^vise abrogated by the inspired Epistles and Gospels, which th» apostles and evangelists occasionally sent to such nations or churches. In short, both these words together form the Ca- tholic rule of faith. On the other hand, the church, consisting, according to its more general division, of two distinct classes, ♦ Walton's Polyglot Prolfcg. Hey, &c. t Mosheim, by Maclaine, toI. ii. p. 575, X Ward has succesaftUly ridiculed this attempt in his England's RtforvMffUM, Canto II. 296 Leti&r XLVtL the pastors and their flocks, the preachers and their hearer$t each has its particular duties in the point under consideration^ as well as in othei* respects. The pastors are bound to study the rule of faith in both its parts, with unwearied applicati&ii, to be enabled to acquit themselves of the^r^i of all their duties^ that of preaching the Gospel to their people.* Hence St. Ambrose calls the sacred Scripture the Sacerdotal Book^ and the council of Cologne orders that it should " never be odt of the hands of ecclesiastics." 3n fact, the Catholic clergy ftiust, and do employ no small portion of their time, every day, in reading different portions of Holy Writ. But no such obli- gation is generally incumbent on the flock, that is, on the laity; it is sufficient for them to hear the word of God from those whom God has appointed to announce and to explain it t& them, whether by sermons, or catechisms, or other good books, or in the tribunal of penance. Thus, it is not thebounden duty of all good subjects to read and study the laws of their country : it is sufficient for them to hear and to submit to the decisions of the judges, and other legal officers, pronouncing upon them^ and, by the same rule, the latter would be inexcusable if they did not make the law and constitution their constant study, in order to decide right. Still, however, the Catholic church never did prohibit the reading of the Scriptures to the laity ; she only required, by way of preparation, for this most difficult and im- portant study, that they should have received so much edlication, as would enable them to read the sacred books in their original languages, or in that ancient and venerable Latin version, the fidelity of which she guarantees to them ; or, in case they were desirous of reading it in a modern tongue, that they should be furnished with some attestation of their piety and docility, in order to prevent their turning this salutary food of souls into a deadly poison, as, it is universally confessed, so many thou- sands constantly have done. At present, however, the chief pastors have every where relaxed these disciplinary rules, and vulgar translations of the whole Scripture are upon sale, and open to every one, in Italy itself, with the express approbation of the Roman pontiff. In these islands, we have an English version of the Bible, in folio, in quarto, and in octavo forms, against which our opponents have no other objection to make» except that it is too literal,! that is, too faithful. But Dr. Porteus professes not to admit of any restriction whatever '^ on • Trid. Sesa. v. cap. 2. Sess. xxt. cap. 4. ^ ,♦ See the bishop of Lincola'* Elements of ThcoL vol u. p. 1& Letter XLVH. 297 file reading of what heaven hath revealed, with respect to any part of mankind." No doubt, the revealed truths themselves are to be made known as much as possible, to all mankind ; but it does not follow from hence, that all mankind are to read the Scriptures : there are passages in them, which, 1 am confident, his lordship would not wish his daughters to peruse ; and which, in fact, were prohibited to the Jews, till they had atta'med the age of thirty.* Again, a& lord Clarendon, Mr. Grey, Dr. Hey, &c. agree, that the misapplication of Scripture was the cause of the destruction of church and state, and of the murder of the king in the grand rebellion, and as he must be sensible, from his own observation, that the same cause exposed the nation to the same calamities in the Protestant riots of 1760, 1 am conjfi- dent the bishop, as a Christian, no less than as a British sub- ject would have taken the Bible out of the hands of Hugh Pe- ters, Oliver Cromwell, lord George Gordon, and their respective crews, if this had been in his power : 1 will affirm the same, with respect to count Emanuel Swedenborg, the founder of the modem sect of Jerusalemites, who taught, that no one had un- derstood the Scriptures, till the sense of them was revealed to him; as also with respect to Joanna Southcote, foundress of a Still more modern sect, and who, I believe, tormented the bishop himself with her rhapsodies, in order to persuade him, that she was the woman of Genesis, destined to crush the serjyenfs head, and the woman of the Revelations, clothed with the sun, and crowned with twelve stars. Nay, I greatly deceive myself if the prelate would not be glad to take away every hot-brained Dis- senter's Bible, who employs it in persuading the people, that the church of England is a rag of Popery, and a spawn'of the whore of Babylon, In short, whatever Dr. Porte us may choose to say of an unrestricted perusal and interpretation of the Scriptures, with respect to ail sorts of persons, it is certain, that many of the wisest and most learned divines of his church have lamented this, as one of her greatest misfortunes, I will quote the words of one of tliem : *' Aristarchus, of old, could hardly find seven wise men in all Greece : but, amongst us, it is diffi- cult to find the same number of ignorant persons. They an all doctors and divinely inspired. There is not a fanatic or j mountebank, from the lowest class of the f/eopie, who does not vent his dreams for the word of God. The bottomless pit fieems to be opened, and there come out of it locusts with ftings ; a swarm of sectaries and heretics, who have renewed • St Jerom in Proem Ezecii. St. Greg. Naz. de Moe to admit of controversy on the part of any sincei*e diristian.. True it is, also, tliat liaving the choice of Iier sacred mtajigters,. she selects those for- the service of her altar, and far ♦ P. 70. t. Conril. THfl. Se«v, who vohmtarily embrace this more perfect state:* but so has iho Establishment expressed her wish to do also, in that very act wliich allows her clergy to marry. f In like manner, 1 ncc^ go no further than the homily on fasting, or the " table- of Vigils, fasts, aiul days of abstinence, to be observed in the year," prefixed to Tht Common Prayer Book, to justify our doctrine and j)raciice, which the bishop finds fault with,, in the eyes of every consistent Church-Protestant. I believe the most severe austerities of oiif saints never surpassed those of Christ's precursor, wliom he so much commended,! clothed as he was with hair-cloth, and fed with the locusts of the desert. In a former letter to your society, I have replied to what tl>« bishop here says concernmg the deposing of kings by the Ro- man pontiff, and have established facts by which it appears, that more princes were actually dispossessed of the whole, or a large part,, of their dominions, by the pretended gospel-liberty of the Reformation, within the first fifty years of this being pro- claimed, than the Popes had attempted to depose during X]w preceding fifteen hundred years of tl/eir supremacy. To this accusation another ofa more alarming nature is tacked, that of our " annulling the most sacred promises and engagements, when made to the prejudice of the churc4i."§ These are other vn^rds for the vile hackneyed calumny of our not keepmg faith with heretics.\\ In refutation of this, I might appeal to tlie doc- trine of our Theologians,ir and to the oath> of the British Ca- tholics ; but I choose rather to appeal to historical facts, and to the practical lessons of the leaduig men by whom these have been conducted. I have mentioned, that when the Catholic queen Mary came to the throne, a Protestant usurper, lady Jane, was set up against her, and that the bishops Cranmer, ♦ The second Council of Carthage, can. 3, and St. Epiphanilis Hter. 48, Mi trace the discipline of sacerdotal continence up to the Apostles. t " Although it were not only better for the estimation of pri<)>8ts and ctlicT tnin- isters, to live chaste, sole, and separated from women, and the bond of murri-.ipi', but also they might thereby the better attend to tlio administration of the GosprI : ftnd it were to be wished that they would willingly endeavour thems»'l\e to a flf*" of chastity, &.c." 2 Edw. vi. c. 21. See tlit- injunction of queen KliziiluHi airaiir4 tije admission of women into colleges, catlicdrals, kc. in Scrjp'-N [jif of Parkrr. See llkewrse a remarkable instance of her rudeness to t^tut arrhbisliop's wife. Ibid, and in Nichol'S Progresses, A. D. 1.^61. I Mat. xi. IK ^- P. 71. II In tlie P^-otestant Charter-school Catcchismb, which is ta«glit by authority, the following question and answer occur p. 9. " Q. How do I'ii|.i>f> treat tho«« whom they caJi heretics?— A. mey hold that faith is not to- ii<- kept w.rl. hereti.*, and that the Pope can absolve subji^ots from their oath of ail*.'pi:m(!c toth^-ir So»»- jeigns." *ff See In particular the Jesuit Becan*36 Dt FiiU llaretwis yrestanda* 302 Letter XLVIIL Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Ppynet, Sandys, and every other Protestant of any note, broke their allegiance and en- gagements to her, for no other reason than because sl3« was a Catholic, and the usurper a Protestant. On the othjr? f/and, when Mary was succeeded by her Protestant sister, Elizabeth, though the Catholics were then far more numerous and powei^ ful than the Protestants, not a hand was raised, nor a seditiou* sermon preached against her. In the mean time, on the other side of the Tweed, where the new Gospellers had deposed their sovereign, and usurped her power, their apostle Knox publicljr preached, that " neither promise nor oath can oblige any man to obey or give assistance to tyrants against God j"* to which Jesson his colleague, Goodman, added : " If governors fall from God, to the gallows with them."f A third fellow-labourer in the same Gospel cause, Buchanan, maintained, that " princes may be deposed by their people, if they be tyrants against God and his truth, and that their subjects are free from their oaths and obedience." J The same, in substance, were the maxinos of Calvin, Beza, and the Hugueaots of France, in general : the temporal interest of their religion was the Fuiing principle of their morality. But, to return to our own country : the ene- mies of church and state having hunted down the earl of Straf- ford, and procured him to he attainted of high treason, the king, Charles I, declared that he could not-i ^ et>nscien€^j concur to his death, when the case being referred to the arcbbishopsy Usher and Williams, and three other Anglican bishops, they decided (in spite of his majesty's, conscience, and his oath to administer justice in mercy) that he might, in consciences send this innocent peer to the hluclcy, which he did accordingly .<^ I should like to ask bishop Porteus, whether this decision of his predecessors was not the dispensation of an oath^ and the an- nulling of the most sacred of all obligations? In like manner^ most of the leading men of the nation, with most of the elergyy, having sworn to tlie S/xlemu Leagwe- cmd Covenant , " for tli^- ♦ In his book addressed! to the nobles and people of Scotilandi. t De Obedieut. X History of Scotland.— The same was the express doctriflc of the Geneva BJ^ ble, translated by CoverdalAv Goodman, &,c. in that city, andl in common use ainona: the Englistt Protestant^, till king James's reiga: for in. a note on verse 13* of 2d Mat. these translator expressly saj, " A promise ought not to be kept^ v'here God's honour and preaching of Ms truth is injured." Hist. Account of Eng.. Translations, by A. Johnson, m Watson V Collect, vol. iii. pi 93. ^ Collier's Church History, vol. ii. p. S(il.— On the other hand, when several ot Ihe Parliament's st/ldiers, who had beeti taken prisonees at Brentford, had sworn. oever a,!?:un to bea3 arms against th«,' king,, they were " absolved from that oath,*' •aye Clarendon. '--Uv their dJfliines." EXam..of Neal's HisL bj Cfrey,.vioL iii. p. Wl Letter XLVIII, $0$ more effectual extirpation of Popery," they were dispensed toitk from the keeping of it, by an express clause in the act of uni- formity.* But whereas, by a clause of the outh in the samt act, all subjects of the realm, down to constables and school- masters, were obliged to swear, that " It is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms against the king ;" this oath, in its turn, was universally dispensed with, in tbt churches and in parliament, at the Revolution. I have men- . tioned these few facts and maxims concerning Protestant di»- ^, pensations of oaths and engagements, in case any of your so- * ciety may object, that some Popes have been too free in pro- nouncing such dispensations. Should this have been the case, they alone, personally, and not the Catholic church, were ac- countable for it,. both to God and man. I have often wondered, in a particular manner, at the confi- dence with which bishop Porteus asserts and denies facts of an- cient Church History, in opposition to the known truth. An instance of this occurs in the conclusion of the chapter before me, where he says : " The primitive church did not attempt, for several hundreds of years, to make any doctrine necessary, which we do not : as the learned well know from their writ^ ings."f The falsehood of this position must strike you, od looking back to the authorities adduced by me from the an- cient fathers and historians, in proof of the several points of controversy which I have maintained : but, to render it still more glaring, I will recur to the histories of AERIUS and VIGILANTIUS, two different heretics of the fourth century. Both St. Epiphanius,{ and St. Austin,^ rank Aerius among the heresiarchs, or founders of heresy, and both give exactly the same account of his three characteristical errors ; the first of which is avowed by all Protestants, namely, that " prayers and sacrifices are not to be ofl'ered up for the dead," and i\w twoothers by most of them, namely, that " there is no obliga- tion of observing the appointed days of fasting, and that f priests ought not to be distinguished, in any respect, from bi- shops." || So far were the primitive Christians from tolerating these heresies, that its supporters were denied tlie use of a placa of worship, and were forced to perform it in forests ruid ca- yerns.ir Vigilantius likewise condemned prayers for tin? dead^ but he equally reprobated prayers to the saints, the honouring ♦ Statute 13 and 14 Car. II, cap. 4. t P. 73. : Ha^resU 75- ^ De Haeres. torn. vi. Ed. Frob. i Ibid. S-t. John Damascen and St. tshfere equnlly condrmn these tenets m fcoretical. IT Fleury's lii^. ad. An. 3V'|. 804 Letter XLVUL oT their relics, and the celibacy of the clergy, together with vows of continence in general. Against these errors, which I need not tell you Dr. Porteus now patronises, as Vigilantius former^' ly did, St. Jerom directs all the thunder of his eloquence, d#- " He elsewhere writes : "^^ The church being one, cannot be, at, the same timg, within and without. If she be with Noyatian, she is not with (f opt , GoitieUji§; if she he with C<>Fneliu8, NoYatian is not in. her," Epist. 7Q adiMag, \ 306 ] LETTER XLIX. To JAMES BROWN, Jun, Etq. OX RELIGIOUS PERSECUTJOJf, DfiJLR Sir, I l>ROMisED to treat the subject of religious persecution apart, a stibject of the utmost importance in itself, and which is spoken of by the bishop of London in the following terms: " They, th« lR;omish church, zealously maintain their claim of punishing ^hom they please to call heretics, with penalties, imprisonmeiH, •tortures, death."* Another writer, whom I have quoted abov«, says, that this church ' bre?thes the very spirit of cruelty and murder ;''-|- indeed most Protestant controvertisis seem to v» ^ith each other in the vehemence and bitterness of the term» by which they endeavour to affix this most odious charge, of cruelty and murder, on the Catholic church. This is the fa*- vourite topic of preachers, to excite the hatred of their hearers against their fellow Christians : this is the last resource of baf- fled oratorical hypocrites : if you admit the Papists^ they cry, to equal rights, thesa wretches must and will certainly murder you, as soon as they can : the fourth Lateran council has esta^ olished the principle, and the bloody queen Mary has acted upon a. I. To proceed regularly in this matter: I begin with ex- pressly denying the bishop of London's charge ; namely, that the Catholic church " maintains a claim of punishing heretics with penalties, imprisonment, tortures, and death ;" and I assert, on the contrary, that she disclaims the power of so doing. Pope Leo the Great, who flourished in the fourth century, writing about the Manichean heretics, who, as he asserted, " laid all modesty aside, prohibiting the matrimonial connexion, and sub- verting all law, human and divine," says, that '* the ecclesiastical lenity was content, even in this case, with the sacerdotal judg- ment, and avoided all sanguinary punishments,"J however tlic secular emperors might inflix:t them for reasons of state. In the «ame century, two Spanish bishops, Ithacius and Idacius, haviiig « P. 71. t De Coetlogon'8 Seasonable Caution, p. 16. t Epist ad Turib. 2(1 «06 tettet XLf]( interfered in the capital punishment of certain Priscillian here* tics, both St. Ambrose and St. Mtirtin refused to hold commu- nion with d?em, even to gratify an emperor, whoSe clemency they were soliciting: in behalf of certain clients. Long before tlieir time, Tertullian had taught, that " It does nbt belong to religion to force religion;"* and a considerable time after it, when St. Austin and his companions, the envoys of Pope Gre- gory the Great, had converted our king Ethelbert, to the Chris- tian faith, they particularly inculcated to him, not to use forci- ble means to induce any of his subjects to follow his example. f But what need of mor« authorities on this head, since our canon law, as it stood in ancient times, and as it still stands, renders all those who have actively concurred to the death or mutila- tion of any human being, whether Catholic or heretic, Jew or Pagan, evx^n in a just war, or by exercising the art of surgery, or by judicial proceedings, irregular ^ that is to say, such per- son's cannot be promoted to holy orders, or exercise those orders, if they have actually received them. Nay, when an ecclesiastical judge or tribunal has, after due examination, pro- nounced that any person, accused of obstinate heresy, is actually guilty of it, he is required by the church, expressly, to declare in her name, that her power extends no further than such de- cision ; and, in case the obstinate heretic is liable, by the laws of the state, to suffer death or mutilation, he is required to pray for his pardon. Even the council of Constance^ in condemn- ing John Huss of heresy, declared that its power extended no further. I II. But, whereas many heresies are subversive of the esta- blished governments, the public peace, and natural morality, it does not belong to the church to prevent princes and states from exercising their just authority in repressing and punishing them, when this is judged to be the case ; nor would any cler- gyman incur irregularity by exhorting princes and magistrates to provide for those important objects, and the safety of tlie church itself, by repressing its disturbers, provided he did not concur to the death or mutilation of any particular disturber. Thus it appears, that though there have been persecuting laws in many Catholic states, the church itself, so far from claiming^ actually disclaims the power of persecuting ^ III. But Dr. Porteus signifies,*^ that the church itself has claimed this power in the third canon of the fourth Lateral) • Ad Scapul. t Bed. Ecc. Hist. L i. c. 2(5. X Sess. XV. See Labbe's Concil. t. xii. p. 129. k P. 47. Lciicr XLIX. 307 touncil, A.D. 1215, bytlie tciiour of which, temporal lords aiul magistrates were required to exterminate all heretics from tlnV respective territories, under pain of these beinpj confiscated lu their soveicrgn prince, ?i" tliey were Jajmen, and to tiieir several churclies, in case they-.vere cleri^^ymen. From this canon, it has been, a hundred tr.iies ovei,^,/argucd at-ainstTJatliOljics, of late years,;.Mot only that their cimrch claims a right to exter- minate heretics,l3ut also requires those of her communion lo aid and assist in'lhis work of destruction, at all times, and in all places. Butjt must first be observed, who were present at this council, and by whose auilidrUy these decrec«,.of a temporal nature, were .piissed. There were then pCesent, besides the Pope and ihe bishops, either in person or by their ambassafJor*, the Greel?: and the Latin em})erors; the kings of England, France, Hungary, the Sicilies, Arragon, Cyprus, and Jerusa- lem ; aiid the representatives of a vast many other principalities and states ; so that, in fact, this cowicil was a congress pf Christendom, temporal, as well as spiritual. We must, in the next place, remark the principal business, which drew tlpem to- gether. It was the common cause of Christianity and human nature; namely, the extirpation of the Manichean heresy, which taught, that there were two first principles, or Deities; one of them the ciTator of devils, of animal llesh, of wine, of the OldTestament, '^c. ; the other, the author of good spirits, of the New Testament, &ic. ; that unnatural lusts were lawful, but not the propagation of the human species; that perjuVy was permitted to them, &;c.* This detestable lieresy, which had caused so m\ich wickedness and bloodshed in the preceding centuries, broke out with fresh fury, in the twelfth century, throughout diflerent parts of Europe, more particularly in the neighbourhopd of Albi, in Langredoc, were they were support- ed by the powerful counts of THolouse, Comminges, Foix, and other feudatory princes; as also 'hy numerous bodies of ban- ditti, called Rotarii, whom they hired for this purpose. Thus strengthened, they set tbeir sovereigns at defiance, carrying fire and sword through their dominions, murdering their subjects, particularly the clergy, burning the churches and monasteries, and, in short, Waging open war with them, and, at the same time, with .Christianity, morality, and human nature itself; casting tire Bibles into the jakes^ profaning the altar^late, and • ♦ See the Protectant historiafi Moshcim's account of the the .shockms TioiatTor of decency and other crimes of which the Albigenses, Bretliren of the Tree SpUS '&'c. were guilty in the 13Lli century. Vol. iii. "p. 28 1. 308 Letter XLTX. practising their detestable rites for the extinction of the humatl species. It was to put an end to tliese horrors, that the great Lateran council was held, in the year 1215, when the heresy itself was condemned by the proper authority of the church, and the lands of the feudatory lords, who protected it, were declared to be forfeited to the govereicn princes, of whom they were held, by an authority derived from those sovereign princes. The decree of the council reprarded only the prevailing heretics oj that time, who, though " wearing diflerent faces," being indif- ferently called Albigenses, Calhari, Poplicolae Paterini, Bul- gari, Bacomilii, Beguini, Beguardi, and Brethren of the Free Spirit, &;c. were " all tied together by the tails," as their coun- cil expresses it, like Sampson's foxes, in the same band of Manicheism.* Nor was this exterminating canon ever put in force against any other heretics except the Albigenses, nor even against them, except in the case of the above named counts ; it was never so much as published, or talked of, in these islands: so little have Protestants to fear from their Ca- tholic fellow-subjects, by reason of the third canon of the coun- cil of Lateran. f IV. But they are chiefly the Smithfield fires of queen Mary's reign, which furnish matter for the inexhaustible declamation of Protestant controvertists, and the unconquerable prejudices of the Protestant populace against the Catholic religion, as " breathing the very spirit of cruelty and murder," according to the expression of the above quoted orators. Nevertheless, I have unanswerably demonstrated elsewhere, J that, " if queen Mary was a persecutor, it was not in virtue of^the tenets of her religion that she persecuted." I observed, that during almost two years of her reign, no Protestant was molested on account of his religion; that in the instructions, which the Pope sent her for her conduct on the throne, there is not a word to re- commend persecution ; nor is there one word in the synod, which the Pope's legate, Cardinal Pole, held at that time, as Burnet remarks, in favour of persecution^ This representative of his holiness even opposed the persecution project, with all / * For a succinct, yet clear account of Manicheism, see Bossuet's VarietionS, Book xi ; also, for many additional circumstances relating to it, see Letters to a Prebendary, Letter IV. t For an account of the rebellions and antisocial doctrine and practices of the Wickiiflites and Hussites, see tlie lasjt quoted work, Letter IV ; also History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 29G. X Letters te a Prebendary, Letter IV, on persecution; also History of Wiii- chester, vol. i. p. 354, &c. See in the former, p. 149, &c. proofs of the infidelity of the famous martyrologist, John Fox, and of the great abatexaeats which are to •be made in his account of tlie Protestant sufferer*- Letter XLIX, 309 his influence, as did king Philip's chaplain also, who even preached against it, and defied the advocates of it to produce an authority from Scripture in its favour. In a word, we have the arguments made use of in the queen's council, by those ad- vocates for persecution, Gardiner, Bonner, he. by whose ad- vice it was adopted ; yet none of tliem pretended, that the doc- trine of the Catholic church required such a measure. On the contrary, all their arguments are grounded on motives of state policy'. Indeed, it cannot be denied, that the first Protestants, in this, as in other countries, were possessed of, and actuated by a spirit of violence and rebellion. Lady Jane was set up, and supported in opposition to the daughters of king Henry, by all the chief men of the party, both churchmen and laymen, as I have observed. Mary had hardly forgiven this rebellion, when a fresh one was raised against her, by the duke of Suffolk, sir Thomas Wyat, and all the leading Protestants. In the mean time, her life was attempted by some of them, and her death was publicly prayed for by others ; while Knox and Goodman, on the other side of the Tweed, were publishing books Against the Monstrous regiment of Women, and exciting the people of this countr}^, as well as their own, to j)ut their Jezabel to death. Still, I grant, persecution was not the way to diminish the number or the violence of the enthusiastic insur- gents. With toleration and prudence, on the part of the go- vernors, the paroxysm of the governed would quickly have sub- sided. V. Finally ; whatever may be said of the intolerance of Mary, I trust that this charge will not be brought against the next Catholic sovereign, James II. I have elsewhere * shown, that, when duke of York, he used his best endeavours to get the act, De Heretico Comburendo, repealed, and to afford an asy- lum to the Protestant exiles, who flocked to England, from France, on the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and, in short, that, when king, he lost his crown in the cause of toleration : his Declaration of Libert i/ of Conscience, having been the deter- mining cause of his deposition. But wliat need of words to dis- prove the odious calunmy, that Cai holies " breathe the spirit of cruelty and murder," 'and are t^jliged, by their religion, to be persecutors, when every one of our gentry, who has made the tour of France, Italy, and Germany, has experienced the contrary ; and has been as cordially received by the Pope him- self, in his metropolis of Rome, > here he is both prince ani History of Winchester, voL i. p. 437, Letters to a Prebendary, p. 376. WX^ Letter XLTX. l^shop, in the character of an English Protestant, as if he wer« . known to be the most zealous Catholic ! — Still, I fear, there are some individuals in your society, as there are many other Pro- testants of my acquaintance elsewhere, who cling fast to this charge against Catholics, of persecution^ as the last resource %* their own intolerance; and, it being true/ that Catholics, have, in some times and places, unsheathed the sword against the heterodox, these persons insist upon it, that lijs an essential part of the Catholic religion to persecute. On tlie other hand, many Protestants, either from ignorance or policy, nowadays, claim for themselves, exclusively, the credit of toleration. As an instance of this, the bishop of Lincoln writes: *' I consider toleration as a mark of the true church, and as a principle, re- commended by the most eminent of our reformers and divines."* In these circumstances, I know but of one argument to stop the mouths of such disputants, which is to prove to them, that per- secution has not only been more generally practised by Pro- testants than by Catholics, but also, that it has been more warmly defended and supported by the most eminent " Reform- ers and divines" of their party, than \iy their opponents. I. The .learned ^ergier defies Protestants to mention so much as a town, in which their predecessors, on becoming masters of it, tolerated a single Catholic in it.f Rousseau, who was edu- cated a Protestant, says, that " the Reformation was intolerant from it cradle, and its authors universally persecutors."! Baylej, who was a Calvinist, has published much the same thing. Fi- nally, the Huguenot minister, Jurleu, acknowledges, that" Ge- neva, Switzerland, the Republics, electors and princes of the empire, England, Scotland, Sweden, and Denmark, had all employed the power of the state to abolish Popery, and esta-, bjish the Reformation. "§ But to proceed to other more posi-, tive proofs of what has been said ; the first father of Protest- antism, finding his new religion, which he had submitted to the Pope, condemned by him, immediately sounded the trumpet of persecution and murder against the pontiff, and all his support- ers, in the following terms : " If we send thieves to the gallows, and robbers to the block, why do we not fall on those masters of perdition, the Popes, cardinals, and bishops, with all our force, and not give over till we have bathed our hands in their blood .''"II He elsewhere calls the Pope, " a mad wolf, against * Charge in 1812. t Trait. Hist, et Dogmat X Letters dc la Mont. ^ Tab. Lett, quoted by Bossuet, Avertiss, p. 625. V Ad Silvest. Pereir. ' Letter XLIX, 31i whbm every one ought to take arms, without waiting for aD order from the magistrate." He adds, " if you fall before the beast has received its mortal wound,,. yoiuw.ill have but one thing to be sorry for, that you did not bury. your dagger in itg breast. All that- defend j him ,must be tneated like a band of robbers, be they kings or be they G.-esars.'.'* By these and similar mcentives, with which the works of > Luther abound, he not Oitly- excited the Lutherans themselves to propagate tlieir religion by fire and sword against the emperou and other Ca- tholic princes, but also gave occasion .to all the-.sanguinary and frantic scenes, which the Anabaptists played,, at the same time, through the lower part of Germany. Coeval witlj these was the civil war, which another arch-reformer, Zuinglius, lighted up in Switzerland, by wayof propagating his peculiar system, and the persecution which hfe raised .equally against the Catholics and the Anabaptists. Even the moderate jVIelaiictlion wrote a book in defence of religious persecution,! and the conciliatory Bucer, who became professor of divinity at Cambridge, not satisfied with the burning of the heretic, Servetus, preached that " his bowels ought to liave, beeii toruout,: and his body chop- ped to pieces."! IL But the great ^champion of persecution, every one knows, «v^as the founder of the second great branch of Protestantism, John Calvin. Not content with burning Servetus, beheading Gruet, and persecuting other distinguished Protestants, Castallo, Bolsec, and Gentilis, (wlio being apprehended in die neighr bouring Protestant eanton of Berne, was put to death there) he set up a consistorial inquisition at Geneva, for forcing every one to conform to his opinions, and required, that the magis- trates should punish whomever this consistory condenmed. He was succeeded in his spirit^ as well as in his ofiice, by Beza, who wrote a folio work in defence. of •persecution.'^ In this he shows, that Luther, Melancthon, Buliinger, Gapito, no less thaa Galvin, had written works, expressly in defence of Uiis prin- ciple, which, accordingly, was firmly majnlained by Calvin*s.y followers, particularly in France. Bos.suet refers to the public' records, of Nismes, Montpcller and otlier places, in proof of lh« directions, issued by the Oiihilnist coi>sistories to their g^'perals, for "forcing the Papists to embrat;e the Reformation .by taxea, quartering soldiers upon them, demolishing their liouses, &ic." * Theses apud SJeid. A. D. 1545. Opera Luth. tom.L t Be/a, Dc Haeret. puniend. t Ge/. Brandt. Hist. Abreg. Kefor. Pais Bas,vol. i. p. 454. i D* Haereticispunietidista Civili Magistratu, &.c. h Theod. Beza, .. 31^ Letter XLTX: and he says, " the wells into which the. Gatholics were fltingj and the instruments of torture which were used at the first men- tioned city, to. forcQ them to attend the Protestant sermons, ajre things of public notoriety."* In faqt, who has not read of the ipfamous baron D'Adrets^ whose savage sport it was, to torture, and murder Catholics, in a Catlioliq kingdpm^ and who forced his son literally to wash his hai^ds in their blood i^ Who has ipt heand of the inhuman Jane, queen of Navarre, who massa- cred priests and religious persons, by hundreds, merely qn ac-. count of their sacred character ? In short. Catholic France, throughput its extent, and during a great nuiiiber of years, was a scene of desolation and slaughter, from the unrelenting per- secutipn of its Huguenot subjects. Nor was the spectacle dis-, similar in the Low Countries, when Calvinism got a footing in. them. Their first synod, held in 1574, equally proscribed the Catholics and; the Anab?.ptists, calling upori the magistrates to, support their decrees, f which decrees were renewed in several, sub^iequent synods. I have elsewhere quoted a late Protestant, writer, who, on the authority of existing pyblic records, de-. scribes the horrible torments with which Vandermerk and Sonoi, two generals of the prince of Orange, put to death incredible numbers of Dutch Catholics. J' Other writers furnish more ample materials of the same kind.§ But while the Calvinist ministers, continued to stimulate their magistrates to redoubled severities against the Catholics, for which purpose, among Other means, they, translated into Dutch and published the above-nientioned work of Beza, a new object of their persecu- tion arost^ in the bosom of their own society ;. Arminius, Vos- sius, Episcopius, and some other divines, supported by the il- lustrious, statesmen, Barnevelt and Grotius, declared against the more rigorous, pf Calvin's maxims. They would not admit, that God decrees men to be wicked, and then punishes them, everlastingly for what they cannot help ; nor that many persons ai-e in his. actual grace and favour, while they are immersed in the most enormous crimes. For denying this, Barnevelt was ljeheaded,|| Grotius was condemned to perpetual imprisonmejit, and all the remonstrant clergy, as they were called, were ba- nished, at the requisition of the synod of Dort, from their, fami- lies and their country, with circumstfinces.of the greatest cruelty. *. Variat. L. x. m. 52. t Brandt, vpl. i. p. 227. t; P. 23a. Letters to a.Prchend. p. 103. ^, See tlie learned Estius's. History of tlie MMyrspf Govcu^n; De Brandt, &e, II, Diodati, quoted by Brandt, say- tists. Before I quit the continent, 1 qusst mention \.\\v liiilheran kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, in both wliicli, as Jmicau has signified above, the Catliolic religion was e\tir{)atc{l, and. Protestaniism established by means, of rigorous, persecuting laws, which denounced the punishment of death against the ■ former. Professor jMessenius, who wrote about the year 1600, mentions, four Catholics who had recently been put to death, in Sweden, on account of their religion, and eight others who liad been imprisoned and tortured, on that account, of whom he himself was one.* III. To pass over now, to the northern pnrt of our own island : the first reformers of Scotland, having deliberately murdered Cardinal Beaton, archbishop of St. Andiew's,f and riotously destroyed the churches, monasteries, and every thing, else,, which they termeid monuments of Popery, assembled in a tumultuous and illegal; manner, and before even their own re- ligion was established by law, they condemned the Catholic*, to capital punishment for the exercise of theirs: " such stran- gers," says Robertson, " '.vere men, at that time, to the spirit of toleration and the laws of humanity !"{ Their chief apostle was John Knox, an apostate friar, who, in all his publications and sermons, maintained, that " it is not birth, but (Jod's elec- tion, which confers a right to the throne and to magistracy;" that " no pr*)mise or oath, made to an enemy of the truth, that is to a Catholic, is binding ;" and that '^ every such enemy, in a high station, is to be deposed. "§ Not content with threaten- ing to depose her, he told his queeji, to her face, that the Pro- testants had a right to take the sword of justice into their hands, and to punish her, as Samuel slew Agag, and as Elias slew Jezabel's prophets. |t Conformably with this doctrine, he wrote into England, that- " the nobility and people were bound in conscience, not only to withstand the proceedings of th:it .l:"a- ])el, Mary, whom. they call queen, but also to put her to dentlr, and aH her priests wiih her."ir His fellow apostles, Goodman, Willox, Buchanan, Rough, Black, &c. constantly inculcated to ♦ Scandia Illustrat. quoted by Le Drun. Mess. E^plio. t. iv. p. 40. t Gilb. Si^iart's Hist.bf Rpf. in Scot. vol. i. p. 47, &r. : Histof S.-ctland, An. ir.OO. <^ See CoUier's Ecr. Hist. vol. u p 448. ii Stuart's Hj^t. vol. i. p. 59. U Cited by !>*•, JPutersoii^in his Jeru". and BabeL «4 Ikiter XLIX, the people the same seditious and persecuting -doctrine ; and tlw Presbyterian ministers, in general, earnestly pressed, for; the execution of their innocent queen, who was accused of a mur* der, perpetrated by their own Protestant leaders.* T!i€ sanae unrelenting intolerance was seen among " the most moderate" of their clergy,. *' wliien they were assembled by order of king James and his .council, to inquire whether the Catholic earls of Huntly, Errol,* and their fQllowers, on making a proper con- cessioUj might not be admitted into the church, and be exempt from further punishment?" These ministers then answered^ . that " Though the gates of mercy are alwa}^ open for those who repent, yet,.as^ these, noblemen had been guilty of idolatry, . (the Catholic religion) ; a crime descrying death ^by the laws both of God and man, the civil magistrate could pot legally pardon them,, and that, though th^ church should absolw them, it was his duty- to inflict punishment upon them*"! Bnt we need not be surprised at any severity of the Presbyterian* against Catholics,., when, among other penances, ordained by public autbowty, against tlieir.owa members who should break the fast ofj^ent, ivhipping in, the cAwrcA was one.f IV. The father of the Church of England, under the authori- ty of the protector Seymour, duke of Somerset, was confessedly Thomas Cranmer, whom Henry VIII. raised to the archbishop- ric of Canterbury ; of whom it is difficult to say, whether his obsequiousnj?ss to the, passions of his successive masters, Henry, Seymour, and Dudley, or his barbarity >to the sectaries wha were in his power, was the more odious^.. There is this circum- stance, which' distinguishes him from alnvJSt. every other perse- cutor, that he acti;yel3' promoted the capital punishment, not only of those who diiTered from him in. religion, ]3wt ,also of those who agre^dvvith' him in it. It is admitted by his adva- cates,<^ that? he was instr-umental, during the reign -of Henry, in bringing to the stake the Protestants, Lambert, Askew, Frith, and Allen,-besides condemning a great many others to it, for. denying the corporeal presence of Christ inthe sacrament, which ^ he disbelieved himself fll and it is equall}' certain, that during., the reign of the child- J^ward, he continued to convict Arians . and Anabaptists capiiall^', and to press for their execution. Two of thescy Joan.Kj(»€ll:?ipd G^org.e Van Par, hi? got actually ; • Stuart's Hist. vol. i. p. 255 t Robertson's Hist Am 1596. t Stuprt, vol. ii. p. 94, V Fox, Acts and Monum. Fuller's Church Hist^b..v. , I ^ee LpUera to a Preb. p. 206. . Letter XLIX. 315 burnt : preventing the young Uing, Etiwnrd, from pardoning them, by telling him, that " princes heiiit; (iod's deputies, ought to punish impieties against him."* The two next most eminent fathers of the English . church were, unquestionably, bishop Ridley, and bishop Latimer, both of them noted perse- cutors, and persecutors of Protestants to the extremity of death, no less than of Anabaptists and other sectaries!! Upon the second establishment of the Protestant religion in England, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, it was again buttressed up here, as in every other country, where it prevail- ed, by the most severe, persecuting laws. I have elsewhere shown, from authentic sources, that above two hundred Ca- tholics were hanged, drawn and quartered during her reign, for the mere profession or exercise of the religion of their ancestors for almost one thousand years. Of this number fifteen were euidemned for denying the queen's spiritual supremacy, one hundred and twenty-six for the exercise of their priestly func- tions, «nd the rest for being reconciled to the Catholic church, for heai^oig mass, or. aiding and abetting Catholic pries^s.J When to tt^se sanguinary scenes are added those of many Imn- dreds of othe? Catholics, who perished in dungeons, who were driven into exilt, or who were stripped of their property, it will appear, that the p«^rsecution of Elizabeth's reign, was far more gi'ievpus than that of her sister Mary; especially when the proper deductions are made from the sufferers under the latter.^ Nor was persecution confined to the Catholics ; for, when great numbers of foreign Anabaptists, and other sectaries, had fled into England, from the fires and gibbets of their Protestant brethren in Holland, they found their situation much worse here, as they complained, than it had been in their own coun- try. To silence these complaints, the bishop of London, Ed- win Sandys, published a book in vindication of religious perse- cution. |t In short, the Protestant church and state concurred to their extirpation. An assembly of them, to the number of twenty-seven, having being seized upon in 1575, som«j of them ♦ Burnet's Ch. Hist p. ii. b. i. t See the proofs of these facts collected from Fox, Burnet, Hrylin, and CoUicr» in Letters to a Preb. Let. V. /- i r t Certaiu opponents of mine have publicly objected ^o m^ , that tlieso « a holies suffered for Hi^ktreastni : true ; the laws of persi-pution doclare I «■»: lnil th«-u ooU treason consisted in' their x^fi'Xion. Thus the Apnstl.v., unj^)T^ were traitors in the eye of the Pa^on hw ; an 1 the rhi^f p-irsts .i.'rlar.|d, with rejjpect to Christ himself; ire hnvf. a //ir, (tnd aceordlnj to that he oujlit to iH, ^ See letters to a Prel>endary, pp. li'<, tr»0. •* Ger. Brandt, Hist. Reform. Abreg. vol. i. p. 234. 316 Utter XLIX, were so intimidated as to recant their opinions, some were scourged, two of tliem, Peterson and Tenvort, were burnt to death in Smithfield, and the rest banished,* Besides these foreigners, the English Dissenters were also grievously perse- cuted. Several of them, such as Thacker, Copping, Green- wood, Barrow, Penry, he. were put to death, which rigours they ascribed principally to the bishops, particularly to Parker, Aylmer, Sandys, and Whitgift.f The last named, they accused of being the chief author of the famous inquisitorial court, called the Star Chamber, which court, in addition to all its other vexations and severities, employed the rack and torture, to extort confession.! The doctrines and practice of persecu- tion, in England, did not end with the race of Tudor. JameS I, though he was reproached with being favourable to the Ca- tholics, nevertheless signed warrants for twenty-five of thew to be hanged and quartered, and sent one hundred and twen^'- €ight of them into banishment, barely on account of thei*' re- ligion, besides exacting the fine of 20Z. per month froi-^ those who did not attend the church service. Still he was r-^peatediy called upon by parliament to put the penal law;s ja force witli ^eater rigour ; in order, say they, " to advance the glory of Almighty God, aiid the everlasting honour of jour majesty;"^ and he was warned by archbishop Abbot, against tolerating ■Catholics, in the following terms : " Yoht majesty hath pro- pounded a toleration of religion. By ^our act you labour to set up that most damnable and heretical doctrine of the church of Rome, the whore of Babylon ; and thereby draw down upon the kingdom and yourself, God's heavy wiiith and indigna- tion."!) ^" ^^^^ mean time the Puritans complained loudly of the persecution, which t!iey endured from the court of High Commission, and particularly from archbishop Bancroft, and the bishops Neale, of Litchfield, and King, of London. They charged the former of these, with not only condemning Edward Wightman for his opinions, but also, with getting the king's warrant for his execution, who was accordingly burnt at Lich- field ; and the latter, with treating, in the same way, Bartholo- mew Legat, who was consumed in Smithtield.lT The same unrelenting spirit of persecution prevailed in the addresses of parli-iment, and of many bishops to Charles I, which had dis- . ♦ Brandt, vol. i. p. 234. Hist, of Churches of Eng. and Scotl. vol. ii. p. 19».. I t Ibid. J Mo.sheira, voL ir. p. 40. ^ Rushworth's Collect, vol. i. | . 141. || Rushworth's Collect IF Chandler's Introductv t.«. UiW.bprch.e's Hist., of fanj^uis. p. 80.. ^c^'s Hii$t of PuriL voL ii. p. ^6. LetUr XLIX. 317 gt-aced those presented to his father : one of these, signed bj the renowned archbishop Usmer, and f^leven other Irish bishops of the establishment, declares, that •* to give toleration to Pa- pists, is to become accessary to superstition, idolatry, and the perdition of souls 5 and that, therefore, it is a grievous sin.^'* At length the Presbyterians, and Independents, getting the up- per hand, had an opportunity of giving full scope to their characteristic intolerance. Their divines, being assembled at Sion college, condemned, as an error, the doctrine of tolera- tion, ** under the abused term," as they expressed it, " of li- berty of conscience."! Conformably with this doctrine, they procured from their parliament a number of j)ersecuting acts, from those of fining, up to those of capital punishment. The objects of them were not only Catholics, but also church of England men,| Quakers, Seekers, and Arians. In the mean time, they frequently appointed national fasts to atone for thc^r pretended guilt, in being too tolerant.^ Warrants for the exe- cution of four English Catholics, were extorted from the kin*^. while he was in power, and near twenty others were publicly executed under the parliament and the protector. Tliis hypo- critical tyrant afterwards invading Ireland, and being bent on exterminating the Catholic population there, persuaded his soldiers, that they had a divine commission for ihis purpose, as the Israelites had to exterminate the Canaaiiites.|| To make an end of the clergy, he put the same price upon a priest's as upon a wolfs head. If Those Puritans who, previously to the civil war, had sailed to North America, to avoid persecution, set up a far more cruel one there, particularly against the Qua- kers, whipping them, cropping their ears, boring their tonguet with a hot iron, and hanging them. We have the names of four of these sufferers, one of them a woman, who were executed at Boston.** IV. The Catholics had behaved with unparalleled loyalty to the king and constitution, during the whole war which the Puritans waged against these. It has even been demonstrat- ed,ff that three-fifths of the noblemen and gentlemen who lost their lives on the side of royalty, were Catholics, and that more than half of the landed property, confiscated by the rebels, be- • Leiand's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 482. Neal'a Hist vol. ii. p. 4C9. t Hht. of Churches of Eng. and Scotl. vol. iii. t Ibid. ^ Ibid. Neal's Hist. D Anderson's Royal Geneal. quoted by Curry, vol. ii. p. 1 1. H Ibid. p. 63. *♦ Ne'4J's Hist, of Churches. tJ Lord Castlemain's Catholic Apology. 318 Letter XLIX. longed to the Catholics; add tb'th^s, that they were chiefly in- gtrumental in saving Charles II, after his defeat at Worcester ; hence there was reason to expect, that the restoration of th« king and constitution, would have brouf?htati alleviation, if not an end of their sulierings : but the contrary proved to be the case : for then all parties seem to have combined to make them the common object of their persecuting spirit and fury. In proof of tliis, I need allege nothing more than that two diflerent parliaments voted the reality of Oates's Plot ! and that eighteen innocent and loyal Catlioiics, one df them a peer, suffered the death 6C traitors, on account of it : to say nothing of Seven other priests, who, about that time, were hanged and quartered for the mere exercise oi their priestly functions. Among the absurdities of that sanguinary plot, such as those oT shooting the king with silver buliets, and iiivading the island with aa army of pilgrims from Compostella, &lc.* it was not the least to pretend, that the Catholics wished to kill the king at all ; that king whom they had heretofore saved in Staffordshire, and whom they well knew to be secretly devoted to their religion ; but any pretext was good which would serve the purposes of a persecuting faction. These purposes were to exclude Catholics not only Irom the throne, but also from the siiiariest degree of political power, down to that of a constable, and to shut the doors of both houses of parliament against them. The factioi^ succeeded in its first design by the Test Act, and in its second, by the act requiring the Declaration against Popery; both ob- tained at a [Jeriod of national delirium and ftn-y. What the spirit of the clergy was, at that time, with respect to the op- pressed Catholics, appeared at their solemn procession at sir Edmundbury Godfrey's funeral, f and still appears in the three folio volinfieis of invejctive and misrepresentation then published, under the title of .^ Preservative against; Pop eri/. Ori the oth»^r hand, such Was the unchristian hatred of the Dissenters against the CathoKcs, that they promoted the Test Act with all their power, J though no less injurious to themselves than to the Ca- tholics ; and on every occasion, they refused a toleration which might "extend to the latter.^ There is no need of bringing down the history of persecution in this country to a later period than the revolution, at wiiich time, as I observed before, a Ca- tholic king was deposed^ because he would not be a persecutor. » Echard's Hist. t North's Exam. Echard X Neal's Hist, of Puritans, vol. iv. Hist of Churches, voL iii. « Ibid. Letter XLIX, 31 9 Suffice it to say, that the number of penal laws ap^ainst the pro- fessors of the ancient ""^ligion, and tbunders of the constilution of this conntry, continued to increase in every rei^n, till that of his present majesty. In tlic course of this rei^n most of the old persecuting laws have been repealed, l^nt the two lust men- tioned, enacted in a moment of delirium, which lluuie repre- sents as our greatest national disgrace, 1 mean the impractica- ble Test Act, and the unintelligible Declaration against Popery ^ are rigidly adhered to under two groundless pretexts. The first of these is, that they are necessary for the sujyjwrt of the established church : and yet it is undeniable, that this church had maintained its ground, and had flourished much more du- ring the period which preceded these laws, than it has ever done since that event. The second pretext is, that the with- holding of honours and emoluments is not iicrsecution. On this point, let a Protestant dignitary of first rate talents be heard : " We agree, that persecution, merely for conscience sake, is against the genius of the gospel : and so is any law for depriving men of their natural and civil rights, which they claim as men. We are also ready to allow, that the smallest negative discouragements, for uniformity's sake, are so many persecutions. An incapacity by law for any man to be made a judge or a colonel, merely on point of conscience, is a nega- tive discouragement, and, consequently, a real persecution," &c.* In the present case, however, the persecution which Ca- tholics sufier from the disabilities in question, does not consist so much in their being deprived of those common privileges aud advantages, as in their being held out by the legislature, as un- worthy of them, and thus being reduced to the condition of an inferior cast, in their own country, the country of freedom; this they deeply feel, and cannot help feeling. i V. But to return to my subject : I presume, that if the facts and reflections, which I have seated in this letter, had occurred to the R. Rev. prelates, mentioned at the beginning of it, they would have lowered, if not quite altered, their tone on the pre- sent subject : the bishop of London would not have charged Catholics with claiming a right to punish those whom they call heretics, " with penalties, imprisonment, tortures, and death : nor would the bishop of Lincoln have laid down " toleration as a mark of the true church, and as a principle, recommended by the most eminent reformers and (Protestant) divines. At all events, I promise myself, that a due consideration of tbt ♦ Dean Swift's works, vol. viii. p. 56. 320 Letter XLIX. points here suggested, will efface the remaining prejudices of certain persons of your society against the Catholic church, on the score of her alleged " spirit of persecution, and of her sup- posed claim to punish the errors of the mind with fire and sword." They must have seen, that she does not claim, but that, in her very general councils, she has disclaimed all power of this nature ; and that, in pronouncing those to be obstinate heretics, whom she finds to be such, she always pleads for mercy, in their behalf, when they are liable to severe punish- ment from the secular power : a conduct which many eminent Protestant Churchmen, were far from imitating, in similar cir- cumstances. They must have seen, moreover, that, if perse- cuting laws have been made and acted upon by the princes and magistrates in many Catholic countries, the same conduct has been uniformly practised in every country, from the Alps to the Arctic Circle, in which Protestants, of any description, have acquired the power of so doing. But, if, after all, the friends alluded to, should not admit of any material difference, on one side or the other, in this matter, I will here point out to them two discriminating circumstances of such weight, as must, at once, decide the question about persecution in disfa- vour of Protestants^ In the first place, when Catholic states and princes have per- secuted Protestants, it was done in favour of an ancient religion, which had been established in their country, perhaps, a thou- sand or fifteen hundred years, and which had long preserved the peace, order, and morality of their respective subjects ; and when, at the same time, they clearly saw, that any attempt to alter this religion would, unavoidably, produce incalculable dis- orders, and sanguinary contests among them. On the other hand, Protestants, every where, persecuted in behalf of new systems, in opposition to the established laws of the church, and of the respective states. Not content with vindicating their own freedom of worship, they endeavoured, in each country, by persecution, to force the professors of the old religion to aban- don it and adopt theirs ; and they acted in the same way by their fellow Protestants, who had adopied opinions different from their own. In many countries, where Calvinism got a head, as in Scotland, in Holland, at Geneva, and in France, they were riotous mobs, which, under the direction of their pastors, rose in rebellion against their lawful princes, and hav- ing secured their independence, proceeded to sanguinary ex- tremities against the Catholics. Letter L, 321 In the second place, If Catholic states and princes have en- forced submission to their church by persecution, they were fully persuaded, that there is a divine authority in this church to decide in all controversies of religion, and that those Chris- tians who refuse to hear her voice, when she pronounces upon them, are obstinate heretics. But on what ground can Pro- testants persecute Christians of any description whatsoever? Their grand rule and fundamental charter is, that the Scrip- tures were given by God for every man to interpret them, as he judges best. If, therefore, when I hear Christ declarinp^, Take ye and eat, this is my body, I believe what he says; with what consistency can any Protestants require me, by pains or penal- ties, to swear that I do not believe it, and that to act conform- ably with this persuasion is idolatry ? But religious persecu- tion, which is every where odious, will not much longer find re- fuge in the most generous of nations : much less will the many victorious arguments which demonstrate the true cluirch of Christ, our common mother, who reclaimed us all from the barbarous rites of Paganism, be defeated by the calumnious outcry, that she herself is a bloody Moloch, that requires hu- maa victims. I am, &c J.M. LETTER L. To the FlilEKDLY SOCIETY of NEW COTTAGE, COXCLUSIOX. MY FRIENDS AND BRETHREN IN CHRIST, Having, at length, finished the task you imposed upon me, eight months ago, in my several letters to y^'''''''''^Y^P'''l' dent, Mr. Brown, and others of your society, 1 address this, my concluding letter, to you, in common, as a slight review ot them. I observed to you, that, to succeed m any inqu.rs it is necessary to know and to follow the right method of making it: hence, I entered upon the present i"^P«''t^"j.^^^^^^.^^f '^J u' Uuths of the Christian Revelation, with \discussion of the rules or methods, followed, for this purpose, by ^;<[^^^"\5^^^^ of Christians. Having, then, taken for granted the following 2 S 322 Letter L, maxims, — that Christ has appointed some rule or method of learning his revelation ; that this rule must be an unerring one ; and that it must be adapted to the capacities and situations of mankind, in general ; I proceeded to show, that a supposed pri' vate spirit J or particular inspiration, is not that rule ; because this persuasion has led numberless fanatics, in every age, since that of Christ, into the depths of error, folly, and wickedness of every kind. 1 proved, in the second place, that the written Word or Scripture, according to each one's conception of its meaning, is not that rule ; because it is not adapted to tlie ca- pacity and situation of the bulk of mankind ; a great propor- tion of them not being able to read the Scripture, and much less to form a connected sense of a single chapter of it ; and, because innumerable Christians, at all times, by following this presumptuous method, have given into heresies, impieties, con- tradictions, and crimes, almost as numerous and iiagrant as tnose of the above mentioned fanatics. Finally, I demonstra- ted, that there is a two-fold word of God, the unwritten, and the written ; that the former was appointed by Christ, and aiade use of by the apostles, for converting nations ; and that it was not made void by the inspired Epistles and Gospels, which some of the apostles, and the evangelists, addressed, for the most part, to particular churches or individuals ; that the Catholic church is the divinely commissioned guardian and in- terpreter of the word of God, in both its parts ; and that, therefore, the method, appointed by Christ for learning what he has taught, on the various articles of his religion, is to HEAR THE CHURCH propounding them to us from the whole of his rule. This method, I have shown, continued to be pointed out by the fathers and doctors of the church, in con- stant succession, and that it is the only one which is adapted to the circumstances of mankind, in general ; the only one, which leads to the peace and unity of the Christian church ; and the only one, which afibrds tranquillity and security to in- dividual Clnistians durijig life, and at the trying hour of their dissolution. At this point, my labours might have ended ; as the Catholic church alone follows tlie right rule, and the right rule infallibly leads to the Catholic clii* ch : but since bishop Porteus, and other Protestant contro\ erlists, raise cavils, as to which is the true clmrcli ; and whereas this is a question, that admits of a still more easy and more triumphant answer, than that c(mcern- ing the right rule of faith,^ 1 have made this the subject of a second series of letters, with which, I flatter myself, I'le greater Letter L 323 part of you are unacquainted. In fact, no inquiry is so easy, to an attentive and upright Christian, as to discover which is the true church of Christ ; because, on one hand, all Christians agree, in their common creeds, concerning the characters or marks, which she bears ; and because, on the other hand, these marks are of an exterior and splendid kind, such as rtqiiire no extensive learning or abilities, and little more than the use o( our senses and common reason, to discern them. In short, to ascertain which, among the numerous and jarring societies of Christians, all pretending to have found out tiie truths of Re- velation, is the true church of Christ, that necessarily possesses them, we have only to observe which among them is disiincti\e- ly, ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLICAL, and the discovery is made. In treating of these characters, or marks, I said it was obvious to every beholder, that there is no bond of union w hatever among the different societies of Protest- ants; and that no articles, canons, oaths, or laws, had the force of confining the members of any one of them, as experience shows, to a uniformity of belief, or even profession, in a single kingdom or island ; while the great Catholic church, spread, as it is over the face of the globe, and consisting, as it does, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, is strictly unit- ed together, in the same faith, the same sacraments, and the same church-government -, in short, that it demonstratively ex- hibits the first mark of the true church, unity. — With respect to the second mark, sanctity, I showed, that she, alone, teaches and enforces the whole doctrine of the gospel ; that she is the mother of all the saints, acknowledged as such by Protestants them- selves ; that she possesses many means of attaining sanctity, which the latter disclaim ; and that God himself attests the truth of this church, by the miracles with which, from time to time, he illustrates her exclusively : and, whereas many eminent Protestant writers have charged the Catholics with deception and forgery on this head, I have unanswerably retorted the charge upon themselves. No words were wanting to show, that the Catholic church bears the glorious name of CATHO- LIC, and very few to demonstrate, that she is Cathcitc or uni- versal, with respect both to place and time, and thai she is also apostolical. The latter point, however, 1 exliibited in a more evident and sensible manner, by means of the sketch ot an apostolical tree, or genealogical table of the church, which 1 sent you ; showing the succession of her pontifls, her most emi- nent bishops, doctors and saints, as also, of the "/-^jL""^""^^ heretics and schismatics, who have been lopped off from this 324 Letter L. tree, in every age from that of the apostles down to the present age. " No church, but the Catholic, can exhibit any thing of this kind," as Tertullian reproached the seceders of his time. Under this head, you must have observed, in particular, the want of an apostolical succession of ministry, which, I showed, all Protestant societies labour under, and their want of success in attempting the work of the apostles, the conversion of Pagan nations. The third series of my letters has beer ^'w cloyed in tearing off the hideous mask, with which calumny and misrepresentation had disfigured the fair face of Christ's true spouse, the Catho- lic church. In this endeavour, I trust, 1 have been successful, and that there is not one of your society who will any more re- proach Catholics with being Idolaters, on account of their re- spect for the memorials of Christ and his saints, or of their de. siring the prayers of the latter ; or on account of the adoration they pay to the divine Jesus, hidden behind the Sacramental veils: nor will they, hereafter, accuse us of purchasing, or otherwise procuring leave to commit sin, or the previous pardon of sins, to be committed ; or, in short, of perfidy, sedition, cruelty, or systematic wickedness of any kind. So far from this, I have reason to hope, that the view of the church herself which I have exhibited to your society, instead of the carica- ture of her, which Dr. Porteus, and other bigoted controvertists have held up to the public, has produced a desire in several of them to return to the communion of this original church ; bear- ing, as she clearly does, all the marks of the true church ; gifted, as she manifestly is, with so many helps for salvation j and possessing the only safe and practicable rule for ascertain- ing the truths of Revelation. The consideration which, I un- derstand, has struck some of them, in the most forcible manner, is that which I suggested from my own knov\ ledge and experi- ence, as well as from the observation of the eminent writers whom I named ; namely, that no Catholic, at the near approach of death y is ever found desii'ous of dying in any other religion j while numbers of Protestants, in that situation, seek to he recon- cihd to the Catholic religion. Some of your number have said, that, though they are of opinion that t^e Catholic religion is the true one, yet they have not that evidence of the fact, which they think sufiicient to jus- tify a change in so important a point as that of religion. — God forbid that I should advise any person to embrace the Catholic Teligion, without having sufficient evidence of its truth : but I miut remind the persons in question, that they have not a meta- Letter L. 325 physical evidence, or a mathematical certainty of the truth of Christianity, hi general ; they have only a moral e\ idnice, and certainty of it : with all the miracles and otln^ arguments, by which Christ and his apostles proved tliis divine sysn-m, it was still a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the (tf utiles, I Cor. i. 23 : in sliort, there is light enough in it to guide the sincere faithful, and obscurity enough to mislead the perverse unbelievers, according to the observation of St. Austin ; be- cause, after all, faith is not merely, a divine illustration of the miderstanding, but also, a divine, and yet voluntary motion of the will. Hence, if, in travelling through this darksome vale, as Locke, 1 think, observes with respect to Revelation in gene- ral, God is pleased to give us the light of the moon or of the stars, we are not to stand still on our journey, because he does not aflbrd us the light of the sun. The same is to be said, with respect to the evidence in favour of the Catholic religion : it is moral evidence of the first quality ; far superior to that on which we manage our teniporal aflairs and guard our lives ; and not, in the least, below that which exists for the truth of Cln*istianity at large. — At all events, it is wise to choose the safer part : and it would be madness to act otherwise, when eternity is at stake. The great advocates of Christianity, SS. Austin, Pascal, Ab- .adie, and others, argue thus, in reconnnending it to us, in pre- ference to infidelity : now, the same argument evidently holds good, for preferring the Catholic religion to every Protestant system. The most eminent Protestant divines, such as Luther Melancthon, Hooker, Chillingworth, with the bishops. Laud, Taylor, Sheldon, Blanford, and the modern prelates. Marsh and Porteus himself, all acknowledge, that salvation may be found in the communion of the original Catholic church: but no divine of this church, consistently with her characterislical uni- ty, and the constant doctrine of the holy fathers and of the Scripture itself, as 1 have elsewhere demonstrated, can allow, that salvation is to be found out of that communion ; except in the case of invincible ignorance. It remains, my dear friends and brethren, for each of you to take his and her part : but remember, that the part you several- ly take, is taken for eternity ! On this occasion, therefore, if ever you ought to do so, reilect and decide seriously and con- scientiously, dismissing all worldly respects, of whatever kind, from your minds; for what exchange sliall a man receive for his soul !* and what will the prejudiced opinion of your fellow ♦ Mat. \yL 20. 326 Letter L. mortals avail you at the tribunal, where we are all so soon to ap- pear ! and in the vast abyss of eternity in which we shall quick- ly be all ingulfed ! Will any of them plead your cause at that bar? And will your punishment be more tolerable from their sharing in it f Finally, beseech your future judge, who is now your merciful Saviour, with all the fervour and sincerity of your souls, to bestow upon you the light to see your way, and the strength to follow it, which he merited for you, when he hung, for three hours, your agonizing victim, on the cross. Adieu, my dear friends and brethren, we shall soon meet to- gether at the tribunal 1 have mentioned ; and be assured, that I look forward to that meeting with a perfect confidence, that you and I, and the Great Judge himsellj will then approve, in rommon, of the advice 1 now give you. I am^ he J.M W ^,JVfaj/29, 1802. A POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION OF TH« ADDRESS TO THE RIGHT REV. LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, OCCASIONED BY HIS LORDSHlp's «ONE WORD TO THE REV. DR. MILNER.» My Lord, Should a grave and dignified author be found unsettled in his opinions, and contradictory in his assertions, he would un- avoidably puzzle his readers to make out his meaning, and dis- tress his literary opponents to preserve a due respect towards him ; but much more so, should such a venerable character de- scend to the regions of burlesque and of ridiculous absurdity. In the course of last summer, the Riij:ht Reverend Hishop of St. David's published, what he called, THI-: PROTEST- ANT'S CATECHISM, a work professedly intended, not only to defeat the claims of them Catholics to more e\t«'nsive reli- gious and civil freedom, but also to deprive them of that por- tion of it which they actually enjoy. Among the otli»'r articles, announced in The Table of Contents, at the head of this work, is the following : ' Section the 24th : Means of co-operating with the laws for preventing the danger and increase of Po- pery'. — From this and other passages in his Lordship's work, we had too much reason to fear, that he was disposed to vote for and promote, to the utmost of his power, the re-enactment of Elizabeth's sanguinary Statutes against us : wlii« h fear was augmented by his twice quoting the followintr awful words Irom Iriilton's prose works : ' Popery, as being idolatrous, is not to t^ tolerated^ either in public or iu private; it must now be 328 Postscript thought how to remove it, and hinder the growth thereof. If they say that, by removing thpir idols, we violate their con- sciences, we have no warrant to regard conscience, which is not grounded on Scripture.' The adoption of these intolerant sen- timents by a Lord of Parliament naturally alarmed us, not barely for our own lives, that is to say, for those of five millions of his Majesty's European subjects, who, though they are not idolaters, yet pass for such in his Lordship's eyes, but also for the lives of fifty more millions of his Majesty's sub- jects in Asia, Africa and America, who are, in the strict sense of the word, idolaters. Accordingly, when I had read the Contents of the Catechism, I hastily turned over the leaves oi it to page 54, where these Contents had informed me I should find the means in question, that is to say, the precise nature and extent of the religious persecution with which the Bishop of St. David's threatens us. But instead of finding these, I met tJie following note : ' The means of co-operating with the laws for preventing the danger and increase of Popery, intended for the Conclusion, as noticed in The Table of Contents, being in- timately connected with the credit and usefulness of our Ecclesi- astical establishment, as I conceive, but admitting a difference of opinion, are omitted for further consideration.' Now, my Lord, I appeal to your Lordship's knowledge of literature, whether another author can be named, who in the same work exhibits such an opposition of sentiment and language, as this Prelate does in his Catechism ^ In a word, can either his read- ers or his critics pay any serious attention to what he writes, when it is evident that he has not made up his mind, and con- tradicts himself concerning it f Soon after the appearance of this Catechism, its Right Rev. Author advertised, at the head of the Gentleman^s Magazine, a new work, as being then actually in the press, under the title of THE GRAND SCHISM. Being then engaged in answering the Catechism, I own, I hailed this promise of fresh paradoxes, to support those which I was refuting ; for I was perfectly aware tliat the farther his Lordship advanced in the thorny and miry lane, in wliich he was resolved to walk, the more he would get entangled in contradictions, and the deeper he would sink into absurdity. Accordingly, month after month, I inquired of all his publishers for The Bishop of St. David's GRAJVD SCHISM : but none of tliem had heard a word about it. In the end, it appeared that his Lordship had changed his mind about this publication also : but, whether * for the credit and usefulness of the Establishment,' or his own, he best knows. Postscript. 3^ Hitherto the Prelate had not, to my knowledge, taken any public notice of my End to Controversy^ or of my Address to liiiii, at the beginning of it ; but, meeting soon after witli The Protest' * ant Advocate^s Retrospect for October, I found them both men- tioned by his lordsliip, or by some one else, who professed to know his mind, and who was evidently imbued witii his bigot- ted notions, in the following manner. Speaking of this cluj d^cBuvre, as the Prelate or his intimate friend sarcastically calls tlie present work, he says : ' The address is made to the Bishop of St. David's in a style of peculiar acrimony and insolence^ assuredly intended to prevent that most estimable and learned Prelate from descending to notice such an arrogant writer. Then he will cry Victory, and his partizans will re-echo the exclamation, and will attribute to their arguments what is due only to their insolence.' Now, my Lord, as I know that this is not the general character of my publication, and, otherwise, as I feel that no language can be too strong in arguing with any man who himself lias the huolence to tell me that I am a traitor and an idolater, when I know and have demonstrated the contrary, I consider the passage 1 have quoted, as an apo- logy for the prelate's declining to meet me in the field of argu- ment; and such 1 believe to have been his intention, till very lately, when he ao^ain changed his mind, and put forth his THREE WORDS ON GENERAL THORNTON'S SPEECH, AND ONE WORD ON DOCTOR MIL- NER'S END OF CONTROVERSY: which work itself betrays the greatest unsteadiness and inconsistency in its au- thor. In fact, THE THREE WORDS take up nine octavo pages, and the ONE WORD fourteen ! It is true, the Prelate excuses himself for ' expanding,' as he calls it, his ONE WORD : but could he not, while the manuscript w as iu his possession, have made his title accord w ith his work ; as, in a former instance, he might have made his Table of Contents agree with the Sections of his Catechism ! But, after all, such instances of fickleness, are not calculated to raise more than a smile at any grave and venerable charac- ter, who might exhibit them; but, should such a character, with a mitre on his head, and a Catechism in his hand, begin an Episcopal lecture with the travest\ or burlesque of an im- moral sentiment, borrowed from a loose poet,^ and should we ♦ The motto of the Bishop's last theological lecture is the foUowing : ' Let him write now who never wrote before : ^ • Let those, who always wrote, now write the more.— Trot. .Inon. ^ These Unes are burlesqued from the following, which are inscribed on U.c Temp* 9S0 Postscript hear him venting, with oracular sententiousness and solemnity, a great number of whimsical falsehoods and glaring contradic- tions ; what educated man or woman could refrain from laugh- ing in his face ? Indeed who could suppose that such a per- sonage meant any thing else but to be laughed at ? Now, my Lord, has not the Public lately witnessed the verification of this supposition ? In fact, what ether lectures does this bur- lesquing Prelate, alluded to, deliver, as a system of religious instructions to the ignorant Welsh Jumpers, English Methodists, Baptists, Independents, he. but these: I bring you here, good people, a new Catechism, and Three Words and One Word more, in defence of it, which I have just composed for your com- mon use. This Catechism will not perplex you with any articles of belief, concerning God, or Christ, or Redemption, or Grace; nor will it incommode you with any ordinances of the Command- ments, the Sacraments, the love of God and man, and the like : it requires nothing of you but to adhere to your common Protest^ ancy ; which essentially consists in two points ; first, in ' the ah- juration of Popery and the exclusion of Papists from all power, ecclesiastical or civil :'* and secondly, in * holding that the wor- ship of the Church of Rome is idolatrous : for they, who do not hold this latter doctrine, are not Protestants, wjiatever they may profess to be.^f You have hitherto believed that the Catholics (as all the world calls them, but whom I call Papists) existed be- fore the Protestants, and, unfortunately, all writers of all coun- tries, ancient and modern, have combined to propagate this false opinion ; but I, the present Bishop of St. David's, assure you, upon my own authority, that ' the Catholics are not our elder hut our younger brothers :'f that ' their Religion, consisting, a^ it does, in acknowledging the Pope^s supremacy^ is a novelty oj the seventh cew^Mry.'|| Hence you clearly see that the Protestants of Venus, in certain celebmiuu gaiueua, and uic uurrowed from the PervigUiwOl Veneris, ascribed to Catullus: ' Cras amet, qui nunquam amavit: ' Quique amavit, cras amet.' See the translation of this distich in Parnel's Poems. ♦ Prot. Catech. p. 12. t Ibid. p. 46. t THREE WORDS, p. 17. \ Catech. p. 11. U Ibid. p. 14. — N. B. This learned Prelate, contradicting himself, says in another page of his Catechism, p. 22, that ' the Papal domination did not exist before the time of Hildebrand, whom he calls Clement VII. in the eleventh century.' Now, •we have hitherto been taught that Clement VII. was not chosen Pope till the {rear 1523, and that he was the Pope who refused to divorce Henry VIII. from his awful wif«», and thus gave occasion to the English schism ! What a system of new lightjj is this ProtestanVt Catechism t iwt Postscript. abjured Popery and excluded the Papists from all power, s^ hundred years before Popery was invented : you see, moreover, that all their Popes, to the number of sixty-sijc, who lived during those ages, and, among the rest, Gregory the Great, ' the most learned and virtuous of the Roman Popes,'* whose missionariet converted our ancestors from Paganism, were all Protestants. Bui, though Gregory himself was a Protestant, and ' reprobated the si!premacy,'-f yet, his missionary, Avgustin, and his other Pupal envoys, laboured to bring over our^British and Irish Bi- shops to submit to his supremacy, that is, to embrace Popery /J You arc further to learn that, although Popery is essentially Idolatry, it did not become a schism till the sixteenth century ! * Happy would it be if their (the Catholics) eyes could be opew ed to the false foundations of a foreign jurisdiction, which led to that most unnational schism of the sixteenth century, aiid could be induced to repair the evils of their past defection, by return- ing to the bosom of their Mother Church in England and Ire- land /'§ But, alas ! these ' Catholics separated from their Mother Church, and this separation was THE GRAJVD SCHISM of the sixteenth century. '|| Such, my Lord, are the humorous self-confuting lectures which this good-natured Bishop puts on his Mitre to deliver to us in his Protestant's Catechism; and which, besides the amusement they a/lbrd us, inform us of what I so much wanted to learn, namely, at what period the Prelate dates the defection of Catholics from the Protestant Church, and the commencement of his Grand Schism. It is probable, however, that some difficulties which he met with in bringing the reigns of Queen Mary and Oliver Cromwell in England, as well as that of Francis 1. in France, and of Philip II. in Holland, into his system, caused him to give up his promised work on the Grayid Schism, in despair. In proof, however, that his Lordship was serious when he published his Catechism, he oflers diflerent pleas in his Three fVords, and One Word. He says, in the first place : Mf I taught nothing about God, or Christ, or the commandments, in my Catechism, Dr. M. may see these subjects treated in some of my other works. 'IT To this I answer, very possibly tlu3 may be the case; still, a Bishop's Catechism, which contains not a word of Christian doctrine or practice, and which teachei * Catech. p. 16. , « ^. t Ibid. : Catech. P. 24. ^ Three Words, Advertisem. p. iv. H Ibid. p. 16. , ,,>. H Tliree Words, Adrertisem. p. 19. Postscript, nothing but Intolerance and persecution, is an unexampled phe- nomenon in Christianity. — Besides this, I may say, that I have applied at the shops of all the Bishop's publishers to pur- chase some of his best publications, and at the shop in the Strand, No. 107, barely to get a sight of them, without success. The Prelate adds, * There is, at least, one great moral and practical lesson inculcated in the Protestant's Catechism, which Dr. M. has overlooked, though taught by St. Peter him- self, namely, submission to the king's entire sovereignty.'* — And does the Right Rev. Author of the Catechism allege this, in proof of his seriousness in composing and publishing it, which, if it means any thing, evidently means that we are al- ways to submit the business of Religion to the supreme power of the state, whether Christian, Jewish, or Pagan ! In fact, did St. Peter so submit, when lie answered the MogistraieSy who had forbidden him and his fellow Apostles to preach the name of Christ : We ought to obey God rather than men, Acts V. 29. ? And if the fii'st Protestants had adopted this doctrine, may we not presume, that the Bishop of St. David's would be found, at the present day, delivering lectures of an opposite tenour to those contained in liis Protestant's Catechism ^ But the Prelate advances in his career, so far as to say* * The six and thirty pages addressed to the author of the Pro- testant's Catechism, afford no answer to that Catechism, and invalidate none of his positions.'! — Heu prisca jidcs ! Heu Can- dida Veritas ! whither are you fled, when a Christian Bishop, professing ' to follow truth, whithersoever she leads, in the ut- most sincerity and ardour of his soul, 'J with the Protestant Catechism in one hand, and the M dress to the Bishop of St. David^s in the other, can deliberately affirm, that the latter work is no answer to the former, and that it does not so much as invalidate its positions ' Is it then no answer to his loose conjectures concerning St. Paul's having visited Britain, and his still more groundless assertion of St. Paul having converted its inhabitants, to refer to the positive testimony of all the ori- ginal writers of our history, British, Saxon, Roman, and Gallic, in proof that the Britons were generally converted by Fuga- tius and Duvianus, legates of PopeEIeutherius,in the second century ? — Does it not invalidate his positions to trace a suc- cession of communications with, and of submission to, the See ofRome, on the part of the British Bishops, by their frequent- ing her synods and receiving her legates, and to demonstrate, ♦ P. 20. t P. 15. I P. 20. Postscript. 339 that even the Prelate's own predecessor in the See of St. Da- vid's, and his favourite author Ciraldus Camhreiisis, claimed before the Pope himseh*, in the twelftli century, to have Icj^^atinc jurisdiction throughout Wales, by the grant of St. C'crruauus, one of these Papal envoys ! — Are not his positions invalidated by the evidence 1 have brought from aiitlicntic documents, and acknowledged by Usher himself, that the Irish and Anglo-Saxon Christians were equally indebted, for their conversion, to the Popes ; the former to Pope Celestine, the latter to Popp Gre- gory the Great; and that they ever continued united \NiiJi the See of Rome in the belief of Purgatory, the Invocation of Saints, the sacrifice of the Mass, Transubstantiation, and the Pope's Supremacy.^ Have I not shaken his system, when 1 evinced, in particular, that every one of our Primates, from St. Augustin, in the sixth century, down to Cranmer, in tlie six- teenth, received his confirmation or institution [from which alone he derives his Archiepiscopal jurisdiction,] by a Special grant of the Fope^ — Should the Right Rev. Prelate, after this, signify, in my hearing, that I have not sufficiently an:-;wered him, he will not find me backward in so doing. But, it seems, the work itself was, in the opinion of the Pre- late to whom the Address is made, answered a century before it was written. In fact, he says : ' In this elaborate correspond- ence, though not without its interest of learning ?nd research, there is nothing material advanced in defence of Popery, to which the reader will not find an answer in Bishop BulFs Let- ters to Bossuet, and S/^ith's Errors of the Church ff Home de- tected.^^ Bull, who was Bishop of St. David's at the beginning of the last century, was certainly an able and learned divine, and drove his Arian adversaries before him ; but, after this, levelling his horns at the rock of St. Peter, they were broken short by a Catholic Divine of equal talents and superior learn- ing. Dr. Edward Hawarden, S. T. P.f Smith, of Dover, was one of those wretched Priests, who, wanting the grace necessary for living up to the strictness of their obligations, have attempt- ed to excuse their breach of them, by abusing the Church' which imposes them upon them. His puny embryo was stifled in the birth, and he himself, soon after his fall, met witii that awful end, which has been the general fate, within our own me- mory, of this class oUonvcrts.X as the Prelate calls them. J But, ♦ p. 14^ t See Preface to his True Church of Christ, vol. ii. "• t Dean Swift used to say of such ' converts from Popery ;' / wish, ichai the Pcft needs his garden, he would not thraic his nettles over our uall § Smith dropped down dead in Canterbury Cathedral, about the year 17W. 3S4 Postscript. my Lord, as that auamantine chain of demonstration, which encircles the three parts of the work in question, was not bro- ken before it was knit together, so it never will be broken, till the Gates of Hell prevail against the Church of Christ. The Right Rev. Author evidently flatters himself that, at all events, he has solved three of the enigmas, or paradoxes, which I had pointed out in his Catechism : nevertheless, they still are as fast closed as ever. For is it not evident, that Religion^ of no description whatever, excludes any man from Parlia- ment, except the Catholic ? Did not Lord George Gordon, a M. P. profess himself a Jew, wear a beard about a foot long, and die in the embraces of a Jewish harlot ? Did not Edward Wortley Montague, another M. P. believing himself to be the son of the Great Turk, declare himself a Mahometan? And those our civil and military officers, who, in the island of Cey- lon, a few years ago, joined in the public worship of Budho, the brother idol of the blood-stained Jaggernaut, are they ex- cluded from Parliament on this account ^ — As to ' the inviola- ble covenants of the two unions,' which the Prelate maintains, must ever exclude Catholics from all power : it is still matter of demonstration that one of them, which, according to him, has been violated more than once, does not so much as allude to them ; and that the other alludes to them for the express purpose of acknowledging, that they may be admitted into Parliament ! — As to his third parodox, it suffices to say, that its Right Rev. Author still maintains that his Majesty cannot lawfully accept of The Veto, and yet that we violate our alle- About the same time an unprincipled priest of Staffordshire, of the name of Tay- ler, met with the same awful fate in stepping into a stage coach. Another still more unprincipled priest, who chose to incur excommunication, and who even denied the inspiration of Scripture, Dr. Geddes, used to send for the helps of the Church when he was sick, and to laugh at them when he recovered. At last a priest actually coming to reconcile him to God and the Church, found that he had unexpectedly expired. Lewis of Leominster, having sent his concubine to bring up his breakfast to his bed, was found a corpse by her. Holmes of Essex, and Kogers, alias Rozier, of Birmingham, who the evening before ailed notliing, were found in the morning breathless, James Quesnel and James Nolan, having both been warned by their friends, to my certain knowledge, of the fate they might ex« pect, but continuing to waver about returning to their duty, dropped down dea(J in the streets, the former at Worcester, the latter in London. My townsman, Bil- Unge, finding himself summoned away, sunk into despair, starting continually, and exclaiming: ' I am a lost man! I am a lost mayi ! I dream of notliing but of hell- fire!' How unlike the end of his confrere, Austin Jennison, who having been •truck dumb by his conscience, in the pulpit, which so ill became him, hurried th« same day from his living, near Edinburgh, his pretended wife and property, first t» London and thence into France, about the year 1788, where he died hi penanci and peace. Doran blew out his brains, near Newbury. A detailed history of the converts to, and apostates from, the Catholic Churcli, in this kingdom, since tho defectioaof Henry VIIL would form a most interesting and usefiU work. Postscript, 331 glance, by not conferring it upon him ! Thus, according to the Prelate, we are traitors for not committing an unlawful act ! Thus much I have said, in answer to the Prelate's ONE WORD to me, which word, however, is seen to embrace so greai a variety of subjects! With respect to his Lordship'f THREE WORDS to General Thornton, they are confined to The Declaration, by which every Member of Parliament is re- quired to swear — not his belief in the Articles of the Church of England ; — nor in the truth of Christianity ; — nor in the ex- istence of God — but that ' the invocation of any Saint, and the Sacrament, (as it is ignorantly termed of the Mass) as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous.' Thus we see that a M. P. may invoke the Devil to take away his own soul or that of his neighbour, and may proclaim that the Mass, as used by the RussianSy Greeks, and many other sects, believing in Transubstantia- tion, is holy and salutary, and still kt-ep his seat ; provided he swear that these self-same things, as used by Catholics, are idolatrous ! Gracious heaven ! was ever such a quahfication for legislating devised or thought of by any human beings, ex- cept by the last Parliament of Charles 11. ! If history had been quite silent on the subject, would not the Act itself prove that the Parliament and tlie nation were in a crisis of frenzy when it was passed ? In fact, history does inform us, that they both were then worked up, by an unprincipled hypocrite, who was brought up a rebel and died a regicide assassin,* [as- sisted by the perjury of an unnatural monster, ]f to believe that the Catholics, who had saved the King's life in their Priests' hiding-holes, when he was a Protestant, at the ri>k of their own lives, and when they might have gained £100,000 by betraying him, liad plotted, now that he was a Calliolic, to murder him, by stabbing him, by poisoning him, and by shoot- ing him with silver bullets, and afterwards to bring over .30,000 pilgrims, armed with black bill-hooks, from St. Jauo in Spain, to overturn the government ! History tells us, moreover, that, on the credit of this plot, near 20 Catholics were actually hanged and quartered, and all their nobility confined in prison! 1 have spoken of our ancestors, 1 now speak of our pos- terity, concerning whom I will confidently affirm, that if any thing will equal their astonishment, that so unjust, false, mah- cious, and absurd an Act, as that containing the Drrlaratioiiy should have passed through the Houses in the ITth century, * Lord Shaflsbury t Dr. Tims Oatet ^36 Postscript, and this under the hypocritical pretext of * An Act for the bet- ter preservation of his Majesty's person and Government,' •• will be that the same Act, and under the same hypocritica* title, should have remained unrepealed till the present period in the nineteenth century. And yet it does stand unrepealed at the present hour, — a signal monument of the religious and moral integrity of the Catholics, in still refusing to purchase honours and emoluments at the expense of a false oath, [which persons of other religions have taken, with the consciousness either of swearing a falsehood, or of swearing what they do not under- stand, when they swear that the Catholic worship is idola- trous^ as likewise in their bearing the infamy or perjury rather than the guilt of it. In fact, the wfiole iatter part of the De- claration is swelled out with implied charges against Ca- tholics, of evading the obligation of oaths by ' equivocations, mental reservations, and Papal dispensations,' which vile ex- pedients, if they actually possessed them, it is self-evident, would render the whole Declaration nugatory. General Thornton, in his late Parliamentary Speech, against the Declaration^ which pronounces the Catholics guilty of Idolatry, takes up the subject on the grounds just stated, that is to say, upon Protestant grounds. Accordingly, he feelingly appeals to the Members of Parliament themselves, whether it be not ' abhorrent from their religious and moral feelings,' to charge their fellow Christians upon oath, with the guilt of idolatr}', while they not only clear themselves of that crime, but also were acquitted of it by the most learned Protestant Bishops and Divines this country could boast of, when the Declaration was devised.* The general then argues as follows : ' How is it to be accounted for, on any just principle, that those, who, preparatory to their going into holy orders, are called upon to subscribe to the 3 9 Articles of Religion, after it has been their duty to make this subject their particular study, should only be required to consider the practice as having given occasion to many superstitions, when the Members of both Houses of Par- liament, on taking their seats, are obliged to declare, that they solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, do believe the practice not only to be superstitious, but likewise idolatrous 9 —Let me beseech the House to consider well the consequences ♦ Such as the. Bishops Jeremy Taylor, Blandford, Monta2:ue, Forbes, Gunning, iirchbishop Sheldon, Prebendary Thorndikc, Chillintrwortli, kc. When the De- claration was under consideration in the House of Peers, Bishop (Junnin,^, of Ely, protested that he could not in conscience swear it. Burnetts Hist, of his own Timg, Postscript, 337 of it.' Here the Rt. Rev. Prelate chooses to make a vigor- ous assault upon the General, by way of proving that the law requires no stronger declarations against the Catholics, from Members of Parliament, than it does from the Clergy of the Establishment ; and that the latter, in subscribing the 39 Arti- cles, do, in fact, charge the Catholics with idolatry. Let us now attend to his proofs. He says : ' The Articles, be- sides saying that the doctrine of Transubstantiation hiis given occasion to many superstitions, say moreover, that it is repug- nant to the plain sense of scripture, arid overthrowcth the nature of a Sacrament : and that the Sacrament was not, by ChrL ^'5 ordinance, reserved, carried about, lifted up, and worshipped.^ Atqui: — Ergo. Now, my Lord, I appeal to your Lord- ship's theological learning, first, whether a thousand tenets and practices may not be repugnant to scripture, and may not over- throw the nature of a Sacrament, without constituting idolatry^ Secondly, whether a Member of Parliament, for example, or his worship the Mayor, or a worshipful Alderman, or any man's own wife, whom he has married according to the form in The Common Prayer Book, may not be reserved, and carried about, and lifted up, and worshipped, without inuking such a person an object of idolatry ? In case your Lordship answers these two questions, as every other man of sense will do, it is evident at once, that the Act of 30 Car. IL by the Declaration in question, does impose an infinitely heavier burden on the con- sciences of Parliament-men, than the 39 Articles do on those of Churchmen. Thus it is demonstrated, that the Riglit Rev. Bishop has made a false attack on the gallant General ; and that he has been completely beaten on his own ground. As to the Prelate's disingenuous statements of the arguments in my foregoing Letters on the Real Presence and Transubstan- ^iation, and his feeble nibbling at them, in his Appendix, I sliall leave them to make whatever eflect they are capal)le of making on the minds of intelligent readers, satisfving myself with bare- ly requesting them, after they have perused the Prelate's state- ments and objections, to look back again upon the arguments themselves. In conclusion, my Lord, I am so little apprehensive that the Catechism and the defence of it, put together, will iufhice a single member of the Great Universal Church to (juit wliai the Prelate, whimsically and by Antonomasia, calls The (irand Schism of the sixteenth century, that I migiit safely promise, without danger of being called u\)ou to make n^.y promise good, that, upon satisfactory proof oC this having happened in one 2 U 333 Postscript, instance, I would furnish a second instance in myself. Nor am I, in the least, fearful that a single Peer or Gentleman, who is not otherwise induced to vote in Parliament against tlie Ca- tholic Claims, Nvill be iiillucnced to do so by these episcopal lectures. All 1 dread is, that, as the Catechism is now reduced in size and expense, for the evident purpose of being widely circulated among the furious jumpers of Wales, and the no less ignorant and infuriate mobility of the metropolis, who have al- ready deepjy imbibed liis Lordship's grand principle of Pro- testantism, the swearing against Popery, they may be worked up by it to equal demonstrations of zeal with those which we witnessed in the former champion of Protestantism, Lord George Gordon, and his associators. These, we remember, argued the Catholic Question against Members of the Legisla- ture with their fists and clubs, confuted the Catholics by burn- ing down their chapels and houses, and demonstrated the purity of their Religion, by demolishing the prisons and storming the Bank. I have the honour to remain, my Lord, Your Lordship's obedient Servant, J. M. D. D. Wolverhamvfon. March 7, 1819» b ^^^'m^^:^. m