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To tb.ee . Go d my Go d I ■will gi\^e praise \jpon the Harp 
 
 ?SM,M.\i,Ji V-r.5. 
 
 Pixh;is:H'Mh 
 
THE END 
 
 OF 
 
 RELIGIOUS CON^TROYERSY, 
 
 m A 
 FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 A RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF PROTESTANTS 
 
 AND 
 
 A ROMAN CATHOLIC DIVINE. 
 Mn i\)xcz JJarts: 
 
 Part I. — On the Rule of Faith ; or, the Method of finding oxjt 
 
 THE True Religion. 
 
 Part II. — On the Characteristics op the True Church. 
 
 Part III.— On rectifying Mistakes concerning the Cathomo 
 Church. 
 
 BY THE RT. HEV. JOHN MMER, D.D., 
 
 V. A., F. 8. A. LONDON, AND THE CATHOLIC ACADEMY, BOMS. 
 
 Addressed to the Bt. Rev. Dr. Burgess, Lord Bishop of St, David's, mi 
 Answer to his Lordship's Protestant Catechism. 
 
 TO VHICH IS ADDED THE AUTHOR's POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 P. J. KENEDY, "X 
 
 Catholic Publishing House, ^ 
 
 5 BARCLAY STREET. >; 
 
mm 3") 
 
 T9m art rem 
 
 : and upon this rock I will build my Church, ond tba 
 of hell ■hall not prevail agaiiut it" 
 
 LOAN 3TAaC 
 
THE EDITOR TO THE READER. 
 
 lit ihis work, entitled " The End of Religious Controversy, * 
 the author and his correspondents having established the cer- 
 tainty of dinne revelation and the truth of the Christian religion, 
 he proposes the means by which, among the various discordant 
 creeds of those who profess Christianity, the true faith which 
 iesus Christ brought down from heaven, and the true church 
 which he established on earth, may be discovered. He under- 
 takes to prove that we are provided with the certain means of 
 making this discovery, and that Christ himself has left us a rule 
 of faith, adapted to the capacities of all, by which we may come 
 to the knowledge of true religion. 
 
 Before he attempts to show what this rule is, he notices cer- 
 tain methods, which have been adopted as rules of faith, and 
 proves them to be insufficient and fallacious. Private inspira- 
 tion, he maintains, cannot be a rule of faith, because private in- 
 spiration is in itself a questionahle pretension ; may be claimed 
 by one as well as by another, and all alike; and has, in fact, 
 been claimed and acted upon by different sectaries, in support 
 of different and contradictory tenets ; at the same time that it 
 has, in many instances, led the pretenders to it into the greatest 
 absurdities and most shocking impieties. Another rule of faith, 
 the rule adopted by the reformed churches in general, is the 
 scripture or the written word of God, left to the interpretation of 
 each individual: for as no supreme, unerring authority is ac- 
 knowledged by Protestants to determine the sense and meaning 
 of Scripture, or to decide and announce what articles of faith 
 are necessary for salvation, individual judgment is made the; 
 guide to individuals, the necessity of preachers is done away, 
 and the commission of Jesus Christ to his apostles, " Go, teach 
 all nations," is annulled. Where there is no obligation to h<iar 
 and obey, there can be no authority to teach and instruct. The 
 church, as an infallible teacher, is discarded, but its powers are 
 transferred to each individual person ; each person possesses 
 mfallihilUy in himself, each person is himself a church, accord 
 
ingly as he may please to form his creed ; ami every possible 
 contradictory opinion is equally defensible, as resting upon the 
 interpretation of Scripture, adopted by the person who maintains 
 it. This rule, like private inspiration, is shown to be fallacious ; 
 since, lil^e the former, it has led, as it is calculated to lead, to 
 opposite conclusions on numberless points of faith : and since there 
 is no acknowledged judge on earth to decide, it necessarily fel- 
 lows that either contradictory doctrines ^.re favored by the sacred 
 vc.bme, and revealed, as equally true, by the God from whom 
 that sacred volume came, or else that it was intended by the 
 God of peace, as an apple of discord, and meant by the God of 
 truth for the propagation o^ falsehood. But as such intentions 
 can never be imputed to the Deity, nor can it be imagined tha 
 our Redeemer established a church to succeed to the Jewish 
 dispensation, and to last till the end of the world, so vague and 
 indeterminate in its creed, so uncertain as to its form or even 
 existence, in one place professing, on the authority of God's in- 
 fallible word, articles and doctrines which, in another place, it 
 anathematizes and disclaims on the same unerring authority, — 
 the author maintains that the Scripture alone does not furnish 
 this certain and attainable rule adapted to the capacities and sit- 
 uations of mankind at large. 
 
 Still he maintains that a rule does exist, and ever has existed 
 since the time of Christ, by which the faith of his disciples is se- 
 cured from error, and his true religion, with all its doctrines and 
 articles of belief proclaimed to them with equal certainty, by 
 means of his protecting Spirit, his promised Paraclete, as if He 
 were visibly seen by them, and were heard by them speaking in 
 his own person, as when he conversed with his disciples upon 
 earth. This rule, he contends, is the word of God, written and 
 unwritten, as it is interpreted and explained by his appointed 
 oracle, HIS CHURCH, which he has authorized and commis- 
 sioned to teach all nations, while he has commanded all mankind 
 to hear his church. This rule of faith, subject to the interpreta- 
 tion of an infallible expositor, inspired by himself and guided by 
 his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, must necessarily communi- 
 cate his revelations, must infallibly teach his truth, the whole 
 truth, and the truth alone. Tiiis rule, thus unerringly explained 
 by the Light of Light, inevitably implies teachers instituted by 
 Jesus CupasT himself, and a succession of teachers kept up by 
 Him, and inspired by Him. It secures their followers from the 
 danger of error, in adopting their own conjectures, and the teach- 
 ers it preserves from the spirit of innovation and imposture, from 
 all the attempts of ambitious or interested dogmatizers. He 
 then proceeds to show, that the church dispersed throughout the 
 »»r>rld and in communion with the See of Rome (conamonly 
 
called the Catholic Church) alone adopts and follows this in- 
 fallible rule; and he produces numberless arguments to proye 
 that, whereas Christians have, in every age since that of the 
 apostles, professed their belief of One, Holy, Catholic, and Apos- 
 tohc Church, — the Church in communion with the See of Rome, 
 and presided over by the successor of St. Peter in that see, exclu- 
 sively exhibits these four essential murks of the church of Christ, 
 viz., Unity, in doctrine, liturgy, gcn^ernment, and constitution; 
 Sanctity, in doctrine, in the means of holiness, and the fruits of 
 holiness ; Catholicity, or universality, in its extent, as to time 
 and place, no less than its name, which it has borne from time 
 immemorial ; and, finally, Apostolicity, in its descerit and reg- 
 ular succession of ministers, from the time of the apostles, as 
 well as in its sacraments and sacred institutions. He then pro 
 ceeds to show, that these marks are deficient to every Christian 
 society, except that which is in communion with the See of Rome, 
 and which exclusively enjoys, as it ever has enjoyed, the dis- 
 tinctive appellation of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Here, strictly speaking, his work is at an end and controversy 
 concluded. For the infallible superintendence and inspiration 
 of Jesus Christ promised and preserved, and the marks, by which 
 his church may be distinguished from every other society oi 
 congregation, being ascertained and applied, it follows of conse- 
 quence, (without particular proof with regard to each particular 
 article,) that every doctrine of a church so guarded and protected, 
 must be the doctrine of Jesus Christ himself and the church se- 
 cure from error. However, for the sake of candid and sincere 
 inquirers, the author condescends to particular examination ; 
 brings forward the principal charges that are usually made 
 against the Roman Catholic Church, and proves them to be 
 either the involuntary errors of mistaken ignorance, or the un- 
 fair means resorted to by misrepresentation, with the view to 
 blacken and disfigure the spouse of Christ. He draws aside the 
 mask which nmlice had held up as her genuine countenance, 
 and displays her form and features in all their native beauty 
 and loveliness. For further satisfaction, he explains and justi- 
 fies those particular doctrinal points, which are excepted a^aiiist 
 by the separatists from the Church of Rome. 
 
 Such are the nature and character of the work now presented 
 lo the public ; such is the object of the pre-eminent writer, 
 which if he have attained, he has without question put an End 
 lo Religious Controversy, and fully justified tie title given to hi» 
 matchless performance. Let the reader jucge. 
 
 1* 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Letter I. — Mr. Brown's Apology to D> Milner — Account of /he Frendly 
 Society of New Cottage 11 
 
 Essay I. — On the Existence of God an^ Natural Religion, by ttie Rev. Saiii^ 
 uol Carey, LL.D 14 
 
 Essay II. — On the Truth of the Christian Religion, by Do 18 
 
 Letter II. — Dr. Milner's Conditions for entering on the Correspondence — 
 Freedom of Speech — Sincerity and Candor — A Conclusive Method.... 23 
 
 Z.ET. III. — Agreement to the Conditions on the part of the Society 25 
 
 Let. IV. — Dispositions for success in Religious Inquiries — Renunciation of 
 prejudices, passions, and vicious inclinations — Fervent prayer 25 
 
 Let. V. — 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 27 
 
 Let. VI. — First fallacious Rule ; Private inspiration — This has led number, 
 less Christians into errors, impiety, and vice, in ancient and in modern 
 times — Account of Modern fanatics. Anabaptists, Quakers, Moravians, 
 Swedenborgians, Methodists, &c 29 
 
 Let. VII. — Objections of certain Members of the Society answered 38 
 
 Let. VIII. — Second fallacious Rule ; the Scripture, according to each person's 
 particular interpretation of it — Christ did not intend that mankind, in gen- 
 eral, should learn his Religion from a book — No Legislator ever made 
 Laws without providing .fudges and Magistrates to explain and enforce 
 them — Dissensions, divisions, immorality, and infidelity, which have arisen 
 from the private interpretation of Scripture — Illusions of Protestants in this 
 matter — Their inconsistency in making Articles, Catechisms, &c. — Ac- 
 knowledgment of learned Protestants on this head 41 
 
 Let. IX. — The subject continued — Protestants have no evidence of the In- 
 spiration 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 affords no ground for Faith — Doubts in which 
 those who follow it live and also die 52 
 
 Let. X. — The True Rule, namely, the Whole Word of God, unwritten as 
 well as written, 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 disci- 
 ples and successors — Testimonies of this from the Fathers of the five first 
 centuries 61 
 
 Lst. XI. — The subject continued — Protestants forced to have recourse to the 
 CathoHc Rule, in different instances — Their vain attempts to adopt in il 
 other instances — Quibbling evasions of the Articles, Canons, Oaths, and 
 Laws Fespecting uniformity — Acknowledged necessity of deceiving the 
 people — Bishop Hoadley the patron of this hypocrisy — The Catholic Rule 
 confessed by Bishop Marsh to be the Original Rule — Proofs that it has 
 never been abrogated — Advantages of this Rule to the Church at large, 
 and to its individual members 70 
 
 Let. XII. — Objections answered — Texts of Scripture — Other objections — 
 Illusory declamation of Bishop Porteus — The advice of Tobias, when he 
 sent his son into a strange country, recommended to the Society of New 
 Cottage 84 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 liiT. ^III. — Congratulation with the Society of New Cottage on their ac- 
 knowledgment of the righ' Rule of Faith — Proof that the Catholic Church 
 alone is possessed of this R ale — Characters or Marks of the True Church 94 
 
 Let. XIV. — Unity, the First Mark of the True Church — This proved from 
 reason: from Scripture : and from the Holy Fathers 98 
 
 L'ET. XV. — Want of Unity among Protestants in general — This acknowledg 
 6(1 by their eminent writers — Striking instances of it in the Established 
 Church— Vain attempts to reconcile diversity of beUef with uniform Ar- 
 ticle3 99 
 
 Lbt. X VI.— Unity of the Catholic Church — in Doctrine : in Liturgy : in Gov- 
 ernment, and Constitution ; 106 
 
 Let. XVII. — Objections against the exclusive claims of Catholics — Extract 
 of a letter from the Rev. , Prebendary of Bishop Watson's doc- 
 trine on this head 109 
 
 Let. XVIII. — 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 Catholic Church a proof of her 
 truth 110 
 
 Let. XIX. — Second Mark of the True Church, Sanctity — Sanctity of doc 
 trine 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. Postscript. — Varia- 
 tions and impiety of the Rev. John Wesley's doctrine 115 
 
 Let. XX. — Means of Sanctity — The Seven Sacraments possessed by Catho- 
 lics — Protestants possess none of them, except Baptism — The whole Litur- 
 gy of the Established Clmrch borrowed from the Catholic Missal and Ritual 
 — Sacrifice the most acceptable worship of God — The most perfect Sacri- 
 fice oflfered in the Catholic Church — Protestants destitute of Sacrifice — 
 Other myans of Sanctity in the Catholic communion 125 
 
 I4ET. XXI. — Fruits of Sanctity — All the saints were Cathohcs — Comparison 
 of eminent Protestants with contemporary Catholics — Immorahty caused 
 by changing the ancient Religion 132 
 
 Let. XXII. — 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 common among Catholics, but despised by Protestants 135 
 
 Let. XXIII. — Divine Attestation of Sanctity in the Catholic Church — Mira- 
 cles the Criterion of Truth — Christ appeals to them, and prornises a con- 
 tinuation of them — The Holy Fathers and Church- writers attest their con- 
 tinuation, and appeal to them in proof of the True Church — Evidence of 
 the Truth of many Miracles — Irreligious skepticism of Dr. Conyers Mid- 
 dleton : this undermines the Credit of the Gospel — Continuation of Mira- 
 cles down to the present lime: living witnesses of it 138 
 
 Let. XXIV. — Objections answered — False and unauthenticated miracles no 
 disproof of true and authenticated ones — Strictness of the examination of 
 reported miracles at Rome — Not necessary to know God's design in work- 
 ing each miracle — Examination of the arguments of celebrated Protestants 
 against Catholic miracles — Objections of Gibbon and the late Bishop of 
 Salisbury, (Dr. John Douglass,) against St. Bernard's miracles, refuted— 
 St. Xavier's miracles proved from the authors quoted against them — Dr. 
 Middleton's confident assertion clearly refuted — Bishop Douglas's Concliu 
 give Evidence from Acosta, against St. Xavier's miracles, clearly refuted, 
 by the testimony of the said Acosta — Testimony of Ribadeneira concern, 
 ing St. Igna.ius's miracles, truly stated — True account of the miracle of 
 
9 CONTENTS. 
 
 Sarag06?a — Impostures at the tomb of Abbd Parib« -Refutation of the ReT 
 Peter Robert's pamphlet, concerning the miraculous cure of Winefrid 
 White 150 
 
 Let. XXV. — The True Church Catholic — Always Catholic in name, by the 
 testimony of the Fathers— Still distinguished by that name in spite of all 
 opposition 157 
 
 Let. XXVL — Qualities of Catholicity — The Church Catholic as to its mem- 
 bers : aa to its extent: as to its duration — The original Church of this 
 country 160 
 
 LsT. XXVII. — Objections of the Rev. Joshua Clark answered — Existence 
 of an invisible Church disproved — Vain attempt to trace the existence of 
 Protestantism through the discordant heresies of former ages — Vain Prog- 
 nostication of the failure of the True Church — Late attempts to under, 
 mine it 166 
 
 Let. XXVIII. — The True Church, Apostolical : so described by the ancient 
 Fathers— APOSTOLICAL TREE of the Catholic Church explained, by. 
 a brief account of the Popes and of distinguished Pastors, also of Nations 
 converted by her, and of heretics and schismatics cut off from the True 
 Church 169 
 
 Let. XXIX. — Apostolical succession of Ministry in the Catholic Church— 
 Among Protestant Societies the Church of England alone claims such suc- 
 cession — Doctrine and conduct of Luther, and of different Dissenters on 
 this point — Uncertainty of the Orders of the Established Church, from the 
 doctrine of its founders : from the history of the times : from the defective, 
 ness of the form — Apostolic Mission evidently wanting to all Protestants— 
 They cannot show an ordinary mission : they cannot work miracles to 
 prove an extraordinary one 181 
 
 Let. XXX. — Objections of the Rev. Josuah Clark answered — Apostolical 
 ministry not interrupted by the personal vices of certain Po.^es — Fable ot 
 Pope Joan refuted — Companson between the Protestant and the Catholic 
 Missions for the conversion of Infidels — Vain prediction of conversions and 
 of reformation by the Bible Societies — Increase of crimes commensurate 
 with that of the Societies. Postscript. — Recapitulation of things proved 
 m the foregoing Letters 189 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Lei, XXXI. — Introduction. — Effects produced by the foregoing Letters on 
 the minds of Mr. Brown and others of his Society — This in part counteract, 
 ed by the Bishop of London's (Dr. Porteus') Charges against the Catholic 
 Religion 199 
 
 liET. XXXII. — Observations on the charges in question — Impossibility of the 
 True Church being guilty of them — Just conditions to be required by a 
 Cathohc Divine in discussing them — Calumny and misrepresentation n<. 
 cessary weapons for the assailants of the True Church — Instances of gross 
 calumny published by eminent Protestant writers, now Hving — EtTects of 
 these calumnies — No Catholic ever shaken in his faith by them — They oc 
 casion the conversion of many Protestants — They render their authors 
 dreadfully guilty before God 200 
 
 Let. XXXIII. — Charge of Idolatry — Protestantism not originally founded on 
 .his — Invocation of the prayers of Angels and Saints grossly misrepresent, 
 ed by Protestants : truly stated from the Council of Trent and Catholic 
 Doctors — Vindication of the practice — Evasive attack of the Bishop of Dur- 
 ham : retorted upon his Lordship — The practice recommended by Luther : 
 vindicated by distinguished Protestant Bishops — Not imposed upon the 
 faithful: highly ccnsjling and beneficial 270 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 Let. XXXIV. — Religious Memorials — Doctrine and practice of Catholics, 
 most of all, misrepresented on this head — Old Protestant versions of 
 Scripture corrupted to favor such misrepresentation — Unbounded calum. 
 nies in the Homilies and other Protestant publications — True doctrine of 
 the Catholic Church defined by the Council of Trent, and taught in her 
 books of instruction — Errors of Bish jp Porteus, in fact and in reasoning- 
 Inconsistency of his own practice — No obligation on Catholics of possess- 
 ing pious images, pictures, or relics 214 
 
 Lit. XXXV. — Objecrions refuted — That the Saints cannot hear us — Extrav. 
 agant addresses to Saints — Want of candor in explaining them — These no 
 evidence of the Faith of the Chureh — Falsehoods of the Bishop of London, 
 concerning the ancient doctrine and practice 219 
 
 Let. XXXVI. — Transubstantiation — Important remark of Bishop Bossuet 
 concerning it — Catholics not worshippers of bread and wine — Acknow 
 ledgment of some eminent Protestants — Disingenuity of others, in con 
 cealing the main question, and bringing forward another of secondary im 
 portance — The Lutherans and the most respectable Prelates of the Estab- 
 lishment agree with Catholics on the main point 222 
 
 Let. XXXVII. — The Real Presence — Variations of the Established Church 
 on this point — Inconsistency of her present doctrine concerning it — Proofs 
 of the Real Presence from Christ's promise of the Sacrament ; from his in- 
 stitution of it — The same proved from the ancient Fathers — Absurd posi- 
 tion of Bishop Porteus, as to the origin of the tenet — The reality strongly 
 maintained by Luther — Acknowledged by the most learned English Bish- 
 ops and Divines — Its superior excellence and sublimity 225 
 
 Let. XXXVIII. — Objections answered — Texts of Scripture examined — Tes- 
 timony of the senses weighed — Alleged contradictions disproved 233 
 
 Let. XXXIX. — Communion under one or both kinds a matter of discipline — 
 Protestants forced to recur to Tradition and Church discipline — The blessed 
 Eucharist a Sacrifice as well as a Sacrament — As a Sacrifice, both kinds 
 necessary : as a Sacrament, whole and entire under either kind — Protest, 
 ants receive no Sacrament at all — The apostles sometimes administered 
 the communion under one kind — The text, 1 Cor. xi. 27, corrupted in the 
 English Protestant Bible — Testimonies of the Fathers for communion in 
 one kind — Occasion of the ordinances of St, Leo and Pope Gelasius— 
 Discipline of the Church at difl^erent times in this matter — Luther allowed 
 of communion in one kind ; also the French Calvinists ; also the Church 
 of England 236 
 
 Let. XL. — Excellence of Sacrifice — Appointed by God — Practised by all 
 people, except Protestants — Sacrifice of the New Law, promised of old to 
 the Christian Church — Instituted by Christ — The Holy Fathers bear testi- 
 mony to it, and performed it — St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews misinter 
 preted by the Bishops of London, Lincoln, &c. — Deception of talking of 
 the Popish Mass — Inconsistency of the Established Church in ordaining 
 Priests without having a Sacrifice — Irreligious invectives of Dr. Hey 
 against the Holy Mass, without his understanding it ! 241 
 
 Let. XLI. — Absolution from sin — Horrid misrepresenta;ion of Catholic doc- 
 trine — Real doctrine of the Church, defined by the Council of Trent — Thia 
 pure and holy — Violent distortion of Christ's words concerning the forgive, 
 ness of sins, by Bishop Porteus — Opposile doctrine of Chillingworth : and 
 of Luther and the Lutherans : and of the Established Liturgy — Inconsis. 
 tency of Bishop Porteus — Refutation of his arguments about confession : 
 aiid of his assertions concerning the ancient doctrine — Impossibility of im- 
 posing this practice on mankind if not divine — Testimony of Chillingworth 
 as to the comfort and benefit of a good confession 247 
 
 Let. XI ill. — Indulgences — False definiti:n of them by the Bishop of Lou 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 doA His further calumnies on the subject — Similar calumnies of other Ph> 
 testaiit Divines — The genuine doctrine of Catholics — No permission to 
 commit sin — No pardon of any future sin — No pardon of sm at all — No 
 exemption from contrition or doing penance — No transfer of superfluous 
 Holiness — Retortion of the charge on the Protestant tenet of imputed ^ua. 
 tice — A mere relaxation of temporal punishment — No encouragement of 
 vice ; but rather of virtue — Indulgences authorized in all Protestant Socie- 
 ties — Proofs of this in the Church of England — Among the Anabaptists— 
 Among the ancient and modern Calvinists — Scandalous Bulls, Dispensa- 
 tions, and Indulgences of Luther and his disciples 255 
 
 Lit. XLIII. — Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead — Weak objection of Dr 
 Porteus against a middle state — Scriptural arguments for it — Dr. Porteus 
 Appeal to Antiquity defeated — Testimonies of Lutherans and English Pre 
 lates in favor of Prayers for the Dead — Eminent modern Protestants, who 
 proclaim a Universal Purgatory — Consolations attending the Catholic be- 
 lief and practice 261 
 
 Let. XLIV. — Extreme Unction — Clear proof of this Sacrament from Scrip- 
 ture — Impiety and inconsistency of the Bishop in slighting this — His Ap- 
 peal to Antiquity refuted 268 
 
 Let. XLV. — Antichrist : Impious assertions of Protestants concerning him — 
 Their absurd and contradictory systems — Retortion of the charge of Apos. 
 tacy — Other charges against the Popedom refuted 270 
 
 Let. XLVI. — The Pope's Supremacy truly stated — His spiritual authority 
 proved from Scripture — Exercised and acknowledged in the primitive ages 
 — St. Gregory's contest with the Patriarch of Constantinople about the 
 title of QEcumenical — Concessions of eminent Protestants 277 
 
 Let. XLVII. — The language of the Liturgy and Reading the Scriptures — ■ 
 Language a matter of discipline — Reasons for the Latin Church retaining 
 the Latin language — Wise economy of the Church as to reading the Holy 
 Scriptures — Inconsistencies of the Bible Societies 286 
 
 Let. XLVIII. — Various misrepresentations — Canonical and Apochryphal 
 books of Scripture — Pretended invention of five new Sacraments — Inten. 
 tion of Ministers of the Sacraments — Continence of the Clergy ; recom. 
 mended by Parliament — Advantages of fasting — Deposition of Sovereigns 
 by Popes far less frequent than by Protestant Reformers — The bishop's 
 egregious falsehoods respecting the primitive Church 293 
 
 Let. XLIX. — Religious Persecution — The Catholic Church claims no right 
 to inflict sanguinary punishments, but disclaims it — The right of temporal 
 Princes and States in this matter — Meaning of Can. 3, Lateran iv. truly 
 stated — Queen Mary persecuted as a Sovereign, not as a Catholic — James 
 JI. deposed for refusing to persecute — Retortion of the charge upon Pro- 
 testants the most effectual way of silencing them upon it — Instances of 
 persecution by Protestants in every Protestant country : in 'Germany : in 
 Switzerland : at Geneva, and in France : in Holland : in Sweden : in 
 Scotland, and in England — Violence and long continuance of it here — 
 Eminent loynlty of Catholics — Two circumstances which distinguished the 
 persecution exercised by Catholics from that exercised by Protestants 298 
 
 Let. L. — Conclusion — Recapitulation of points proved in these letters — The 
 True Rule of Faith : the True Church of Christ — Falsity of the Charges 
 alleged against her — An equal moral evidence for the Catholic as for the 
 Christian Religion — The former, by the confession of its adversaries, the 
 mfer tide — No security too great where Eternity is at stake ! 313 
 
THB 
 
 END OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY 
 
 PART 
 
 *' Let those treat you harshly, who are not acquainted with the diificuhy 
 of attaining to truth and avoiding error. Let those treat you harshly, who 
 know not now hard it is to get rid of old prejudices. Let those treat yoa 
 harshly, who have not learned how very hard it is to purify the interior eye, 
 and render it capable of contern plating the sun of the soul, truth. But as to 
 U6 ; we are far from this disposition towards persons who are separated from 
 us, not by errors of their own invention, but by being entangled in those 
 of others. We are so far from this disposition, that we pray to God, thatj in 
 refuting the false opinions of those whom you follow, not from malice, but im- 
 prudence, he would bestow upon us that spirit of peace, which feels no other 
 sentiment than charity, no other interest than that of Jesus Christ, no other 
 wish but for your salvation." — St. Augusiiney Doctor of the Church, A. D. 400, 
 contra Ep. Fund. 1. c. ii 
 
 ON THE RULE OF FAITH; OR, THE METHOD OF 
 FINDING OUT THE TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 I4ETTER I. 
 
 FROM JAMES BROWN, ESQ., TO IHE REV. JOHN MILNER., D.D 
 
 F.S.A. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 New Cottage^ near Cressage, Salop, Oct. 13, 180L 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 I SHOULD need an ample apology for the liberty I am taking 
 in thus addressing you, without having the honor of your ac- 
 quaintance., and still more for the heavy task I am endeavoring 
 tc impose upon you, if I did not consider your public character, 
 as a pastor of your religion, and as a writer in defence of it, 
 and likewise your personal character for benevolence, which 
 nas been described to me by a gentleman of your corimunion, 
 Mr, J. C — ne, who is well acquainted with us both Having 
 mentioned this, I need only add, that I write to you in the name 
 of a society of serious and worthy Christians of different per- 
 suasions, to which society I myself belong, all of whom are as 
 desirous as I am, to receive satisfaction from you on certain 
 
13 LETTER I. 
 
 doub/s, which your late work in answer to Dr. Sturges has sug 
 gestod to us.* 
 
 riowever, in making this request of our society to you, it 
 seems proper, reverend sir, that I should bring you acquainted 
 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 the 
 ladies, who, living at some distance from any considerable 
 town, meet together once a week, generally at my habitation 
 of New Cottage ; not so much for our amusement and refec- 
 tion, as for the improvement of our minds, by reading the best 
 publications of the day which I can procure from my London 
 bookseller, and sometimes an original essay written by one of 
 the company. 
 
 I have signified that many of us are of different religious 
 persuasions : this will be seen more distinctly from the follow- 
 ing account of our numbers. Among these, I must mention, in 
 the first place, our learned and worthy rector, Dr. Carey. He 
 is, of course, of the Church of England ; but like most others 
 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 mysteries and a great many of its other articles, 
 which, in my younger days, were considered essential to it. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Topham are Jvlethodists of the Predestinarian ana 
 Antinomian class, while Mr. and Mrs. Askew are 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 Presbyte- 
 rian lineage, which is now almost universally gone into Socin- 
 ianism. I, for my part, glory in being a stanch member of 
 our happy establishment, which has kept the golden mean among 
 the contending sects, and which, I am fully persuaded, ap- 
 proaches nearer to the purity of the apostolic church, than any 
 other which has existed since the age of it. Mrs. Brown pro- 
 fesses an equal attachment to the church ; yet, being of an in- 
 quisitive and arden. mind, she cannot refrain 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 nowhere more active than in our seques- 
 tered valley. 
 
 With these differences among us, on the most interesting of 
 all subjects, we cannot help having frequent religious contix). 
 Yersies : but reason and charity enable us to manage these 
 
 • Letters to a Prehendaiy, in answer to Reflections on J opery by tht 
 •«T Dr. Sturges, Preben ary and Chancellor of Winchester* 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 without a ly breach, either of good manners or good will to 
 each other. Indeed, I believe that we are, one and all, pos- 
 scsssed of an unfeigned respect and cordial love for Christians 
 of every description, one only excepted. Must I name it on the 
 present occasion ? Yes, I must, in order to fulfil my commis- 
 sion in a proper manner. It is then the church that you, rev- 
 erend sir, belong to : whici, if any credit is due to the eminent 
 divines whose works we are in the habit of reading, 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 ROME, extracted 
 from Archbishop Seeker's FIVE SERMONS AGAINST 
 POPERY,* is such a mass 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 revolt 
 ing idea, in some particulars, than we did formerly. This has 
 hanpened from our having^ just read over your controversial 
 work against Dr. Sturges, called LETTERS TO A PRE- 
 BENDARY, to which our attention was directed by the notice 
 taken of it in the houses of Parliament, and particularly by the 
 very unexpected compliment paid to it by that ornament to our 
 church. Bishop Horsl'ey. 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 ne- 
 cessarily, and upon principle, 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 in- 
 teresting historical detail, that the Roman Catholics of this king- 
 dom have been conspicuous for their loyalty from the time of 
 Elizabeth down to the present time. Still, most of the absurd 
 and anti-scriptural doctrines and practices alluded to above, re- 
 lating to the worship of saints and images, to transubstantiation 
 and the half communion, to purgatory, and shutting up the 
 Bible, with others of the same nature, you have not, to my re- 
 ^llection, so much as attempted to defend. In a word, I write 
 to you, reverend 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 Popery, as untenable ; or other- 
 
 * The' Norrisian Professor of Divinity in the university of Cambridge, 
 Dr. Hey, speaking of this work, says : " The refutation of the Popish errors 
 is now reduced into a small compass by Archbishop Seeker and Bishop For 
 teus."— Lectures in Pivhity, Vol. TV. p. 71. 
 
 2 
 
14 ESSAY I. 
 
 wise, whellier you will condescend to interchange a few letters 
 with me on the subject of them, for the satisfaction of me and 
 my friends, and with the sole view of mutually discoverinsj and 
 communicating religious trut'is. 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 whole question at issue between us into such a shape 
 as shall remove the danger of irritation 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 neigh- 
 bor's sake, delay not to undertake it. The plan embraces 
 every advantage we wish for, and excludes every evil we de- 
 precate. You shall manage the discussion in your own way, 
 and we will give you as little interruption as possible. Two 
 of the essays above alhuded to, with which our worthy rector 
 lately furnished us, I will, with your permission, enclose, to 
 aonvince you that genius and sacred literature are cultivated 
 round the Wrekin, and on the banks of the Severn. 
 
 I remain, reverend sir, with great respect, 
 
 Your faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 James Brown. 
 
 ESSAY I 
 
 ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, AND OF NATURAL 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 BY THE RET. SAMUEL CAREY, LL.D 
 
 Foreseeing that my health will not permit me, for a consid- 
 erable time, to meet my respected friends at New Cottage, I 
 comply with the request, which several of them have made me, 
 in sending them in writing, my ideas on the two noblest sub- 
 jects which can occupy the mind of man : the existence of God, 
 and the truth of Christianity. In doing this, I profess not to 
 make new discoveries, but barely to s'ate certain arguments, 
 which I collected in my youth, from the learned Hugo Grotius, 
 our own judicious Clarke, and other advocates of natural and 
 revealed religion. I offer no apology for adopting the words o^ 
 Scripture, in arguing with persons who are supposed not to ad- 
 mit its authority, when these express my meaning as fully d3 
 any others can do. 
 
 The first argument for the existence of God is thus expressed 
 by the royal prophet : " Know ye that the Lord he is God : it 
 is he vhal hp.th n; ade us, and not we ourselves." Ps. c. 3. In 
 
ESSAY I. la 
 
 faet, when I ask myself that questhn, which every refleciing 
 man must sometimes ask himself: How came I into this state of 
 existence ? Who has bestowed upon me the being v^hich I enjoy * 
 I am forced to answer, It is not I that made myself; and each 
 of my forefathers, if asked the same question, must have re- 
 turned the same answer. In like manner, if I interrogate the 
 several beings with which I am surrounded ; the earth, the air, 
 the water, the stars, the moon, the sun, each of them, as an an- 
 cient father says, will answer me in its turn : It was not I that 
 made you ; 7, like you, am a creature of yesterday, as incapable 
 of giving existence to you as I am of giving it to mysef. In 
 short, however often each of us repeats the questions : How 
 came I hither? Who has made me what I am? we shall never 
 find a rational answer to them, till we come to acknowledge 
 that there is an eternal, necessary, self-existent Being, the author 
 of all contingent beings, which is no other than GOD. It is 
 this necessity of being, this self-existence, which constitutes the 
 nature of God, and from which all his other perfections flow. 
 Hence, when he deigned to reveal himself on the flaming moun- 
 tain of Horeb, to the holy legislator of his chosen people, 
 being asked by this prophet, what was his proper name ; he an- 
 swered : "I AM THAT I AM." Exod. iii. 14. This is as 
 much as to say : / alone exist of myself; all others are created 
 beings, which exist by my will. 
 
 From this attribute of self existence, all the other perfections 
 of the Deity, eternity, immensity, omnipotence, omniscience, holi^ 
 ness, justice, mercy, and bounty, each ?n an infinite degree, ne- 
 cessarily flow ; because there is nothing to limit his existence 
 and attributes, and because, whatever perfection is found in any 
 created being, must, like its existence, have been derived fi'om 
 this universal source. 
 
 This proof of the existence of God, though demonstrative 
 ind self-evident to reflecting beings, is, nevertheless, we have 
 reasen to fear, lost on a great proportion of our fellow-crea- 
 tures ; because they hardly reflect at all ; or, at least, never 
 consider Vho made them, or what they tcere made for. But that 
 otlier proof, which results from the magnificence, the beauty, 
 and the harmony of the creation, as it falls under the senses, 
 so it cannot be thought to escape the attention of the most stupid 
 or savage of rational beings. The starry heavens, the fulmi- 
 nating clouds, the boundless ocean, the variegated earth, the 
 organized human body ; all these, and many other phenomena 
 of nature, must strike the mind of the untutored savage, no 
 less than that of the studious philosopher, with a conviction 
 that there is an infinitely powerful, wise, and bountiful Being, 
 who is the author of thes j things : though, doubtless, the latter, 
 
16 S6SAY I. 
 
 m proportion as he sees more clearly and extensively than the 
 former, the properties and economy of different parts of the 
 creation, possesses a stronger physical evidence, as it is called, 
 of the existence of the Great Creator. In fact, if the pagan 
 physician, Galen,* from the imperfect knowledge whicl he 
 possessed of the structure of the human body, found himself 
 compeHod to acknowledge the existence of an infinitely wise 
 and beneficent being, to make the body such as it is ; what 
 would he not have said, had he been acquainted with the cir. 
 cuUtion of the blood, and the use and harmony of the arteries, 
 veins, and lacteals 1 If the philosophical orator, Tully, dis- 
 covered and enlarged on the same truth, from the little know- 
 ledge of astronomy which he possessed,* what strains of elo- 
 quence would he not have poured forth upon it, had he beeo 
 acquainted with the discoveries of Galileo and Newton, rela- 
 tive to the magnitude and distances of the stars, the motions of 
 the planets and the comets ? Yes, all nature proclaims that 
 there is a Being who is whe in heart and mighty in strength : — 
 who doeth great things and past finding out ; yea, wonders without 
 number : — ivho stretcheth out the north over the empty places, and 
 hangeth the earth upon nothing. — The pillars of heaven tremhle 
 and are astonished at his reproof. — Lo / these are a part of his 
 ways ; hut hoio Utile a portion is heard of him / The thunder 
 of his power who can understand ! Job, ix. — xxvi. 
 
 The proofs, however, of God's existence, which can least be 
 evaded, are those which come immediately home to a man's 
 own heart ; convincing him, with the same evidence which he 
 has of his own existence, that there is an all-seeing, infinitely 
 just, and infinitely bountiful Master above, who is witness of 
 all his actions and words, and of his very thoughts. For 
 whence arises the heartfelt pleasure which the good man feels 
 an resisting a secret temptation to sin, or in performing an act 
 of beneficence, though in the utmost secrecy ? Why does he 
 raise his countenance to heaven with devotion, and why is he 
 prepared to meet death with cheerful hope, unless it be, that 
 his conscience tells him of a munificent rewarder of virtue, the 
 spectator of what he does? And why does the most hardened 
 sinner tremble and falter in his limbs and at his heart, when he 
 commits his most secret sins of theft, vengeance, or impurity ? 
 Why, especially, does he sink into agonies of horror and do- 
 fpair at the approach of death, unless it be, that he is deeplv 
 joLvinced of tne constant presence of an all-seeing witness, 
 «nQ of an infinitely holy, powerful, and just judge, into whosA 
 \a'ids it is a terrible thing to fall! In vain does he say . Dark 
 
 • D« Usu Partium. t De Natura Deorum, 1. ii. 
 
ESi?AY I. 17 
 
 r,ess cncompasseth me and the walls cover me ; no one seeiJi : of 
 whom am I afraid ? — for his conscience lells him that, "The 
 eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, beholding round 
 about all the ways of men." Ecclus. xxiii. 26, 28. 
 
 This last argument in particular, is so obvious and convin- 
 cing, that 1 cannot bring myself to believe there ever was a 
 human being, of sound sense, who was really an atheist 
 Those persons who have tried to work themselves into a per. 
 suasion that there is no God, will generally be found, both in 
 ancient and modern times, to be of the most profligate manners; 
 who, dreading to meet him as their judge, try to persuade 
 themselves that he does not exist. This has been observed by 
 St. Augustin, who says: "No man denies the existence of 
 God, but such a one whose interest it is that there should be no 
 God." Yet even they who, in the broad daylight, and among 
 their profligate companions, pretend to disbelieve the existence 
 of a Supreme Being; in the darkness of the night, and still 
 more, under the apprehension of death, fail not to confess it, a» 
 Seneca, I think, has somewhere observed.* 
 
 " A son heareth his father, and a servant his master," says 
 the prophet Malachi. " If then I be a father, where is mine 
 honor 1 and if I be a master, where is my fear ? saith the Lord 
 of Hosts," i. 6. In a word, it is impossible to believe in the 
 existence of a Supreme Being, our Creator, our Lord, and our 
 Judge, without being conscious, at the same time, of our obli- 
 gation to worship him interiorly and exteriorly ; to fear him, 
 to love him, and to obey him. This constitutes natural religion; 
 l>y the observance of which the ancient patriarchs, together 
 with Mechisedec, Job, and, we trust, very many other virtuons 
 and religious persons of different ages and countries, have 
 been acceptable to God in this life, and have attained to ever- 
 lasting bliss in the other : still we must confess, with deep sor- 
 row, that the number of such persons has been small, compaied 
 with those of every age and nation, who, as St. Paul says : 
 " When they knew God, glorified him not as God ; neither 
 were thej' thankful, but became vain in their imaginations ; 
 and their foolish hearts were darkened : they changed the 
 truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature 
 more than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore." Rom. i, 
 21, 25. Samuel Carey, 
 
 • It is proper here to observe, that a large proportion of the boasting athe- 
 ists who signalized thernsehes by their impiety during the French Revolu. 
 tion, or a few years previous to its eruption, acknowledged when they came 
 to die, that their irreligion had been affected, and that they never doubted m 
 their hearts of the existence of God and the truths of Christianity. Among 
 these were the Marquis d'Argens, Boulanger, La Metric, Collot d'Herboia 
 Egalititf, Duke of Orleans, &c. 
 
 2* 
 
18 ESSAY n. 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 ON THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 BY THE REV SAMUEL CAREY, LL.U. 
 
 Though the light of nature is abundantly sufficient, as I trust 
 I have shown in my former essay, to prove the existence of 
 God, and the duty of worshipping and serving him, yet this was 
 not the only light that was communicated to mankind in the 
 first ages of the world, concerning these matters, since man}r 
 things relating to them were revealed by God to the patriarchs, 
 and, through them, to their contemporaries and descendants. 
 At leHgth, however, this knowledge was almost universally ob- 
 literated from the minds of men, and the light of reason itself 
 was so clouded by the boundless indulgence of their passions, 
 that they seemed, everywhere, sunk almost to a level with the 
 brute creation. Even the most polished nations, the Greeks 
 and the Romans, blushed not at unnatural lusts, and boasted of 
 the most horrid cruelties. Plutarch describes the celebrated 
 Grecian sages, Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Cebes, &c., as in- 
 dulging freely in the former ;* and every one knows that the 
 chief amusement of the Roman people, was to behold their fel- 
 low-creatures murdering one another in the amphitheatres, 
 sometimes by hundreds and thousands at a time. But the de- 
 pravity and impiety of the ancient pagans, and I may say the 
 same of those of modern times, appear chiefly in their reli- 
 gious doctrines and worship. What an absurd and disgusting 
 rabb]*3 of pretended deities, marked with every crime that dis- 
 graces the worst of mortals, lust, envy, hatred, and cruelty, did 
 not the above-named refined nations worship ; and that, in sev- 
 eral instances, by the imitation of their crimes ! Plato allows 
 of drunkenness in honor of the gods ; Aristotle admits of inde- 
 cent representations of them. How many temples were every- 
 where erected, and prostitutes consecrated to the worship of 
 Venus !f And how generally were human sacrifices offered 
 up in honor of Moloch, Saturn, Thor, Diana, Woden, and other 
 pretended gods, or rather real demons, by almost every pagan 
 nation, Greek and barbarian, and among the rest, by the an- 
 cient Britons, inhabitants of this island ! It is true, some few 
 sages of antiquity, by listening to the dictates of nature and 
 reason, saw into the absurdity of the popular religion, and dis- 
 
 » De Isid. et Osirid. Even the refined Cicero and Virgil did not blush at 
 tbese infamies. 
 
 t Strabo tells us, that there were 1,000 prostitu cb attached to the temple 
 *-<■ Venus, at Corinth. The Athenians attributed ^he pieservation of their 
 nily to tie prayers of 'ts prostitutes. 
 
ESSA7 II. 10 
 
 covered the existence and attributes of the true God ; but tnen 
 how unsteady and imperfect was their belief, even in this 
 point ! and when " they kne\\ God, tney did not glorify him as 
 God, nor give him thanks, but became vain in their thoughts.'' 
 Rom. i. 21. In short, th3y were so bewildered on the whole 
 subject of religion, that Socrates, the wisest of them all, de- 
 clared it " impossible foi men to discover this, unless the Deity 
 flimself deigned to revea. it to them."* Indeed it was an effort 
 of miercy, worthy the great and good God, to make such a rev- 
 elation of himself, and of his acceptable worship, to poor, be- 
 nighted, and degraded man. This he did, first, in favor of a 
 poor afflicted, captive tribe on the banks of the Nile, the Israel- 
 ites, whom he led from thence into the country of their ances- 
 tors, and raised up to be a powerful nation, by a series of 
 astonishing miracles ; instructing and confirming them in the 
 knowledge and worship of himself by his different prophets. 
 He afterwards did the same thing in favor of all the people of 
 the earth, and to a far greater extent, by the promised Messiah, 
 and his apostles. It is to this latter Divine legation I shall 
 here confine my arguments : though, indeed, the one confirms 
 the other ; since Christ and the apostles continually bear testi- 
 mony to the mission of Moses. 
 
 All history, then, and tradition prove, that in the reign of Ti- 
 berius, the second Roman emperor after Julius Csesar, an ex- 
 traordinary personage, Jesus Christ, appeared in Palestine, 
 teaching a new system of religion and morality, far more sub- 
 lime and perfect than any which the pagan philosophers or 
 even the Hebrew prophets had inculcated. He confirmed the 
 truths of natural religion and of the Mosaic revelation ; but 
 then he vastly extended their sphere, by the communication of 
 many heavenly mysteries, concerning the nature of the one true 
 God, his economy in redeeming man by his own vicarious 
 sufferings, the restoration and future immortality of our bodies, 
 and the final, decisive trial we are to undergo before him, our 
 destined Judge. He enforced the obligation of loving our 
 heavenly Father above all things, of praying to him continually, 
 ar.d of referring all our thoughts, words, and actions, to his di 
 vine honor. He insisted on the necessity of denying, not merely 
 one or other of our passions, as the philosophers had done, who. 
 as Tertullian says, drove out one nail with another ; but the 
 whole collection of them, disorderly and vitiated as they are, 
 since the fall of our first parents. In opposition to our innate 
 avarice, pride, and love of pleasure, he opened his mission by 
 teaching that, Blessed are the poor in spirit; Blessed art the 
 
 ♦ Plata Dialog. Alcibiad. 
 
20 ESSAl II. 
 
 meek ; Blcssid are they that mourn, ^c. Teaching, as he did, 
 with respect to our fellow-creatures, every social virtue, he sin. 
 gled out fraternal charity for his peculiar and characteristic 
 precept ; requiring that his disciples should love one another as 
 iliery love themselves, and even as he himself has loved them ; 
 he who laid down nis life for them ! and he extended the obli- 
 gation of this precept to our enemies, equally with our friends. 
 
 Nor was the morality of Jesus a mere speculative system of 
 precepts, like the systems of the philosophers: it was of a prac- 
 ileal nature, and he himself confirmed, by his example, every 
 virtue which he inculcated, and more particularly that hardest 
 of all others to re?.uce to practice, the love of our enemies. 
 Christ had gone about, as the sacred text expresses it, doing 
 good to all, Acts, x. 38, and evil to no one. He had cured the 
 sick of Judea and the neighboring countries, had given sight 
 to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and even life to the dead ; but, 
 above all things, he had enlightened the minds of his hearers 
 with the knowledge of pure and sublime trutns, capable of 
 leading them to present and future happiness : yet was he 
 everywhere calumniated and persecuted, till at length, his in- 
 veterate enemies fulfilled their malice against him, by nailing 
 him to a cross, thereon to expire, by lengthened torments. Not 
 content with this, they came before his gibbet, deriding him in 
 his agony with insulting words and gestures ! And what is the 
 return which the author of Christianity makes for such unex- 
 ampled aff*ronts and barbarity ? He excuses the perpetrators 
 of them ! He prays for them ! " Father, forgive them : for 
 they know not what they do !" Luke, xxiii. 34. No wonder 
 thisproof of supernatural charity should havestcL^jjpred the most 
 hardened infidels ; one of whom confesses that, " if Socrates 
 has died like a philosopher, Jesus alone has died like a God !"* 
 The precepts and the example of the master have not been lost 
 upon his disciples. These have ever been distinguished by 
 their practice of virtue, and particularly by their charity and 
 forgiveness of injuries. The first of them who laid down his 
 life for Christ, St. Stephen, while the Jews were stoning him to 
 death, prayed thus with his last voice : " Lord, lay not this sin 
 10 their charge !" Acts, vii. 60. 
 
 Having considered the several systems of paganism, which 
 have prevailed, and that still prevail in different parts of the 
 world, both as to belief and practice, together with the specula- 
 tions of the wisest infidel philosophers concerning them ; and 
 havr^^ conteniplated, on the other hand, the doctrine of the 
 Ne\> lestan.ent 3oth as to theory and practice; I would ask 
 
 * Rousseau, Emile. 
 
ESSAY II. 21 
 
 any candid unl^liever, ^\here he thought Jesus Christ could 
 have acquired the idea of so sublime, so pure, so efficacious a 
 religion, as Christianity is ; especially when compared with the 
 others above alluded to ? Could he have acquired it in th^ 
 workshop of a poor artisan of Nazareth, or among the fisher- 
 men of the lake of Genezareth ? Then, how could he and pAa 
 poor unlettered apostles succeed in propagating this religion, as 
 they did, throughout the world, in opposition to all the talents 
 and power of philosophers and princes, and all the passions 
 of all mankind ? No other answers can be given to these 
 questions, than that the religion itself has been divinely revealed, 
 *nd that it has been divinely assisted in its progress throughout 
 khe world. 
 
 In addition to this internal evidence of Christianity, as it is 
 called, there are external proof s which must not be passed over. 
 Christ, on various occasions, appealed to the miracles which he 
 wrought, in confirmation of his doctrine and mission ; miracles 
 public and indisputable, which, from the testimony of Pilate 
 himself, were placed on the records of the Roman empire,* ana 
 which were not denied by the most determined enemies of 
 Christianity, such as Celsus, Porphyrins, and Julian, the apos^ 
 tate. Among these miracles, there is one of so extraordinary a 
 nature, as to render it quite unnecessary to mention any others, 
 and which is therefore always appealed to by the apostles, as 
 the grand proof of the gospel they preached ; I mean the resur- 
 rection of Christ from the dead. To the fact itself must be add- 
 ed also its circumstances ; namely, that he raised himself to life 
 hy his own power, without the intervention of any living person ; and 
 tnat he did thi5 i)n conformity with his prediction, at the time which 
 he had appointed for this event to take place, and in defiance of 
 the efforts of his enemies to detain his body in the sepulchre. 
 To elude the evidence resulting from this unexampled prodigy, 
 one or other of the following assertions must be maintained ; 
 either that the disciples were deceived in believing him to be 
 risea from the dead, or that they combined to deceive the world 
 into a belief of that imposition. Now it cannot be credited 
 that they themselves were deceived in this matter, beinff many 
 in number, and having the testimony of their eyes, in seeing 
 their master repeatedly during forty days; of their ears in 
 hearing his voice ; and one, the most incredulous among thenj, 
 the testimony of his feeling, in touching his person and probing 
 his wounds. Nor can it be believed that they conspired to 
 propagate an unavailing falsehood of this nature throughout the 
 nations of the earth; namely, that a person, put to death in 
 
 t Tertul. in Apolog. 
 
22 ESSAY n. 
 
 Judea, had risen again to life : — and this too, without ary pros. 
 pect to themselves for this world, but that of persecution, tor- 
 ments, and a crue. death, which they successively endured, as 
 did their numerous disciples after them, in testimony of this 
 fact ; without any expectation for the other world, but the ven- 
 geance of the God of truth. 
 
 Next to the miracles wrought by Christ, is the fulfilment of 
 the ancient prophecies concerning him, in proof of the religion 
 which he taught. To mention a few of these : He was oom 
 just after the sceptre had departed from the tribe of Juda, Gen. 
 xlix. 10 ; at the end of seventy weeks of years from the restora- 
 tion of Jerusalem, Dan. ix. 24 ; while the second temple of Je- 
 rusalem was in being, Hagg. ii. 7. He was born in Bethle- 
 hem, Mic. V. 2 ; worked the identical miracles foretold of him, 
 Isai. XXXV. 5. He was sold by his perfidious disciple for thirty 
 pieces of silver, which were laid out in the purchase of a potter's 
 field, Zech. xi. 13. He was scourged, spit upon, Isai. 1. 6; 
 placed among malefactors, Isai. xxxiii. 12. His hands and feet 
 were transfixed with nails, Ps. xxii. 16 ; and his side loas opened 
 with a spear, Zech. xii. 10. Finally, he died, was buried with 
 honor, Isai. liii. 9 ; and rose again to life without experiencing 
 corruption, Ps. xvi. 10. The sworn enemies of Christ, the Jews, 
 were, during many hundred years before his coming, and still 
 are, in possession of the Scriptures, containing these and many 
 other predictions concerning him, which were strictly fulfilled. 
 
 The very existence, and other circumstances respecting this 
 extraordinary people, the Jews, are so many arguments in 
 proof of Christianity. They have now subsisted, as a distinct 
 people, for more than four thousand years, during which they 
 have again and again been subdued, harassed, and almost ex- 
 tirpated. Their mighty conquerors, the Philistines, the Assyr- 
 ians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Syrians, and the Ro- 
 mans, have in their turns ceased to exist, and can nowhere be 
 fDund as distinct nations ; while the Jews exist in great num- 
 oers, and are known in every part of the world. How can this 
 oe accounted for? Why has God preserved them alone, 
 nmongst tne ancient nations of the earth ? The truth is, they 
 *re still the subject of prophecy, with respect to both the Old 
 and the New Testament. They exist as monuments of God's 
 wrath against them ; as witnesses to the truth of the Scriptures 
 which condemn them ; and as the destined subjects of his final 
 mercy before the end of the world. They are to be found in 
 every quarter of the globe ; but in the condition with which 
 their great legislator Moses threatened them, if they forsook 
 the Lord ; namely, that he would remove them into all the king 
 doms of the ea\ th, Deut. xxviii. 25, that they should become an 
 
PRELIMINARIES. 23 
 
 asionishmem, and a ly-word among all nations, ibid. 37, and that 
 they should find no ease, neither should the sole of their foot have 
 rest, ibid. 63. Finally, they are everywnere seen, but carry, 
 mg, written on their foreheads, the curse which they pronounced 
 on themselves, in rejecting the Messiah ; " His blood be upon 
 us and upon our children !" Matt, xxvii. 25. Still is this ex- 
 araordinary people preserved, to be, in the end, converted, and 
 o find mercy, Rom. xi. 26, &c. 
 
 Samuel Caret 
 
 LETTER D.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c 
 PRELIMINARIES. 
 
 Winton, October, 20, 1801 
 Dear sir — 
 
 You certainly want no apology for writing to me on the sub- 
 ject of your letter. For if, as St. Peter inculcates, each 
 Christian ought to be " ready always to give an answer to every 
 man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him," 1 Pet. iii. 
 15, how inexcusable would a person of my ministry and com- 
 mission be, who am a " debtor both to the Greeks and to the 
 barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise," Rom. i. 14, were 
 I unwilling to give the utmost satisfaction, in my power, respect- 
 ing the Catholic religion, to any human being, whose inquirie.* 
 appear to proceed from a serious and candid mind, desirous of 
 discovering and embracing religious truth, such as I must be- 
 lieve yours to be ? And yet this disposition is exceedingly rare 
 among Christians. Infinitely the greater part of them, in 
 choosing a system of religion, or in adhering to one, are guided 
 by motives of interest, worldly honor, or convenience. These 
 inducements not only rouse their worst passions, but also blind 
 their judgment ; so as to create hideous phantoms to their in- 
 tellectual eyes, and to hinder them from seeing the most con- 
 spicuous objects which stand before them. To such inconsis- 
 tent Christians nothing proves so irritating as the attempt to dis- 
 abuse them of their errors, except the success of that attempt, 
 by putting it out of their power to defend them any longer. 
 These are they, aiA O ! how infinite is their number, of whom 
 Christ says, " They love darkness better than light," John, iii. 
 16 j ard who say to the prophets, " Prophesy not unto us right 
 things . speak unto us smooth things," Isai. xxx 10. Tliey 
 form to themselves a false conscience, as the Jews did when 
 they murdered their Messiah, Acts, iii. 17 ; and as he himself 
 foretold that many others would do, in murdering his disciples, 
 John, xvi. 2. And here permit me to observe, that I myself 
 have experienced something of this spirit in vny religious di*. 
 
24 LETTER n. 
 
 cussions, with persons who have been loudest in professing theii 
 candor and charity. Hence, I make no doubt, if the elucida 
 tion which you call for at my hands, for your numerous society, 
 should happen by any means to become public, that I shall 
 havp to " eat the bread of affliction, and drink the water of 
 tribulation," 1 Kings, xxii. 27, for this discharge of my dury, 
 perhaps during the remainder of my life. But, as the apoi^tle 
 writes, " None of these things move me ; neither count I my life 
 dear to me, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the minis- 
 try which I have received of the Lord Jesus." Acts, xx. 24. 
 It remains, sir, to settle the conditions of our correspondence. 
 What I propose is, that, in the first place, we should mu- 
 tually, and indeed all of us who are concerned in this friendly 
 controversy, be at perfect liberty, without offence to any one, to 
 speak of doctrines, practices, and persons, in the manner we 
 may judge the most suitable for the discovery of truth : secondly, 
 that we should be disposed, in common, as far as poor human nature 
 will permit, to investigate truth with impartiality ; to acknowledge 
 it, when discovered, with candor ; and, of course, to renounce 
 every error and unfounded prejudice that may be detected, on 
 any side, whatever may be the sacrifice or the cost. I, for my 
 part, dear sir, here solemnly promise, that I will publicly re- 
 nounce the religion of which 1 am a minister, and will induce 
 as many of my flock, as I may be able to influence, to do tlie 
 same, should it prove to be that " mass of absurdity, bigotry, 
 superstition, idolatry, and immorality," which you, sir, and 
 most Protestants conceive it to be ; nay, even if I should not 
 succeed in clearing it of these respective charges. To reli- 
 gious controversy, when originating in its proper motives, a de- 
 sire of serving God and securing our salvation, I cannot declare 
 myself an enemy, without virtually condemning the conduct 
 of Christ himself, who, on every occasion, arraigned and refuted 
 the errors of the Pharisees : but I cannot conceive any hy. 
 pocrisy so detestable as that of mounting the pulpit or employing 
 the pen on sacred subjects, to serve our temporal interests, oui 
 resentment, or our pride, under pretext of promoting or defend- 
 ing religious truth. To inquirers in the former predicament, 
 1 hold myself a debtor, as I have already said ; but the cir- 
 cumsiances must be extraordinary, to induce me to hold a com- 
 m.jnication with persons in the latter. Lastly, as you appear, 
 sir, to approve of the plan 1 spoke of in my first letter to Dr. 
 iSturges, I mean to pursue it on the present occasion. This, 
 however, will necessarily throw back the examination of your 
 charges to a considerable distance, as several other importanJ 
 inquiries must precede it. — I am, &c., 
 
 John Milnes. 
 
DISPOSITIONS. 2m 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 fROM JAMES BROWN, ESQ., TO THE REV JOHN MILNER, D.D 
 
 PRELIMINARIES. 
 
 New Cottage October 30, 180L 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 I HAVE been favored, in due course, with yours of the 20th 
 instant, which . have communicated to those persons of our so- 
 ciety whom I have had an opportunity of seeing. No circum- 
 stance could stril^e us with greater sorrow, than that you should 
 suffer any inconvenience from your edifying promptness to 
 comply with our well-meant request, and we confidently trust 
 that nothing of the kind will take place through any fault com- 
 mitted by us. We agree with you, as to the necessity of per- 
 fect freedom of speech, where the discovery of important truths 
 is the real object of inquiry. Hence, while we are at liberty 
 to censure many of your popes and other clergy, Mr. Topham 
 will not be offended with any thing that you can prove against 
 Calvin, nor will Mr. Rankin quarrel with you for exposing the 
 faults of George Fox and James Naylor, nor shall I complain 
 of you for any thing that you may make out against our ven- 
 erable Latimer or Cranmer ; I say the same of doctrines and 
 practices as of persons. If you are guilty of idolatry, or we 
 of heresy, we are respectively unfortunate, and the greatest 
 act of charity we can perform is to point out to each other the 
 danger of our respective situations to their full extent. Not to 
 renounce error and embrace truth of every kind, when we 
 clearly see it, would be folly ; and to neglect doing this, when 
 the question is concerning religious truth, would be folly am 
 wickedness combined together. Finally, we cheerfully leave 
 you to follow what course you please, and to whatever extent 
 you please, provided only that you give us such satisfaction as 
 you are capable of affording, on the subjects which I mentioned 
 in my former letter. — I am, reverend sir, &c., 
 
 James Brown. 
 
 LETTER IV.— TO JAMES BROWN. ESQ., Ac. 
 
 DISPOSITIONS FOR RELIGIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 Uear sir — 
 
 Tha dispositions which you profess, on the part of your 
 iriends as well as yourself, I own, please me, and animate mo 
 to undertake the task you impose upon me. Nevertheless, 
 
 3 
 
28 LETTER TV, 
 
 availing myself of the liberty of speech which you and youi 
 friends allow me, I am compelled to observe, that there is no- 
 thing in which men are more apt to labor under a delusion^ 
 than by imagining themselves to be free from religi^Ais preju- 
 dices, sincere in seeking after, and resolved to embrace the 
 truth of religion, in opposition to their preconceived opiniora 
 and worldly interests. How many imitate Pilate, who, when 
 he had asked our Saviour the question, What is truth ? pres- 
 ently went out of his company before he could receive an an- 
 swer to it! John, xviii. 38. How many others resemble the 
 rich young man, who, having interrogated Christ, " W hat 
 good things shall 1 do that I may have eternal life ?" when this 
 Divine Master answered him, " H thou wilt be perfect, go and 
 sell what thou hast and give to the poor ; — went away sorrow- 
 ful !" Matt. xix. 22. Finally, how many more act like cer. 
 tain 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, " My flesh is meat indeed, 
 and my blood is drink indeed;" — said, "This is a hard saying ; 
 who can hear it ? — and went back and walked no more with 
 him !" John, vi. 56. O ! if all Christians, of the different 
 sects and opinions, were but possessed of the sincerity, disin- 
 terestedness, 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 Leigb- 
 lin and Prebendary of Windsor ; and an Antony Ulric, Duke 
 of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, proved themselves to have 
 been possessed of, the first in his Search into Matters of Religion, 
 tne second in his Exomologesis, or Motives of Conversion, &c., 
 and the last in his Fifty Reasons ; how soon would all and 
 every one of our controversies cease, and all of us be united in 
 one faith, hope, and charity ! I will here transcribe, from th<? 
 preface to the Fifty Reasons, what the illustrious relative of bis 
 majesty says, concerning the dispositions with which he sei 
 about inquiring into the grounds and diflferences of the several 
 systems of Christianity, when he be began to entertain doubti 
 cx)ncerning the truth of that in which he had been educatea, 
 ramely, Lutheranism. He says — " First, I earnestly implore-j 
 t'le aid and grace of the Holy Ghost, and with all my powei 
 begged the light of true faith, from God, the Father of lights, &c 
 Secondly, I made a strong resolution, by the grace of God,toavoi.i 
 sin, well knowing that ' Wisdom will not erter into a corrupt 
 mind; ntor dwell in a body subject to sin,' Wisd. i. 4, and J 
 am convinced, and was so then, that the reason why so many 
 are ignorant of the true faith, and do not embrace it, is, be- 
 cause they are plungei In several vices, and particularly car- 
 
METHOD. 21 
 
 nal sins. Thirdly, I renounced all sorts of prejudices, what, 
 ever they were, which incline men to one religion more than 
 another, and which, unhappily, I might formerly have 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 aeliberation and this choice, 
 111 the manner I should have wished to have done it at the hour 
 01* my death, and in a full conviction that, at the day of judg. 
 ment, I must give an account to God why I followed this reli 
 gion in preference to all the rest." The princely inquirer 
 finishes this account of himself with the following awful reflec- 
 tions. " Man has but one soul, which will be eternally either 
 damned or saved. What doth it avail a man to gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul V Matt. 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 
 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- 
 
 JOHN MlLNEhf 
 
 LETTER v.— TO JAMES KROWN, 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. 
 It we get hold of a wrong clue, we shall never extricate 
 ourselves from a labyrinth. Some persons choose their reli- 
 gion 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 tneir religious system, nierely 
 because they were educated in it, and because it was that of 
 tneir parents and family ; which, if it were a reasonable mo- 
 tive for their resolution, would equally excuse Jews, Turks, and 
 Pagans, in adhering to their respective impieties, and would 
 impeach the preaching of Christ and his apostles. Others 
 glory in their religion, because it is the one established in this 
 their country, so renowned for scien rature, acd arms ; 
 
28 LETTER ▼. 
 
 not reflecting that the polished and conquering nations of an 
 tiquity, the; Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Rn. 
 mans, were left, by the inscrutable judgments of God, in dark- 
 ness and in the shadow of death, whilst a poor oppressed and 
 despised people, on the banks of the Jordan, were the only de. 
 pository of divine truth, and the sole truly enliglitened nation. 
 But, far the greater part even of Christians, of every denonni. 
 nation, make the ousiness of eternity subservient to that of 
 time, and profess the religion which suits best with their interest, 
 their reputation, and their convenience. I trust that none of 
 your respectable society fall under any of these descriptions. 
 They all have, or fancy that they have, a rational method of 
 discovering religious truth ; in other words, an adequate rule 
 of faith. Before I enter into any disquisition on this all-im- 
 portant controversy concerning the right rule of faith, on which 
 the determination of every other depends, T will lay down three 
 fundamental maxims, the truth of w/iich, I apprehend, no /a- 
 tional Christian will dispute. 
 
 First, Our Divine Master, Christ, in estahlishing a religion 
 here on ef.rth, to which all the nations of it were invited, Matt, 
 xviii. 19, left some RULE or method by which those persons who 
 sincerely seek for it, may with certainty find it. 
 
 Secon lly. This rule or method must he SECURE and never 
 failing ; so as not to be ever liable to lead a rational, sincere in- 
 quirer intt error, impiety, or immorality of any kind. 
 
 Thirdly. This rule or method must be UNIVERSAL, that is 
 to say, adapted to the abilities and circumstances of all those per- 
 sons for whom the rehgion itself is intended ; namely, tlie great 
 hulk 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, of course, have nothing else to do than to 
 make use of it, for securely, and, I trust, amicably settling all 
 our controversies. This is the short and satisfactory method 
 of composing religious differences, which I alluded to in my 
 al)ove-mentioned letter to Dr. Sturges. To discuss them all, 
 separately, is an endless task, whereas this method reduces 
 Ihem o a single question. — I am, kc, 
 
 John Milnee. 
 
FIRST FALLACIOUS RULE. 29 
 
 LETTER VI.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. 
 THE FIRST FALLACIOUS RULE OF FAITH. 
 
 Dear sir — 
 
 Among serious Christians, who profess to make the discoYi»:y 
 and practice of religion their first and earnest care, three Jif. 
 ferent methods or rules have been adopted for this purpose. 
 The first consists in a supposed private inspiration, or an im 
 mediate light and motion of God's spirit, communicated to the 
 mdivid\ial. This was the rule of faith and conduct formeily 
 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 second of these rules, 
 is the written icord of God, or THE BIBLE, according as it is 
 understood hy each particular reader or hearer of it. This is the 
 professed rule of the more regular 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 apos. 
 ties in continued succession by the Catholic Church, and as it is un- 
 derstood and explained by this church. To speak more accu- 
 rately, besides their rule of fahh, which is scripture and tradition, 
 Catholics acknowledge an unerring judge of controversy, or sure 
 guide ill all matters relating to salvation, — nainely, THE 
 CHURCH. I shall now proceed to show that the first-men- 
 tioned rule, namely, a supposed private inspiration, is totally 
 fallacious, inasmuch as it is liable to conduct, and lias conducted 
 many into acknowledged errors and impiety. 
 
 About the middle of the second age of Christianity, Monta- 
 nus, Maximilla, and Priscilla, with their followers, by adopting 
 this enthusiastical rule, rushed into the excess of folly and 
 blasphemy. They taught that the Holy Spirit, having failed to 
 save mankind, by Moses, ana afterwards by Christ, had en- 
 lightened and sanctified them to accomplish this great work. 
 The strictness of cheir precepts, and the apparent sanctity of heii 
 lives, deceived many ; till at length, the two former proved hal 
 spirit they were guided by, in hanging themselves.* Several othei 
 heretics became dupes of the same principles in the primi *ve 
 and the middle ages ; but it was reserved for the time f«f reli- 
 gious licentiousness, improperly called the Reformation, to dis- 
 play the full extent of its absurdity and impiety. In le.ss than 
 five years after Luther had sounded the trunpet of evangelical 
 'iberty, the sect of Anabaptists arose in Geriiany and the Low 
 
 • Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. v. c 15 
 3* 
 
so LETTER VI. 
 
 Countries. The/" professed to hold immediate communication 
 ^ith God, and to be commanded by him to despoil and kill all 
 -he wickeil, and to establish a kingdom of the just,* who to be- 
 some such, were all to be re-baptized. Carlostad, Luther's 
 <rst disciple of note, embraced this ultra-reformation ; but its 
 acknowledged head, during his reign, was John Bockhold, a 
 (ailor of Leyden, who proclaimed himself King of Sion, and, 
 during a certain time, was really sovereign of Munster, in 
 Lower Germany. Here he committed the greatest imaginable 
 excesses, marrying eleven wives at a time, and putting them, 
 and numberless others of his subjects to death, at the motion 
 Df 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 
 sang and danced on the scaffold, exulting in the imaginary light 
 of their spirit. J Herman, another Anabaptist, was moved by 
 his spirit to declare himself the Messiah, and thus to evangelize 
 the people, his hearers : " Kill the priests, kill all the magis- 
 trates 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 doc- 
 trine both of the Old and the New Testament was imperfect, 
 but that his own was perfect, and that he was the true Son of 
 God.'^W I do not notice these impieties and other crimes for 
 their singularity or their atrociousness, but because they were 
 committed upon the principle and under a full conviction of an 
 individual and uncontrollable inspiration, on the part of their 
 dupes and perpetrators. 
 
 Nor has our own country been more exempt from this enthu- 
 siastic principle than Germany and Holland. Nicholas, a dis- 
 ciple 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 cr worship, are 
 of no moment. IT He extended this maxim even to the funda. 
 mental precepts of morality, professing to continue in sin that 
 
 • " Cum Deo colloquium esse et mandatum habere se dicebant, ut, impiis 
 •mnibus interfectis, novum constituerent mundum, in quo pii solum et inno. 
 
 tentes viverent et rerum potirentur." Sleidan, De Stat. Rel. et Reip 
 
 Comment. 1. iii. p. 45. 
 
 t Hist, abrgd. de la Rdf'orm. par Gerard Brandt, torn. i. p. 46. Mosheim 
 Eccles. Hist, by Maclainq vol. iv. p. 452. t Brandt, p. 49, &c 
 
 ^ Idem, J . 51 iJ Mosheim, vol. i^. p. 484. IT Ibid Brandt. 
 
riKST FALLACIOUS RULE. SI 
 
 ^ra je might abound. His followers, under the nanne of the 
 Famillsts, or The Family of Love, were very nunneious at the end 
 of the sixteenth century, about which time, Hacket, a Calvinist, 
 giving way to the same spirit of delusion, became deeply per- 
 suaded that the spirit of the Messiah had descended upon hinn; 
 and having made several proselytes, he sent two of theni, 
 Arthington and Coppinger, to proclaim, through the s^.reets of 
 London, that Christ was come thither with his fan in his hai?d. 
 This spirit, mstead of being repressed, became still more un 
 governable, at the sight of the scaffold and the gibbet preparea 
 in Cheapside for his execution. Accordingly he continued, till 
 the last, exclaiming, " Jehovah, Jehovah ; don't you see the 
 heavens open and Jesus coming to deliver me ?" &;c.* Who 
 has not heard of Venner, and his Fifth Monarchy-men ? who, 
 guided 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 sheath their swords, till they had made Babylon 
 (that is, monarchy) a hissing and a curse, not only in England, 
 but also throughout foreign countries ; having an assurance 
 that 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, but Jesus, who had acted as their leader. "'f I pass over 
 the unexampled follies, and the horrors of the grand rebellion, 
 having detailed many of them elsewhere. J It is sufficient to 
 remark, that while many of these were committed from the li- 
 centiousness of private interpretation of Scripture, many others 
 originated in the enthusiastic opinion which 1 am now combat- 
 ing, that of an immediate individual inspiration, equal, if not 
 superior, to that of the Scriptures themselves. § 
 
 It was in the midst of these religious and civil commotions 
 that the most extraordinary people, of all those who have 
 adopted the fallacious rule of private inspiration, staited up at 
 the call of George Fox, a shoemaker of Leicestershire. His 
 fundamental propositions, as laid down by the most able of his 
 followers, II are: that The Scriptures are not the adequate, pri^ 
 mary rule of faith and manners, — lut a secondary rule, subordu 
 Hate to the Spirit, from which they have their excellency and 
 certainty :"ir that, "the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by 
 
 * Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 113. Stow's Anna'^, A.D. 591 
 
 t Echard's Hist, of Eng., &c. 
 
 t Letters to a Prebendary. Reign of Charles I. 
 
 § See the remarkable history of militar)' preachers at Kingston. Ibid. 
 
 ji Robert Barclay's Apology for the Quakers. 
 
 1 Propos. ILL In defending this proposition, Barclay cites some of ih» 
 
32 LETTER VI. 
 
 which (he true knowledge of God ham been, is, and can be re- 
 vealed :"* " that all true and acceptable worship of God is offered 
 in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own 
 Spirit, which is neither limited to places, times, nor persons. "•)* 
 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 hia 
 mission he was " moved to go to several courts and steeple- 
 houses (churches) at Mansfield and other places, to warn them 
 to leave off oppression and oaths, and to turn from deceit, and 
 to turn to the Lord."f On these occasions the language and 
 behavior of his spirit was very far from the meekness and re- 
 spect for constituted authorities of the Gospel Spirit, as appears 
 from different passages in his journal. § He tells us of one of 
 bis disciples, William Simpson, who was " moved of the Lord 
 to go, at several times, for three years, naked and barefoot be- 
 fore 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 all he stripped naked.'' Another Friend, one 
 Robert Huntingdon, 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 Whitehall chapel, when Cromwell was there;" 
 and of another woman, who came " into the parliament house 
 with a trencher in her hand, which she broke in pieces, saying, 
 " Thus shall he be broke in pieces.'' One of these Friends 
 came to the door of the parliament house with a drawn sword, 
 and wounded several, saying, " he mas inspired by the Holy 
 Spirit to kill every man that sat in that house. "IT But in no 
 
 Friends, who being unable to read the Scriptures, even in the vulgar Ian. 
 guage, and being pressed by their adver'jaries with passages from it, boldly 
 denied, from the manifestation of trut? in their own hearts^ that such pas. 
 gages were contained in the Scripture, p. 82. 
 
 * Propos. II. t Propos. XI. 
 
 } See the Journal of George Fox, written by himself, and published by 
 his disciple Penn, son of Admiral Pcnn, folio, p. 17. 
 
 § I sliall satisfy myself with citing part of his letter, written in 1660, to 
 Charles II. — " King Charles, thou camest not into this nation by sword, nor 
 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 fid. 
 dlers, drums, and trumpets to play at them, with such-like 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 Gomorrah, 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 not aud 
 donly prevented," &c. — G. F.'s .Tournal, p. 225. 
 
 I Journal, p. 339. IT Maciaine's note on MoBheim vol. v. p. 470 
 
FIRST FALLACIOUS RULE. '13 
 
 occurrence has George Fox and his followers been so embar- 
 rassed to save Ineir rule of faith, as they have been to reconcile 
 with it the conduct of the noted James Naylor.* When cer- 
 tain low and disorderly people, in Hampshire, disgraced their 
 society, and became obnoxious .o the laws, G. Fox disowned 
 then.jf but when a Friend, of James Naylor's chara/^+^T- and 
 serv ces,J became the laughing-stock of the nation, for ms pie. 
 sumption and blasphemy, there was no other way for the so- 
 ciety to separate his cause from their own, but by abandoning 
 their fundamental principle, which leaves every man to follow 
 the spirit within him, as he himself feels H. The fact is, James 
 Naylor, like so many other dupes of a supposed private spirit, 
 fancied himself to be the Messiah, and in this character he rode 
 into Bristol, his disciples spreading their garments before him, 
 and crying, Holy, holy, holy, Hosannah m the highest! Being 
 scourged by order of Parliament, 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 of ' ten thousand,' " &c.§ 
 
 I pass over many sects of less note, as the Muggletoni- 
 ans, the Labbadists, &c., who, by pursuing the meteor of a 
 supposed inward light, were led into the most impious and im- 
 moral practices. Allied to these are the Moravian Brethren, 
 or Hernhutters, so called from Hernhuth, in Moravia, where 
 their apostle, Count Zindendorf, made an establishment for them. 
 They are now spread over England, with ministers and bishops 
 ftppointed by others resident in Hernhuth. Their rule of faith, 
 as laid down by Zindendorf, is an imaginary inward light, 
 against which the true believer cannot sin. This they are 
 laugh", to wait for in quiet, omitting prayer, the reading of the 
 Scriptares, and other works. "^ They deny that even the moral 
 
 * See History of the Quakers, by William Sevvel, folio, p. 138. JournaJ 
 of G. Fox, p. 220. 
 
 t Journal of G. Fox, p. 320. 
 
 \ Ibid. p. 220. Sewel's Hist, of Quakers, p. 140. 
 
 § Echard's Hist. Maclaine's Mosheim. Neal's Hist, of the Puritans. In 
 closing this account of the Quakers we may remark, that there is no appear- 
 ance yet of the fulfilment of the confident prophecy with which Barcky 
 concludes his Apology : " That little spark (Quakerism) that hath appeared 
 shall grow to the consuming of whatsoever shall stand up to oppose it. The 
 mouth of the Lord hath spoken it ! Yea ; he that hath risen in a small 
 •■emnan% shall arise and go on by the same arm of power in his spiritual 
 manifestation, until he hath conquered all his enemies ; until all the king, 
 doms of the earth become the kingdom of Jesus Christ." 
 
 II Wesley, in a letter which he inscribes, *'To the Church ot God at 
 Hernhuth," says, " There are many whom your brethren have i^dvised, 
 though not in then public preaching, not to use the Ordinances — reading tiif 
 Bcriplu re, praying sommunicatin^ as tke doing of tiestj things is «u <;A:tiif 
 
34 LETTER V!. 
 
 law confRinei in the Scriptures is a rule of life for believers. 
 Having considered this system in all its bearings, we are the 
 less surprised at the disgusting obscenity, mingled with blas- 
 phemy, which is to be met with in the theological tracts of the 
 German count.* 
 
 The next system of delusion which I shall mention, as pro. 
 ceeding from the fatal principle of an interior rule of faiih^ 
 though framed in England, was also the work of a foreign no- 
 bleman, the Baron Swedenborgh. His first supposed revelation 
 was at an eating-house in London, about the year 1745. "Af- 
 ter 1 had dined," says he, " a man appeared to me sitting in 
 the corner of the room, who cried out to me with a terrible 
 voice, DoTi't eat so much. The following night the same man 
 appeared to me, shining with light, and said to me, / am the 
 lord, your Creator and Redeemer : I have chosen you to explain 
 fx) iii-'n the interior and spiritual sense of the Scriptures : I will 
 dictate to you lohat you are to write.'f His imaginary communi- 
 ccitiDns 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. 
 Suffice it to say, that his God is a mere man, his angels are 
 male a.nd female, who marry together and follow various trades 
 and professions. Finally, his Neio Jerusalem, which is to be 
 spread over the whole earth, is so little different from this sub- 
 lunary world, that the entrance to it is imperceptible. X So far 
 is true, that the New Jerusalemites are spread throughout 
 England, and have chapels in most of its principal towns. § 
 
 galvation by works. Some of our English brethren (Moravians; say : you 
 will never have faith till you leave off the church and the sacraments : as 
 many go to hell by praying as by thieving." Journal, 1740. — John Nelson 
 in his journal tell>s us, that the Moravians call their religion The Liberty of 
 the Poor Sinnership ; adding, that they " sell their prayer-books, and leave 
 off reading and praying, to follow the Lamb." 
 
 * See Maclaine's Ilist. vol. vi. p. 23, and Bishop Warburton's Doctrine of 
 Grace, quoted by him. 
 
 t Barruel's Hist, du Jacobinisme, torn. iv. p. 118. X Ibid. 
 
 § Since the above letter was written, another sect, the Joannites, or dis- 
 ciples of Joanna Southcote, have risen to notice by their number and the 
 •ingularity of their tenets. This female apostle has been led by her spirit to 
 believe herself to be the woman of Genesis, destined to crush the head of tta 
 infernal spirit, with whom she supposes herself to have had daily battle^ .o 
 the effusion of his blood. She believes herself to be, likewise, the woman 
 of the Revelations crowned with twelve stars, which are so many minislera 
 of the Established Church. In fact, one of these, a richly beneficed rector, 
 and of a noble family, acts as her sec.-etary in writing and sealing passports 
 to heaven, which she supposes herself authorized to issue, to the number oC 
 144,000, at a very moderate price. One of these passports in due form is in 
 the writer's possession. It is scaled with ihree seals. The first exhibits 
 two fctars, namely, las morning star, to represent Christ the evening star *o 
 
FIRST FALLACIOUS RVLE 35 
 
 I am sorry lobe obliged to enter upon the same list ^\ith 
 those enihusiasts, a numerous class, many oi'them very respect- 
 able, of modern religionists, called Methodists ; yet, since their 
 avowed system of faith is, that this consists in an instantaneous 
 illapse of God's Spirit into the souls of certain persons, by which 
 they are convinced of their justification and salvation, without 
 reterence to Scripture or any other proof, they cannot be placed, 
 as to their rule of faith, under any other denomination. This, 
 according to their founder's doctrine, is the only article offa'th; 
 all other articles he terms opinions, of which he says, "the 
 Methodists 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 loathes this frothy food."f Conformably 
 with this latitudinarian system, Wesley opens heaven indiscrim- 
 inately to Churchmen, Presbyterians, Independents, Quakers, 
 and even to Catholics. J Addressing the last named, he ex- 
 claims, " 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 follow, 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 acknow- 
 ledge 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- 
 England-men, assiduous and methodical in praying, reading, 
 fasting, and the like. What they practised themselves, they 
 preached to others both in England and in America ; till be- 
 coming intimate with the Moravian brethren, and particularly 
 with Peter Bohler, one of their elders, John Wesley " became 
 convinced of unbelief, namely, a want 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."** 
 
 represent herself. The second seal exhibits the lion of Juda, supposed to 
 allude to the insane prophet, Richard Brothers. The third shows the face of 
 Joanna herself. Of late her inspiration has taken a new turn : she believea 
 herself to be pregnant of the Messiah, and her followers have prepared silver 
 vessels of various sorts for his use, when he shall be born. 
 
 * Wesley's Appeal, P. iii. p. 134. t Ibid. p. 135. 
 
 t Appeal 
 
 § His life is written in French, by Pfere St. Jure, a Jesuit, and abridged 
 in English by J. Wesley. 
 
 I! 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 a-e so now." He elsewhere says, " Several of them (Papists) 
 have attained to as high a pitch of sanctity, as human nature is capable of 
 arriving at." 
 
 If Whitehead's 1.:% ^r Tohn and Charles Wesley, vol. it. p. f58. 
 
 ** J jiirnal. A. O 73:*. tLlsewhero Wealey says . ^' O what a work hM 
 
86 LETTER VI. 
 
 Soon after this persuasion, namely, on May 24, 1739, " Going 
 into a society 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 assu- 
 rance was given me that he had taken away my suis, cten mmef 
 and saved me from the law of sin and death.'^'^ 
 
 What were, now, the unavoidable consequences of a difFu- 
 •ion of this doctrine among the people at large ^ Let us hear 
 tnem 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 !f I have 
 seen them who pass for believers, follow the strain of corrupt 
 nature ; and when they should have exclaimed against Anti- 
 nomianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of 
 their wicked hearts, which, they said, still suggested that they 
 were to DO something for their salvation.'^j^ " 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 Richard Hill, Esq., who 
 persisted in it, with maintaining that, "Even adultery and mur- 
 der do not hurt the pleasant children, but rather work for their 
 good. "II " God sees no sin in believers, whatever sin they com- 
 mit. My sins might displease God ; my person is always ac 
 ceptable to him. Though I should outsin Manasses, I should 
 not be less a pleasant child, because God always views me in 
 
 God begun since Peter Bohler came to England ! such a one as shall never 
 come to an end, till heaven and earth pass away." 
 
 * Vide Whitehead, vol. ii. p. 79. In a letter to his brother Samuel, John 
 ♦Vesley says : " By a Christian I mean one who ro believes in Christ, that 
 death hath no dominion over him, and in this obvious sense of the word I 
 waa not a Christian till the 24th of M^y, last year." Ibid. 105. 
 
 t Checks to Antinom. vol. ii p. 2i t Ibid. vol. ii. p. 200. 
 
 § Ibid. p. 215. 
 
 il Fletcher's Works, vol. iii. p. 50. Agriwila, one of Luther's first disci 
 ciples, is called the founder of the Antinomians. These hold that the faiih 
 ful are bound by no law, either of God or man, and that good works o* 
 every kind aie useless to salvation ; while Amsdurf, Lut.ier'spot.companion. 
 taught that they are an impediment to salvation. Mos'ieim's EccJcs. Hist 
 by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 35, p. 328. Eaton, a puritan, in hi« Iloneycomh oj 
 Justification, sa} s : " Believers ought not to nioura f<ii sia because it v/a 
 jMwdoued befoie it was committed." 
 
FIRST FALLACIOUS RILE. 37 
 
 Christ. He ice, in the mit!st of adulteries, murders, and incests, 
 he can addrass me with, • Thou art all fair, my love, my unde- 
 *iled, there is lo spot in thee.' "* " It is a most pernicious 
 error of the sc.ioolmen to distinguish sins according to ihe J act 
 and not according to the person.'^ — " Though I blame those who 
 say. Jet us sin that grace may abound, yet adultery, incest, and 
 murder, shall upon the whole, ma.ke me holler on earth and mer- 
 rier in heaven.' '\ 
 
 These doctrines and practices, casting great disgrace on 
 Methodism, alarmed its founder. He therefore held a synod of 
 his chief preachers, under the title of ct conference, in which he 
 and they unanimously abandoned their past fundamental jmnci- 
 pies, in the following confession which they made. " Quest. 
 17. Have we not, unawares, leaned too much to Calvinism. 
 Ans. We are afraid we have. Q. 18. Have we not also 
 leaned too much to Antinomianism ? A. We are afraid we 
 have. Q. 20. What are the main pillars of it? A. 1. That 
 Christ abolished the moral law : 2. That Christians therefore 
 are not obliged to observe it : 3. That one branch of Christiap 
 liberty is liberty from observing the commandments of God,' 
 &C.J The publication of this retractation, in 1770, raised the 
 indignation of the more rigid Methodists, namely the Whitfield- 
 ites, Jumpers, &c., all of whom were under the particular pa- 
 tronajre of Lady Huntingdon : accordingly her chaplain, the 
 Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, issued a circular letter by her 
 direction, calling a general meeting of Jier connection, as it is 
 called, at Bristol, to censure this " dreadful heresy, ''' which, as 
 Shirley affirmed, injured the very fundamentals of Christianity .§ 
 
 Having exhibited this imperfect sketch of the errors, contia- 
 dictions, absurdities, impieties, and immoralities, into which 
 numberless Christians, most of them, no doubt, sincere in their 
 belief, have fallen, by pursuing phantoms of their 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, wjio may 
 si. 11 adhere to it, to re-consider the self-ev dent maxim laid 
 down in the beginning of this letter ; namely, TJmt can- 
 not he ihe rule of faith and conduct which is liaMe to lead us, and 
 has led very many ivell-meaning persons, into error and impiety ; 
 I would remind him of his frequent mistakes and illusions re- 
 specting things of a temporary nature ; then, painting to his 
 
 * Fletcher, vol. iv. p. 97. 
 
 t Quoted by Fletcher. See also Daubeny's Guide to the Church, p 82. 
 t Apud Whitehead, p. 21.3. Benson's Apology, p. 208. 
 ^ Fletcher's Works, vol. ii. p. 5. Whitehead. Nightingale's Portrailare 
 of Methodi;3in, p. -ino. 
 
88 LETTER VII. 
 
 minfl thj all -importance of ETERNITY, that is, o' happmesi 
 or misei'y inconceivable and everlasting, I would address him 
 in the words of St. Augustin, " Wl>at is it that you are trust- 
 ing to, poor, weak soul, and blinded with the mists of the flesh: 
 what is it you are trusting to ?" 
 
 John Mtlner 
 
 LETTER VII.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ.,&c. 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 Oear sir — 
 
 I HAVE just received a letter from Friend Rankin of Wenlock, 
 written much in the style of George Fox, and another from Mr. 
 Ebenezer Topham of Brosely. They both consist of objecfions 
 ;o my last letter to you, which they had perused at New Cot- 
 :age ; and the writers of them both request, that I would ad- 
 dress whatever answer I might give them, to your villa. 
 
 Friend Rankin is sententious, yet civil ; he asks, 1st, 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, Perrot, and the 
 sinful doings of many others through whom the word of life 
 was blasphemed in their day among the ungodly ?" He asks, 
 2dly, whether " numberless follies, blasphemies, and crimes 
 have not risen up in the Roman Catholic, as well as in other 
 churches ?" He asks, 3dly, whether " learned Robert Bar- 
 slay, in his glorious Apology, hath not shown forth, that The 
 testimony of the Spirit is that alone hy which the true knoioledge 
 of God hath been, is, and can he revealed and confirmed, and this 
 not only by the outward testimony of Scripture, but also by that 
 of Tertullian, 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 salva- 
 tion V "t 
 
 I will first consider the arguments of Friend Rankin, 
 grant him then, that his founder, George Fox, does biarae ;;er- 
 tain extravagancies of Naylor, Perrot, and others his followers, 
 4t the same time that he boasts of several committed by him- 
 self, by Simpson, and others.^ But how does he confute them, 
 and guard others against them ? — Why, he calls their authors 
 
 • An English Benedictine monk, author of " Santa Sophia,' which is qua 
 led at leijgtli by Barclay. t Apology, p. 351. 
 
 ) See Journal of G. Fox, passim. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 89 
 
 Rdnters, and charges them with running out!* No\^- what 
 kind of argument is this in the mouth of G. Fox against any- 
 fanatic, however furious, when ne himself has taught him, that 
 ne 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 Christ, than J. Nay lor was to believe that he him- 
 self was Christ : nor had he a firmer conviction that the Lord 
 forbade hat-worship, as it is called, out of prayer, tnan 7. Per- 
 rotf and his company had, that they were forbidden lo use it in 
 prayer.\ 2dly, with respect to the excesses and crimes com- 
 mitted by many Catholics of different ranks, as well as by other 
 men, in all ages, I answer, that these have been committed, not 
 m virtue of their rule of faith and conduct, but in direct opposi- 
 tion to it ; 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 \he\r guide. Lastly, when the doctors of the Catholic 
 Church teach us, after the inspired writers, not to extinguish, but 
 to vjalk in the Spirit of God, they tell us, at the same time, 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 pos- 
 sible for " an angel from heaven to preach another gospel than 
 what we have received," he ought to be rejected as a spirit of 
 darkness. 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 
 ministers. 
 
 I have now to notice the letter of Mr, Topham.|| Some of 
 
 * Speaking of James Naylor, he says, " I spake with him, for I saw he 
 was out and wrong — he slighted what I said, and was dark and much oiH.^^ 
 Journ. p. 220. 
 
 t Journ. p. 310. This and another Friend, J. Love, went on a mission 
 to Rome, to convert the pope to Quakerism; but his hoUness r ot understand, 
 ing English, when they addressed him with some coarse English epithets in 
 St, Peter's church, they had no bett«r success than a female Friend, Mary 
 Fiiher, had, who went into Greece to convert the great Turk. See Sewel'a 
 Hist 
 
 t " Now he (Fox) found also that the Lord forbade him to put off his hat 
 10 any men high or low ; and he required to thou 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." Sewel's Hist, p 
 18. See there a dissertation on hat.worship. 
 
 & Sleidan. 
 
 II It was origin illy intended to insert these arJ the other letters of the 
 same description \ but as this would have rendered tlic wo'-k too bulky, and, 
 
40 LKTTER VII. 
 
 ais objt:!cti(»ns have already been answered, in my remarks on 
 Mr, Rankin's letter. What I find particular in the Ibrmei, is 
 the following passage : " Is it possible to go against conviction 
 and facts ? namely, the experience that very many rerious 
 Christians feel, in this day of Gocfs power, that they are made 
 partalcers of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, and who hear him 
 saying to the melting heart, with his still, small, yet penetrating 
 and renovating voice. Thy sins are forgiven thee : Be thou 'lean: 
 Thy faith hath made thee whole/ If an exterior proo weie 
 wanting to show the certainty of this interior conviction, 1 ighl 
 refer to the conversion and holy life of those who have expe- 
 rienced it." — To this I answer, that the facts and the conviction 
 which your friend talks of, amount to nothing more than a cer- 
 tain strength of imagination and warmth of sentiment, which may 
 be natural, or may be produced by that lying spirit, whom God 
 sometimes permits to go forth, and to persuade the presumptuous 
 to their destruction. 1 Kings, xxii. 22. I presume Mr. Topham 
 will allow, that no experience which he has felt or witnessed, 
 exceeded that of Bockhold, or Ilacket, or Naylor, mentioned 
 above ; who, nevertheless, were confessedly betrayed by it into 
 the most horrible blasphemies and atrocious 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, being present 
 among oiher ministers, prophesied that the protector would re- 
 cover. Death, however, almost immediately ensuing, the Pu- 
 ritan, instead of acknowledging his error, cast the blame upon 
 Almighty God, exclaiming, " liord, thou hast deceived us; and 
 we have been deceived !"* With respect to the alleged purity 
 of Antinomian saints, I would refer to the history of the lives 
 and deaths of many of our English refjicides, and to the gross 
 immoralities of numberless justified Methodists, described by 
 Fletcher in his Checks to Antinomianism.'f 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Mtlner. 
 
 a3 loe whole of the objections may be gathered from the answers to thera 
 that intention has been abandoned. 
 
 * Se3 Birch's Life of Archbishop Tillotson, p. 17. 
 
 1 T hi3 candid and able writer says, " The Puritans and first Quakers souu 
 got over the edge of internal activity into the smooth and easy path of Lao. 
 dicean formality. Most of us, called Methodists, have alreadj followed 
 them. We fall asl»;ej, under the bewitching power; we dream strange 
 dreams; our salvation is finished ; we have got above legality; we have aU 
 tained Christian liberty; we have nothing to do; our covenant is sure.' 
 Vol. ii. p. 233. He refers to several instances of the most flagi'ious conduct 
 i>f which human nature is capable, in persons who had attained to what ihey 
 eaW^nished salvition. 
 
SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. 4< 
 
 LETTER Vm.— TO JAiMES BROWN, ESQ 
 
 SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE 
 Dear s j — 
 
 I TAKE it for granted, that my answers to Messrs. Rankio 
 •nd Topham have been communicated to you, and I hope that 
 in conjunction with my preceding letters, they have convinced 
 those gentlemen, of what you, dear sir, have ever been coq- 
 vmced of, namely, the inconsistency and fanaticism of ovei7 
 pretension on the part of individuals, at the present day, to a 
 new and particular inspiration, as a rule of faith. The ques- 
 tion which remains for our inquiry is, whether the rule or 
 method 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 
 every 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,* Catholics 
 have been stunned with the cries of jarring Protestant sects and 
 individuals, proclaiming that the Bible, the Bible alone is their 
 religion : and hence, more particularly at the present day, Bu 
 bles are distributed by hundreds of thousands, throughout the 
 empire and the four quarters of the globe, as the adeauate 
 means of uniting and reforming Christians, and of converting 
 infidels. On the other hand, we Catholics hold that tnat the 
 word of God, in general, both written and unwritten, in other 
 words, the Bible and tradition, taken together, constitute the rule 
 of faith, or method appointed by Christ for finding out the true 
 religion ; and, that, besides the rule itself, he has provided in his 
 holy church, a living, speaking judge, to watch 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 have proved that private inspiration does not constitute it : 
 and this 1 shall prove by means of the two maxims I have on 
 that occasion made use of; namely, the rule of faith appcmted 
 by Christ must be CERTAIN and UNERRING ; that is to say, 
 li must be one which is not liable to lead any rational and sincere 
 inquirer into inconsistency or error ; Secondly, this rule must be 
 UNIVERSAL ; that is to say, it must be proportioned to ihf. 
 aliUties and circumstances of the great bulk of mankind. 
 
 * Chillingworth was first a Protestant, of the establishment : he next be- 
 came a Catholic, and studied in one of our seminaries. He then returned, 
 in part, to his former creed ; and last of all he gave in to Socinianism, which 
 Bia writings greatly promoted. 
 
 4* 
 
42 LETTER VIII. 
 
 I. If Christ had intended that all mankini should learn hii 
 religion from a hook, namely, the New Teslameni, he liimself 
 would havf> written that book, and would have enjoined the ob- 
 ligation of learning to read it, as the first and fundamental prj- 
 cept of his religion ; whereas, he never wrote any tnmg at all, 
 unless perhaps the «ins of the Pharisees with his finger upon 
 the dust, John, viii. 6.* It does not even appear that he gavd 
 Iiis apostles any command to write the Gospel : though he re- 
 peatedly and emphatically commanded them to preach it, (Matt. 
 X.) and this 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 ; everywhere establishing 
 churches, and " commending their doctrine to faithful men who 
 should be fit 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 Chris- 
 lians of Palestine, f and that St. Mark composed his at the de- 
 sire of those at Rome. J St. Luke addressed his gospel to an 
 individual, Theophilus, having written it, says the holy evange- 
 list, because it seemed good to hi?n 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,§ 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 themselves, which 
 Indicates that any one of them, or all of them together, con- 
 tains an entire, detailed, and clear exposition of the whole reli- 
 gion of Jes-ds Christ. The canonical epistles in the New Tes- 
 tament show the particular occasions on which they were writ- 
 ten, and prove, as the Bishop of Lincoln observes, that " They 
 are not to be considered as regular treatises on the Christian 
 religion. "II 
 
 II. In supposing our Saviour lo have appointed his bare 
 wri ten word for the rule of our faith, without any authorized 
 jud^TG to decide on the unavoidable controversies growing out 
 
 • It is agreed upon among the learned, that the supposed letter of Christ 
 to Abgarus, king of Edessa- quoted by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 1. i. is spurious. 
 
 t Euscb. I. 3. Hist. EccL Chrysos. in Malt. Horn. 1. Iren. I. 3. c. 1 
 Hieron. de Vir. lilust. 
 
 t Euseb. 1. 2. c. 15. Hist. Eccl. Epiph. Hieron. de Vir. Illust. 
 
 i Euseb. 1. 6. Hist. Eccl. Hieron. (] Elem. of Christ. Rel. vol. i. p. 277 
 
SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. 4S 
 
 i>f it. you would suppose that he nas acted differently from what 
 common sense has dictated to all other legislators : for where 
 do we read of a legislator, who, after dictating a code of laws, 
 neglected to appoint judges and magistrates to decide on their 
 meaning, and to enforce obedience to such decisions ? You, 
 dear sir, have the means of knowing what would be the conse- 
 quence of lea /ing any act of Parliament, concerning taxes, or 
 enclosures, or any other temporal concerns, to the interpretation 
 of the individuals whom it regards. Alluding to the Protestant 
 rule, the illustrious Fenelon has said, " It is bettter to live 
 without any law, than to have laws which all men are left to 
 interpret according to their several opinions and interests."* 
 The Bishop of Londonf appears sensible of this truth, as far as 
 regards temporal affairs, where he writes, " In matters of pro- 
 perty, indeed, some decision, right or wrong, must be made ; 
 society could not subsist without it;"t just as if peace and 
 unity were less necessary in the one sheepfold of the one shep- 
 herd, 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 inter- 
 pretation, has always produced, whenever and wherever it has 
 been adopted, endless and incurable dissensions, and of course 
 errors; because truth is one, while errors are numberless. 
 The ancient fathers of the church reproached the sects of here- 
 tics and schismatics with their endless internal divisions. 
 **See," says St. Augustin, "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 
 .heir progenitor, Martin Luther, set up the tribunal of private 
 judgment on the sense of Scripture in opposition to the author- 
 ity of the church, ancient and modern, IT than his disciples, 
 proceeding on this principle, undertook to prove from plain 
 cexts of the Bible, that his own doctrine was error ecus, and 
 that the Reformation itself wanted reforming. Cailostad,** 
 
 * Life of Archbishop Fenelon, by Ramsay 
 
 t Dr. Porteus 
 
 X Brief Confut. p. 18. 
 
 § St. Aug. 
 
 II Tertul. de Prsescript. 
 
 i" This happened in June, 1520, on his doctrine being censured by the 
 popo. Till that time he had submitted to the judgment of the holy aee 
 
 ** He was Luther's first disciple of distinction, being Archdeacon of Wit. 
 temberg. He declared against Luther in 1521. 
 
44 LETTER Vm. 
 
 Zuinglius,* CEcolompadiusf, Muncer4 and a bundled more o! 
 his followers, wrote and preached against him and against each 
 other, with the utmost virulence, whilst each of them still pro- 
 fessed to ground his doctrine and conduct on the written icord 
 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 ;|| he 
 had put the BiWe into each man's hand to explain it for himself 
 tnd this his followers continued to do in open defiance of him ;ir 
 iill their mutual contradictions and discords became so numer- 
 ous and scandalous, as to overwhelm the thinking part of them 
 with grief and confusion.** 
 
 * Zuinglius began the Reformation in Switzerland some time after Luthei 
 began it in Germany, but taught such doctrine that the latter termed him a 
 pagan, and said, he despaired of his salvation. 
 
 t (Ecolompadius was a Brigittine friar of the monastery of St. Lawrence, 
 near Augsburgh; but soon quitted the cloister, married, and adopted the 
 Bf ntiments of Zuinglius respecting the real presence, in preference to those 
 c f Luther. His death was sudden, and by Luther it is asserted that he was 
 f trangled by the devil. 
 
 X Muncer was the disciple of Luther, and founder of the Anabaptists, 
 who, in quality of The Just, maintained that the property of The Wicked be- 
 longed to them, quoting the second beatitude, '* Blessed are the meek, for 
 they shall possess the land." Muncer wrote to the several princes of Ger- 
 many, requiring them to give up their possessions to him. He soon after 
 marched at the head of 40,000 of his followers to enforce this requisition. 
 
 § He said to them, " I can defend you against the pope, — but when the 
 devil shall urge against you (the authors of these changes) at your death, 
 this passage of Scripture, the7j ran and I did not send thetn, how shall you 
 withstand him? He will plunge you headlong intc hell." — Oper. tom. vii. 
 fol. 274. 
 
 II " If you continue in these measures of your common deliberations, 1 
 will recant whatever I have written or said, and leave you. Mind what I 
 Bay." Oper. tom. vii. fol. 276. edit. Wittemb. 
 
 IT See the curious challenge of Luther to Carlostad to write a book 
 against the real presence, when one wishes the other to break his neck, and 
 the latter retorts, may I see thee broken on the tvheel. — Vaiiat, b. n. n. 12. 
 
 ** Capito, minister of Strasburgh, writing to Farel, pastor of Geneva, thus 
 complains to him : " God has given me to understand the mischief we have 
 done by our precipitancy in breaking with the pope, «fec. The people eay to 
 us, I know enough of the Gospel. I can read it for myself. I have no need 
 of you," "^T^ter Epist. Calvini. — In the same tone Dudith writes tc his friend 
 Beza : " Our people are carried away with every wind of doctrine, if you 
 know what their religion is to-day, you cannot lell what it will be to-nor- 
 row. In what single point are those churches which have declared war 
 ■gainst the pope agreed amongst 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 sentiment, Calvin, writing to Melancthon, says, "It 
 is of great importance that the divisions, which subsist among us, should not 
 be known to future ages : for nothing can be more ridiculous than tljit we, 
 \*ho have broken off from the whole world, should have agreed so ill«raoji^ 
 saraeU'^ from the very beginning of the Reformation ' 
 
oECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. 45 
 
 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 huiher^s fundamental principle was that o^ im- 
 puted justice, to the exclusion of all acts of virtue and good 
 works performed by ourselves. His favorite disciple and lottle 
 companion, Amsdorf, carried this principle so far as to main- 
 tain, that good works are a Jiindrance to salvation.* In vindica- 
 tion of his fundamental tenet. Luther vaunts as follows : " This 
 article shall remain in snite 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 Tartars ; neither the pope, nor the monks 
 nor the nuns, nor the kings, nor the princes, nor all the devils 
 in hell. If ';hey attempt it, may the infernal flames be their 
 recompense. What I say here is to be taken for an inspiration 
 of the Holy Ghost. "f Notwithstanding, however, these terri- 
 ble threats and imprecations of their master, Melancthon. with 
 the rest of the Lutherans, abandoned this article, immediately 
 after his death, and went over to the opposite extreme of Semi- 
 pelagianism ; not only admitting the necessity of good works, 
 Dut also teaching that these are prior to God's grace. Still on 
 this single subject Osiander, a Lutheran, says, " there are 
 twenty several opinions all drawn fro7ii the Scripture, and held by 
 different members of the Augsburgh or Lutheran confession. "J 
 Nor has the unbounded license of explaining Scripture, each 
 one in his own way, which Protestants claim, been confined to 
 mere errors and dissensions : it has also caused mutual perse- 
 cution and bloodshed :§ it has produced tumults, rebellion s, and 
 anarchy beyond recounting. Dr. Hey asserts, that '' 'Vtie mis- 
 interpretation of Scripture brought on the miseries of the Civil 
 War ;"|| and Lord Clarendon, ll Madox,** and other writers 
 show, that there was not a crime committed by the Puritan 
 i'>3bels, in the course of it, which they did not profess to justify 
 by texts and instances drawn from the sacred volumes. Le- 
 .'and, Bergier, Barruel, Robison, and Kett, abundantly prove 
 that the poisonous plant of infidelity, which has pioduced such 
 dreadful effects of late years on the Continent, was transplanted 
 ihither from this Protestant island, and that it was produced, 
 
 * Mosheim's Hist, by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 328, ed. 1790. 
 
 t Visit. Saxon. + Archdeacon Blackburn's Confessional, p 16. 
 
 § See Letters to a Prebendary, chapter " Persecution." Numberless other 
 aroofs of Protestants persecuting, not only Catholics, but also ihoir fellow 
 Protestants to death, on account of their religious opinions, can be adduced 
 
 ii Dr. Hey's Theological Lectures, vol. i. p. 77. V Hist, of Civ. Waj 
 
 ** Exanain. o*" Neal's Hist, of Puniarw. 
 
46 LETTER VIII. 
 
 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, on this 
 important subject. " The spirit of free inquiry," says Kett, 
 quoting Robison, " was the great boast of the Protestants, and 
 their only support against the Catholics ; securing them, both 
 rr iheir civil and religious rights. It was therefore encouraged 
 b;' 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 
 '.bese confessions express, was not complete. Further reforma- 
 tion was proposed. The Scriptures, the foundation of their 
 faith, were examined by clergymen of very different capacities, 
 dispositions, and views, till, by explaining, correcting, allego- 
 rizing, and otherwise twisting the Bible, men's mind.s had hardly 
 any thing to rest on, as a doctrine of revealed relip-ion. This 
 encouraged others to go further, and to say that re\ elation was 
 a solecism, as plainly appears by the irreconcilable differences 
 among the enlightenersof the public, so 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 these 
 innovations luere the work of Protestant divines, from the causes 
 that I have mentioned. But the progress of infidelity was mucl> 
 accelerated by the establishment of a phi/anlhropine, or academy 
 of general education, in the principality of Anhalt-Dessau. 
 The professed object of this institution was, to unite the three 
 Christian communions of Germany, and to make it possible for 
 the members of them all not only to live amicably, and to wor- 
 ship God in the same church, but even to communicate toge 
 ther. This attempt gave rise to much speculation and refine- 
 ment ; and the proposal for the amendment of the formulas, 
 and the instructions from the pulpit were prosecuted with sD 
 much keenness, that the ground- work of Christianity was refi- 
 ned and refined till it vanished altogether, leaving deism, oi 
 natural, or, as it was called, philosophical relig^ion in its place. 
 The Lutherans and Calvinists, prepared by the causes before- 
 mentioned to become dupes to this masterpiece of art, were en- 
 ticod by the specious liberality of the scheme, and the particu- 
 lai attention which it promised to the morals of youth: but "nor 
 me Rojnan CathoUc could Basedow allure to his seminnry of 
 ■practical ethics."* 
 
 * Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy against all Religions, &c, Rett's 
 History, tb 5 Interpreter of Prophecy, vol. ii. p. 158. 
 
SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. 47 
 
 IV. You have seen, dear sir, to what endless eriors ani im- 
 
 fneties the principle of private interpretation of Scri-pture, no 
 ess than that of private inspiration of faith, has conducted men, 
 and of course is ever liable to conduct them. This circum- 
 stance, therefore, proves, according to the self-evident maxim 
 stated above, that it cannot be the rule which is to bring us to 
 religious truths. Nor is it to be imagined that, previously to 
 the formation of the different national churches and other reli- 
 gious associations, which took place in the several parts of Eu- 
 rope, at what is called " The Reformation," the Scriptures 
 were diligently consulted by the founders of the new sects ; or 
 that the ancient system of religion was exploded, or the new 
 systems adopted, in conformity with the apparent sense of the 
 sacred text, as Protestant controvertists would have you be- 
 lieve. No, sir, princes and statesmen nad a great deal more 
 to do with these changes than theologians : and most of the par- 
 ties concerned in them were evidently pushed on by motives 
 vi^ry different from those of religion. As to Martin Luther, he 
 testifies, and calls God to witness the truth of his testimony, 
 that it was not ivillingly, (that is, not from a previous discovery 
 of the falsehood of his religion,) but from accident, (namely, a 
 quarrel with the Dominican friars, and afterwards with the 
 pope,) that he fell into his broils about religion.* With respect 
 to the Reformation in our own country, we all know that Henry 
 VIII., who took the first step towards it, was, at the beginning 
 of his reign, so zealous against it, that he wrote a book, which 
 he dedicated to Pope Leo X., in opposition to it, and in return 
 obtained from this pontiff, for himself and successors, the title 
 of Defender of the Faith. Becoming afterwards enamored 
 of Ann Boleyn, one of the maids of honor to the queen, and 
 
 t " Casu non voluntate in has turmas incidi : Deum tester." — The Pro- 
 testant historian, Mosheim, with whom Hume agrees, admits " that several 
 of ths principal agen*^ in this revolution were actuated more by the im. 
 pulse of passion, and views of interest, than by a zeal for true religion.'* 
 Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 135. He had before acknowledged that King Guela- 
 vus introduced Lutheranism into Sweden, in opposition to the clergy and 
 bishops, "not only as agreeable to the genius and spirit of the Gospel, but 
 ilso as favorable to the temporal state and political constitution of the Swe- 
 dish dominions," pp. 79, 80. He adds, that Christiern, who introduced tbe 
 Reformation into Denmark, was animated by no other motives than those of 
 ambition and avarice, p. 82. Grotius, another Protestant, testifies tha*. it 
 was " sedition and violence which gave birth to the Reformation in his own 
 country" — Holland. Append, de Antichristo. The same was the caee in 
 France, Geneva, and Scotland. It is to be observed, that in all these couti- 
 tries, the reformers, as soon as they got the upper hand, became violent per- 
 secutors of the CathoUcs. Bergier defies Protestants to name so much as a 
 town or village in which, when they became masters of it, they tolerated a 
 iinifie Catholic. 
 
48 LETTER VIII. 
 
 the reigning pope having refused to sanction an adulterous mar. 
 riage with her, he caused a statute to be passed, abrogating the 
 pope's supremacy, and declaring himself supreme head of the 
 Church of England.^ Thus he plunged the nation into schism, 
 and opened a way for every kind of heresy and impiety. 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 
 hrst important change of our national religion , The unprinci- 
 pled Duke of Somerset, who next succeeded to supreme power 
 in the churcli and state, under the shadow of his youthful ne- 
 phew, Edward VI., pushed on the Reformation, so called, much 
 further than it had yet been carried, with a view to the gratifi- 
 cation of his own ambitious and avaricious purposes. He sup- 
 pressed the remaining colleges and hospitals, which the profli- 
 gacy of Henry had spared, converting their revenues to his own 
 use and to that of his associates. He forced Cranmer and the 
 other bishops to take out fresh commissions for governing their 
 dioceses during his nephew's, that is to say, his own good plea- 
 sure.'f He made a great number of important changes m the 
 public worship, by his own authority or that of his visiters ; J 
 and when he employed certain bishops and divines in forming 
 fresh articles and a new liturgy, he punished them with im- 
 prisonment if they were not on all points obsequious to his or- 
 ders. § He even took upon himself to alter their work, wher 
 sanctioned by Parliament, in compliment to the church's great- 
 est enemy, Calvin. || Afterwards, when Elizabeth came to the 
 
 * Archbishop Parker records, thai the bishops, assembled in synod in 
 1531, offered to sign this new title, with the following salvo : " In quantum 
 per Christi leges licet:" but that the king would admit of no such modifica. 
 tion. Antiq. Brit. p. 325. In the end, they surrendered the whole of their 
 spiritual jurisdiction to him, (all except the religious Bishop of Rochester, 
 Fisher, who was put to death for his refusal,) and were content to publish 
 Articles of Religion devised by the King's Highness. Heylin's Hist, of 
 Reform. CoUier, &c. 
 
 t " Licentiam concedimus ad nostrum beneplacilum dumtaxat duraturam." 
 Burnet Hist. Ref. P. II. B. i. N. 2. 
 
 t See the Injunctions of the Council to Preachers, published before the 
 Paihament met, concerning the mass in the Latin hnguage, prayers for the 
 dead, &c. See also the order sent to the primate against psalms, ashes, &c., 
 in Heylin, Burnet, and Collier. The boy Edward VI., just thirteen years 
 old was taught by his uncle to proclaim as follows : " We would not havo 
 our subjects so much to mistake our judgment, &c., as though we could 
 not discern what is to be done, &c. God bo praised, we know what, by his 
 word, is fit to be redressed," &e. Collier, vol. ii. p. 246. 
 
 § The Bishops Heath and Gardiner were both imprisoned for non-com. 
 pliance. 
 
 II Heylin complains bitterly of Calvin's pragmatical spirit, in quan-elling 
 with the English hturgy, and soliciting tlie protector to alter it. Preface to 
 Hist, of Reform. His letters to Somerset on the subject may be seen ii 
 Pox^s Ads and Munwn^ 
 
SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. 40 
 
 throne, a new reformation, different in its articles and liturgy 
 from that of Edward VI., was set on foot, and moulded, not ac- 
 cording to Scripture, but to her orders. She deposed all the 
 bishops except one, '■^the calamity of Ids see," as he was called;* 
 and required the new ones, whom she appointed, to renounce 
 certain exercises, which they declared to be agreeable to the 
 Word of God,-\ but which she found not to agree with her sys- 
 tem of politics. She even in full parliament threatened to de- 
 pose 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 
 northern kingdoms and states of Europe, but in consequence 
 of the politics of princes and statesmen, the avarice of the no- 
 bility and gentry, and the irreligion and licentiousness of the 
 people. I will even advance a step further, and affirm that 
 there is no appearanceof any individual Protestant, to whatever 
 sect he belongs, having formed his creed by the rule of Scrip- 
 tute alone. For do you, sir, really believe that those persons of 
 your communion, 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 dis- 
 tributing Bibles among the Indians and Africans in their differ- 
 ent countries, would procure, fiom some half dozen of the 
 most intelligent and serious of their proselytes, who have heard 
 nothing of the Christian faith by any other means than their 
 Bibles, a summary of what they respectively understand to be 
 the doctrine and the morality taught in that sacred volume. 
 What inconsistent and nonsensical symbols should we not wit- 
 ness ! The truth is, Protestants are tutored from their infancy, 
 by the help of catechisms and creeds, in the systems of their re- 
 gpective sects ; they are guided by their parents and masters, 
 and are influenced by the opinions and example of those with 
 whom they live and converse. Some particular texts of Scrip- 
 ture are strongly impressed upon their minds, and others of an 
 
 • Anthony Kitchen, so called by Godwin, de Praesul, and Camden. 
 
 t This took place with respect to what was termed prophesying, then 
 practised by many Protestants, and defended by Archbishop Grindal and tho 
 otiier bishops, as agreeable to GotVs word : nevertheless, ihe queen otiiged 
 them to suppress it. Col. Eccl. Hist. P. II. p. 554, &c. 
 
 X See her curious speech in Parliament, March 25, 1585, in Stow's An 
 nals 
 
 5 
 
50 LETTER VIII. 
 
 apparently different meaning are kept out of their ^iew, oi 
 glossed over ; and above all, it is constantly inculcates to them, 
 that their religion is built upon Scripture alone. Hence, when 
 they actually read the Scriptures, they fancy they see there, 
 what they have been otherwise taught to believe ; tlie Lutheran^ 
 for example, that Christ is really present in the sacrament; the 
 Oalvinist, that he is as far distant from it as heaven is from 
 tftarth ; the Churchman, that baptism is necessary for infants ; 
 the Baptist, that it is an impiety to confer it upon them ; 
 and so of all the other forty sects of Protestants enumerated 
 by Evana in his Sketch of the Different DeMominations 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 to be, together with the Old Testament, the 
 sole rule of religion, he would have provided means for their 
 being able to follow it ; knowing, as he certainly did, that 99 
 in every 100, or rather 999 in every 1000, 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 on his followers in general 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 mcompatible they are with 
 the rule itself, would quickly undermine the Established 
 Church, as its clergy now begin to understand ; and, if univer- 
 sally carried into effect, would, in the end, efface the whole 
 doctrine and morality of the Gospel ;* but this consequence 
 (which is inevitable) only shows more clearly the falsehood of 
 this exclusive rule. Jn fact, the most enlightened Protestants 
 find themselves here in a dilemma, and are obliged to say and 
 unsay, to the amusement of some persons, and the pity ol 
 others.^ They cannot abandon the rule of the Bible alone, as 
 
 ♦ The Protestant writers, Kett and Robison, have shown, in the pnssage 
 above quoted, that the principle of private judgment tends to undermuio 
 Christianity at large ; and Archdeacon Hook, in his late charge, shovi's by 
 an exact statement of capital convictions in different years, that the increase 
 of immorahty has kept pace with that of the Bible societies. 
 
 t One of the latest instances of the distress in question, is exhibited by 
 the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marsh. In his publication, The Inquiry^ p. 4, ho says very 
 truly, " the poor (who coneiiiute the bulk of mankind) cannot, without sit 
 
SECOND FALLACIOUS RULE. 51 
 
 explained by each one for himself, without proclaiming tbfiir 
 guilt in refusing to hear the church, and they cannot adhere to 
 it, without opening the floodgates to all the impiety and immo- 
 rality of the present 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 Scriptuie, as 
 well as in other religious controversies : in the mean time I 
 •cannot but observe, that her most able defenders are frequenily 
 obliged to abandon their own, and adopt the Catholic ruie of 
 faith. The judicious Hooker, in his defence of the Church of 
 England, writes thus : " Of this we are right sure, that nature, 
 Scripture, and experience itself, have taught the world to seek 
 for the ending of contentions by submitting to some judicial and 
 definite sentence, whereunto neither parties that contendeth, 
 may, under any pretence or color, refuse to stand. This must 
 needs be effectual and strong. As for other means, without 
 this, they seldom prevail."* Another most clear-headed writer, 
 and j'enowned defender of the establishment, whom I had the 
 happiness of being acquainted with. Dr. Balguy,-|- thus ex- 
 presses 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, determine for them, what thej 
 are to believe and what to practise. The same doctrines, uni- 
 formly taught, the same rites constantly performed, make such 
 an impression on their minds, that they hesitate as little in ad- 
 mitting the articles of their faith, as in receiving the most 
 established maxims of common life.":]: With such testimo- 
 nies before your eyes, can you, dear sir, imagine that the bulk 
 of Protestants nave formed, or were designed to form their reli- 
 gion by the standard of Scripture ? He goes on to say, speak- 
 ing of controverted points : "Would you have them (the people) 
 think for themselves ? Would you have them hear and decide 
 
 sistance, understand the Scriptures." Being congratulated on this important 
 yet unavoidable concession, by the Rev. Mr. Gandolphy, he tacks about in a 
 public letter to that gentleman, and says, that what he wrote in his Inquiry 
 concerning the necessity of a further rule than mere Scripture, only regarda 
 the estahlishment of religion, not the truth of it ; just as if that rule wer« 
 •uflicient to conduct the people to the truth of religion, while he expressly 
 lays they cannot understand it! 
 
 * Hooker's Eccles. Polity, Pref. art. 6. 
 
 T Discourses on various subjects, by T. Balguy, D.D., Archdeacon and 
 Prebendary of Winchester. Some of these discourses were preached at the 
 consecration of bishops, and published by order of the archbishop ; some in 
 charges to the clergy. The whole of them is dedicated to the king, whora 
 the writer thanks for naming him to a high dignity, (the bishopric of Giou. 
 «e«ter,) and for permitting him to decline accepting of it. 
 
 t Discairses on various subjects, by T. Balguy, D.D. p 367. 
 
52 LETTER IX. 
 
 the controversies )f the learned ? Would you have tnem entef 
 into the depths Df criticism, of logic, of scholastic divinity ? 
 Vou might as weil expect them to compute an eclipse, or decide 
 tetvveen the Cartesian and Newtonian philosophy. Nay, I will 
 go further: for I taive upon myself to say, there are more mer 
 capable, in some competent degree, of understanding Newton's 
 philosophy, tlmn of forming any judgment at all concerning the 
 abstruser questions in metaph^^sics and theology." Yet the 
 persons, of whom the doctor particularly speaks, were all fur- 
 ckned with Bibles ; and the abstruse questions, which he rcfero 
 to, are : " Whether Christ did, or did not, come down from hea- 
 ven ?" whether " be died, or did not die, for the sins of the 
 world ?" whether " he sent his Holy Spirit to assist and com- 
 fort us, or whether he did not send him ?"* The learned doctor 
 elsewhere expresses himself still more explicitly on the subject 
 of Scripture without church authority. He is combating the 
 Dissenters, but his weapons are evidently as fatal to his own 
 church as to theirs. " It has long been held among them thai 
 Scripture only, is the rule and test of all religious ordinances ; 
 and that human authority is to be altogether excluded. Their 
 ancestors, I believe, would have been not a little embarrassed 
 with tlieir own maxim, if they had not possessed a singular 
 talent of seeing every thing in Scripture which they had a mind to 
 see. Almost every sect could find there its own peculiar form 
 of church-government ; and while they forced only their own 
 imaginations, they hclieved themselves to he 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 word's a weathercock for ev'ry wind."$ 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milnsb 
 
 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 
 
 » Discourses on variaus subjects, by T. Balguy, D.D. p. 257. 
 
 t Diacoijroo "^I*. p. 126. t Dryden'e Hind and Panther, Part I 
 
SECOND FALSE RULE. 53 
 
 therefore proceed to investigate its intrinsic nature^ in order to 
 show more fully the inadequacy, or rather the falsehood of it. 
 
 When an Eng.ish 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 nand with the same con- 
 fidence, as if he had immediately received it from the Almighty 
 himself, as Moses received the tables of the law on Mount Si- 
 nai, amidst thunder and lightning. But how vain is this confi- 
 dence, whilst he adheres to the foregoing rule of faith ! How 
 many questionable points does he assume as proved, which can? 
 not be proved, without relinquishing his own principles and 
 adopting ours ! 
 
 I. Supposing then you, dear sir, to be the Protestant I have 
 been speaking of; I begin with asking you, by what meana 
 have you learnt what is the canon of Scripture, that is to say, 
 which are the books that have been written by Divine inspira- 
 tion ; or indeed how have you ascertained that any books at all 
 have been so written ? You cannot discover either of these 
 things by your rule, because the Scripture, as your great au- 
 thority. Hooker shows* and Chillingworth allows, 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 they always wrote, or in- 
 deed that they ever wrote under the influence 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 great excel- 
 lence,! written by one who is termed in Scripture an apostle,^ 
 and declared to be full of the Holy Ghost ;§ I speak of St. Bar- 
 nabas. 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 tradition and 
 living voice of the Catholic Church ; since numerous apocry- 
 phal prophecies and spurious gospels and epistles, under the 
 same or equally venerable names, were circulated in thv» 
 church, during its early ages, and accredited by different 
 learned writers and holy fathers ; while some of the really ca- 
 nonical books were rejected or doubted of by them. In short, 
 it was not until the end of the fourth century, that the genuine 
 
 « Ecc.les. Polit. B. iii. sec. 8. 
 
 t St. Barnabas. See Grabe's Spicileg. and Cotlerus'a Collect 
 ♦ Acts, xiv. 13, § Aifs, xL 24. 
 
 5* 
 
fl4 LETTER IX. 
 
 canon of Holy Scriptuie was fixed : and then it was fixed by 
 the tradition and authority of the churchy declared in the Third 
 Council of Carthage and a decretal of P. Innocent I. Indeed 
 it is so clear that the canon of Scripture is built on the tradition 
 ')f the church, that most learned Protestants,* with Luther him- 
 self, havef been forced to acknowledge it, in terms almost as 
 strong as those in the well-known declaration of St. Augustin.J 
 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 authen. 
 tic ? It is agreed upon amongst the learned, that, together with 
 the temple and city of Jerusalem, the original text of Moses and 
 the ancient prophets were destroyed by the Assyrians, under 
 Nebuchadnezzar ;§ and, though they were replaced by authen- 
 tic 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 ex- 
 ample, that St. Paul wrote an inspired epistle to the Romans, 
 and another to the Ephesians ; yet, as the former was intrusted 
 to an individual, the deaconess Phebe, to be conveyed by her to 
 its destination,ir and the latter to his disciple, Tychicus,** 
 for the same purpose, it is impossible for you to entertain a ra- 
 tional conviction that these epistles, as they stand in your Tes- 
 tament, are exactly in the state in which they issued from the 
 apostle's pen, or that they are his genuine epistles at all ; with- 
 out recurring to the tradition and authority of the Catholic 
 Church concerning them. To make short of this matter, I will 
 not lead vou 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 cler 
 gy swear their "consent and assent;" then look at the same 
 
 * Hooker, Eccl. Polit. C. iii. S. 8. Dr. Lardner, in Bishop Watson's Col 
 Tol. ii. p. 20. 
 
 1 " We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists — that with them 
 is the word of God, which we have received from them ; otherwise we 
 should have known nothing at all about it." Comment, on John, c. ]6. 
 
 t "I should not believe the Goppel itself, if the authority of the Catholic 
 Church did not oblige me to do so." Contra Epist. Fundam. 
 
 § Brett's Dissert, in Bishop Watson's Collect, vol iii. p. 5. 
 
 U Ibid. vol. iii. p. 5 V Rom. xvi. See Calmet, Slc 
 
 •* Ephes. vi. SI 
 
SECOND FALSE RULE. 55 
 
 Psali/i in your Bible: you will find four whole verses in the 
 former which are left out in the latter ! What will you h;?re say, 
 dear sir? You must say that your church has added to, or else 
 that she has taken away from the laords 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 diiferent men, of various capacities, learning, judg- 
 ment, opinions, and prejudices. f In this inquiry, the Catholic 
 Church herself can afford you no security to build your faith up- 
 on ; much less can any private individuals whosoever. The cele- 
 brated Protestant divine, Episcopius, was so convinced of the 
 fallibility of modern translations, that he wanted all sorts of per- 
 sons, laborers, sailors, women, &€., to learn Hebrew and Greek. 
 Indeed, it is obvious, that the sense of a text may depend upon 
 the choice of a single word in the translation ; nay, it sometimes 
 depends upon the mere punctuation of a sentence, as may be seen 
 below. f Can you, then, consistently, reject the authority of the 
 great Universal Church, and yet build upon that of some obscure 
 translator in the reign of James I.? No, sir, you must your- 
 self have compared your English Bible with the originals, and 
 have proved it to be a faithful version, before you can build your 
 faith upon it, as upon The Word of God. To say one word 
 now of the Bibles themselves, which have been published by 
 authority, or generally used by Protestants in this country : — 
 Those of Tindal, Coverdale, and Queen Elizabeth'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 himself (James I.) joinei ;§ and accordingly 
 
 * 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 othei hand, Bishop Marsh has pubHshed his conviction that the most 
 important passage in the New Testament, 1 John, v. 7, for e^tabhshing the 
 Divmity of Jesus Christ, " is spurious." Elom. of Tlieo. vol. ii. p. 90. 
 
 t See a hst of them in Ant. Johnson's Hist. Account. Theo. Coliec. p. 95. 
 
 I One of the strongest passages for the divinity of Christ is the following, 
 as it is pointed in the Vulgate : Ex quibus est Christus^ secundum carnem^ 
 qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in s<rcula. Rom. ix. 5. But sea how 
 Grotius and Socinus deprive the text of all its strength, by merely sujstitu 
 ting a point for a comma : Ex quibus est ChristuSf secundum carnem Qui 
 tet super omnia Deus benedictus in sacula. 
 
 ^ Bishop Watson's Collect vol. iii. p. 98. 
 
56 LETTER IX. 
 
 ordered a new version of it to be made ; being the same that is 
 now in use, with some few alterations, introduced after the Rtys- 
 toration.* Now, though these new translators have corrected 
 many wilful errors of their predecessors, most of which were 
 levelled at Catholic doctrmes and discipline,! yet they have lefl 
 a suflicient number of them behind, for which I do not find that 
 their advocates offer any excuse whatsoever.:): 
 
 IV. I will make a further supposition, namely, that you haft 
 the certainty even of revelation, as the Calvinists used to pre 
 tend they had, that your Bible is not only canonical hut authen 
 tic and faithful, in its English garb; yet what would all this 
 avail you, towards establishing your rule of faith, unless you 
 could be equally certain of your understanding 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 better interpret than the true church to which Christ com- 
 mitted 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 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. "H 
 Now that there are in Scripture " things hard to be understood, 
 which the unlearned and unstable wrest unto their own destruc- 
 tion," is expressly affirmed in the Scripture itself.** The same 
 thing is proved by the frequent mistakes of the apostles them- 
 selves, with respect to the words of their Divine Master. These 
 obscurities 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 
 
 * Bishop Watson's Collect, vol. iii. p. 98. 
 
 t These may be found in the learned Greg. Martin's Treatise on the 
 Bubjcct, and in Ward's Errata to the Protestant Bible. 
 
 X Two of these I had occasion to notice in my Inquiry into the character 
 of the Irish Catholics, namely, 1 Cor. xi. J 7, where the conjunctive and ia 
 put fur the disjunctive or, and Blatt. xix. 11, where cannot is put for do not^ 
 .0 the altering of the sense in both instances. Now, though these con ip 
 lions stand in direct opposition to the original, as the Rev. Mr. Grier ;.nd 
 De. Ryan themselves quote it ; yet these writers have the confidence to deny 
 they are corruptions, because they pretend to prove from other texts that th, 
 cup is necessary and that coniinency is not necessary ! ! Answer to Ward'a 
 Errata, p. 13, page 33. 
 
 4 In the Prolegomena to his Polyglott, cap. v. 
 
 11 This obvious truth shows the extreme absurdities of our Bible Socie 
 ties and modern schools, which regard nothing but the mere reading of the 
 Bible, leaving persons to embrace the most ojiposite interpretations of tha 
 same texts. T In Ep ad Galat. contra Luoif ** 2 Pet. iii. 16 
 
SECOND F LSE RULE. 51 
 
 more things in Scripture which I am ignorant of, than those that 
 I know,"* Should you prefer a modern Protestant authority to 
 an ancient Catholic one, listen to the clear-headed Balguy. 
 His words are these : " But wliat, you will reply, is all this to 
 Christians ? to those who see, by a clear and strong light, the 
 dispensation of God to mankind '? We are not as those loho have 
 no hope. The day-spnng from on high hath visited us. The 
 Sp rd of God shall lead us into all truth. To this delusive dream 
 of human folly, founded only on mistaken interpretations of 
 Scripture, I answer, in one word : Open your Bibles ; take the 
 first page that occurs in either Testament, and tell me, with- 
 out disguise, is there nothing in it too hard for your under- 
 standing ? 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. "f 
 
 Manifold is the cause of the obscurity of Holy Writ ; 1st, the 
 sublimity of a considerable part of it, which speaks either lite- 
 rally 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 idioms of the Hebrew and Greek languages ; — lastly, 
 the numerous and bold figures of speech, s«ch as allegory, 
 irony, hyperbole, catachresis, antiphrasis, &c., which are sc 
 frequent with the sacred penmen, particularly the ancient pro- 
 phets. if I should like to hear any one of those, who protend to 
 find the Scripture so easy, attempting to give a clear explana- 
 tion of the 67th, alias the 68th Psalm ; or the last chapter ol 
 Ecclesiastes. Is it an easy matter to reconcile certain well- 
 known speeches of each of the holy patriarchs, Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, with the incommutable precept of truth ? I 
 may here notice, among a thciisand other such difficulties, that 
 when our Saviour sent his twelve apostles to preach the Gospci 
 to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he told them, according 
 to St. Mathew, x. 10., to Provide neither gold nor silver — nei- 
 ther shoes nor yet staves : whereas St. Mark, vi. says, he com- 
 manded them that they should mke 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 writers ground this 
 maxim 1 They have none at all ; bi it they leg the question, as 
 logicians express it, to extricate themselves from an absurdity ; 
 
 • St. Aug. Ep. ad Januar. t Dr. Balguy'a Discourses, p. 133 
 
 I See examples of tliese in Bonfreriua's Praeloquia and in the Appendixe* 
 to them, at tlie end of Menochiua. 
 
58 LETTER IX. 
 
 and in so doing thoy overturn t'neir fundamental rule. The} 
 profess to gather their articles of faith and morals from mere 
 Scripture ; nevertheless confessing that they understand only o 
 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 neces- 
 sary. But to place this matter in a clear light, it is o jvious 
 that if any articles are particularly necessary to be known anJ 
 believed, they are those which point to the God whom we are 
 to adore, and the moral precepts which we are to observe. 
 Now, is it demonstratively evident, from mere Scripture^ thai 
 Christ is God, and to be adored as such 1 Most modern Pro- 
 testants of eminence answer NO ; and, in defence of their as- 
 sertion, quote the following among other texts : The Father h 
 greater than I, John, xiv. 28 ; to which the orthodox divines ep- 
 pose those texts of the same evangelist : / and the Father are 
 one, X. 30: The Word was God, &c. i. 1. Again, we find the 
 following among the moral precepts of the Old Testament : — 
 " Go thy way : eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with 
 a merry heart : for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy 
 garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment 
 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest," &;c. Eccles. ix 
 7, 8, 9. In the New Testament we meet with the following 
 seemingly practical commands : " Swear not at all," Matt. v. 
 34. *' Call no man father upon earth — neither be you called 
 masters, for one is your Master, Christ," Matt, 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 away thy goods ask liim not 
 again," Luke ^i. 33. " When thou makest a dinner or a sup- 
 per, call not thy friends nor thy brethren," xiv. 12. These are 
 a few among hundreds of other difficulties, regarding our moral 
 duties, which, though confronted by other texts, seemingly of a 
 contrary meaning, nevertheless show that the Scripture is not, 
 of itself, demonstratively clear in points of first rate import- 
 ance, and that the Divine law, like human laws, without an au- 
 thorized interpreter, must ever be a source of doubt and con- 
 -ention. 
 
 V. I have said enough concerning the contentions among 
 Protestants ; I will now, by way of concluding this letter, say 
 a word or two of their doubts. In the first place, it is certam, 
 at a learned Catholic controvertist argues,* that a person who 
 thllows your rule cannot make an act of faith ; this being, ac- 
 cording to your great authority, Bishop Pearson, an assent to 
 
 * Shcffmachcr, Lettres d'un Docteur Cat. a un Geniilhomme Prot. vol 
 
SECOND 7AI.se rule. 59 
 
 the revealed articles, with a certain and fall persuasion of their 
 revealed truth :* or, to use the words of your primate, Wake : 
 ^' When I give my assent to what God has revealed, I do it, 
 not only with a certain assurance that what I believe is truCy 
 but with an absolute security that it cannot befalse.'^-f Now the 
 Protestant, who has nothing to trust to hut his own talents, ir 
 interpreting the books of Scripture, especially with all the dif- 
 ficulties and uncertainties which he labors under, according to 
 what I have shown above, never can rise to this certam assur- 
 ance and absolute security, as to what is revealed in Scripture. 
 The utmost he can say is : such and such appears to me at the 
 present moment 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 with other texts, I may alter my opinion. 
 How far 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 when you reflect that other learned, intelligent, and sin- 
 cere Christians have understood those passages in quite a differ- 
 ent sense from what you do ? For my part, having sometimes 
 lived and conversed familiarly with Protestants of this descrip- 
 tion, and noticed their controversial discourses, I never found 
 one of them absolutely fixed in his mind, ibr any long time to- 
 gether, as to the whole of his belief. I invite you to make the 
 experiment on the most 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 order, a month after- 
 wards ; when I can almost venture to say, you will be sur- 
 prised at the difference you will find, between his former and 
 his latter creed. After all, we need not use any other means 
 to discover the state of doubt and uncertainty, in which many 
 of your greatest divines and most profound scriptural students 
 nave passed their days, than to look into their publications. I 
 shall satisfy myself with citing the Pastoral Charge of one of 
 them, a li^'ing bishop, to his clergy. Speaking of the Christian 
 doctrines lie says : " I think it safer to tell you, where they are 
 contained, than what they are. They are contained in the Bible, 
 ani if, in reading that book, your sentiments concerning the 
 doctrines of Christianity should be different from those of youi 
 
 • On the Creed, p. 15. t Princip of •"'-hrist Rel. p. 17 
 
60 LETTER IX, 
 
 neiglibor, or from those of the church, be persvaaed on youi 
 part, that infallibility appertains as little to you as it does to 
 tlie church."* Can you reaa this, my dear sir, without shud- 
 dering ? If a most learned and intelligent bishop and professor 
 of divinity, as Dr. Watson certainly is, after studying all the 
 Scriptures and all the commentators upon them, is forced pub- 
 licly 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 
 that rule of the mere Bible be, which, while he recommends i: 
 to them, he plainly signifies, will not lead them to a uniformity 
 of sentiments, one with another, nor even with tlieir church ! 
 
 There can be no doubt, sir, but that those who entertam 
 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 Catholic Church, f while not a single instance caw be pro- 
 duced, of a Catholic wishing to die in any other communion 
 than his own. J O Death, thou great enlightener ! O truth- 
 telling Death, how powerful art thou in confuting the blasphe- 
 mies, and dissipating the prejudices of the enemies of God's 
 church ! Taking it for granted, that you, dear sir, have not 
 been without your doubts and fears as to the safety of the road 
 in which you are walking to eternity, more particularly in the 
 course of the present 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. Augustin, to one in your sit- 
 uation : " If you think you have been sufficiently tossed about, 
 
 * Bishop Watson's Dharge to his Clergy, in 1795. 
 
 t A large proportirn of those grandees who were the most forward m 
 promoting tho Reformation, so called, and among the rest Cromwell, Earlo. 
 Essex, the King's Ecclesiastical Vicar, when they came to die, returned to 
 the Catholic Church. This was the case also with Luther's chief protector, 
 the Elector of Saxony, the persecuting Queen of Navarre, and many other 
 foreign Protestant princes. Some bi.^hops of the Established Church; for 
 instance, Goodman and Cheyncy of Gloucester, and Gordon of Gla3gow, 
 probably also King of London, and Halifax of St. Asaph's, died Catholics. 
 A long list of titled or otherwise distinguished personages, who have either re 
 turned 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 dM so. 
 
 t This is remarked by Sir Toby Mathews, son of the Archb ehop of 
 York, Hugh Cressy, Canon of Windsor and Dean of Lcighlin, F. Wal.-ing 
 ham, and Ant. Ulric, Duke of Brunswick, all illustrious converts ; also Uiit 
 ^cT in his Conferences, p. 400. 
 
THE TRUE RULE. <1 
 
 and ivisn to see an end to your anxieties, follow the rule of 
 Catholic discipline, which came down to us through the apos- 
 tles from Christ himself, and which shall descend from us to 
 the latest posterity."* Yes, renounce the fatal and foolish pre- 
 sumption of fancying that you can interpret the Scripture bel- 
 ter than the Cstholic Church, aided, as she is, by the traditicu 
 of all ages, anl the Spirit of all truth. f But I mean to treat 
 this latter subject at due length in my next letter. 
 
 ] am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER X.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c 
 
 THE TRUE RULE. 
 
 Dear sir — 
 
 I HAVE received your letter, and also two others from gen- 
 tlemen of your Society, on what I have written to you concern- 
 ing the insufficiency of Scripture, interpreted by individuals, to 
 constitute a secure rule of faith. From these it is plain, that 
 my arguments have produced a considerable sensation in the 
 society ; 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 liberty 
 to express his sentiments on the important subject under con- 
 sideration, without complaint or offence of the other. The 
 strength of my arguments is admitted by you all : yet you all 
 bring invincible objections, as you consider them, from Scrip- 
 ture and other sources against them. I think it will render our 
 controversy more simple and clear, if, with your permission, I 
 defer answering these, till after I have said all that I have to 
 say concerning the Catholic rule of faith. 
 
 The Catholic rule of faith, as I stated before, is not merely 
 the written word of God, but the ivhoJe word of God, loth 
 written and umvrilten ; in other words, Scripture and tradition 
 and these propounded and explained hy the Catholic Church 
 This implies that we have a twofold rule or law, and that w? 
 tiave an interpreter, or judge, to explain it, and to decide upo» 
 ft in all doubtful points. 
 
 I. 1 enter upon this subject with observing that all written law* 
 
 ♦ De Utiiit. Cred. c. 8. 
 
 f^ Bosauet, in his celebrated Conference with Claude, which produced th» 
 conversion of Mile. Duras, obliged him to confess that, by the Protestan 
 -ule, "every artisan and husbandman may and ought to believe that ha 
 can understand the Scriptures better than all the fathers and docton of th© 
 tLj-ch, ancient and modern, put together" 
 
 6 
 
rt2 LETTER X. 
 
 nccossari y suppose the existence of unwritten hiDS, and ii Heed 
 depend upon tlicm for their force and authority. Not to run 
 into the depths of ethics and metaphysics on this subject, you 
 know, dear sir, that, in this kingdom, we have common or un 
 written law, and statute or written law, both of them binding ; 
 but diat tlie former necessarily precedes the latter. The legis- 
 lature, for example, makes a written statute, but we must 
 learn beforehand, from the common law, wliat constitutes the le 
 gislature, and we must also have learnt from the natural and 
 the Divine laws, that the legislature is to he obeyed in all things 
 which these do not render unlawful. " The municipal law of 
 England," says Judge Blackstone, " may be divided into lex 
 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 corner-stone of the laws of England."! 
 *'If," continues he, "the question arises, how these customs or 
 maxims are to be known, and by whom their validity are to be de- 
 termined ? The answer is, by the judges in the several courts of 
 justice. They are the depositories of the laws, 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 constituting living judges to decide upon them ! 
 
 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 thai 
 book, leave them to interpret it, till the end -of time, each one 
 according to his own opinions or prejudices. But our blessed 
 Master and Legislator, Jesus Clirist, having first demonstrated 
 his own divine legation from his heavenly Father by undeniable 
 miracles, commissioned his chosen apostles, by word of mouth, 
 ta proclaim and explain, by word of mouth, his doctrines and 
 precepts to all nations, promising to be with them in the execu- 
 tion of this ofiice of his heralds and judges, even to the end of 
 the world. This implies the power he had given them, of or- 
 daining successors in this office, as they themselves were only 
 to live the ordinary term of human life. True it is, that, duriig 
 the execution of their commission, he inspired some of them^ 
 
 and of their disciples, to write certain parts of these doctrines 
 iind precepts, namely, the canonical gospels and epistles, which 
 
 hey adaressed, for the most part, to particular persons and on 
 
 • Comment, on the Laws, Introduct. sect iii. 
 
 t Ibid. sec\ iii. p. 73, 8th edit. X Ibid, p » 
 
THE TRUE RULE. 63 
 
 particular occasiohs ; but these inspired writings, by nu means, 
 renaered void Christ's commission to the apostles and their suc- 
 cessors, of preaching and explaining his word to the nations, or 
 his promise of being " 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 depositories and 
 judges of the revealed truths. — This analysis of revealed reli- 
 gion, 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 t'he constant 
 testimony and practice of the fathers and doctors 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, 
 mres. So far from this, she had religiously preserved and per- 
 petuated them, from age to age, during almost 1590 years be. 
 fore Protestants existed. She has consulted them, and con- 
 firmed her decrees from them in her several councils. She 
 enjoins her pastors, whose business it is to instruct the faithful, 
 to read and study them without intermission, knowing that "All 
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in rigliteous- 
 ness." 2 Tim. iii. 16. Finally, she p^-oves her perpetual righl 
 to announce and explain the truths and precepts of her divine 
 Founder, by several of the strongest and c'learest passages con- 
 tained in Holy Writ.* Such, for the example, is the last com- 
 mission of Christ, alluded to above : " Go ye therefore and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe 
 all the things whatsoever I have commanded you. x\nd lo ! 1 
 am with you all days, even to the end of the world." Matt. 
 xxviii. 19, 20. And again, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature." Mark, xvi. 15. It is 
 preaching and teaching then, that is to say, the unwritten word. 
 which Christ has appointed to be the general method of propa. 
 gating his divine truths : and, whereas he promises to be with 
 \i8 apostles to the end of the toorld ; this pi'oves their authority in 
 expounding, and shows that the same authcrity was to descend 
 to their legitimate successors in the sacred ministry, since they 
 hemselves were only to live the ordinary term of human life, 
 in like manner the following clear texts prove the authority of 
 the apostles and their successors, ybr ever ; that is to say, the 
 authority of the ever-living and speaking tribunal of the church, 
 
 * St. Austin uses this argument against the Donatists : " In ^cripturia 
 discimus Christum, in scripturis discimus Ecclesiam. Si Christum leneatis;» 
 qiwre Ecclesiam non tenetis ?" 
 
04 LETTER X. 
 
 in expounding our Saviour's doctrine " I will pray the la. 
 ther, and he shall give you anotiier Comforter, that he may 
 abide with you for ever." — " The Comforter, which is the H^ly 
 Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name ; he shall teach 
 you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
 wliatsoever 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, " Therefore, brethren, stand 
 fast and hold the tradition ye have been taught, whether by 
 word or our epistle." 2 Thess. v. 13. Finally, St. Peter pro- 
 nounces that "No prophecy of Scripture is of any private in 
 terpretation." 2 Pet. i. 20. 
 
 HI. That the apostles, and the apostolical men whom tney 
 formed, followed this method prescribed by their Master, is un- 
 questionable ; as we have positive proofs from Scripture, as 
 well as from ecclesiastical history, that they did so. St. Mark, 
 after recording the above-cited admonition of preaching tlie gos. 
 pel, which Christ left to his apostles, adds, " And they went 
 forth and preached everywhere ; the Lord working with them, 
 and confirming the word with signs 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 penetrat<^d into 
 Scythia ; St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew into Parthia and 
 India, and so of the others ; everywhere converting and in- 
 structing thousands, hy word of mouth ; founding churches, and 
 ordaming bishops and priests to do the same. " They ordained 
 them priests in every church." Acts, xiv. 22. " For this 
 cause," says St. Paul to Titus, " I left thee in Crete, that thou 
 shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and shouldest 
 ordain priests in every city, as 1 had appointed thee." Tit. i. 5. 
 And to Timothy : " The things that thou hast heard of me 
 among many witnesses, the same commit thou to those faithful 
 men who shall be able to teach others also." 2 Tim. ii. 2. l^ 
 any of them wrote, it was on some particular occasion, and, 
 for the most part, to a particular person, or congregation, with- 
 out either giving directions, or providing means of communica- 
 ting their epistles or their gospels to the rest of the Christiana 
 throughout the world. Hence it happened, as I have before 
 remarked, that it was not till the end of the founh 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 
 symbol or profession of faith, called " The Apostles' Creed," 
 but even this they did not commit to writing :* and whweas ihej 
 
 • RufHn. Inter Opera Hieron 
 
THE TRUE RTJLK. 65 
 
 made this, amongst olhei articles of it, " I believe in the Holy 
 Church,"* they made no mention at all of the Holj Scriptures. 
 This circumstance confirms what their example proves, that 
 the Christian 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 heen 
 composed ; however profitable these most certainly are " for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in right- 
 eousness." 2 Tim. iii. 16. I have already quoted one of the 
 ornaments of your church, who says, that " the canonical epis- 
 tles (and he might have added the gospels) are not regular 
 treatises upon the Christian religion .-"f 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 were not even acquainted with 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 as 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 forward a certain number of 
 them, to prove that, during the five first ages of the church no 
 less than in the subsequent ages, the unwritten word, or tradi- 
 tion, was held by her in equal estimation with the Scripture 
 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, v/ho got access to him, " to guard them- 
 selves against the rising heresies, and to adhere with the utmosv 
 firmness to the tradition of the apostles.''^ The same senti- 
 ments 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. 
 
 * The title Catholic was afterwards added, when b'resies increased. 
 
 t Elements of Theology, vol. ii. 
 
 t Jewel, Andrews, Hooker, Morton, Pearson, ana other Protestant di, 
 ines of the I6th and 17ih centuries, labored hard to press the fathers into 
 Jieir service, but with such bad success, that the succeeding controversial. 
 ists gave them up in despair. The learned Protestant Casaubon, confessed 
 that the fathers were all on the Catholic side ; the equally learned Obrectcth 
 testifies that, in reading their works, " he was frequently provoked to throw 
 them on the ground, finding them so full :f Popery ;" while Middleton heapa 
 every kind of obloquy upon them. 
 
 i Euseb. His* 1 iii. c. 30. H Revel ii. 8 
 
 6* 
 
6fJ LETTER X. 
 
 He las left twelve books against the heresies of his time, wh ick 
 aboTind with testimonies to the present purpose ; some few of 
 which I shall here insert. He writes, " Nothing is more easy 
 to those who seeK for the truth, than to remark in every churf3h 
 the tradition which the apostles have manifested to all the world. 
 We can name the bishops appointed by the apostles in the sev- 
 eral churches, and the successors of those bishops down to our' 
 own time, none of whom ever taught, or heard of such doctrines 
 8U$ these heretics dream of."* This holy father emphatically af 
 firms that, " In explaining the Scriptures, Christians are to at 
 tend to the pastors of the church, who, by the ordinance of God, 
 have received the inhentance of truth, with the succession of 
 their sees."']' He adds, " The tongues of nations vary, but the 
 viitue of tradition is everywhere one and the same : nor do tlie 
 churches in Germany believe or teach differently from those in 
 Spain, Gaul, the East, Egypt, or Lybia."J "Since it woukt 
 be tedious to enumerate the succession of all the churches, we 
 appeal to the faith and tradition of the greatest, most ancient, 
 and best known church — that of Rome, founded by the apos 
 ties, SS. Peter and Paul ; — for, with this church all others 
 agree, in as much as in her is preserved the tradition which 
 comes down from the apostles.''"§ " SUPPOSING THE APOS- 
 TLES HAD NOT LEFT US THE SCRIPTURES, OUGHT 
 WE NOT STILL TO HAVE FOLLOWED THE ORDI- 
 NANCE OF TRADITION, which they consigned to those to 
 whom they committed the churches ? It is this ordinance of 
 tradition which many nations of barbarians, believing in Christ, 
 follow, without the use of letters or ink."|| 
 
 Tertullian, who flourished 200 years after the Christian era; 
 has left us, amongst his other works, one of the same nature, 
 and almost the same title with that last cited. In this, speak- 
 ing of the contemporary heretics, he says, " They meddle with 
 the Scriptures, and adduce arguments from them ; for, in treat- 
 ing of faith, they pretend that they ought not to argue upon 
 any other ground than the written documents of faiih : thus 
 they weary the firm, catch tlie weak, and fill the middle sort 
 with doubt. We begin, therefore, with laying it down as a 
 maxim, that these men ought not to be allowed to argue at all 
 from Scripture. — In fact these disputes about the sense of 
 Scripture have generally no other eflect than to disorder either 
 the stomach or the brain. — It i«, therefore, the wrong method to 
 appeal to the Scriptures, since these afford either no decision, 
 or, at most, only a doubtful one. And even if this were not 
 
 • AdverB. Ilseres. 1. iii c. 5. t L. iv. c. 43 t L i. c. 3 * 
 
 4 L. iii. c. 3. H L. iv. c. 64. 
 
THE TRUE RULE. (57 
 
 the case, still, in appealing to Scripture, the natural order of 
 things requires that we should first inquire to whom t.ie Scrip, 
 turei? belong ? From whom and by whom, and on what occa. 
 sion, and to whom, that tradition was delivered by which we be- 
 came Christians ? For where the truth of Christian discipline 
 and faith is found, there is the truth of Scripture, and of the in- 
 terpretation of it, and of all Christian traditions."* He else- 
 where says, " That doctrine is evidently true which was first 
 delivered : on the contrary, that is false which is of a later 
 date. — This maxim stands immovable against the attempts of 
 all late heresies. — Let such then produce the origin of the' 
 churches : let them show the succession of their bishops from 
 the apostles, or their disciples. — If you live near Italy, you see 
 before your eyes the Roman Church : happy church ! to which 
 the apostles have left the inheritance of their doctrine with 
 their blood ! Where Peter was crucified, like his Master; 
 where Paul was beheaded like the Baptist ! — If this be so, it is 
 plain, as we have said, that heretics are not to be allowed to 
 appeal to Scripture, since they have no claim to it. — Hence it is 
 proper to address them as follows : ' Who are you ? Whence 
 do you come ? What business have you strangers with my 
 property ? By what right are you, Marcion, felling my trees ? 
 By what authority are you, Valentine, turning the course of 
 my streams ? Under what pretence are you, Apelles, re 
 moving my land-marks ? The estate is mine : I have the 
 ancient, the prior possession of it. I have the title-deeds de- 
 livered to me by the original proprietors. I am the heir of 
 the apostles ; they have made their will in my favor : while 
 they disinherited and cast you ofi*, as strangers and enemies. "f 
 In another of his workslj: this eloquent father proves, at great 
 length, the absolute necessity of admitting tradition no less 
 than Scripture as the rule of faith, inasmuch as many important 
 points, which he mentions, cannot be proved without it. 
 
 I pass by other shining lights of the third century, such as 
 St. Clement, of Alexandria, St. Cyprian, Origen, &;c., all of 
 whom place apostolical tradition on a level with Scripture, 
 and describe the church as the expounder of them both. I must, 
 however, give the following words from the last-named great 
 biblical scholar. He says : " We are not to credit those who, 
 by citing real canonical Scripture, seem to say, * Behold, the 
 word is in your houses;' for we are not to desert our first 
 ecclesiastical tradition, nor to believe otherwise than as the 
 churches of God have, m their perpetual succession, delivered 
 to us." 
 
 • Prrescrip. Advera. Hasrea edit Rhenan. pp. 36, 37. t Ibid 
 
 X De Corona MiUt 
 
68 LETTER X. 
 
 Among the numerous and illustrious witnesses of the fourth 
 a£?e, I shall be content with citing St. Basil and St. Epiphanius. 
 The former says, " There are many doctrines preserved and 
 preached in the church, derived, partly from written documents, 
 partly from apostolical tradition, which have equally the same 
 force in religion, and which no one contradicts, who has the 
 least knowledge of the Christian laws."* The last quoted father 
 says, with equal brevity and force, " We must make use of tra- 
 dition, for all things are not to be found in Scrip^,:I5J.'')• 
 
 St. John Chrysostom flourished at the beginning oF the fifth 
 century ; and, though he strongly recommends the reading ot 
 the Holy Scriptures, yet expounding the text, (2 Thess. ii. 14,) 
 he says : " Hence it is plain that the apostles did not deliver 
 to us every thing by their epistles, but many things without 
 writing. These are equally worthy of belief. Hence let usi 
 regard the tradition of the church as the subject of our belief. 
 Such and such a thing is a tradition : seek no further.''^ Ji 
 would fill a large volume to transcribe all the passages which 
 occur in the works of the great St. Augustin, in proof of the 
 Catholic rule, and the authority of the church in making use 
 of it : let, therefore, two or three of them speak for the rest. 
 " To attain to the truth of the Scriptures,'' he says, " we must 
 follow the sense of them entjrtained by the universal church, 
 to which the Scriptures themselves bear testimony. True it is, 
 the Scriptures themselves cannot deceive us ; nevertheless, to 
 prevent our being deceived in the question we examine by 
 them, it is necessary we should advise with that church, which 
 these certainly and evidently point out to us.§ This (the un- 
 lawfulness of rebaptizing heretics) is not evidently read either 
 by you or by me ; nevertheless, if there were any wise man, to 
 whom Christ had borne testimony, and whom he had appointed 
 to be consulted on the question, we could not fail to do so : now 
 Christ bears this testimony to his church. Whoever, therefore 
 refuses to follow the practice of the church, resists Christ him- 
 s^'lf, who, by his testimony, recommends this church. "|| Treat- 
 ing elsewhere the same subject, he says : " The apostles, indeed, 
 nave prescribed nothing about this; but the custom must be 
 considered as derived from their tradition, since there are many 
 things observed by the universal church, which are justly held 
 to have been appointed by the apostles, thougn tney are not 
 written. "IT It seems do'mg an injury to St. Vincent, of Lerins, 
 who lived at the end of the fifth century, to quote a part of his 
 celebrated Commonitorium, when the whole of it is so admire bl, 
 
 • In Lib. de Spir. Sane. t De Haeres. N. 61 
 
 X IIapado(t$ IvTt, ftf/ifv ir\B09 ^^r«i. 
 
 § L. i, contra Crescon. || Do Util. Cred. ^ De Bapt. contra Donaf. l 
 
THE TRUE RULE. 60 
 
 calculated to refute the false rule of heretics, condemned m the 
 foregoing testimonies, and to prove the Catholic rule here laid 
 down; still I cannot refrain from transcrib-ing a small portion 
 of it. " It is asked," says this father, " as the Scripture is per- 
 feet, what need is there of the authority of the church doctrine ? 
 The reason is, because the Scripture, being so profoundly deep, 
 is not understood by all persons in the same sense, but different 
 persons explain it different ways ; so that there are almost as 
 many meanings as there are readers of it. Novatian interpreta 
 it in one sense, Photinus in another, Arius, &c., in another. 
 Therefore it is requisite that the true road of expounding the 
 prophets and apostles must be marked out according to the ec- 
 clesiastical Catholic line. 
 
 " It never was, nor is, or will be, lawful for Catholic Chris- 
 tians to teach any doctrine except that which they once received ; 
 and it ever was, and is, and will be their duty to condemn those 
 who do so. Do the heretics then appeal to the Scriptures ? 
 Certainly they do, and this with the utmost confidence. You 
 will see them running hastily through the different books of 
 Holy Writ, those of Moses, Kings, the Psalms, the Gospels, &c. 
 At home and abroad, in their discourses and in their writings, 
 they hardly produce a sentence which is not larded with the 
 words of Scripture, &;c. ; but they are so much the more to be 
 dreaded, as they conceal themselves under the veil of the divine 
 laws. Let us, however, remember, that Satan transformed 
 himself into an angel of light. If he could turn the Scriptures 
 against the Lord of Majesty, what use may he not make of them 
 against us poor mortals ! If then Satan, and his disciples the 
 heretics, are capable of thus perverting Holy Scripture, how are 
 Catholics, the children of the church, to make use of them, so 
 as to discern truth from falsehood ? They must carefully ob- 
 serve the rule laid down at the beginning of this treatise, by the 
 holy and learned men I referred to : THEY ARE TO IN- 
 TERPRET THE DIVINE TEXT ACCORDING TO THE 
 TRADITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH."* 
 
 It would be as easy to prove this rule of faith from the fathers 
 of the sixth, as of the former centuries, particularly from St. 
 Gregory the Great, that holy pope, who, at the close of this cen- 
 tury, sent missionaries from Rome to convert our pagan ances- 
 ors. But, I am sure, you will think that sufficient evidence 
 nas been brought to show that the ancient fathers of the church, 
 rom the very time of the apostles, held this " whole rule of 
 faith," namely, the Word of God, " unwritten as well as writ- 
 
 • Vincent Lcrins Commonit. Advers. Hner. edit. B*.lu2. An English Wexuk 
 lation of Hu» little work has lately been published. 
 
70 LETTER XI. 
 
 ten," together with " the living, speaking tribunal of the 
 church," to preserve and interpret both the one and the other 
 
 I am, dsc. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XL— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. 
 
 THE TRUE RULE. 
 
 «1ear Sir — 
 
 The infinite importance of determining with ourselves whicb 
 is the right rule or method of discovering religious truth, must 
 be admitted by all thinking Christians, as it is evident that this 
 rule alone can conduct them to truth, and that a false rule is 
 capable of conducting them into all sorts of errors. It is equally 
 clear why all those, who are bent upon deserting the Catholic 
 Church, reject her rule, that of the " whole word of God," to- 
 gether with her " living authority" in explaining it : for, while 
 this rule and this authority are acknowledged, there can be no 
 heresy nor schism among Christians, as whatever points of reli- 
 gion are not clear from Scripture, are supplied and illustrated 
 by tradition ; and as the pastors of the church, who possess this 
 authority, are always living, and ready to declare what is the 
 sense of Scripture, and what the tradition, on each contested 
 point, which they have received in succession from the apostles, 
 the only resource, therefore, of persons resolved to follow their 
 own or their forefathers' particular opinions or practices, in 
 matters of religion, with the exception of the enthusiasts, lias 
 ieen in all times, both ancient and modern, to appeal to mere 
 Scripture, wJiich, being a dead letter, leaves them at liberty to 
 explain it as they will. 
 
 I. And yet, with all their repugnance to tradition and church 
 authority, Protestants have found themselves absolutely obliged, 
 in many instances, to admit of them both. It has been demon- 
 strated above, that they are obliged to admit of tradition, in order 
 to admit of Scripture itself. Without this, they can neither know 
 thai there are any writings at all dictated by God's inspiration, 
 nor which, in particular, these writings are,* nor what versions 
 01 publications of them are genuine. But as this matter has 
 been sufficiently elucidated, I proceed to other points of religion, 
 which Protestants receive, either without the authority of Scrip- 
 ture, or in opposition to the letter of it. 
 
 * Among all the learned Protestants of this age, Dr. Porteus is the only 
 one who pictends to discern Scripture, " partly on account of its own rea. 
 Bonableness, and the characters of divine wisdom in it." — Brief Confut., p. 9. 
 I could have wished to ask his lordship, whether it is by these char icters tha 
 he has discovered the Canticle or Song of Solomon to be inspired Scripture, 
 
THE TRUE RULE. 71 
 
 The first precept in the Bible is that of sanctifying the sev- 
 enlh day : ''' God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it," 
 Gen. ii. 3. This precept was confirmed by God in the ten 
 commandments : " Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. 
 The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God," Exod. 
 XX. On the other hand, Christ declares that he is rot come fa 
 destroy the law, hit to fulfil it, Matt. v. 17. He himself observed 
 the sabbath : " And, as his custom was, he went into the syna- 
 gogue on the sabbath-day," Luke iv. 16. His disciples like- 
 wise observed it after his death : " They rested on the sabbath- 
 day, according to the commandment," Luke xxiii. 56. Yet 
 with all this weight of Scripture authority for keeping the sab- 
 bath or seventh day holy, Protestants of all denominations make 
 this a profane day, and transfer the obligation of it to the frst 
 day of the week, or the Sunday. Now what authority have they 
 for doing this ? None whatever, except the unwritten word, or 
 tradition, of the Catholic Church, which declares that the apos- 
 tles made the change in honor of Christ's resurrection, and the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost on that day of the week. Then, with 
 respect to the manner of keeping that day holy, their universal 
 doctrine and practice are no less at variance with the sacred 
 text. The Almighty says, " From even unto even shall you 
 celebrate your sabbath," (Levit. xxiii. 32,) which is the prac- 
 tice of the Jews down to the present time, but not of any Protes- 
 tants that ever I heard of. In like manner, it is declared in 
 Scripture to be unlawful to dress victuals on that day, (Exod. 
 xvi. 23,) or even to make a fire, Exod. xxxv. 3. Again, I ask, 
 where is there a precept in the whole Scripture more express 
 than that against eating blood ? ' God said to Noah, " Every 
 moving thing that liveth shall be meat to you ; but flesh with 
 the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat,'^ 
 Gen. ix. 4. This prohibition we know was confirmed by Moses, 
 (Levit. xvii. 11, Deut. xii. 23,) and strictly imposed by the 
 apostles upon the Gentiles who were converted to the faith. Acts 
 XV. 20. Nevertheless, where is the religious Protestant who 
 scruples to eat gravy with his meat, or puddings made of blood ? 
 At the same time, if he be asked. Upon what authority do you 
 act in contradiction to the express words of both the Old and 
 the New Testament ? he can find no other answer than that 
 he has learned, from the tradition of the church, that the proiu- 
 bition was only temporary. I will confine myself to one moie 
 instance of Protestants abandoning their own rule, that of Scrip- 
 ture alone, to follow ours, of Scripture explained by tradition. 
 If an intelligent pagan, who had carefully perused the New 
 Testament, were asked which of the ordinsnces mentioned m it 
 is most exrUcitly and strictly enjoined, I riake no doubt but ha 
 
72 LETTEH XI. 
 
 would answer that it is " the washing of feet." To coiivLioe 
 vou of this, be pleased to read the first seventeen verses of Sc. 
 John, c. xiii. Observe the motive assigned for Christ's per- 
 forming the ceremony there recorded — namely, his " love for his 
 disciples :" next, the time of his performing it — namely, when 
 he was about to depart out of this world. Then remark the 
 stress he lays upon it, in what he said to Peter : " If I wash thee 
 not, thou hast no part with me." Finally, his injunction at the 
 conclusion of the ceremony, " If I, your Lord and Master, have 
 washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet." 
 J now ask, on what pretence can those who profess to make 
 Scripture alone the rule of their religion totally disregard this 
 institution and precept ? Had this ceremony been observed in 
 the church when Luther and the other first Protestants begaa 
 to dogmatize, there is no doubt but they would have retaine.l 
 it ; but, having learned from her that it was only figurative, 
 they acquiesced in this decision, contrary to what appears to bo 
 the plain sense of Scripture. 
 
 II. I asserted that Protestants find themselves obliged not 
 only to adopt the rule of our church, on many the most im- 
 portant subjects, but also to claim her authority. It is true, 
 as a late dignitary of the establishment observes,* that " When 
 Protestants first withdrew from the communion of the Church of 
 Rome, the princij)les they went upon were such as these : 
 Christ, by his Gospel, hath called all men to the liberty, the 
 glorious liberty, of the sons of God, and restored them to the 
 privilege of working out their own salvation by their own un- 
 derstanding and endeavors. For this work, sufficient means 
 are afforded in the Scriptures, without having recourse to the 
 doctrines and commandments of men. Consequently, faith and 
 conscience, having no dependence upon man's laws, are not to 
 be compelled by man's authority." What now was the conse- 
 quence of this fundamental rule of Protestantism ? Why, that 
 endless variety of doctrines, errors, and impieties, mentioned 
 above ; followed by those tumults, war», rebellions and an- 
 archy, with which the history of every country is filled that 
 embraced the new religion. It is readily supposed that the 
 princes ana other rulers of those countries, ecclesiastical as 
 well as civil, however hostile they might be to the ancient 
 church, would wish to restrain these disorders, and make their 
 subjects adopt the same sentiments with themselves. Hence, 
 in every Protestant state, articles of religion, and confessions of 
 faith, differing from one another, but each agreeing with the 
 opinion of the princes and rulers of the state for the time beings 
 
 • Archdeacon Blackburn in his celebrated Confesaionol, p. I 
 
THE TRUE RULE. 78 
 
 irerc enacted by law, and enforced by excommunication, de- 
 privation, exile, imprisonment, torture, and death. These latter 
 punishments indeed, however frequently they were exercised by 
 Protestants against Protestants, as well as against Catholics, 
 during the 16th and 17th centuries,* have not been resorted to 
 during the last hundred years ; but the terrible sentence of ex- 
 oommunication, which mciudes outlawry, even now hangs ovef 
 die head of every Protestant bishop, as well as other clergyman 
 in this country,f who shall interpret those passages of the Gos- 
 pel concerning Jesus Christ in the sense which, it appears from 
 cheir writings, a number of them entertain ; in the mean time 
 none of them can take possession of any living, without sub- 
 scribing to the 39 articles, and publicly declaring his unfeigned 
 assent and consent to them, and to every thing contained in the 
 Book of Common Prayer.^ Thus, by adopting a false rule of 
 religion, thinking Protestants are reduced to the cruel extrem- 
 ity of palpably contradicting themselves ! They cannot give 
 up " the glorious liberty," as it is called above, of explaining 
 the Bible each one for himself, without, at once, giving up their 
 cause to the Catholics ; and they cannot adhere to it, without 
 many of the above-mentioned fatal consequences, and without the 
 speedy dissolution of their respective churches. Impatient of 
 the constraint they are under, in being obliged to sign articles of 
 faith which they do not believe, many able clergymen of the 
 establishment have written strongly against them, and have 
 even petitioned Parliament to be relieved from the alleged 
 grievance of subscribing to the professed doctrine of their own 
 church. § On the other hand, the legislature, foreseeing the 
 consequences which would result from the removal of the obli- 
 gation, have always rejected their prayer; and the judges have 
 even refused to admit the following salvo added to their sub- ' 
 scription : " I assent and consent to the articles and the book, 
 as far as these are agreeable to the word of God.^^\\ In these 
 straits, many of the most able, as well as the most respectable, 
 of the established clergy, have been reduced to such sophistry 
 and ca.3uistry, as to move the pity of their very opponents. 
 
 * See the Letter on the Reformation and on Persecution, in Letters to a 
 trchtndary. See also Neale's History of the Puritans, Delai.ne's Narra- 
 tive, Sewell's History of the Quake-s, &c. 
 
 t See many excommunicating Canons, and particularly one A. D. 1649 
 against " the damnable and cursed heresy of Socinianism," as it is termed 
 in Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 335. 
 
 X 1st Eliz. cap. ii. — 14 Car. 11. c. 4. Item. Canon 3G et 3b. 
 
 § There was such a petition signed by a great number of dergymea, 
 *ud supported by many others in 1772. 
 
 U See Confessional, p. 183. 
 
 T 
 
74 LETTER XI. 
 
 One of these, the Norrisian professor of divin'it; at Cambridge,* 
 as an expedient for excusing his brethren in subscribing t«i 
 articles which they do not believe, cites the example of the 
 divines at Geneva, where he says, "a complete tacit refifrma- 
 Hon seems to have taken place. The Genevese have now, ir. 
 fact, quitted their Calvinistic doctrines, though, in form, they 
 retain them. When the minister is admitted, he takes an oath 
 of assent to the Scriptures, and professes to teach them accord' 
 ing to the catechism of Calvin ; but this last clause about Calvin, 
 he maices a separate business ; speaking lower, or altering his 
 posture, or speaking after a considerable interval."! Such a 
 change of posture or tone of voice in the swearer, our learned 
 professor considers as sufficient to excuse him from the guilt of 
 prevarication, in swearing contrary to the plain meaning of his 
 oath ! It is not, however, intimated that the professor himself 
 has recourse to this expedient : his particular system is, that 
 " the Church of England, like that of Geneva, has, of late, 
 undergone a complete tacit reformation^ — and hence that the 
 sense of its articles of faith is to be determined by circum- 
 stances. "§ Thus he adds (referring, I presume, to the statutes 
 of King's College, Cambridge,) the oath, " I will say so many 
 masses for the soul of Henry VI., may come to mean, I will 
 perform the religious duties required of me ! "|| The celebra- 
 ted moralist. Dr. Paley, justifies a departure from the original 
 sense of the articles of religion subscribed, by an INCON- 
 VENIENCE "which is manifest and beyond all douUff'^ 
 Archdeacon Powell, Master of St. John's College, defends the 
 English clergy from the charge of subscribing to what they do 
 not believe ; because, he says, " The crime is impossible ; as 
 that cannot be the sense of the declaration which no one ima- 
 gines to be its sense ; nor can that interpretation be erroneous 
 which all have received !"** And ye* such prelates as Seeker, 
 Horsley, Cleaver, Prettyman, with aU the iudi^es, strongly 
 maintain that the literal meaning of the articles must be strictly 
 adhered to ! 
 
 I could cite many other dignitaries or leadinsj clergymen oi 
 the establishment, and nearly the whole host of dissenters, wuo 
 have hao recourse to such quibbles and evasions, in oraur to 
 
 • Lectui« in Divinity, delivered in the Univcri'ity of Cambridje, by J 
 ITey, D. D as Norrisian Professor, 1797, vol. ii. p. 57. t Ibid. 
 
 J Ibid, vol. ii. p. 48, (particularly in its approach lo Socmianism, ^xwi 
 ^hlch he signifies it is divided only by a few unmeanirg words.) 
 
 § Ibid. p. 49. II P. 62. 
 
 1 Moral and Polit. Philos. Not having this work or Dr. Pciwell'e ^t 
 mon on hand, I here quote from Overton's True Churchman p. 337. 
 
 •• Serm. on Subscrip. 
 
THE TRUE RULE. 75 
 
 get ria of the plain sense of the articles and creeds, to which 
 they had solemnly engaged themselves before their Creator, as, 
 I am convinced, they would not make use of in any contract 
 with a fellow-creature : but I hasten to take in hand the ad- 
 mired discourses of my friend. Dr. Balguy. He was the 
 champion, the very Achilles, of those who defended the sub- 
 scription of the 39 articles, against the petitioners for the abro- 
 gation of it, in 1772. And how, think you, dear sir, did he 
 defend it ? Not by vindicating the truth of the articles them- 
 selves ; much less by any of the quibbles mentioned or alluded 
 to above ; but upon the principle, that an exterior show of uni- 
 formity in the ministers of religion is necessary for the support 
 of it ; and that, therefore, they ought to subscribe and teach the 
 doctrine prescribed to them by the law, whatever they may 
 inwardly think of it. Thus it was that he, and many of his 
 friends, imagined it possible to unite religious liberty with ec- 
 clesiastical restrictions. But I will give you the archdeacon's 
 own words in one of his charges to his clergy. " The articles, 
 we will say, are not exactly what we 7mght wish them to he. 
 Some of them are expressed in doubtful terms ; others are 
 inaccurate, perhaps unphilosophical ; others again may chance 
 to mislead an ignorant reader into some erroneous opinions ;* but 
 is there any one among them that leads to immorality? Is there 
 one in the number that will make us revengeful or cruel ?" 
 &;c.f On this principle, you might in the eastern world, con- 
 scientiously swear your assent and consent to the fables of th^ 
 Koran or the Vedam ! ! But, to proceed, he says : " Nothing i^ 
 cleaier than that the uniform appearance of religion is the cause 
 of its general and easy reception. Destroy this uniformity, and 
 you cannot but introduce doubt and perplexity into the minds of 
 the people. "t Again, he says: "I am far from wishing to 
 discourage the clergy of the established church from thinking 
 for themselves, or from speaking what they think, nor even from 
 writing. I say nothing against the right of private judgment or 
 spi'ech, I only contend that men ought not to attack the church 
 from those very pulpiis, in which they are placed for her de- 
 fe!xe-''§ What is this doctrine of the subscription champion, 
 
 * Which articles they are, that the doctor particularly objects to, we can 
 easily gather from his general language concerning mysteries, the sacra. 
 ments, and our redemption by Christ. On this last head, he seriously cau- 
 lions us against " censuring or persecuting our brethren, because their non 
 $ense and ours wears a different dress." Charge ii. p. 192. 
 
 t Charge vi. p. 293. I Charge v. p. 257. 
 
 § Disc. vii. p, 1'20. Discourses by Thomas Balguy, D. D., Archdeacoa 
 and Prebendarv of Winchester &,c. dedicated to the king. Lockyer D». 
 vies, 1785. 
 
▼fl LETTER XI. 
 
 dear sir, I appeal to you, but a defence of the most vile and 
 sacrilegious hypocrisy that can possibly be imagined ? He 
 leaves the clergy at liberty to disbelieve in, to talk, and even to 
 write against the doctrine of their church ; but requires them in 
 the pu/jnt to defend it! I agree with him that contradictory 
 doctrines publicly maintained by ministers of the same religion, 
 tend greatly to make the adherents of it renounce it entirely ; 
 hut will not that effect more certainly follow from the people's 
 discovering, as they must, in the case supposed, discover, that 
 their clergy do not themselves believe in the doctrines which they 
 preach ? 
 
 But this system of deceiving the people is not peculiar to Dr. 
 Balguy : it is avowed by his friend and master. Bishop Hoadley, 
 and represented by Archdeacon Blackburn, from whom I take 
 the following passage, as being very generally adopted.* " In 
 all proposals and schemes to be reduced to practice," the bishop 
 says, " we must suppose the world to be what it is, and not what 
 it ought to be. We must propose, not merely what is absolutely 
 good in itself, but what is so with respect to the prejudices, tem- 
 pers, and constitutions, we know and are sure to be among us. 
 It is represented that the world was never less disposed to be 
 serious and reasonable than at this period. Religious reflection, 
 we are informed, is not the humor of the times. — We are there- 
 fore advised to keep our prudence and our patience a little 
 longer ; to wait till our people are in a Detter temper, and, in 
 the mean time, to bear with their manners and disposition ; 
 gently and gradually correcting their foolish notions and habits ; 
 but still taking care not to throw in more light upon them, at once, 
 than the weak optics of men, so long used to sit in darkness, are 
 able to bear." His lordship's words are guarded, but perfectly 
 intelligible. Bishop Hoadley had undermined the church he 
 professed to support, in her doctrine and discipline, as has been 
 elsewhere demonstrated,*)- and he wished all the clergy to co- 
 operate in diffusing his Socinian system ; but he advised them 
 to attempt this "gently and gradually," bearing with the peo- 
 ple's " foolish notions," and " not throwing too much light upon 
 them at once ;" in other words, continuing to subscribe the Ar- 
 ticles and to preach them from the pulpit, being, at the same 
 lime, inwardly persuaJed that they are not only false, but also 
 foolish ! I will add, not only foolish, but also impious and idol- 
 ati^Dus, namely, by worshipping Christ as God, whom the sub- 
 scriber believes to be merely man ! Thus, dear sir, you have 
 «een the necessity to which the difierent Protestant societies hava 
 
 • Confessional, pp. 375, 385. 
 
 t Letters to a Prebendary, Ar' Hoadleyi 
 
THE TRUE RULE. T*" 
 
 found themselves reduced, of occasionally aj pealing to tradition, 
 and of assuming authority to dictate confessions and articles of 
 religion, in direct violation of their boasted charter of private 
 judgment ; and you have seen that this inconsistency has ren- 
 dered "the remedy worse than the disease." These weapons, 
 not being natural to them, have been turned against the-m, and 
 have mortally wounded them ; and the " Church of England iy 
 particular," as one of its principal defenders complains, " is liki 
 an oak, cleft to shivers with wedges made of its own body."* 
 You will now see with what ease and success the Catholic 
 Church wields these weapons ; but first, I think it best to add 
 something by way of confirming and elucidating this Catholic 
 rule. 
 
 III. What has been said above in proof of the Catholic i lie 
 namely, that Christ established it when he sent his apostles to 
 preach the Gospel, and that the apostles followed it when they 
 established churches throughout different nations, is so incontes- 
 tible as not to be denied by any of our learned opponents : still 
 less will they deny, that the ancient fathers, and the doctors of 
 the church, in every age, maintained this rule. Accordingly, 
 one of the latest and most learned Protestant controvertists writes 
 thus : " No one will deny that Jesus Christ laid the foundation 
 of his church by preaching ; nor can we deny that the unwritten 
 word was the first rule of Christianity J ^■\ This being granted, it 
 was incumbent on his lordship to demonstrate, and this by no les3 
 an authority than that which established the rule, at what precise 
 period it was abrogated. Was it when this gospel or that gospel, 
 when this epistle or that epistle was written, though known only 
 to particular congregations or persons, was it then that the pas« 
 tors of the church lost their authority of proclaiming : " So we 
 have received from the apostles, or the disciples of the apostles: 
 so all the other pastors of the Catholic Church believe and 
 *each ?" Or was this abrogation of the " first rule of Christiani- 
 ty" deferred till the canon of Scripture was fixed at the end of 
 t'ne fourth century ? So far from there being divine authority, 
 there is not even a hint in ecclesiastical history, on which to 
 ground this pretended alteration in the rule of faith. His lord- 
 ship's only foundation is his own conjecture ; " It is extremely 
 improhahle^^^ he says, " that an all-wise Providence^ in imparting 
 a new revelation to mankind, would suffer any doctrine or arti 
 cle of faith to be transmitted to posterity by so precarious a ve 
 hide as that of oral tradition. "J The Bishop of Londor j had 
 before said nearly the same thing, as well wuh respect to tradi- 
 
 * Daubeny's Guide to the Church. Appen. t CorP/>ara*iv^ V^iew 
 
 Bi the Churches, p. 61, by Dr. (now Bishop; MareiL J Ibid p 67 
 
 ^ Dr. Porteus, Brief Conf. 
 
T8 LETTER XI. 
 
 tion being the original rule, as to the improhahility of its continu. 
 ing to be so, " considering," as he says, *' how liable the easiesi 
 story, transmitted by word of mouth, is to be essentially altered 
 in the course of oae or two hundred years." But, to the opinions 
 of these learned prelates, I oppose, in the first place, undeniable 
 facts. It is, then, certain, that the whole doctrine and practice 
 of religion, including the rites of sacrifice, and, indeed, the 
 whole Sacred History, was preserved by the patriarchs, in suc- 
 cession from Adam down to Moses, during the space of 2,400 
 years, by means of tradition : and when the law was written, 
 many most important truths regarding a future life, the em. 
 blems and prophecies concerning the Messiah, and the inspira- 
 tion and authenticity of the sacred books themselves, were pre- 
 served in the same way. Secondly, it is unreasonable in these 
 prelates, to compare the essential traditions of religion with or- 
 dinary stories : in the truth of these no one has an interest, and 
 no means have been provided to preserve them from corruption ; 
 whereas, with respect to the faith once delivered to the saints, the 
 church has ever guarded it as " the apple of her eye." All 
 ecclesiastical history witnesses the extreme care and pains 
 which, in ancient times, were taken by the pastors to instruct 
 the faithful in the tenets and practices of their religion, pre- 
 viously to their being baptized.* The same are generally taken 
 by their successors, previously to the confirmation and first 
 communion of their neophytes, at the present day. Thirdly, 
 when any fresh controversy arises in the church, the funda- 
 mental maxim of the bishops and popes, to whom it belongs to 
 decide upon it, is, not to consult their own private opinion or 
 interpretation of Scripture, but to inquire " what is and has 
 ever been the doctrine of the church," concerning it. Hence, 
 their cry is and ever has been, on such occasions, as well in 
 her councils as out of them : " So we have received : so the 
 universal church believes : let there be no new doctrine ; none 
 but what has been delivered down to us by tradition."! — 
 Fourthly, the tradition of which we now treat, is not a local but 
 an universal tradition, as widely spread as the Catholic Church 
 itself is, and everywhere found the same. The maxim of the 
 sententious Tertullian must be admitted: "Error, of course, 
 varies ; but that doctrine which is one and the same among 
 many, is not an error but a tradition.":]: However liable men, 
 and particularly illiterate men, are to believe in fables, yet if, 
 
 on the discovery of America, the inhabitants of it, from Hud. 
 
 / 
 
 * See Fleury's Mceurs de Chrdt. Hartley in B.Watson's Col -x). t. p. 91 
 
 t *' Nil innovetur : nil nisi quod tradituni est." Steph. Popa ... 
 
 X " Variasse deberet error, sed quod unum apud multos invemtur, non eat 
 •natujn, sed traditum." Praescrip. advers- Haeret. 
 
TIF TRUE RULE. T0 
 
 son's Bay ^o Capp Horn, had been found to ag ce in the sanna 
 account of their origin and gene^'ai history, we should cer.ainly 
 give credit to them. But, fifthly, in the present case, they are 
 not the Catholics alone of different ages and nations, who vouch 
 for the traditions in question — I mean those rejected by Pro- 
 testants — but all the subsistinjr heretics and schismatics of form- 
 er ages without exception. The Nestorians and Eutychians, for 
 example, deserted the Catholic Church, in defence of opposite 
 errors, near 1,400 years ago, and still form regular churches, 
 under bishops and patriarchs, throughout the East : in like man- 
 ner the Greek schismatics, properly so called, broke off from 
 the Latin Church, for the last time, in the eleventh century. 
 Theirs is well known to be the prevailing religion of Christians 
 throughout the Turkish and Russian empires. Nevertheless, 
 these and all the other Christian sectaries of ancient dates, in 
 every article in dispute between Catholics and Protestants, (ex- 
 cept that concerning the pope's supremacy,) agree with the 
 former and condemn the latter.* Let Dr. Porteus, and the other 
 controvertists who declaim against the alleged ignorance and 
 vices of the Catholic clergy and laity, during the five or six 
 ages preceding the Hcformation, and pretend to show how the 
 tenets which they object to might have been introduced into our 
 church, explain how precisely the same could have been quietly 
 received by the Nestorians at Bagdad, the Eutychians at Alex- 
 andria, and the Russian Greeks at Moscow ! All these, and 
 particularly the last named, were ever ready to find fault with 
 us upon subjects of comparatively small consequence, such as 
 the use of unleavened bread in the sacrament, the days and 
 manner of our fasting, and even the mode of shaving our beards ; 
 and yet, so far from objecting to the pretended novelties of pray- 
 ers for the dead, addresses to the saints, the mass, the real pre- 
 sence, &c., they have always professed, and continue to profess, 
 these doctrines and practices as zealously as we do. 
 
 Finally, by way of further answer to his lordship's shameful 
 calumny, that the ancient " clergy and laity were so universally 
 and monstrously ignorant and vicious, that nothing was too bad 
 for them to do, or too absurd for them to believe," thereby in- 
 sinuating that the former invented, and the latter were duped 
 hito, the belief of the articles on which the Catholic Church 
 and the Church of England are divided ; as also by way of fur- 
 iner confirming the certainty of tradition, I maintain that it 
 would have been much easier for the ancient clergy to corrupt 
 Iho Scriptures, than the religious belief of the people. For, it 
 
 « See the proots of this in the Perpetuite de la F«i, copied ft im the (vigit 
 Dal documents in the French king's library. 
 
SO' LETTER XI. 
 
 is wdl known that the Scriptures were chieily i?i the hand* of 
 the clergy, and that, before the use of printing, in the fifteenth 
 century, the copies of it were renewed and multiplied in the 
 monasteries by the labor of the monks, who, if they had been 
 S'j wicked, might, with some prospect of success, have attempted 
 to alter the New Testament, in particular, as they pleased : 
 whereas the doctrines and practices of the church were in the 
 hands of the people of all civilized nations, and, therefore^ 
 could not be altered without their knowledge and consent, 
 Hence, wherever religious novelties had been introduced, a vio- 
 lent opposition to them, and of course, tumults and schisms 
 would have ensued. If they had been generally received 
 in one country, as, for example, in France, this would have 
 been an occasion of their being rejected with redoubled anti 
 pathy in a neighboring hostile nation, as, for instance, Eng. 
 land. Yet none of these disturbances or schisms do we read 
 of, respecting any of the doctrines or practices of our religion 
 objected to by Protestants, either in the same kingdom, or among 
 the different states of Christianity. I said that the doctrines 
 and practices of religion were in the hands of all " the people." 
 In fact, they were all, in every part of the church, obliged to 
 receive the holy sacrament at Easter ; now they could not do 
 this without knowing whether they had been previously taughl 
 to consider this as bread and wine taken in memory of Christ, or 
 as the real body and Mood of Christ himself. If they had ori- 
 ginally 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, 
 without recollecting, whether they had previously been in- 
 structed 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 impostors who preached up such supposed 
 superstitions to them ; as, in this case, we are sure they mufl 
 have done ? In a word, there is but one way of accounting fcf 
 the alleged alterations in the doctrines of the church, that mer- 
 lioned by the learned Dr. Bailey ;* which is, to suppose that, on 
 some one night, all the Christians of the world went to sleep 
 sound Prjtestants, and awoke the next morning rank Papists I 
 
 IV. I now come to consider the benefits derived from the 
 Catholic rule or method of religion. The first part of this rule 
 
 • He was son of the Bishop of Bangor, and becoming a convert to the 
 Catholic Church, wrote several works in her defence ; and, among the leat 
 one under the title of these letters, and another that of ^ ChalUnge, 
 
THE TRIE RULE. '81 
 
 ooiid ucts US to the second part ; that is to say, iraditior. 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, aa 
 a laere human testimony, not as a rule of faith, can only fbna 
 an act of human faith, that is to say, an opinion of its bemg in. 
 spired;* whereas Catholics, believing in the tradition of the 
 cnurch, as a divine rule, are enabled to believe in the Scrip- 
 tures with a firm faith, 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 properly qualified and 
 disposed, to read it for their edification. 
 
 In perusing the books of the Old Testament, some of the 
 most striking passages are those which regard the prerogatives 
 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, the 
 strongest proofs of its being an infallihle guide in the way of 
 salvation. The texts alluded to have been already cited. 
 Hence we look upon the church with increased veneration, and 
 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. Still ingfleet, and has since been adopted by 
 many other controvertists. They say to us, you argue in, what 
 logicians call, a vicious circle : for you prove Scripture hy your 
 church, and then your church hy Scripture. -\ This is like John 
 
 * Chillingworth in his Religion of Protestants, chap, ii., expressly teaches, 
 that " The books of Scripture are not the objects of our faith," and that " a 
 man may be saved, who should not believe them to be the vv^ord of God " 
 
 t Certain respectable persons having expressed a wish that the writer 
 had given a more detailed answer to the vulgar objections, that Catholics 
 argue in, what logicians call a circulus vitiosus, by proving the church 
 from the Scripture, and the Scripture frorn the church; he here adds tlia 
 
 following analysis, or explanation of his faith. 1 believe the Catholic 
 
 Church, and therefore every thing which she teaches, upon the motives jf 
 
 eredibilily, namely, her unity, sanctity, &c. which accompany her. Now, 
 
 among other things which she teaches me, is this, that a certain book, which 
 she has always carefully kept in her possession, called the Scriptures^ is the 
 
 inspired word of God. Examining this book, among n any things hard to 
 
 be understood, I find several things very easy and clear, particularly thoae 
 which regard the church herself; namely, that she is founded on a rock^ 
 against which the gates of hell shall not prevail; thit Christ will remain 
 with her for ever; and that his Holy Spirit shall teach her all truth, 
 finally, tk«t she i« the pillar and foundation of truth. TUese divine tesQ 
 
82 LETTER XI. 
 
 giving a character /p Thomas, and Thomas a character to John 
 — True it is, that I prove the inspiration of Scripture by the 
 tradition of the church, and that I prove the infalUhility of the 
 church by the testimony of Scripture, which are two distinct 
 things; but you must take notice, that independently of, and 
 piior to, the testimony of Scripture, I knew from tradition, and 
 the general arguments of the credibility of Christiajiity, that 
 the church is an illustrious society, instituted by Christ, and 
 that its pastors have been appointed by him to guide me in the 
 way of salvation. In a word, it is not every kind of mutual 
 testimony which runs in a vicious circle : for the Baptist bore 
 testimony to Christ, and Christ bore testimony to the Baptist. 
 
 V. The advantage, and even necessity, of having a 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 Protest- 
 ants, though they claim it, cannot effectually exercise it, as we 
 have shown, on account of their opposite fundamental principle 
 of private judgment. Hence, when debates arise among Catho- 
 lics 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 con- 
 tentions, 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 church, he is," of course, regarded 
 as "a heathen and a publican." On the other hand, dissen- 
 sions in any Protestant society, which adheres to its fundamen- 
 tal rule of religious liberty, must be irremediable and endless. 
 
 VI. The same method which God has appointed to keep 
 
 monies confirm and increase my veneration for, and my confidence in the 
 church, which church, however, I had learnt to revere and beUeve, before I 
 
 opened the Scriptures. Thus the phantom of a circulM vitiosusy in 
 
 which two unproved things are adduced to prove each other, which Protest, 
 ants have conjured up against the faith of Caihohcs, quite disappears. — To 
 elucidate this matter more clearly, I will suppose myself to Hve in a remote 
 part of the island, where a personage, with all the insignia and other moral ev 
 dence of his being the King's delegate, presents himself to me and delivetjj 
 me a letter, which he assures me was written to me by his majesty. My 
 first care, in common prudence, is to ascertain the character and credibihty 
 of the messenger. These being made out to my entire satisfaction, I open 
 the royal letter, in which, among other things, I read as follows : *' The 
 bearer of this letter is fully informed of our royal meaning and will, as to the 
 contents of it, and of every thing relating to your duty and our service : you 
 will therefore gi^^e the same credit to his declarations, as if they were per 
 Bonally given you by ourselves." Hav#ig perused this passage of the letter 
 my respect for the messenger cannot but increase, though, at first, I believed 
 't to come from the king upon his testimony 
 
THE TRUE RULE. 83 
 
 p'-ace in his church, he has also appointtd tc p 'eserve it in the 
 breasts of her several children. Hence, ^vhile other Christians, 
 who have no rule of faith but their own fluctuating opinions 
 " are carried about by every wind of doctrine," and are agitator 
 by dreadful doubts and fears, as to the safety of the road they 
 are in ; Catholics, being moored to the rock of Christ's churcli, 
 n9\er experience any apprehension whatsoever on this head 
 The truth of this may be ascertained by questioning pious 
 Catholics, and particularly those who have been seriously con- 
 verted from any species of Protestantism. Such persons are 
 gensrally found to speak in raptures of the peace and security 
 tney enjoy in the communion of the 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, 
 [ have mentioned, in my former letter, that great numbers of Pro- 
 testants, 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 concealed from public no- 
 tice. On the other hand, a challenge has been frequently 
 made by Catholics (among the rest by Sir Toby Matthews, 
 Dean Cressy, F. Walsingham, Molines dit Flechiere, and Ulric, 
 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 judg- 
 ment," is no less fallacious than the rule of fanatics, who im- 
 agine themselves to be directed by an individual, private inspi- 
 ration. I have shown that this rule is evidently unserviceable 
 to infinitely 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 sufHcient, 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 Mas- 
 ter Christ, did not establish this rule, nor his apostles follow it ; 
 tha. tJie Protestant churches, and that of England in particular 
 were not founded according to this rule ; that individual Protest* 
 ants have not been guided by it in the choice of their religion j 
 and, finally, that the adoption of it leads to uncertainty and un» 
 easiness 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 written, 
 together with the authority of the living j>astors of the church 
 ill explaining it, was appointed by Christ; was followed by the 
 
84 LETTER XII. 
 
 apostles ; was maintained by the holy fathers ; lias been re 
 sorted to from necessity, in both partici lars, by the Protestani 
 congregations, though with the worst success, from the impos- 
 sibility of uniting private judgment with it; that tradition lays 
 a firn- ground ior divine faith in Scripture ; that these two 
 united .ogether as one rule, and each bearing testimony to the 
 living, spi^aking authority of the church in expounding that rule^ 
 tijis churoh is preserved in peace and union through all ages 
 and na'ions ;* and, in short, that Catholics, by adhering to this 
 rule und authority, live and die in peace and security, as far as 
 regards the truth of their religion. 
 
 It remains for you, dear sir, and your religious friends, who 
 have called me into the field of controversy, to determine which 
 of the two methods you will follow, in settlinor your religious 
 concerns for time and FOR ETERNITY ! Were it possible 
 for me to err in following the Catholic method, with such a mass 
 of evidence in its favor, methinks I could answer at the judg. 
 ment-seat of Eternal Truth, with a pious writer of the middle 
 ages : " Lord, if I have been deceived, thou art the author of 
 my error. "f Whereas, should you be found to have mis. 
 taken the right way, by depending upon your own private opin- 
 ion, 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 earn 
 estly for God's holy grace to enlighten and strengthen you. 
 
 I am, dear sir, dz;c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XIL— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. &c 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 I AM not forgetful of the promise I made in my last letter hi:! 
 one, to answer the contents of those which I had .hen received 
 from yourself, Mr. Topham, and Mr. Askew. Within these 
 few lays I have received other letters froi.i yourself and Mr. 
 Topham, which, equally with the former, call for my attention. 
 Hdwever, as it would take up a great deal of time to write sepa- 
 rate answers to each of these letters, and, as I know that they 
 are arguments and not formalities which you expe{ I 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 con- 
 tribute to the brevity and perspicuity of my letter, if I arrange 
 
 • * DomiciHiuin pacis et unitatis." — S. Cyp. Ep. 46. t Hugh of St. V/ctor 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 86 
 
 the several objections, from whomsoever they came, i nder thoii 
 proper heads, and if, on this occasion, I make use oi the scho- 
 lastic instead of the epistolary style, I shall adopi both these 
 methods. I must, however, remark, before I enter upon )ny 
 .ask, 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 extracted from Archlishop 
 Seeker's Sermons on the same subject, which, themselves, were 
 culled out of his predecessor Tillotson'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 have eternal life : and they are they which 
 testify of me," John, v. 35. Again, the Jews of Berea are com- 
 mended by the sacred penman, " in that they search the Scrip- 
 tures 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 particularly by 
 Tertullian, to protest against your and their right to argue from 
 Scripture, and, of course, must deny that there is any necessity 
 of my replying to any objections which you may draw from it. 
 For I have reminded you that no prophecy of Scripture is of any 
 private interpretat'on ; and I have proved to you that the whole 
 business of the Scriptures belongs to the church. She has pre- 
 served them, she vouches for them, and she alone, by confront- 
 ing the several passages with each other, and with tradition, 
 authoritatively explains them. Hence it is impossible that the 
 real sense of Scripture should ever be against l^r and her doc- 
 trine ; and hence, of course, I might quash every objection 
 which you can draw froAi any passage in it by this short reply : 
 The church understands the passage differently from you : there- 
 fore you mistake its meaning. Nevertheless, as charity heareth 
 all things and never faileth, I will, for the better satisfying of 
 you and your friends, quit my vantage ground for the present, 
 and answer distinctly to every text, not yet answered by me, 
 which any of your gentlemen, or which Dr. Porteus himself, 
 has brought against the Catholic rule or method of religion. 
 
 By way of answering your first objection, let me ask you, 
 whether Christ, by telling the Jews to " search the Scriptures," 
 intimated that they were not to believe in his unwritten word, 
 which he was then preaching, nor to hear " his apostJes and 
 
 8 
 
86 LETTER XII. 
 
 tlieir Fiiccessors," with whom he promised " to remain for evei ?* 
 I ask, secondly, on what particular question Christ referred t« 
 the Sc:ripture — 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 question between him and the infidel Jews was, whether he 
 was or was not the Messiah. In proof that he was the Messiah, 
 he adduced the ordinary motives of credibility, as they have been 
 detailed by your late worthy rector, Mr. Carey, namely, the 
 miracles ne wrought, and the prophecies in the Old Testament 
 that were fulfilled in him, as likewise the testimony of St. John 
 the Baptist. The same is to be said of the commendations be. 
 stowed by St. Luke on the Bereans. They searched the an- 
 cient prophecies, 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 Christianity, 
 without saying any thing yet to them about our rule of faith or 
 judge of controversies. 
 
 Dr. Porteus objects what St. Luke says at the beginning of 
 his gospel : " It seemed good to me also, having had perfect un- 
 derstanding of all things from the very first, to write 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 written that 
 ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and 
 that believing, ye might have life through his name." 
 
 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 
 Theophilus did not believe the articles in which he had been in- 
 structed by word of mouth till he read his gospel ! or that tlw 
 evangelist gainsayed the authority given by Christ to his disci- 
 ples : " He that heareth you heareth me," which he himself 
 records, Luke, x. 16. In like manner the prelate cannot sup- 
 pose, that this testimony of St. John sets aside other testimo- 
 nies of Christ's divinity, or that our belief in this single article, 
 withou/ other conditions, will ensure eternal life. 
 
 Having quoted these texts, which to me appear so inconclu- 
 sive, the bishop adds, by way of proving that Scripture is suffi- 
 ciently intelligible : " Surely the apostles were not worse wri- 
 ters, with divine assistance, than others commonly are without ii.'' 
 
 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. P«>t«r 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 87 
 
 declaring that thtre are in the epistles of St. PauI. "Some 
 things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable 
 wrest, as they do all the other Scriptures, unto their own de- 
 struction," (2 Peter, iii. 16,) and to the instances which occur in 
 the gospels, of the very apostles frequently misunderstanding 
 the meaning of their Divine Master. 
 
 The learned prelate says elsewhere : " The New Testament 
 supposes them (the generality of people) capable of judging for 
 themselves, and, accordingly, requires them not only, to try the 
 tjnJtts whether they be of God, (1 John, iv. 1,) but to prove all 
 things, and holdfast that which 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, " many 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 Christ 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 
 Christian, to see whether the doctrine of these spirits was, or 
 was not, " conformable to that which they had learned from the 
 church." The second rule was : " He that knoweth God hear- 
 eth us ; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know 
 we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error : " namely, he bids 
 them observe whether these teachers did or did not listen to the 
 divinely constituted pastors of the church. Dr. Porteus is evi- 
 dently here quoting Scripture for our rule, not against it. The 
 same is to be said of the other text. Prophecy was exceeding- 
 ly common at the beginning of the church : but, as we have just 
 seen, there were false prophets, as well as true prophets 
 Hence, while the apostle defends this supernatural gift in gene 
 ral, " Despise not prophesyings," he admonishes the Thessa- 
 lonians to prove them ; not certainly by their private opinions 
 which would be the source of endless discord ; but by the es' 
 tablished rules of the church, and, particularly, by that which 
 he tells them "to hold fast," (2 Thess. ii. 15,) namely, tradition 
 
 Dr. P., in another place, urges the exhortation of St. Paul to 
 Timothy: "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learn- 
 ed and hast been assured of, knowing oi'' whom thou hast 
 learned them : ar^d that from a child thou hast known the Holy 
 Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise to salvation, 
 through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripturri is given by ins pi- 
 ration of God, and is profitable for doctrine for reproof," &c. 
 2 Tim. iii. 
 
 Answer. Does, then, the prelate m«an to say, that the fonn. 
 
89 ^ETTER XI.. 
 
 of sound words which Timothy had hea.xJ from St. Paul, and 
 which he was commanded to hold fast, i] 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 lat- 
 ter of Scripture. 
 
 Against tradition, Dr. P. and yourself quote Mark vii., where 
 the Pharisees and scribes asked Christ : " Why walk not thy 
 disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread 
 with unwashed hands ? He answered and said to them : in 
 vain do they worship me, teaching FOR* doctrines the com- 
 mandments of men. For, laying aside the commandment of 
 God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots:^nd 
 cups," &c. 
 
 Answer. Among the traditions which prevailed at the time 
 of our Saviour, som.e 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 humarij 
 and of a recent date, introduced, as St. Jerom 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 observa- 
 tion of the Lord's day, the lawfulness of invoking the prayers oi 
 the ejaints, and other things not clearly contained in Scripture : 
 and there are, among many Catholics, historical and even fabu- 
 lous traditions.! Now it is to the former, as avowed to be di- 
 vine by the church, that we appeal • of the others every one 
 may judge as he thinks best. 
 
 You both, likewise, quote Coloss. ii. 8, " Beware lest any 
 man spoil (cheat) you through philosophy and vain deceit, after 
 the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not 
 after Christ " 
 
 Answer. The apostle himself informs the Colossians what 
 kind of traditions he here speaks of, where he says : " Let no 
 man therefore judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of any 
 holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days." The 
 
 * This particle FOR, which in some degree affects the sense, is a corrup 
 interpolation, as appears from the original Greek. N. B. The texts which 
 Dr. P. refers to, I quote from the common Bible : his citations of it are fre 
 quently inaccurate. 
 
 t Such are the acts tf several saints condemred by Pope GeJasius: sucll 
 *1ro was the opinion of Christ's reign upon earth for « thcusand years. 
 
ioAj&CnOVii ANSWERED. 89 
 
 ancient fathers and ecclesiastical historians inform us tnat, in 
 the age of the apostles, many Jews and pagan philosophers pro 
 fessed Christianity, but endeavored to ally with it their respec- 
 tive superstitions, and vain speculations, absolutely inconsistent 
 with the doctrine of the gospel. It was against these St. Paul 
 wrote ; not against those traditions which he commanded his 
 converts to hold fast to, whether they had been taught hy word or 
 or by epistle^ 2 Thess. ii. 15 ; nor against those traditions 
 which he commended his other converts for keeping, 1 Cor. xi. 
 2.* Finally, the apostle in that passage did not abrogate this 
 his awful sentence : " Now we command you, brethren, in the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves 
 from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the 
 tradition which he received of us." 2 Thess. iii. 6. 
 
 Against the infallibility of the church in deciding questions 
 of faith, I am referred to various other arguments made use of 
 by Dr. Porteus ; and, in the first place, to 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 ? " 
 I answer by the following comparisons. Every prudent man 
 makes use of his reason to find out an able physician to take 
 care of his health, and an able lawyer to secure his property ; 
 but having found these to his full satisfaction, does 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 plain acknowledged marks 
 which this church bears, he trusts his soul to her unerring 
 judgment, in preference to his own fluctuating 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." Ac- 
 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 boll-man. Most likely the Catholic peasant 
 learns the doctrine of the church from his parish priest ; but 
 then he knows that the doctrine of this priest must be conform- 
 able 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 wi'Ji 
 
 • The English Testament puts tlie word ordinances here for tradition*, 
 contrary to the sense of the origiaal (ireek, and even to the authority of Beza 
 
 8* 
 
90 LITTER Xn. 
 
 them all, never to admit of any tenet, but such as is believed 
 by all the bishops, and was believed 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 Chnst 
 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 pre- 
 late goes on : " In matters, /or which he must rely on authority,''* 
 (mere Scripture then and private judgment, according to the 
 bishop himself, are not always a sufficient rule even for Pro^ 
 testants, but they must in some matters rely on church author- 
 ity,) " in matters, for which he must rely on authority, let him 
 rely on the authority of that church which God's providence 
 has placed him under," (that is to say. whether Catholic, Pro- 
 testant, Socinian, Antinomian, Jewish, &c.) " rather than an- 
 other which he hath nothing to do with," (every Christian has 
 or ought to have, something to do wiih 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 doc- 
 trines to he implicitly 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 assur- 
 ing me that I should not stand in need of guides at all, rather 
 than those who told me, from the first, of the perplexities m 
 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 
 strong grounds, that they will conduct me with perfect safety! 
 ■ Our Episcopal controvertist finishes his admonition " To the 
 ignorant and unlearned," with an address calculated for the stu- 
 pid and bigoted. He says: "Let others build on fathers and 
 popes, on traditions and councils, what they will : let us coniinuo 
 firm, as we are, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
 Jesus Chr.st 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 oiher founda- 
 tion than the revelation made by God to the apostles and prophets ? 
 His lordship knows full well that they do not, and that the only 
 questions at issue are these three : 1st, Whether this revelation 
 has not been made and conveyed by the unwritten, as well as 
 Dy thf written word of God ? Sdly, Whether Christ did not 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 91 
 
 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 commission, it is consist- 
 ent with common sense, for each Protestant ploughman and 
 mechani.3, to persuade himself that he, individually, (for he 
 cannot, according to his rule, build on the opinion of other Pro- 
 testants, though he could find any whose faith exactly tallied 
 with his own,) that he, I say, individually, understands the 
 Scriotures 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, ridicules the 
 idea of infallibility being lodged in any mortal mao^ 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 convic- 
 tion of his own infallibility, one might think, would induce him 
 to prefer his own judgment, in matters of religion, to that of 
 the church of all ages and all nations. Secondly, if this objec- 
 tion were valid, it would prove that the apostles themselves 
 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 telling 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 
 furnishes answers to divers other objections and questions of 
 Dr. P. The church do es not decide the controversy concerning 
 the conception of the blessed Virgin, and several other dispu- 
 ted points, because she sees nothing absolutely clear and cer- 
 tain 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 pre 
 phecy of Enoch, quoted by Jude 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 'lanslated 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 or. 
 
 • The great Bossuet obliged the minister, Claude, in his conference with 
 him, openly to avow this principle ; which, in fact, every consistent Prot- 
 estant must avow, who maintains his private interpretation of the Bible tt 
 be the only rule of his faith. 
 
92 LETTER in. 
 
 dained in the old law that every controversy should De decided 
 by the priests and Levites, Deut. xvii. 8, and yet that these 
 avowedly erred in rejecting 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 to be high-minded, 
 hut 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 promises of Christ to belong to them or their 
 successors, more than to the inhabitants of any other city. In- 
 deed it is the opinion of some of our most learned commenta- 
 tors, 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 into all truth— and that he himself will 
 remain with it for ever, were made to the church of all nations 
 and all times, in communion with St. Peter and his successors, 
 the bishops of Rome : and as these promises have been fulfilled, 
 during a succession of eighteen centuries, contrary to the usual 
 and natural course of events, and by the visible protection of 
 the Almiirhty ; so we rest assured that he will continue to fulfil 
 them, till the 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 points ; but let me ask his lordship, whether he 
 finds any Catholic 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 Cath- 
 olic bishops, is secure from error ? Most certainly not : and 
 hence he may gather where all Catholics agree in lodging infal- 
 libility. In like manner, with respect to our national constitu- 
 tion ; 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 ; and this suflices for all practical purposes. 
 
 * See Cornel, a Lapid. in Apocalyp 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 03 
 
 But w.ien, 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 in 
 genuity and learning of the Porteuses, Seekers, and Tillotsons 
 have raised against the unchangeable Catholic rule and inter- 
 preter of faith : say, is there any thing sufficiently clear and 
 certain in them, to oppose to the luminous and sure principles 
 on which the Catholic method is placed ? Do they afford 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 To- 
 Has answered his father — / know not the way, Sfc; — 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 
 «?nabled to join with the happy converts of ancient and modern 
 times,* in this hymn of praise : " I give thee thanks, O God, 
 my enlightener and deliverer, for that thou hast opened the eyes 
 o^ my soul to know thee. Alas ! too late have I known thee, 
 C ancient and eternal truth ! too late have I known thee." 
 
 I am, dear sir, yours, (fee. 
 
 Jo:iN MiLNER. 
 9*„ Austin's Soliloquies, c 33, quoted by Dean Creasy, Rxomol p 65& 
 
THB 
 
 END OF RELIGIOUS CONTRO\^ERSY. 
 
 PART II 
 
 •* There are many other things which keep me in the bosom of the Cainolio 
 Church. The agreement of diflerent people and nations keeps me there. The 
 authority established by miracles, nourished by hope, increased by charity, and 
 confirmed by antiquity, keeps me there. The succession of bishops in tf..e see 
 of St. Peter, the apostle, (to whom our Lord, after his resurrection, committed 
 his sheep to be fed,) down to the present bishop, keeps me there. Finally, ihe 
 very name of CATHOLIC, which, among so many heresies, this church alone 
 possesses, keeps me there." — St. Augustin, Doctor of the Churchy A. D. 400, 
 contra Epist. Pundam. c 4 
 
 ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRUE 
 CHURCH. 
 
 LETTER XUL— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. &c. 
 
 ON THE TRUE CHURCH. 
 
 Dear sir — 
 
 The letters which I have received from you, and some othei* 
 of your reJigious society, satisfy me that I have not altogether 
 lost my labor in endeavoring to prove to you, that the pnvate 
 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 
 fcay, the great bulk of mankind — why, I say, you should not, as 
 he advises you, " rely on the authority of that church, which 
 God's providence hath placed you under, rather than on 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 
 
 • Confutation of Errors of Popery, p. 30. 
 
THE TRUE CHURCH. 95 
 
 you in your road to heaven, with equal security as to t le Church 
 of Rome? — Before I answer you, permit me to congiatulate 
 with you on your advance towaixls the clear sight of the wliole 
 truth of revelation. As long as you profess to hunt out the 
 several articles of divine revelation, one by one, through the 
 several books of Scripture, and under all the difficulties and 
 uncertainties which, as I have clearly shown, attend this study, 
 your task was interminable, and your success hopeless ; 
 whereas now, by taking the church of God for your guide, you 
 have but one simple inquiry to make, " Which is this church ?" 
 A question that admits of being solved by " men of good will," 
 with equal certainty ?,rid facility. I say, there is but one in- 
 quiry to be made, namely, •' Which is the true church ?" be- 
 cause if there is any one rel;i/ious truth more evident than the 
 others from reason, from tie 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 temple of God," as an ancii;nt father of the church expresses 
 it.§ Hence it is as clear as the noonday-light, that by soWing 
 this one question, " Which is the *rue chuKjli ?" you will at 
 once solve every question of religious controversy that ever has 
 been, or that ever can be agitated. You will not need to spend 
 your life in studying the Sacred Scriptures in their original lan- 
 guages, and their authentic copies, and in confronting passages 
 with each other, from Genesis to Revelations — a task by no 
 means calculated, as is evident, for the bulk of mankind ; you 
 will only have to hear what the church teaches upon the seve- 
 ral articles of her faith, in order to know with certainty what 
 God has revealed concerning them. Neither need you hearken 
 
 * Speaking of the future church of the Gentiles, the Almighty thus prom- 
 ises, by Isaiah : " Sing, barren, thou that didst not bear, &c. : as I have 
 Bworn tbai 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 moun- 
 tains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart 
 from thee." &c., liv. See also lix., Ix., Ixiii. Jerem. xxxiii. Ezech. xxxvii. 
 Dan. n Psalm. Ixxxix. 
 
 t * Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not 
 preva'l against it." Matt. xvi. 18. "I am with you all days, even until 'J'HE 
 END OF THE WORLD." Matt, xxviii. 20. " I will i ray the Father, 
 and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide 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 GR0UND OF TRUTH." 1 Tim. iii. 14. 
 
 t I BELIEVE THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, or, I BELIEVE 
 IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Art. ix. The article is read 
 differently by different holy fathers ; but, either way, it means the eaire thing. 
 
 ^ Lactan. De Divin. Inst. I. 4. 
 
96 LETTER XIII. 
 
 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, you and your 
 friend may not submit to be guided by the Church of England, 
 OT any other Protestant church to which you respectively be- 
 long?'' — My answer is, Because no such church professes, or^ 
 consistently with the fundamental Protestant rule of private 
 judgment, can profess, to be a guide in matters of religion. If 
 you admit, but for an instant, church authority, then Luther, 
 Calvin, and Cranmer, with all the q^ther founders of Protestantism, 
 were evidently heretics in rebelling against it. In short, no 
 other church but the Catholic can claim to be a religious guide, 
 because, evidently, 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,-]- and 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. But 
 to follow this method of finding out the true church, would be to 
 throw ourselves back into those endless controversies concern- 
 ing 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 at a levee, some person 
 were to inquire of his neighbor, " Which of the personages pre- 
 sent is the prince regent?" and that he was to receive for 
 answer, " It is the king's eldest son :" would this answer, how- 
 ever 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 or such a place, 
 these exterior marks would at once put him in possession of the 
 mformation he was in search of. Thus we Catholics, when we 
 are asked, " Which are the marks of the true church ?" point 
 out certain exterior, visible marks, such as plain, unlearned per- 
 sons can discover, if they will take ordinary pains for this pur- 
 pose, 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 truo 
 
 • D« Concii. Eccles. t Inst. 1. 41. t Ait. 19 
 
THE TRUE CHUnCH. 97 
 
 marks by which it is to be distinguished. Yes, my dear sir, 
 these marks of the true church are so plain in themselveB, and 
 so evidently point it out, that, as the prophet Isaias has foretold, 
 XXXV. S, fools cannot err in the road to it. They are the flaming 
 beacons which for ever shine on the mountain at the top of the 
 mountains of the Lord's house. Isai. ii. 2. In short, the par- 
 ticular motives for credibility which point out the " true church 
 of Christ," demonstrate this with no less certitude and evidence, 
 than the general motives of credibility demonstrate the " truth 
 of the Christian religion." 
 
 The chief marks of the true church, which I shall here as- 
 sign, are not only conformable to reason, Scripture, and tradi- 
 tion, but (which is a most fortunate circumstance) they are such 
 as the Church of England, and most other respectable denomi- 
 nations 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 this 
 you say, I BELIEVE IN ONE CATHOLIC AND APOS- 
 TOLIC 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, SANCTITY, CATH- 
 OLICITY, and APOSTOLICITY. It is agreed upon, then, 
 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 APOSTOLIC. 
 Thrice happy, dear sir, I deem it, that we agree together, by 
 the terms of our common creeds, in a matter of such infinite 
 importance, for the happy termination of all our controversies, 
 as are these qualities or characters of the true church, which- 
 cvei that may be found to be ! Still, notwithstanding this 
 tgreement in our creeds, I shall not omit to illustrate these char- 
 icters or marks, as I treat them, by arguments from reason, 
 loripture, and the ancient fathers 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milnek. 
 
9S LETTER XIV. 
 
 LETl ER XIV.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ Ae 
 
 UNITY OF THE JHURCH. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 Nothing is more clear to natural reason, than that (rod can 
 net be the author of different religions : for being the Eterna. 
 Truth; he cannot reveal contradictory doctrines ; and being eh 
 tho same time, "the Eternal Wisdom," and " the God of peace,'* 
 he cannot establish a " kingdom divided against itself." Hence 
 i; follows, that the church of Christ must be strictly ONE ; one 
 in "doctrine," one in "worship," 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. Our Saviour, then, speaking of himself, in the character 
 of the good Shepherd, says': " I have other sheep" (the Gentiles) 
 " which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, and they 
 shall hear my voice, and there shall be ONE FOLD, and one 
 Shepherd." John, x. 16. To the same effect, addressing hi? 
 heavenly Father, previously to his passion, he says : " I 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 emphatically inculcates the unity of the 
 church, where he writes : " We being many are ONE BODY 
 in Christ, and every one members one of another." Rom. xii. 5. 
 Again he writes : " There is ONE BODY and one spirit, as 
 you are called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, ONE 
 FAITH, and one baptism." Ephes. iv. 4, 5. Conformably 
 with this doctrine, respecting the necessary unity of the church, 
 this apostle reckons HERESIES among the sins which exclude 
 from the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 20 ; and he requires that a 
 man who is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, he re- 
 jected. Tit. iii. 10. 
 
 The apostolical fathers, St. Polycarp and St. Ignatius, in their 
 published epistles, hold precisely the same language on this sub- 
 ject with St. Paul ; as does also their disciple, St. Irenaeus, who 
 writes thus : " No reformation can be so advantageous, as the 
 e^ il of schism is permcious."* The great light of the third cen- 
 tury, St. Cyprian, has left us a whole book on the un 'y 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 con- 
 cord. This unity cannot suffer a division, nor this one body 
 bear to be disjointed. — He cannot have Gcd for his Father, who 
 
 » De Haer. 1. i. c. 3 
 
PROTESTANT DISUNION. 99 
 
 nas not the church for his mother. If any one 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 illustrious St. John 
 Chrysostom, writes thus : " We know that salvation belongs to 
 the church alone, and that no one can partake of Christ, nor he 
 saved out of the Catholic Church andfaiih,''-\ The language of 
 St. Augustin, in the fifth century, is equally strong on this sub- 
 ject, in numerous passages. Among others, the synodical epis- 
 tle of the Council of Zerta, in 412, drawn up by this saint, tells 
 the Donatist schismatics : " Whoever 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 him.^'X 
 To the same effect, and not less emphatical, are the testimonies 
 of St. Fulgentius and St. Gregory the Great, in the sixth cen- 
 tury, in various passages of their writings. I shall content my- 
 self 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 for- 
 giveness of sins, nor is the happiness of eternal life to be found. "§ 
 In short, such has been the language of the fathers and the doc- 
 tors of the church in all ages, concerning her essential unity, 
 and the indispensable obligation of being united to her. Such 
 also have been the formal declarations of the church herself, in 
 those decrees by which she has condemned and anathematized 
 the several heretics and schismatics that have dogmatized in 
 succession, whatever has been the quality of their errors, or tho 
 pretext for their disunion. — I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XV.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c 
 
 PROTESTANT DISUNION. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 In the inquiry I am abcut to make respecting the church or 
 aoDiety of Christians, to which this mark of unity belongs, it will 
 
 « Cypr. de Unit. Oxon. p. 109. t Horn. 1. in Pasc. 
 
 X Concil. Labbe. torn. ii. p. 1520. 
 
 § Lib. de Remiss. Peccat. c. 23— N.B. This doctrine concerning the unity 
 of the church, and the necessity of adhering to it, under pain of damnatioOi 
 which appears so rigid to modern Protestants, was almost universally taughi 
 by iheir predecessors: as, for example, by Calvin, 1. iv. Instit. 1., and Beza, 
 Confess. Fid. c. v. ; by thj Hugueno'.a in their catechism ; by the Scotch, in 
 th«ir Profession of 1568 ; by the Church of England, Art. 18 ; by the cel« 
 
iOO LETTER XV. 
 
 be sufficiBut for my purpose to consider, that of Protestants on 
 one hand, and that of Catholics on the other. To speak proper- 
 ly, however, it is an absurdity to talk of the "church or society 
 of Protestants ;" for the term PROTESTANT expresses " noth- 
 ing positive," much less any union or association of persons : it 
 barely signifies one who protests, or declares, against some other 
 person or persons, thing or things ; and in the present 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. Augustin reckons up 
 ninety heresies, which had protested against the church be- 
 fore his time, that is, during the first four hundred years of 
 her existence ; and ecclesiastical writers have counted about 
 the same number, that rose up since that period, down to the 
 era of Luther's protestation, which took place early in the six- 
 teenth 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 Protestants : and, 
 alas ! how have Protestant sects, beyond reckoning and descrip- 
 tion, multiplied during the last two hundred years ! Thus has 
 the observation of the above-cited holy father been verified in 
 modern, no less than it was in former ages, where he exclaims: 
 " Into how many morsels have these sects been broken, who 
 have divided themselves from the unity of the 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 Calvinistic progenies. Numer- 
 ous other variations, dissensions, and mutual persecutions, even 
 to the extremity of death,-|- which have taken place among them, 
 I have had occasion to mention in my former letters and other 
 
 brated Bishop Pearson, &c. The last-named writes thus : " Christ never 
 appointed two ways to heaven ; nor did he build a church, to 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 eternal wrath of God, which belongs not to the church 
 of God."— Exposit. of Creed, p. 349. 
 
 « St. Aug. contra Petillian. 
 
 t liUther 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 so^ s,for whom it is not law- 
 ful to pray. Epist. ad Arginten. Catech. Parv. O mment. in Gen. His fol. 
 lowers persecuted Bucer, Melancthon's ne.phew, with imprisonment, and put 
 CrelHus to death, for endeavoring to soften their master's doctrine in thi? 
 point. Mosheim by Maclaine, 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 mergan. 
 tur,-** which sentence was accordingly executed at Zurich. Limboreh. In. 
 
 ^ ^^^-SUy i\.tAU(Al^\t^n 
 
PROTESTANT DISUNION. 101 
 
 H dirks* I have also quoted the lamentations of Calvin, Dudith, 
 and other h<^ads of the Protestants, on the subject of these divi- 
 sions. You will recollect, in particular, what the latter writes 
 concerning those differences : " Our people are carried away by 
 every v-ind of doctrine. If 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 aa 
 impiety. "f 
 
 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 favor of Protestants, or to 
 pretend that they, who are united in nothing but in their hostility 
 towards the Catholic Church, can form the one church we profess 
 to believe, in the creed ! Perhaps, however, you will say that 
 the mark of unity, which is wanting among the endless divi- 
 sions of Protestants in general, may be found in the church to 
 which you belong, the Established Church of England. — I 
 grant, dear sir, that your communion has better pretensions to 
 this, and the other marks of the church, than any other Protest- 
 ant society has. She is, as our controversial poet sings, " The 
 least deformed, because reformed the least. "^ You will recoU 
 lect the account I have given, in a former \& «r,§ of the mate- 
 rial changes which this church has undergone, at different times, 
 since her first formation in the reign of the last Edward, and 
 which place her at variance with herself. Y'ou will also re- 
 member the proofs of Hoadleyism, in other vords, of Socinian- 
 ism, that damnable and cursed heresy, as this church termed it 
 in her last synod, || which I brought against several of her most 
 illustrious bishops, archdeacons, and other digf>itaries of modt rn 
 times. These teach, in official charges to the clergy, in con::e- 
 cration sermons, and in publications addr^ssid to the throne, 
 
 trod. 71. Not content with anathematizing and impriso-^'og those reformers 
 'Kho dissented from his system, John Calvin caused two of them, Servt/aa 
 and Gruet, to be put to death. The Presbyterians of Hollard and New Eng- 
 land were equally intolerant with respect to other Jenominaions jf Protest- 
 ants. The latter hanged four Quakers, one of them a won^an, on account 
 of their religion. In England itself, frequent executions of Anabaptists and 
 other Protestants took place, from the reign of Edward VI. till ih>t of Charles 
 I., and other severe, though less sanguinary persecutions of Protestants con 
 tinned till the time of James II. 
 
 * Lett, to a Prebendary, &c. t Epist. ad Capiton. inter. Epipt Bpzaa 
 X Dryden's Hind and Panther. § Letter viii. 
 
 y Constitutions and Canons, A.D. 1640. Sparrow's Collect, p. 355. 
 
 9* 
 
102 LETTER XV. 
 
 that the chur(;h herself is nothing more than a voluntary asso 
 ciation of ceitain people for the benefit of social worship; tha 
 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 catechism) 
 produce no spiritual effect at all ; in short, that all mysteries, 
 and among the rest those of the trinity and incarnation, (for de- 
 nying which the prelates of the Church of England have sent 
 «o many Arians to the stake in the reigns of Edward, Elizabeth, 
 and James I.) are mere nonsense.* When I had occasion to 
 expose this fatal system, (the professors of which, Cranmer and 
 Ridley would have sent at once to the stake,) I hoped it was of 
 a local nature, 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 members. I found, however, the contrary to be gene- 
 lally the case,j" and that the irreligious infection was infinitely 
 more extensive than I apprehended. In fact, I found the most 
 celebrated professors of divinity in the universities, delivering 
 Dr. Balguy's doctrine to the young clergy in their public lec- 
 tures, and the most enlightened bishops publishing it in their 
 pastorals and other works. Among these the Norrisian pro 
 fessor of theology at Cambridge, 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 reconcilable, I must exhort you to 
 confide in him rather than me. "J In fact his idea concerning 
 the mysteries of Christianity, particularly the trinity, and oar 
 redemption by Christ, and indeed concerning most other theolo- 
 gical points, perfectly agree with those of Dr. Balguy. He de- 
 scribes the difference between the members of the Established 
 Church and the Socinians, as consisting in nothing but "a few 
 unmeaning words," and asserts, that " they need never be upou 
 their guard against each other. "§ 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 
 
 * See extracts from the sermons of Bishop Hoadley, Dr. Balguy, and Dr 
 Siuiges, in Letters to a Prebendary, Let. viii. The most perspicuous and 
 nervous of these preachers, unquestionably was Dr. Balguy. See his Ois. 
 courses and Charges. Lockyer- Davis, 1785. 
 
 t That great ornament of the Episcopal bench, Dr. Horsley, Bishop of 
 St. Asaph's, does not fall under this censure ; as he protected the present 
 writer both in and out of Parliament. 
 
 X Loiturcs in Divinity, delivered in the University of Cambridge, by J 
 Ilej , D.D., \s Norrisian Professor, in four volumes, 1797. Vol. ii. p. 104. 
 
 § Ibid, p 41. 
 
PROTESTANT DISUNION. 103 
 
 baptism is one," — he says, " Did I pretend to understand M'hai 
 I say, I might be a Tritheist or an infidel ; but I could not wor- 
 ship the one true God, and acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the 
 Lord of .ill."* 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 f 
 mtisf action, and original sin, as necessary to salvation. "f Ac- 
 cordingly, he equally absolves the Unitarian from impiety, in 
 refusing divine honor to our blessed Saviour, and " the wor- 
 shipper 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 belief was, con- 
 cerning the adorable Trinity and the Divinity of the second per- 
 son of it. I have given, in a former letter, a remarkable pas- 
 sage from the above quoted charge, where Bishop Watson, 
 s^>eaking of the doctrines of Christianity, says to his assembled 
 clergy, " I think it safer to tell you where they are contained, 
 than wliat they are. They are contained in the Bible ; and if, 
 m reading that book, your sentiments should be different from 
 those of your neighbor, or from those of the church, be persuaded 
 that infallibility appertains as little to you, as it does to the 
 church." I have elsewhere exposed the complete Socinianism 
 of Bishop Hoadley 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, II 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, sub- 
 scribe 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. "IT 
 He also quotes a right reverend author who maintains, tha; 
 " No two thinking men ever agreed exactly in their own opinion, 
 even with regard to any one article of it."** He also quotes the 
 famous Bishop Burnet, who says, that " The requiring of sub- 
 scription to the 39 articles is a great imposition,ff and that the 
 greater part of the clergy subscribe the articles without ever exam- 
 ining them, and others do it because they must do it, though they 
 
 * Lectures m Divinity, delivered in the University of Cambridge, by J 
 IL'.y, D D., as Norrisian Professor, in four volumes, 1797. Vol. ii. pp. 25(\ 
 851. T Dr. Watson, Bishop of LandnfT's charge, 1795. 
 
 t Cnllect. of Theol. Tracts, Pref. p. 17. § Letters to a Prebendary. 
 
 II Dr Blackburn, Archdeacon of Cleveland, author of the Confessional. 
 
 T Confess. 3 Ed. p. 45. ** Dr. Clayton, Bishop of Clogher. 
 
 •i Ci nftss. p. (83. 
 
104 LETTER XV. 
 
 can hardly satisfy their consciences about some things in them.''* 
 He shows that the advocates for subscription, Doctors Nichols, 
 Bennet, Waterland, and Stebbing, all vindicated it on opposite 
 grounds ; and he is forced to confess the same thing with respect 
 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 inasmuch as they are agreeahle to Scrip- 
 ture,'\ though the judges of England have declared to the con- 
 trary. if Dr. Sykes alleges that they were either purposely or 
 negligently made equivocal.^ Another writer, whom he praises, 
 undertakes to explain, how " these articles may be subscribed, 
 and consequently believed, by a Sabellian, an orthodox Trini- 
 tarian, a Tritheist, and an Arian so called." After this cita- 
 tion 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 different 
 judgments. "II 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 pe- 
 titioned the legislature to be relieved from the grievance, as they 
 termed it, of subscribing to these articles ;ir nor will you be sur- 
 prised at hearing of the mutilation of the liturgy by so many 
 others, to avoid sanctioning those doctrines of their church, 
 which they disbelieve and reject, particularly the Athanasian 
 Creed and the Absolution.** 
 
 I might disclose a still wider departure from their original 
 confessions of faith, and still more signal dissensions among the 
 different 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 hirn of 
 numerous errors, weaknesses, and faults iff and when -the au. 
 thority of Calvin, in burning Servetus, was objected to him, he 
 answered, " Calvin was a great man, but if a little man be 
 
 » Confess p. 91. t P 222. t P. 183. § P. 237. |1 P. 239 
 
 IT Particularly in 1772. 
 
 ** The omission of the Athanasian Creed, in particular, so often took place 
 in the public service, that an act of Parliament has just been passed, to en. 
 force the repetition of it. But, if the clergymen alluded to really believe 
 that Christ is not God, wha is the legislature doing in Wcing them to woi 
 whip him as Gv)d ! ++ Theolog. Reposit. ■vol. 4. 
 
PROTESTANT DISUNION. I Oft 
 
 placed on the shoulders of a giant, he will be enabled to see 
 further than the giant himself/' The doctrine now preached in 
 the fashionable Unitarian chapels of the metropolis, I undei 
 stand, greatly resembles that of the late Theophilanthropists of 
 France, instituted by an infidel, who was one of the five 
 iirectofs. 
 
 The chief question, however, at present is, whether tha 
 Church of England can lay any claim to the first character or 
 mark ol' the true church, pointed out in our common creed, thai 
 of UNITY ? On this subject I have to observe, that in addition 
 to the dissensions among its members, already mentioned, theie 
 are whole societies, not communicating with the ostensible 
 Church of England, who make very strong and plausible pie- 
 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 the homilies, concerning passive obedience 
 and non-resistance, and who adhere to the first ritual of Edward 
 VI. :* such are the evangelical preachers and their disciples, 
 who insist upon it that pure Calvinism is the creed of the ]''s- 
 tablished Church :f finally, such are the Methodists, whom Pro- 
 fessor Hey describes as forming the old Church of England.\ 
 And even now, it is notorious that many clergymen preach in 
 the churchey in the morning, and in the meeting-houses in the 
 evening ; wnilst their opulent patrons are purchasing as many 
 church livii/gs as they can, in order to fill them with incum, 
 bents 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, you will venture 
 to ascribe to it that first mark of the true church, which you pro- 
 fess to belong to her, when in the face of heaven and earth, you 
 solemnly declare : / believe in ONE Catholic Church 1 Say, is 
 there any single mark or principle of real unity in it ! I anti- 
 cipate the answers your candor will give to these questions. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Miln4R. 
 
 * To this church belonged Ken, and the other six bishops who were is 
 pcsed hx the revolution, as also LesHe, Collier, Hicks, Bret, and many cJic 
 S.-.ief oinaments of the Church of England. 
 
 t It is clear from the articles and homilies, and still more from the porse 
 cution which the asserters of free-will heretofore suflered in this country, tha» 
 the Church of England was Calvinistic till the end of the reign of James I., 
 in the course of which that monarch sent episcopal representatives from Eng 
 land and Scotland to the great Protestant Synod of Dort. These, in iJia 
 name of their resi)ectiv3 churches, signed that " The faithful who fall iiitc 
 atrocious crimes, do not forfeit juatification, or incur camiatlon.** 
 
 i Vol. ii. p. 73 
 
106 LETTER XVr. 
 
 Li ITER XVI.— TO JAMES BROWN, 2iSQ, Ae 
 
 CATHOLIC UNITY. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 We have now to see whether that first mark of the Lrue 
 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 amongst them, the Established 
 Church of England, does or does not appear in that principal 
 and primeval stock of Christianity, called the Catholic Church. 
 [n case this church, spread, as it is, throughout the various na- 
 tions of the earth, and subsisting, as it has done, through all 
 ages, since that of Christ and his apostles, should have main- 
 iained that religious unity, which the modern sects, confined to 
 a hiiigle people, have been unable to preserve, you will allow 
 ihat 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 of 
 communion. The same creeds, namely, the Apostles' Creed, 
 the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Creed of Pope 
 Pius IV., drawn up in conformity with the definitions of the 
 Council of Trent, are everywhere recited and professed, to the 
 Ftrict letter ; the same articles of faith and morality are taught 
 in all our catechisms, the same rule of faith, namely, the re- 
 vealed word of God, contained in Scripture and tradition, and 
 •.he same expositor and interpreter of this rule, the Catholic 
 Church, speaking by the mouth 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 yourself 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 country in various 
 directions. Ask iiem their belief as to the fundamental articles 
 of Christianity, tne unity and trinity of God, the incarnation and 
 death of Christ, his divinity, and atonement for sin by his pas- 
 s'on and death, the necessity of baptism, the nature of the bless- 
 ed sacrament ; question them on these and other such points, 
 but with kindness, patience, and condescension, particularly 
 with respect to their language and delivery, and, I will venture 
 to say, you will not find any essential variation in the answers 
 of mo«t of them ; sod much less such as you will find by pro. 
 
CATHOLIC UNITY. 107 
 
 posing the same questions to an equal number of Protestants, 
 whether learned or unlearned, of the same denomination. At 
 all events, the Catholics, if properly interrogated, will confess 
 their belief in one comprehensive article, namely this : / lelieve 
 whatever the holy Catholic Church believes 'ind teaches. 
 
 Protestant divines, at the present day, excuse their dissent 
 from the articles which they subscribe and swear to, by reason 
 of I heir alleged antiquity and obsoleteness,* though none of them 
 are yel quite two centuries and a half old ;f and they feel no 
 difficulty in avowing, that " a tacit reformation," since the first 
 pretended reformation, has taken place among them.if 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 1564, and other 
 still more recent decisions : because the Catholic 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 essential in 
 her liturgy. In every part of the world, she offers 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 neighboring ports, from India, Canada, or 
 Brazil, come to my chapel,§ I find them capable of joining with 
 me in every essential part of the divine service. 
 
 Lastly, as a regular, uniform, ecclesiastical constitution and 
 g&vemment, and a due subordination of its members, are requi- 
 site to constitute a uniform church, and to preserve in it unity 
 of doctrine and liturgy; 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,"|| and in that 
 of the inspired text, like an army in battle array.^ Spreail, as 
 the Catholics are. over the face of the earth, according to my 
 former observatiiDn, and disunited, as they are, in every other 
 respect, they form one uniform body in the order of religion. 
 
 * Dr. Hey's Lectures in Divinity, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50, 51, &,c. 
 t The 39 articles were drawn in 1562, and confirmed b}- the queen and 
 tlie bishops in 1571. t Hey, p. 48. 
 
 ^ At Winchester, where the writer resided vhen this letter waa wnttoa, 
 I) " Doraiciiium pacis et unitaiis.*' Sk Cyp. ^ Cant. vi. 4 
 
108 LETTER XVI. 
 
 Wliether roaming in the plains of Paraguay, or confined in the 
 palaces of Pekin, each simple Catholic, in point of ecclesiastical 
 economy, is subject to his pastor ; each pastor subniHs to his 
 bishop ; and each bishop acknowledges the supremacy of the 
 successor of St. Peter, in matters of faith, morality, and spiritual 
 jurisdiction. In every case of error, or insubordination, which, 
 from the frailty and malice of the human heart, must from time 
 to lime, disturb her, there are found canons and ecclesiastical 
 tribunals and judges, to correct and put an end to the evil^ 
 while similar evils in other religious societies are found to be 
 mterminable. 
 
 I have said little or nothing of the varieties of Protestant?, in 
 regard to their liturgies and ecclesiastical governments, because 
 these matters being very intricate and obscure, as well as di- 
 versitied, would lead me too far a-field for my present plan. It 
 is sufficient to remark, that the numerous Protestant sects, ex- 
 pressly disclaim any union with each other in these points ; — 
 that a great proportion of them reject every species of liturgy 
 and ecclesiastical government whatever ; — that, in the Church 
 of England herself, very many of her dignitaries, and other dis- 
 tinguished members, express their pointed disapprobation of cer- 
 tain 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 of the civil power. Upon a review of the whole mat. 
 ter of Protestant disunion and Catholi§ unity, I am forced to re- 
 peat with Tertullian : " It is the character of error to vary 
 but when a tenet is found to be one and the same amongst a 
 great variety of people, it is to be considered, not as an error 
 but as a divine tradition. f 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 * Archdeacon Paley very naturally complains, that " the doctrine of th# 
 articles of the Church of England," which he so pointedly objects to, " arc 
 interwoven with much industry into her forms of public worship." I hav« 
 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 Praescrip. contra Hser. — 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 hve on meat, and 
 8ome on fish, and some on herbs : they have also disputes in their schools, 
 as Dr. Porteus also remarks ; but they both omit to mention, that thesf. tly 
 putes are not about articles of faith. 
 
CLAIM OF EXCLUSIVE SALVATION. ^09 
 
 LETTER XVII.— FROM JAMES BROWN, ESQ. 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO THE CLAIM OF EXCLUSIVE 
 SALVATION. 
 
 Reverend si jl — 
 
 I AM too much taken up myself with the present subject of 
 your letters, willingly to interrupt the continuation of them : 
 b X some of the gentlemen who frequent New Cottage, having 
 communicated your three last to a learned dignitary, who 13 
 upon a visit in our neighborhood, 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 con- 
 viction 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. , Prebendary of , 
 
 to Mr. . 
 
 It is well known to many Roman Catholic g-entlemen, with 
 whom I have lived in habits of social intercourse, that I was 
 always a warm advocate for their emancipation, and, that so 
 far from having any objections to their religion, I considered 
 their hopes of future bliss as well founded as my own. In re- 
 turn, 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 dis 
 gusted me with their bigotry and uncharitableness. In opposi. 
 tion to the Chrysostoms and Augustins, whom he quotes so co- 
 piously, 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 nar- 
 row-minded contentions of bigots, and from the insults of men 
 who know not what spirit they are of, when they stint the Omni- 
 potent 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 ourselves and less despicably of others ; 
 to believe that the Father of the universe accommodates not his 
 judgments to the wretched wranglings of pedantic theologues ; 
 but thai every one, who, with an honest intention, and to thf 
 best of his abilities, seeketh truth, whether he findeth it or not, 
 and worketh righteousness, will be accepted by him?"* These, 
 
 * Bishop Watson's The( log. Tracts, Prcf. p. 1" 
 10 
 
110 LITTER XVIII. 
 
 sir, are exactly my sentiments, as they were those of the illus* 
 trious Hoadle}-, in his celebrated sermon, which had the effect 
 of stilling most of the remaining bigotry in the Established 
 Church.* There is not any prayer which I more frequently oi 
 fervently repeat, than that of the liberal-minded poet, who him- 
 self passed for a Roman Catholic; particularly the following 
 stanza of it : 
 
 " Let not this weak and erring hand 
 Presume thy boUs to throw, 
 And deal damnation round the land 
 On each I judge thy foe."t 
 
 I hope your society will require its popish correspondent, before 
 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 XVm.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c. 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 Dear sir — 
 
 In answer to the objections of the reverend prebendary to 
 my letters on the mark of unity in the true church, and the ne- 
 cessity of being incorporated in this church, I must observe, in 
 the first place, that nothing disgusts a reasoning divine more 
 than vague charges of bigotry and intolerance ; inasm^uch as 
 they have no distinct meaning, and are equally applied to all 
 sects and individuals, by others, whose religious 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 tliem by the Deists, as these 
 are, in their turn, by the Atheists and Materialists. Let us, 
 
 « Bishop Hcadley's Sermons on <Ae kingdom of Christ. This made the 
 choice of reHgion a thing indifferent, and subjected the whole business of 
 religion to the civil power. Hence sprung the famous Bangorian controvei- 
 BV, which was on the point of ending in a censure upon Hoadley from the 
 Convocation, when the latter was interdicted by ministry, and has nevei 
 iince, in the course of a hundred years* been allowed to meet a^aiu 
 
 t Yy\\**n TTnivcnwil Prayer 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. Ill 
 
 '(.hen, dear sir, in the serious discussions of religion, confine our- 
 selves 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," hew- 
 ever heterodox or impious. Nevertheless, in the very passage 
 wnioh 1 have quoted, they themselves stint this mercy to tho^e 
 M ho ' work righteousness," which implies a restraint on men's 
 passions. Methinks 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 har the doors 
 of heaven against me, for following the impulse which he him- 
 self has planted in me !" The same language might, with 
 equal justice, be put into the mouth of Nero, Judas Iscariot, 
 and of the very demons themselves. Tims, in pretending to 
 magnify God's mercy, these men would annihilate his justice, 
 his sanctity, and his veracity ! 
 
 Our business then is, not to form arbitrary theories concern- 
 ing the Divine attributes, but to attend to what God himself has 
 revealed concerning them and the exercise of them. What 
 words 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 !" xMark, xvi. 16 : or than those 
 of St. Paul : " Without faith it is impossible to please God," 
 Heb. xi. 6. Conformably with this doctrine, the same apostle 
 classes heresies witli murder and adultery ; concerning 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 hid him God-speed, who bringeth not this doc- 
 tnm of Christ, 2 John, i. 10. This apostle acted up to his rule, 
 witlt respect to the treatment of persons out of the church, when 
 ne hastHy withdrew from a public building, ir which he met the 
 leretic Cerinthus, " lest," as he said, " it should fall down 
 ipon him."* 
 
 I have given, in a former letter, some of the numberless pas- 
 .ages, in which the holy fathers speak home to the present 
 »t)int ; and, as these are far more expressive and emphatical 
 «lan what I myself have said upon it, I presume they have 
 chi^ fly contr buted to excite the bile of the reverend prebendary. 
 
 * S Iren. 1 iii. Euseb. Hist. 1. iil 
 
112 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 Ffowever he may slight these venerable authorities, yet as I am 
 sure that you, sir, reverence them, I will, on account of theii 
 peculiar appositeness to the point in question, add two more si- 
 milar quotations from the great doctor of the fifth century, St. 
 Augustin. He says : "All the assemblies, or rathei 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 no; belong to her."* In like manner, 
 addressing himself to certain sectaries of his tin e, 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 oj he? 
 mother." Cantic. vi. 9. 
 
 But setting aside Scripture and tradition, let us consider this 
 matter, as Bishop Watson and his associates affect to consider it, 
 on the side of natural reason alone. These modern philoso- 
 phers 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 rep 
 resented 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 eter- 
 nal and immutable laws! In opposition to both these schools, 1 
 maintain as the clear dictates of reason ; that, as God is the 
 author, 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 -mill ; — 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 be God ; — that of course, he does, and must, require our 
 reason to believe in his divine revelations, no less than our will 
 fe3 submit to his supreme commands ; — that he is just, no less 
 than he is merciful ; — and therefore that due atonement must 
 be made to him for etery act of disobedience to nim, whether 
 by disbelieving 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 sayi ig, I will not believe what thou hast revealea. than 
 
 • De Verb. Dom. Serm. ii 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 118 
 
 m saying, I will not 'practise what thou hast commanded ; so^ 
 tcdens paribus, WILFUL infidelity and heresy involve greatel 
 guilt than moral frailty. 
 
 You will observe, dear sir, that in the preceding passage I 
 have marked the word wilful, because Catholic divines and the 
 holy fathers, at the same time that they strictly insist on the 
 necessity of adhering to the doctrine and communion of the 
 Catholic Church, make an express exception in favor of what is 
 termed invinciMe 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 of all opposition on 
 the other, to enter into it, if they can find it out, and when they 
 use their best endeavors for this purpose. This exception in 
 favor of the invincibly ignorant is made by the same St. Augus- 
 tin, who so strictly insists on the general rule above quoted. 
 His words are these : " The apostle has told us, to reject a man 
 that is a heretic ; but those who defend a false opinion, without 
 pertinacious obstinacy, especially if they have not themselves 
 invented it, but have derived it from their parents, and who 
 seek the truth, with anxious solicitude, being sincerely disposed 
 to renounce their error, as soon as they discover it, such per- 
 sons are not to be deemed heretics."* Our great controvertist, 
 Bellarmine, asserts that such Christians, "in virtue of the dis- 
 position 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 
 Searcher of hearts, our future judge, alone to determine. Far 
 be it from me and from every other Catholic " to deal damna- 
 tion" on any person in particular! — still thus much, on the 
 grounds already stated, I am bound, not only in truth, but also 
 in charity, to say and to proclaim, that nothing short of this 
 sincere disposition, and the actual use of such means as provi- 
 dence respectively affords those who are ignorant of the true 
 church for discovering it, can secure their salvation : — to say 
 nothing ^f the Catholic sacraments and other helps for this pur- 
 pose, ol" which such persons are unavoidably deprived. 
 
 I 3ust mentioned the virtue of charity : and I must here add, 
 thai'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 gate 
 of heaven to a greater number of religionists of various descrip- 
 tions ; but, unfortunately, they are not possessed of the keys of 
 thai gate ; and when they fancy they have opened the gate af 
 
 • Epist. ad Episc. Donat. t Controv. Tom. ii. lib. iii. c. 6. 
 
 10* 
 
14 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 wide as possible, it still remains as narrow and the wap to it a* 
 straight^ as our Suviour describes them to be in the Gospel, 
 Matt. rii. 14. Thus they lull men into a fatal indifference 
 about the truths of revelation, and a false security of their sal- 
 vation. Genuine Catholics, on the other hand, are persuaded 
 that, as there is but one God, one faith, and one baptism. Ephes. 
 iv. 5, so there is but ONE SHEEPFOLD, namely ONE 
 CHURCH. Hence they omit no opportunity of alarming their 
 wandering brethren, on the danger they are in, and of bringing 
 them into this one fold of the one Shepherd, John, x. 16. To 
 form a light judgment in this case, we need but ask : Is it char- 
 itable or uncharitable in the physician to warn his patient of 
 his danger in eating unwholesome food ? Again, is it charita- 
 ble or uncliaritable in the watchman, who sees the sword comings 
 to sound the trumpet of alarm ? Ezech. xxxiii. 6. 
 
 But to conclude, the reverend prebendary may continue, with 
 most modern Protestants, to assign his latitudinarianism, which 
 admits all religions to be right, as a mark of the truth of his 
 sect ; thus dividing truth, which is essentially indivisible : yet 
 will the Catholic Church continue to 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 illustiated by the well- 
 known judgment of the wisest of men. — Two women dwelt to- 
 gether, eacli of whom had an infant son ; but, one of these dying, 
 they both contended for possession of the living child, and car- 
 ried 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 ; 
 which order the pretended another agreed to, exclaiming : " Let 
 it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then spake the wo- 
 man, whose the 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 answerxjd 
 and said : Give her the living child, and in nowise slay it: 
 SHE IS THE MOTHER THEREOF !" 1 Kings, iii. 26, 27. 
 
 I am, dear sir, &;c. 
 
 John Milneb. 
 
SANCTITY OF DOCTRINE. 115 
 
 I.ETT75R XIX.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., be. 
 
 ON SANCTITY OF DOCTRINE. 
 Dear \.lu — 
 
 The sec(>nd mark by which you, as well as I, describe the 
 «hurch in which you profess to believe, when you repeat the 
 Apostles' Creed, is that of SANCTITY. We, each of us, say ; 
 / believe in the HOLY Catholic Church. Reason itself tells us, 
 that the God of purity and sanctity could not institute a religion 
 destitute 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, not 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 on the article of 
 sanctity or holiness, 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 hoVmess. 
 
 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 of 
 sin ; — that man has no free-will to avoid it ; — and that justifi- 
 cation and salvation are the effects of an enihusisLStic persuasion^ 
 under the name of faith, that a person is actually justified and 
 saved, independently of any real belief in the revealed truths, 
 independently of hope, charity, repentance for sin, benevolence 
 to our fellow-creatures, loyalty to our king and country, or any 
 other virtue ; all which were censured by the first reformers as 
 they are by the strict Methodists still, under the name of works, 
 and by many of them declared to be even hurtful to salvation. 
 It is asserted in The Harmony of Confessions, a celebrated work, 
 published in the early times of the Reformation, that " all the 
 confessions of the Protestant churches teach this primary arti- 
 cle (of justification) with a holy consent;" which seems to 
 imply, says Archdeacon Blackburn, " that this was the single 
 article in which they all did agree."* Bishop Warburton ex- 
 pressly 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 !*':{: 
 And what lessons can be taught more immoral, than that men 
 are not required to repent of their sins to obtai q their forgive- 
 
 * Archdeacon Blackburn's Confessional, p. 16 
 
 t Doctrine of Gracf , cited by Overton, p. 31. \ Discourses, d. 59 
 
116 LETTER XIX. 
 
 ness, nor to love either God or man to be sure of their sal- 
 vation ! 
 
 To begin with the father of the Reformation : Luther teaches 
 that " G^d 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, hy his own will, 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 Arbitrio, and his other works, that " free-will is an empty 
 name ;" adding, " if God foresaw that Judas would be a traitor, 
 Judas necessarily 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 rider, but 
 each of them strives which shall get possession of it.":j: Con- 
 formably to this system of necessity he teaches : " Let this be 
 your rule in interpreting the Scriptures — wherever they com- 
 mand 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. "|| " See 
 how rich a Christian is, since he cannot lose his soul, do what 
 he will, unless he refuse to believe ; for no sin can damn him 
 but unbelief."1F Luther's favorite disciple and bottle-compan. 
 ion, Amsdorf, whom he made Bishop of Nauburgh, wrote a book 
 expressly to prove that good works are not only unnecessary^ 
 but that they are hurtful to salvation, for which doctrine 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 suprema- 
 cy, purgatory, and indulgences, to be trifles, rather than sub- 
 jects of controversy. ff In a former letter, I quoted a remarkable 
 passage from this patriarch of Protestantism, in which he pre- 
 tends 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 heH-fire ^e 
 their reward. Let this be taken for an inspiration of the Holy 
 Ghost, made to me, Martin Luther." 
 
 * Luth. Opera, ed. Wittemb. torn. ii. fol. 437. t De Serv. Arbit fol. 460 
 X Ibid. torn. ii. § Ibid. torn. iii. fol. 171. 
 
 II Ibid. torn, i.fol. 361. IT De Capdv. Babyl. torn. ii. fol. 74 
 
 ** See Efrierley's Protest. Apol. 393. See also Mosheim and Maclaine 
 
 Eccles. Hist. vol. vi. pp. 324, 328. 
 
 tt See the passage extracted from ibe work De Seivo Arbitrio in Letten 
 
 10 a Prebendary, ' jtter v. 
 
SANCTITY OF DOCTRINE. 117 
 
 Ilowevftr, in spite of these prophecies and cursed of theif 
 fether, the Lutherans in general, as I have before noticed, 
 shocked at the impiety of this his primary principle, soon aban- 
 doned it, and even went over to the opposite impiety of semi- 
 Pelagianism, which attributes to man the first motion, or cause 
 of conversion and sanctification. Still, it will always be true to 
 say, that Lutheranism itselT originated in the impious doctrine 
 described above.* 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 oi us but faith ; 
 he asks nothing of us, but that we believe. "f I do not hesitate 
 to assert that " the will of God makes all things necessary. "§ 
 " It is plainly wrong to seek for any other cause of damnation 
 than the hidden councils of God."|| " Men, by the fre-e will of 
 God, without any demerit of their own, are predestinated to eter- 
 nal death. "IT It is useless to cite the disciples of Calvin, Beza, 
 Zanchius, &c., as they all adhere closely to the doctrine of their 
 master ; still I will give them the following remarkable passage 
 from the works of the renowned Beza : " Faith is peculiar to 
 the elect, and consists in an absolute dependence each one has 
 on the certainty of his election, which implies an assurance of 
 his perseverance. Hence we have it in our power to know 
 whether we 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 o^ God himself"** And is there a man that, 
 having been worked up by such dogmatizing, or by his own 
 fancy, to this full assurance of his indefeasible predestination 
 and impeccability, can, under any violent temptation to break 
 the laws of God or man, be expected to resist it ! 
 
 After all the pains which have been taken of late by Bishop 
 Marsh, and other modern divines of the Church of England, to 
 clear her from this stain of Calvinism, nothing is more certain 
 than that she was, at firvSt, deeply infected with it. The 42 Ar- 
 ticles of Edward VI., and the 39 Articles of Elizabeth, are evi- 
 dently grounded in that doctrine ;|f which, however, is moie 
 expressly inculcated in the Lambeth Articles,:]::): approved of by 
 
 * Bossuel's Variat. 1. viii. pp. 23, 54, &c. Mosheim and Maclainc, vol 
 V p. 446. t Ibid. p. 458. X Calv. in Joan. vi. Rom. i. Galat. li. 
 
 § Instit. 1. iii. c. 23. II Ibid. H Ibid. I. iii. c. 23. 
 
 ** rlxposit. cited by Bossuet, Variat. 1. xiv. pp. 6, 7. 
 
 tt Particularly the 11th, 12th, 13tli, and 17th, of the 39 Articles. By the 
 tenor of the 13th among the 39, it would appear tnat the patience of Socra, 
 tes, the integrity of Aristides, the continence of Scipio, and the patriotism of 
 Cato, *' had the nature of sin," because they were " works done before the 
 grace of Christ »♦ X\ Fuller's Church History, p. 230. 
 
118 LETTER XU.. 
 
 the two archbishops, the Bishop of London, &c., in 1595, '' whose 
 testimony," says the renowned Fuller, " is an infallible e'^idence 
 what was the general and received doctrine of the Church of 
 England in that age about the fore-named 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 tole'snted by the Established 
 Church, at the time I have been speaking of. " One W. Barret, 
 fellow of Gonville and Caius College, preached ad Chrum for 
 his degree of bachelor in divinity, wherein he vented such doc- 
 trines, for which he was summoned, six days after, before the 
 Consistory of Doctors, and there enjoined the following retracta- 
 tion : — 1st, / said that, No man is so strongly underpropped hi the 
 certainty of faith, as to he assured of his salvation : but now, I 
 protest, before God, that they which are justified by faith, are 
 assured of their salvation with the certainty of faith. — 3dly, I said 
 that, Certainty concerning the time to come is proud : hut now I 
 protest i\\BX justified faith can never he rooted out of the minds of 
 the faithful. — 6thly, These words escaped me in my sermon: 
 I helieve against Calvin, Peter Martyr, ^c, that sin is the trucj 
 proper, and first cause of reprobation : but now, being better in- 
 structed, I say, that the reprobation of the wicked is from everlast- 
 ing ; and I am of the same mind concerning election, as the 
 Church of England teacheth in the articles of faith. — Last of all, 
 I uttered these words rashly against Calvin, a man that hath 
 very well deserved of the church of God : that he durst presume 
 to lift himself above the High God : by which words I have done 
 great injury to that learned and right-godly man. I have also 
 uttered many bitter words against Peter Martyr, Theodore Beza, 
 &c., being the lights and ornaments of our church, calling them 
 by the odious name of Calvinists," (fecf Another proof of the 
 former intolerance of the Church of England, with respect to 
 the moderate system, which 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 mm, &LQ., should be sent into some castle in North Wales, 
 or at Wallingford, there to live on their own labor, and no on«T 
 to be suffered to resort to them, but their keepers, until they be 
 found to repent their errors.":f A still stronger, as well as 
 
 • Fuller, p. 232. — N. B. On the point in question. Dr. Hey, vol. iv. p. ^ 
 quotes the well-known speech of the great Lord Chatham in parliament : 
 " We have a Calvinistic creed, and an Arminian clergy." 
 
 t Fuller's Hist, of the Univ. of Cambridge, p. 150. — N. B. It will be evi 
 dent to the reader that I have greatly abridged this curious recantation, 
 which was too long to be quoted in full. 
 
 t Strype's Annals of Reform, vol. i. p. 214. 
 
SANCTITY OF DOCTRINE. IIP 
 
 more authentic evidence of the former Calvinism of the English 
 church, is furnished by the history and acts of the General 
 Calvinistic Synod of Dort, held against Vorstius, the successor 
 of Arminius, who had endeavored to modify that impious sys- 
 tem. Our James I., who had the principal share in assembling 
 this synod, was so indignant at the modification, 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 same 
 time, that " it was his own duty, in quality of Defender of the 
 Faith, with which title," he said, " God had honored him, to 
 extirpate those cursed heresies, and to drive them to hell !"* 
 To be brief, he sent Carlton and Davenport,* the foi-mer being 
 Bishop of Llandaff, the latter of Salisbury, with two other dig- 
 nitaries of the Church of England, and Balcanqual, on the part 
 of the Church of Scotland, to the synod, where they appeared 
 among the foremost in condemning the Arminians, and in de- 
 fining " that God gives true and lively faith to those whom he 
 resolves to withdraw from the common damnation, and to them 
 dlone : and that the true faithful, iy atrocious crimes, do not for- 
 feit the grace of adoption and the state of justification /"f 
 
 It might have been expected that the decrees of this synod 
 would have greatly strengthened the system of Calvinism ; 
 whereas it is from its termination, which corresponds with the 
 concluding part of the reign of James I., that we are to date 
 the decline of it, especially in England.:]: Still great numbers 
 of its adherents, under the name of Calvinists, professing, not 
 without reason, to maintain the original tenets of the Church of 
 England, subsist in this country, and their ministers arrogate 
 to themselves the title of evangelical preachers. In like man- 
 ner, the numerous and diversified societies of Methodists, whether 
 Wesleyans or Whitfieldites, Moravians or Revivalists, New 
 Itinerants or Jumpers, § are all partisans of the impious ana 
 immoral system of Calvin. The founder of the first-mentioned 
 branch of these sectaries, Wesley, witnessing the follies and 
 crimes which flowed from it, tried to reform them by means of 
 a labored but groundless distinction. || 
 
 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 consuhstuntial Son of God. It 
 is admitted that these mysteries have been abandoned by the 
 
 • Hist. Abreg. de Gerard Brandt, torn. i. p. 417, torn. ii. p. 2. 
 
 t Bossuet's Variat. vol. ii. pp. 291, 294, 304. 
 
 I Mosheim and Maclaine, vol. v. pp. 3G9, 389. 
 
 i See Evans' Sketdi of all Religions. U See Poetsoript, p. 139. 
 
121' LETTER XIX. 
 
 Protestants of Geneva, Holland, and Germany. With respect 
 to Scotland, a well-informed writer says, " It is certain, tha« 
 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 
 •ame thing with Socinianism. A judgment may also be formed 
 of the prevalence 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 
 named canons, " a damnable and cursed heresy, being a com- 
 plication of many forr»er heresies, and contrariant to the arti- 
 cles of religion now established in the Church of England."* 
 I say 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 Arian and Socin- 
 ian errors in question, except to censure the inconsistency and 
 cruelty of the proceeding : all that I have occasion to show is^ 
 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 acknowledged impious and 
 immoral system, namely, Calvinism, which they have since 
 been constrained to reject ; and that they have now compro- 
 mised with impieties, which formerly they condemned a." 
 '^ damnable heresies," and punished with fire and fagot. 
 
 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 
 sail ; because the church never changes her doctrine, nor suf- 
 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, &c., 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 communion, 
 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 notori- 
 ously false, that Catholics believe, or in any age did believe, 
 tjiat they could justify themselves by their own proper merits; 
 —or that tbey can do the least good, in the order of salvation, 
 
 * CoDBtit. and Can. A.D 1640. 
 
SANCTITY OF DOCTRINE. 121 
 
 without the grace of God, merited for them by Jctas Christ ;— 
 or that we can deserve this grace, by any thing we have tlie 
 power of doing : — or that leave to commit sin, or even the par- 
 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 
 oilier exterior things. — These and other calumnies, or rather 
 blasphemies, of a similar nature, however frequently or confi- 
 dently repeated in popular sermons and controversial tracts, 
 there is reason to think are not really believed by any Protest- 
 ant 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 particularly by that of 
 Trent. Are they taught in our catechisms, such as the Cate- 
 chismus ad Parochus, the General Catechism of Ireland, the 
 Doway Catechism ; or in our books of devotion ; for example, 
 in those written by an a Kempis, a Sales, a Granada, and a 
 Challoner ? No : the contrary doctrine is, in these, and in our 
 oiriT ooks, uniformly maintained. — In a word, the Catholic 
 C/iui I teaches, and ever has taught, her children to trust for 
 mei>D ' , grace, and salvation, to the merits of Jesus Christ. Nev- 
 ertha:i3s, she asserts that we have free-will, and that this, being 
 prevt ited by divine grace, can and must cooperate to our justi- 
 cation by faith, sorrow for our sins, and other corresponding acts 
 of vi.'tue, which God will not fail to bestow upon us, if we do 
 not throw obstacles in the way of them. Thus is all honor anc. 
 merit ascribed to the Creator, and every defect and sin attribu- 
 ted to the creature. The Catholic Church inculcates moreover 
 '.he indispensable necessity of humility, as the ground-work of 
 all virtues, by which, says St. Bernard, " from a thorough 
 knowledge of ourselves we become little in our own estimation.'* 
 [ mention this Catholic lesson, in particular, because, however 
 strongly it is enforced by Christ and his disciples, it seems to 
 be entirely overlooked by Protestants ; insomuch that they are 
 perpetually boasting in their speeches and writings of the oppo- 
 fite vice, pride. In like manner, it appears from the above- 
 mer.tioned catechisms and spiritual works, what pains our 
 church bestows, in regulating the interior no less than the e-xte- 
 
 * The Norrisian Professor, Dr. Hey, says, " The Reformed have departed 
 ■o much trom the rigor of their doctrine about faith, and the Romanists tVom 
 theirs about gooc works, that there seems very little difference between 
 ihem." Lect. vol. iii. p. 262. True, most of the reformers, after building 
 their religion on faith alone, have now gone into tne opposite heresy of Pe- 
 lagiartism, or at least Semi-pelagianism ; but Catholics hold exactly the 
 same tenets regarding good works which they ever held, and which were 
 • ways very different froin what Dr. Hey describes them to have been. VoL 
 > 261. 
 
 U 
 
123 LETTER XIX. 
 
 lior of her children, by repressing every thought or idea contrary 
 to religion or morality; of which matter, I perceive little or no 
 notice is taken in the catechisms and tracts of Protestants. 
 Fmally, the Catholic Church insists upon the necessity of being 
 " perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect," Matt. v. 48, 
 by such an entire subjugation of our passions, and a conformity 
 of our will with that of God, that our conversation may be m 
 heaven, ^^ hile we are yet living here on earth. Philip, v. 20. 
 *4»-JL I ani, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 
 ^/ 
 
 fBV OF GV POSTSCRIPT TO LETTER XIX. 
 
 "^T^HEfXiife of the late Rev. John Wesley, founder of the Meth- 
 odistSj which has been written by Dr. Whitehead, Dr. Coke, and 
 others of his disciples, shows, in the clearest light, the errors 
 and contradictions to which even a sincere and religious mind 
 is subject, that is destitute of the clue to revealed truth, the liv- 
 ing authority of the Catholic Church ; as also the impiety and 
 immorality of Calvinism. At first, that is to say, in the year 
 1729, Wesley was a modern Church-of-England-man, distin- 
 guished 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 m as 
 inclined to trust in, he details. Falling, however, at last, into 
 the hands of Peter Bohler and his Moravian brethren, who met 
 in Fetter-lane, he became a warm proselyte to their system : 
 declaring, at the same time, with respect to his past religion, 
 that, hitherto he had been a Papist without knowing it. We may 
 judge of his ardor by his exclamation when Peter Bohler left 
 England : ' C what a work hath God begun since his (Bohler's) 
 coming to England ; such a one as shall never come to an end 
 till heaven aid earth shall pass away." To cement his union 
 inith this society, and to instruct himself more fully in its mys- 
 teries, he made a journey to Hernhuth in Moravia, which is the 
 chief seat of the United Brethren. It was whilst he was a Mo 
 ravian, namely, " on the 24th of May, 1738, a quartei of an 
 hour before nine in the evening," that John Wesley, by liis own 
 account, was " saved from the law of sin and death." This all- 
 important event happened ''at a meetiig-hoii.se, ir Aldersgaie 
 
SiNCTITT OF DOCTRINE. 123 
 
 Street, while a pei'son was reading Luther's Preface to the Ga 
 latians." Nevertheless, though he had professed such deep ob 
 ligations to the Moravians, he soon found out and declared tha: 
 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 ordi- 
 nances, namely, prayer, reading the Scripture, frequenting the 
 sacrament and public worship, selling their Bibles, &c., in ordei 
 to rely more fully ' on the blood of the Lamb.' " In short, 
 Wesley abandoned the Moravian connection, and set up that 
 which is properly his own religion, as it is detailed by Nightin- 
 gale in his Portraiture 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 essential 
 points : still the tenet of instantaneous justification, without ve 
 pentance, charity, or other good works, and the actual feeling 
 and certainty of this and of everlasting happiness, continued to 
 be the essential and vital principles of Wesley's system, as they 
 are of the Calvinistic sects in general ; till having witnessed 
 the horrible impieties and crimes to which it conducted, he, at 
 a conference or synod of his preachers, in 1744, declared that 
 he and they had " leaned too much to Calvinism and Antino. 
 mianism." In answer to the question : " What is Antinomian- 
 ism ?" Wesley, in the same conference, answers : " The doc- 
 trine 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 Christian liberty, is 
 liberty from obeying the commands of God ; — that it is bond- 
 age to do a thing because it is commanded, or forbear it because 
 it is forbidden ; — that a believer is not obliged to use the ordi- 
 nances of God, or to do good works ; — that a preacher ought 
 not to exhort to good works," &c. See here the essential moral- 
 ity of religion which Wesley had hitherto followed and preach- 
 ed, as drawn by his own pen, and which still 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 Methodism, startled all 
 the other Methodist connections. Accordingly, the Hon. and 
 
 * The Wesleyan Methodists deny that the Whitjieldites, now called Lady 
 Huntingdon's Connection, the Kilhamites, &c., have a right to the name of 
 Methodists ; though certainly George Whitfield, when a fellow student with 
 John Wef.ley at Oxford, was, equally with him, termed a Methodist at their 
 setting out. They also deny that the Rev. Mi Coke is their head, or has any 
 jurisdiction over them in England, though they ullow him to be a bishop over 
 their brethren in America ; havmg been consecrated, they say, for that de. 
 partmetit by their celebrated father, the Rev. John Wesley. 
 
124 LETTER XIX. 
 
 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 expresses himself, ^^ injured the founda' 
 Hon of Christianity.^^ He, therefore, summoned another confer- 
 ence, which severely censured Wesley. On the other hand, 
 this patriarch was strongly supported, particularly hy Fletcher 
 of Madcley, an able writer, whom he had destined to succeed 
 him, as the head of his connection. Instead of being offended 
 at his master's change, Fletcher says : " I admire the candor 
 of an old man of God, who, instead of obstinately maintaining 
 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 Anti- 
 nomianism, 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 
 enthusiasm of Antinomian Calvinism had conducted the Meth- 
 odists. He mentions a highwayman, lately executed in his 
 neighborhood, 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, are 
 represented by their preachers to be " damning sins in Turks 
 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 honorable 
 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, (the elected,) but 
 work even for their good :" adding, " My sins may displease 
 God, my person is always acceptable to him. — Though I should 
 out-sin Manasses himself, I should not be less a pleasant child, 
 because God always views me in Christ. — Hence, in the midst 
 of adulteries, murders, and incest, he can address me with : 
 Thou art all fair, my love, my undefiled ; there is no spot in 
 thee. — It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distin- 
 guish sins according to the fact, not according to the person.— 
 Though I highly blame those who say, let us sin tliat grace may 
 ahouiid ; yet adultery, incest, and murder, shall, upon the whole, 
 make me holier on earth and merrier in heaven !"•(" It only re- 
 mains to show in what manner Wesley purified his religious 
 eystem, 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, 
 
 * See Fletcher, vol. ii. 
 
 t The Hon. Richard Hill, in his Five Leitera. See also Eaton's Honey* 
 tomh uf Salvation. 
 
MEANS OF SANCTITY. 125 
 
 in which these works are essential : the former is 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, a Nero and a 
 Robespierre might, according to its doctrine, have been estab- 
 lished in the grace of God, and in a right to the realms of in- 
 finite purity, without one act of sorrow for their enormities, or 
 so m uch as an act of their belief in God ! 
 
 LETTER XX.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. &o 
 ON THE MEANS OF SANCTITY. 
 
 I/EAR 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 most 
 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 
 thereof. "f But though she agrees with other Protestant com- 
 munions in reducing the number of these to two, baptism and the 
 Lord's supper, she difiers with all others in this particular, 
 namely, with the Catholic, the Greek, the Russian, the Arme- 
 nian, the Nestorian, the Eutychian, the Coptic, the Ethiopian, 
 &c., all of which firmly maintain, and ever have maintained, 
 as well since, as before their respective defections from us, the 
 whole collectior of the seven sacraments.^ This fact alone re- 
 futes the airy speculations of Protestants concerning the origin 
 of the five sacraments which they reject, and thus demonstrates 
 that they are deprived of as mai v divinely instituted instruments 
 or means of sanctity. — As each of these seven channels of grace, 
 
 * Sess. vi. cap. 7. 
 
 t Catechism in Com. Prayer. — N. B. The last clause in this definition if 
 far too strong, as it seems to imply, that every person who is partaker of the 
 outward part of a sacrament, necessarily receives the grace of it, whatever 
 may be his dispositions ; an impiety which the Bishop of Lincoln calumni. 
 ously attributes to the Catholics. — Elements of Theol. vol. ii. p. 436. 
 
 t This important fact is incontrovertibjy proved in the celebrated work. 
 La Ferpetuite de la Poi, from original docun ents procured by Louis XIV 
 and preserved in the King's Library at Paris 
 
 11* 
 
126 LETTER XX. 
 
 thouoh d,\ supplied from the same fountain of Christ's merits, 
 supplies ?ach of them a separate grace, adapted to the oifferent 
 wants of ihe faithful, and as each of them furnishes matter of 
 observation for the present discussion, I shall take a cursory 
 view of them. 
 
 The first sacrament, in point of order and necessity, is bap. 
 tism. In fact, no authority can be more express than that of 
 the Scripture as to this necessity. " Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit," says Christ, " he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God." John, iii. 5. " Repent," cries St. Peter; 
 •' and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus, for 
 the remission of sins." Acts, ii. 38. " Arise," answered Ana- 
 nias to St. Paul, " and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." 
 Acts, xxii. 16. This necessity 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 footing with the Catholic Church, as much as 
 concerns this instrument or means of holiness. But the case is 
 different now, since that tacit reformation which is acknowledged 
 to have taken place in her practice. This has nearly swept out 
 of her both the belief of original sin and its necessary remedy, 
 baptism. " That we are born guilty," the great authority. Dr. 
 Balguy, says, " is either unintelligible or impossible." Accord- 
 ingly, he teaches that " the rite of baptism is no more than a 
 representation of our entrance into the church of Christ." — Else- 
 where he says : " The sign (of a sacrament) is declaratory, not 
 efficient.''^ Dr. Hey says, the negligence of the parent, with 
 respect to procuring baptism, " may affect the child : to say it 
 will affect him, is to run into the error I am condemning. "§ 
 Even the Bishop of Lincoln calls it, " An unauthorized principle 
 of papists, tliat 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. Accord- 
 ingly, we have abundant proofs that, from the frequent and long 
 delays in the administration of this sacrament among Protest, 
 ants, very many children die without receiving it, and that 
 
 • Common Prayer. 
 
 t See B. Pearson on the Creed, Art. x. Hooker, Eccl. Polit. b. v. p. 60. 
 
 * Charge \A. pp.298, 300. § Lectures in Divinity, vol. iii. p. 132. 
 
 II Vol. ii. p. 470. The learned prelate can hardly be supposed ignorant 
 that many of our martyrs, recorded in our Martyrology and our Breviary, are 
 expressly declared not to have been actually baptized ; or that our divines 
 unanimously teach, that not only the baptism of blood by martyrdom, bu* 
 ftlso a sincere desire of being baptized, sufHces, where the me^ns of baptism 
 •re wanting. 
 
MEANS OF SANCTITY. 121 
 
 from the negligence of their ministers, as to the right matter and 
 the form of wcrds, many more children recei\e it in validly. 
 Look, on the other hand, at the Catholic Church ; you will find 
 the same importance still attached to this sacred rite, on tho 
 part of the people and the clergy, which is observable in th«s 
 Acts of the Apostles and in the writings of the holy fathers ; the 
 former being ever impatient to have their children baptized, the 
 latter equally solicitous to administer it in due time, and with 
 I he most scruj)ulous exactness. Thus, as matters now stand, 
 the two churches are not upon a level with respect to this firat 
 means of sanctification ; the members of the one having a much 
 greater moral certainty of the remission of that sin in which we 
 wf re all born, and of their having been heretofore actually re- 
 ceived into the church of Christ, than the members of the other. 
 It would be too tedious a task to treat of the tenets of other Pro- 
 testants, on this and the corresponding matters : let it suffice to 
 say, that the famous Synod of Dort, representing all the Calvin- 
 istic states of Europe, formally decided that the children of the 
 elect are included in the covenant made with their parents, and 
 thus are exempt from the necessity of baptism, as likewise of 
 faith and morality, being thus insured, themselves and all their 
 posterity, till the end of time, of their justification and salvation !* 
 
 Concerning the second channel of grace, or means of sanctity, 
 corifirmaiion, there is no question. The Church of England, 
 which, among the different Protestant societies, alone, I believe, 
 lays claim to any part of this rite, under the title of The cere- 
 mony of laying on of hands, expressly teaches, at the same time, 
 that it is no sacrament, as not being ordained by God, nor any 
 effectual sign ofgrace.\ But the Catholic Church, instructed 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 receiving that 
 Holy Spirit, which is communicated in this sacrament, § reli- 
 giously retains and faithfully administers it to them, for the 
 self-same purpose, through all ages. In a word, those who are 
 true Christians, by virtue of baptism, are not made perfect 
 Christians, except by virtue of the sacrament of confirmation, 
 which none of the Protestant societies so much as lays a claim lo. 
 
 Of the third sacram.ent, indeed, the Lord's supper, as tliey 
 call it, the Protestant societies, and particularly the Church of 
 England, in her prayer-book, say great things : nevertheless, 
 what is it, after all, upon her own showing ? — Mere breid and 
 wine received in memory of Christ s passion and death, in ordef 
 
 • Boss let's Variat. book xiv. p. 46 t Art. xxv. 
 
 ( Acts V ii. 14. — xix. 2. ^ John, xvi 
 
129 LETTER XX. 
 
 to ex3i;e the receiver's faith in him : that is to say, it it « bare 
 tyjje 01 memorial of Christ. Any thing may be instituted to be 
 the type or memorial of another thing ; but certainly the Jews, 
 in their paschal 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 
 I ractice in tnis country, cannot be more than a feeble excite 
 ment to their devotion, and an inefficient help to their sancti.i- 
 calion. — 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," Matt. 
 XX vi. 26 ; — " My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
 indeed," John, vi. 56 ; then the holy communion of Catholics 
 is, beyond all expression and all conception, not only the most 
 powerful stimulative to our faith, our hope, our love, and our 
 contrition, 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 twelfth century, who made sacraments of them. 
 True it is, that this industrious theologian collected together the 
 difl^erent passages of the fathers, and arranged them, with proper 
 definitions of each subject, in their present scholastic order: 
 this he did not only with respect to the sacraments, but likewise 
 to the other branches of divinity, on which account he is called 
 the master of the sentences : — but Peter Lombard could as soon 
 have introduced Mahoinetanism into the church, as the beliel 
 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 schismalical Greek 
 churches fascinated into it ? In short, though these holy rites 
 had not been indued by Christ with a sacramental grace, yet, 
 practised as they are in the Catholic Church, they would still 
 be great helps to piety and Christian morality. 
 
 ♦ Elem. vol. ii. p. 414. t Lect vol. iv. p. 199 
 
MEANS OF SANCTll '. 149 
 
 What I have just asserted concerning these five sacraments 
 in general, is particularly true with respect to the sacrament 
 of penan:e. For what does this consist of ? and what is the 
 preparatior of 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 examination of the 
 conscience, to acquire that most important of all sciences, tlie 
 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 the same time, 
 a learned, experienced, and disinterested director. If the latter 
 could afford no other benefit to his penitents, yet how inestima- 
 ble a one is it, to make known to them many defects and many 
 duties, which their self-love had probably overlooked ! as like- 
 wise his prescribing to them the proper remedies for their spirit- 
 'jal maladies! and his requiring them to make restitution for 
 2very injury done to each injured neighbor ! But we are well 
 assured, that these are far from being the only benefits, which 
 the minister of this sacrament confers upon the subject of it: for 
 it was not an empty compliment which Christ paid to his apos- 
 tles, when, " Breathing on them, he said to them ; Receive ye 
 the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall remit, they are remitted, 
 and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." John, xx. 
 22, 23. O sweet balm of the wounded spirit! O sovereiijn re- 
 storative of the soul's life and vigor! 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 deny extreme unction to be a sacrament, the external sign 
 of which, anointing the sick, and the spiritual effect 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 on good works,"f 
 rejected the authority of this epistle, alleging that it was " not 
 lawful for an apostle to institute a sacrament. J But I trust 
 -hat you, dear sir, and your conscientious society, will agree 
 with me, that it is more incredible that an apostle of Christ 
 
 * See the form of ordaining priests, in Bishop Sparrow's Collect, p. 158 
 also the form of absolution, in the Visitation of the Sick in the conimoB 
 prayer. 
 
 t Luther, in his original Jena edition of hia t'crks, calls 'his epistle "a dn 
 and chaffy epistle, unworthy of an apostle.*' 
 
 t Sf^e Luther, in his original Jena edition 
 
130 LETTER XX. 
 
 should lie ignorant of wha. he was authorized by him to say and 
 do, than that a profligate German friar should be guilty of blas- 
 phemy. Indeed, the Church of England, in the first form of 
 her common prayer in Edward's reign, enjoined the unction of 
 the sick, as well as prayer for them.* It was evidently well 
 worthy the mercy and bounty of our divine 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, penance and the real body 
 a '.d blood of our Lord, it is a fact, that few, very few Catholics 
 die \\ ithout the assistance of their clergy : which assistance the 
 latter are bound to afford, at the expense of ease, fortune, and 
 life itself, to the most indigent and abject of their flock, who are 
 in danger of death, no less than to the rich and the great : 
 while, on the other hand, very few Protestants, in that extrem- 
 ity, partake at all of the cold rites of their religion ; though one 
 of them, the Lord's supper, is declared, in the catechism, 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 required in Scripture. In fact, this is 
 telling the legislature and the nation that, if they prefer the less 
 expensive ministry of the Presbyterians or the Methodists, there 
 is nothing divine or essential in the ministry itself, which will 
 be injured by the change ; and that clergymen may be a.3 
 validly ordained by the town-crier with his bell, as by the me- 
 tropolitan's imposition of hands ! Nevertheless, strange as it 
 appears, this is the doctrine not only of Hoadley's Socinian 
 school, as I have elsewhere demonstrated, f but also of those 
 modern 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, destitute 
 of all sacramental grace for performing their functions holily 
 and beneficially. § But, we know, conformably with the doc- 
 trine of St. Paul, in both his epistles to Timothy, 1 Tim. iv. 
 14, 2 Tim. i. 6, and the constant doctrine of the Catholic 
 Church, as likewise of all other ancient churches, that this 
 grace is conferred on those who are truly ordained and in fit 
 dispositions to receive it. We know, moreover, that the per- 
 suasion which the faithful entertain of the divine character and 
 
 * See Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii., p. 257. t Dr. Bala^uy, Dr. Iley, 4&e 
 t The Bishop of Lincoln's Elem. of Theol. vol. ii. pp. 376, 396 
 § See LetteiB to a Piebendary, letter viii. 
 
MEANS OF SANCTITY. 181 
 
 grace of their clergy, gives a great additional weight to their 
 lessons and ministry. In like manner, with respect to matrimo- 
 ny, which the same apostle expressly calls a sacrament, Ephes. 
 V. 32, the very idea of its sanctity, independently of its peculiar 
 grace, is a preparation for entering into that state with religious 
 dispositions. 
 
 Next to the sacraments of the Catholic Church, as so many 
 helps to the holiness and salvation of her children, I must men- 
 tion her public service. We continually hear the advocates of 
 the Establishment crying up the beauty and perfection of their 
 liturgy ;* but they have not the candor to inform the public that 
 it is all, in a manner, borrowed from the Catholic missal and 
 ritual. Of this fact 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 purloined, it has by no means been 
 preserved entire : on the contrary, we find it, in the latter, evis- 
 ceratedL 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 our missals, is cut down to a mere verbal worship, in 
 The order for the morning prayer. Hence our James I. pro- 
 nounced of the latter, that it is an ill said mass. The servants 
 of God had, by his appointment, SACRIFICE, both under the 
 law of nature and the written law ; it would then be extraordi- 
 nary, if under the law of grace they were left destitute o4*this, 
 the most sublime and excellent act of religion which man can 
 offer to his Creator. But we are not left destitute of it ; on the 
 contrary, that prophecy of Mai achy is fulfilled, Mai. i. 11 : In 
 every place, from the rising to the setting of the sun, sacrifice is 
 offered and a pure oblation ; even Christ himself, who is really 
 present and mystically ofTered on our altars in the sacrifice of 
 the mass. 
 
 I pass over the solemnity, the order, and the magnificence of 
 Ot.r public worship 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 whichi 
 certainly, in most particulars, find their parallel in the worship 
 and ceremonies of the old law, ordained by God himself. Ncv 
 ertheless, it is a gross calumny to assert that the Catholic 
 Church does, or ever did, make the essence of religion to con- 
 sist in these externals ; and we challenge them to our councils 
 and doctrinal books in refutation of tiie calumny. In like 
 
 ♦ Dr. Rennel calls the church liturgy ♦» the most penect of human coim. 
 positions, and the sacred legacy of the first reformers." Diic. p. 237. 
 
182 LETTER XXI. 
 
 manner, I pass over the many private exercises of piety which 
 are generally practised in regular Catholic families and by in 
 dividuals ; such as daily meditation and spiritual reading, even- 
 ing prayers and examination of the conscience, &c. These, it 
 will not be denied, must be helps for attaining sanctity to thrse 
 who are desirous of it. — But I have said more than enough to 
 convince your friends, in which of the rival communions the 
 means of sanctity are chiefly to be found. 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXI.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. 
 
 ON 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 different innovators, 
 who undertook to reform it in the 16th and 17th centuries ? In 
 considering the subject, the first thing which strikes me is, that 
 all the saints, and even those who are recorded as such in the 
 calendar of the Church of England, and in whose name their 
 churches are dedicated, lived and died strict members of the 
 Catholic Church, and zealously attached to her doctrine anq 
 discipline.* For example, in this calendar, we meet with a 
 Pope Gregory, March 12, the zealous asserter of the papal su- 
 premacy,f and other Catholic doctrines ; a St. Benedict, March 
 21, the patriarch of the western monks and nuns ; a St. Dun- 
 stan. May 19, the vindicator of clerical celibacy ; a St. Augus- 
 tin, of Canterbury, May 26, the introducer of the whole system 
 of Catholisity into England ; and a venerable Bede, May 27, 
 the witness of this important fact. It is sufficient to mention 
 the names of other Catholic saints, for example, David, Ciiad, 
 Edward, Richard, Elphege, Martin, Swithun, Giles, Lambert, 
 Leonard, Hugh, Etheldreda, Remigius, and Edmund ; all of 
 
 * I must except King Charles I. who is rubricated as a martyr on Tan. 30 . 
 nevertheless, it is confessed that he was far from possessing either the furi- 
 ty of a saint or the constancy of a martyr ; for he actually gave up Episco. 
 pacy and other essentials of the established religion, by his last treaty in the 
 hlo of Wight. 
 
 t IVIany Protestant writers pretended that St. Gregory disclaimed tlie su 
 premacy because he asserted against John of Constantinople that neither ha 
 nor any other prelate ought to assume the title of Universal Bishop; bu 
 that he claimed and exercised the supremacy, his own works and the h,«t> 
 «y of Bede incontrovertibly demonstrate. 
 
FRUITS OF SANCTITY. l33 
 
 which are inserted in the calendar, and ;*«re onnes to some oi 
 other churches of the Establishment, beaiuea tnese, there are 
 very many of our other saints, whom ail learned and candid 
 Protestants unequivocally admit to have been such, for the ex- 
 traordinary j'Urity and sanctity of their lives. Even Luther 
 acknowledges St. Anthony, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, &+. Fran- 
 cis, St. Bonaventure, &;c., to have been saints, though avowed 
 Catholics, and defenders of the Catholic Cliurch against he 
 heretics and schismatics of their times. But, independently of 
 this and of every other testimony, it is certain that the super- 
 natural virtues, and heroical sanctity of a countless number :f 
 holy personages of different countries, ranks, professions, and 
 sexes, have illustrated the Catholic Church in every age, with 
 an effulgf>nce 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 luminous criti- 
 cism, was commended even by the infidel Gibbon ; I mean The 
 Lives of Saints, in twelve octavo volumes, written by the late 
 Rev. Alban Butler, President of St. Omer's College. Pro- 
 testants are accustomed to paint in the most frightful colors, the 
 alleged depravity of the church, when Luther erected his stand- 
 ard, in order to justify him and his followers in their 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 Antonius, &;c.; or let them peruse the lives of St. 
 Vincent Ferrer, St. Laurence Justinian, St. Francis Paula, St. 
 Philip Neri, St. Cajetan, St. Teresa, St. Francis Xaverius, and 
 of those other saints who illuminated the church about the perioti 
 in question. Or let them, from the very accounts of Pro- 
 testant historians, compare, as to religion and morality, Arch- 
 oishop Cranmer, with his rival. Bishop Fisher ; Protector Sey- 
 mour with Chancellor More ; Ann Boleyn with Catharine oi 
 Arragon ; Martin Luther and Calvin with Francis Xaveri^is 
 Rnd Cardinal Pole ; Beza with St. Francis of Sales ; Queen 
 Elizabeth with Mary Queen of Scots; these contrasted charac- 
 iers having more or less relation with each other. 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 consiiler the virtues 
 and merits of the most distinguished reformers;*' and certainly 
 we have a right to expect from persons of this aescription fin 
 
 • Reflections on Popery, bv Pc. Stuiges, L L. D. &c. 
 12 
 
134 LETTER XXI. 
 
 islied models of \irtue and piety. But instead of this being the 
 Utise, I have shown that Patriarch Luther was the sport of his 
 unbridled passions,* 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 bv his own account, he was the scholai 
 ol Satan, in the most important article of his pretended Reforma- 
 tion.! 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 Edward 
 Vf.; 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 ex- 
 hibited such a continued scene of libertinism, perjury, hypocri- 
 sy, barbarity, (in burning his fellow Protestants,) profligacy, 
 ingratitude, and rebellion, as is, perhaps, not to be matched in 
 history. I have proved that all his fellow-laborers and fellow- 
 sufl!erers, were rebels like himself, who would have been put 
 to death by Elizabeth, if they had not been executed by Mary. 
 I adduced the testimony not only of Erasmus and other Catho- 
 lics, but also of the gravest Protestant historians, and of the very 
 reformers themselves, in proof that the morals of the people, so 
 far from being changed for the better, by embracing the new 
 religion, were greatly changed for the worse. if The pretended 
 Reformation, in foreign countries, as in Germany, the Nether- 
 lands, at Geneva, in Switzerland, France, and Scotland, besides 
 producing popular insurrections, sackages, demolitions, sacri- 
 lcge3 and persecution beyond description, excited also open re- 
 belliGns and bloody civil wars.§ In England, where our wri- 
 
 * Letters to a Prebendary, Letter V. 
 
 t 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. X Ibid. 
 
 § The Huguenots in Dauphiny alone, as one of their writers confesses, 
 burnt down 900 towns or villages, and murdered 378 priests or religious, in 
 she course of one rebellion. The number of churches destroyed by them 
 throughout France is computed at 20,000. The History oi England's Ref. 
 ttimation (though this was certainly more orderly than that of other coun- 
 tries) has causec the conversion of many English Protestants ; it produced 
 this effect on James II. and his first consort, the mother of Queen Mary and 
 Queen Anne. The following is the account which the latter has left of this 
 ihange, a id which is to be found in Dodd's last volume, and in the Fifty 
 Reasons cf the Duke of Brunswick : " Seeing much of the devotion of the 
 Catholics, I made it my constant prayer that, if I were not, I might, before I 
 Jicd, be in the true religion. I did not doubt but that 1 was so till Novem- 
 »er last, when reading a book called the History of the Reformation, by Dr 
 Ueylin, which I had heard very much commended, and had been told, ii 
 .ver I had any doubts in my religion, that would settle me : instead of wbidi 
 
OBJECT.ONS ANSWERED. 138 
 
 lers boast of the orderly manner in which the change of relt 
 gion was carried on, it, nevertheless, most unjustly and sacrile- 
 giously seized upon, and destroyed, in the reign of Henry VIII., 
 645 monasteries, 90 colleges, and 110 hospitals, besides the 
 bishoprick of Durham ; and, under Edward VI., or rather his 
 profligate uncle, 2,374 colleges, chapels, or hospitals, in order 
 to make princely fortunes for that uncle and his unprincipled 
 comrades, who, like banditti quarrelling over their spoils, soon 
 brought each other to the block. Such were the fruits of sanc- 
 tity every where produced by tnis pretended Reformation. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXII.— TO MR. J. TOULMIN. 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 1 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 these, or in mj 
 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 accred- 
 ited authors of religion and morality, and to the lives and deaths 
 of our most renowned saints, during the ages in question. I 
 grant, sir, that you hold the same language on this subject with 
 other Protestant writers ; 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 irreligion of the pretended 
 Reformation. You next extol the alleged sanctity of the Pro- 
 testant sufferers, called martyrs, in the unhappy persecution of 
 Queen Mary's reign. I have discussed this matter at some 
 
 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 : Ist, 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 t 
 thing. I confess I cannot think the Holy Ghost could ever be in such coua* 
 tils" Declaration of the Duchess of York. 
 
IS6 LETTER XXII. 
 
 length in The Letters to a Prebendary, anr have sliown, ih oj> 
 position to John Fox and his copyists, th.'.t some of theye pre- 
 tended martyrs were alive when he wrote the history of theii 
 death ;* that others of them, and the five bishops in particular, 
 so far from being saints, were notoriously deficient in the ordi- 
 nary duties of good subjects and honest men ;f that others 
 again were notorious assassins, as Gardener, Flower, and 
 Rough ; or robbers, as Debenham, King, Marsh, Cauches, Gil- 
 bert, Massey, &c. ;J while not a few of them retractea their 
 errors, as Bilney, Taylor, Wassalia, and died, to all appear- 
 ancc; Catholics. To the whole ponderous folio of Fox's false- 
 hoods, I have opposed the genuine and edifying Memoirs of Mis 
 sionary Priests and other Catholics, who suffered death for their 
 Religion, during the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts. Fi- 
 nally, you reproach me with the scandalous lives of some of 
 our popes, during the middle ages, and of very many Catholics 
 of difTerent descriptions, throughout the church at the present 
 day ; and you refer me to the edifying lives of a great number 
 of Protestants, now living in this country. 
 
 My answer, dear sir, to your concluding objections, is briefly 
 this, that I, as well as Baronius, Bellarmin, and other Catholic 
 writers, have unequivocally admitted, that some few of our pen- 
 tifTs have disgraced themselves by their crimes, and given jus\ 
 cause of scandal to Christendom ;§ but I have remarked thai 
 the credit of our cause is not affected by the personal conduci 
 of particular pastors, who succeeded one another in a regulai 
 way, in the same manner, as the credit of yours is by the beha- 
 vior of your founders, who professed to have received an ejctra- 
 ordinary commission from God to reform religion. \\ I acknow- 
 ledge, with the same unreservedness, that the lives of very 
 many Catholics, in this and other parts of the church, are a dis- 
 grace to that holy Catholic Church which they profess to believe 
 in. Unhappy members of the true religion by ivhom the name 
 of God (and of his holy church) is blasphemed among the na- 
 tions ! 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 !" Matt, xviii. 7. In short, I bear a willmg 
 testimony to the public and private worth of very many of my 
 Protestant countrymen of different religions, as citizens, as sub- 
 jects, as friends, as children, as parents, as moral men, and as 
 Christians, in the general sense of the word ; still I must say 
 
 « See Letter IV on Persecution. + See Letter V. on the ReformatiQtt 
 t Letter IV ^ See Letter II. on Supremacy. U Ibid. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 187 
 
 that I find the be^t of them fa* short of the holiness which is 
 prescribed in the Gospel, and is exemplified in the lives of those 
 saints whom I have mentioned. On this subject I will quote an 
 authority, which, I think, you will not object to. Dr. Hey says, 
 " In England, I could almost say, we are too Utile acquainted 
 with contemplative religion. The monk, painted by Sterne, 
 may give us a more favorable 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, 
 thai polished piety and humanity," &c.* In a former letter to 
 your society, I have stated that sincere humility, by which, 
 from a thorough knowledge of our sins and misery, we become 
 little in our own eyes, and try to avoid, rather than to gain the 
 praise and notice of others, is the very groundwork of all other 
 Christian virtues. It has been objected to Protestants, ever 
 since the defection of their arrogant patriarch, Luther, that they 
 have said little, and have appeared to understand less of this 
 essential virtue. I might say the same with respect to the ne- 
 cessity 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 ihese to say a tew 
 words of certain maxims expressly contained in Scripture. It 
 cannot then be denied 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 shall have treasures in heaven ;" nor that he 
 declared on another occasion, "There are eunuchs who have 
 made themselves eunuchs (continen:) for the kingdom of hea- 
 ven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.'* 
 Matt. xix. 12. Now it is notorious that this life of voluntary 
 poverty and perpetual chastity continues to be vowed and ob- 
 served by great numbers of both sexes in the Catholic Church ; 
 while it is nothing more than a subject of ridicule to the best 
 of Protestants. Again, " that we ought to fast, is a truth too 
 manifest to stand in need of any proof:" I here use the words 
 of the Church of England in her Homily iv. p. 11 ; conforma- 
 bly with which doctrine your church enjoins in her Common 
 Prayer Book, the same days of fasting and abstinence which the 
 Catholic Church does ; namely, the forty days of Lent, the 
 Ember-days, all the Fridays in the year, &c. : nevertheless, 
 where is the Protestant to be found who will submit to the mor- 
 tification of fasting, even to obey his own church ? I may add, 
 that Chriit enjoins constant prayer ^ Luke, xviii. 1 ; conforms bit 
 
 • Lectures in Divinity, v<5). i. p. 364. 
 
i38 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 with which injunction, .ne Catholic Church requires her clerg-y 
 at least, f/om the sub-deacon up to the pope, daily to say the 
 seven Canonical Hours, consisting chiefly of Scriptural psahns 
 and lessons ; 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 
 lighter than ours, to lay aside these inspired prayers, except in- 
 devotion ? Luther himself said his office for some time after 
 his apostacy. — 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 
 regular families, places of education, and especially ecclesias- 
 tical establishments of the different communions, with each 
 other, as to morality and piety, and to decide for yourselves ac- 
 cording to what you may observe in them. — I am, &;c. 
 
 John Miln^r. 
 
 LETTER XXIII.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. 
 
 ON DIVINE ATTESTATION OF SANCTITY. 
 
 Dear sir — 
 
 Having demonstrated the distinctive holiness of the Catholic 
 Church, in her doctrine, her practices, and her fruiJ-f 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 favor, 
 from the age of the apostles down to the present age. 
 
 The learned Protestant advocates of revelation, such as Gro- 
 tins, Abbadie, Paley, Watson, &c., in defending this common 
 cause against infidels, all agree in the sentiment of the last 
 named, that " Miracles are the criterion of truth." Accord- 
 ingly they observe, that both Moses, Exod. iv. xiv. Numb. xvi. 
 29, and Jesus Christ, John, x. 37, 38, — xiv. 12, — xv. 24, con. 
 stantly appealed to the prodigies they wrought, in attestation of 
 their divine mission and doctrine. Indeed the whc le history of 
 God's people, from the beginning of the world do\^ n to the time 
 of our blessed Saviour, was nearly a continued series of mira- 
 cles.* The latter, so far from confining the power of vorking 
 
 * To say nothing of the Urim and Thummim, the Water of JeaIou.sy, an j 
 the superabundant harvest of the sabbatical year, it is incontestable, from 
 the Gospel o ' St. John, v. 2, that the probatical pond was endowed Sy an 
 angel wi'.h a niraculous power of dealing every kind of disease, in the tixn* 
 Qf Christ, 
 
ATTESTATION OF SANCTITY. 138 
 
 them to his own person or time, expressly promised the samp, 
 and even a greater power of this nature, to his disciples, Mark, 
 xvi. 17, John, 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 
 tvritten law, with frequent miracles, and that Christ promised a 
 eontinuance of them to his disciples under the new law, we are 
 led to expect thai the true church should be distinguished by 
 miracles, wrought in her, and in proof of her divine origin. 
 Accordingly, the fathers and doctors of the Catholic Church, 
 amongst other proofs in her favor, have constantly appealed to 
 the miracles by which she is illustrated, and reproached their 
 contemporary heretics and schismatics with the want of them. 
 Thus St. IrensBus, disciple 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 
 iife ; as he testifies was frequently done in the true church.* 
 Thus also his contemporary, TertuUian, speaking of the here- 
 tics, says, " I wish to see the miracles they have wrought. "•!• 
 St. Pacian, in the fourth century, writing against the schismatic 
 Novatus, scornfully asks, " Has he the gift of tongues or pro- 
 phecy ? Has he restored the dead to life ?"J The great St. 
 Augustin, in various passages of his works, refers to the mira- 
 cles wrought in the Catholic Church, in evidence of her ve- 
 racity. § St. Nicetas, Bishop of Treves, in the sixth century, 
 in order to convert her husband, Albion, king of the Lombards, 
 from Arianism, advises Queen Clodosind to induce him to send 
 confidential messengers, to witness the miracles wrought at the 
 tombs of St. Martin, St. Germanus, or St. Hilary, in giving 
 sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, &c., adding, " Are such 
 things done in tne cnurches of the Arians?"|| 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. IT 
 The seventh century was illustrated by the miracles of our 
 apostle, St. Augustin of Canterbury, wrought in confirmation of 
 
 • Lib. ii. contra Haer. c. 31 t Lib. de Praescr. 
 
 t Ep. ii. ad Symphor. 
 
 § " Dubitamus nos eju8 Ecclesiae condere gremio, quaj usque ad confes. 
 eionem generis huinani ab apostolica sede, per succeBsionem Episcoporum 
 (frustra haereticis circumlatrantibus, et partim plebis ipsius judicio, partim 
 c^nciliorum gravitate, partim etiam iniraculorum majestate damnalis) cui. 
 w.n auctoritatis obtinuit ?" — De Utilit. Cred. c. iv. 
 
 U Labbe's Concil. torn. v. p. 835. IT Greg. Turon. J. ix. c. 15. 
 
140 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 the doctrine which he taught, as was recorded on his tomb .* 
 and this doctrine, by the confession of learned Protestants, was 
 purely the Roman Catholic. f In the eleventh century, we hear a 
 celebrated doctor, speaking of the proofs of the Catholic religion, 
 exclaim thus, "O Lord, if what we believe is an erro:% thou 
 art the author of it, since it is confirmed amongst us by those 
 signs and prodigies which could not be wrought but by thee.^'if 
 In short, St. Bernard, St, Dominic, St. Xaverius, &c., all ap- 
 pealed to the miracles which God wrought by their hands, iu 
 proof of the Catholic doctrine. I need not mention the contro- 
 versial works of Bellarmin and other modern schoolmen: nev- 
 ertheless, I cannot refrain from observing that even Luther, 
 when the Anabaptists, adopting his own principles, had proceeded 
 to excesses of doctrine and practice which he disapproved of, 
 required them to prove their authority for their innovations by 
 the performance of miracles. § You will naturally ask, dear sir 
 how Luther himself got rid of the argument implied by this re- 
 quisition, which, it is evident, bore as strongly against him, as 
 against the Anabaptists ? — On one occasion, he answered thus, 
 " I have made an agreement with the Lord, not to send me any 
 visions, or dreams, or angels," &c.|| On another 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 they (the Swinkfeldians, wno denied the real pres- 
 ence) will see in a whole year. "II 
 
 Such has been the doctrine of the fathers and Catholic writers 
 concerning miracles in general, as divine attestations in favor 
 of that church in which God is pleased to work them. I will now 
 mention, or refer to a few particular miraculous events of un- 
 questionable evidence, which have illustrated this church, dur- 
 ing the eighteen centuries of her existence. 
 
 No Christian questions the miracles and prophecies of the 
 apostles or their converts, 1 Cor. xii. 10, Galat. iii. .5 ; 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 Smyrna, Rev. ii. 8, concerning the manner of his future mar- 
 tyrdom, namely, by fire ?** or the testimony of his episcopal cor- 
 
 * " Hie requiescit D. Augustinus, &c.. qui operatione miraculorum sufc 
 fultus, Edelberthum Regem ac gentem illius ab idolorum cultu ad fidem 
 Christi covertit." — Bed. Eceles. Hist. 1. ii. e. 3. See, in particular, the &c. 
 count of this saint's restoring sight to a blind man in con^rmaiion of ni« 
 dorfrine. Ibid. c. 2. • 
 
 t The Centuriators of Magdeburg, Sajc. 6. Bale. In Act Rom. Pont 
 Humphrey's Jesuit, &c. t Ric. a S. Vict, de Triuit. 1 i. 
 
 ^ Sleidan. Comment de Stat. Rel. 
 
 II Manhus in loc. commun. See Brierly's Apology p. 448. 
 
 ^ Luth. ad Senat. Civil. Germ. ** Genuine Acts by Ruinart 
 
ATTESTATION OF SAN^TITT. 141 
 
 respondent, who was likewise a discijle of the apos'les St. Tg 
 natius, Bishop of Antioch, who testifies that the wihl beasts let 
 loose upon the martyrs, were frequently restrained by a divin« 
 power from hurting them ? In consequence of this, he prayed 
 that it might not be the case with him.* St. Irenceus, Bishop 
 of Lyons, was the disciple of St. Polycarp, and, like him, an il- 
 lustrious martyr. Shall we then call in question his testimony, 
 when he declares, as I have noticed above, that miracles, even 
 to the revival of the dead, frequently took place in the Catholic 
 Church, but never among the heretics ?f Or shall we disbe- 
 lieve the testimonies of the learned Origen, in the next century, 
 who says that it was usual with the Christians of his time to 
 drive away devils, heal the sick, and foretell things to come ? 
 adding : " God is my witness, I would not recommend the reli- 
 gion of Jesus by fictitious stories, but only by clear and certain 
 facts. "J One of the scholars of Origen was St. Gregory, Bishop 
 of Neocesarea, surnt*med Thaumaturgus, or Wonderworker, on 
 account of the numerous and astonishing miracles which God 
 wrought by his means. Many of these, even to the stopping 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 sev- 
 eral miracles which took place in it ; some of which prove the 
 blessed eucharist to be a sacrifice^ and the lawfulness of receiv- 
 ing it under one kind. In the middle of the fourth century hap- 
 pened that wonderful miracle, when the Emperor Julian the 
 A})ostate, attempting to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, 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 laborers 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, appear- 
 ed in the heavens, and numerous crosses were impressed on the 
 bodies and garments of the persons present. These prodigies 
 are so strongly attested by almost all the authors of the age, 
 -Arians, and pagans, no less than Catholics, || that no one but a 
 downright skeptic can call them in question. They have ac- 
 cordingly been acknowledged by the most learned Protestants, f 
 
 * Ep. ad. Roman. t Contra Haer. I. ii. c. 31. X Contra Cels. 1. i. 
 
 § Greg. Nyss. Euseb. I. vi. St. Basil, St. Jerom. 
 
 II Besides the testimony of the fathers, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chry- 
 Bostorn, St. Ambrose, and of the historians Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, 
 &c., these events are also acknowledged by Philostorgius the Arian, Animi- 
 anus Marcellinus i\ e Pagan, &c. 
 
 IT Bishop Warbi rton published a book called Julian, in proof of thes« 
 noiracles. They are also acknowledged by Bishop Halifax, Disc. p. 23. 
 
142 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Another miracle, which may vie with the above-mentio' ed, foi 
 the number and quality of its witnesses, took place in the fol- 
 l(»vving century, at Typassus in Africa; where a whoU congre- 
 gation of Catholics being assembled to perform their dev».;tions, 
 contrary to the orders of the Arian tyrant, Hunneric, their right 
 hands were chopped off, and their tongues cut out to the roots, 
 by his command : nevertheless, they continued to speak as per. 
 fectly as they did before this barbarous act.* I pass over num. 
 berless miracles recorded by SS. Basil, Athanasius, Jerom, 
 Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustin, and the other illustrious fa- 
 thers and church-historians, who adorned the fourth, fifthj and 
 sixth centuries of Christianity ; and shall barely mention one 
 miracle, which both the last-mentioned 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 that evei 
 nandled a pen, gives an account, in the work to which I have 
 just referred, J 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 
 Gregory to Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria, in an epistle 
 still extant, in which this pope compares them with those per 
 formed by the apostles. § The latter saint wrote likewise 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 reminding 
 him that God had bestowed the pov/er of working them, not on 
 his own account, but for the conversion of the EngUeli naticn.jj 
 
 • The vouchers of this miracle are Victor Vitensis, Hist. Pcrsec. Vaidal^ 
 !. ii. , the Emperor Justinian, who declares that he had seen some of the 
 sufferers, Codex. Just. Tit. 27 ; the Greek historian Procupius, who says ho 
 had conversed with them, L. i. de Bell. Vand. c. 8 ; iKneas of Geza, a pla- 
 tonic philosopher, who, having examined their mouths, protested that he was 
 not so much surprised at their being able to talk as at iheir being atle to 
 live ; De Immort. Anim. Victor, Turon, Isid. Hispal. Greg. Magn. &c. The 
 miracle is admitted by Abbadie, Djdwell, Moshcim, and other learned Pro 
 jBstants. t Aug. De Civit. Dei, 1. xii. p. 8. t Ibid. 1. xii. 
 
 § Epist. S. Greg. 1. vii. || Ibid, et Hist. Bede, 1. i. c. 31. 
 
ATTESTATION OF SANCT -^. 143 
 
 On t le supposition that our apostle had wrought no miracles, 
 what farces must these epistles have exhibited among the first 
 cnaracters of the Christian world ! 
 
 Among the numberless and well-attested miracles which the 
 histories of the middle ages present to our view, 1 stop at those 
 of the illustrious abbot St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, to 
 whose sanctity the most eminent Protestant wi iters have borno 
 high testimony.* This saint, in the life of his friend, St. Mala 
 chy of Armagh, amongst other miracles, mentions the cure of 
 the withered hand of a youth, by the application to it of the dead 
 nand of his friend. f But this, and all the miracles which St. 
 Bernard mentions of other saints, totally disappear, when com- 
 pared with those wrought by himself; which, for their splendor 
 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, hfl 
 was followed by Philip, Archdeacon of Liege, who was sent by 
 Sampson, Archbishop of Rheims, to observe his actions.:}: Thia 
 writer accordingly gives an account of a vast number of instan- 
 taneous cures, which the holy abbot performed on the lame, the 
 blind, the paralytic, and other diseased persons, with all the 
 circumstances of them. Speaking of those wrought 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 reputa- 
 tion.'"^ A great number of these miracles were performed in 
 express confirmation of the Catholic doctrine which he defended. 
 Thus, preaching at Sarlet against the impious and impure Hen- 
 ricians, 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 doctrine ; and the heretics a 
 false ddctiine : all your sick, who eat of this bread, shall recover 
 their health;'' which prediction was confirmed by the event, || 
 St. Bernard himself, in the most celebrated of his works,ir ad- 
 dressed to Pope Eugenius III., refers to the miracles, which God 
 enabled him to work, by way of justifying himself for having 
 preached up the second crusade ;** and, in his letter to the peo- 
 
 * Luther, Calvin, Bucer, (Ecolompadius, Jewel, Wh'itaker, Mosheim, &c. 
 
 t Vita Malach. inter Oper. Bern. 
 
 t St. Bernard's Life was written by his three contemporaries, WilHam, ah. 
 not ofThierry ; Arnold, abbot of Bonevaux ; and Geofiry, the saint's secre- 
 tary, and by other early writers : his own eloquent epistles, and other works, 
 furnish many particulars. § PubHshed by Mabillon. 
 
 Ill G€of. in Vit. Bern. IT De Consideratione. »* Ibid. 1. ii. 
 
144 LETTER XXllI- 
 
 pie of Thoulouse, he mentions his having detected he heretic* 
 among them, not only by words, but also by miracles.* 
 
 The miracles of St. Francis Xaverius, the Apostle of India, 
 who was contemporary with Luther, in number, splendor, and 
 publicity, may vie with Si. Bernard's. They consisted in fore- 
 telling future events, speaking unknown languages, calming 
 tempests at sea, curing various maladies, and raising the dead 
 to life ; and, though tliey took place in remote countries, yet 
 they wore verified in the same, soon after the saint's death, by 
 virtue of a commission from John III., King of Portugal, and 
 were generally acknowledged, not only by Europeans of differ- 
 ent religions in the Indics,f but also by the native Mahometans 
 and pagans.:}: 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 illustrated 
 by the attested miracles of St. Francis of Sales, || even to tne 
 resurrection of the dead ; as it was also by those of St. John 
 Francis Regis ; concerning which, twenty-two bishops of Lan- 
 guedoc wrote thus to Pope Clement XL : " We are witnesses 
 that betbre the tomb of F. J. F. Regis, the blind see, the lame 
 walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak. "IT 
 
 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 with undeniable miracles, chiefly by means 
 of his saints, in the different ages of her existence. What now 
 will you, dear sir, and your friends, say to the evidence here 
 adduced ? Will you say that ail the holy fathers, up to the 
 apostolic age, and that all the ecclesiastical writers down to the 
 Reformation ; and, since that period, that all the Catholic au- 
 thors, prelates, and officials, have been in a league to deceive 
 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 favor of the Catholic 
 Church, the celebrated Dr. Conyers Middleton has declared for : 
 3 have most Protestant writers v/ho have handled the subject, 
 since the publication of his Free Inquiry. This system, how- 
 ever, whicii is a libel on human nature, does not only lead to 
 genera skepticism in other respects, but also undermines the 
 
 » Ad Tolos. Ep. 241. 
 
 t See the testimonies of Hackluyt, Baldens, and Tavcrnier, all Protestania, 
 11 Bouhoiir's Tjife of St, Xaveriu?, translated by the poet Dryden. 
 t Ibid. § See Butler's Saints' Lives, May 26. 
 
 II See Marsollier's Life of St. F. de Sales, translated by Dr. Coombes. 
 IT See his life by Duubenton, which is abridged by Butler, June 16. 
 
ATTESTATION OF SANCTITY. 145 
 
 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 the whole history of the latter ? It was impossible that 
 these consequences should escape the penetration of Middleton : 
 but, in his opinion, a worse consequence, namely, a divine at 
 testation of the sanctity of the Catholic Church, which would in- 
 evitably follow from admitting the veracity of the holy fathers, 
 banished his dread of the former. Let him now speak to this 
 point for himself, in his own flowing periods. He begins with 
 establishing an important fact, which I also have been laboring 
 to prove, where he says : " It must be confessed, that the claim 
 to a miraculous power was universally asserted and believed in 
 all Christian countries and in all ages of the church, till the 
 time of the Reformation : for ecclesiastical history makes no 
 diflference between one age and another, but carries on the suc- 
 cession of its miracles, as of all other common events, through 
 all of them indifferently to that memorable period."* As far 
 as " church-historians can illustrate any thing, there is not a 
 single point, in all history, so constantly, explicitly, and unani- 
 mously afRrmed 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 succes- 
 sion 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 re- 
 main with us is, whether church-historians are to be trusted or 
 not ; for if any credit be due to them in the present case, it 
 must reach to all or none : because the reason for believing 
 them in any one ago, will be found to be of equal force in all, 
 as far as it depends on the character of the persons attesting, or 
 on the thing attested. "f We shall now hear Dr. Middleton '• 
 decision on this weighty matter, and upon what grounds it in 
 formed. He says : " The prevailing opinion of Protestants, 
 namely, of Tillotson, Marshall, 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 the hands 
 of its enemies : for it was in those primitive ages, particularly 
 in ihe third, fourth, and fifth, those flourishing times of mira. 
 
 • Free Inquiry, Introduct. Disc. p. xlv. t Ibid, Pr«f. p. IS. 
 
 13 
 
146 LETTER XXin. 
 
 cles, in which the cnief corruptions of Poper} , monkery, th« 
 worship of relics, invocations of saints, prayers for the dead, 
 the superstitious use of images, and of sacraments, were intro- 
 duced."* " 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. : where- 
 fore, 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 "Everyone may see what a resemblance the pruu 
 dples and practice of the fourth century, as they are described 
 by the most eminent fathers of that age, bear to the present rites 
 cfthe Popish Church.'^X "When we reflect on the surprising 
 confidence with which the fathers of the fourth age affirmed, as 
 true, what they themselves had forged, or knew to be forged, i* 
 is natural to suspect that so bold a defiance of truth could not 
 be acquired or become general at once, but must have beer 
 gradually carried to that height by the example of former 
 ages."§ Such are the grounds on which this shameless dis- 
 claimer accuses all the most holy and learned men whom the 
 world has produced during eighteen hundred 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 en- 
 tangled in a series of difficulties, whence we can never fairly 
 extricate ourselves, till we allow the same powers also to the 
 present age."|| 
 
 Methinks I hear some of your society thus asking me : Do 
 you then pretend that your church possesses the miraculous powers 
 at the present day? — I answer, that the church never possessed 
 miraculous powers, in the sense of most Protestant writers, so 
 as to bo able to eflTect cures, or other supernatural events, at her 
 mere pleasure : for even the apostles could not do this : as we 
 learn from the history of the lunatic child. Matt. 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 un- 
 questionable miracles. Accordingly, in those processes which 
 are commonly going on, at the apostolical see, for the canoniza. 
 tion of new saints,^ fresh miracles of a recent date continue t« 
 
 • Free Inquiry, Inirod. p. li. t Ibid. p. Ixvi. t Ibid. p. Ixv. 
 
 6 Ibid. p. Ixxxiv. j| Ibid. p. xcvi 
 
 V \inon£ t e lat« c^^nonizaiions are those, i'l 1807 and 7808, of St. f 
 
irTESTATION OF SArs'CllTY. 147 
 
 De proved with the highest degree of evidence, as I can testifV 
 from having perused, on the spot, the official printed account of 
 some of them."* For the further satisfaction of your friends, I 
 will inform them that I have had satisfactory proof, that the as- 
 tonishing catastrophe of Louis XVI., and his queen, in being 
 htheaded on a scaffold, vi^as foretold by a nun of Fougeres, Soe.ur 
 Nativite, twenty years before it happened ; and that the banish- 
 irent of the French clergy from their country, long before il 
 happened, was predicted by the holy French pilgrim, Benedict 
 Labrc, whose miracles caused the conversion of the late Rev. 
 Mr. Thayer, an American clergyman, who, during his resi- 
 dence at Rome, was an ocular witness to several of them. With 
 respect to miraculous cures of a late date, 1 have the most re. 
 spectable attestation of several of them, and I am well acquaint- 
 ed with four or five persons who have experienced them. The 
 following facts are respectively attested, by the Rev. Thomas 
 Sadler, of Trafford, near Manchester, and the Rev. J. Crathorne, 
 of Garswood, near Wigan : — Joseph Lamb, of Eccles, near Man- 
 chester, on the 12th of August, 1814, fell from a hay-rici , four 
 yards and a half high, by which accident the spine of hi back 
 appears to have been broken. Certain it is, that he could i thither 
 walk nor stand without crutches, down to the second of Octobor, 
 and that he described himself as suffering the most exquisite 
 pain in his back. On that day, having prevailed, with much 
 difficulty, upon his father, who was then a Protestant, to take 
 him in a cart, with his wife and two friends, Thomas Cutler and 
 Elizabeth Dooley, to Garswood, near Wigan, where the hand 
 of F. Arrowsmith, one of the Catholic priests who suffered death 
 at Lancaster, for the exercise of his religion, in the reign of 
 Charles L, is preserved, and has often caused wonderful cureS; 
 he procured himself to be conveyed to the altar-rails of the 
 chapel, and there to be signed, on his back, with the sign of the 
 cross, by that hand ; when, feeling a particular sensation and 
 total change in himself, as he expressed it, he exclaimed to his 
 wife : Mary, I can walk ! — This he did, without any help what- 
 ever, walking first into an adjoining room, and thence to the cart 
 which conveyed him home. With his debility, his pains als'^ 
 left him, and his back has continued well ever since.f These 
 
 Caracciolo, founder of the Regular Clerks ; of St. Angela de Mercis, found. 
 r«ss of the Ursuline Nuns ; of St. Mary of the Incarnation, Mile. Acarie, &c 
 One of the latest beatifications is that of B. Alfonso Liguori, Bishop of St 
 Agata de Goti. 
 
 * One of these, proved in the process of the last-mentioned saint, consisted 
 in the cure and restoration of an amputated breast of a woman, who was at 
 tke >oini of death from a cancer. 
 
 T I'he Rev. Mr. Sadler's letter to mt is dated August 6, 1817. 
 
148 LETTER XXni. 
 
 particulars the above-named persons all declare upon oath. I 
 nave attestations of incurable cancers, and other disorders, being 
 suddenly remedied by the same instrument of God's bounty ; 
 but it would be a tedious work to transcribe them, or the other 
 attestations in my possession of a similar nature. 
 
 Among those of my personal acquamtance who have experi- 
 enced supernatural cures, I will mention Mary Wood, now 
 !iving at Taunton Lodge, where several other witnesses of the 
 facts which I am going to state live with her. " On March 15, 
 1309, Mary Wood, in attempting to open a sash-window, pushed 
 her left hand through a pane of glass, which caused a very 
 large and deep transverse wound in the inside of the left arm, 
 and divided the muscles and nearly the whole of the tendons 
 tiat lead to the hand ; from which accident she not only suf- 
 fered, at times, the most acute pain, but was from the period I 
 first saw her (March 15) till some time in July, totally deprived 
 of the use of her hand and arm."* What passed between the 
 latter end of July, when, as the surgeon elsewnere says, " he 
 left his patient," having no hopes of restoring her, till th«' 6th 
 of August, on the night of which she was perfectly and mirac- 
 ulously cured, I shall copy from a letter to me, date Nov. 19, 
 1809, by her amanuensis, Miss Maria Hornyold : " Tae sur- 
 geon gave little or no hopes of her ever again having the use 
 of her hand, which, together with the arm, seemed withered 
 and somewhat contracted ; only saying, in some years, nature 
 might give her some little use of it, which was considered by 
 her superiors as a mere delusive comfort. Despairing of fur- 
 ther human assistance towards her cure, she determined, with the 
 approbation of her said superiors, to have recourse to God, through 
 the intercession of St. Winefred, by a Novena.f Accordingly, 
 on the 6th of August, she put a piece of moss, from the saint's 
 well, on her arm, continuing recollected and praying, &c., 
 when, to her great surprise, the next morning she found she 
 could dress herself, put her arm behind her and to her head, 
 having regained the free use and full strength of it. In short, 
 she was perfectly cured !" In this state I myself saw her a 
 few years afterwards, when I examined her hand ; and in. the 
 jame state she still continues, at the above-named place, with 
 <nany other highly creditable vouchers who are ready respect- 
 ively to attest these particulars. " On the 16th of the month, 
 ihe surgeon was sent for ; and, being asked his opinion con. 
 cerning Mary Wood's arm, he gave no hope of a perfect curet 
 
 * This account is copied from a letter to Miss F. T. Bird, dated Septem- 
 ber 30, 1809, by Mr. Woodford, an eminent surgeon of Taunton, who au 
 ended Marv Wood. 
 
 t Certain prayers con inued during nine days. 
 
ATTESTATION OF SANCTITY. 149 
 
 and very little of her ever having even the least use of it ; when, 
 she being introduced to him and showing him the arm, which 
 he thoroughly examined and tried, he was so affected at the 
 sight and the reci-tal of the manner of the cure as to shed rears, 
 and exclaim. It is a special interposition of divine Providence.''^ 
 I shall say little of the miraculous cure of Winefred White, 
 a young woman of Wolverhampton, on the 28th of June, 1805, 
 at Holy-well, having published a detailed account of it soon 
 after it happened, which has been republished in England and 
 in Ireland.* Let it suffice to say, 1st, that the disease was one of 
 the most alarming of a topical nature of any that is known, 
 namely, a curvature of the spine, as her physician and surgeon 
 ascertained, who treated it accordingly, by making two great 
 issues, one on each side of the spine, of which the marks are 
 still imprinted on the patient's back ; 2dly, that, besides the 
 most acute pains throughout the whole nervous system, and 
 particularly in the brain, this disease of the spine produced a 
 hemiplegia, or palsy, on one side of the patient, so that when 
 she could feebly crawl with the help of a crutch under her 
 right arm, she was forced to drag her left leg and arm after 
 her, just as if they constituted no part of her body ; 3dly, that 
 her disorder was of long continuance, namely, of three years* 
 standing, though not in the same degree till the latter part of 
 that time, and that it was publicly known to all her neighbors 
 and a great many others; 4thly, that having performed the 
 acts of devotion which she felt herself called to undertake, and 
 having bathed in the fountain, she, in one instant of time, on 
 the 28th of June, 1805, found herself freed from all her pains 
 and disabilities, so as to be able to walk, run, and jump like 
 any other young person, and to carry a greater weight with the 
 left arm than she could with the right ; 5thly, that she has con- 
 tinued in this state these thirteen years down to the present 
 time ; and that all the above-mentioned circumstances have 
 been ascertained by me in the regular examination of the seve- 
 ral witnesses of them, in the places of their respective resi- 
 dences, namely, in Staffordshire, Lancashire, and Wales, they 
 being persons of different counties, no less than of different reli- 
 gions and situations in life. The authentic documents of the 
 examination, and of the whole process of the cure, are contained 
 in the work referred to above. Several of the witnesses are 
 still living, as is Winefred White herself. f — I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 • By Keating & Brown, Duke-st., Grosvenor-sq., London ; Coyne, Dublin 
 + She has since departed this life, namely, on ths 13th of January, in the 
 
 year 1824, being the ninctcen'ii year since the cure of her hemiplegia. Sh« 
 
 died of a consumption. 
 
 13* 
 
150 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 LETTER XXIV.— TO JAMES BROWN, EStJ 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 De^.b si I — 
 
 I subscribe to the objection, which you say has been sug 
 gested to you by your learned friend, on the subject of miracles, 
 Namely, I admit that a vast number of incredible and false 
 miracles, as well as other fables, have been forged by some, 
 and believed by other Catholics in every age of the church, in- 
 cluding that of the apostles.* I agree with him and you in 
 rejecting the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, the Spec- 
 ulum of Vincentius Belluacensis, the Saints' Lives of the Patri- 
 cian Metaphrastes, and scores of similar legends, stuffed, as they 
 are, with relations of miracles of every description. But, sir, 
 are we to deny the truth of all history, because there are num- 
 berless false histories ? Are we to question the four evangel- 
 ists, because there have been several fabricated gospels ? Most 
 certainly not : but we must make the best use we can of the 
 discernment and judgment which God has given us, to distin 
 guish false accounts of every kind from those which are true ; 
 and we ought, I allow, to make use of redoubled diligence and 
 caution, in examining alleged revelations and events contrary 
 to the general laws of nature. 
 
 Your friend's second objection, which impeaches the diligence, 
 integrity, and discernment of the cardinals, prelates, and other 
 ecclesiastics at Rome, appointed to examine into the proofs of 
 the miracles there published, shows that he is little acquainted 
 with the subject he talks of. In the first place, then, a juridical 
 examination of each reported miracle must be made in the place 
 where it is said to have happened, and the depositions of the 
 several witnesses must be given upon oath ; this examination is 
 generally repeated two or three different times, at intervals. 
 In the next place, the examiners at Rome are unquestionably 
 men of character, talents, and learning, who, nevertheless, are 
 not permitted to pronounce upon any cure or other effect in na- 
 ture, till they have received a regular report of physicians anc 
 naturalists upon it. So far from being precipitate, t employs 
 them whole years to come to a decision, on a few cases, respect- 
 ing each saint ; this is printed and handed about among indiffer- 
 ent persons, previously to its being laid before the pope. In 
 short, so strict is the examination, that, according to an Italian 
 
 * St. Jerom, in rejecting certain current fables concerning St. Paul and 
 St. Thccla, mentions a priest who was deposed by St. John the Evangelist, 
 for inventing similar stories. — De Script. Apost. Pope Gelasius, in the fifth 
 ''entury, condemned several apochryphal gospels and epistles, as also several 
 ( tlee legends of saints, and among the latter, the common ones of St. George- 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 15i 
 
 provf;rb, it is next to a miracle to get a miracle proved at Rome. 
 It is reported by F. Daubenton, that an English Protestant gen- 
 tleman, meeting, in that city, with a printed process of forty 
 miracles, which had been laid before the congregation of rites, 
 to w lich thj 3xamination of them belonged, was so well satis- 
 fied with the respective proofs of them, as to express a wish 
 ♦hat Ron e would never allow of any miracles, but such as were 
 AS strongly proved as those appeared to be, when, to his great 
 surprise, he was informed that every one of those had been re- 
 jected by Rome, as not sufficiently proved ! 
 
 Nor can I admit of the third objection of your friend, by which 
 he rejects our miracles, on the alleged ground, that there was 
 not sufficient cause for the performance of them ; for, r>ot to 
 mention that many of them were performed for the convt rsion 
 of infidels, I am bound to cry out with the apostle, "Who hath 
 known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor !" 
 Rom. xi. 34. Thus much is certain from Scripture, that the 
 same Deity who preserved Jonas in the whale's belly to preach 
 repentance to the Ninevites, created a gourd to shelter his head 
 from the heat of the sun, (Jonas iv. 6,) and that as he sent fire 
 from heaven to save his prophet Elias, so he caused iron to 
 swim, in order to enable the son of a prophet to restore the axe 
 which had been borrowed. 2 Kings, vi. 6. In like manner, 
 we are not to reject miracles, sufficiently proved, under a pre- 
 text that they are mean, and unworthy the hand of Omnipo- 
 tence ; for we are assured, that God equally turned the dust of 
 Egypt into lice, and the waters of it into blood. Exod. viii. 
 
 Having lately perused the works of several of the most cele- 
 brated Protestant writers, who, in defending the Scripture-mira- 
 cles, endeavored to invalidate the credit of those they are pleased 
 to call Popish miracles, I think it just, both to your cause and 
 my own, to state the chief arguments they make use of, and 
 the answers which occur to me in refutation of them. On this 
 head, I cannot help expressing my surprise and concern that 
 writers of character, and some of them of high dignity, should 
 have published several gross falsehoods, not, I trust, intention- 
 ally, but from the blind precipitancy and infatuation which a 
 panic fear of Popery generally produces. The late learned 
 Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. J. Douglas, has borrowed from the 
 infidel Gibbon what he cal .s, " A most satisfying proof that the 
 miracles ascribed to the Romish saints are forgeries cf an age 
 posterior to that they lay claim to."* The latter says, " It may 
 seem remarkable, that Bernard of Clairvaux, who lecords so 
 
 * The criterion, or rules, by which the true miracles of the New Testa, 
 ment are distinguished from the spurious miracles of pagans and papists, b 
 John Douglas, D. D., Lord Bishop of Salisbury, p. 71, note 
 
152 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 many miracles of his friend St. Malachy, never takes notice of 
 his own, which, in their turn, however, are carefully related by 
 his companions and disciples. In the long series of ecclesiasti- 
 cal history, does there occur an instance of a satnt asserting 
 that he himself possessed the gift of miracles ?"* Adopting this 
 obiection, the Bishop of Salisbury says : " I may safely chal- 
 lenge the admirers of the Romish saints to produce any writing 
 of any of them, in which a power of working miracles is 
 claimed. "f Elsewhere he says: "From Xaverius himself 
 (namely, from his published letters) we are furnished, not only 
 with a negative evidence against his having any miraculous 
 power, but also with a positive fact, which is the strongest pos- 
 sible presumption against it. "J Nevertheless, in spite of the 
 confident assertions of these celebrated authors, it is certain 
 (though the last tilings which true saints choose to speai; of are 
 their own supernatural favors) that several of them, when the 
 occasion required it, have spoken of the miracles of which they 
 were the instruments ;§ and, among the rest, these two identical 
 saints, St. Bernard and St. Francis Xaverius, whom Gibbon 
 and Dr. Douglas instance to prove their assertion. I have 
 already referred to the passages in the works of St. Bernard, 
 where he speaks of his miracles as of notorious facts, and I here 
 again insert them in a note.|| With respect to St. Xaverius, he 
 not only mentions, in those very letters which Dr. Douglas appeals 
 to, a miraculous cure, which he wrought upon a dying woman 
 in the kingdom of Travancor, but he expressly calls it a mira- 
 cle, and affirms that it caused the conversion of the whole vil- 
 lage in which she resided. IT 
 
 A second palpable falsehood is thus confidently advanced by 
 the capital enemy of miracles. Dr. Middleton : " I might risk 
 the merit of my argument on this single point, that, after the 
 apostolic times, there is not, in all history, one instance, either 
 
 * Hist, of Decline and Fall, chap. xv. 
 
 t Criterion, p. 369. I Ibid. p. 76. 
 
 § The great St. Martin acknowledged his own miracles, since, according 
 to his friend and biographer, Sulpicius, Dialogue 2, he used to say that he 
 was not endowed with so great a power of working them, after he was a 
 a bishop, as he had been before. 
 
 II Addressing himself to P. Eugeniiis III., in answer to his enemies, whc 
 reproached him with the ill success of the second crusade, he says : " Sed 
 dicunt forsitan isti : Unde scimus quod a Domino sermo egressus sit ? Qua 
 eigna tufacis ut credamus tibi? Non est quod ad ista i»)se respondeam 
 parcendum verecundiae meae : responde tu pro me et pro '. ipso, secundum 
 ea qasD vidisti et audisti." — De Consid.l. ii. c. 1. In like manner, writing te 
 the people of Thoulouse, of his miracles wrought there, he says : " Mor* 
 quidem brevis apud vos sed non infructuosa : veritate nirnirum per nos m»p 
 ifestatS., non solum in sermoie sed etiam in virtute." — Ep 241. 
 
 T Epist. S. F. Xaq. 1. i. e ). iv. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWflRED. 158 
 
 well attested, or even so much as mentioned, of any particular 
 person who had ever exercised that gift, (of tongues,) or pre- 
 tended to exercise it, in any age or country whatsoever."* In 
 case your learned friend is disposed to take up the cause of 
 M iddleton, I beg to refer him to the history of St. Pacomius, the 
 Egyptian abbot, and founder of the Cenobites, who, "though he 
 never learned the Greek or Latin language, yet sometimes mi- 
 raculously spoke them both," as his disciple and biographer 
 reports ;t and to that of the renowned preacher, St. Vincent 
 Ferrer, who, having the gift of tongues, preached indifferently 
 to Jews, Moors, and Christians, in their respective languages, 
 and converted incredible numbers of each of these descriptions.:]: 
 In like manner, the bull of the canonization of St. Lewis Ber- 
 trand, A.D. 1671, declares that he possessed the gift of tongues, 
 by means of which he converted as many as 10,000 Indians of 
 different tribes in South America, in the space of three years. ^ 
 Lastly, let your friend peruse the history of the great Apost'a 
 of the East Indies, St. Xaverius, who, though he ordinari y 
 studied the languages of the several nations to whom he an- 
 nounced the word of God, yet on particular occasions, he was 
 empowered to speak those which he had not learned. || This 
 was the case in Travancor, as his companion Vaz testifies ; so 
 as to enable him to convert and instruct 10,000 infidels, all of 
 whom he baptized with his own hand. This was the case 
 again at Amanguchi, in Japan, where he met with a number of 
 Chinese merchants. Finally, the bull of St. Xaverius's canoni- 
 zation by Urban VIII. proclaims to the world, that this saint 
 was illustrated with the gift of tongues. So false is the bold 
 assertion of Middleton, adopted in part by Bishop Douglas and 
 other Protestants, that " there is not, in all history, one instance, 
 either well attested, or so much as mentioned, of any person 
 who had ever exercised the gift of tongues, or pretended to ex- 
 ercise it." 
 
 Nor is there more truth in what the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. 
 Paley, &c., maintain, namely, that " the Popish miracles," aa 
 tney insultingly call them, "were not wrought to confirm any 
 t_*uth, and that no converts were made by them !"ir In refuta- 
 tion of this, I may again refer to the epitaph of our apostle, St. 
 Augustin, and to the miracles of St. Bernard at Sarlat, men- 
 tioned above. To these instances, I may add the prodigy of 
 
 * Inquiry into Mirac. Powers, p. 120, &c. 
 
 t Tillemonl. Mem. Ecc. torn. vii. 
 
 t See his Life by Lanzano, Bishop of Lucca, also Spondanus ad An. 1403 
 
 § See Alban Butler's Saints' Lives, Oct. 9. 
 
 y See Bouhour's Life of St. Xaverius, translated by Dryden, &c. 
 
 f Criteif 3n, p. 369. View of Evidences, by Dr. Paley vol. i. p. 34fi 
 
154 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 St. Dominic, who, to prove the truth of the Catholic doct me, 
 *hre\v a book containing it into the fiames, in which it remainoa 
 unconsumed ; at the same time challenging the heretics, whom 
 he was addressing, to make the same experiment on their creed.* 
 In like manner, St. Xaverius, on a certain occasion, finding his 
 words to have no effect on his Indian auditory, requested them 
 .0 open the grave of a corpse that had been buried the day be- 
 fore, when falling on his knees, he besought God to restore it to 
 life for the conversion of the infidels present ; upon which, the 
 dead man was instantly restored to life and perfect health, and 
 the country round about received the faith. f 
 
 It is chiefly through the sides of the Apostle of India, that the 
 author of The Criterion endeavors to wound the credit of the 
 other saints, and the Catholic Church, on the point of miracles. 
 Hence, in the application of his three labored rules of criticism, 
 he objects, that the alleged miracles of St. Xaverius were per- 
 formed in the extremities of the east ; — that the accounts of 
 them were published, not on the spot, but in Europe, at an im- 
 mense distance ; — and this not till thirty-five years after the 
 saint's death. J A single document, of the most public nature, 
 at once overturns all the three rules in regard of this saint. 
 He died at the end of 1552 ; and on the 28th of March, 1556, 
 a letter was sent from Lisbon by John III., King of Portugal, to 
 his viceroy in India, Don Francisco Baretto, " enjoining him to 
 take depositions upon oath, in all, parts of the Indies, where 
 there is a probability of finding witnesses, not only concerning 
 the life and manners of Francis Xaverius, and of all the things 
 commendably done by him, for the salvation and example of 
 men, but also concerning the miracles which he has wrought, 
 both living and dead. You shall send these authentic instru 
 ments, with all the evidences and proofs, signed with your hand ■ 
 writing, and sealed with your ring, by three different convey. 
 ances."§ 
 
 But the author of the Criterion, it seems, has more positive, 
 and what he calls " conclusive evidence, that during this time 
 
 • Petrus Valis Cern. Hist. Alb. Butler's Sainis' Lives, Aug. 4. 
 
 t Tins was one of the miracles referred to by the Paravas of Cape Como- 
 rin, when the Dutch sent a mini-ter from Batavia, to proselyte them to Pro. 
 testantism. On this occasion, they answered this minister's discourse thus* 
 •* The great father (St. Xaverius) raised to life five or six dead persons ; do 
 you raise twice as many; do you cure all our sick, and make the sea twice 
 AS productive of fish as it now is, and then we will listen to you." Du 
 H»ide*s Recueil, vol. v. Berault's Bercasile's Hist. Ecc. torn, xxiii. p. 454. 
 
 I Criler. pp. 78, 81. 
 
 § This letter is extant in Tersellinus, but had been published several years 
 befor(> by Emanuel Acosta, in his Keruin in Oriente Gestarum. Dilingen« 
 1671. Paris. 1572. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 155 
 
 (thirty-five years from his death) Xaverius's miracles had not 
 been hoard of. The evidence," he says, " I shall allege, is 
 that of Acosta, (namely Joseph Acosta,) who himself had been 
 a missionary among the Indians. His work. Be Procuranda 
 Indorum Salute^ was printed in 1589, that is, about thirty-seven 
 years after the death of Xaverius, and in it we find an express 
 acknowledgment that no miracles had ever been performed by 
 missionaries among the Indians. — Acosta was himself a Jesuit, 
 and therefore from his silence, we may infer unexceptionably, 
 that between thirty and forty years had elapsed before Xave- 
 rius's miracles were thought of"* — The argument has been 
 thought so conclusive, that Mr. Le Mesurier,j Hugh Farmer,J 
 the Rev. Peter Roberts,§ and other Protestant writers on mira- 
 cles, have adopted it with exultation, and it has probably con- 
 tributed as much to the author's title of Detector Douglas, as his 
 exposure of the two impostors, Lauder and Archibald Bower. 
 But what will the admirers of this Detector say, if it should ap- 
 pear that Acosta barely says, that " there was not the same fac- 
 ulty or facility of working miracles among the missionaries, 
 which there was among the apostles ?"|| Or rather, what will 
 they say, if this same Acosta, in the very work which Dr. 
 Douglas quotes, expressly asserts, that signs and miracles too 
 numerous to be related, accompanied the preaching of the gos- 
 pel both in the East and in the West Indies in his oimi time .'IT 
 And when, with respect to this illustrious personage, he further 
 adds, " Blessed Father Francis," as he calls him, " being a man of 
 an apostolical life, so many and such great signs have been re- 
 ported of him by numerous and credible witnesses, that hardly 
 more in number or greater in magnitude are read of any one, 
 except the apostles.** Now all this I affirm Acosta does say, in 
 the very work quoted by Bishop Douglas, a copy of which, I 
 beg leave to inform your learned friend, (and through him, other 
 learned men,) is to l3e found in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, 
 under the title which I insert below.ff The author of The Cri- 
 
 * Criterion, p. 73. t Bampton Lectures, p. 288. 
 
 t Dissertation on Miracles, p. 205. § Observations on a pamphlet, 
 
 II " Altera causa in nobis est cur apostolica praedicatio institui omnino non 
 jiossit Apostolic^, quod miraculorum nulla /acu/^as sit, quae apostoli plurin^a 
 perpetrarunt. ' — Acosta, de Proc. 1. ii. c. 8. 
 
 T '* Et quidem dona spiritus signa et miracula, quae fidei praedicaticne iiu 
 PiOtuerunt, his etiam temporihus, quando charitas, usque adeo refrixit, ennu. 
 merare longum esset, turn in Orientali ilia India, turn in hac Occidentali."— 
 De Procur. 1. i. c. 6. p. 141. 
 
 ** '* Convertamus oculos in nostri saeculi hominen, B. Magistrum Fran, 
 ciscum, virum apostolicae vitae, cujus tot et tarn magna eigna referuntur ppr 
 plurimos, eosque idoneos testes, ut vix de alio, exceptis apostolis, plura le- 
 gantur. Quid Magister Caspar aliique soeii, &c." — De Procur. Ind. Salut. 
 1. ii. c. 10, p. 226. 
 
 ft The work of Toseph Acosfa, rVr Pmcurandn Tndtrrnm Salute^ is to o» 
 
156 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 tet'ion is hardly entitled to more mercy, for his cavils on what 
 Ribadoneira says of the miracles of St. Ignatius, than for tho^e 
 on what Acosta says ot the miracles of St. Xaverius. The 
 fact is, the Council of Trent, having recently prohibited the pub- 
 lication of any new miracles, until they had been examined and 
 approved of by the proper ecclesiastical authority, Ribadeneira 
 in the first edition of his Life of St. Ignatius, observed due cau 
 tion in speaking of this saint's miracles. However, in that verj 
 edition, he declared that many such had been wrought by him , 
 which having been afterwards juridically proved, in the process 
 of the saint's canonization, his biographer published them with- 
 out scruple, as he candidly and satisfactorily informs his read- 
 ers, in that third edition ; which now stands in his folio work of 
 The Saints^ Lives.* 
 
 I shall close this very long letter with a very few words re- 
 specting a work which has lately appeared, animadverting on 
 my account of the Miraculous i^ure of Wmefred White.* The 
 writer sets out with the system ot Dr. Mludleton, by admitting 
 none except Scripture miracles ; but very soon he undermines 
 these miracles also, where he says : "An independent and ex- 
 press uivine testimony is that alone, which can assure us whe- 
 ther eifects are miraculous or not, except in a few cases." He 
 thus reserves the proofs of Ciiristianity, as its advocates and its 
 divine Founder himself have laid them down. He adds : "No 
 mortal ought to have the presumption to say, a thing is or is 
 not contrary to the established laws of nature." Again he 
 
 inquired for at the Bodleian Library under the following quaint title: Johanna 
 Papissa toti orbi manifesta, 8vo. c. 29. Art. Seld., because, for some reason 
 or other, ii is bound up with that fanatical treatise. 
 
 * " Mihi tantum abest ut ad vitam Ignatii iilustrandam miracula deese vi. 
 deantur, ut multa eaque praestantissihia judicem in media luce versari." 
 The writer proceeds to mention several cures, &c. edit. 1572. — I cannot 
 close this article without protesting against the disingenuity of several Pro. 
 testant writers, in reproaching Catholics with thv impositions practised by 
 the Jansenist heretics at the tomb of Abbe Paris. In fact, who detected 
 those impositions, and furnished Dr. Campbell, Dr. Douglas, &,c., with argu- 
 ments against them, except our Catholic prelates and theologians ? In like 
 manner, Catholics have reason to complain of these and other Protestant 
 writers, for the manner in which they discuss the stupendous miracle that 
 took place at Saragossa in 1640, on one Michael Pellicer, whose leg, having 
 been amputated, he, by his prayers, obtained a new, natural leg • just as if 
 this miracle rested on no better foundation than the slight mei tion which 
 Cardinal Retz makes of it in his Memoirs. In fact, we might have expected 
 that learned divines would have known that this miracle had been amply 
 discussed, soon after it happened, between Dr. Siillingfleet and the Jesuit 
 Edward Worsley ; in which discussion, the latter produced such attestation* 
 of the fact as it seems impossible to discredit. — See Reascn and Religion 
 p. 328. 
 
 t By the Rev. Peter Roberts, Rector cf Llananaon, &,c. 
 
CATHOLICITY. i.b'^ 
 
 says : " To prove a miracle there must be a proof of the par 
 tioular divine agency." According to this system we may 
 rfay : No one knows but the motion of the funeral procession, 
 or some occult quality of nature, raised to life the widow of 
 Nairn's son ! Mr. Roberts will have no difficulty in saying so 
 as he denies tliat the resurrection of the murdered man from 
 the touch of the prophet Elisha's bones, 2 Kings, xiii., was a 
 miracle ! Possessed of this opinion, he can readily persuade 
 himself, that a curvated spine and hemiplegia, or any other 
 disease whatever, may be cured in an instant, by immersion in 
 cold water, or by any other means. As it is not likely, how- 
 ever, that any one else will adopt his opinion, I will say no 
 more of his physical arguments on this subject. — He next pro- 
 ceeds to charge W. White and her friends with a studied impo- 
 sition ; in support of which charge, he asserts, that " the Church 
 of Rome had not announced a miracle for many years." This 
 only proves, that his ignorance of what is continually going on 
 in the church, is equal to his bigotry against it. The same 
 ignorance and bigotry are manifested in the ridiculous story 
 concerning Sixtus V., which he copies from the unprincipled 
 Leti, as also in his account of the exploded and condemned 
 book, the Taxce Cancellarice, &c.* Towards the conclusion of 
 his work, he expresses a doubt whether I have read Bishof 
 IJouglas's Criterion, though I have so frequently quoted it , 
 because, he says, if I had read it, I must have known that 
 Acosta proves that St. Xavf/rius wrought no miracles among the 
 Indians, and that the same thing appears from the saint's own 
 letters. Now the only thing, dear sir, which these assertions 
 prove, is that Mr. Robert'^ himself, no more than Bishop Doug- 
 las, ever read either Aoosta's work, or St. Xaverius's letters, 
 notwithstanding they sc frequently I'efer to them ; for this is 
 the only way of acquitting them of a far heavier charge. 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXV.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. &c. 
 
 ON THE TRUE CHURCH BEING CATHOLIC. 
 
 Pear sir — 
 
 In treating of this third mark of the true church, as expres?Rd 
 in our common creed, I feel my spirits sink within me, and I 
 PHP almost tempted to throw away my pen, in despair. For 
 H^hat chance is there of opening the eyes of candid Protenap'«i 
 
 * Eaaeb. Eccles. Hist. !. \'. c. 15. 
 14 
 
l.')8 LETTER XXV. 
 
 to the other marks of the church, if they are capable of keeping 
 them shut to this ? Every time they address the God of truth, 
 either in solemn worship or in private devotion, *hey are forced, 
 each of them, to repeal : I believe in THE CATHOLIC Church; 
 and yet if 1 ask any of them the question : Are you a Catholic ? 
 ie is sure to answer me : No I am a PROTESTANT! Was 
 here ever a more glaring instance of inconsistency and self- 
 condemnation among rational beings ! 
 
 At the first promulgation of the Gospel, its followers weie 
 distmguished from the Jews by the name of Christians, as wo 
 learn from Scripture, Acts, xi. 26. Hence the title of Catholic 
 did not occur in the primitive edition of the Apostles' Creed ;* 
 but no sooner did heresies and schisms arise, to disturb the 
 peace of the church, than there was found to be a necessity of 
 oiscriminating the main stock of her faithful children, to whom 
 the promises of Christ belonged, from those self-willed choosers 
 of their articles of belief, as the word heretic signifies, and from 
 those disobedient separatists, as the word schismatic means. For 
 this purpose the title of CATHOLIC, or Universal., was adopted, 
 and applied to the true church and her children. Accordingly, 
 we find it used by the immediate disciples of the apostles, as a 
 distinguishmg mark of the true church. One of these was the 
 illustrious martyr St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who, writing 
 to the church of Smyrna, expressly says, that " Christ is where 
 the Catholic Church is." In like manner, the same Church of 
 Smyrna, giving a relation of the martyrdom of that holy bishop 
 St. Polycarp, who was equally a disciple of the apostles, ad- 
 dresses it to " The Catholic Churches. "f This characteristic 
 title of the true church continued to be pointed out by the suc- 
 ceeding fathers in their writings and the acts of their councils.^ 
 St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, in the 4th century, gives the 
 following direction to his pupils : " If you go into any city, do 
 not ask merely. Where is the church, or house of God? because 
 the heretics pretend to have this : but ask. Which is the Catholic 
 Church? because this title belongs alone to our holy mother. "^ 
 '* We," says a father of the 5th century, " are called Catholic 
 Christians. "II His contemporary, St. Pacian, describes himself 
 vs follows : •' Christian is my name, Catholic is my surname : by 
 ihe former I am called, by the latter I am distinguished. By 
 che name of Catholic, our society is distinguished from all here* 
 ik:«."ir But there is not one of the fathers or doctors of anti- 
 
 * See four collated copies of it in Dupin's Bib. Eccl. torn. 1. 
 t Euseb. Ecc. Hist. 1. iv. c. 15. 
 
 X SS. Justin Clem. Alex. Appolin. 1 Nicaean can. 8. I. Constan can. 
 i &,c. § Catech. 18. || Salvia de Gubern. Dei. 1. iv 
 
 t St. Pacia i, Ep. i. ad Symp. 
 
ATHOLICITY. 159 
 
 ^ify, who enlaiges so copiously or so pointedly on this title of 
 ,he true church, as the great St. Augustin, who died in the early 
 part of the 5th century. " Many things," he says, " detain 
 
 me in the bosom of the Catholic Church the very name of 
 
 'CATHOLIC detains me in it, which she has so happily pre- 
 served amidst the different heretics ; that whereas they are all 
 desirous of being called Catholics, yet, if any stranger were to 
 ask them. Which is the assembly of the Catholics ? none of them 
 would dare to point out his own place of worship."* To the same 
 purpose, he says elsewhere : " We must hold fast the commu- 
 nion of that church which is called Catholic, not only by her 
 own children, but also by all her enemies. For heretics and 
 schismatics, whether they will or not, when they are speaking 
 of the Catholic Church with strangers, or with their own people, 
 call her by the name of Catholic, inasmuch as they would not 
 De understood, if they did not call her by the name by which all 
 the world calls her."f In proportion to their affection for the 
 glorious name of Catholic, is the aversion of these primitive doc- 
 tors, to every ecclesiastical name or title derived from particu- 
 lar persons, countries, or opinions. " What new heresy," says 
 St. Vincent of Lerins, in the 6th century, " ever sprouted up, 
 without bearing the name of its founder, the date of its origin," 
 &LG.X St. Justin, the philosopher and martyr, had previously 
 made the same remark in the second century, with respect to 
 the Marcionite, Valentinian, and other heretics of his time.^ 
 Fintttly, the nervous St. Jerom lays down the following rule on 
 this subject : " We must live and die in that church, which, 
 haviitg been founded by the apostles, continues down to the pre- 
 sent day. If, then, you should hear of any Christians not 
 deriving their name from Christ, but from some other founder, 
 as the Marcionites, the Valentinians, &c., be persuaded that 
 they are not of Christ's society, but of Antichrist's. "|| 
 
 I now appeal to you, dear sir, and to the respectable friends 
 who are accustomed to deliberate with you on religious subjects, 
 whether these observations and arguments of the ancient fathers 
 are not as strikingly true in this 19th century, as they were dur- 
 ing the six first centuries, in which they wrote 1 Is there not 
 among ihe rival churches, one exclusively known and distin- 
 guished by the name and title of THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 
 Rs well in EiUgland, Holland, and other countries, which 'protest 
 igainst this church, as in those which adhere to it ? Does not 
 Uiis efTulgent mark of the true religion so incontestably belong 
 
 * Contra. Epist. Fundam. c. 1. t De Ver. Relig. c. 7. 
 
 X Common. Advers. Haer. c 34. § Advers. Tryphon. 
 
 U Advers. Luciferan. 
 
160 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 to US, in spite of eAcry effort to obscure it by the nick-names of 
 Papists, Romanists. vi:c.,* that the rule of St. Cyril and St. Au- 
 gustin is as good and certain now, as it was in their times ? 
 What I mean is this: if any stranger in London, Edinburgh, or 
 Amsterdam, were to ask his way to the Catholic chapel, I would 
 risk my life for it, that no sober Protestant inhabitant would 
 direct him to any other place of worship than to ours. On the 
 other hand, it is notorious, that the different sects of Protestants, 
 tike the heretics and schismatics of old, are denominated either 
 from tlieir founders, as the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Socin- 
 lans, 6lc., or from the countries in which they prevail, as the 
 Church of England, the Kirk of Scotland, the Moravians, &c.; 
 or from some novelty in their belief or practice, as the Anabap- 
 tists, the Independents, the Quakers, &c. The first father of 
 Protestants was so sensible that he and they were destitute of 
 every claim to the title of Catholic, that in translating the Apos- 
 tles' Creed into Dutch, he substituted the word Christian for 
 that of Catholic. The first Lutherans did the same thing in 
 their catechism, for which they are reproached by the famous 
 Fulke, who, to his own confusion, proves that me true church 
 of Chiist must be Catholic in name, as well as in substance.'f 
 
 I am, dear sir, 6dc. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXVL— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., «fcc 
 
 ON THE QUALITIES OF CATHOLICITY. 
 
 Dear sir — 
 
 To proceed now, from the name Catholic, to the signification 
 of that name : this is to be gathered from the etymology of the 
 word itself, and from the sense in which the apostolical fathers 
 and other doctors of the church have constantly used it. It is 
 derived from the Greek word KaOaXiKbg, which means Universal ; 
 and, accordingly, it has ever been employed by those writers, 
 to discriminate the great body of Christians, under their legiti- 
 mate pastors, and subsisting in all nations and all ages, from 
 those comparatively small bodies of Christians, who, in certain 
 places, and at certain times, have been separated from it. 
 *' The Catholic Church," says St. Augustin, "is so called, be- 
 cause it is spread throughout the world. "J " If your church," 
 adds he, addressing certain heretics, "is Catholic, snow me that 
 
 * St. Gregory of Tours, speaking of the Arians, and other contemporary 
 heretics of the 6th century, says: " Romanorum nomine vocitant HOfiim 
 re'igionis homines." Hist. 1. xvii. c. 25. 
 
 t On tlie New Tes.'ament, p. 378. t Epist. 170. ad S. Scvei 
 
CATHOLICITY. 161 
 
 it spreads its branches throughout the world ; for such is the 
 meaniag of the word Catholic."* " The Catholic or universal 
 doctrine," writes St. Vincent of Lerins, " is that which remains 
 the same throughout all ages, and will continue so till the end 
 of the world. — He is a true Catholic, who firmly adheres to the 
 faitli which he knows the Catholic Church has universally- 
 taught from the days of old. "f It follows, from these and other 
 testimonies of the fathers, and from the meaning of the term 
 Uself, that the true church is Catholic or universal in three sev- 
 eral respects, as to persons, as to places, and as to time, [t 
 consists of the most numerous body of Christians ; it is more or 
 less diffused wherever Christianity prevails ; and it has visibly 
 existed ever since the time of the apostles. Hence, dear sir, when 
 you hear me glorying in the name of Catholic, you are to under- 
 stand me as equivalently proclaiming : — T am not a Lutheran, 
 Qor a Calvinist, nor a Whitfieldite, nor a Wesleyan ; I am not 
 of the Church of England, nor of the Kirk of Scotland, nor of 
 the Consistory of Geneva : 1 can tell the place where, and the 
 time when, each of these sects began ; and I can describe the 
 limits within which they are respectively confined : but I am a 
 naember of that great Catholic Church, which was planted by 
 Christ and his apostles, and has been spread throughout the 
 world, and which still constitutes the main stock of Christianity , 
 that to which all the fathers of antiquity and the saints of all 
 ages have belonged on earth, and still belong in the bright re- 
 gions above ; that which has endured and overcome the persecu- 
 tions and heresies of eighteen centuries : in short, that against 
 which the gates of hell have not prevailed, and we are assured 
 never shall prevail. All this is implied by my title of Catholic. 
 But to form a more accurate opinion of the number and diffu- 
 siveness of Catholics, compared with any sect of Protestants, it 
 is proper to take a slight survey of their state in the four quar- 
 ters of the world. In Europe, then, notwithstanding the revo- 
 lutionary persecutions which the Catholic religion has endured, 
 and is enduring, it is still the religion of the several states of 
 Italy, of most of the Swiss Cantons, of Piedmont, of France, of 
 Spain, of Portugal, and of the islands in the Mediterranean, of 
 three parts in four of the Irish, of far the greater part of the 
 Netherlands, Poland, Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, and ihe 
 neighboring provinces ; and in those kingdoms and states in 
 which it is not the established religion, its followers are very 
 
 » Contra Gaudent. 1. iii. c. 1. 
 
 t Commonit. The same fath(;r briefly^ and accurately defines the Catho. 
 lie doctrine to be, that which has been b jlieved Semper et tibique tt ah of» 
 nibuB. 
 
 14* 
 
162 LETTER XXV. 
 
 numerous, as in Holl md, Russia, Turkey, the Lutheran and 
 
 Calvinistic states of Germany and England. Even in Sweden 
 and Denmark several Catholic congregations, with their respec- 
 tive pastors, are to be found. — The whole vast continent of 
 South America, inhabited by many millions of converted In- 
 dians, as well as by Spaniards and Portuguese, may be said to 
 be Catholic ; the same may be said of the empire of Mexico, 
 and the surrounding kingdoms in North America, including 
 California, Cuba, Hispaniola, &c.; Canada and Louisiana are 
 chiefly Catholic; and throughout the United Provinces, the 
 Catholic religion, with its several establishments, is completely 
 protected, and unboundedly propagated. — To say nothing of the 
 islands of Africa, inhabited by Catholics, such as Malta, Ma- 
 deira, Cape Verd, the Canaries, the Azores, Mauritius, Goree, 
 &c., there are numerous churches of Catholics, established and 
 organized under their pastors, in Egypt, Ethiopia, Algiers, 
 Tunis, and the other Barbary states on the northern coast ; and 
 thence, in all the Portuguese settlements along the western 
 coast, particularly at Angola and Congo. Even on the eastern 
 coast, especially in t'he kingdom of Zanguebar and Monopotapa. 
 are numerous Catholic churches. There are also numerous 
 Catholic priests, and many bishops, with numerous flocks, 
 throughout the greater part of Asia. All the Maronites about ■ 
 Mount Libanus, with their bishops, priests, and monks, are 
 Catholics ; so are many of the ArmeniaLS, Persians, and other 
 Christians, of the surrounding kingdoms and provinces.* In 
 whatever islands or states the Portuguese or Spanish power 
 does prevail, or has prevailed, most of the inhabitants, and in 
 some, all of them have been converted to the Catholic faith. 
 The whole population of the Philippine Islands, consisting of 
 two millions of souls, is all Catholic. The diocese of Goa con- 
 tains 400,000 Catholics. In short, the number of Catholics is 
 so great throughout all the peninsula of India within the Gan- 
 ges, notwithstanding the power and influence of Britain, as to 
 excite the jealousy and complaints of the celebrated Protestant 
 missionary, Dr. Bucnanan.f In a late parliamentary record, 
 it is stated, that in Travancor and Cochin is a Catholic arch- 
 bishopric and two bishoprics, one of which contains 35,000 
 comnmnicants.X There are numerous Catholic flocks, with their 
 priesljj and even bishops, in all the kingdoms and states beyond 
 the Ganges, particularly in Siam, Cochin-China, Tonquin, and 
 
 » See Sir R. Steele's Account of the Catholic ReligioD 'J.roughout the 
 woild. ^ 
 
 t See Christian Researches in Asia, p. 131. Mem. Feci. 
 
 t Dr. Kerr's Letter, quoted in the laie parliamentary report on the Catho 
 (G question, p. 4S7. 
 
CATHOLICITY. 16S 
 
 the different provinces of the Chinese empire. I must udd, on 
 .his subject, that, whereas none of the great Protestant sects 
 was ever much more numerous or widely spread than at pre- 
 sent, the Catholic Church, heretofore, prevailed in all the coun- 
 tries v/hich they now separately inhabit. The same may be 
 said of the Greek schismatics, and in a great measure of the 
 Ma'iomeians. It is in this point of view that the Right Rev. 
 Dr. Marsh ought to institute his comparison between the 
 Church of England and the Church of Rome ;* or rather, the 
 Catholic Church, in communion with the See of Rome. In the 
 mean time, we are assured by his fellow-prelate, the Bishop of 
 Lincoln, that " The articles and liturgy of the Church of Eng- 
 land do not correspond with the sentiments of the eminent re- 
 formers on the Continent, or with the creeds of any Protestant 
 churches there established, "f And with respect to this very 
 church, nothing can be more inconsistent, than to ascribe the 
 greater part of the population of our two islands to it. For if 
 the Irish Catholics, the Scotch Presbyterians, the English 
 Methodists and other dissenters, together with the vast popula- 
 tion who neither are, nor profess to be, of any religion at all, 
 are subtracted, to what a comparatively small number will the 
 Church of England be reduced ! And, how utterly absurd 
 would it be in her to pretend to be the Catholic Church ! Nor 
 are these the only subtractions to be made from her numbers, 
 and indeed from those of all other Christian societies, divided 
 from the true church ; since there being but &ne baptism, all the 
 young children who have been baptized in them, and all invin- 
 cibly ignorant Christians, who exteriorly adhere to them, really 
 belong to the Catholic Church, as I have elsewhere shown. 
 
 In finishing this subject, I shall quote a passage from St. Au- 
 gustin, which is as applicable to the sectaries of this age as it 
 was to those of the age in which he wrote : " There are here- 
 tics everywhere, but not the same heretics everywhere. For 
 there is one sort in Africa, another sort in the East, a third sort 
 :n Egypt, and a fourth sort in Mesopotamia, being different in 
 different countries, though all produced by the same mother, 
 namely, pride. Thus also the faithful are all born of one 
 common mother, the Catholic Church ; and though they are 
 everywhere dispersed, they are everywhere the same. "J 
 
 But it is still more necessary that the true church should be 
 CcUhohc or universal, as to time, than as to numbers or to place. 
 (f tnere ever was a period since h^r foundation, in which she 
 las failed, by teaching or promoting error or vice, then the pro- 
 
 * Sc<' his Comparative View of the Churches of England and Roii«. 
 t P romiine's Charge in 1803. X Lit . de Pact c. 8. 
 
164 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 mises of the Almighty in favor of the seed of David and le 
 kingdom of the Messiah, in the Book of Psalms,* and in kiose 
 of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, have failed ;f then the more 
 explicit promises of Christ, concerning this church and her pas- 
 te rs, have failed ; J then the creed itself, which is the subject 
 of our present discussion, has been false. § — On this point 
 learned Protestants have been wonderfully embarrassed, and 
 have involved themselves in the most palpable contradictions. 
 A great proportion of them have maintained that the church, in 
 past ages, totally failed, and became the synagogue of Satan, 
 and that its head pastor, the Bishop of Rome, was and is the 
 man of sin, the identical antichrist : but they have never been 
 able to settle among themselves, when this, the most remarkable 
 of all revolutions which have happened since the world began, 
 actually took place ; or who were the authors, and who the 
 opposers of it ; or by what strange means these authors pre- 
 vailed on so many millions of people of different nations, lan- 
 guages, and interests, throughout .Christendom, to give up the 
 supposed pure religion, which they had learned from their fa- 
 thers, and to embrace a new and false system, which its adver- 
 saries now call Poj)ery! In a word, there is no way of account- 
 ing for the pretended change of religion, at whatever period 
 this may be fixed, but by supposing, as I have said, that the 
 whole collection of Christians, on some one night went to Led 
 Protestants, and awoke the next morning papists. 
 
 That the church in communion with the See of Rome is tho 
 originai, as well as the most numerous church, is evident ia 
 several points of view. The stone cries out of the wall, as the 
 prophet expresses it,|| in testimony of this. I mean that our 
 venerable cathedrals and other stone churches, built by Catho- 
 lic hands and for the Catholic worship, so as to resist, in some 
 sort, that which is now performed in them, proclaim that ours 
 is tile ancient and original church. This is still more clear 
 from the ecclesiastical historians of our own as well as other 
 nations Venerable Bede, in particular, bears witnessIT that 
 Lie Roman missionary, St. Augustin of Canterbury, and his 
 companions, converted our Saxon ancestors, at the end of the 
 sixth century to the belief of the pope's supremacy, transu-b- 
 stantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, the invocation 
 of saints, and the other Catholic doctrines and practices ; as 
 learned Protestants in general agree.** Now, as these mission- 
 
 * Ps. Ixxxviii. alias Ixxxix. ^ c. 
 
 t Isaiah, c. liv. lix. Jerem. xxxi. 31. Dan. ii. 44. 
 
 ; Matt. XV. 13. — xxviii. 19, 20. § I believe in the Holy Catholic Ohurcii 
 
 II Habak. ii. 11. IT Hist. Eccles. 
 
 •* Bishop Bale. Dr. Humphreys, the Centur. of Magdeb. dtc. 
 
CATHOLICITY. 165 
 
 aries were found to be of the same faith and religion, not mly 
 with the Irish, Picts, and Scots, who were converted almos. two 
 centuries before them, but also with the Britons or Welsh, wlio 
 became Christians in the second century, so as only to differ 
 from them about the time of keeping Easter, and a few other un- 
 essential points, this circumstance alone proves the Catnolic reli 
 gion to have been that of the church at that early age. Still, 
 the most demonstrative proofs of the antiquity and originality of 
 ©ur religion, are gathered from comparing it with that coritained 
 in the works of the ancient fathers. An attempt was made, 
 during a certain period, by some eminent Protestants, especially 
 in this country, to press the fathers into their service. Among 
 these. Bishop Jewel of Sarum was the most conspicuous. He 
 not only boasted that those venerable witnesses of the primitive 
 doctrine were generally on his side, but also published the fol- 
 lowing challenge to the Catholics : " Let them show me one 
 only father, one doctor, one sentence, two lines, and the field is 
 theirs."* However, this his vain boasting, or rather deliberate 
 impugning the known truth, only served to scandalize sober 
 and learned Protestants, and among others his biographer. Dr. 
 Humphreys, who complains that he thereby " gave a scope to 
 the papists, and spoiled himself and the Protestant Church. ^'f 
 In fact, this hypocrisy, joined with his shameful falsifications of 
 the fathers, in quoting them, occasioned the conversion of a ben- 
 eficed clergyman, and one of the ablest writers of his age, Dr. 
 W. Reynolds. "J Most Protestant writers of later times§ fol- 
 low the late Dr. Middleton, and Luther 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 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 o 
 her most learned adversaries, our church is not less CATHO- 
 LIC or universal, as to time, than she is with respect to name^ 
 hcahty, and numbers. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 * See Jewel's Sennon at St Paul's Cross, likewise his AnsM ers to Pr. 
 Cole. 
 
 t Lite of Jewel, quoted by Walsingham, in his invaluable Search into 
 Matters of Religion, p. 172. t Dodd's Church His-., vo ii. 
 
 § See the acknowledgment on this head of the learned Pro'estani*, 
 Obretcht, Doumoulin, and Casaubon. 
 
 (I Inquiry into Miracles^ Iiitrod. p. 45. 
 
kM LETTER XXVII. 
 
 LETTER XXVII.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ, Ac 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 I HAVE received the letter written by your visiter, the Rev. 
 Joshua Clark, B. D., at the request, as he states, of certain 
 members of your society, animadverting on my last to you ; an 
 unswer 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 hope per fas et nefas of disabling 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, 
 anJ 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 as 
 a Mountain on the top of mountains, Is. ii. 2, Mich. iv. 2, and 
 as a city, whose watchmen shall never hold their peace, Is. Ixii. 
 0, and, indeed, with the injunction of our Lord himself to tell 
 the church, Matt, xviii. 17, in the 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 ;"■(■ as also to that of the Church of England in 
 her homilies, where she says : " Laity and clergy ; learned 
 and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees have been drowned 
 in abominable idolatry, most detested by God and damnable to 
 man, for 800 years and more.":]: As to the argument in favor 
 of an invisible church, drawn from 1 Kings, xix. 18, where 
 the Almighty tells Elijah, " I have left me 7,000 in Israel, 
 whose knees have not been bowed to Baal ;" our divine."? fail 
 not to observe, that however invisible the church of the old law 
 "Has 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 
 
 • Opera. Pref. t Epiet. 171. t Peri" of Tdcatiry, j iu 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 167 
 
 was corrupted with many sinful errors, from which it is now 
 reformed."* But this is to fall back into the refuted system of 
 an invisible church and to contradict the homilies, or else it is 
 to confess the real truth, that Protestancy had no existence be- 
 fore the sixteenth century. 
 
 The reverend gentleman next maintains, on quite opposite 
 grounds, that there have been large and visible socieiies of Pro^ 
 tcstants, as he calls them, who have stood in opposition to tlie 
 Churcli of Rome, in all past ages. — True, there have been her- 
 etics and schi.smatics 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 Wickliffites, and the Hussites, 
 have been exceedingly numerous and powerful in their turns, 
 Though most of them have now dwindled awp,y to nothing : but 
 )bserve, that none of the ancient heretics held the doctrines of 
 \ny description of modern Protestants, and all of them main- 
 lained doctrines and practices which modern Protestants repro- 
 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, to 
 Satan, and acting up to these diabolical maxims. f The Wick- 
 liffites and Hussites, were the levelling and sanguinary Jacobins 
 of the times and countries in which they lived ;J in other re- 
 spects these two sects were Catholics, professing their belief in 
 .he seven sacraments, the mass, the invocation of saints, purga- 
 tory, &;c. 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, Mahome- 
 tans, and pagans into it, and acknowledge them to be equally 
 Protestants with himself. 
 
 Your reverend visiter concludes his letter with a long disser- 
 tation, in which he endeavors 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 ;§ and 
 also from the preponderance of the Protestant power in Europe, 
 particularly that of our own country, which, he says, is nearly 
 as much interested in the extirpation of Popery as of Jacobinism. 
 My answer _::» this : I see and bewail the anti-catholic persecu- 
 tion which has been, and is carried on in France and its (^^ 
 
 « Confut. p. 79. 
 
 t See an account of them, and the authorities on which this resi, in 
 UUtr* to a Prebendary, Letter IV. X Ibid. ( Namely, in iH09 
 
168 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 pendent 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 
 menaces on this score of the Wranghams, De Coetlogons, 1 ow- 
 sons, Bichenos, Ketts, Fabers, Daubenys, and a crowd of othei 
 declamatory preachers and writers, some of whom proclaim 
 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 though more rotten branches should fall off, from 
 their own decay,* I am not at all fearful for the life of the Tree 
 itself, since the Divine veracity is pledged for its safety, as long 
 as the sun and moon shall endure, (Psalm Ixxxix.,) and since the 
 experience of eighteen centuries has confirmed our faith in these 
 divine promises. During this long interval, kingdoms and em- 
 pires 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 that Christ and his 
 apostles left them. In vain did pagan Rome, during three cen- 
 turies, exert its force to drown her in her own blood; in vain 
 did Arianism and the other contemporary heresies sap her foun- 
 dations during two centuries more ; in vain did hordes of bar- 
 barians from the north, and of Mahometans from the south, rush 
 forward to overwhelm her ; in vain did Luther swear that he 
 
 * Since the present letter was written, many circumstances have occurred 
 to show the mistaken politics of our rulers, in endeavoring to weaken and 
 supplant the religion of their truly loyal and conscientious Catholic subjects. 
 Among other measures for this purpose, may be mentioned the late instruc 
 lions sent to the Governor of Canada, which Catholic province alone re. 
 mained 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, 
 Benior chaplain of Fort St George, quoted in the late parliamentary report. 
 By this it appears that the 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 govern, 
 ment set its face against these conversions. Thus is the obscene and bar- 
 barous worship of Juggernaut himself preferred to the religion which con- 
 verted and civilized our ancestors. Juggernaut, as Dr. Buchanan informs us, 
 is a huge idol, carved with the most obscene figures round it, and publicly 
 worshipped before hundreds of tho'osands, 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 not 
 barely permitted, but even supported by our government in India, as it takes 
 a tribute from each individual who is present at it, and likewise defrays the 
 txpense of it, to the amount, says Dr. Buchanan, of jB8,700 annually, inclu. 
 ding the keep of prostitutes, Sec. 
 
APOSTOLICITY. 169 
 
 Aimself would be her death :* she has survived these, and mi- 
 merous other enemies equally redoubtable ; and she will sur- 
 vive even the fury and machinations of anti-christian philosophy j 
 though directed against her exclusively, for not a drop of Pro- 
 testant blood has been shed in this impious persecution. Nor 
 is that church which, in a single kingdom, the very head-quar- 
 ters of infidelity, could at once furnish 24,000 martyrs and 
 60.000 voluntary exiles, in defence of her faith, so likely to sink 
 under external violence, or internal weakness, as your reve- 
 rend visiter supposes. Alluding to the then recent attempt of 
 the Emperor Julian to falsify the prophecy of Daniel, by re- 
 building the Jewish temple, St. John Chrysostom exclaimed : 
 " Behold the temple of Jerusalem ; God has destroyed it : have 
 men been able to restore it ? Behold the church of Christ ; 
 God has built it : have men been able to destroy it ?" Shoul(! 
 the Almighty permit such a persecution to befall any of the Pro- 
 testant communions, as we have beheld raging against the Cath- 
 olic Church on the continent, does your visiter really believe 
 that its clergy and other members will exhibit the same con- 
 stancy in suffering for their respective tenets, that our clergy 
 and people have shown in defence of hers ? In fact, for what 
 tenets should the former suffer exile and death, since, without 
 persecution, they have all, in a manner, abandoned their origi- 
 nal creeds, from the uncertainty of their rule of faith, and their 
 own natural mutability ? Human laws and premiums may 
 preserve the exterior appearance, or mere carcass of a church, 
 as one of your divines expresses it; but while the pastors and 
 doctors of it demonstrate by their publications, that they no 
 longer maintain her fundamental articles, can we avoid sub- 
 scribing to the opinion expressed by a late dignitary of it, that 
 " the Church of England, properly so called, is not in exist- 
 ence ?"f — I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c 
 
 ON THE APSTOLICITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCFI. 
 
 Dkar sir — 
 
 The last of the four marks of the church, mentioned in our 
 common cieed, is Apostolicity. We each of us declare, in 
 our solemn worship : / believe in One, Hdly, Catholic, and 
 APOSTOLICAL Church. Christ's last commission to his 
 
 * Luther ordered this epitaph to be engraved on his tomb : — Pesi^fi eram 
 nten9t morins ero mors tua^ papa. t Cunfeesional, p. 244. 
 
 16 
 
170 LETTER xxvm. 
 
 apostles was this : Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the nanm 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : and, lo ! I 
 am with you always, even unto THE END OF THE WORLD, 
 Matt, 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 commission of preach- 
 ing and ministering, together with the promise of the Divine 
 assistance, regards the successors of the apostles, no less thaa 
 the apostles themselves. This proves that there must hav© 
 been an uninterrupted series of such successors of the apostles 
 in every age since their time ; that is to say, successors to their 
 doctrine, to their jurisdiction, to their orders, and to their mission. 
 Hence it follows, that no religious society whatever, which 
 cannot trace its succession, in these four points, up to the apos- 
 tles, has any claim to the characteristical title, APOSTOLl 
 CAL. 
 
 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 belonging to 
 the true church of Christ. St. Irenseus of Lyons, the disciple of 
 St. Polycarp, who himself appears to have been consecrated by 
 St. John the Evangelist, repeatedly urges this argument 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 taugh? 
 this doctrine. But as it would be tedious to enumerate the sue 
 cession of bishops in the different churches, we refer you to tli^ 
 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.* Ter- 
 tullian, 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 ; 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 perse- 
 vered in their communion." He then gives a list of the pon- 
 tiffs in the Roman See, and concludes as follows : " Let the 
 lieretics feign any thing like this."f The great St. Auguslin, 
 who wrote in the fifth century, among other motives of credi- 
 bility in favor of the Catholic religior , mentions the one in ques 
 tioD : " I am kept in this church," he says, " by the succession 
 
 * Lib. iii. advers User. c. 3. 
 
 t "Fingan tale aliquid haeretici." PrsBScript. 
 
APOSTOLICITY. 171 
 
 of prelates from St. Peter, to whom tha Lord ccrrnitted thi 
 care of his sheep, -.lown to the present bishop."* In like man- 
 ner St. Optatus, writing against the Donatists, enumerates a.\{ 
 the popes from St. Peter down to the then living pope, Siricius, 
 " with whom," he says, " we and all the world are united in 
 communion. Do you, Donatists, now give the history of youi 
 episcopal ministry. "f In fact, this mode of proving the Catho- 
 ic Church to be apostolical, is conformable to common sens< 
 ttud 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 exhibit his genealogical table, and to trace his 
 pedigree up to some personage whose right to it was unquestion- 
 able. I shall adopt the same precise method on the present 
 occasion, by sending your society a slight sketch of our apos- 
 tolical tree, by which they will see, at a glance, an abridgment 
 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 different ages, 
 have fallen off from the doctrine or communion of the Apostolio 
 Church. But as it is impossible, in so narrow a compass a3 
 the present sheet, to give the names of all the popes, or to ex- 
 nibit the other particulars here mentioned, in the distinct am 
 detailed manner which the subject seems to require, I will tr^ 
 to supply the deficiency by the subjoined copious note. J 
 
 * Contra Epist. Fundam. t Contra Parmen. lib. ii. 
 
 X CENT. I. 
 
 Within the fiist century from the birth of Christ, this long expected Mes 
 siah founded the kingdom of his holy church in Judea, and chose his ap^tles 
 to propagate it throughout the earth, over whom he appointed Simon, as the 
 centre of union and head yasior, charging him to feed his whole flock, sheep 
 as well as lambs, giving hi ii the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and chang 
 ing his name into that of PETER, or ROCK ; adding, On this rock I wiU 
 build my church. Thus dignified, St. Peter first established his see at Anti 
 och, the head city of Asia, whence he sent his disciple, St. Mark, to estab 
 lish and govern the See of Alexandria, the head city of Africa. He after- 
 wards removed his own see to Rome, the capitol of Europe and the world. 
 Here having, widi St. Paul, sealed 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 othei illustrious doctors of this age are 
 to be reckoned, first, the other apostles, tl en SS. Mark, Luke, Barnaby, 
 Timothy, Titus, Hermas, Ignatius, Bishop ot Antioch, and Polycarp, of 
 Smyrna. From the few remaining writings ol these may be gathered th« 
 
172 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 I do not, dear sir, pretend to exhibit a history of the churcKj 
 nor even a regular epitome of it, in the present not(3, any more 
 than in the apostolical tree ; nevertheless, either of these will 
 give you and your respectable society, a sufficient idea of the 
 
 necessity of unity and submission to bishops, tradition, the real presence the 
 eacrifice of the mass, veneration for relics, &cc. In this age churches were 
 foi nded in the above-mentioned places, as also in Samaria, throughout Lesser 
 Asia, in Armenia, India, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain, and Gaul 
 In this apostoUcal age, also, and, as it were, under the eyes of the apostles, 
 different proud innovators pretended to reform the doctrine which the latter 
 taught. Among these were Simon the magician, Hymeneus and Phileius, 
 the incontinent Nicolaites, Cerinthus, Ebion, and Menander. 
 
 CENT. II. 
 
 The succession of chief pastors in the chair of Peter was kept up through 
 this century by the following popes, who were also, for the most part, i.iar. 
 tyrs : Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander I., Xystus I., Telesphorus, Hyginus^ 
 Pius I., Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherius, who sent Fugatius and Damianus to 
 convert the Britons, and Victor I., who exerted his authority against ceram 
 Asiatic bishops, the Quarto-decimans, so called from their keeping Easter at 
 an undue time. The truth of Christianity was defended in this age, by the 
 apologists Quadratus, Aristides, Melito, and .Tustin, the philosopher and mar- 
 tyr ; and the rising heresies of Valentinian, Marcian, and Carpocrates, were 
 confounded by the bishops Dionysius of Corinth, and Theophylusof Antioch, 
 in the East ; and by St. Irenaeus and Tertullian in the West. In the mean 
 time the Catholic Church was more widely spread, through Gaul, Germany, 
 Scythia, Africa, and India, besides Britain. 
 
 CENT. III. 
 
 The popes who presided over the church in the third age, were all emi- 
 nent for their sanctity, and almost all of them became martyrs. Their names 
 are Zephyrinus, Calixtus I., Urban I., Poniianus, Antherus, I'abian, Corne- 
 lius, Lucius, Stephen I., Xystus II., Dionysius, Felix I., Euiychian, Caius, 
 and Marcellinus. The most celebrated doctors of this age were St. Clement 
 of Alexandria, Origen, and Minutius Felix ; St. Cyprian and St. Hypolitus, 
 both martyrs ; and St. Gregory, surnamed for his miracles, Thaumaturgus, 
 Bishop of Neocesarea. At this time, Arabia, the Belgic provii ces, and many 
 districts of Gaul were almost wholly converted ; whilst Pau of Samosata, 
 for denying the divinity of Christ ; Sabellius, for impugning he distinction 
 of persons in the B. Trinity ; and Novatus, for denying the power of the 
 Church to remit sins ; with Manes, who believed in two D( ties, were cut 
 ofl as rotten branches from the apostolic tree. 
 
 CENT. IV. 
 
 8St. Marcellus, the first pop •. in this century, died through the hardships of 
 fcnprisonment for the faith. After him came Eusebius, Melchiades, Silves- 
 ter, under whom the Councils of Aries, against the Donatists, and of Nice, 
 against the Arians, were held ; Marcus, Julius, in whose time the right of 
 appeal to the Roman See was confirmed, Liberius and Damasus. The 
 oliurch, which hitherto had been generally persecuted by the Roman ernpe. 
 rors, was in this age, alternately protected and oppressed by them. In tho 
 mean time, her numbers were ^-odigiously increased by conversions through, 
 »ut tlie Roman empire, and also in Armenia, Iberia, and Abyssinia ; and hei 
 
APOSTOLICITT. 178 
 
 tiniiiter.'uptel succes^.on of supreme pastors, wnich has sub. 
 sisted in ho See of Rome from St. Peter, whom Christ made 
 head of his church, up to the present pope, Pius VII. And this 
 attribute of perpetual succession, you are, dear sir, tc observe, 
 
 faith was invincibly maintained by St. Athanasius, St. Hilary, St Gregory 
 Nazianzen, St. Basil, St. Ambrose of Milan, &c., against the Arians, whc 
 opposed the Divinity of Christ ; the Macedonians, who denied that of the 
 Holy Ghost, the Arians, who impugned episcopacy, fasting, and prayers foi 
 the dead, and other new heretics and schismatics. 
 
 CENT. V. 
 
 During this age the perils and sufferings of the church were great ; but s» 
 
 also were the resources and victories by which her divine Founder supported 
 her. On one hand, the Roman empire, that fourth great dynasty, compared 
 by Daniel to iron, was broken to pieces by numerous hordes of Goths, Van- 
 dals- Huns, Burgundians, Franks, and Saxons, who came pouring in upon 
 the civilized world, and seemed to be on the point of overwhelming arts, 
 sciences, laws, and religion, in one undistinguished ruin. On the other 
 hand, various classes of powerful and subtle heretics strained every nerve to 
 corrupt the apostolic doctrine, and to interrupt the course of the apostles' sue 
 cessors. Among these, the Nestorians denied the union of Christ's divine 
 and human natures ; the Eutychians confounded them together ; the Pela- 
 gians contradicted the necessity of divine grace, and the followers of Vigilan- 
 tius scoffed at celibacy, prayers to the saints, and veneration for their relics. 
 Against those innovators, a train of illustrious pontiffs and holy fathers op. 
 posed themselves, with invincible fortitude and decided success. The popes 
 were Innocent I., Zosimus, Boniface I., Celestin I., who presided by his le. 
 gates in the Council of Ephesus, Xystus III., Leo the Great, who presided in 
 .hat of Chalcedon, Hilarius, Simplicius, Felix III., Gelasius I., Anastasiua 
 II., and Symmachus. Their zeal was well seconded by some of the bright- 
 est ornaments of orthodoxy and litera' ire that ever illustrated the church 
 St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerom, St. ^iugusiin, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Sec. 
 By their means, and those of other apostolic Catholics, not only were the 
 enemies of the church refuted, but also her bounds greatly enlarged by the 
 conversion of the Franks, with their king, Clovis, and of the Scotch and the 
 Irish. The apostle of the former was St. Palladius, and of the latter St. Pa* 
 rick, both commissioned by the See of Rome. 
 
 CENT. VI. 
 
 The church had to combat with infidels, heretics, and worldly politicians, 
 in this as in other ages ; but failed not to receive the accustomed proofs ot 
 the divine protection, amidst her dangers. The chief bishops succeeded 
 each other in the following order : Hormisdas, St. John I., who died a pris. 
 oner for the faith, Felix IV., Boniface II., John II., Agapetus I., St. Silve. 
 rius, who died in exile for the unity of the church, Vigilius, Pelagius I., John 
 III., Benedict I., Pelagius II., and St. Gregory the Great, a name whiei 
 ought to be engraved on the heart of every Englishman who knows how to 
 value the benefits of Christianity, since it was he who first undertook li 
 preach the gospel to our Saxon ancestors, and when he was prevented by 
 force from doing this, sent his deputies, St. Augustin and his companions, on 
 this apostolical errand. Other shining lights of this age were St. Fulgentius 
 of Ruspa, Cesarius of Aries, liupus, Germanus, Severus, Gregory of Tours, 
 our venerable Gildas, and tho great patriarch 4^ the monks, St. Benedict 
 
 15* 
 
n<k LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 IS peculiar to the See of Rome: for in all the other vhurchei 
 foimied by the apostles, as those of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alex- 
 andria, Corinth, Ephesus, Smyrna, &;c., owing to internal dis- 
 sensions and external violence, the succession of their bishops 
 
 The chief heretics who disturbed the peace of the church were the Asche. 
 pali and the Jocobites, both branches of Eutychianism ; the Tritheists the 
 powerful supporters of the Three Chapters, Severus, Eleurus, Mongus, An- 
 thimus, and Acacius. A more terrible scourge than these, or than any other 
 which the church had yet felt, God permitted in this age to fall upon her, in 
 the rapid progress of the impostor Mahomet. What, however, she lost in 
 some quarters, was made up to her in others, by the suppression of Arianism 
 among the Visigoths of Spain, and among the Ostrogoths of Italy, and by 
 the conversion of the Lazes, Axumites, and Southern English. 
 
 CENT. VII. 
 
 The popes in this century are most of them honored tor their sanctity 
 namely, Sabinianus, Boniface III., Boniface IV., Deusdedit, Boniface V. 
 Honorius I., Severinus, John IV., Theodorus, Martin I., who died in exile 
 in defence of the faith, Eugenius I., Vitalianus, Domnus I., Agatho, who pre- 
 sided by his legates in the sixth general council, held against the Monotho- 
 lites, Leo II., Benedict II., John V. Conon, and Sergius I. Other contem- 
 porary doctors and saints were St. Sophronius and St. John the Almoner 
 bishops ; and St. Maximus, martyr, in the East. SS. Isidore, Ildefonsus 
 and Eugenius, in Spain, SS. Amand, Eligius, Omer and Owen, in France, 
 and SS. PauUnus, Wilfrid, Birinus, Felix, Chad, Aidan, and Cuthbert, in 
 England. The East at this time was distracted by the Monotholite heretics, 
 and, in some parts, by the Paulicians, who revived the detestable heresy of 
 the Manicheans, but most of all by the sanguinary course of the Mahomet- 
 ans, who overran the most fertile and civilized countries of Asia and Africa, 
 and put a stop to the apostolical succession in the primitive sees of the East. 
 To compensate for these losses, tl e church spread her roots wide in the 
 northern regions. The whole hept. rchy of England became Christian, and 
 diffused the sweet odor of Christ throughout the West. Hence issued St 
 Willibrord and Swibert, to convert Holland and Frizeland, and the two bro- 
 thers of the name of Ewald, who confirmed their doctrine with their blood. 
 The martyr St. Killian, who converted Franconia, was an Irishman ; but all 
 these apostolic men received their commissions from the chair of St. Peter 
 
 CENT. VIII. 
 
 The apostolic succession in the See of Rome was kept up in this age by 
 John VI., John VII., Sisinnius, Constantino, Gregory II., Gregory III., 
 Zacharias, Stephen II., Stephen III., Paul I., Adrian I., who presided by 
 his legates in the seventh general council against the Iconoclasts, and Le( 
 III. The Saracens now crossed the straits of Gibraltar and nearly overrat 
 Spain, making numerous martyrs, whilst Felix and Elipand broached errors 
 in the West, nearly resembling those of Nesiorius. The most signal de 
 fenders of the orthodox doctrine were St. Germanus, Patriarch, St. John 
 Damascen, Paul the Deacon, Ven. Bede, St. Aldhelm, St. Willibald, Alcuin, 
 St. Boniface, bishop and martyr, and St. Lullus. Most of these were Eng 
 lishmen, and by their means, Hessia, Thuringia, Saxony, and other provinces 
 were added to the Catholic Church. 
 
 CENT. IX. 
 
 The apoBtoUc tree, in thie age, was agitated by storms more violent than 
 
APOSTOLICITY. 175 
 
 has, ai difTerent times, been broken and confounded. Hence 
 the See of Rome is emphatically and for a double reason called 
 the APOSTOLICAL SEE ; and being the head see and the 
 centre of union to the whole Catholic Church, furnishes the first 
 
 usual ; but, being refreshed with the dew of grace from above, held fast by 
 its roots. Claudius of Turin united in one system the heresies of Nestor'us, 
 Vigilantius, and the Iconoclasts, while Gotescale labored to infect the church 
 with predestinarianism. A more severe blow to her, however, was the Greek 
 schism, occasioned by the resentment and ambition of the hypocrite Photius. 
 But the greatest danger of all arose from the overbearing power of the anti- 
 christian Musselnans, who now carried their arms into Sicily, France, and 
 Italy, and became masters, for a time, of the holy see itself. The succession 
 of its bishops, however, continued uninterrupted in the following order: Ste- 
 phen v.. Paschal I., Eugenius II., Valentine, Gregory IV., Sergius II., Leo 
 IV., Benedict III., Nicholas I., Adrian II., who presided by his legates in 
 the eighth general council, John VIIL, Marinus, Adrian III., Stephen VI., 
 Formosas, Stephen VII., and Romanus. — Other props of the church, in this 
 age, were Theodore the Studite, St. Ignatius, the legitimate Patriarch of 
 Constantinople, Rabanus, Hincmar, and Agobard, French bishops, together 
 with our countrymen, St. Swithin, Neot, Grimbald, Alfred, and Edmund 
 In this age St. Ansgarius converted the people of Holstein, and SS. Cyril 
 and Methodius the Sclavonians, Moravians, and Bohemians, by virtue of a 
 conimission from Pope Adrian II. 
 
 CENT. X. 
 
 The several popes during this century were Theodore XL, John IX., Bene- 
 dict IV., Leo v., Christopher, Sergius III., Anastasius, Lando, John X., Leo 
 VL, Stephen VIIL, John XL, Leo VII., Stephen IX., Martin IL, Agapetua 
 II., John XII., Benedict V., John XIIL, Benedict VI., Domnus IL, Bene- 
 dict VII., John XIV., John XV., and Gregory V. This age is generally 
 considered as the least enlightened by piety and literature of the whole num. 
 her. Its greatest disgrace, however, arose from the misconduct of several 
 of the above-mentioned pontiffs, owing* to the prevalence of civil factions at 
 Rome, which obstructed the freedom of canonical election : yet in this list 
 of names there are ten or twelve which do honor to the papal calendar, and 
 even those who disgraced it by their lives, performed their pubUc duty, in 
 preserving the faith and unity of the church, irreproachably. In the mean 
 time a crowd of holv bishops and other saints, worthy the age of the apostles, 
 adorned most parts of the church, which continued to be augmented by nu- 
 merous conversions. In Italy, SS. Peter, Damian, Romuald, Nilus, and 
 Rathier, Bishop of Verona, adorned the church with their sanctity and talents, 
 as did the holy prelates, Ulric, Wolfgang, and Bruno, in Germany, and Odo, 
 Dunstan, Oswald, and Ethelwold, in England. At this time, St. Adalbert, 
 Bishop of Prague, converted the Poles by his preaching and his blood ; the 
 Danes were converted by St. Poppo, the Swedes by St. Sigifrid, an English. 
 maH the people of Lesser Russia by SS. Bruno and Boniface, and the Mus. 
 covites by missionaries sent from Greece, but at a time when that corntry 
 YdiS in communion with the See of Rome. 
 
 CENT. XL 
 
 During this age the vessel of Peter was steered by several able and vir 
 tuous pontiffs. Silvester II. was esteemed a prodigy of learning and talents, 
 A-fter him came John XVIII., John XIX., Sergius IV., Benedict VIIL, John 
 XX., Benedict IX., Gregory VL, Clement IL, Damasus II., Leo IX., who 
 
176 LETTER XXVIIT. 
 
 claim to its title of THE APOSTOLICAL CHURCH. Bin 
 
 you also see, in the sketch of this mystical tree, an uninterrupted 
 series of other bishops, doctors, pastors, saints, and pious per 
 sonages, of different times and countries, through these eighteen 
 
 has deservedly been reckoned among the saints, Victor II., Stephen X, 
 Nicholas II., Alexander II., Gregory VII., who is also canonized, with Vic. 
 tor III., and Urban II. Other defenders of virtue and religion, in this age, 
 were St. Elphegeand Lanfranc, Archbishops of Canterbury, the prelates Bur- 
 card of Worms, Fulbert and Ivo of Chartres, Odilo, an abbot, Algar, a monk, 
 Guitmund and Theophylactus. The crown, also, was now adorned wiih 
 saints, equally signal for their virtue and orthodoxy. In England shone St. 
 Edward the Confessor ; in Scotland, St. Margaret; in Germany, St. Henry, 
 emperor ; in Hungary, St. Stephen. The cloister was also now enriched 
 with the Cistercian Order, by St. Robert, with the Carthusian Order, by St. 
 Bruno, and with the Order of Val-ombrosa, by St. John Gualbert. While 
 on one hand a great branch of the apostolic tree was lopped off', by the 
 second defection of the Greek Church, and some rotten boughs were cut off" 
 from it in the new Manicheans, who had found their way from Bulgaria into 
 France, as likewise in the followers of the innovator Berengarius, it received 
 fresh strength and increase from the conversion of the Hungariaus, and ot 
 the Normans and Danes, who before had desolated England, France, mu 
 the two Sicilies. 
 
 CENT. XII. 
 
 In this century heresy revived with fresh vigor, and in a variety of forms 
 though chiefly of the Manichean family. Mahometanism also again threat 
 ened to overwhelm Christianity. To oppose these, the Almighty was pleased 
 to raise up a succession of as able and virtuous popes as ever graced the tiara, 
 with a proportionable number of other Catholic champions to defend ita 
 cause. These were Paschal II., Gelasius II., Calixtus II., Honorius II., In. 
 nocent II., who held (he second general council of Lateran, Celestin II., 
 Lucius II., Eugenius III., Anastasius IV., Adrian IV., an Englishman, Alex- 
 ander III., who held the third Lateran council, Lucius III., Urban III., 
 Gregory VIII., Clement III., and Celestine III. The doctors of note were, 
 in the first place, the mellifluous Bernard, a saint, however, who was not 
 more powerful in word than in work ; likewise the Venerable Peter, Abbot 
 of Clugni, St. Anslem and St. Thomas, Archbishops of Canterbury, Peter 
 Lombard, Master of the Sentences, St. Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, St. Nor. 
 bert of Magdeburg, St. Henry of Upsal, St. Malachy of Armagh, St. Hugh 
 of Lincoln, and St. William of York. The chief heresies alluded to, were 
 those propagated by Marsilius of Padua, Arnold^ of Brescia, Henry of Thou, 
 louse, Tranchelm, Peter Bruise, the Waldenses, or disciples of Peter Waldo^ 
 and the Bogomilians, Patarini, Cathari, Puritans, and Albigenscs, all the lat, 
 ter being different sects of Manicheans. To make up for the loss of these, 
 the church was increased by the conversion of the Norwegians and Livoni 
 ans, chiefly through the labors of the above.named Adrian IV., then an apos* 
 toHc missionary, called Nicholas Breakspear. Courland was converted by 
 St. Meinard, and even Iceland was engrafted in the apostolic tree by th« 
 labors of the Catholic missionaries. 
 
 CENT. xn. 
 
 The successors of St. Peter in this age were innocent III., who held the 
 fourth Lateran council, at which 412 bishops, 800 ubbots, and ambassadors 
 %om most of tie Christian sovereigns, were present, for tlie extinction of the 
 
APOSTOLICITY. 177 
 
 oenturies, who have, in their several stations, kept up the per- 
 petual succession : those of one century having been the ii^i- 
 structors of those who succeeded them in the next : all of them 
 following the same two-fold rule of Scripture and tradition ; all 
 
 impious and infamous Albigensian or Manichean heresy. Honorious III., 
 Gregory IX., Celestin IV,, Innocent IV., who held the first general council 
 of Lyons, Alexander IV., Urban IV., Gregory X., who held the second coun- 
 cil of Lyons, in which the Greeks renounced their schism, though they sooa 
 fell back into it, Innocent V., Adrian V., John XXL, Nicholas III., Martin 
 IV., Honorius IV., Nicholas IV., Celestin V., who abdicated the pontificate, 
 and was afterwards canonized, and Boniface VIII. The most celebrated 
 doctors of the church were St. Thomas of Aquin, St. Bonaventure, St. An- 
 tony of Padua, and St. Raymund of Pennafort. Other illustrious support 
 ers and ornaments of the church were, St. Lewis, King of France, St. Eliza 
 beth. Queen of Hungary, St. Hedwige of Poland, St. Francis of Assisiura, 
 St. Dominic, St. Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Thomas of Here. 
 ford, and St. Richard of Chichester. The chief heretics were the Beguardi 
 and Fratricelli, whose gross immoralities Mosheim himself confesses. In the 
 mean time Spain was, in a great measure, recovered to the Catholic Church 
 from the Mahometan impiety ; Courland, Gothland, and Estonia, were con 
 verted by Baldwin, a zealous missionary ; the Cumani, near the mouths of 
 the Danube, were received into the church, and several tribes of Tartars, 
 with one of their emperors, were converted by the Franciscan missionaries, 
 whom the pope sent among them, not, however, without the martyrdom oi 
 many of them. 
 
 CENT. XIV. 
 
 Sdll did the promise of Christ, in the preservation of his church, contrary 
 to all opposition, and beyond the term of all human institutions, continue to 
 bo verified. The following were the head pastors who successively presided 
 over it : Benedict XL, Clement V., who held the general council of Vienna 
 John XXIL, Clement VI., Innocent VI., Urban V., Gregory XL, Urban VL, 
 and Boniface IX. Among the chief ornaments of the church in this age, 
 may be reckoned St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, St. Bridget of Sweden, 
 Count Elzear, and his spouse Deiphina, St. Nicholas of Tolentino, St. Cath. 
 ariue of Sienna, John Rusbrock, Peter, Bishop of Autun, &,c. The Mani- 
 chean abominations maintained and practised by the Turlupins, Dulcinians, 
 and other sects, continued to exercise the vigilance and zeal of the Catholic 
 pastors ; and the Lollards of Germany, together with the Wickliffites of 
 England, whose errors and conduct were levelled at the foundations of socie- 
 ty, as well as of religion, were opposed by all true Catholics in their re- 
 spective stations. The chief conquests of the church in this century, were 
 Lithuania, the prince and people of which received her faith, and in Great 
 Tartary, where the archbishopric of Cambalu and six suflragan bishoprics 
 were established by the pope. Odoric, the missionary, who furnished tfc« 
 Account of these events, is known himself to have baptized 20,000 converta 
 
 CENT. XV. 
 
 Tlie succession of popes continued through this century, though among 
 numerous difficulties and dissensions, in the following order: — Innocent 
 VII., Gregory XII., Alexander V., John XXIIL, Martin V., Eugenius IV . 
 who held the general council of Florence, and received the Greeks once 
 more into the Catholic communion, Nicholas V., Calixtus III., Pius II., 
 Paul II. Sixtiis IV., Innocent VIII., and Alexander VI. In this age fiuur 
 
178 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 of thi.-m acknowledging the same expositor of this rule, the 
 Catholic; Church ; and all of them adhering to the main trunk 
 or centre of union, the apostolical see. Some of the general 
 councils or synods likewise appear, in which the bishops from 
 
 ished St. Vincent Ferrer, the wonder-worker, both in the order of grace anJ 
 in tliat of nature, St. Francis of Paula, whose miracles were not less nume- 
 rous or extraordinary, St. Laurence Justinian, Patriarch of Venice, St. An 
 tonius. Archbishop of Florence, St. Casimir, Prince of Poland, the venora 
 ble Thomas k Kempis, Dr. John Gerson, Thomas Waldensis, the learned 
 English Carmelite, Alphonsus Tostatus, Cardinal Ximenes, &.c. At thb 
 peiiod, the Canary Islands were added to the church, as were, in a grea' 
 measure, the kingdoms of Congou and Angola, with other large districts ir. 
 Africa and Asia, wherever the Portuguese established themselves. The 
 Greek schismatics also, as I have said, together with the Armenians and 
 Monotholites of Egypt, were, for a time, engrafted on the apostolic tree. 
 These conquests, however, were damped by the errors and violence of the 
 various sects of Hussites, and the immoral tenets and practices of the Adam 
 ftes and other remnants of the Albigenses. 
 
 CENT. XVI. 
 
 This century was distinguished by that furious storm from the Norfli, 
 which stripped the apostolic tree of so many leaves and branches in this 
 quarter. That arrogant monk, Martin Luther, vowed destruction to the tree 
 itself, and engaged to plant one of those separated branches instead of it , 
 but the attempt was fruitless; for the main stock was sustained by the arm 
 of Omnipotence, and the dissevered boughs splitting into numberless frag, 
 ments, withered as all such boughs had heretofore done. It would be im. 
 possible to number up all these discordant sects ; the chief of them were, 
 the Lutherans, the Zuinglians, the Anabaptists, the Calvinists, the AngR- 
 lans, the Puritans, the Family of Love, and the Socinians. In the mean 
 time, on the trunk of the apostolic tree grew the following pontiffs : — Pius 
 III., Julius IL, who held the fifth Lateran council, Leo X., Adrian VI., 
 "Element VIII., Paul II., Julius III., Marcellus II., Paul IV., Pius IV., who 
 concluded the council of Trent, where 281 prelates condemned the novelties 
 )f Luther, Calvin, &c., St. Pius V., Gregory XIII., Sixtus V., Urban VII., 
 •Gregory XIV., Innocent IX., and Clement VIII. Other supporters of il)« 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church against the attacks made upon her, were 
 Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England ; 
 Cuthbert Maine, and some hundreds more of priests and religious, who were 
 martyred under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth in this cause ; also the Cardinals 
 Pole, Hosius, Cajetan, and Allen ; with the writers Eckius, Cochleus, Eras, 
 mus. Campion, Parsons, Stapleton, &c., together with that constellation of 
 great samts which then appeared, SS. Charles Borromeo, Cajetan, Philip 
 Neri, Ignatiua, F. Xaverius, F. Borgia, Teresa, &c. In short, the dar.jagea 
 sustained from the northern storm were amply repaid to the church, by in 
 numerable conversions in the new eastern and western worlds. It is com. 
 puted that St. Xaverius alone preached the faith in fifty-two kingdoms or 
 independent states, and baptized a million of converts with his own hand 
 in India and Japan. St. Lewis Bertrand, Martin of Valentia, and Bartholo- 
 mew Las Casas, ^^■ith their fellow-missionaries, converted most of the Mexi- 
 cans, and great progress was made in the conversion of the BraziHans, 
 though not without the blood of many martyred preachers in these and the 
 other Catholic misiiions, David, Emperor of Abj'ssinia, with many of hi» 
 
APOSTOLICITY. ' 179 
 
 d: Cerent parts of tho church assembled from time to time, under 
 the authority of the pope, to define its doctrine and regulate ita 
 discipline. The size of the sheet was insufficient to exhibit all 
 the various councils. Again, you behold in this tree, the coa. 
 
 family and other subjects, was now reclair?:ed to the church, and Pulika, 
 Patriarch of the Nestorians in Assyria, came to Rome, in order to join tho 
 numerous churches under him to tiie centre of unity and truth. 
 
 CENT. XVII. 
 
 The sects of which I have been speaking, were, at the beginning of this 
 century, in their full vigor ; and though they differed in most other respects, 
 jret tl'.5y combined their forces, under the general name of Protestants, to 
 overthrow Christ's everlasting church. These attempts, however, like the 
 waves of the troubled ocean, were dashed to pieces against the rock on 
 which he had built it. On the contrary, they weakened themselves by civil 
 wars and fresh divisions. The Lutherans split into Diaphorists and Abia. 
 phorists, the Calvinists into Gomarists and Arminians, and the Anglicans 
 into Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and Quakers. A vaia 
 effort was now set on foot, through Cyril Lucaris, to gain over the Greek 
 churches to Calvinism, which ended in demonstrating their inviolable attach- 
 ment to all the controverted doctrines of Catholicity. Another more fatal 
 attempt, was made to infect several members of the church itself with the 
 distinguishing error of Calvinism, under the name of Jansenism. But the 
 successors of St. Peter continued, through the whole of this century, equally 
 to make head against Protestant innovations, Jansenistical rigor, and casuisti- 
 cal laxity. Their names, in order, were these : Leo XI., Paul V., Gregory 
 XV., Urban VIII. , Innocent X , Alexander VII., Clement IX., Clement X., 
 Innocent XL, Alexander VIII., and Innocent XII. Their orthodoxy was 
 powerfully supported by the Cardinals Bellarmin, Baronius, and Perron, 
 with the Bishops Huetius, Bossuet, Fenelon, Richard Smith, and the divines 
 Petavius, Tillemont, Pagi, Thomassin, Kellison, Cressy, &c. Nor were the 
 canonized saints of this age fewer in number or less illustrious than those of 
 the former, namely, St. Francis of Sales, St. Frances Chantal, St. Camilluf, 
 St. Fidelis, martyr, St. Vincent of Paul, &c. Finally, the church continued 
 to be crowned with fresh converts, in Peru, Chili, Terra Firma, Canada, 
 Louisiana, Mingrelia, Tartary, India, and many islands both of Africa and 
 Asia. She had also the consolation of receiving into her communion the 
 several patriarchs of Damascus, Aleppo, and Alexandria, and also the Nes- 
 torian Archbishops of Chaldaea, and Meliapore, with their respective clergy. 
 
 CENT. XVIIL 
 
 Al length we have mounted up the apostolic tree to our own age. In jt, 
 boresy having sunk for the most part into Socinian indifference, and Jansen. 
 ifiii into philosophic infidelity ; this last waged as cruel a war against tho 
 Catholic Church, (and, O glorious mark of truth ! against her alone,) as De- 
 eiuB and Dioclesian did heretofore ; but this has only proved her internal 
 •trength of constitution, and the protection of the God of heaven. The 
 pontiffs who stood the storms of this century, were Clement XL, Inno- 
 cent XIIL, Benedict XIIL, Clement XII., Benedict XIV., Clement XIIL, 
 Clement XIV., Pius VL, as at the beginning of the present century, 
 Pius VII. has done. Among other modern supporters and omamenta 
 of the ^hureh. may be mentioned the Clardinals Thomasi and Quirini, 
 the Bishops Languet^ La Motte, Beaumont, Chailoner, Hornyhold, Walmes 
 
180 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 tinuation of the apostolical work, the conversion of nations ; 
 which, as it was committed by Christ to the Catholic Church, so 
 it has never been blessed by him with success in any hands but 
 in hers. This exclusive miracle, in the order of grace, like 
 those in the order of nature, which I treated of in a former let- 
 ter, is itself a divine attestation in her behalf. Speaking of 
 the conversion of nations, I must not fail, dear yir, to remind 
 your society, that this our country has twice been reclaimed 
 from paganism, and each time by the apostolic labor of mis- 
 sionaries, sent hither by the See of Rome. The first conver- 
 sion took place in the second century, when Pope Eleutherius 
 sent Fugatius and Duvianus for this purpose to the ancient 
 Britons, or Welsh, under their king or governor, Lucius : as 
 Bede and other historians relate. The second conversion was 
 that of our immediate ancestors, the English Saxons and Angles, 
 by St. Augustin and his companions, at the end of the sixth cen- 
 tury, who were sent from Rome, on this apostolical errand, by 
 Pope Gregory the Great. Lastly, you see in the present 
 sketch, a series of unhappy children of the church, who, instead 
 of hearing her doctrines, as it was their duty to do, have pre- 
 tended to reform them ; and thus losing the vital influx of theii 
 parent stock, have withered and fallen off from it as dead 
 branches. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 ley. Hay and Moylan. Among the writers are Calmet, Miiratori, Ber, 
 gier, Feller, Gother, Manning, Hawarden, and Alban Butler ; and among 
 the personages distinguished by their piety, the Good Dauphin, his sis- 
 ter Louisa, the CarmeUte nun, his heroical daughter Elizabeth, his other 
 daughter Clotilde, whose beatification is now in progress, as are those of 
 Bishop Lignori, and Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists ; as also 
 FF. Surenne, Nolhac, and L'Enfant, with their fellow-martyrs, and the Ven- 
 erable Labre, &c. Nor has the apostolical work of converting infidels been 
 neglected by the Catholic Church in the midst of such persecutions. In the 
 early part of this century, numberless souls were gained by Catholic preacher* 
 in the kingdoms of Madura, Cochin-China, Tonquin, and in the empire of 
 China, including the peninsula of Corea. At the same time numerous sav. 
 ages were civilized and baptized among the Hurons, Miamis, Illinois, and 
 other tribes of North America. But the most glorious conquest, because <he 
 moat difficult and most complete, was that gained by the Jesuits in the inte, 
 rior of South America over the wild savages of Paraguay, Uraguay, and 
 Parona, together with the wild Canisians, Moxos, and Chiquites, who, after 
 shedding the blood of some hundreds ui their first preachers at length opened 
 their hearts to the mild and sweet truths of the gospel, ar.J bei ftme modeji 
 •f piety and morahty, nor less so of industry, civil ojder, and polity. 
 
APOSTOLICITY, 181 
 
 1£TTER XXIX.— 10 JAMES BROWN ES»l. 
 
 ON THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE CATHOLIC 
 MINISTRY. 
 Pear sir — 
 
 In viewing the apostolical tree, you are to consider it as repre- 
 senting an uninterrupted succession of pontiffs and prelates, 
 who derive, not barely their doctrine, but also, and in a special 
 manner, their ministry, namely their holy orders, and the ri^hi 
 or jurisdiction to exercise those orders, in a right line from tha 
 apostles of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Catholic Church, in all 
 past ages, has not been more jealous of the sacred deposit of 
 orthodox doctrine, than of the equally sacred deposits of legiti- 
 mate ordination, by bishops who themselves had been riginly 
 ordained and consecrated, and of valid jurisdiction or divine 
 mission, by which she authorizes her ministers to exercise th«iir 
 respective functions in such and such places, with respect to 
 such and such persons, and under such and such conditions, as 
 she, by the depositaries of this jurisdiction, is pleased to ordain. 
 Thus, my dear sir, every Catholic pastor is authorized and en- 
 abled to address his flock as follows : — The word of God which 
 I announce to you, and the holy sacraments which I dispense to 
 you, I am QUALIFIED to announce and dispense hj such a 
 Catholic bishop who was consecrated by such another Catholic 
 bishop, and so on, in a series which reaches to the apostles them- 
 stflves : and I am AUTHORIZED to preach and minister to you 
 by such a prelate, loho received authority for ths purpose, from the 
 successor of St. Peter in the apostolic See of Rome. Heretofore, 
 during a considerable time, the learned and conscientious di- 
 vines of the Church of England held the same principles, on 
 both these points, that Catholics have ever held, and were no 
 (ess firm in maintaining the divine right of episcopacy and 'le 
 ministry than we are. This appears from the works of one 
 who was, perhaps, the most profound and accurate amongst them, 
 ihe celebrated Hooker. He proves, at great length, that the ec- 
 clesiastical ministry is a divine function, instituted by God, and 
 deriving its authority from God, " in a very different manner 
 from that of princes and magistrates :" that it is " a wretched 
 blindness not to admire so great a power as that which tho 
 clergy are endowed with, or to suppose that any but God can 
 bestow it;" that "it consists in a power over the mystical body 
 of Christ, by the remission of sins, and over his natural body in 
 the sacrament, which antiquity doth call the making of Chri^t't 
 hcdy."* He distinguishes between the power of orders p.nd the 
 
 • Ecclcsiast. Politic. B. v. Art. 77. 
 16 
 
IM LETTER XXIX. 
 
 authorit} of 7nissiin or jurisdiction, on both which points he ia 
 supported by the canons and laws of the Establishment. Not 
 to speak of prior laws, the act of uniformity* provides that no 
 minister shall hold any living, or officiate in any church, who 
 has not received episcopal ordination. It also requires that he 
 shall be a >proved and licensed for his particular place andywnc- 
 tion. This is also clear from the form of induction of a clerk 
 into any cure.f In virtue of this system, when episcopacy was 
 re-established in Scotland, in the year 1662, four Presbyterian 
 ministers, having been appointed by the king to that office, the 
 English bishops refused to consecrate them, unless they con- 
 sented to be previously ordained deacons and priests ; thus re- 
 nouncing their former ministerial character, and acknowledging 
 that they had hitherto been mere laymen. if In like manner, on 
 the accession of King William, who was a Dutch Calvinist, to 
 the throne, when a commission often bishops and twenty divines 
 was appointed to modify t^e articles and liturgy of the Estab- 
 lished Church, for the purpose of forming 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 being, thus far, mere lay- 
 men. 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 apostate Catholic 
 priest who offi^rs himself to her service, but is satisfied with his 
 taking the oaths prescribed by law.|| This doctrine of the 
 Establishment, evidently unchurches (as Dr. Heylin expresses 
 it) all other Protestant communions, as it is an established prin- 
 
 ♦ Stat. 13 and 14 Car. II., c. 4. 
 
 t " Curam et regimen animarum parochianorum tibi committimus." 
 
 X 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 consecrated bishops, were, on that account, excommunicated and de. 
 graded by the kirk. Records, N. cxiii. 
 
 § Lif3 of Tillotson, by D. Birch, pp. 42, 176. 
 
 II Notwithstanding these proofs of the doctrine and practice of the Estab- 
 lished Church, a great proportion of her modern divines consent, at the pres. 
 ent day, to sacrifice all her pretensions to divine authority and uninterrupted 
 Buccession. It has been shown in The Letters to a Prebendary, that in ihe 
 (principles of the celebrated Dr. Balguy, a priest or bishop can as well be 
 made by the town-crier, if commissioned by the civil power, as by the me- 
 tropolitan. To this system, Dr. Sturges, Dr. Hey, Dr. Paley, Dr. Tomline, 
 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 oivil and optional practice. Elem. Vol. ii. Art. 23. 
 
ATOSTO LICIT Y. 188 
 
 ciple, that, no ministry no church ;* and with equal evidence, it 
 unchristians them also ; since this church unanimous!) resolved, 
 in 1575, that baptism cannot be performed by any person but a 
 lawful minister. f 
 
 But dismissing these uncertain and wavering opinions, we 
 know what little account all other Protestants, except thoso of 
 England, have made of apostolical succession and Episcopal 
 ordination. Luther's principles on these points are clear from 
 his famous hull against the FALSELY CALLED order of 
 bishops,"^ where he says : " Give ear now, you bishops, or ra- 
 ther 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 labor, 
 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," &;c. 
 True it is, that afterwards, namely, in 1542, this arch-reformer, 
 to gratify his chief patron, the Elector of Saxony, took upon 
 himself to consecrate his bottle-companion, Amsdorf, Bishop of 
 Naumburgh :§ but then it is notorious from the whole of his 
 conduct, that Luther set himself above all law, and derided all 
 consistency and decency. Nea.rly the same may be said of an- 
 other later reformer, John Wesley, who, professing himself to 
 be a preshyter of the Church / "^n^land, pretended to ordain 
 Messrs. Whatcoat, Vesey, &c. priests, and to consecrate Dr. 
 Coke, a bishop !\\ With equal inconsistency the elders of Hern- 
 huth, in Moravia, profess to consecrate bishops for England and 
 other kingdoms. On the other hand, how averse the Calvinists 
 and other dissenters are, to the very name, as well as the office 
 of bishops, all modern histories, especially those of England 
 and 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 
 telf -appointed, or, at most, they derive their claim from other 
 men, who themselves were self-appointed, fifteen, sixteen, or 
 seventeen hundred years subsequent to the time of the apostles. 
 
 The chief question which remains to be discussed, concerni 
 
 * " Ubi nullus est sacerdos nulla est ecclesia." St. Jerom, &c. 
 
 T Elem. of Theol. Vol. ii. p. 471. 
 
 X Adversus falso Normin. Tom. ii. Jen. A. D. 1525. 
 
 § Sleidan, Comment. L. 14. 
 
 II Dr. Whitehead's Life of Charles and John Wesley. It appears that 
 Charles was horribly scandalized at this step of his brother John, aixl that a 
 lasting schism among the Wesleyan Methodists was the consequence of it 
 
84 LETTER XXIT. 
 
 the ministry of ihe CJhurch of England ; namely, whether the 
 first Protestant bishops appointed by Queen Elizabeth, when the 
 Catholic bishops were turned out of their sees, did or did not re- 
 ceive valid consecration from some other bishop, who himself 
 was validly consecrated ? The discussion of this question has 
 filled many volumes, the result of which is, that the orders are, 
 to say the least, exceedingly doubtful. For, first, it is ceilain 
 that the doctrine of the fathers of this church was very loose, 
 as to the necessity of consecration and ordination. Its chief 
 founder, Cranmer, solemnly subscribed his name to the position, 
 that princes and governors, no less than bishops, can make 
 priests, and that no consecration is appointed by Scripture tc 
 make a bishop or priest.* In like manner, Barlow, on the \a 
 lidity of whose consecration that of Matthew Parker and of a"l 
 succeeding Anglican bishops chiefly rests, preached openly that 
 the king's appointment, without any orders or ordination what- 
 soever, suffices to make a bishop. f This doctrine seems to 
 have been broached by him, to meet the objection that he him- 
 self had never been consecrated : in fact, the record of such a 
 transaction has been hunted for in vain, during these 200 years. 
 Secondly, it is evident from the books of controversy still ex- 
 tant, 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 particularly with Jewel, Bishop of Sarum, and Home, 
 Bishop of Winton, constantly reproached them, in the most 
 pointed terms, that they revei uud been consecrated at all; 
 and that they 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 a* 
 Lambeth, of Archbishop Parker's consecration by Barlow, as- 
 sisted by Coverdale and others, the learned Catholics univer 
 sally exclaimed that the register was a forgery, unheard cf til 
 that date ; and asserted among other arguments, that, admitMg 
 it to be true, it was of no avail, as the pretended consocrator ol 
 Parker, though he had sat in several sees, had not hiraself been 
 cxinsecratea for any of them. J 
 
 » Buniet's Hist, oi" Reform. Records, B. iii. N. 21. Sec also his Rec 
 Part ii. N. 2, by which it appears that Cranmer and the other complying 
 prelates, on the death of Henry VHL, took out fresh commissions from Ed 
 ward VI., to govern their dioceses, durante bene placito, like mere fivif 
 officers. II Cullior's Eccl. Hist. vol. ii., p. 135. 
 
 X Richardson in his notes on Goodwin's Commer.taryis forced to confear 
 M follows : " Die.s conaecrationis ejus (Barlow) norjum apparet." V. i'Ail. 
 
APOSTCTLlCi . 185 
 
 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 or- 
 dinal of Edward VI., restored by Elizabeth, priosts were or- 
 dained by the power of forgiving sins,* without any power of 
 offering up sacrifice, in which the essence of the sacerdotmm 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 a form 
 which might be used to a child, when confirmed or baptized. f 
 This was agreeable to the maxims of the principal author of 
 that ordinal, Cranmer, who solemnly decided that "bishops and 
 priests were not two things, but one and the same office. "J On 
 this subject our controvertists urge, not only the authority of all 
 the Latin 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 stitu- 
 tion, (conveying orders,) but such as are significant of the 
 power conveyed by the order. "§ In short, these objections 
 were so powerfully urged by our divines. Dr. Champney, J. 
 Lewgar, S. T. B.,|| and others, that almost immediately after 
 the last named had published his work called Erastus Senior^ 
 in 1662, containing them ; the convocation, being assembled, 
 altered the form of ordaining priests and consecrating bishops in 
 order to obviate these objections. IT But admitting that these 
 alterations are sufficient to obviate all the objections of our di- 
 vines to the ordinal, which they are not, they came above a 
 hundred years too late for their intended purpose ; so that if 
 
 * *• Receive the Holy Ghost : whose sins thou dost forgive, they are for. 
 given ; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained : and be thou a 
 faitliful dispenser of the word of God, and of his holy sacraments." — Bishop 
 Sparrow's Collection, p. 158. 
 
 t *' Take the Holy Ghost, and remember that thou stir up the grace of 
 God, which is in thee by the imposition of hanJs." — Ibid. p. 164. 
 
 t Burnet's Hist, of Reform, vol. i. Record, B. iii. n. 21, quest. 10. 
 
 4 Ibid. B. ii. c. 16. 
 
 il Lewgar was the friend of Chillingworth, and by him converted to the 
 Catholic failh, which, however, he refused to abandon when the latter re- 
 lapsed into latitudinarianism. 
 
 1" The form of ordaining a priest was thus wltered: "Receivf the Holy 
 Ghost for the ofiice and work of a priest in the Church of Goo, now conv 
 mitted to thee by the imposition of our hands : Whose sins thou shalt for- 
 give, they are forgiven," &c. — The form of consecrating a bishop was tnua 
 enlarged : " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a bishop 
 m the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our 
 hands, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Chcisv , 
 uid remember that thou a*^z up the grace of God, which is in thaa* 
 
186 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 the pri«sts aYid bishops of Edward's and Elizabeth's reigna 
 were invalid ly ordained and consecrated, so must those of 
 Charles the Second'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 .here is the same necessity of an apos. 
 tolical succession of nussion, or authority to execute the func- 
 tions of holy orders, as of the holy orders themselves. This 
 mission, or authority, was imparted by Christ to his apostles^ 
 when he said to them : "As the Father hath sent me, I alsc 
 «end you," John xx. 21 ; and of this St. Paul also speaks, 
 (vhere he says of the apostles : " How can they preach, unless 
 they are sent?" Rom. x. 15. I believe, sir, that no regular 
 Protestant church, or society, admits its ministers to have, by 
 their ordination or appointment, unlimited authority in every 
 place and congregation. Certain it is, from the ordinal and 
 articles of the Established Church, that she confines the juris- 
 diction of her ministers to " the congregation to which they 
 shall be appointed."* Conformably to this. Dr. Berkley 
 leaches, that " a defect in the mission of the ministry, invalid 
 ates the sacraments, affects the purity of public worship, and 
 therefore deserves to be investigated by every sincere Chris- 
 tian. "f To this Archdeacon Daubeny adds, that " regular 
 mission only subsists in the churches which have preserved 
 apostolical succession." — I moreover believe, that in all Pro- 
 testant societies the ministers are persuaded, that the authority 
 by which they preach and perform their functions is, in some 
 manner or other, 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 authority can be communicated ; 
 the one ordinary, the other extraordinary. The former takes 
 place, when this authority is transmitted in regular succession 
 from those who originally received it from God ; the other, 
 when the Almighty interposes, in an extraordinary manner, and 
 immediately commissions certain individuals to make known 
 his will to men. The latter mode evidently requires indisputa- 
 ble miracles to attest it : and accordingly, Moses and our 
 Saviour Christ, who were sent in this manner, constantly ap- 
 pealed to the prodigies they wrought in proof of their divine 
 mission. Hence even Luther, when Muncer, Storck, and their 
 followers, the Anabaptists, spread their errors and devastations 
 through lower Germany, counselled the magistrates to put these 
 questions to them, (not reflecting that the questions were as ap- 
 piicabi'e to himself as to Yuncer and Storck,) " Who conferred 
 
 • Article C3. Form of ordaining priests and deacons. 
 
 ♦ Ser.n. ai Coiisecr. of Bishop Home 
 
APOSTOLICITT. 187 
 
 vpon you the office of preaching ? And who commissioned yarn 
 to preach ? If they answer God : then let the magistrates 
 say : Prove this to us by some evident miracle : for so Goa 
 makes known his will, when he changes the institutions which 
 he had before established."* 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 wouLi 
 be reduced to silence ! For, on one hand, it is notorious, that 
 they are self-appointed prophets, who run laithout being sent ; 
 01, if they pretend to a commission, that they derive it from 
 other men, who themselves had received none, and who did not 
 so much as claim any, by regular succession from the apostles. 
 Such was Luther himself; such also were Zuinglius, Calvin, 
 Muncer, Menno, John Knox, George Fox, Zinzendorf, Wesley, 
 Whitfield, and Swedenborg. None of these preachers, as I 
 have signified, so much as pretended to have received their 
 mission from Christ in the ordinary way, by uninterrupted suc- 
 cession from the apostles. On the other hand, they were so far 
 from undertaking to work real miracles, by way of proving that 
 they had received an extraordinary mission from God, that, 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 suc- 
 cession from the apostles, through the Catholic bishops, in the 
 ordinary way. — In fact, this is plainly asserted by the Bishop 
 of Lincoln. f — But take notice, dear sir, that though we were to 
 admit of an apostolical succession of orders in the Established 
 Church, we never could admit of an apostolical succession 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 
 abcminable idolatry, most detested of God and damnable to 
 man, for the space of eight hundred years," as the homilies af- 
 fiim,:); how could she retain this divine mission and jurisdiction 
 fcll this time, and all this time employ them in commissicning 
 her clergy to preach up this " abominabU idolatry ?" Again, 
 was it possible for the Catholic Church to ^rive jurisdiction and 
 authority, to Archbishop Parker, for example, and the Bishopi 
 Jewel and Home, to preach against herself? Did ever any ii . 
 
 » Sleid^n. De Stat. Relig. 1. v. i Elem. of Theol. vol. ii. p. 400. 
 
 * AgvJist the Perils of Idolatry, p. iii. 
 
1S8 LETTER XIIX. 
 
 surgents against an established government, except the rogicidei 
 
 in the grand rebellion, claim authority from that veiT" govern- 
 ment to fight against it, and destroy it ? In a word, we perfectly 
 well know, fron^. history, that the first English Protestants did 
 not profess, any more than foreign Protestants, to derive any 
 mijision or authority whatsoever from the apostles, through the 
 existing Catholic Church. Those of Henry's reign preached 
 and ministered in defiance of all authority, ecclesiastica. and 
 civil.* Their successors in the reign of Edward and Elizabeth 
 claimed their whole right and mission to preach and to minister, 
 from the civil power only.f This latter point is demonstratively 
 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 confesses, that 
 he holds his bishopric, as well in spirituals as in temporals, from 
 her alone and the crown royal." 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 prohi- 
 hition of prophesying, the inhibition of all preaching, the giving 
 and suspending of sjdritual faculties, &c. Now, though I sin- 
 cerely and cheerfully ascribe to my sovereign all the temporal 
 and civil power, jurisdiction, rights, and authority, which the 
 constitution and laws ascribe to him, I cannot believe that Christ 
 appointed any temporal prince to feed his mystical fiock, or any 
 part of it, or to exercise the power of ike keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven at his discretion. It was foretold by Bishop Fisher in 
 Parliament, that the royal ecclesiastical supremacy, if once ac 
 knowledged, might pass to a child or a womanf, as, in fact, i* 
 soon did to each of them. It was afterwards transferred, witl 
 the crown itself, to a foreign Calvinist, 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 acknow- 
 ledgment of a royal ecclesiastical supremacy " in all spiritual 
 and ecclesiastical things or causes,"§ (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 
 
 » Collier's Hist. vol. ii. p. 81. 
 
 t In the reign of James I., Archbishop Abbot having incurred suspensicn 
 by the canon law, for accidentally shooting a n^an, a royal commission was 
 issued to restore him. On another occasion, he was suspended by ihe king 
 himself, for refusing to license a book. In Elizabeth's reign, the bishops ap- 
 proved of prophesying, as it was called ; the queen disapproved of it, and 
 the obliged them to condemn it. 
 
 X See his Life by Dr. Bniley ; also Dodd's Eccles. Hist. voL i. 
 
 <5 0am of Supremacy, Homage of Bishops, dec. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 189 
 
 appears, that there is, and can be, no apostolica'i succession of 
 niinistry in the Established Church, more than in the other con- 
 gregations or societies of Protestants. All their preaching and 
 ministering, in their several degrees, is performed by mere hu- 
 man authonfy.* On the other hand, not a sermon is preached 
 nor a child baptized, nor a penitent absclved, nor a priest or. 
 dained, nor a bishop consecrated, throughout the whole extent 
 of the Catholic Church, witnout 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, leach all na- 
 tions, baptizing them," &;c.. Matt, xxviii. 19 ; and without his 
 being able to prove his claim to that commission of Christ, by 
 producing the table of his uninterrupted succession from the 
 apostles. — I will not detain you by entering into a comparison, 
 in a religious point of view, between a ministry which officiates 
 by divine authority, and others which act by mere human authori- 
 ty ; but shall conclude this subject by putting it to the good 
 sense and candor of your society, whether, from all that has 
 been said, it is not as evident, which among the different com- 
 munions is THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH we profess to be- 
 lieve in, as which is THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ? 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Milneb. 
 
 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 ; since 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 beginning of our correspondence, by the 
 tenor of which I was left at full liberty to follow up my argu- 
 ments to whatever lengths they might conduct me, without in- 
 curring the displeasure of any person of the society on that ac« 
 
 * It is curious to see in Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, and m the 37tij 
 Article, the disclaimer of her ^^ actually ministering the word and th sacra, 
 ments.^' The question was not about this, but about the jurisdicticn or mi* 
 tion of the ministry. 
 
190 LETIER IXX. 
 
 count. 1 shall pass over the passages in the letter which «eem 
 to have been dictated by too warm a feeling, and shall confine 
 my answer to those which contain something like argument 
 against what I have advanced. 
 
 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- 
 flal, that, according to my own argument, as he says, it is in- 
 credible th?.t 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, there 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 opponents. 
 Lastly, 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 their personal vices, disgraced their holy station : but even 
 these popes always fulfilled iheiv puUic duties to the church, by 
 maintaining the apostolical doctrine, moral as well as specula- 
 tive, 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 homilies affirm 
 were true, that the whole church had been " drowned in idola- 
 try for eight hundred years," she must have taught and com- 
 mi-ssioned all those whom she ordained, to teach this horrible 
 apostacy ; which she never could have done, and at the same 
 time have retained Christ's commission and authority to teacl 
 all nations the Gospel. This demonstrates the inconsistency of 
 those clergymen of the Establishment, who accuse the Catholic 
 Cliurch of apostacy and idolatry, and at the same time boast of 
 having received, through her, a spiritual jurisdiction and minis- 
 tr}' from Jesus Christ. 
 
 Your visiter next expatiates, in triumphant strains, on the ex- 
 ploded fable of Pope Joan ; for exploded it certainly may be 
 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 nintl century, an English 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 19 
 
 woman, born at Mentz in Germany* studied philosophy at 
 Athens, (where 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 855, she was delivered of a child, as she was walking in a 
 solemn procession near the Coliseum, and died on the spot ; and, 
 moreover, that a statue of her was there erected in memory of 
 the disgraceful event f 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 at which it is said 
 to have taken place. And, in the mean time, we are assured, 
 from the genuine works of contemporary writers and distinguish- 
 ed prelates, some of whom then resided at Rome, such as Anas- 
 tasius the Librarian, Luitprand, Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims 
 Photius of Constantinople, Lupus Ferrar, &;c., that Benedict IlL 
 was canonically elected pope in the said year 855, only three 
 days after the death of Leo IV., which evidently leaves no in- 
 terval for the pontificate of the fabulous Joan. 
 
 From the warfare of attack, my reverend antagonist passe?^ 
 to that of defence, as he terms it. In this he heavily complaina 
 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 follow. 
 ing : 1st, The society for promoting Christian knowledge, called 
 the Bartlett's-Buildings 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 Christianity in the English 
 colonies ; but I hear nothing of its doings. 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 Duff, with certain preachers and their 
 vrives, to Otaheite, Tongabatoo, and the Marquesas, and pub- 
 lished a journal of the voyage, by which it appears that they 
 are strict Calvinists and Independents. 6thly, the Edinburgh 
 Missionary Society fraternizes with the last mentioned. 7thly, 
 There is an Arminian Missionary Society, under Dr. Coke, the 
 
 • Ita Pseudo Martinua Polonus, &c. 
 
 t See Breviarum Historico— Chronologico — critkum Pontiff. Roman, stit 
 Hlo R. F. Pagi, toin ii. p. 73. 
 
192 LETTER XXX. 
 
 head of the Wesleyan Methodists. 8thly, There is a Moravian 
 Missionary Society, which appears more active than any of the 
 others, particularly at the Cape, and in Greenland and Surinam. 
 To these, your visiter says, must be added, the Hibernian So- 
 ciety for diffusing Christian knowledge in Ireland ; as also, and 
 still more particularly, the Bible Society, with all its numerous 
 ranifications. Of this last-named he speaks glorious things, 
 IbiL^telling that it will, in its progress, purify the world from in- 
 fidelity 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 preach various discordant religions ; 
 for what religions can be more opposite than the Calvinistic and 
 the Arminian ? And how indignant would a churchman feel, 
 if I were to charge him with the impiety and obscenity of Zin- 
 zendorf 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 Ota- 
 heite.* Whereas the Catholic missionaries, whether Italians, 
 French, Portuguese, or Spaniards, taught and planted precisely 
 the same religion in the opposite extremities of the globe. Se- 
 condly, the envoys of those societies had no commission or au- 
 thority to preach, but what they derived from the men and wo- 
 men who contributed money to pay for their voyages and ac- 
 commodations. / 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 an- 
 cient and in modern times, have converted the nations of the 
 earth, all derived their mission and authority from the centre ol 
 the Apostolic Tree, the See of Peter. Thirdly, I cannot but 
 remark the striking difference between the Protestant and the 
 Catholic misvsionaries, with respect to their qualifications and 
 method of proceeding. The former were, for the most part, 
 mechanics and laymen of the lowest order, without any learning 
 infused or acquired, beyond what they could pick up from the 
 English translation of the Bible ; they were frequently encum- 
 bered with wives and children, and armed with muskets and 
 bayonets, to kill those whom they could not convert. f Whereas 
 
 • " By the middle of January, the committee of eight (among the thirty 
 missionaries) had nearly finished the articles of faith. Two of the numbei 
 dissented, but gave in." — Journal of the Duff. 
 
 t The 18 preachers who remained at Otaheite, " took up arms by way of 
 precaution." — Ibid. It appears from subsequent accounts, that the preachen 
 made use of their arms, to protect their wives from the men whom they came 
 to convert. Of the nine preacners aestmed for Tongabatoo, six were foi 
 carrying fire-arms on shore, and three against it. 
 
OBJECTTONS ANSWERED. lOA 
 
 tne Catholic missionaries have always beer priests, or ascetics, 
 trained to literature and religious exercises, men of continency 
 and self-denial, who had no other defence ihan their breviary 
 and crucifix, no other weapon than ihe sword of the spirit, which 
 is the word of God. Ephes. vi. 17. Fourthly, I do not find 
 any portion of that lively faith, and that heroic constancy, in 
 braving poverty, torments, and death for the gospel, among the 
 few Protestant converts, or even among their preachers, which 
 have so frequently illustrated the different Catholic missions, 
 fndeed I have not heard of a single martyr of any kind, in Asia, 
 A-frica, or America, who can be considered as the fruit of the 
 above-named societies, or of any Protestant mission whatever. 
 On the other hand, few are the countries in which the Christian 
 religion has been planted by Catholic priests, without being 
 watered by some of their own blood and of that of their con- 
 verts. To say nothing of the martyrs of a late date in the Ca- 
 tholic missions of Turkey, Abyssinia, Siam, Tonquin, Cochin 
 China, &c., there has been an almost continual persecution of 
 the Catholics in the empire of China, for about a hundred year.--' 
 p.ist, which, besides confessors of the faith, who have endured 
 various tortures, has produced a very great number of martyrs, 
 native Chinese as well as Europeans, laity as well as priests 
 and bishops.* Within these two years,f the wonderful apostle 
 of the great peninsula of Corea, to the east of China, James Ly, 
 with i\s many as 100 of his converts, has suffered death lor the 
 faith. In the islands of Japan, the anti-christian persecution, 
 excited by the envy and avarice of the Dutch, raged with a fury 
 unexampled in the annals of pagan Rome. It began with the 
 crucifixion of twenty-six martyrs, most of them missionaries. 
 It then prLHjeeded to other more horrible martyrdoms, and it 
 concluded with putting to death as many as eleven hundred 
 thousand Christians.^ Nor were those numerous and splendid 
 victories of the gospel in the provinces of South America achiev- 
 ed without torrents of Catholic blood. Many of the first preach- 
 ers were slaughtered by the savages to whom they announced 
 ihe gospel, and not unfrequently devoured by them, as was the 
 ease with the first Bishop of Brazil. — In the last place, the Pro- 
 testant missions have never been attended with any great sue- 
 
 • Hist, de I'Eglise, par Berault Bercastel, torn. 22, 23. Butler's Lives of 
 he Saints, Feb. 5. M^m. Eccl6s. pourle 18me Sifecle. 
 
 t Namely, in 18)1. Wnile this work was in the press, we received an ac- 
 ■x>unt of the martyrdom of Mgr. Dufresse, Bishop of Tabraca, and Vicar 
 Apostolic of Sutchuen, in China, who was beheaded there Sept. 14 18J5 
 and of F. J. de Frior, missionary in Chiensi, who, after varions torments, 
 was strangled, Feb. 13, 1816. 
 
 t Berault Bercastel says two millions, torn. 20. 
 
 17 
 
194 LETTER XXX. 
 
 cess. Those heretofore carried on by the Dutcl^, French^ aua 
 American Calvinists, seem to have been more levelled at the 
 destruction of the Catholic missions than at the conversion of 
 the pagans.* In later times, the zealous Wesley went on a 
 mission to convert the savages of Georgia, but returned with- 
 out making one proselyte. His companion Whitfield afterwards 
 went to the same country on the same errand, but returned 
 without any greater success. Of the missionaries who went 
 out in the Duff, 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 years, baptized a single islander. In iie 
 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 government, extending over 
 from 30 to 40 millions of people, with all its influence and en- 
 couragement, not more than eighty converts have been made by 
 the Protestant missionaries in seven years, and those were al. 
 most all Chandalas, or outcasts from the Hindoo religion, who 
 were glad to get a pittance for their support ;f " for the perse- 
 verance of several of whom," their instructors say, " thejf 
 tremble. "f — How different a scene do the Catholic missions 
 present ! To say nothing of ancient Christendom, all the king, 
 doms and states of which were reclaimed from paganism, and 
 converted to Christianity by Catholic preachers, and not one ot 
 them by preachers of any other description ; what extensive 
 and populous islands, provinces, and states, in the east and in 
 the west, were wholly, or in a great part, reclaimed from ido. 
 latry, soon after Luther's revolt, by Catholic missionaries ! But 
 
 • It is generally known, and not denied by Mosheim himself, that the ex. 
 termination of the flourishing missions in Japan is to be ascribed to the Dutch, 
 When they became masters of the Portuguese settlements in India, they en. 
 deavoied, by persecution as well as by other means, to make the Christian 
 natives abandon the Catholic religion, to which St. Xaverius and his compan. 
 ions had converted them. The Calvinist preachers having failed in thDir 
 attempt to proselyte the Brazilians, it happened that one of their party, Jamea 
 Sourie. took a merchant vessel at sea with 40 .Jesuit missionaries, under F. 
 Azevcdo, on board of it, bound to Brazil ; when, in hatred of them and their 
 destination, he put them all to death. The year following, F. Diaz with 11 
 companions, bound on the same mission, and falling into the hands of the 
 Calvinists, met with the same fate. Incredible pains were taken by the mi. 
 nisters of New England to induce the Hurons, Iroquois, and other converted 
 savages, to abandon the Catholic 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." 
 
 t Extract of a Speech of C. Marsh, Esq., in a committeti ot the H. of C, 
 July 1, 1815. See als^ Major Waring's Remarks on Oxford Sermons. 
 
 4 Transact, of Pro' . Miss, quoted in Edinb. Review, April, 1808. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 195 
 
 to come still nearer to our own time : F, Bouchet, alone, in the 
 C('Urse of his twelve years' labors in Madura, instructed and 
 baptized 20,000 Indians, while F. Bri'.to, within fifteen months 
 only, converted and regenerated 8,000, when he sealed his mis- 
 sion with his blooa. By the latest returns which I have seen, 
 from the eastern missionaries to the directors of the French 
 Missions Etrangdres, it appears that in the western district of 
 Tonquin, during the five years preceding the beginning of this 
 century, 4,101 adults and 26,915 children were received into 
 the church by baptism, and that in the lower part of Cochin- 
 China 900 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, 
 1,500 adults were baptized, and 2,527 catechumens were re- 
 ceived for instruction. By letters of a later date from the 
 above-mentioned martyr, Dufresse, Bishop of Tabraca, and 
 Vicar Apostolic of Sutchuen, it appears, that during the year 
 1810, in spite of a severe persecution, 965 adults were baptized ; 
 and that during 1814, though the persecution increased, 829, 
 without reckoning infants, received baptism. Bishop Lamote. 
 Vicar Apostolic of Fokien, testifies that, in his district, during 
 the year 1810, 10,384 infants and 1,677 grown persons were 
 baptized, and 2,674 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 execute the 
 work of the apostles, as well as to preserve their doctrine, their 
 orders, and their mission. 
 
 As to the wonderful effects which your visiter expects in the 
 conversion of the pagan world, from the Bible Society, and the 
 three score and three translations into foreign tongues of the 
 English translation of the Bible, I beg leave to ask him, who is 
 to vouch 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 to answer for these 
 translations, made by officers, merchants, and merchants' clerks, 
 being accurate and faithful ? Who is to teach these barbarians 
 to read, and, after that, to make any thing like a connected 
 sense of the mysterious volumes ? Does Mr. C. really think 
 that an inhabitant of Otaheite, when he is enabled to read the 
 Bible, will extract tlie sense of the 39 Articles, or of any other 
 Christian system whatever from it ? I ^ short, has the Bible 
 Society, or any of the other Protestant societies, converted a 
 single pagan or Mahometan by the hare text of Scripture ? 
 When such a convert can be produced, it will be time enough 
 for me to propose to him th^se further gravellmg questions 
 
196 LETTER XXX. 
 
 which result from my observations on the sacred text in a for 
 mer letter to you. In the mean time, let your visiter rest as 
 sured that the Catholic Church will proceed in the old and sue 
 cessful manner, by which she has converted all the Christiaii 
 people on the face of the earth ; the same which Christ deliv. 
 ered to his apostles and their successors : " Go ye into all th» 
 world, ULid preach 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 
 fjflicrts of the Bible Society, has been victoriously proved b}' the 
 Rev. Dr. Hook, who, with other clear-sighted churchmen, evi- 
 dently sees that the grand principle of Protestantism, strictly 
 reduced to practice, would undermine their establishment. One 
 of his brethren, the Rev. Mr. Gisborne, had publicly boasted 
 that, in proportion to the opposition which the Bible Society had 
 met with, its annual income had increased, till it reached near 
 a £100,000 in a year. Dr. Hook, in return, showed by lists 
 of the convictions of criminals during tl e first seven years of 
 the society's existence, that the wickedneiS of the country, in- 
 stead of being diminished, had almost been doubled !* Since 
 that period up to the present year, it has increased three-fold, 
 and four- fold, compared with its state before the society began. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 I HAVE now, dear sir, completed the second task which 1 
 undertook, 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, 
 that of pT'vate inspiration, and that of private interpretation of 
 Scripture, are equally fallacious, and that there is no certain 
 way of arriving at the truth of divine revelation, but by hearing 
 thai church which Christ built on a rock, and promised to abide 
 
 • List of capital convictions in London and Middlesex in the following 
 fears, from Dr. Hook's charge and the London Chronicle : 
 
 In the year 
 
 Convictions 
 
 1808 
 
 728 
 
 1809 
 
 863 
 
 1811 01 1811 1 1812 1 1813 
 "884 872 998 1012 
 
 1814 
 
 1027 
 
 1815 
 
 2299 
 
 1816 1 1817 
 25923177 
 
 It appears, by a return made to the House of Commons, in obedience to 
 their order, June 5, in the year 1818, that the number of criminals commit, 
 ted for trial, and of those sentenced to death, during the last thirteen years, 
 nearly corresponding with those of the Bible Society's progress, has been 
 tbout t/ipled, namely : 
 
 Committed for Tiial. Sentenced to Death. 
 
 In 1805 1,605 In 1805 350. 
 
 In 3317 13.932. In 1817 1,308 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 197 
 
 witlt for ever, I engaged, in this my second series of letters, to 
 demonstrate which, among the different societies of Christians, 
 is the church that Christ founded and still protects. For this 
 purpose I have had recourse to the principal cAarcrc/er^ or TwarA:* 
 of ChrisCs church, as they are pointed out in Scripture, and 
 formally acknowledged by Protestants of nearly all descriptions, 
 no less than by Catholics, in their articles, and in those creeds 
 which form part of t]:eir private prayers and public liturgy, 
 namely, unity, sanctivj, catholicity, and apostolicity. In facty 
 this is what every one acknowledges who says, in the Apostles' 
 Creed, / believe in the holy Catholic Church ; and in the Nicene 
 Creed,* I believe one Catholic Apostolic Church. Treating 
 of the first mark of the true church, I proved from natural rea- 
 son, Scripture, and tradition, that unity is essential to her ; I 
 then showed that there is no union or principle of union among 
 the different sects of Protestants, except their common protesta- 
 tion against their mother church ; and that the Church of Eng- 
 land, in particular, is divided against herself in such a manner, 
 that one of its most learned prelates has declared himself a/rafd 
 to say what is its doctrine. On the other hand, I have shown 
 that the Catholic Church, spread as she is over the whole earth, 
 is one and the same in her doctrine, in her liturgy, and in her 
 government; and, though I detest religious persecution, I have, 
 in defiance of ridicule and clamor, vindicated her unchangeable 
 doctrine, and the plain dictate of reason as 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, J have made it clear, that the pre- 
 tended Reformation everywhere originated in the pernicious 
 doctrine of salvation by faith alone, without good works, and '.hat 
 the Catholic Church has ever taught the necessity of them b th ; 
 likewise that she possesses many peculiar means of sanctitt,, to 
 which modern sects do not make a pretension ; likewise that 
 she 'las, in every age, produced the genuine fruits of sanctity ; 
 while the fruits of Protestantism have been quite of an opposite 
 nature : finally, that God himself has borne witness to the sanc- 
 tity of the Catholic Church, by undeniable mirachs, with which 
 he has illustrated her in every age. — It did not require jnuch 
 pains to prove that the Catholic Church possesses, exclusively, 
 the name of CATHOLIC ; 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 light line from the apostles of Christ, is as evident as that 
 
 • See the Comi lunion Service in Common Prayec 
 17* 
 
1 98 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 she is Catholic. However, to illustrate this matter, I have 
 iketched out a genealogical, or, as I call it, the apostolical 
 tree, which, with the help of a note subjoined, shows the unin- 
 terrupted succession of the Catholic Church in her chief pon- 
 tiffs, and other illustrious prelates, doctors, and renowned saints, 
 from the apostles of Christ, during eighteen centuries, to the 
 present period, together with the continuation in her of the apos- 
 tolical work of converting nations and people- It shows also a 
 se/ies of unhappy 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 com- 
 munion and have withered away, like branches cut off from a 
 vine, which are fit for no human use. Ezek. xv. — Finally, 1 
 have shown the necessity 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 the holy Catholic Church. — 
 Having demonstrated all this in the foregoing letters, I am jus- 
 tified, dear sir, in affirming that the motives of credibility, in fa- 
 vor of the Christian religion in general, are not one whit more 
 clear and certain, than those in favor 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 dis- 
 passionate and reasonable persons, who are acquainted with 
 them, and who are really in earnest to save their souls. Now, 
 in proof that these motives are, at least, so far clear, I may 
 again appeal to the conduct of Catholics on a death-bed, who, 
 in that awful situation, never wish to die in any religion but 
 their own. I may also appeal to the conduct of many Protest- 
 ants in the same situation, who seek to reconcile themselves to 
 the Catholic Church. Let us, one and all, my dear sir, as far 
 as in our power, adopt those sentiments in every respect now, 
 which we shall entertain when the transitory scene of this worhi 
 is closing to our sight, and during the courtless ages of eter- 
 nity. — O the length, the breadth, and the depth of the abyss of 
 ETERNITY! ''No security,'' says a holy man, can U uie 
 reai where eternity is at slake.''* 
 
 I am, &;c. 
 
 John Milnes, 
 
 * " Nulla satis magna sccuntas ubi p ericlitatur etemitas.** 
 
 END OF PART 11. 
 
THE 
 
 END OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY 
 
 PART III 
 
 *" 0^ e a sli?me to charge men with ^yhat they are not guilty of, in ordei to 
 irak. he breach wider, already loo wide." — Dr. Montague, Bishop of A'or- 
 t$ttch. fnvoc. of Saints, p. 60. 
 
 " Lvt them not lead people by the nose to believe they can prove their sup- 
 positi/kd that the Pope is Antichrist, and the Papists idolaters, when they can- 
 not."- J)r. Herbert Thomdyke, Prebendary of JVestminster. Just JVeights and 
 Measures, p. 11 
 
 *' The o)ject of their (the Catholics') adoration of the blessed sacrament is 
 the only tcac and eternal God, hypostatically joined with his holy humanity, 
 which huniaYiity they believe actually present under the veil of the sacramen- 
 tal signs . and \f they thought him not present, they are so far from worshiji- 
 ping t'.K- Wead in this case, that themselves profess it to be idolatry to do so." 
 Dr. J(/xmy Taylvr, Bishop of Down. Ldberty of Prophesying, chap. xx. 
 
 ON RECTIFYING MISTAKES CONCERNING THE 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 LETTER XXXl. 
 FROM JAMES BROW \, ESQ., TO THE RT. REV JOHN MILNER 
 
 introduction. 
 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 The whole of your letters have again been read over in our 
 society, and they have produced important, though diversified 
 effects on the minds of its several members. For my own part, 
 r am free to own that, as your former letters convinced me of 
 tre 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 ques. 
 tions concerning its meaning ; so your subsequent letters havo 
 Batisfied me, that the characters or marks of the true church, 
 as they are laid down in our common creeds, are clearly visi- 
 ble in the Roman Catholic Church, and not in the collection of 
 Protestant churches, nor in any one of them. This impression 
 was, at first, so strong upon my mind, that I could have an' 
 BW(\r^1 you nearly in the words of King Agrippa to St. Paul • 
 
200 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 Almost thou penmadest me to become a CatholJc. Acts, xxvi. ^8. 
 The same appears lo be the sentiments of several of my friends • 
 but when, on comparing our notes together, we considered tlia 
 heavy 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 have 
 heard of, refuted or denied, we cannot but tread back the steps 
 we have taken towards you, or rather stand still, where we are 
 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 Borne. 
 With respect to certain other members of our society, I am 
 sorry to be obliged to say, that, on this particular subject, 1 
 mean the arguments in favor of your religion, they do not man- 
 ifest the candor and good sense which are natural to them, and 
 which they show on every other subject. They pronounce, 
 with confidence and vehemence, that Dr. Porteus's charges are 
 all true, and that you cannot make any rational answer to 
 them ; at the same time that several of these gentlemen, to my 
 knowledge, are very little acquainted whh the substance of 
 them. In short, they are apt to load your religion, and the pro 
 fessors of it, with epithets and imputations too gross and in 
 jurious for me to repeat, convinced as I am of their falsehood. 
 I shall not be surprised to hear that some of these imputations 
 have been transmitted to you by the persons in question, as I 
 have declined making my letters the vehicle of them ; it is a 
 justice, however, which I owe them to assure you, reverend 
 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 renouncing their own respective religions, and embracing 
 yours, that they may have been so unreasonable and violent. 
 Till this period, they appeared to be nearly as liberal and cha»' 
 itable with respect to your communion as to any other. 
 
 I am, rev. sir, &c. 
 
 James Brown. 
 
 LETTER XXXII.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c 
 
 ON THE CHARGES AGAINST THE CATHOLIC 
 CHURCH. 
 
 Pear sir — 
 
 I SHOULD be guilty of deceptron, were I to disguise the satii»r 
 faction I derived from your and your friends' near approach tf 
 the house of unit^ and peace, as St. Cjprian calls the Catholic 
 
CHARGES AGAINST THE CHURCH. 201 
 
 Church : for such I must judge your situation to be, from the 
 tenor of your last letter : by which it seems to me, that 3 our 
 entire reconciliation with this church depends on my refuting 
 Bishop P3rteus's objections against it. And yet, dear sir, if I 
 were to insist on the strict rules of reasoning, I might tal:e oc- 
 casion of complaining of you, from the very concessions which 
 afford me so much pleasure. In fact, if you admit tha^t the 
 church of God, is, by his appointment, the interpreter of th$ 
 entire word of God, you ought to pay attention to her doctrine 
 on every point of it^ and not to the suggestions of Lr. Porteus. 
 or your own fane;', in opposition to it. Again, if you are con- 
 vinced that the one holy, Catholic and Apostolical Church is the 
 true church of God, you ought to be persuaded that it is utterly 
 impossible that she should inculcate idolatry, superstition, or 
 any other wickedness, and, of course, that those who believe 
 her to be thus guilty, are, and must be, in a fatal error. I 
 have proved from reason, tradition, and Holy Scripture, that, as 
 individual Christians cannot of themselves judge with certainly 
 of matters of fahh, 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 pro- 
 nounce, cannot strictly and consistently be required, by those 
 who are not Catholics, 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. Never- 
 theless, as it is my duty, 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 sat- 
 isfaction, and that of your friends, 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, previously stipulate 
 with you for the following conditions, which I trust ycu will 
 find perfectly reasonable, 
 
 1st. I require that Cat.iolics should be permitted fo lay doum 
 their own principles of belief and practice ; and, of course, to 
 disti .guish between their articles of faith, in which they mu'jl 
 all agree, and mere scholastic opinions, of which every individ- 
 ual may judge for himself; as, likewise, between the au- 
 ihorized liturgy and discipline of the church and the unauthorized 
 devotions and practices of particular persons. I insist upon this 
 preliminary, because it is the constant practice of your contro- 
 versialijts to dress up a hideous figure, composed of their own 
 misrepresentations, or else of those undefined opinions and un« 
 
202 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 autliorizad practices which they call Popery; and then to 
 amuse their readers r 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 expositiona 
 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 that 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 seemingly of an 
 opposite meaning. In like manner, when any doctrine or prac- 
 tice appears to be undeniably 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 affirming. On the contrary, it is natural to sup- 
 pose that such father has take.Ti 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 luminary St. 
 Augustin, who says : " Whatever is found to be held by the 
 universal church, and not to have had its beginning in bishops 
 and 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 Catho- 
 lic 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 g«r 
 mon?, and others of the same tendency ; oi from circulated 
 pamphlets expressly calculated to inflame the population against 
 ii and its profe&3Drs. But what truly surprises and afflicts 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 ances- 
 'jiTs, benefactors, and founders ; in short, of their acknow 
 
 • liK i'. De BapU 
 
CHARGES AGAINST THE CIII3RCH. 203 
 
 fedged 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 sup- 
 ported by bad means. They are unfortunately implicated in a 
 revolt against the true church ; and not having the courage 
 and self-denial io acknowledge their error, and return to her 
 communion, the} endeavor to justify their conduct, by interpos- 
 ing a black and hideous mask before the fair countenance of 
 this their true m)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 want grace to 
 do it, he is sure to fly back to those very calumnies and mis- 
 representations, which he had before renounced. The fact is, 
 he must fight with these, or yield himself unarmed to his Catho- 
 lic 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 
 inform you that I have now lying before me a volume called 
 Good Advice to the Pulpiis, 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 envenomed 
 heart conceive. It was collected from the sermons and treati- 
 ses of prelates and dignitaries, by that able and faithful writer, 
 the Rev. John Gother,soon after the gall of calumnious ink had 
 been mixed up with the blood of slaughtered Catholics ; a score 
 of whom were executed as traitors, for a pretended plot to mur- 
 der their friend and proselyte Charles II.; for a plot, which was 
 hatched by men, who themselves were soon after convicted of a 
 real assassination plot against the king. At that time, the Par- 
 liaments 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 re. 
 cords, I need only refer to a few of the publications of the pre- 
 sent day, to justify my complaint. — To begin with some of the 
 numberless slanders contained in the No Popery tract of the 
 Bishop of London, Dr. Porteus : He charges Catholics with 
 "senseless idolatry, to the infinite scandal of religion:" with 
 tr}'ing " to make the ignorant think that indulgences deliver 
 the dead from hell; and that by means of zeal for holy churcti, 
 the worst man may be secured from future misery :"* and t)f4 
 Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Halifax, charges Catholics liit^ 
 
 • ConfuUtion, pp. 39, 53, 55, edit. 1796, 
 
204 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 "antichristian idolatry, the worship of demons, and idol m(.dia« 
 tors." He, moreover, maintains it to be the doctrine oi the 
 Church of Rome, that " pardon for every sin, whether com- 
 mitted or designed, may be purchased for money."* The 
 Bishop of Durham, Dr. Shute Harrington, accuses them of 
 *' idolatry, blasphemy, and sacrilege."! The Bishop of Llandaff, 
 Dr. Watson, impeaches the Catholic priests, martyrologists, and 
 monks, without exception, of the ''hypocrisy of liars ;":|: and 
 he lays it down, as the moral doctrine of Catholics, that "humil- 
 ity, temperance, justice, the love of God and man, are not laws 
 for all Christians, but only counsels of perfection. "§ He else- 
 where says : " That the popish religion is the Christian religion, 
 is a false position. "|| He has, moreover, adopted and repub- 
 lished the sentiments of some of his other mitred brethren to the 
 same purpose. One of these asserts that, " instead of worship- 
 ping God through Christ, they (the Catholics) have substituted 
 the doctrine of demons." " They have contrived numberless 
 ways to make a holy life needless, and to assure the most 
 abandoned of salvation, without repentance, provided they will 
 sufficiently pay the priest for absolution." " They have consc 
 crated murders," &;c.l " The Papists stick fast in filthy mire- 
 by the affection they bear to other lusts, which their errors are 
 fitted to gratify." " It is impossible that any sincere person 
 should give an implicit assent to many of their doctrines : but. 
 whoever can practise upon them, can be nothing better than a 
 most shameful debauched and immoral wretch."** Another 
 prelate, of later promotion, gives a comprehensive idea of Cath- 
 olics, where he calls them " Enemies of all law, human and 
 divine. "ff 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 contract my quotations in order to proceed to more 
 important matter. One of these, who, while he was content 
 with an inferior dignity, acted and preacl ed as the friend of 
 C^itholics; since he has arrived at the verg» of the highest, pro 
 claims " Popery to be idolatry and antichristianism :" main- 
 taining, as does also the Bishop of Durham, that it is " the pa- 
 rent of Atheism, and of that antichristian persecution " (m 
 France) of which it was exclusively the victim. ift Another dig- 
 nitary of the same cathedral, taking up Dr. Sparke's calumny, 
 
 * Warburton's Lectures, pp. 191, 335, ^^S, 347. 
 
 t Charge, p. 11. t Letter IL to Gibbon. 
 
 § Bishop Watson's Tracts, vol. i. |1 Ibid. vol. v. Contents 
 
 f Benson's Tracts, vol. v. pp. 272, 273, 282. 
 
 «» Bishop Fowler, vol. vi. pp. 386, 387. 
 
 tt Dr. Sparke, Bishop of Ely, Concio ad Synod. 1807. 
 
 XX Discourses of Dr. Rennel, Dean of Winchester, p. MO, &e 
 
CHARGES AGAINST THE CHURCH. 205 
 
 seriously declares that the Catholics are Antinomians,* which 
 is the distinctive character of the Jumpers, and other rank Cal- 
 vinists. Finally, the celebrated city preacher, C. De Coetiogan, 
 among similar graces of oratory, pronounces, that " Popery ia 
 calculated only for the meridian of hell. To say the best of it 
 that can be said. Popery is a most horrid compound of idolatiy, 
 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 here- 
 tics.":}: — 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 honors, and benefices, and from 
 whom they boast of deriving their orders and mission also ? But, 
 after all, do tiiese preachers and writers themselves seriously 
 believe such to be the true character of their Catholic country, 
 men, and the primitive religion ? — No, sir, they do not seriously 
 believe it :§ but being unfortunately engaged, as I said before, 
 
 * Charge of Dr. Hooke, archdeacon, &c. p. 5, &c. 
 
 t Seasonable Caution against the Abominations of the Church of Rome, 
 Pref. p. 5. t Ibid. p. 14. 
 
 § This may be exemplified by the conduct of Dr. Wake, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. Few writers had misrepresented the Catholic religion more 
 foully than he had 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 correspondence with Dr. Dupin, for the purpose of uniting 
 their respective churches, he assures the Catholic divine, in his last letter to 
 him, as follows : " In dogmatibus, prout a te candid6 proponuntur, non 
 admodum dissentimus : in regimine ecclesiastico minus : in fundamentali- 
 bus, sive doctrinam, sive disciplinam spectemus, vix omnin6." Append, to 
 Mosheim's Hist. vol. vi. p. 121. — The present writer has been informed, 
 on good authority, that one of ihe bishops, whose calumnies are here quoted, 
 when he found himself on his death. bed, refused the proffered ministry of 
 the primate, and expressed a great wish to die a Catholic. When urged to 
 satisfy his conscience, he exclaimed : IVhat then will become of my lady 
 and my children ! Certain it is, that very many Protestants, who had been 
 the most violent 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 Montague, Nugent, Dunboyne, Dunsany, &c., did actually 
 reconcile themselves to the Catholic Church in that Sriiuation. The writer 
 may add, that another of the calumniators here quoted, being desirous of 
 stifling the suspicion of his having written an anonymous N'l Popery pub. 
 lication, when first he took part in that cause, privately addres ed himsf If to 
 the writer in these terms : How can you suspect me of writing against your 
 religion, when you so well know my attachment to it ! In fact, this modern 
 Luther, among other similar conr-es.siuns, has said ih'.is to (he writer ; i 
 tucked in alo e for the Catholic religion with my mother's milk. 
 
 18 
 
208 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 in an hereditar} revolt against the church, which shines foith 
 cons})icuou6, with every feature of truth in her countenance, 
 and wanting the rare grace of acknowledging their error, at the 
 expense of temporal advantages, they have no other defence for 
 themselves but clamor 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, I cannot help expressing an earnest 
 wish, that it were in my power to suggest three most impoitanl 
 considerations to all and every one of the theological calumni. 
 atcrs in question. I pass over their injustice and cruelty to- 
 wards us ; though this bears some resemblance with the bar- 
 barity 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-mentioned predecessors were charged with worshipping 
 the head of an ass, of killing and eating children, &c. 
 
 The first observation which I am desirous of making to these 
 controvertists is, that their charges and invectives against Catho- 
 lics never unsettle the faith of a single individual amongst us ; 
 much less do they cause any Catholic to quit our communion. 
 This we are sure of, because, after all the pains and expenses 
 of the Protestant societies to distribute Dr. Porteus's Confuta- 
 tion of Papery^ and other tracts, in the houses and cottages of 
 Catholics, not one of the latter ever comes to us, their pastors, 
 to be furnished with an answer to the accusations contained in 
 them. The truth is, they previously know, from their cate- 
 chisms, the falsehood of them. Sometimes, no doubt, a disso- 
 lute youth, " from libertinism of principle and practice," as one 
 of the above-mentioned lords loudly proclaimed of himself, on 
 his death-bed ; and sometimes an ambitious or avaricious noble- 
 man or gentleman, to get honor or wealth ; finally, sometimes a 
 profligate priest, to get a wife, or a living, forsakes our commu- 
 nion ; — 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 
 nay say the same, with respect to the Bishop of Durham's no 
 popery charges throughout the dioceses of Sarum and Durham. 
 
 A second point of still greater importance for the considera- 
 ion of these distinguished preachers and writers is, that their 
 flagrant misrepresentation of the Catholic religion, is constantly 
 HH occasion of the conversion of several of their own most upright 
 n»cmbers to it. Such Christians, when thej- fall into companv 
 
INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 207 
 
 with Catholics, or get hold of their books, cannot fail of inquir 
 ing whether they are really those monsters of idolatry, irreligion, 
 and immorality, which their divines have represented them tn 
 be ; when, discovering how much they have been deceived .1 
 these respects by misrepresentation ; and, in short, viewing new 
 the fair face of the Catholic Church^ instead of the hideous mask 
 which had been placed before it, they seldom fail to becokiie 
 enamored 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 
 eideration of these learned theologues, is the following : " We 
 must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ," to be ex- 
 aminfd on our observance of that commandment among the 
 rest, ' Thou shalt not bear false witness against tJiy neighbor." 
 Supp,^ing then these their clamorous charges against their 
 Catholic neighbors, of idolatry, blasphemy, perfidy, and thirst 
 of blood, should then appear, as they most certainly will appear, 
 to be calumnies of the worst 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 the popu- 
 lar hatred and fury against them ? Alas ! what will it avail 
 them ? — I am, dear sir, yours, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXXin.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &o 
 
 ON THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 The first, and most heavy charge, which Protestants bring 
 against Catholics, is that of idolatry. They say, that the Catho- 
 lic Church has been guilty of this crime, and of apostacy, 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 
 heaven, saying, — Come out of her, my people, that ye be not par- 
 takers 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 England ; 
 for Luther warmly defended the Catholic doctrine in both the 
 aforesaid particulars ; and our English reformers, pf rticularly 
 King Edward's uncle, the Duke of Somerset, only tojk up this 
 pretext of idolatry, as the most popular, in order to revolutionize 
 the ancient religion ; a measure they were actively carrying 
 on, from motives of avarice and ambition. The same reason, 
 namely, a persuasioi that this charge of idolatry is tesc calou- 
 
208 LETIER XXXIU. 
 
 la ted to inflame 'he ignorant against the Catholic Church, and to 
 furnish a pretext for deserting her, has caused Protestant con- 
 trovertists to keep up the outcry against her ever since, and to 
 vie with each other in the foulness of their misrepresentation of 
 her doctrine h; this particular. 
 
 To speak first of the invocation of saints : Archbishop Wake, 
 (who afterwards, as we have seen, acknowledged to Dr. Dupin, 
 that there was no fundamental difference between Jus doctrine 
 and that of Catholics,) in his popular Commentary or. the 
 Church Catechism, maintains, that " The Church of Rome has 
 other gods beside the Lord."* Another prelate, whose work 
 nas been lately republished by the Bishop of Llandaff, pro- 
 nounces of Catholics, that, " Instead of worshipping Christ, :hey 
 have substituted the doctrine of dcmons.'\ In the same blas- 
 phemous terms, Mode, and a hundred other Protestant contro- 
 vertists, speak of our communion of saints. The Bishop of 
 London, among other such calumnies, charges us with "bring- 
 ing back the heathen multitude of deities into Christianity ;" 
 that we " recommend ourselves to some favorite saint, not by a 
 religious life, but by flattering addresses and costly presents, 
 and often depend much more on his intercession, than on oui 
 blessed Saviour's ;" and that " being secure of the favor of 
 these courtiers of heaven, we pay but little regard to the King 
 of it. "if 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 on this article, as solemnly defined by the pope, and 
 near 300 prelates of different nations, at the Council of Trent, 
 in the face of the whole world ; it is simply this, that " the 
 saints, reigning with Christ, offer up their praytrs to God for 
 men ; that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke them, and 
 to have recourse to iheiv prayers, help, and assistance, to obtain 
 favors from God, through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is 
 alone our Redeemer and Saviour. ^'^ Hence the Catechism of 
 the Council of Trent, published in virtue of its decree, || by or- 
 der of Pope Pius v., teaches that " God and the sal ts are not 
 to be prayed to in the same manner ; for we pray to God that 
 he himself ivould give us good things, and deliver us from evil 
 (flings ; but we beg of the saints, because they are pleasing t» 
 God, that they would be our advocates, and obtain from God 
 
 » Sect. 2, 3. t E-.shop Watson's The-)!. Tracts, vol. v. p. 272. 
 
 1 Brief Confut. pp. 23, S.o, § Coi:.;il. Tr-id Sess. 25, Je Iiivoc 
 
 I Sess. 24, de Rcf. c. 7 
 
imrOCATION OF SAINTS. 209 
 
 what we stand in need of."* Our first English catechism foi 
 the instruction of chi'.dren says : " We are to honor saints and 
 angels as God's special friends and servants ; but not with the 
 honor which belongs to God." Finally, The Papist Misrepre- 
 sented and Represented, a work of great authority among Catho- 
 lics, first published by our eminent divine, Gother, and repub- 
 lished by our venerable Bishop Challoner, pronounces the fol- 
 lowing anathema against that idolatrous phantom of Catholicity, 
 which Protestant controvertists have held up for the identical 
 Catholic Church : '• Cursed is he that believes the saints in 
 heaven to be his redeemers, that prays to them as such, or thai 
 gives God's honor to them, or to any creature whatsoever. 
 Amen." — "Cursed is every goddess- worshipper, that believes 
 the blessed Virgin Mary to be any more than a creature ; thai 
 worships her, or puts his trust in her more than in God ; thai 
 believes her above her Son, or that she can in any thing com- 
 mand him. Amen."f 
 
 You see, dear sir, how widely different the doctrine of Catho- 
 lics, as defined by our church, and really held by us, is from 
 the caricature of it held up by interested preachers and contro- 
 vertists, to scare and inflame an ignorant multitude. So far 
 from making gods and goddesses of the saints, we firmly hold 
 it to be an article of faith, that, as they have no virtue or ex- 
 cellence, 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 poor mor- 
 tals, in heaven, but what they did while they were here on 
 earth, and what all good Christians are bound to do for each 
 other ; namely, to help us by their prayers. The only differ- 
 ence is, that as the saints in heaven are free from every stain 
 of sin and imperfection, 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. 
 Our Protestant brethren will not deny that St. Paul was in the 
 practice of soliciting the prayers of the churches to which he 
 addressed his epistles, Rom. xv. 30, &c. ; that the Almighty 
 himself commanded the friends of Job to obtain his prayers foi 
 the pardon of their sins, Job xlii. 8: — and, moreover that they 
 themselves are accustomed to pray publicly for one another. 
 Now these 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 
 
 * Pars IV Quia orandus. t Pap. Mi trep. Ab.ndg. p. 78 
 
 18* 
 
210 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 it. In vain, for example, does Dr. Porteus quote the text of St. 
 Paul, 1 Tim ii, 5, There is one Mediator between God and men^ 
 the man Christ Jesus : for we grant that Christ alone is the me- 
 diator of salvation. But if he argues from thence, that there ia 
 no other mediator of intercession, he would condemn the conduct 
 of St. 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 Matt. 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 honoring the saints, we cannot 
 censure tha:, without censuring other passages of Scripture,* 
 and condemning the bishop himself, who expressly says ; "The 
 Baints in heaven we love and honor.-f In vain does he quote 
 Rev. 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 for- 
 bidden, then the three angels, who permitted Abraham to how 
 himself to the ground before them, were guilty of a crime, Gen. 
 xviii. 2, as was that other angel, before whom Joshua fell on his 
 face and worshipjjed. Jos. v. 14. 
 
 The charge of idolatry against Catholics, for merely honoring 
 those ivhom God honors, and for desiring them to pray to God 
 for us, is too extravagant to be any longer published by Pro- 
 testants of learning and character ; accordingly the Bishop of 
 Durham is content with accusing us of blasphemy, on the latter 
 part of the charge. What he says is this : "It is blasphemy, 
 to ascribe to angels and saints, by praying to them, the divine 
 attribute of universal presence.":]: To say nothing of his lord- 
 ship's new invented blasphemy, I should be glad to ask him, 
 how it follows, from my praying to an angel or a saint in any 
 place, where I may be, that I necessarily believe the angel or 
 saint to be in that place ? Was Elisha really in Syria when 
 he saw the ambush prepared there for the king of Israel ? 2 
 Kings vi. 9. Again : we know that " There is joy before the 
 
 * The word worship, in this place, is used for supreme divine homage, m 
 appears by the original Greek : whereas in St. Luke, xiv. 10, the Lnglish 
 translators make use of it for the lowest degree of respect. Thou- shalt haot 
 worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. The latter is 
 tfce proper meaning of the word worship ; as appears by the marriage ser- 
 vice — IVith my body I thee worship; and by the designation of the lowest 
 order of magistrates, his Worship, Mr. Alderman N. Nevertheless, on the 
 v/ord may l)e differently interpreted, Catholics abstain from applying it to 
 persons or things inferior to God : making use of the words honor and vene. 
 ration in their regard ; words which, so applied, even Bishop Porteus ap. 
 proves in us. Thus it appears, that the heinous charge of idolatry brought 
 ■gdima Catholics fur their respect towards the saints, is grounded on nothing 
 but tic mistaken mean if of a word. t P. 23. X Charge 1810, p. 13 
 
INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 211 
 
 a'.igels jf God over one sinner that repenteth," Luke xv. 10. 
 Now^ is it by visual rays, or undulating sounds, that these bless- 
 ed spirits in heaven know what passes in the hearts oi' men 
 upon earth ? How does his lordship know, that one part ot 
 the saint's felicity may not cDnsist in contemplating the wonder- 
 ful ways of God's providence with all his creatures here on 
 earth ? But, without recurring to this supposition, it is suffi- 
 cient, for dissipating the Bishop's uncharitable phantom of blas- 
 phemy, and Calvin's profane jest about the lenghts of the saints* 
 »ars, that God is able to reveal to them the prayers of Christian* 
 who address them here on earth. — In case I had the same op- 
 portunity 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 ; and 
 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, enchantments, and witchcraft invent- 
 ed 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 prayers of the 
 angels, is plain from Jacob's asking and obtaining the angel'g 
 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 re- 
 spect to the saints, from the Book of Revelations ; where the 
 four and twenty elders m heaven are said to have " golden 
 vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints." Rev. 
 V. 8. The church, however, derived her doctrine, on this and 
 other points, immediately from the apostles, before any part of 
 the New Testament was written. The tradition was so ancient 
 and universal, that all those eastern churches, which broke off 
 from the central church of Rome, a gr at many ages before 
 Protestantism was heard of, perfectly agr» e with us in honoring 
 and invoking th.e angels and saints. I have said that the pa. 
 triach of Protestantism, 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 works great miracles at the tombs of the saints ? I, 
 therefore, with the whole Catholic Church, hold that the sahits 
 
 • Iivjuncti ae, A D. 1559. Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 89. Article, 
 ibid, p 180 
 
213 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 are to be honored and invocated by us.*'* In the same spirit 
 he recommends this devotion to dying persons: "Let no one 
 omit to call upon the Blessed Virgin and the angels and saints, 
 that they may intercede with God for them at the instant. "f I 
 may add that several of the brightest lights of the established 
 church, such as Archbishop Sheldon and the Bishops Bland ford4 
 Gunning,§ Montague, &c., have altogether abandoned thecljarge 
 of idolatry against Catholics on this head. The last mentioned 
 of them says, " I own that Christ is not wronged in his media- 
 tion. It is no impiety to say, as they (the Catholics) zb, Holy 
 Mary, pray for me ; Holy Peter, pray for me ;"|| whilst the can. 
 did Prebendary of Westminster warns his brethren, " not to 
 lead people by the nose, to believe they can prove papists to be 
 idolaters, when they cannot. "IT 
 
 In conclusion, dear sir, you will observe, 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.** Nevertheless, what member of the Catho- 
 lic 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 ai.d ad- 
 vantage with the angelic choirs, with the venerable patriarchs 
 and prophets of ancient times, with the heroes of Christianity, 
 the blessed apostles and martyrs, and with the bright ornaments 
 of it in later ages, the Bernards, the Xaviers, the Teresas, and 
 the Saleses. 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 fervor of your soul ; but why not engage his friends and 
 courtiers to add the weight of their prayers to your own ? Per- 
 haps his Divine Majesty may hear the prayers of the Jobs wheil 
 he will not listen to those of an Eliphaz, a Bildad, or a Zophar, 
 Job. xlii. You believe, no doubt, that you have a guardian 
 angel, appointed by God to protect you, conformably to what 
 
 * In Purg. quoraind. Artie Tom. i. Germet. Ep. ad Georg. Spalai. 
 t Luth. Frep. ad Mort. t See Duchess of York's Testimony, in Bruna 
 W'ck's 50 Reasons. § Burnet's Hist, of his own Times, vol. i. p. 437 
 
 d Treat. Invoc.of .ijainis, p. 118. If Thorndik-'s Just. Weights, p 10 
 ** Petavius, Suarez, Wallenburg, Muratori, Nat. Alex. 
 
RELIGIOUS MEMORIALS. 213 
 
 Oirist said of the children presented to him : " Their angels 
 do always behold the fare of my Father who is in heaven." 
 Matt, xviii. 10. — Address yourself to this blessed spirit with 
 gratitude, veneration, and confidence. You believe also, thai 
 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 in the world by mi- 
 laoles v/as not yet come. John, iii. 4. " It is im]^x)ssible," as 
 one of the fathers says, " to love the Son, without loving the 
 mother :" — beg then of her, with affection and confidence, to in- 
 tercede 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 want. You cannot refuse 
 tc ioin 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 the whole Catholic Church upon earth : Holy Mai'y, 
 mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our 
 death. Amen. — I am, &;c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., &c 
 
 ON RELIGIOUS MEMORIALS. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 Ir the Catholic Church has been so grievously injured by the 
 •Tfiisrepresentationsof her doctrine respecting prayers to the saints, 
 she has been still more grievously injured by the prevailing 
 calumnies against the respect which she pays to the memorials 
 cf Christ and his saints ; namely, to crucifixes, relics, pious pic- 
 tures, and images. This has been misrepresented, from almost 
 li\e first eruption of Protestantism,-]- as rank idolatry, and as jus- 
 
 * Luke i. 28. The Catholic version is here used as more conformable to 
 the Greek, as well as the Vulgate, than the Protestant, w'lich renders the 
 passage. Hail thou who art highly favored. 
 
 t Martin Luther, with all his hatred of the Catholic Church, found no 
 idolatry in her doctrine respecting crosses and images : on the contrary, he 
 warmly defended it against Carlostadius and his associates, who had destroy- 
 ed those in the churches of Wittenberg. — Epist. ad. Gasp. Guttal. In the 
 title.f iges of his volumes, published by Melancthon, Luther is exi ibited oa 
 
214 LETTEB XXXIV. 
 
 tifying the necessity of a reformation. Tc countenance such 
 misrepresentation in our own country in particular, avaricious 
 courtiers and grandees seized on the costly shrines, statues, and 
 other ornaments of all the churches and chapels, and authorized 
 the demolition or defacing of all other religious memorials, of 
 whatever nature or materials, not only in places of worship, but 
 also in market-places, and even in private houses. In suppoi't 
 of the same pious fraud, the Holy Scriptu;es were corrupted in 
 their different versions and editions,* till religious Protestants 
 themselves became disgusted with them,f and loudly called for 
 a new translation. This was accordingly made, at the begin- 
 ning of the first James' reign. In short, every passage in the 
 Bible, and every argument which common sense su2!;gesta 
 against idolatry, was applied to the decent respect which Catho- 
 lics show to the memorials of Christianity. 
 
 The misrepresentation in question still continues to be the 
 chosen topic of Protestant controvertists, for inflaming the minds 
 of the ignorant against their Catholic brethren. Accordingly, 
 there is hardly a lisping infant, who has not been taught that 
 the Romanists pray to images ; nor is there a secluded peasant 
 who has not been made to believe, that the Papists worship wood- 
 en 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 been and be worshipped, and so, idolatry commit 
 ted to them by infinite multitudes, to the great offence of God'i« 
 
 his knees before a crucifix. Queen Elizabeth persisted for many years in re. 
 taining a crucifix on the altar of her chapel, till some of her Puritan courtiers 
 engaged Patch, the fool, to break it : '* no wiser man," says Dr. Heylin, 
 (Hist, of Reform, p. 124,) " daring to undertake such a service." James I. 
 thus reproached the Scotch bishops, when they objected to his placing pic- 
 tures and statues in his chapel at Edinburgh : " You can endure lions and 
 dragons, {the supporters of the royal anns,) and devils, (Queen Elizabeth'? 
 griffins,) to be figured in your churches, but will not allow the like place to 
 patriarchs and apostles." Spotswood's History, p. 530. 
 
 * See in the present English Bible, Colos. iii. 5, Covetousness^ which is 
 idolatry : this in the Bibles of 1562, 1577, and 1579, stood thus : CovetousnesSy 
 which 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 ivhich 
 is a worshipper of idols. Instead of. What agreement hath the temple of God 
 tcith idols ? 2 Cor. vi. 16, it used to stand : How agreeth the temple of God 
 with images ? Instead of. Little children, keep yourselves from ido's, 1 John 
 ▼. 21, it stood during the reigns of Edward a?)d Elizabeth : Babes, keep your 
 selves from images. There were several other manifest corruptions in this 
 as well as in other points in the ancient Protestant Bibles; some of which 
 remain in the present version. 
 
 t See the account of what passed on this subject, at the Conference of 
 Hampton Court, in Fuller and Collier's Church Histories, r ad in Neal's Hif 
 iory of he Puritanb. 
 
RELIGIOUS MEMORIALS. 215 
 
 majestic, 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 pc 
 avoided without the destruction and utter abolition of ail such 
 images and idols out of the church and temple of God.''* Arch- 
 bishop Seeker teaches, that " the Church of Rome has othei 
 gods besides the Lord," and that, " there never was greater 
 idolatry among heathens in the business of image-worshipping 
 than in the Church of Rome."! Bishop Porteus, though he 
 does not charge us with idolatry by name, yet 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 trusteth in them. O 
 Israel, trust thou in the Lord." Psalm cxiii. 
 
 Let us now hear what the Catholic Church herself has sol- 
 emnly pronounced on the present subject, in her General Coun- 
 cil of Trent. She says : " The images of Christ, of the Virgin- 
 mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be kept and 
 retained, particularly in the churches, and due honor and vene- 
 ration is to be paid them : not ihnt we believe there is any 
 divinity or power in them, for which we respect them, or that any 
 thing is to be asked of them, or that trust is to be placed in 
 them, as the heathens of old trusted in their idols. "J In con- 
 formity with this doctrine of our church, the following question 
 and answer are seen in our first catechism, for the instruction 
 of children : " Question : May we pray to relics or images ? 
 Answer : No ; by no means, for they have no life or sense to 
 hear or help us." Finally, that work of the able Catholic wri- 
 ters, Gother and Chal loner, which I quoted above, The Papist 
 Misrepresented and Represented, contains the following anathe- 
 ma, in which I am confident every Catholic existing will readily 
 join : " Cursed is he that commits idolatry ; that prays to images 
 or relics, or worships them for God. Amen." 
 
 Dr. Porteus is very positive, that there is no scriptural war- 
 rant for retaining and venerating these exterior memorials ; and 
 he maintains that no other memorial ought to be admitted than 
 the Lord's supper. Does he remember the ark of the covenant, 
 
 • Against the Peril of Idol. p. iii. — This admonition was quickly carried 
 ihto effect throughout England. All statues, bas-relievos, and crosses, were 
 demolished in all the churches, and all pictures were defaced * while they 
 continued to hold their places, as they do still, in the irotestani churches of 
 Germany. At length common sense regained its rights, even in this coujitry. 
 Accordingly we see the cross exalted at the top of its principal church, (St. 
 Paul's,) which is also ornamented all round with the statues of saints; mosi 
 of the cathedrals and collegiate churches now contain picture? and some ol 
 fiiem, as for example, Westminster Abbey, carved images. 
 
 t Comment on Ch. Catecb. sect. 24 t Seas, xxv 
 
216 LETTER 3LXXIV. 
 
 made by the command of Grod, together with the punishment of 
 those who profaned it, and the blessings bestowed on those who 
 revered it ? And what was the ark of the covenant after all ? 
 A chest of settim wood, containing the tables of the law and two 
 golden pots of manna ; the whole being covered over by two 
 carved images of cherubim ; in short, it was a memorial of 
 (rod's mercy and bounty to his people. But, says the bishop, 
 *• The Roman Catholics make images of Christ and of his saints 
 after their own fancy : before these images, and even that of 
 the cross, they kneel down and prostrate themselves ; to these 
 they lift up their eyes, and in that posture they pray."* Sup- 
 posing all this to be true ; has the bishop never read, that when 
 the Israelites were smitten at Ai, " Joshua fell to the earth upon 
 his face, before the ark of the Lord, ur.til the even-tide, he and 
 the elders of Israel ; and Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God," <fec. 
 Jos. vii. 6. Does not he himself oblige those who frequent the 
 above-mentioned memorial, to kneel and prostrate themselves 
 before it, at which time it is to be supposed they lift up their 
 eyes to the sacrament and say their prayers ? Does he not re- 
 quire of his people, that " when the name of JESUS is pro- 
 nounced in any lesson, &c., due reverence be made of all with 
 lowliness of courtesie ?"t And does he consider, as well-found- 
 ed, the outcry of idolatry against the Established Church, on this 
 and the preceding point, raised by the dissenters ? Again, is 
 not his lordship in the habit of kneeling to his majesty, and of 
 bowing, with the other peers, to an empty chair when it is placed 
 at his throne ? Does he not often reverently kiss the material 
 substance of printed paper and leather, I mean the Bible, be- 
 cause it relates to, and represents the sacred word of God ? 
 When the Bishop of London shall have well considered these 
 several matters, methiiiks he will better understand, than he seems 
 to do at present, the nature of relative honor ; by which an inferior 
 respect may be paid to the sign, for the sake of the tning signified, 
 and he will neither directly nor indirectly charge the Catho- 
 lics with idolatry on account of indifferent ceremonies, which 
 take their nature from the intention of those who use them. 
 During the dispute about pious images, which took place in the 
 eighth century, St. Stephen, of Auxence, having endeavored, in 
 vain, to make his persecutor, the Emperor Copronimus, conceive 
 the nature of relative honor and dishonor in this matter, threw 
 a piece of money, bearing the emperor's figure, on the ground, 
 aid treated it with the utmost indignity ; when the latter soon 
 proved, by his treatment of the saint, that the affront regarded 
 himself, rather than the piece of metal.J 
 
 • Confut. p. 27. t Injunctions, A. D. 1559, n. 52. Canons, 1603, n. 18 
 Fleury's Hist. Ecc. L. xliii. n. 41. 
 
RELIGIOUS MEMORIALS. 217 
 
 The bishop objects, that the Catholics " make pictures of God 
 the Father under the likeness of a venerable old man." Cer- 
 tain painters, indeed, have represented him so, as, in fact, he* 
 was pleased to appear so to some of the prophets, Isa. vi. 1— 
 Dan. vii. 9 ; but the Council of Trent says nothing concerning 
 that representation ; which, after all, is not so common as 
 that of a triangle among Protestants, to represent the Trinity. 
 Thus much, however, is most certain, that if any Christian 
 were obstinately to maintain, that the Divine nature resembles 
 the human form, he would be condemned as an anthropomorphite 
 heretic. The bishop moreover signifies, what most other Pro- 
 testant controvertists express more coarsely, that, to screen our 
 idolatry, we have suppressed the second commandment of the 
 Decalogue, and to make up the deficiency, we have split the 
 tenth commandment into two. My answer is, that I apprehend 
 many of thes' disputants are ignorant enough to believe, that 
 the division of the commandments, in their Common Prayer 
 Book, was copied, if not from the identical tables of Moses, at 
 least from his original text of the Pentateuch : but the bishop, 
 as a man of learning, must know, that in the original Hebrew^ 
 and in the several copies and versions of it, during some thou, 
 sands of years, there was no mark of separation between one 
 commandment and another ; so that we have no rules to be 
 guided by, in making the distinction, but the sense of the con- 
 text, and the authority of the most approved fathers;* both 
 which we follow. In the mean time, it is a gross calumny to 
 pretend, that we suppress any part of the Decalogue ; for the 
 whole of it appears in all our Bibles, and in all our most ap- 
 proved catechisms. f To be brief: the words. Thou shall not 
 make to thyself any graven thing, are either a prohibition of all 
 images, and, of course, those round the bishop's own cathedral, 
 that of St. Paul ; of those likewise that are seen upon all exist- 
 ing coins, which I am sure he will not agree to ; or else it is a 
 mere prohibition of images made to receive divine worship, in 
 which we perfectly agree with him. You will observe, dear 
 sir, that, among religious memorials, I intend to include relics ; 
 meaning things which have, some way, appertained to, and been 
 left by, personages of eminent sanctity. Indeed, the ancient 
 fathers generally call them by that name. Surely Dr. Porteus 
 will not sayj that there is no warrant in Scripture for honoring 
 these, when he recollects, that " From the body of St. Paul, 
 were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs and aprons, and the 
 diseases departed from them," Acts, xix. 12 ; and that, " When 
 
 * St. August. Qusest. in Exod. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 6. Hieron. Ps. xxxii. 
 t Cate^h. Roman ad Paroch. The folio Catech. of Montpelicr. Douaj 
 Catech. Abridgment of Christian Doctrine. 
 
 19 
 
218 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 llie dead man was le: down and touched the bones of Elisha, he 
 revived and stood upon his feet." 2 Kings, xiii. 21. 
 
 But to make an end of the present discussion ; nothing but 
 the pressing want of a strong pretext for breaking communion 
 with the ancient church, could have put the revolters upon so 
 extravagant an attempt, as that of confounding the inferior and 
 relative honor which Catholics pay to the memorials of Christ 
 p.nd his saints, (an honor which they themselves pay to the 
 Bible-book, to the name of JESUS, and even to the king*s 
 th;one,) with the idolatry of the Israelites to their golden calf, 
 Exod. xxxii. 4, and of the ancient heathens to their idols, which 
 tney believed to be inhabited by their gods. In a word, the end 
 for which pious pictures and images are made and retained by 
 Catholics, is the same for which pictures and images are made 
 and retained by mankind in general, to put us in mind of the 
 persons and things they represent. — They are not primarily in- 
 tended for the purpose of being venerated ; nevertheless, as they 
 bear a certain relation with holy persons and things, by repre- 
 senting them, they become entitled to a relative or secondary 
 veneration, in the manner already explained. I must not for- 
 get one important use of pious pictures, mentioned by the holy 
 fathers, namely, that they help to instruct the ignorant.* Still, 
 it is a point agreed upon among Catholic doctors and divines, 
 that the memorials of religion form no essential part of it.f 
 Hence if you should become a Catholic, as I pray God you may, 
 I shall never ask you if you have a pious picture or relic, or so 
 much as a crucifix, in your possession : but then, I trust, aftei 
 the declarations I have made, that you will not account me an 
 idolater, should you see such things in my oratory or study, oi 
 should you observe how tenacious I am of my crucifix, in par- 
 ticular. Your faith and devotion may not stand in need of such 
 memorials; but mine, alas! do. I am too apt to forget whai 
 my Saviour has done and suffered for me ; but the sight of hia 
 representation often brings this to my memory, and affects my 
 best sent'ments. Hence I would rather part with most of the 
 books in my library, than with the figure of my crucified Lord. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 • St. Gregory calls pictures, Idiotarum lihri. Epist. L. ix. 9. 
 
 t The learned Potavius says, " We must lay it down as a principle tlut 
 images are to be reckoned among the adiaphora, which do not belong to the sub. 
 riance of religion, and which the church may retain or take away, as she bes 
 jadges." L. xv. de Iiicar. Hence Dr. Hawarden, of images, p. 353, teaches, 
 with Delphinus, that, if in any place there is danger of real idolatry or super- 
 stition from pictures, they ought to be removed by the pastor ; as St. Epipha, 
 n'us destroy ?d a certain pious picture, ai d Ezechias destroyed the braxen 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 219 
 
 LETTER XXXA'.—TO THE REV ROBERT CLAYTON, M A 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 Reverend sih — 
 
 I LEARN by a letter from our worthy friend, Mr. Brown, as 
 well as by your own, that I am J consider you, and not him, as 
 the person charged to make the objections which are to be made 
 on th^ part of the Church of England against my theological 
 positions and arguments in future. I congratulate the society 
 of New Cottage on the acquisition of so valuable a member as 
 Mr. Clayton, and I think myself fortunate in having to contend 
 with an opponent so clear-haaded and candid, as his letter shows 
 him to be. 
 
 You admit, that according to my explanation, which is no 
 other than that of our divines, our catechisms, and our councils 
 in general, we are not guilty of idolatry in the honor we pay to 
 saints and their memorials, and that the dispute between your 
 church and mine upon these points, is a dispute about words 
 rather than about things : as Bishop Bossuet observes, and as 
 several candid Protestants, before you, have confessed. You 
 and Bishop Porteus agree with us, that " the saints are to be 
 loved and honored :" on the other hand, we agree with you, that 
 it would be idolatrous to pay them divine worship, or to pray to 
 their memorials in any shape whatever. Hence, the only ques. 
 tion remaining between us is concerning the utility of desiring 
 the prayers of the saints ; for you say, it is useless, because yoa 
 think that they cannot hear us, and that, therefore, the practice 
 is superstitious : whereas I have vindicated the practice itself, 
 and have shown that the utility of it no way depends on the cir- 
 cumstance of the blessed spirits immediately hearing the ad. 
 dresses made to them. 
 
 Still you complain that I have not answered all the bishop's 
 objections against the doctrine and practices in question. My 
 reply is, that I have answered the chief of them : and whereas 
 they are, for the most part, of ancient date, and have been again 
 and again solidly refuted by our divines, I shall send to New 
 Cottage, together with this letter, a work of one of them, who, 
 foi depth of learning and strength of argument, has not been 
 surpassed since the time of Bellarmin.* There, reverend sir, 
 you will find all that you inquire after, and you will discover, 
 in particular, that the worship of the angels, which St. Paul con- 
 demns in his Epistle to the Colossians, chap. ii. 18, means, that 
 
 » The True Church of Christ, by Edward Hawarden, D.D. S.T.P. The 
 author was engaged in surcessfuj contests with Dr. Clark, Bishop Bull, Mr 
 Leslie, and other eminent Protestant divines. 
 
220 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 of the fallen or wicked angels, whom Christ despoiled, ver. 15, 
 and which was paid to them by Simon the Magician, and his 
 followers, as the makers of the world. As to the doctrine of 
 Bellarmin concerning images, it is plain that his lordship never 
 consulted the author himself, but only his misrepresenter, Vi- 
 tringa : otherwise he would have gathered from the whole of 
 this strict theologian's distinctions, that he teaches precisely the 
 contrary to that which he is represented to teach.* 
 
 You next observe that I have said nothing concerning the ev- 
 iTdAagant forms of prayer, to the Blessed Virgin and other saints, 
 which Dr. Porteus has collected from Catholic prayer-books, 
 and which, you think, prove that we attribute an absolute and 
 unbounded power to those heavenly citizens. I am aware, rev- 
 erend sir, that his lordship, as well as another bishop,^ who is 
 all sweetness of temper, except when Popery is mentioned in 
 his hearing, and indeed a crowd of other Protestant writers, has 
 employed himself in making such collections, but from what 
 sources, for the greater part, I am ignorant. If I we-re to charge 
 his faith, or the faith of his church, with all the conclusions that 
 could logically be drawn from different forms of prayer^ to be 
 met with in the books of her most distinguished prelates and 
 divines, or from the Scriptures themselves, 1 fancy the bishop 
 would strongly protest against that mode of reasoning. If, for 
 example, an anthropomorphite were to address him : You say, 
 my lord, in your creed, that Christ " ascended into heaven, and 
 sitteth at the right hand of God," therefore it is plain you be- 
 lieve, with me, that God has a human shape ; or if a Ca'vinist 
 were to say to him : You pray to God that he " would net lead 
 you into temptation," therefore you acknowledge that it is God 
 who tempts you to commit sin : in either of these cases the 
 bishop would insist upon explaining the texts here quoted ; he 
 would argue on the nature of figures of speech, especially in 
 the language of poetry and devotion ; and would maintain, that 
 the belief of his church is not to be collected from these, but 
 from her defined articles. Make but the same allowance to 
 Catholics, and all this phantom of verbal idolatry will dissolve 
 into air. 
 
 Lastly, you remind me of the bishop's assertion, that "neither 
 images nor pictures were allowed in churches for the first I un- 
 dred years." To this as&-»rtion you add your own opinion, that 
 during that same period, ni, 'orayers were addressed by Chris- 
 tians to the saints. A fit of oolivion must have overtaken Dr. 
 Porteus, when he wrote what you have quoted from nim, as he 
 
 • See De Irnag. L. ii. c. 24. 
 
 t Ths Bishop of Hereford, Dr. Huntingford, who has squeezed a large 
 *uarUty of this irrelevant matter into his Examination of the Catholic Petition 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 221 
 
 oould not he ignorant, that it was not till the conversion of Con- 
 stantino, in the fourth century, that the Christians were general, 
 ly allowed to build churches for their worship, having been ob- 
 liged, during the ages of persecution, to practise it in subter- 
 raneous catacombs, or other obscure recesses. We learn, 
 Movvever, from Tertullian, that it was usual, in his time, to re- 
 present our Saviour, in the character of the good Shepherd^ on 
 the chalices used at the assemblies of the Christians :* and we 
 are informed by Eusebius, the father of church-history, and the 
 friend of Constantine, that he himself had seen a miraculoua 
 image of our Saviour in brass, which had been erected by the 
 woman who was cured by touching the hem of his garment ; 
 and also different pictures of him, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 which had been preserved since their time.j* The historian 
 Zozomen adds, concerning that statue, that it was mutilated 
 during the reign of Julian the Apostate, and that the Christians, 
 nevertheless, collected the pieces of it, and placed it in their 
 church. J St. Gregory of Nyssa, who flourished in the fourth 
 century, preaching on the martyrdom of St. Theodore, describes 
 his relics as being present in the church and his sufferings aa 
 being painted on the walls, together with an image of Christ, aa 
 if surveying them.§ It is needless to carry the history of pious 
 ligures and paintings down to the end of the sixth century, at 
 which time St. Augustin and his companions, coming to preach 
 the Gospel to our pagan ancestors, " carried a silver cross be- 
 fore them as a banner, and a painted picture of our Saviour 
 Christ. "II The above-mentioned Tertullian testifies, that at 
 every movement and in every employment, the primitive Chj is- 
 tians used to sign their foreheads with the sign of the cross ;1 
 and Eusebius and St. Chrysostom fill whole pages of their works 
 with testimonies of their veneration in which the figure of the 
 cross was anciently held ; the latter expressly says, that the 
 cross was placed on the altars** of the churches. The whole 
 history of the martyrs, from St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp, the 
 disciples of the apostles, whose relics, after their execution, were 
 carried away by the Christians, as " more valuable than gold 
 and precious stones,"f f down to the latest martyr, incontestioly 
 proves the veneration which the church has s\er entertained 
 for these sacred objects. With respect to your own opinion^ 
 reverend sir, as to the earliest date of prayers to the sain? i, I 
 may refer you to the writings of St. Irenaeus the disciple ov St, 
 
 » Lib. de Pudicitia, c. 10. 
 
 t Hist. 1. vii. c. 18 X His. Eccles. 1. v. c. 21. 
 
 $ Oral, in Theod. || Bede's Eccles. Hist. 1. i. c. 25. 
 
 f Deo. Coron. Milit. c. 3. ** In Orat. Quod. Christus sit Dew 
 
 tt Euseb. Hist. 1. iv. c. 15 Acta Sincer. apud Ruinart. 
 
 19* 
 
222 LETTER XXXVI 
 
 Poly carp, who introduces the Blessed Virgin praying for Eve ;* 
 to the apology of his contemporary St. Justin the martyr, who 
 says : '.' We venerate and worship the angelic host, and the 
 spirits of the prophets, teaching others as we ourselves have 
 been taught ;f and to the light of the fourth century, St. Basil, 
 who expressly refers these practices to the apostles, where he 
 says : " I invoke the apostles, prophets, and martyrs to pray 
 for me, that God may be merciful to me, and forgive me my 
 sins. I honor and reverence their images, since these things 
 have been ordained by tradition from the apostles, and are practis 
 ed in all our churches. ^'j[. You will agree with me, that I need 
 not bring down lower than the fourth age of the church, her 
 devotion to the saints. — I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milnbr. 
 
 LETTER XXXVL— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ., 
 
 ON TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 It is the remark of the prince of modern controvertists. Bishop 
 Bossuet, that whereas in most other subjects of dispute between 
 Catholics and Protestants, the difference is less than it seems to 
 be, in this of the holy eucharist or Lord's supper, it is greater 
 than it appears. § The cause of this is, that our opponents 
 misrepresent our doctrine concerning the veneration of saints, 
 pious images, indulgences, purgatory, and other articles, in 
 order to strengthen their arguments against us : whereas their 
 language approaches nearer to our doctrine than their sentiments 
 do on the subject of the eucharist, because our doctrine is so 
 strictly conformable to the words of Holy Scripture. This is 
 a disingenuous artifice ; but I have to describe two others of a 
 still more fatal tendency ; first, with respect to the present wel- 
 fare of the Catholics, who are the subjects of them, and secondly, 
 with respect to the future welfare of the Protestants, who delib- 
 erately make use of them. 
 
 The first of these disingenuous practices consists in misrepre- 
 senting Catholics as worshippers of bread and urine in the sacra- 
 ment, and therefore as idolaters, at the same time that our ad- 
 versaries are perfectly aware that we firmly believe, as an ar- 
 ticle of faith, that there is no bread and wine, but Christ alone, 
 true God, as well as man, present in it. Supposing, for a mo- 
 ment, that we are mistaken ir. this belief, the worst we could be 
 
 * Contra Haeies. 1. v. c. 19. t Apol. 2. prope Init. 
 
 J Epi.st. 205, T. iii. edit. Paris. 
 
 9 Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church, Sect. XVI. 
 
TRANSUBSTANTIATION 228 
 
 charged ;viih is an error, in supposing Christ to be where he ia 
 not ; and nothing but uncharitable calumny, or gross inatten. 
 tion, could accuse us of the heinous crime of idolatry. To il- 
 lustrate this argument, let me suppose, that being charged with 
 a loyal address to the sovereign, you presented it, b-' mistake, 
 to one of his courtiers, or even to an inanimate figure of him, 
 'which, for some reason or other, had been dressed up in royal 
 robes, and placed on the throne ; would your heart reproach you, 
 or would any sensible person reproach you, with the guilt of 
 treason in this case? Were the people who thought in their 
 hearts that John the Baptist was the Christ, l^uke iii. 15, and 
 who probably worshipped him as such, idolaters, in consequence 
 of their error ? The falsehood, as well as the uncnarilableness, 
 of this calumny is too gross to escape the observation of any 
 informed and reflecting man ; yet, in order to keep alive their 
 prejudices against us, it is upheld and vociferated to the ignorant 
 crowd, by Bishop Porteus* and the Protestant preachers and 
 writers in general ; while it is perpetuated by the Legislature, 
 for the purpose of defeating our civil olaims !f It is not how- 
 ever true, that all Protestant divines have laid this heavy charge 
 It the door of Catholics, for worshipping Christ in the sacrament ; 
 as all those eminent prelates in the reigns of Charles I. and II. 
 must be excepted, who generally acquitted us of the charge of 
 idolatry, and more especially the learned Gunning, Bishop of 
 Ely, who reprobated the above signified declaration, when it 
 was brought into the house of lords, protesting that his con- 
 science would not permit him to make it.:]: The candid Thorn- 
 dyke, Prebendary of Westminster, argues thus on the present 
 subject : " Will any papist acknowledge that he honors the ele- 
 ments of. the eucharist for God ? Will common sense charga 
 him with honoring that in the sacrament which he does not 
 believe to be there ?"§ The celebrated Bishop of Down, Dr, 
 Jeremy Taylor, reasons with equal fairness, where he says, 
 " the object of their (the Catholics') adoration in the sacrament 
 is the only true and eternal God, hypostatically united with his 
 holy humanity, whi^li humanity they believe actually present 
 under the veil of the sacrament. And if they thought him not 
 
 * He charges Catholics with " senseless idolatry," and with " worshipping 
 the creature instead of the Creator." Confut. P. ii. c. 1. 
 
 t The declaration against popery, by which Catholics were excluded from 
 the houses of Parliament, was voted by them during that time of national 
 frenzy and disgrace, when they equally voted the reality of the pretended 
 popish plot, which cost the Catholics a torrent of innocent bloc id, and v/hich 
 was hatched by the unprincipled Shaftesbury, with the hi Ip of Dr. Tongue 
 and the infamous Oates, to prevent the succession of Jamej II. to the crown. 
 Bee Echard's Hist. North's Exam. 
 
 \ Burnei's Hist. Own Times § Just Weights and Measures, c. 19. 
 
224 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 present, they are so far from worshipping the bread, that they 
 profess it idolatry to do so. This is demonstration that the soul 
 has nothing in it that is idolatrical ; the will has nothing in it, 
 but what is a great enemy to idolatry."* 
 
 The other instance of disingenuity and injustice on the part 
 of Protestant divines and statesmen, consists in their overfook- 
 ing the main subject in debate, namely, whether Christ isor isnai 
 really and personally present in the sacrament ; and in the mean 
 time directing all the force of their declamation and ridicule, 
 and all the severity of the law to a point of inferior, or at least 
 secondary consideration ; namely, to the mode in which he is 
 considered by one particular party as being present. It is well 
 known that Catholics believe, that when Christ took the bread 
 and gave it to his apostles, saying, THIS IS MY BODY, he 
 changed the bread into his body, which change is called tra?i 
 substantiation. On the other hand, " the Lutherans, after their 
 master, hold that the bread and the real body of Christ are uni- 
 ted, and both truly present in the sacrament, as iron and fire are 
 united in a red-hot bar."f — This sort of presence, which would 
 be not less miraculous and incomprehensible than transubstan- 
 tiation, is called consubstantiation ; while the Calvinists and 
 Church of England men in general (though many of the bright- 
 est luminaries of the latter have approached to the Catholic 
 doctrine) maintain that Christ is barely present in figure, and 
 received only by faith. Now all the alleged absurdities, in a 
 manner, and all the pretended impiety and idolatry, which are 
 attributed to transubstantiation, equally attach to consubstan. 
 tiation and to the real presence professed by those eminent di- 
 vines of the Established Church. Nevertheless, what controvr r- 
 sial preacher or writer ever attacks the latter opinions ? Wl^t 
 kw excludes Lutherans from Parliament, or even from the 
 throne 1 So far from this, a chapel royal has been founded and 
 is maintained in the palace itself, for the propagation of their 
 consubstantiation and the participation of the real presence ! In 
 short, you may say with Luther, the bread is the body of Christ, 
 or with Osiander, the bread is one and the same person with Christ, 
 or with Bishop Cosin, that " Christ is prcbont really and sub- 
 Btantially by an incomprehensible mystery,"^ or with Dr. Bal- 
 guy, that there is no mystery at all, but a mere " federal rile, 
 barely signifying the receiver's acceptance of the benefit of re- 
 demption. "§ In short, you may say any thing yoti please con- 
 
 » Liberty of Prophesying, Sect. 20. 
 
 t De Capt. Babyl. Osiander, whose sister Cranmer married, tanght impcu 
 nation, or an hypos;atical and personal union of the bread with Christ's body, 
 in consequence of which a person might truly say, This bread is ChrisVi 
 ^dy. X Hist, of Transub. p. 44. § Charge vu. 
 
THE REAL PRESENCE. 225 
 
 cemmg the eucharist without obloquy or inconvenience to y )ur- 
 self, except what the words of Christ, this is my body, so clear, 
 ly imply, namely, that he changes the bread into his body. In 
 fact, as the Bishop of Meaux observes, " the declarations of 
 Christ operate what they express; when he speaks, nature 
 obeys, and he does what he says : thus he cured the ruler's 
 son, by saying to him, Thy son liveth ; and the crooked woman, 
 by saying. Thou an loosed from thy infirmity.^ The prelate 
 aJds, for our further observation, that Christ did not say, My 
 hcdy IS here ; this contains my body : but, this is my body ; this 
 is my blood. Hence Zuinglius, Calvin, Beza, and the defenders 
 of the figurative sense in general, all, except the Protestants of 
 England, have expressly confessed, that admitting the real pre- 
 sence, the Catholic doctrine is far more conformable to Scripture 
 than the Lutheran. I shall finish this letter with remarking, 
 that as transubstantiation, according to Bishop Cosin, was the 
 first of Christ's miracles, in changing water into wine ; so it 
 may be said to have been his last, during his mortal course, by 
 cbanging bread and wine into his sacred body and blood. 
 I am, dear sir, yours, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XXXVn.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESa 
 
 ON THE REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 It is clear, from what I have stated in my last letter to you, 
 that the first and main question to be settled between Catholics 
 and Church Protestants is, concerning the real or figiir alive pre- 
 senr3 of Christ in the sacrament. This being determined, it 
 wil. be time enough, and, in my opinion, it will not require a 
 long time, to conclude upon the manner of his presence, namely, 
 'blether by consubstantiation or transubstantiation. To con. 
 sider the authorized exposition or catechism of the Established 
 Church, it might appear certain that she herself holds the real 
 presence, since she declares that, " The body and blood of Christ 
 are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the 
 * Lord's supper.'" To this declaration I alluded, in the first 
 place, where I complained of Protestants disguising their real 
 teneti, by adopting language of a different meaning from their 
 ftwn sentinr^ents, and conformable to the sentiments of Catholic j, 
 
 ♦ Variat. T. ii p. 34 
 
226 LBfTER XXXVL'. 
 
 in consequence of such being the language of the sacred text. 
 In fact, it is certain and confessed that she does not, after all, 
 believe the real body and blood to be in the supper, but mere 
 bread and wine, as the same catechism declares. This involves 
 an evident contradiction ; it is saying, you receive taat in the sa- 
 crament, ichich does not exist in the sacrament ;* it is like the 
 speech of a debtor, who should say to his creditor, I henhy ver- 
 ily and indeed pay you the money I owe you ; but I have nti verilif 
 an 1 indeed the money wherewith to pay you. 
 
 Nothing proves more clearly the fallacy of the Calvinists and 
 o^her dissenters, as likewise of the established churchmen in 
 general, who profess to make the Scripture, in its plain and lit- 
 eral sense, the sole rule of their faith, than their denial of the 
 real presence of Christ in the sacrament, which is so manifestly 
 and emphatically expressed therein. He explained and prom- 
 ised this divine mystery near the time of the Passover, (John, 
 vi. 4,) previous to his institution of it. He then multiplied five 
 loaves and two fishes, so as to afford a superabundant meal to 
 five thousand men, besides women and children, (Matt. xiv. 21,) 
 which was an evident sign of the future multiplication of his 
 own person on the several altars of the world ; after which, he 
 took occasion to speak of this mystery, by saying : " I am the 
 living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man eat 
 
 * Dryden, in his Hind and Panther, ridicules this inconsistency as follows : 
 
 " The literal sense is hard to flesh and blood ; 
 But nonsense never could be understood." 
 
 Even Dr. Hey calls this *' an unsteadiness of language and a seeming incon- 
 bistency." Lect. vol. iv. p. 338, 
 
 N. B. It is curious to trace, in the Liturgy of the Established Church, her va- 
 nations on this most important point of Christ's presence in the sacrament. 
 The first Communion Service, drawn up by Cranmer, Ridley, and other Pro- 
 testant bishops and divines, and published in 1548, clearly expresses the real 
 presence, and that " the whole body of Christ is received under each particle 
 of the sacrament." Burnet, p. ii. B. 1. 
 
 Afterwards, when the Calvinist party prevailed, the 29th of the 42 Articles 
 of religion, drawn up by the same prelates, and published in 15.'52, expressly 
 denies the real presence, and the very possibility of Christ's being in the eu. 
 charist, since he has ascended up to heaven. Ten years afterwards, Elisa. 
 beth being on the throne, who patronized the real presence, (see Heylin, p. 
 124,) when the 42 Articles were reduced to 39, this declaration, against the 
 reel and corporeal presence of Christ, was left out of the Common Prayer 
 Book., for the purpose of comprehending those persons who believed in it, as 
 was also the whole of the former rubric, which explained that, " by kneeling 
 at the sacrament no adoration was intended to any corporeal prerence of 
 Christ's natural flesh and blood." Burnet, P. ii. p. 392. So the Liturgy 
 Blood for just ::ie iiaiidred years, when in 1662, during the reign of Charles 
 II., amf ng o .e' aUerations of the Liturgy which then took place, iJie old 
 rubric agai-^ -jt ine real presence and the adoration of the sacrament waa again 
 lestorcd as it stands at present \ 
 
THE REAL PRESENCE. 227 
 
 of this bread, he shall live for ever : and the bread that 1 will 
 give, is my flesh, for the life of the world." John, vi. 51. The 
 sacred text goes on to infornn us of the perplexity of the Jews, 
 from their understanding Christ's words in their plain and natu- 
 ral sense, which he, so far from removing by a different expla- 
 nation, confirms by expressing that sense in other terms still 
 more emphatical. "The Jews therefore strove amongst them- 
 seh es, saying. How can this man give us his flesh to eat ? Then 
 Jesjis said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye 
 eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have 
 no life in you. — For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is 
 drink indeed." Verses 52, 53, 55. Nor was it the multitude 
 alone who took offence at this mystery of a real and corporeal 
 reception of Christ's person, so energetically and repeatedly 
 expressed by him, but also several of his own beloved disciples, 
 whom certainly he would not have permitted to desert him to 
 their own destruction, if he could have removed their difficulty 
 by barely telling them, that they were only to receive him ly 
 faith, and to take bread and wine in remembrance of him. Yet 
 this merciful Saviour permitted them to go their way, and con- 
 tented himself with asking the apostles, if they would also leave 
 him ? They were as incapable of comprehending the mystery 
 as the others were ; but they were assured that Christ is ever 
 to be credited upon his word, and accordingly they made that 
 generous act of faith, which every true Christian will also make, 
 who seriously and devoutly considers the sacred text before us. 
 " Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, 
 said, This is a hard saying : who can hear it ? — From that time 
 many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. 
 Then Jesus said to the twelve. Will ye also go away ? Then 
 Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou 
 hast the words of eternal life." Verses 60, 66, 67, 68, 69. 
 
 The apostles, thus instructed by Christ's express and repeated 
 declaration, as to the nature of this sacrament, when he prom- 
 ised it to them, were prepared for the sublime simplicity of his 
 words in the instituting it. For, whilst they were at supper, Jesu3 
 took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples^ 
 and said. Take ye and eat : THIS IS MY BODY. And taking 
 ihe chalice, he gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye 
 all of this; FOR THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT, WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR MANY 
 UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS. Matt. xxvi. 26, 27, 28. 
 This account of St. Matthew is repeated by St. Mark, xiv. 22, 
 23, 24, and nearly word for word by St. Luke, xxii. 19, 20, and 
 b> Sl. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25, who adds : " Wherefore, who- 
 Doever shali eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord 
 
2*i8 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the LoiJ— 
 and eateth and drinketh judgment (the Protestant Bible says, 
 damnation) to himself." 1 Cor. xi. 27, 29. To the native evi- 
 dence of these texts I shall add but two words. First, supposing 
 it possible that Jesus Christ had deceived the Jews of Caphar- 
 naum, and even his disciples and his very apostles, in the sol- 
 emn asseverations which he, six times over, repeated of his real 
 and corporeal oresence in the sacrament, when he promised 1o 
 institute it, can any one believe that he would continue the 
 deception on his dear apostles, in the very act of instituting it, 
 and when he was on the point of leaving them ? In short, when 
 he was bequeathing them the legacy of his love ? In the next 
 place, what propriety is there in St. Paul's heavy denunciations 
 of profaning Christ's person, and of damnation, on the part of 
 unworthy communicants, if they partook of it only hy faith and 
 in figure? For, after all, the paschal lamb, which the people 
 of God had, by his command, every year eaten, since their de- 
 liverance out of Egypt, and which the apostles themselves eat, 
 before they received the blessed eucharist, was, as a mere figure 
 and an incitement to faith, far more striking than eating and 
 drinking bread and wine are. Hence the guilt of profaning the 
 paschal lamb, and the numerous other figures of Christ, would 
 not be less heinous than profaning the sacrament, if he were not 
 really there. 
 
 I should write a huge folio volume, were I to transcribe all 
 the authorities in proof of the real presence and transubstantia. 
 tion which may be collected from the ancient fathers, councils, 
 and historians, anterior to the origin of these doctrines, assigned 
 by the Bishops of London* and Lincoln. The latter, who speaks 
 more precisely on the subject, says: "The idea of Christ's 
 bodily presence in the eucharist was first started in the begin- 
 ning of the eighth century. In the twelfth century, the actual 
 change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, 
 by the consecration of the priest, was pronounced to be a gospel 
 truth. The first writer who maintained it, was Paschasius Rad 
 bert. It is said to have been brought into England by Lan- 
 franc."f What will the learned men of Europe, who are versed 
 in ecclesiastical literature, think of the state of this science in 
 England, should they hear that such positions as these have 
 been published by one of its most celebrated prelates'? I have 
 assigned the cause why I must content myself with a few of the 
 numberless documents which present themselves to me in refu- 
 tation of such bold assertions. St. Ignatius, then, an apostolical 
 Dishop of the first century, describing certain contijm}.orary 
 
 • P«e 38. t Elm. of Theol. vol. ii. p. 380 
 
THE REAL PRESENCE. 22^ 
 
 heretics, says : " They do not admit of eucharfsts and oblations, 
 because they do not believe the eucharist to be the flesh of our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins."* I pass over 
 the testimonies, to the same effect, of St. Justin Martyr,7 St. 
 Ircnseus,:!: St. Cyprian, § and other fathers of the second and 
 third centuries, but will quote the following words from Origen, 
 because the prelate appeals to his authority in another passage, 
 which is nothing at all to the purpose. He says, then, " Manna 
 was formerly given as a figure ; but now, the flesh and blood 
 of the Son of God is specifically given, and is real food."|| I 
 must omit the clear and beautiful testimonies for the Catholic 
 doctrine, which St. Hilary, St. Basil, Si. John Chrysostom, St. 
 Jerom, St. Augustin, and a number of other illustrious doctors 
 of the fourth and fifth ages, furnish ; bui I cannot pass over 
 those of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and St. Ambrose of Milan, be- 
 cause these, occurring in catechetical discourses or expositions 
 of the Christian doctrine to their young neophytes, must evidently 
 be understood in the most plain and literal sense they can bear. 
 The former says: "Since Christ himself affirms thus of the 
 bread, This is my body, who is so daring as to doubt of it ? Ana 
 since he affirms, T^is is my hiood, who will deny that it is his 
 blood ? At Cana of Galilee, he, by an act of his will, turned 
 water into wine, which resembles blood ; and is he not then to 
 be credited when he changes wine into blood ? Therefore, full 
 of certainty, let us receive the hody and blood of Christ ; for, 
 under the form of bread, is given to thee his body, and, under 
 the form of wine, his blood. "IT St. Ambrose thus argues with 
 his spiritual children : " Perhaps you will say, Why do you tell 
 me that I recjive the body of Christ, when I see quite another 
 thing? We have this point, therefore, to prove. How many 
 examples do we produce to show you, that this is not what na- 
 ture made it, but what the benediction has consecrated it ; and 
 that the benediction is of greater force than nature- because, by 
 the benediction, nature itself is changed ! Moses cast his rod 
 on the ground, and it became a serpent ; he caMgh^ hold of the 
 serpent's tail, and it recovered the nature of a rod. The rivers 
 of Egypt, &c. — Thou hast read of the creation of tne world : if 
 Christ, by his word, was able to make something oi>t of nothing, 
 shall he not be thought able to change one thing into another ?"** 
 But I have quoted enough from the ancient fathers to refute the 
 rash assertions of the two modern bishops. 
 
 True it is, that Paschasius Radbert, an abbot o'* the ninth 
 century, writing a treatise on the eucharist, for the instruction 
 
 * Ep. ad Smyrn. t Apolog. to Emp. Antonin. , L. v c. IL 
 
 § Ep. 54 ad Cornel. || II<»m. 7. in Levit. T C»ti>.lr Mvstagog 4 
 
 •• De bis qui Myst. Ini*. c. 9 
 
 20 
 
230 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 of his noviojs, miiintains the real corporeal presence o! Jhrist 
 in it ; but so far from teaching a novelty, he professes to say 
 nothing but what all the world believes and professes.* — The 
 truth of this appears when Berengarius, in the eleventh century, 
 among other errors, denied the real presence ; for then the 
 whole church rose up against him ; he was attacked by a whole 
 host of eminent writers, and among others by our Archbishop 
 Lan franc ; all of when-, in their respective works, appeal to 
 the belief of all nations; and Berengarius was condemned in no 
 less than eleven councils. I have elsewhere shown the abso- 
 lute impossibility, that the Christians of all the nations in the 
 world should be persuaded into a belief that the sacrament, 
 which they were in the habit of receiving, was the living Christy 
 if they had before held it to be nothing but an inanimate memo- 
 rial of him : even though, by another impossibility, all the 
 clergy of the nations were to combine together for effecting this. 
 On the other hand, it is incontestible, and has been carried to 
 the highest degree of moral evidence,-]- that all the Christians of 
 all the nations of the world, Greeks as well as Latins, Africans 
 as well as Europeans, except Protestants and a handful of Vau- 
 dois peasants, have, in all ages, believed and still believe in the 
 real presence and transubstantiation. 
 
 I am now, dear sir, about to produce evidence of a different 
 nature, I mean Protestant evidence, for the main point under 
 consideration, the real presence. My first witness is no other 
 than the father of the pretended Reformation, Martin Luther 
 himself. He tells us how very desirous he was, and how much 
 he labored in his mind to overthrow this doctrine, because, says 
 he, (observe his motive,) " I clearly saw how much I should 
 thereby injure Popery : but I found myself caught, without any 
 way of escaping ; for the text of the gospel was too plain for 
 this purpose.":}: Hence he continued, till his death, to con- 
 demn those Protestants who denied the corporeal presence; em- 
 ploying for this purpose, sometimes the shafts of his coarse ridi- 
 cule,§ and sometimes the thunder of his vehement declamation 
 
 * " Quod totus orbis credit et confltetur." See Perpetuity de la Foi. 
 
 t See ir particular the last-named victorious work, which has proved the 
 conversion of many Protestants, and among the rest that of a distinguished 
 churchman now living. 
 
 t Epist. ad. argenten, torn. 4, fol. 502, Ed. Witten. 
 
 § In one place, he says, that " The devil seems to have mocked those, tc 
 ♦vliom he has suggested a heresy so ridiculous and contrary to Scripture Q» 
 that of the Zuinglians," who explained away the words of the institution ir 
 a figurative sense. He elsewhere compares these glosses with the following 
 translation of the first wards of Scripture ; In princiino Deus creavit coelutn 
 et lerram : — In the beginring the cuckoo eat the sparroto and his feather* 
 Vefens. Verb. Dom. 
 
THE REAL PRESENCE. 231 
 
 and anathemas.* To speak now of former eminent oishopa 
 and divines of the Establishment in this country ; it is evidenJ. 
 from their works, that many of them believed firmly in the 
 real presence, such as the Bishops Andrews, Bilson, Morton, 
 Liud, Montague, Sheldon, Gunning, Forbes, Bramhall, and 
 Cosin, to whom I shall add the justly esteemed Hook( r ; the 
 testimonies of whom, for the real presence, are as explicit as 
 Cttholics themselves can wish them to be. I will transcribe in the 
 Aiargin a few v/ords from each of the three last-named auihors.f 
 The near, or rather close approach, of these and other eminent 
 Protestant divines, to the constant doctrine of the Catholic 
 Church, on this principal subject of modern controversy, is evi- 
 dently to be ascribed to the perspicuity and force of the declara- 
 tion of Holy Scripture concerning it. As to the holy fathers, they 
 received this, with her other doctrines, from the apostles, inde- 
 pendently of Scripture: for, before even St. Matthew's gospel 
 was promulgated, the sacrifice of the mass was celebrated, and 
 the body and blood of Christ distributed to the faithful through- 
 out a great part of the known world. 
 
 In finishing this letter, T must make an important remark on 
 he object or end of the institution of the blessed sacrament. 
 This, our divine Master tells us, was to communicate a new and 
 special grace, or life, as he calls it, to us his disciples of the 
 new law. " The bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life 
 of the world. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by 
 
 * On one occasion he calls those who deny the real and corporeal pres- 
 ence, " A damned sect, lying heretics, bread-breakers, wine-drinkers, and 
 80ul-destroyers." In Parv. Catech. On other occasions he says, " They aie 
 indeviiiied and superdevilized." Finally he devotes them to everlasting 
 flames, and builds liis own hopes of finding mercy at the tribunal of Christ 
 on his iaving, with all his soul, condemned Carlostad, Zuinglius, and otlier 
 believrsin the symbolical presence. 
 
 + I ishop Bramhall writes thus: " No genuine son of the Church (of Eng 
 land) did ever deny a true, real presence. — Christ said, This is viy body^ 
 and -yhat he said we steadfastly believe. He said neither CON nor SUB 
 nor TRANS : therefore we place these among the opinions of schools, not 
 ar>>ng articles of faith." Answer to Militaire, p. 74. — Bishop Cosin is not 
 l^w, explicit in favor of the Catholic doctrine. He says, " It is a monstr(>us 
 exA-r to deny that Christ is to be adored in the eucharist. We conjfcss the 
 ner,e«sity of a supernatural and heavenly change, and that the signs cannot 
 become sacraments but by the infinite power of God. If any one make a 
 bare figure of the sacrament, we ought not to suffer him in our churches." 
 Hisl.of Transub. Lastly, the profound Hooker expresses himself thus : " I 
 wish men would give themselves more to meditate, with silence, on what we 
 have in the sacrament, and less to dispute of the manner how. Since we all 
 Bgi-ie that Christ, by the sacrament, doth really and truly perform in us his 
 premise, why do we so vainly trouble ourselves with so fierce contentions, 
 whether by consubstantiation or else by transubstantiation ?" Eccles. Polit 
 B. V. 67. 
 
232 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 the Father, so he that eateth me, the same shall also live by me. 
 This is the bread that came down from heaven : not as your fa- 
 thers did eat manna, and are dead ; he that eateth this bread 
 shall live for ever." John vi. 52, 58, 59. He explains, in the 
 same passage, the particular nature of this spiritual life, and 
 shows in what it consists, namely, in an intimate union with 
 him; where he says, "He that eateth my flesh, and diinketh 
 my blood, abideth in me, and I in him." Ver. 57. Now the 
 servants of God, from the beginning of the world, had striking 
 figures and memorials of the promised Messiah, the participation 
 of which, by faith and devotion, was, in a limited degree, bene- 
 ficial to their souls. Such were the tree of life, the various 
 sacrifices of the patriarchs, and those of the Mosaic law ; but 
 more particularly the paschal lamb, the loaves of proposition, 
 and the manna of which Christ here speaks : still, these signs, 
 in their very institution, were so many promises, on the part of 
 God, that he would bestow upon his people the thing signified 
 by them ; even his incarnate Son, who is at once our victim and 
 our food, and who gives spiritual life to the worthy communi- 
 cants, not in a limited measure, but indefinitely, according to 
 each one's preparation The same tender love which made him 
 shroud the rays of his Divinity, and take upon himself theforin, 
 of a servant, and the likeness of man, in his incarnation ; whicii 
 made him become as a worm and not a man, the reproach of men 
 and the outcast of the people, in his immolation on Mount Cal- 
 vary, has caused him to descend a step lower, and to conceal his 
 human nature also, under the veilsof our ordinary nourishment, 
 that thus we may be able to salute him with our mouths, and lodge 
 him in our breasts, in order that we may thus, each one of us, 
 abide in him, and he ahide in us, for the life of our souls. No 
 wonder that Protestants, who are strangers to these heavenly 
 truths, and who are still immersed in the clouds of types and 
 figures, not pretending to any thing more in their sacrament, 
 than what the Jews possessed in their ordinances, should be 
 comparatively so indifferent, as to the preparation for receiving 
 it, and indeed, as to the reception of it at all! No wonder tha/ 
 many ol them, and amongst the rest, Anthony Ulric, Duke of 
 Brunswick,* should have reconciled themselves to the Catholi# 
 Church, chiefly for the benefit of exchanging the figure for th« 
 substance ; the bare memorial of Christ, for his adorable bod^ 
 and blood. — I am, dear sir, &;c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 • Lettres d'un Docteur Allemand par Scheffmacker, vol. i. p. 393. 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 233 
 
 LETTEU XXX nil.— TO THE REV ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A 
 
 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 Though I had not received the letter with which you have 
 honored me, it was my intention to write to Mr. Brown, by way 
 of answering Bishop Porteus'f objections against the Catholic 
 doctrine of the blessed eucharist. As you, reverend sir, have 
 in some manner adopted those objections, I address my answer 
 to you. 
 
 You begin with the bishop's arguments from Scripture, and 
 say, that the same Divine Personage who says. Take, eat, this 
 is my body, elsewhere calls himself a door, and a vine : hence you 
 argue, that as the two latter terms are metaphorical, so the first 
 is also. I grant that Christ makes use of metaphors, when he 
 calls himself a door and a vine ; but then he explains that they 
 are metaphors, by saying, " I am the door of the sheep : by me 
 if any man enter he shall be saved." John, x. 9. And again, 
 " I am the vine, you the branches ; he that abideth in me, and 
 I in him, beareth much fruit ; for without me you can do no- 
 thing." John, XV. 5. But, in the institution of the sacrament, 
 though he was then making his last will, and bequeathing that 
 legacy to his children, which, in his promise of it, he had as- 
 sured them should be meat indeed and drink indeed, not a word 
 falls from him to signify that his legacy is not to be understood 
 in the plain sense of the terms he makes use of. Hence those 
 incredulous Christians who insist on allegorizing the texts in 
 question, (professing at the same time to make the plain, natural 
 sense of Scripture their only rule of faith,) may allegorize every 
 other part of Holy Writ as ridiculously as Luther had transla- 
 ted the first words of Genesis, and thus gain no certain know- 
 ledge from any part of it. 
 
 His lordship adds, that the apostles did not understand this 
 institution literally, as they asked no questions, nor expressed 
 any surprise concerning it. True, they did not, but iien they 
 had been present on a former occasion, at a scene in which the 
 Jews, and even many of the disciples, expressed great surprise 
 at the annunciation of this mystery, and asked, How can this 
 man give us his flesh to eat? On that occasion, we know that 
 Christ tried the faith of his apostles as to this mystery, when 
 they generously answered, Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou 
 hast tJie words of eternal life. 
 
 You may quote, after Dr. Porteus, Christ's answer to the 
 murmur of the Jews on this subject. " Doth this ofiend you ? 
 If then you s lall see the Son of man ascend up where he was 
 
 20* 
 
234 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 befojQ ? It is tl»e spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth 
 nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and 
 life." John, vi. 63, 64. To this I answer, that if there were 
 an apparent contradiction between this passage and those others 
 in the same chapter, in which Christ so expressly affirms, that 
 his Jlesh IS MEAT INDEED, and his blood drink indeed, it would 
 only prove more clearly the necessity of inquiring into the doc- 
 trine of the Catholic Church concerning them. But there is nc 
 8uch appearance of contradiction : on the contrary, our contro. 
 Yeitists draw an argument from the first part of this passage in 
 favor of the real presence.* The utmost that can he deduced 
 from the remaining part is, that Christ's inanimate flesh, man- 
 ducated, like that of animals, according to the gross idea of the 
 Jews, would not confer the spiritual life which he speaks of, 
 though some of the fathers understand these words, not of the 
 body and blood of Christ, but of our unenlightened natural reason, 
 in contradistinction to inspired faith ; in which sense Christ says 
 to St. Peter, " Blessed art thou, because flesh and blood has not 
 revealed this to thee, but my Father who is in heaven." Matt, 
 xvi. 17. You add from St. Luke, that Christ says in the very 
 institution, "Do this in memory of me." Luke, xxii. 19. I 
 answer, that neither here is there any contradiction ; for the 
 eucharist is both a memorial of Christ and the real presence 
 of Ciirist. When a person stands visibly before us, we have 
 no need of any sign to call him to our memory ; but if he were 
 present, in such a manner to be concealed from all our senses, 
 we might, without a memorial of him, as easily forget him, as 
 if he were at a great distance from us. These words of Christ, 
 then, which we always repeat at the consecration, and the very 
 sight of the sacramental species, serve for this purpose. 
 
 The objection, however, v/hich you, reverend sir, and Bishop 
 Porteus, chiefly insist upon, is the testimony of our senses. 
 You both say, the bread and wine are seen, and touched, and 
 iasted in our sacrament, the same as in yours. " If we cannot 
 oelieve our senses," the bishop says, " we can believe nothing." 
 'J'his was a good popular topic for Archbishop Tillotson, from 
 whom it is borrowed, to flourish upon in the pulpit ; but it will 
 !iot stand the test of Christian tneology — it would undermine the 
 incarnation itself. With equal reason the Jews said of Christ, 
 "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called 
 Mary?" Matt. xiii. 55. Hence they concluded he was not 
 what he proclaimed himself to be, the Son of God. In like 
 manner Joshua thought he saw a man, (Joshua, v. 13,) and Ja- 
 cob that he touched one, (Gen. xxxii. 24,) and Abraham that 
 
 » Veriid de la Relig. Cat. prouv^e par I'Ecriture, par M. Des Mahi. p. 161 
 
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 235 
 
 he eat with three men, (Gen. xviii. 8,) when, in all these in 
 stances, there were no real men, but unbodied spirits present, 
 the different senses of those patriarchs misleading them. Again^ 
 were not the eyes of the disciples, going to Emmaus, he^d so that 
 they should not know Jesus ? Luke, xxiv. 16. Did not the same 
 thing happen to Mary Magdalen and the apostles ? John, xx. 
 1.5. But, independently of Scripture, philosophy and experience 
 show that there is no essential connection between our sensations 
 and the objects which occasion them, and that, in fact, each of 
 our senses frequently deceive us. How unreasonable then is 
 it, as well as impious, to oppose their fallible testimony to Goc s 
 infallible word !* 
 
 But the bishop, as you remind me, undertakes to show tha 
 there are absurdities and contradictions in the doctrine of tran 
 substantiation — he ought to have said of the real presence — foi 
 every one of his alleged contradictions is equally found in the 
 Lutheran cmisubstaniiation, in the belief of which our gracious 
 queen was educated, and in the corporeal presence, held by so 
 many English bishops. He accordingly asks, how Christ's 
 body can be contracted into the space of a host ? How it can 
 be at the right hand of his Father in heaven, and upon our 
 altars at the same time, &c. ? I answer, first, with an ancient 
 father, that if we insist on using this HOW of the Jews, with 
 respect to the mysteries revealed in Scripture, we must renounce 
 our faith in it ?f Secondly, I answer, that we do not know what 
 constitutes the essence of matter and of space. I say, thirdly, 
 that Christ transfigured his body on Mount Thabor, (Mark, ix. 
 1,) bestowing on it many properties of a spirit, before his pas- 
 sion ; and that after he had ascended up to heaven, he appeared 
 to St. Paul on the road to Damascus, (Acts, ix. 17,) and stood 
 hy him in the castle of Jerusalem. Acts, xxiii. 11. Lastly, 1 
 answer, that God fills all space, and is whole and entire in ev- 
 ery particle of matter; likewise, that my own soul is in my 
 right hand and in my left, whole and entire ; that the bread 
 and wine, which I eat and drink, are transubstantiated into my 
 own flesh and blood ; that this body of mine, which some years 
 ago was of a small size, has now increased to its present bulk ; 
 that soon it will turn into dust, or perhaps be devoured by ani- 
 
 • For example, we think we see the setting sun in a line wuh on; 
 eyes but philosophy demonstrates that a large portion of the terraqueojts 
 globe is interposed between them, and that the san is considerably below tha 
 horizon. As we trust more to our feeling than any other sense, let any pe? 
 son cause his neighbor to shut his eyes, and then crossing the two first fir% 
 ger8 of either hand, make him rub a pea, or any other round substance oa. 
 Iween them, he will then protest that he feels two such objects. 
 
 t Cyrii. Alex. 1. 4, in Joan 
 
286 LETTER xxxrx. 
 
 mals or cannibals, and thus become part of their substance ; aw^ 
 that, nevertheless, God will restore it entire at the last day. 
 Whoever will enter into these considerations, instead of employ- 
 ing the Jewish HOW, will be disposed, with St. Augustin, to 
 " admit that God can do much more than we can understand,'" 
 and to cry out with the apostles, respecting this mystery, Lord 
 to whom shall we go ? Tho^A hast the words of eternal life, 
 
 I am, dear sir, &c. 
 
 John Milnh«. 
 
 LETTER XXXIX.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESQ. 
 
 COMMUNION UNDER ONE KIND. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 I TRUST you have not forgotten what I demonstrated in the 
 first part of our correspondence, that the Catholic Church was 
 formed and instructed in its divine doctrine and rites, and espe- 
 cially in its sacraments and sacrifice, before any part of the New 
 Testament was published, and whole centuries before the entire 
 New Testament was collected and pronounced by her to be 
 authentic and inspired. Indeed, Protestants are forced to have 
 recourse to the tradition of the church for determining a great 
 number of points, which are left doubtful by the Sacred Text, 
 particularly with respect to the two sacraments which they ac- 
 knowledge. From the doctrine and practice of the church alone 
 they learn that, although Christ, our pattern, was baptized in a 
 river, (Mark, i. 9,) and the Ethiopian eunuch was led by St. 
 Philip into the water, (Acts, viii. 38,) for the same purpose, the 
 application of it, by infusion or aspersion, is valid ; and that, 
 although Christ says. He that BELTEVETH and is baptized 
 shall be saved, (Mark, xvi. 16,) infants are susceptible of the 
 benefits of baptism, who are incapable of making an act of faith. 
 In like manner respecting the eucharist, it is from the doctrine 
 and practice of the church alone Protestants learn, that, tnough 
 Christ communicated the apostles, at an evening supper, after 
 they had feasted on a lamb, and their feet had been washed, a 
 ceremony which he appears to enjoin on that occasion with the 
 utmost strictness, (John, xiii. 8, 15,) none of these rites are es- 
 sential to that ordinance, or necessary to be practised at present. 
 With what pretension to consistency, then, can they reject he? 
 doctrme and practice in the remaining particulars of this mys- 
 terious institution ? A clear exposition of the institution itself, 
 and of the doctrine and discipline of the church, concerning the 
 controversy in question, will afford the best answer to the objec- 
 ti'uis raised against the latter. 
 
COMMUNION UNDER ONE KINI. 237 
 
 It is true that our blessed Saviour instituted the holy eucha- 
 rist, under two kinds ; but it must be observed, that he then 
 made it a sacrifice as well as a sacrament, and that he ordained 
 priests, namely his twelve apostles, (for none else but they were 
 present on the occasion,) to consecrate this sacrament, and offer 
 this sacrifice. Now, for the latter purpose, namely, a sacrifice, 
 it was requisite that the victim should be really present, and, at 
 least, mystically immolated ; which was then, and is still per- 
 formed in the mass, by the symbolical disunion, or separate 
 consecration of the body and the blood. It was requisite, also, 
 for the completion of the sacrifice, that the priests, who had im- 
 molated the victim, by mystically separating its body and its 
 blood, should consummate it in both these kinds. Hence it is 
 seen, that the command of Christ, on which our opponents lay 
 so much stress, drink ye all of this, regards the apostles, as 
 'priests, and not the laity, as communicants.* True it is, that 
 when Christ promised this sacrament to the faithful in general, 
 he promised, in express terms, both his body and his blood, John 
 vi. : but this does not imply that they must, therefore, receive 
 them under the different appearances of bread and wine. For, 
 as the Council of Trent teaches, he who said : " Unless you 
 s'hall eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you 
 shall not have life in you," has likewise said, " If any one shall 
 eat of this bread, he shall live forever." And he who has said 
 " Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath life ever- 
 lasting," has also said, " The bread which I will give is my 
 flesh, for the life of the world." And lastly; he who has said, 
 *' He who eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in 
 me, and I in him," has nevertheless said, " He who eateth this 
 bread shall live for ever."f 
 
 The truth is, dear sir, after all the reproaches of the Bishop 
 of Durham, concerning our alleged sacrilege, in suppressing 
 half a sacrament, and the general complaint of Protestants, of 
 our robbing the laity of the cup of salvation,J that the precious 
 body and blood, being equally and entirely present, under each 
 species, is equally and eyitlrely given to the faithful, whichever 
 ihey receive; whereas the Calvinists and Anglicans do not so 
 
 * The acute apologist of the Quakers has observed, how inconclusively 
 Protestants argue from the words of the institution. He says, '* I would 
 gladly know how from the words they can be certainly resolved that these 
 words {Do this) must be understood of the clergy : Take, bless, and break 
 this bread, and give it to others ; but to th laity only : Take and eat, but do 
 not bless," &c. — Barclay's Apology, Prop. xiii. p. 7. t Sess xxi. c. 1. 
 
 X Conformably to the above doctrine, neither cur priest? no: our bishop* 
 receive vinder more than one kind, when they d • aot offer up t'»e holy sac. 
 Tifice 
 
238 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 much as pretend tc conimunicate either the real \')dy nr the 
 Mood, but, present mere types or memorials of then.. I do not 
 deny, that in their mere figurative system, there may be some 
 reason for receiving the liquid as well as the solid substance, 
 since the former may appear to represent more aptly the blood, 
 and the latter, the body ; but to us, Catholics, who possess the 
 reality of them both, their species or outward appearance is no 
 more than a matter of changeable discipline. 
 
 It is the sentiment of the great lights of the church, St. Chry- 
 aostom. St. Augustin, St. Jerome, &c., and seems clear from the 
 text, that when Christ, on the day of his resurrection, took hread, 
 and blessed and brake, and gave it to Cleophas and the other 
 disciple, whose guest he was at Emmaus, on his doing which 
 their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of 
 their sight," Luke xxiv. 30, 31, he administered the holy com- 
 munion to them under the form of bread alone. In like man- 
 ner, it is written of the baptized converts of Jerusalem, that, 
 they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the 
 communication of the BREAKING OF BREAD, and in 
 prayer. Acts ii. 42 ; and of the religious meeting at Troas; on 
 the first day of the week, when we were assembled to BREAK 
 BREAD, Acts xx. 7, without any mention of the other species. 
 These passages plainly signi^fy that the apostles were accus- 
 tomed, sometimes, at least, to give the sacrament under one 
 kind alone, though Bisliop Porteus has not the candor to confess 
 it. Another more important passage for communion under 
 either kind, he entirely overlooks, where the apostle says . 
 " Whosoever shall eat this bread, OR drink the chalice of the 
 Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of 
 the Lord."* True it is, that in the English Bible, the text is 
 here corrupted, the conjunctive AND being put for the disjunc- 
 
 * n/v>7, or drink, 1 Cor. xi. 27. The Rev. Mr. Grier, who has attempted 
 to vindicate the purity of the English Protestant Bible, has nothing else to 
 Bay for this alteration of St. Paul's epistle, than that in what they falsely 
 call " the parallel text of Luke and Matthew," the conjunctive and occurs ! 
 Grier's Answer to Ward's Errata, p. 13. — I may here notice the horid and 
 notorious misrepresentation of the Catholic doctrine concerning the eucha. 
 rist, of which two living dignitaries are guilty in their publications. The 
 Bishop of Lincoln says, " Papists contend that the mere receiving of the 
 Lord's supper merits the remission of sin ex opere operato, as it were me. 
 chanically, whatever may be the character or disposition of the communi 
 cants." Elem. of Theol. vol. ii. p. 491. Dr. Hey repeats the charge in 
 nearly the same words. Lectures, vol. iv. p. 355. What Catholic will not 
 .ift up his hands in amazement at the grossness of this calumny, knowing, as 
 he does, from his catechism and all his books, what pirity of soul, and how 
 much greater preparation, is required for the reception of our sacTamtnt, tb«in 
 Protestants require for receiving theirs? See Concil. Trid, Ses. xiii. c. 7 
 ^t. Rom. Douay Catcrh., &c. 
 
t•OMMUNIO^ J ER ONE KIND. 239 
 
 livre OR, contrary to the original Greek, as well as to the Latin 
 Vulgate, to the version of Beza, &c.; but as his lordship could 
 not be ignorant of this corruption, and the importance of the 
 genuine text, it is inexcusable in him to have passed it over 
 unnoticed. 
 
 The whole series of ecclesiastical history proves, that the 
 Catholic Church, from the time of the apostles down to the pre- 
 sent, ever firmly believing that the whole body, blood, soul ar.d 
 alvlnity of Jesus Christ, equally subsist under each of the spe- 
 cies or appearances of bread and wine, regarded it as a mere 
 matter of discipline, which of them was to be received in tne 
 holy sacrament. It appears from Tertullian, in the second 
 century,* from St. Dennis of Alexandria, f and St. Cyprian,:): 
 in the third; from St. Basil§ and St. Chrysostom, in the fourth, 
 (fee. II that the blessed sacrament, under the form of bread, 
 was preserved in the oratories and houses of the primitive Chris- 
 tians, for private 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 blessed 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 discovered, in the fifth century, that certain Manichsean 
 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 en- 
 tirely ;ff and Pope Gelasius required all his flock to receive 
 under both kinds. J:): It appears that, in the twelfth century, 
 only the officiating priest and infants received under the form 
 of wine ; which discipline was confirmed at the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century by the council of Constance, §§ on account 
 of the profanations, and other evils, resulting from the genera! 
 
 * Ad Uxor. 1. ii. t Apud Euseb. 1. iv. c. 44. t De Lapsisu 
 
 § Epist. ad Caesar. || Apud Soz. 1. viii. c. 5. 
 
 IT St. .\mbrose, in obit. Frat. — It appears, also, that St. Birinus, the apos 
 tie of th? West Saxons, brought the blessed sacrament with him into this 
 i8;and in an O.'-arium. Gul. Malm. Vit. Pontif. Florent. Wigorn, Higden, &c. 
 
 ** St Cypr. de Laps. tt Sermo. iv. de Quadrag. 
 
 tt Decret. Cooperimus Dist. iii. 
 
 ^f} Dr. Porteus, Dr. Coomber, Kemnitius, &c. accuse this council of de- 
 creeing, that ^^notwithstanding" (for so they express it) " our Saviour min- 
 istered in both kinds, one only shall, in future, be administered to the laity :'• 
 as if the council opposed its authority to that of Christ ; whereas it barely 
 defines, that some circumstances of the institution (namely, that it took 
 place after supper^ that the apostles received without being fasting, and 
 that both species were consecrated) are not (obligatory on a'l Christians. Set 
 Ca>i. liU. 
 
240 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 reception of it. in that form. Soon after this, the more orderly 
 sect of the Hussites, namely the Calixtins, professing their obe- 
 dience to the church in other respects, and petitioning the Coun- 
 cil of Basil to be indulged in the use of the chalice ; this was 
 granted them.* In like manner, Pope Pius IV., at the request 
 of the Emperor Ferdinand, authorized several bishops of Ger- 
 many to allow the use of the cup to those persons of their re- 
 B*)ective dioceses, who desired it.f The French kings, sinco 
 the reign of Philip, have had the privilege of receiving, under 
 both kinas, at their coronation and at their death. :j: The offi. 
 ciating deacon and subdeacon of St. Dennis, and all the monks 
 ®f 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 mei'e matter of variable 
 discipline, at least that the doctrine and the practice of the 
 Catholic 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, conform- 
 ably with the declarations of the three principal denominations 
 of Protestants, either the point at issue is a mere matter of disci- 
 vline, or else, that they are utterly inconsistent with themselves. 
 
 To begin with Luther : he reproaches his disciple Carlostad, 
 who 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, or curse those who should take both. "IT Secondly, the 
 Calvinists of France, in their synod at Poictiers, in 1560, de- 
 creed thus : •' The bread of our Lord's supper ought to be ad- 
 ministered to those who cannot drink wine, on their making a 
 protestation thnt they do not refrain from contempt."** Lastly, 
 by separate acts of that Parliament, and that king who estab- 
 lished the Protestant religion in England, and, by name, com- 
 munion in both kinds, it is provided that the latter should only 
 be commonly so delivered and ministered ; and an exception is 
 made incase "ne^je^w'^y did otherwise require. "ff — Now, I need 
 not observe, that, if the use of the cup were by the appointment 
 
 * Sess. ii. t Mem. Granv. t. xiii. Odorhainal. % Annal. Pagi. 
 
 ^ Nat. Alex. t. i. p. 430. || Epist. ad Gasp. Gustol. 
 
 ^ Form. Miss. t. ii. pp. 384, 386. ** On the Lord's supper, c. iii. p. 7. 
 1* Burnet's Hist, of Reform. Part ii. p. 41. Heylin's Hist, of Reform, p 
 58. For the proclamation, see Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p\ 17. 
 
SACRIFICE OF THE NEW LAW. 24* 
 
 tf Christ, an essential part of the sacrament, no necessity can 
 e^er be pleaded in bar of that appointment; and men might as 
 well pretend to celebrate the eucharist without bread as with- 
 out wine,* or to confer the sacrament of baptism without water. 
 The dilemma is inevitable. Either the ministration of the 
 pacrament, under one or under both kinds is a matter of chang©- 
 Rble discipline, or each of the three principal denominations cf 
 Protestants has contradicted itself. I should be glad to know 
 which part of the alternative his lordship may choose. 
 
 I am, yours, &c. 
 
 John JjJ«|^G LiB*^4^ 
 
 LETTER XL.— TO JAMES BROWN, ESqJm. ^Of "^*^^ ' j^ 
 ON THE SACRIFICE OF THE NE 
 
 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 
 it here as I possibly can. 
 
 A sacrifice is an offering 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 re- 
 vealed by God to the patriarchs, at the beginning of the world, 
 and afterwards more strictly enjoined by him to his chosen peo- 
 ple, in the revelation of his written law to Moses, as the most 
 acceptable and efficacious worship that could be offered 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 practised, in one form or other, in every age, 
 from the time of our first parents down to the present, and by 
 eveiy people, whether civilized or barbarous, except modern 
 Protestants. For when the nations of the earth clmnged the 
 glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of cor- 
 ruptible man, and of birds and four footed beasts, Rom. i. 23, they 
 
 * The writer has heard of British made wine being frequently used by 
 church ministers in their eacrament for real wine. The missionaries who 
 were sent to Otaheite, used the breadfruit for real bread, on the like occa- 
 sion. See Voyage of the ship Duif. 
 
 21 
 
242 LETTER XL. 
 
 continued the right of sacrifice, and transferred it to those un 
 worthy objects of their idolatry. From the whole of this, I infer, 
 that it would have been truly surprising, if under the most per- 
 fect dispensation of God's benefits to men, the new law, he had 
 left them destitute of sacrifice. But he has no so left them ; 
 on the contrary, m. nrophecy of Malachy is evidently verified 
 in the Catholic 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." Mai. i. 11. If Protestants say: we have the 
 sacrifice of Christ's death ; I answer, so had the servants oi God 
 under the law of nature, and the written kiw ; " for it is impos- 
 sible that with the blood of oxen and goats sin should be 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 offered on their altars daily, for 
 the same ends, but in a far more efficacious manner, and, of 
 course, "a true propitiatory sacrifice." That Christ is truly 
 present in the blessed eucharist, 1 have proved by many argu- 
 ments ; 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 represents the separation of his blood 
 from his body, I have likewise shown. Finally, I have shown 
 vou, that the officiating priest performs these mysteries by com- 
 mand of Christ, and in memory of what he did at the last sup- 
 per, and what he endured on Mount Calvary : no this in mem- 
 ory OF ME. Nothing, then, is wanting in the holy mass to con- 
 stitute it the true and propitiatory sacrifice of the new law ; a 
 sacrifice which as much surpasses, in dignity and efficacy, the 
 sacrifices of the old law, as the chief priest and victim of i;, the 
 incarnate Son of God, surpasses, in these respects, the sons of 
 Aaron, and the animals which they sacrificed. No wonder 
 then that, as the fathers of the church have, from the c-ailiest 
 timesj borne testimony to the reality of this sacrifice,* they 
 
 * St. Justin, who appears to have been, in his youth, contemporary with 
 S». John the Evangelist, says, " Christ instituted a sacrifice in bread and 
 wine, which Christians ofTer up in every place," quoting Malachy, i. 10. Dia. 
 log. ciim Tryphon. St. Irenaeus, whose master, Polycarp, was a disciple c' 
 that evangeUst, says, that " Christ, in consecrating bread and wine, has inti- 
 tuled the sacrifice of the new law, which the church received from the apos- 
 ties, according to the prophecy of Malachy." L. iv. 32. St. Cyprian calls the 
 eucharist " a true and full sacrifice ;" and says, that " as Melchisedech offer, 
 ed bread and wine, so Christ offered the same, namely, his body and blood.** 
 Epist. 63. St. Chrysostom, St. Augustin, St. Ambrose, «fcc., are equally deal 
 and expressive on this point. The last-mentioned calls this sacrifice by ^ 
 name oimissa, so d« St. Leo, St. Gregory, our Venerable Bede, Slc 
 
SACRIFICE OF THE NEW LAW. 243 
 
 slnukl speak in such lofty terms of its awfulness and efficacy ; 
 no wonder that the church of God should retain and revere it, 
 as the most sacred, and the very essential part of her sacred 
 liturgy : — and I will add, no wonder that Satan should have 
 persuaded Martin Luther to attempt to abrogate this worship, as 
 that which is most of all offensive to him.* 
 
 The main arguments of the Bishops of London and Lincolji, 
 and of Dr. Hey, with other Protestant controvertists, against ths 
 sacrifice of the new law, are drawn from St. Paul's Epistle ta 
 the Hebrews, where, comparing the sacrifice of our Saviour with 
 the sacrifice of the Mosaic law, the apostle says, " That Christ 
 being become a high priest of the good things to come, by a 
 greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, thai 
 is, not of this creation : neither by the blood of goats or of 
 calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the Holies, hav- 
 ing obtained eternal redemption." Heb. ix. 11, 12. "Nor yet 
 that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth 
 into the Holies every year," v. 25. Again, St. Paul says^ 
 " Every priest standeth indeed, daily ministering, and often 
 offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins : 
 but this man offering one sacrifice for sins, sitteth at the right 
 hand of God," chap. x. 11, 12. — Such are the texts, at full 
 length, which modern Protestants urge so confidently against 
 the sacrifice of the new law, but in which neither the ancient 
 fathers, nor any other description 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 tena- 
 ciousness of their ancient rites, appear from different parts of 
 the Acts of the Apostles,) how infinitely superior the sacrifice 
 of Christ is to those of the Mosaic law ; particularly from the 
 circumstance, which he repeats, in different forms, namely, that 
 there was a necessity of their sacrifices being often repeated, 
 which, after all, could not, of themselves, and independently of 
 the one they prefigured, take away sin; whereas the latter, 
 namely, Christ's death on the cross, obliterated at once the sins 
 cf 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 (he 
 same sacrifice with that of the cross, as to the victim that is 
 
 ♦ Luther, in hi^ Book de Unct. et Miss. Priv. torn. vii. fol. 228, gives an 
 account of the motive which induced him to suppress the sacrifice of the 
 mass among his followers. — He says that the Devil appeared to him at mid- 
 night, and, in a long conference with him, the whole of which he relates, 
 convinced him that the worship of the mass is idolatry. See Jistters Uj a 
 Prebendary, Let. v. 
 
•44 LETTER XL. 
 
 offered and as to the priest who offers it, differing in nothing bu, 
 the manner of offering ;* in the one there being a real, and in 
 the other a mystical, effusion 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, quoting and repeating 
 the sublime psalm of the royal prophet concerning the Messiah : 
 Thou art a priest for ever ACCORDING TO THE ORDER 
 OF MELCHISEDECH, Ps. cix. alias ex. : he enlarges on the 
 dignity of this sacerdotal patriarch, to whom Aaron himself, the 
 high priest of the old law, paid tribute, as to his superior, through 
 his ancestor Abraham. Heb. v. — vii. Now in what did this 
 0}der of Melchisedech consist? In what, I ask, did this sacri- 
 fice differ from those which Abraham himself, and the other 
 patriarchs, as well as Aaron and his sons, offered ? Let us con- 
 sult the sacred text, as to what it says concerning this royal 
 priest, when he came to meet Abraham, on his return from vic- 
 tory : " Melchisedech, the king of Salem, bringing forth BREAD 
 AND WINE, for he was the priest of the Most High God ; 
 blessed him." Gen. xiv. 18. It was then in offering up a sac- 
 rifice of bread and wine.X 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 the Scripture as to this 
 matter ; and, accordingly, the holy fathers unanimously adhere 
 to this meaning. § 
 
 In finishing this letter, I cannot help, dear sir, making two or 
 three short but important observations. The first regards the 
 deception practised on the unlearned by the above-named bishops, 
 Dr. Hey, and most other Protestant controvertists, in talking on 
 every occasion of the Popish mass, and representing the tenets 
 of the real presence, transubstantiation, and a subsisting true 
 propiatory sacrifice, as peculiar to Catholics; whereas, if they 
 are persons of any learning, they must know that these are, and 
 ever have been held, by all the Christians in the world, except 
 the comparatively few who inhabit the northern parts of Europe. 
 [ speak of the Melchite or common Greeks of Turkey, the Ar- 
 menians, the Muscovites, the Nestorians, the Eutychians, or 
 Jacobites, the Christians of St. Thomas in India, the Cophts <tnd 
 Ethiopians in Africa, all of whom maintain each of those b. ti- 
 
 • Concii. Trid. Sess. xxii. cap. 2. t Cat. ad. Paroc. P. ii. p. 81. 
 
 J Tho sacrifice of Cain, Gen. iv. 3, and that ordered in Levit. ii. 1, of flour, 
 »il, and incense, prove that inaniriate things wore sometimes of old offered 
 In sacrifice 
 
 § Sr. Cypr. Ep. 63 St. Aug. on Ps. xxxiii. S*. Chrys. Horn 35. St 
 ^erom, Ep. 126, &c. 
 
SACRIFICE OF THE NEW LAW. 245 
 
 cles, and almost every other on which Protestants differ from 
 Catholics, with as much firmness as we ourselves do. Now as 
 these seots have been totally separated from the Catholic 
 Church, some of them eight hundred, and some fourteen hun- 
 dred 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 combined to adopt 
 them. On the other hand, since the rise of Protestantism, at- 
 tempts have been repeatedly made to draw some or other of 
 them to the novel creed, but all in vain. Melancthon translated 
 the Augsburg Confession of Faith into Greek, and sent it to 
 Joseph, Patriarch of Constantinoplb, hoping he would adopt it ; 
 whereas the patriarch did not so much as acknowledge the re- 
 ceipt of the present.* Fourteen years later, Crusius, 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 explicit declara- 
 tion of his belief in the seven sacraments, the sacrifice of the 
 mass, transubstantiation, &c.f — In the middle of the seventeenth 
 century, fresh overtures being made to the Greeks by the Cal- 
 vinists of Flolland, the most convincing evidence of the orthodox 
 belief of all the above-mentioned c^ommunions, on the articles in 
 question, were furnished by them : the original of which was 
 deposited in the French king's library at Paris. J I have to re- 
 mark, in the second place, on the inconsistencies of the Church 
 of England, respecting this point : she has priests,^ but no sac 
 rifice! she has altars,\^ but no victim! she has an essential con,' 
 secration of the sacramental elements,ir without any the least 
 effect upon them! Not to dive deeper into this chaos, I would 
 gladly ask Bishop Porteus ; what hinders a deacon, or even a 
 layman, from consecrating the sacramental bread and wine, as 
 validly as a priest or a bishop 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 quota some of the absurd and irreligious 
 invectives of the renowned Di Hey against the holy mass, be- 
 cause they show the extreme ignorance of our religion which 
 generally prevails among the most learned Protestants who write 
 
 t Sheffmac. torn. ii. p. 7. t Ibid. 
 
 i Perpetuit. de la Foi. § See the Rubrics of the Communion Service. 
 
 II See ditto, in Sparrow's Collec. p. 20. 
 
 IT " If the consecrated bread or wine be all spent, before all have commu 
 nicated, the priest is to consecrate more." Rubrics. 
 
 N. B. Bishop Warburton and Bishop Cleaver earnestly contend, that the 
 eucharist is a feast upon a sacrifice; but as, in their dread of Popery they 
 admit no change, nor even the reality of a victim, their east is proved to be 
 ar imaginary banquet on an ideal viand. 
 
 21* 
 
246 LETTER XL. 
 
 against it. The doctor first describes the mass as " blasphe. 
 mous, in dragging down Christ from heaven," according to his 
 eX|jression ; 2dly, as " pernicious in giving men an easy way/' 
 as he pretends, " of evading all their moral and religious du- 
 ties;" 3dly, " as promoting infidelity;" in conformity wilh 
 which latter assertion, he maintains, that " most Romanists of 
 letters and science are infidels." He next proceeds seriously to 
 advise Cat! olics to abandon this part of their sacred liturgy, 
 namely, the adorable sacrifice of the new law ; and he thesi 
 concludes his theological farce with the following ridiculous 
 threats against this sacrifice : " If the Romanists will not listen 
 to our brotherly exhortations, let them fear our threats. The 
 rage of 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 
 superstition pine away."* I wish I had an opportunity of tell- 
 ing 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 thi, 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 massj 
 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 1 The same will be the case 
 in the latter days, when the man of sin shall have indignation 
 against the covenant of the sanctuary — and shall take away tlve con- 
 tinual 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 a God incarnate in caverns and cata- 
 combs, as she did in early times ; till that happy day, when hei 
 heavenly Spouse, casting aside those sacramental veils under 
 which his love now shrouds him, shall shine forth in the glo? 
 of God the Father, the Judge of the living and the dead. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 * Dr. Hey's Theol. Lectures, vol. iv. p. 385. The professor tells us in a 
 Bote, that this lecture was delivered in the year 1792, the hey-day of tha 
 antichristian and anti-social philosophy, which attempted, through an ocean 
 of blood, to subvert every altar and every tlirone.. 
 
ABSOLUTION FRO^ XN 247 
 
 LETTER XLl.- -TO THE REV. ROBERT CLAYTON, M.A. 
 
 ON ABSOLUTION FROM SIN. 
 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 I PERCEIVE that, in selecting objections against the church, 
 although you chiefly follow Bishop Porteus, who mixes, in the 
 sane chapter, the heterogeneous subjects of the mass and the 
 forgiveness of sins, you adopt some others from the Tracts of 
 Bishop Watson, and even from writers of such little repute as 
 the Rev. C. De Coetlogan. This preacher, in venting the hor- 
 rid calumnies which a great ptoportion of other Protestant 
 preachers and controvertists of different sects, equally with him- 
 self, instil into the minds of their ignorant hearers and readers, 
 expresses himself as follows : " In the Cjiurch of Rome, you 
 may purchase not only pardon 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 future.''"^ And are these 
 shameless calumniators real Christians, who believe in a judg- 
 ment to come ? And do they expect to make us Catholics re- 
 nounce our religion, by representing it to us as the very reverse 
 of what w^e know it to be ? — It is true. Bishop Porteus, in his 
 attack upon the Catholic doctrine of absolution and justification, 
 does not go the lengths of the pulpit declaimer above quoted, 
 and of the other controvertists alluded to ; still he is guflty of 
 
 * Abominations of the Church of Rome, p. 13. The preacher goes on to 
 state the sums of money for which, he says, Catholics beheve they may com- 
 mit the most atrocious crimes : " For mcest, &c., five sixpences ; for de- 
 bauching a virgin, six sixpences ; for perjury, ditto ; for him who kills hia 
 father, mother, &.C., one crown and five groats !" — This curious account is 
 borrowed from the Taxa Cancellaria Eoman<c, a book which has been fre. 
 quently published, though with great variations both as to the crimes and the 
 pricas, by th« Protestants of Germany and France, and as frequently con- 
 demned by the See of Rome. It is proper that Mr. Clayton and his friend 
 should know, that the pope's court of chancery has no more to do, nor pre. 
 tends to have any more to do, with ihe forgiveness of sins, than his majesty's 
 court of chancery does. In case there ever was the least real groundwork 
 for 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 cer. 
 tain culprits to the certain privileges which they h&d forfeited by their crimes 
 When the proceedings in Doctors' Commons, in a case of incest, are sus- 
 pended, (as I have known them suspended during the whole life of one of 
 the accused parties,) fees of office are always required ; but would it not be 
 A vile calumny to say, that leave to commit incest may be j urchased in Eng. 
 land for certain sums of money ? 
 
248 LETTER XLI. 
 
 much gross misiepresentation of it. As his language on iha 
 subject is confused, if not contradictory, I will briefly state whai 
 the Catholic Church has ever believed, and has solemnly defined 
 in her last general council, concerning it. 
 
 The Council of Trent teaches, that " All men lost their inno- 
 cence, and became defiled, and children of wrath, in the prevari- 
 cation of Adam;" — that, "not only the Gentiles were unable 
 by the force of nature, but that even the Jews were unable, by 
 t/ie law of Moses, to rise, notwithstanding free-will was not ex- 
 tinct in them, however weakened and depraved ;"* — that, " The 
 heavenly Father of mercy and God of all consolation sent his 
 Son, Jesus Christ, to men, in order to redeem both Jews and 
 Gentiles ;"f — that, " Though he died for all, yet a'jl do not re- 
 ceive the benefit of his death ; but only those to whom the merit 
 of his passion is communicated ;"J — that, for this pui*pose, 
 " Since the preaching of the Gospel, baptism, or the desire of it, 
 is necessary ;"§ — that, " The beginning of justification, in adult 
 persons, (those who are come to the use of reason,) is to be de- 
 rived from God's preventing grace, through Jesus Christ, by 
 which, without any merits of their own, they are called ; sc 
 that they who, by their sins, were averse from God, are, by hi:? 
 exciting and assisting grace, prepared to convert themselves tJ 
 their justification, by freely consenting to, and co-operating with 
 his grace ;"|| — that, " Being excited and assisted by divine 
 grace, and receiving faith from hearing, they are freely moved 
 towards God, believing the things which have been divinely re- 
 vealed and promised — they are excited to hope that God will be 
 merciful to them for Christ's sake, and they begin to love him, 
 as the fountain of all justice ; and therefore are moved to a cer- 
 tain hatred and detestation of sins ;" — lastly, " They resolve, 
 on receiving baptism, to begin a new life, and keep God's com- 
 mandments. "IF — Such is the doctrine of the church concerning 
 the justification of the adult in baptism. With respect to the 
 pardon of sins committed after baptism, the church teaches that, 
 " The penance of a Christian, after his fall, is very difl^erent 
 from that of baptism, and that it consists not only in refraining 
 from sins, and sincerely detesting them ; that is, hi a contn.is 
 and humble heart ; but also in a sacramental confession L-f them, 
 in desire at least, and at a proper time ; and th? priestly a Jso/?/- 
 tion. Likewise in satisfaction ; by fasting, alms, prayers, and 
 other pious exercises of a s])iritual life ; not indeed for the eier^ 
 nal punishment, which, together with the crime, is remitted in 
 the sacrament, or the desire of the sacrament, hut for the tern' 
 
 • Sess. vi. cap. i. t Cap. ii. t Cap. Hi. 
 
 § Cap. IV. y Cap. V. ^ Cap. vL 
 
ABSOLUTION FROM SlN. 24y 
 
 p<yral punishment, which the Scripture teaches is not always and 
 wholly remitted, as in baptism."* Such is, and always was, 
 the ioctrine of the Catholic Church, which thus ascribes the 
 whole glory of man's justification, both in its beginning and its 
 progi^ss, to God, through Jesus Christ; in opposition to Pela- 
 gians and modern Lutherans, who attribute the beginning of 
 conversion to the human creature. On the other hand, this doc- 
 trine 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 en- 
 thusiasm of the Methodist, who fancies himself justified, in some 
 unexpected 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 spite of all the 
 calumnies of the Rev. C. De Coetlogan and Bishop Porteus. — 
 This prelate is chiefly bent on disproving the necessity of sacra- 
 mental confession, and on depriving the sacerdotal absolution of 
 all efficacy whatsoever. Accordingly, he maintains, that when 
 Christ breathed upon his apostles, and said to them; Receive ye 
 the Holy Ghost, WHOSE SINS YOU SHALL FORGIVE, 
 THEY ARE FORGIVEN TO THEM ; AND WHOSE 
 SINS YOU SHALL RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAINEi», 
 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 punishment on sinners ; as likewise 
 of preaching the word of God," dccf And is this, I appeal to 
 you, reverend sir, follov/ing the plain natural sense of the writ- 
 ten word ? But, instead of arguing the case myself, I will pro- 
 duce 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 imagine, that when our Sa- 
 vicur, in so solemn a manner, having first breathed upon hia 
 disciples, thereby conveying and insinuating the Holy Ghos! 
 into their hearts, renewed unto them, or rather confirmed thai 
 glorious commission, &c., whereby he delegated to them an au- 
 thority of binding and loosing sins upon earth, &c., can any one 
 think, I say, so unworthily of our Saviour, as to esteem these 
 words of his for no better than compliment ? Therefore, in obe- 
 dience to his gracious will, and as I am warranted and enjoined 
 
 • John, IX. 22, 23. + P 45. 
 
250 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Dv m> holy mother, the Church of England, I btseech you, that 
 by your practice and use, you will not suffer that commission, 
 which CI\!"'st hath given to his ministers, to be a vain form of 
 words, wit lout any sense und r them. When you find your- 
 selves charged and oppressed &c., have recourse to your spirit. 
 ual physician, and freely disclose the nature and malignancy 
 of your disease, &c. And come not to him, only with such 
 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 absolve and acquit you 
 of your sias.' "* 
 
 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 Confession, 
 expressly teach, that absolution is no less a sacrament than 
 baptism and the Lord's supper ; that particular ahsolut'on is to 
 be retained in confession ; that to reject it is the error of the 
 Novatian heretics; and that, by the power of the keys. Matt. 
 xvi. 19, sins are remitted, not only in the sight of the church, 
 but also in the sight of God.'\ Luther himself, in his catechism, 
 requires that the penitent in confession should expressly declare, 
 that he believes the " forgiveness of the priest to be the forgive- 
 ness of God. "J What can Bishop Porteus and other modern 
 Protestants 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 distinguished heads. In The Order of the Communion^ 
 composed by Cranmer, and published by Edward VL the par- 
 son, 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, &c., and, that of us, as a minister 
 of God and of the church, he may receive comfort and abso- 
 lution. § Conformably with this admonition, it is ordained in the 
 , Common Prayer Book, that when the minister visits any sick 
 person, the " latter should be moved to make a special confes- 
 sion of nis sins, if he feels his conscience troubled with any 
 weighty matter; after which confession, the priest shall absolve 
 
 • Scrm. vii. Religian of Prot. pp. 408, 409. 
 t Confess. Augs. Art. xi. xii. xiii. A pel. 
 
 t In Catech. Parv. See also Luther's Table Talk, c. xviii. on Auricula. 
 Confession. § Bishop Sparrow's Collect, p. 90. 
 
ABSOLUTION FROM SIN. 251 
 
 hiin, 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 truly repent and believe in him. of his great 
 mercy, forgive thee thine offences : and by his authority com- 
 mitted to me, I ABSOLVE THEE FROM ALL THY SINS, 
 in he name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Gliost, Amen."* I may add, that soon after James L became, 
 at the same time, the member and the head of the English 
 c^ urc/i, he desired his prelates to inform him in the conference 
 at Hampton Court, what authority this church claimed in the 
 article of absolution from sin ? when Archbishop Whitgift began 
 to entertain him with an account of the general confession and 
 absolution in the communion 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 per- 
 sonal absolution in the Visitation of the Sick. Not only the 
 Confession of Augusta, (Augsburg,) Bohemia and Saxony, re- 
 tain 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 con- 
 science."! 
 
 I have signified that there are other passages of Scripture 
 besides that quoted above from John xx. in proof of the author- 
 ity exercised by the Catholic Church, in the forgiveness of sins ; 
 such as Matt. xvi. 19, where Christ gives the keys of the king- 
 dom of heaven to Peter; and chap, xviii. 18, where he declares 
 to all his apostles: " Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you 
 shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, a!u,d whatsoever 
 you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." But here 
 also. Bishop 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 possible to affix so foreign a meaning to these texts, I 
 
 * Order for the Visitation of the Sick. N. B. To encourage the sscrei 
 lonfession of sins, the Church of England has made a canon, requiring her 
 o'nisters not to reveal the same. See Canones Eccles. A. D. 1693j n 113. 
 
 t Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. x. p. 9. See the defence of Bancroft's successor 
 ■ a the See of Canterbury, Dr. Laud, whr endeavored to enforce auricular 
 confession, in Heylin's Life of Laud, P. ii p. 415. It appears from this wri- 
 ter, that Laud was confessor to the Duke of Buckingham, and from Burnet, 
 that Bishop Morley was Confessor to the Duchess of York, when a Protest. 
 Mit. Hi< tory of his own Times. 
 
252 LETTER XLI. 
 
 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 ?* " 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 sacra- 
 ment with the requisite dispositions : "Do penance," said St. Pe- 
 ter 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, confession, 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 
 confessed, and declared their deeds," Acts xix. 18 ; and so 
 expressly commanded therein, " Confess your sins one to an- 
 other," James v. 16 ; the bishop contends, that, " It is not know- 
 ing a person's sins, that can qualify the priest to give him 
 absolution, but knowing he hath repented of them."f In refu- 
 tation of this objection, I do not ask : Why, then, does the Eng- 
 lish church move the dying 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 
 hat power, without taking cognizance of the cause on which he 
 s to pronounce, and without judging in particular of the dis- 
 positions of the sinner, especially as to his sorrow for his sins, 
 and resolution to refrain from them in future. Now this know- 
 ledge can only be gained from the penitent's own confession. 
 From this may be gathered, whether his offences are those of 
 frailty or of malice, 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 de- 
 cide, 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 neighbor who has been injured in person, pro- 
 perty, or reputation. Accordingly, it is well known that such 
 restitutions are frequently made by those who make use of 
 sacramental confession, and very seldom by those who do not 
 use it. I say nothing of the incalculable advantage it is to the 
 sinner, in the business of his conversion, to have a confidential 
 ana experienced pastor, to withdraw the veils beliind which self- 
 love is apt to conceal his favorite passions and worse crimes, 
 and to expose to him the enormity of his guilt, of which before 
 he had perhaps but an imperfect notion ; and to prescribe to him 
 
 * See the Form of Ordaining Priesta t P. 4C 
 
ABSOLUTTOK FROM SIN. Q'^9 
 
 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 const .Ji Jenl3 
 of the latter ; and this church has uniformly taught, that con- 
 fession, and the priest's absolution, where they can be had, art 
 reouired for the pardon of the penitent sinner, as well as contri 
 tion, and a firm purpose of amendment. But, to believe tho 
 bistiop, our church does not require contrition at all, for the 
 justification of the sinner, though she has declared it to be one 
 of the necessary parts of sacramental penance, nor " any dis- 
 like to sin or love to God."* I will make no further answ(5r 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," that is, "a contrite and humble heart, which God never de- 
 spises ;" and, moreover, an incipient love of God, as the foun- 
 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 900 years after 
 Christ, nor determined to be such till after 1200. "f The few 
 following quotations from ancient fathers and councils, will con- 
 vince our Salopian friends, what sort of trust they are to placo 
 in this prelate's assertions on theological subjects. Tertullian, 
 who lived in the age next to that of the apostles, and is the 
 earliest Latin writer whose works we possess, writes thus : " If 
 you withdraw from confession, think of hell fire, which confes- 
 sion extinguishes.":!: Origen, who wrote soon after him, incul- 
 cates the necessity of confessing our most secret sms, even those of 
 thought,^ and advises the sinner " to look carefully about him in 
 phoosingthe person to whom he is to confess his sins."|| St. >"-a- 
 sil, in the fourth century, wrote thus : " It is necessary to discV ^se 
 our sins to those to whom the dispensation of ti\e divine my.'ite- 
 ries is committed. "H St. Paulinus, the disciple of St. .\mbrose, 
 relates, that this holy doctor used to " weep over the peniteniiS 
 whose confessions he heard, but never disclosed their sins to any 
 but to God alone."** The great St. Augustm writes, "Out 
 merciful God wills us to confess in this world, that we may no» 
 be confounded in the other ;"j-| and elsewhere he says, " Let no 
 sne say to himself, 1 do penance to God in pnvix'e. Is it tiit:«» 
 
 • P. 47. + Il)id. ' t-^:^ Ae Paeni* 
 
 ^ Horn. 3 in Levit. |I Horn. 2 in Fs. xxxvn. ^ Rulo 2151. 
 
 ** In Vit. Ambros. tt Horn. 20. 
 
 92 
 
i54 LETTER XLI. 
 
 iL \ain that Christ has sa.d, * Whatsoever you loose en earth 
 shall be loosed in heaven ?' Is it in vain that the keys have 
 neen given to the church ?"* I could produce a long list of 
 other passages to the same effect, from fathers and doctors, a ad 
 also from councils of tiic church, anterior to the periods he has 
 assigned to the commencenieni and confirmation of the doctrine 
 in question ; but I will nave recourse to a shorter, and perhaps 
 a more convincing proof, thnt this lioctrine could not have been 
 introduced into the church, at any period whatsoever subsequent 
 
 o 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 necessary. The pride of the human hear 
 would at all times have revolted at the imposition of such a hu- 
 millation, as that of confessing all its most secret sins, if Chris- 
 tians had not previously believed that this rite is of divine insti- 
 tution, and even necessary for the pardon of them. Supposing, 
 however, that the clergy, at some period, had fascinated the 
 laity, kings and emperors, as well as peasants, to submit to this 
 yoke ; it will still remain to be accounted for, how they took it 
 up themselves ; for monks, and 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 Eutychians spread over Asia and Africa, 
 fFom Bagdad to Axium, all of whom broke from the communion 
 of the Catholic Church in the fifth century, took up the notion 
 of penance being a sacrament, and that confession and absolu- 
 tion 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 the Latin Christians with shaving their beards, 
 singing Allelujah at wrong seasons, and other such like minu- 
 tiae, they never accused them of any error respecting private 
 confession or sacerdotal absolution. To support the bishof's 
 assertions on this and many other points, it will be necessary to 
 suppose, as I have said before, that a hundred million of Greek 
 and Latin Christians lost their senses on some one and the same 
 day or night ! 
 
 In finishing this letter, I take leave, reverend sir, to advert to 
 
 "'e case of some of your respectable society, who, to my know- 
 ledge, are convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion, but 
 ari deterred from embracing it, by the dread of that sacrament 
 »f which I have been treating. Their pitiable case is by no 
 
 • Horn. 49. 
 
INDULGENCES. 25o 
 
 means singulai ; we continually find persons, who are not only 
 
 desirous of reconciling themselves to Ineir true mother, the 
 Catholic 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 fei . 
 vently pray to the Giver of all good gifts for his strengthening 
 grace, and let them be persuaded of the truth of what an unex- 
 ccptionable witness says, who had experienced, while he was a 
 Cjitholic, the interior joy he describes ; where, persuading the 
 peniten* to go to his confessor, " not as to one that can speak 
 comfortable and quieting words to him, but as to one that hath 
 authority delegated to him from God himself, to absolve and ac- 
 quit him of his sins," he goes on ; " If you shall do this, assure 
 your souls, that the understanding of man is not able to con- 
 ceive 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 tliey are, that Christ's words to 
 his apostles, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you shall 
 remit, they are remitted," mean what they express, they must 
 know, that confession is necessary to buy ofi* overwhelming 
 confusion, as the fathers I have quoted signify, at the great day 
 of manifestation, and, with this, never-ending punishment. 
 
 1 am, &LG. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XLIL— TO THE REV. ROBERT CLAYTON. 
 
 ON INDULGENCES. 
 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 I TRUST you will pardon me if I do not send a special answe 
 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 autiiority whatever for his de- 
 sciiption,) " a transfer of the overplus of the saint's goodness 
 joined with the merits of Christ, &c., by the pope, as head of 
 
 » Chilling \iorth, Sermo*: vii p 409. 
 
256 LETTER XLII. 
 
 the church, tov/ards the remission of their sins, who fulfil^ in 
 their life-time, certain conditions appointed by him, or whose 
 friends will fulfil them, after their death."* lie speaks of it as 
 *' a method of making poor wretches believe, that wickedness 
 here may become consistent with happiness hereafter — that re- 
 pentance is explained away or overlooked among other things 
 joined with it, as saying so many prayers, and payi.ig so much 
 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 his 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, par- 
 dons, and dispensations, which they claim a power from Chri&t 
 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 methods of making a holy life 
 useless, and to assure the most abandoned of salvation, provided 
 they will sufficiently pay 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 rnen 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 villa- 
 nies, and license also for not a few wickednesses. "§ In treat- 
 ing of a subject, the most intricate of itself among the common 
 topics of controversy, and which has been so much confused 
 and perplexed by the misrepresentations of our opponents, it 
 will be necessary, for giving you, reverend sir, and my other 
 Salopian friends, a clear and just idea of the matter, that 1 
 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 
 Ic be a leave to commit a sin of any kind, as De Coetlogan, 
 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 of 
 course, that of his very being. II. No Catholic ever believed 
 it to be a pardon for future sins, as Mrs. Hannah More, and a 
 greater part of other Protestant writers, represent the matter. 
 
 * Confut. p. 53. 
 
 t P. 54. Benson on the Man of Sin, repub. by Bishop Watson, Tratt« 
 rol. V. p. 273. 
 $ Bishop Fowler's Design of Christianity, Tracts, vol. vi, p. 382. 
 § Benson on the Man of Sin Collect. 
 
INDULGENCES. 251 
 
 Tliis 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 ta 
 mourn for sin, because it was pardoned before it was commit- 
 tei :"f but every Catholic knows, that Christ himself could not 
 pardon sin before it was committed, because this would imply, 
 that 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 Bishop Porteus slanders us ; for this is al- 
 ways enjoyed or implied in the grant of it, and is indispensably ne- 
 cessary for the effect of every grace •.% nor from the works of pen- 
 ance, 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 work.^ Whether an obligation of all this 
 can be reconciled with the articles of being "justified by faith 
 only,"** and that " works done before grace partake of the na- 
 ture of sin,"-]"!- I do not here inquire. V. It is inconsistent with 
 our doctrine of inherent justification^XX to believe, as the same 
 prelate charges us, that the effect of an indulgence is to trans- 
 fer " 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 ano- 
 ther. Lastly, whereas the Council of Trent calls indulgences 
 
 ♦ Strictures on Female Education, vol. ii. p. 239, 
 
 t Eaton's Honeycomb of Salvation. See also Sir Richard Hill's Lettem 
 
 X Concil. Trid. Sess. vi. 4. c. 13, &c. § Sess. xiv. De Extr. Unc. 
 
 II Sess. vi. can. 19. 
 
 IT Sess. vi. cap. 16. — N. B. There are eight indulgences granted to the 
 Catholics of England, at the chief festivals in every year ; the conditions of 
 which are, confession with sincere repentance, the holy communion, alms to 
 die poor, (without distmction of their religion,) prayers for the church and 
 Btra)'ed souls, the peace of Christendom, and thr blessing of God on this na. 
 tion ; finally, a disposition to hear the w^ord of God, and to assist the sick 
 See Laity^s Directory, the Garden of the Soul^ and other Catholic bDoks of 
 prayer. ** Art XI. of 39 Art. tt Art. XIII 
 
 14 Trid. Sess. vi. can. 11 §§ Becanus de Jusiif. 
 
 22* 
 
858 LETTER XLII. 
 
 heatedly Ireamres* we hold that it would be a sacrilegious 
 crime in any person whomsoever, to be concerned in buying or 
 selling them. I am far, however, reverend sir, from denying 
 that in lulgonces have ever been sold :f — alas, what is so sacred 
 (hat th3 avarice of man has not put up for sale ! — Christ him- 
 self was sold, and that by an apostle, for thirty pieces of silver. 
 1 dc not retort upon you the advertisements I frequently see in 
 'Jie newspapers, about buying and selling benefices, with the 
 cure of souls annexed to them, in your church ; but this I con- 
 tend for, that the Catholic Church, so far from sanctioning this 
 detestable simony, has used her utmost pains, particularly in the 
 General Councils of Lateran, Lyons, Vienne, and Trent, to pre- 
 vent 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 sover- 
 eign prince, in showing mercy to a capital convict, may either 
 grant him a remission of all punishment, or may leave him 
 subject 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 punishrnent to be endured 
 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, " Nevertheless, 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 away 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 numbered the people, the Lord, in pardoning 
 him, offered him by his prophet. Gad, the choice of three tern- 
 poral punishments, war, famine, or pestilence. IbiJ. 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 
 proposition, that " every penitent sinner who, after the grace of 
 justification, obtains the remission of his guilt and eternal pun- 
 
 * Sess. xxi. c. 9. 
 
 t The bishop tells us that he is in possession of an indulgence, lately 
 granted at Ronne for a small sum of money ; but he does not say who granted 
 it. In like manner he may buy forged banK notes and eounterleit coin in 
 London, very >'-'^ap, if he pleases. 
 
INDULGENCES 259 
 
 Ishment, Dbtalns 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 ; an<rl 
 hence " a Christian life," as the council has said above, " ought 
 to bo a penitential life." This council, at the same time, de- 
 clares, that this very satisfaction for temporal punishment w 
 only efficacious through Jesus Christ.\ Nevertheless, as the 
 promise of Christ to the apostles, to St. Peter in particular, and 
 to the successors of the apostles, is unlimited : " WHATSO- 
 EVER you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in 
 heaven," Matt, xviii. 18 — xvi. 19 ; hence the church be- 
 lieves and teaches, that her jurisdiction extends to this very sat- 
 isfaction, so as to be able to remit it wholly or partially, in cer- 
 tain circumstances, by what is called an INDULGENCE. § 
 St. Paul exercised this power in behalf of the incestuous Co- 
 rinthian, on his conversion, and at 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 pre- 
 sent. II IV. Still this power, like that of absolution, is not arbi- 
 trary ; there must be a just cause for the exercise of it ; namely, 
 the greater good of the penitent, or of the faithful, or of Chris- 
 tendom in general : and there must be a certain proportion be- 
 tween 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'con- 
 dhions appointed for this end ;** and hence, of course, the pastors 
 of the church will have to answer for it, if they take upon them- 
 selves to grant indulgences for unworthy or insufficient purposes. 
 V. Lastly, it is the received doctrine of the church, that an in- 
 dulgence, when truly gained, is not barely a relaxation of the 
 canonical penance enjoined by the church, but also an actual 
 remission by God himself, of the whole or part of the temporal 
 punishment due to it in his sight. The contrary opinion, though 
 held by some theologians, has been condemned by Leo X f f anJ 
 Pius VI. : XX and, indeed, without the effect here mentioned, in. 
 dulgences would not be heavenly treasures, and the use of them 
 
 * Cone. Trid. Sess. vi. can. 30. t Sess. vi. cap. 7, 14. Sess xiv. cap. 8. 
 X Ibid. § Trid. Sess. xxv. De Tndulg. 
 
 y Tertul. in Lib. ad Martyr, e. i. St. Cypr. 1. 3. Epist. Concil. i. Nic 
 Ancyr, &c. V Bellarm. Lib. i. De Indulg. c. 12. »» Ibid 
 
 ft Art. 19, inter Art. Damn. Lutheri. XX Const. Auetor Fid. 
 
260 LETTER XLII. 
 
 would not he henejicial, but rdiihev pernicious to Christians — con 
 trary to two declarations of the last general council, as Bellar- 
 min well argues.* 
 
 The above explanation of an indulgence, conformably to thn 
 doctrine of theologians, the decrees of popes, and the definitiona 
 of councils, ought to silence the objections, and suppress the 
 sarcasms of Protestants on this head : but if it be not sufficient 
 for such purpose, I would gladly argue a few points with them 
 concerning their own indulgences. Methinks, reverend sir, I 
 see you start at the mention of this, and hear you ask, what Pro- 
 testants hold the doctrine of indulgences? 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 commuta- 
 tion-money, namely, of such sums as were paid for indulgences 
 from ecclesiastical penances, not only in charitable, but also in 
 public uses. 4: At this period the established clergy were devo- 
 ting 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 was employed in a 
 real crusade. It has been before stated, that the second offspring 
 of Protestantism, the Anabaptists, claimed an indulgence from 
 God himself, in quality of his chosen ones, to despoil the impi- 
 ous, that is, 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. Agreeably to this tenet, Sir Richard 
 
 * L. i. c. 7, Prop. 4. 
 
 t " Ne qua fiat posihac solemnis penitentiae commutatio nisi rationibus, 
 gravioribusque de causis, &c. Deinde quod mulcta ilia pecuniaria vel ii| 
 relevam pauperum, vel in alios pios usus erogetur." Articuli pro Clero, A 
 D, 1584, Sparrow, p. 194. The next article is, "Do moderandis quibusdam 
 indulgentiis pro cclebratione matrimonii," &,c., p. 195. These indulgence! 
 were renewed under the same titles, in the synod held in London in 1597 
 Sparrow, pp. 248, 252. 
 
 i " That no chancellor, commissary, or official, shall have power to com- 
 mute any penance, in whole or in part ; but either together with the biahop, 
 &c., that h3 shall give a full and just account of such commutations to the 
 bishop, who shall see that all such moneys shall be disposed of for charitable 
 and public uses, according to law — saving always to ecclesiastical officera 
 their due and accustomable fees." Canon 14. Sparrow, p. 3G8. In tlie 
 remonstrance of grievances, presented by a committee of the Irish Pariia. 
 mentto Charles I., one of them was, that "several bishops received grea/ 
 sums of money /or commutation of penance, (that is, for indulgences.) whick 
 they converted to their own use." Commons' Jour, quoted by Curry vol i 
 jw 169. 
 
INDULGENCES. 201 
 
 Hill says: "It is a most pernicious error of the schooimen ta 
 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 dispensed 
 with himself and Catharine Boren, from their vows of a religious 
 life, and particularly that of celibacy, and even preachec up 
 adultery in his public sermons. f In like manner he published 
 bulls, authorizing the robbery of bishops and bishopricks, 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, to marry 
 a second wife, his former being living, in consideration, for so it 
 is stated, of his protection of Protestantism. 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 pre- 
 tended Reformation was an indulgence for libertinism. His 
 words are these : " The greater part of the people seem only 
 to have embraced the gospel, in order to shake off 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 control. Hence they 
 lent a willing ear to the doctrine, that we are saved by faith 
 alone, and not by good works, having no relish for them."§ 
 
 I am yours, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XLIIL— TO THE REV. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A 
 
 ON PURGATORY, AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. 
 
 Reverend 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 
 Sciipture proof of the existence of purgatory ; heaven and hell 
 we read of perpetually in the Bible ; but purgatory we never 
 meet wiUi ; though surely, if there be such a place, Christ and 
 .lis apostles would not have concealed it from us."|| I might ex- 
 
 * Fletcher's Checks, vol. iii. 
 
 t " Si nolit Domina, veniat ancilla," &c. Serm de Matrim. t. v. 
 
 I This infamous indulgence, with the deeds belonging to it, was i)ublished 
 from the original by permi*ssion of a descendant of the landgrave, and repub 
 ished bj' Bossuet. Variat. book vi. 
 
 § Bucer, D<; Regn. Christ. 1. i. c. 4. i| Confat. p. 48 
 
262 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 pose the -nconclusiveness of this argument by the following pa. 
 rallel 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 obligation, Chrift 
 and his apostles would not have concealed it from us ! I might 
 likewise answer, with the bishop of Lincoln, that the inspirea 
 epistles, (and I may add the gospels also,) •' are not to be con- 
 sidered as regular treatises upon the Christian religion."* 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 New Testament. 
 
 To begin with the Old Testament : I claim a right of con- 
 sidering the two first books of Machabees, as an integral part 
 of them, because the Catholic Church so considers them,)' 
 from whose tradition, and not from that of the Jews, as St. 
 Augustin signifies, J our sacred canon is to be formed. Now 
 in the second of these books, it is related that the pious gen- 
 eral, Judas Machabeus, sent 12,000 drachmas to Jerusalem, 
 for sacrifices, to be offered for his soldiers, slain in battle ; after 
 which narration, the inspired writer concludes thus ; " It is 
 therefore a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, 
 that they may be loosed from their sins." — 2 Mach. xii. 46. I 
 need not point out the inseparable connection there is between 
 the practice of praying for the dead, and the belief of an in- 
 termediate 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, 150 years before 
 Christ. That the Jews were in the habit of practising some 
 religious rites for the relief of the departed, at the beginning 
 of Christianity, is clear from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Co. 
 rinthians, where he mentions them, without any censure of them ;§ 
 and that this people continue to pray for their deceased brethren, 
 at the present time, may be learned from any living Jew. 
 
 To oDme now to the New Testament: What place, I ask, 
 must that be, which our Saviour calls " Abraham's bo«om," 
 where the soul of Lazarus reposed, Luke, xvi. 22, among the 
 
 » Elem. of Theol. vol. i. p. 277. t Concil. Cart. jii. St. Cyp. St. Aug. 
 
 Innoc. I. Geias, &c. t Lib. 18 De. Civ. Dei. 
 
 f) '* Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the deod tiM 
 not all ? Why arc they then baptized for them ?" 1 Cor. x' . 29. 
 
PITRGATOR/. 203 
 
 Other just souls, till he by his sacred passion paid theii .*ansom ? 
 Not heaven, otherwise Dives would have addressed himself to 
 God, instead of \braham ; but evidently a middle state, as St. 
 Augustin teaches.* Again, of what pl-ace is it that St. Petei 
 speaks, where he says, " Christ died for our sins, being put to 
 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 tte 
 damned, to suffer their torments, as the blasphemer, Calvin, 
 assertSjf but the prison above-mentioned, or Abraham's bosom ; 
 in short, a middle state. It is of this prison, according to the 
 holy fathers, J our blessed Master speaks, where he says : " 1 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 the Corinthians bear, than that 
 which the holy fathers affix to it,§ where the apostle says, " The 
 day of the Lord shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try 
 every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's works 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 scriptural 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 Hol:y Ghost, namely, that this 
 sin " shall not be forgiven, either in this world or in the world 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 whicli 
 head the prelate is so ill advised as to challenge Catliolics. 
 
 II. Bishop Porteus then advances, that " purgatory, in the 
 present popish sense, was not heard of for 400 years after Christ, 
 nor universally received for 1000 years, nor almost in any other 
 church than that of Rome to this day."^ Here are no less than 
 three egregious falsities, which I proceed to show ; after stating 
 what his wardship seems not to know, namely, that all which ia 
 necessarj to be believed on this subject by Catholics, is contain- 
 
 » De Civit. Dei, 1 xv. c. 20. t Inst. 1. ii. c 16. 
 
 t Tertul. St. Cypr. Origen, St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, &c. 
 
 § Origen, Horn. 14 in Levit. &c. St. Ambrose, in Ps. 118. St. .Terom, 1 
 2, contra Jorin. St. Aug. in Ps. 37, where he prays thus : "Purify me, O 
 Lord, in this ife, that I may not need the chastening fire of those who will 
 be saved, yei so as by Hre." 
 
 II St. Aiig De Civit'. Dei, 1. 21, c. 24. St. Greg. 1 4. Dialog. Bed. w ««p. 
 3 Marc. IT P. 50 
 
264 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 ed in the following brief declaration of the Council of Trent 
 *• Tliere is a purgatory, and the souls detained there are helped 
 by the prayers of the faithful, and particularly by the accept- 
 able sacrifice of the altar."* St. Chrysostom, the light of the 
 eastern church, flourished within 300 years of the age of the 
 apostles, and must be admitted as an unexceptionable witness 
 of tlieir doctrine and practice. Now he writes as follows : " It 
 was not without good reason ORDAINED BY THE APOS- 
 TLES, that mention shfDuld be made of the dead in the tremen- 
 oous mysteries, because they knew well that these would receive 
 great benefit from it."f 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 testimonies of St. Cyprian, in the following age, 
 are numerous. I shall satisfy myself with quoting one of them ; 
 where describing the difference between some souls, which are 
 Immediately admitted into heaven, and others, which are detain, 
 ^d in purgatory, he says, " It is one thing to be waiting for par- 
 Ion ; another to attain to glory : One thing to be sent to pris- 
 on, 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 cleans- 
 ed away all sin by sufrering,"§ 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. Am- 
 brose, St. Jerom, St. Augustin, and several other ancient fathers 
 and writers, who demonstrate, that the doctrine of the church 
 was the same that it is now, not only within a thousand, but also 
 within 400 years from the time of Christ, with respect both to 
 prayers for the dead, and an intermediate state, which we call 
 purgatory. How express is the authority of the last-named 
 father, in particular, where he says and repeats : " Through the 
 prayers and sacrifices of the church and alms-deeds, God deals 
 more mercifully with the departed than their sins deserve !"|| 
 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 !"ir As 
 to the doctrine of the oriental churches, which the bishop signi- 
 fies is conformable to that of his own, I affirm, as a laoi which 
 h9s been demonstrated,** that there is not of them which agrees 
 
 * Sess. XXV. De. Purg. t In cap. i. Philip. Horn. 3. 
 
 t L. De Monogam. c. 10. § S. Cypr. 1. 4. ep. 2. 
 
 II Serm. 172. Enchirid. cap. 109, 110. V Confess. 1. ix. c. 13. 
 
 ♦* See Confession of the different Oriental churches in the Perpetuity, &c 
 
PURGATORY. 2ft5 
 
 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 liv- 
 uig 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 ; and, accordingly, she 
 made a union with the Greeks in the Council of Florence, on 
 tlieir barely confessing and subscribing the aforesaid two articles. 
 III. I should do an injury, reverend 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 
 Luther admits of purgatory, as an article founded on Scripture." 
 Melancthon confesses that the ancients prayed for the dead, and 
 says that the Lutherans do not find fault with it.f Calvin in- 
 timates, that the souls of all the just are detained in Abraham's 
 bosom till the day of judgment. J In the first Liturgy of the 
 Church of England, which was drawn up by Cranmer and Rid- 
 ley, and declared by Act of Parliament to have been framed 
 by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, there is an express prayer for 
 the departed, that " God would grant them mercy and everlast- 
 mg peace. "§ 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 con 
 stantly prayed for his deceased wife. But what need is there 
 of more words on the subject, when it is clear that modern Pro- 
 testants, 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 dis- 
 ciples of Calvin, at Geneva, and, perhaps, everywhere 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 :ir thus establishing, as Fletcher of Madeley 
 cbserves, " a general purgatory."** A late celebrated theolo- 
 gical, as well as philosophical writer of our own country. Dr. 
 Priestley, being on his death-bed, called for Simpson's work on 
 the duration of future punishment, which he recommended in 
 
 » Assertiones, Art. 37. Disp. Leipsic. t Apolog. Conf. Aug. 
 
 t Inst. 1. iii. c. 5. § See the form in Collier's Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 257. 
 
 II Collier's Hist. — N. B. The present Bishop of Exoter, in a sermon ju3{ 
 published, prays for the soul of our Princess Charlottt , " as far as this is law- 
 ful and profitable." 
 
 T Encyclo. Art. Geneva. ** Checks to Antinom. yo] 4. 
 
 23 
 
268 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 *nese 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.'** 
 Heie again is a general Protestant purgatory : and why should 
 Satan and his crew be denied the benefit of it ? But to confine 
 myself to emir'^nt divines of the Established 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 doctrine, 
 at 3nce improper, and uncertain ;"f which sentiment is applaud- 
 ed by another eminent divine, who reviews that sermon in the 
 British Critic. if Another modern divine censures " the threat 
 of eternal perdition as a cause of infidelity. "§ The renowned 
 Dr. Paley, (but here we are getting into quite novel systems of 
 theology, which will force a smile from its old students, notwith- 
 standing 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 !"|| In the 
 same liberal spirit the Cambridge Professor of Divinity teaches, 
 that " God's wrath and damnation are more terrible in the sound 
 than in the sense !1F and that being damned does not imply any 
 fixed degree of evil."** In another part of his Lectures, he ex- 
 presses 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. "ff If this 
 sentiment be not sufficiently explicit in favor of purgatory, take 
 the following from a passage in which he is directly lecturing 
 on the subject. " With regard to the doctrine of purgatory, 
 though it may not be founded either in reason or in Scripture, 
 it is not unnatural. Who can bear the thought of dwelling in 
 everlasting torments ? — Yet who can say that a God, everlast- 
 ingly just, will not inflict them? The mind of man seeks for 
 some resource : it finds one only ; in coni?eiving that some tem- 
 porary punishment, after death, may purify the soul from \\% 
 moral pollutions, and make it at least acceptable, even to a 
 Deity infinitely pure.":j:J 
 
 IV. Bishop Porteus intimates, that the doctrine of a middU, 
 Bta:e of souls was borrowed from pagaM fable and philosophy. 
 
 » See Edinb. Review, Oct. 1806. t Sermons by the Rev. W. Gilpin, 
 
 Preb. of Sarum. % British Critic, Jan. 1802. § Rev. Mr. Poiwhele'i 
 
 Let. to Dr. Hawker || Moral and Polit. Philos. V Lect. vol. iii. p. 154 
 
 ** Lect. vol. iii. p 154 
 
 tt Vol. ii. p. 390. It is to be observed that the doctrine of the final sal. 
 ▼ation of the wicked is expressly condemrcd in the 42d Article of th« 
 Church of England. A. D. 1552 tt Vol. iv. p. 112. 
 
PURGATORY. 267 
 
 in answer to this;, I say, that if Plato,* Virgil, and other hea- 
 thens, ancient and modern, as likewise Mahomet and his disci- 
 j)les, 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 various ar- 
 guments, that a temporary punishment generally remains due 
 to sin, after the guilt and eternal punishment due to it have 
 been remitted. Again, we know from Scripture, that even the 
 just man falls seven times, Prov. xxiv. 17, and that men must 
 give an account of every idle word that they speak. Matt. xii. 36. 
 On the other hand, we are conscious that there is not an instant 
 of our life, in which this may not suddenly terminate, 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 maintain ?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 v/ill, is so monstrous a doctrine in itself, and so con- 
 trary to Scripture, which declares that God will render to every 
 man according to his deeds, Rom. ii. 6, that it seems to be uni- 
 versally exploded. f The evident consequence of this is, that 
 there are some venial or pardonable sins, for the expiation of 
 which, as well as for the temporary punishment due to othe.T 
 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 are 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 
 feathered pageantry ; while their burial service is a cold dis. 
 consolate ceremony ; and as to any further communication Avitfi 
 ;he 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 effectually, in the 
 other world, by our prayers, our sacrifices, our alms-deeds, than 
 we could in this by any temporary benefits we could bestow 
 
 * Plato in Georgia, Virgil's iEneid, I. G, the Koran. 
 
 t Calvin, 1. iii. c. 12. Fowler in Watson's Tracts, vol. %\. p. 363. 
 
 I See Dr. Hef, vol. iii. pp. 384, 451, 453. 
 
268 LETTER XLIT. 
 
 upon them. Hence we are inst ucted to cele'brate the obsequies 
 of the dead oy all such good works ; and, accordingly, our fu- 
 neral service consists of psalms and prayers, offered up for their 
 repose and eternal felicity. These acts of devotion pious Catho- 
 lics 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. Such benefits, 
 we are assured, will be paid with rich interest, by those souls, 
 when they attain to that bliss, to which we shall have contrib- 
 uted ; 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 re- 
 flect that we shall continue to live in the constant thoughts and 
 daily devotions of our Catholic relatives and friends ! 
 
 I am, yours, &c. 
 
 John Milner 
 
 LETTER XLIV.— TO THE REV. ROBERT CLAYTON, M.A. 
 
 EXTREME UNCTION. 
 
 Reverend 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 
 letter, in refutation of his chapter, because I have little more to 
 do than to cite that testimony, as it stands in the New Testa- 
 ment. It is as follows : " 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 Catechism, to constitute a sacrament;* 
 for there " is an outward visible sign," namely, the anointing 
 with oil ; there " is an inward spiritual grace given unto us," 
 namely, the saving of the sick, and the forgiveness of his sins. 
 Lastly, there is " the ordination of Christ, as the means by 
 which the same is received :" unless the bishop chooses to allege 
 
 • In the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
EXTREME UNCTIOIT. 26Q 
 
 tiat the holy apostle fabricated a sacrament, or means of grace, 
 without any authority for this purpose from his heavenly Master. 
 What then does his lordship say, in opposition to this divine 
 warrant for our sacrament ? He says, that the anointing of the 
 sick by elders, or old men, was the appointed method of miracu- 
 lously 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 man's sins means the cures of his corporal diseases!* 
 And after all this, he boasts of building his religion on mere 
 Scripture, in its plain, unglossed meaning. -j- In reading this, I 
 own I cannot help revolving in my mind, the above quoted pro- 
 fane parody of Luther, 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 ceremony (the anointing) which has long been useless, &c., 
 can be no loss, while every thing that is truly valuable in St. 
 James's direction, is preserved in our office for visiting the sick."§ 
 Exactly in this 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 deluded 
 Christians, who refuse to hear that church which Christ has ap- 
 pointed 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 means of obtaining their pardon, adds to it, the anointing 
 with oil, prescribed by St. James. IT St. Chrysostom, who lived 
 in the fourth century, speaking of the power of priests, in re- 
 mitting sin, says, " they exert it when they are called in to per- 
 form the rite mentioned by St. James," &c.** The testimony of 
 Pope Innocent t., in the same age, is so express as to the war- 
 rant for this sacrament, the matter, the minister, and the sub- 
 jects of it ;ff that though the bishop alluded to the testimony, hfi 
 does not choose to grapple with it, or even to quote it. JJ I pass 
 over the irrefragable authorities of St. Cyril of Alexandria, 
 Victor of Antioch, St. Gregory the Great, and our venerable 
 
 * Confut. p. 59. t P. 69. 
 
 t In principio Deus creavit ccelum et terrain : ' In the beginning thi 
 euckoo devoured the sparrow and its feathers." § Confut. p. 61. 
 
 II Barclay's Apology, Prop. 12. V Horn ii. in Levit. ** DeSacerd. l.iii 
 ft ^oist. ad Decent. Eigub. U Confut. p. 61 
 
 23* 
 
870 LETTER XLV. 
 
 Bede, in oider once more to recur to that short but convincing 
 proof, which I have already adduced on other contested points, 
 that the Catholic Church has not invented those sacraments and 
 doctrines in latter ages, which Protestants assert were unknown 
 \n the primitive ages. Let it then be remembered, that the Nes- 
 torians broke off from the communion of the church in 431, and 
 the Eutychians in 451 ; that these rival sects exist, in nume- 
 rous congregations, throughout the East, at the present day ; 
 and that they, as well as the Greeks, Armenians, &c., main- 
 tain, in belief and practice, extreme unction, as one of the seven 
 sacraments. Nothing can so satisfactorily 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 Luther, acted, in denying at once the 
 authority of St. James's epistle, and condemning it as a " chaffy 
 composition, and unworthy an apostle,"* than Bishop Porteus 
 and his confederates do, who attempt to explain away the clear 
 proofs of extreme unction contained in that epistle ! In the 
 mean time, in spite of every insult offered to the divine institu- 
 tions, and every uncharitable reflection cast on themselves or 
 their religious practices, pious Catholics will continue to receive, 
 in the time of man's greatest need, that inestimable consolation 
 and grace, which this and the other helps of their church, were 
 provided by our Saviour Jesus Christ to impart. — I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XLV.—TO THE REV. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A 
 
 WHETHER THE POPE BE ANTICHRIST. 
 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 There remains but one more question of doctrine to be dis- 
 cussed between me and your favorite controvertist. Bishop Por- 
 teus, which is concerning the character and power of the pope; 
 and this he compresses into a narrow compass, among a '< ariety 
 of miscellaneous matters, in the latter part of his book. How- 
 ever, 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 inquiry, whether the pope be really and truly, " The Man 
 of Sin, and the Son of Perdition," described by, St. Paul, 2 
 Thess. ii. 1, 10 ; in short, " The Antichrist spoken of by 8t. 
 
 • ** Straminosa." Prefat. in Ep. Jac. Jenae de Captiv BabyL 
 
ANTICHRIST. 271 
 
 itDhn," 1 John ii. 18, and called by him, "A beast with seven 
 heads and ten horns," Rev. xiii. 1, whose see or chu.'ch is 
 *' the great harlot, the mother of the fornications and abomina- 
 tions 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 liturgy, their min. 
 klry, 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 col- 
 leagues, Bishop Halifax, speaks of this doctrine concerning the 
 pope and Rome, as long being " the common symbol of Protest- 
 antism."* 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 the 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;"! ^"^ ^^ sooner did Pope Leo condemn his doc- 
 trine, than he published his book "Against the execrable bull 
 of Antichrist,":}: as he qualified it. In like manner, Melanc- 
 thon, Bullin2;er, 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. § 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, &c., with the bishops, Fowler, Warburton, 
 Newton, Halifax, Hurd, Watson, and others, too numerous to 
 be here mentioned. One of these writers, whose work has just 
 appeared, has collected from the Scriptures a new, and quite 
 whimsical system, concerning Antichrist. Hitherto, Protestant 
 expositors have been content to apply the character and attri- 
 butes of Antichrist, to a succession of Roman pontiffs; but the 
 Rev. H. Kett professes to have discovered, that the said Anti- 
 christ is, at the same time, every pope who has filled the See 
 of Rome, since the year 756, to the number of 160, 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 v-f 
 
 • Sermons by Bishop Halifax, preached at the lecture founded by th« 
 Ate Bishop Warburton, to prove the apostacy of Papal Rome, p. 27. 
 t Epist. ad Leon X., A. D. 1518. X Tom. ii. 
 
 § Bossuet's Variat. P ii. B. 13. 
 
273 LETTER XLV. 
 
 infii.elity, which he traces to a still more ancient origin than 
 even Mahometanism.* 
 
 That the first pope, St. Peter, on whom Christ declared that 
 he built his church, Matt. xvi. 18, was not Antichrist, I trust I 
 need not prove ; nor, indeed, his third successor in the popedom, 
 St. Clement ; since St. Paul testifies of him, that his name is 
 wntten in the hook 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 men-- 
 bers, that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole worlds 
 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 
 apostac}^ 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 
 greatest, and the most remarkable, that ever hajDpened since the 
 deluge. Hence, we might expect that the witnesses, who pro- 
 fess 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 
 Antichrist 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 171 l.f Sebastian Francus 
 affirms, 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- 
 ished, that Antichrist first appeared A. D. 200. § 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 ;ir 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 ; Bishop Newton on 
 the year 727 ; but all agree, says the Rev. Henry Kett, " that 
 the antichristian power was fully established in 757, or 758. "ff 
 Notwithstanding this confident assertion, Cranmer's bi jther-in- 
 
 • History of the Interpreter of Prophecy, by H. Kett, B. D. This wri, 
 ter's attempt to transform the great supporters of the pope, St. Jerom, Pope 
 Gregory I., St. Bernard, &,c., into witnesses that the pope is Antichrist, be- 
 cause they condemn certain acts as antichristian, is truly ridiculous. 
 
 t Bayie's Diet. Braunbom. t De Avegand Stat. Eccles. 
 
 § De Abolend Christ per Antichris. || Upon the Jlevel. 
 
 S In locis prostremo edit. ** In Confess. Genera] tt Vol. ii. p 58 
 
AI>JTICHRIST. 278 
 
 law, Buiiinger, had, long before, assigned the year 763 as the 
 era of this grand i evolution,* and Junius had put it off to 
 1073. Musculus could not discover Antichrist in the church 
 till about 1200, Fox not till 1300,-|- and Martin Luther, as we 
 have seen, not till his doctrine was condemned by Pope Leo in 
 1520. — Such are the inconsistencies and contradictions of those 
 learned Protestants, who profess to see so clearly the verification 
 of the prophecies concerning Antichrist in the Ronnan pontiffs. 
 I say, contradictions, because those among them, who prDnouncs 
 Pope Gregory, or Leo the Great, or Pope Silvester, to have 
 been Antichrist, must contradict those others, who adncit 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 
 birth and progress of them both. We have seen above, that 
 Braunbom prognosticated that the death of the papal Antichrist 
 would take place in the year 1640. John Fox foretold it would 
 happen in 1666. The incomparable Joseph Mede, as the Bishop 
 of Halifax calls him, J by a particular calculation of his own 
 invention, undertook to demonstrate that the papacy would be 
 finally destroyed in 1653. § The Calvinist minister, Jurieu, 
 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 disappointment 
 at each of these periods. || Alix, another Huguenot preacher, 
 predicted that the fatal catastrophe would certainly take place 
 in 1716. IT Whiston, who pretended to find out the longitude, 
 pretended also to discover that the popedom would terminate in 
 1714 ; finding himself mistaken, he guessed a second time, and 
 fixed on the year 1735.** At length, Mr. Kett, from the success 
 of his Antichrist of Infidelity against his Antichrist of Papery^ 
 about twenty years ago, (for he feels no difficulty in dividing 
 Satan against himself, Matt. xii. 6,) foretold that the long wished 
 for event was at the eve of being accomplished ;ff and Mr. 
 Daubeny having witnessed Pope Pius VI. in chains, and Rome 
 possessed by French Atheists, with several other preachers, 
 sounds the trumpet of victory, and exclaims, all is accom- 
 plished.JJ In like manner, G. S. Faber, in his two sermons, 
 before the University of Oxford, in 1799, boasts that " the im. 
 
 ♦ In Apoc. t In Eandem. t P. 286. § Bayle's Diet. i| Ibid 
 f Ibid •* Essay on Revel. tt Vol. ii. chap. 1. 
 
 X\ The fall of Papal Rome- 
 
374 LETTER XLV. 
 
 merise Gothic structure of Popery, built on superstition and but 
 tressed with tortures, has crumbled to dust." Empty triumphs 
 of the enemies of the church ! They ought to have learnea 
 from her lengthened history, that she never proves the truth of 
 Christ's promises so evidently as when she seems sinking under 
 the waves of persecution : and that the chair of Peter never 
 shines so gloriously as when it is filled by a dying martyr, like 
 Pius VI., or a captive confessor, like Pius VII.; however tri. 
 umphant, for a lime, their persecutors may appear ! 
 
 But these dealers in prophecy undertake to demonstrate from 
 the characters of Anticirist, as pointed out by St. Paul and St. 
 John, that this succession of popes is the very man in question. 
 Accordingly, the Bishop of LlandafFsays : " I have known the infi- 
 delity of more than one young man happily removed, by showing 
 him the characters of Popery delineated by St. Paul, in his pio- 
 phecy concerning the man of sin, (2 Thess. ii.,) and in that con- 
 cerning the apostacyofthe latter times, 1 Tim. iv. 1."* In proof of 
 this point, he republishes the dissenter Benson's dissertation on 
 Ihe man of sin.-\ I purpose, therefore, making a few remarks 
 on the leading points of this adoptive child of his lordship, as 
 also upon some of the Rev. Mr. Kett's illustrations of them. 
 First, then, we all know that the revelation of the man of sin will 
 be accompanied with a revolt or falling off, in other words, with 
 a great apostacy ; but it is a question to be discussed between 
 me and Bishop Watson, whether this character of apostacy is 
 more applicable to the Catholic Church, or to that class of reli- 
 gionists who adopt his opinions ? To decide this point, let me 
 ask, what are the first principal articles of the three creeds pro- 
 fessed by his church as well as by ours, that of the apostles, 
 t.hat of Nice, and that of St. Athanasius, as likewise of his Arti- 
 cles, his Liturgy, and his Canons ? Incontestibly those which 
 profess a belief in the blessed Trinity, and the incarnation of 
 the consubstantial Son of the Eternal Father. Now it is noto- 
 rious, that every Catholic throughout the world holds these the 
 fundamental articles of Christianity as firmly now as St. Atha- 
 nasius himself did fifteen hundred years ago ; but what says his 
 lordship, with numberless other Protestant Christians of this 
 country, on these heads ? Let the preface to this 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 by worshipping Jesus Christ. "§ 
 Let his charges be examined : in one of which he says to his 
 clergy, that " he does not think it safe to tell them what the 
 
 '« . Bishop Watson's Collect, p. 7 t Ibid. p. 968. 
 
 X Vol. 1, Pref. p. 15, &c. § P. 17. 
 
ANTICHRIST. 275 
 
 Christian doctrines are;'^* no, not sc mucn as the unity and 
 trinity of God. In another, charge, however, the bishop as- 
 sumes more courage, and informs his clergy, that " Protestant. 
 ism consists in believing what each one pleases, and in profess- 
 ing jvhat he believes." How much should I rejoice to have 
 this question o^apostacy, between the Bishop of Llandaff and me, 
 decided by Luther, Calvin, Beza, Cranmer, Ridley, and James 
 I., were it not for the proofs which history affords me, that, Kot 
 content with excluding 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 is lifted up above all that is called God, or that 
 is worshipped ; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
 himself as if he were God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. This character 
 Mr. Benson and Bishop Watson think applicable to the pope, 
 who, they say, claims the attributes and homage due to the 
 Deity. I leave you, reverend sir, and your friends, to judge of 
 the truth of this character, when I inform you uiat the pope has 
 his confessor, like other Catholics, to whom he confesses his sins 
 in private ; 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 most solemn part of 
 it, he professes " his hopes of forgiveness, not through his own 
 merits, but through the bounty and grace of Jesus Christ our 
 Lord."j- The third mark of Antichrist is, that his coming is ac- 
 cording to the working of Satan, and in all power, and signs, and 
 lying wonders. 2 Thess. ii. 9. From this passage of Holy 
 Writ, it appears 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 by him to work them, from time to time, 
 ever since this his promise. This I have elsewhere demon- 
 strated ; as, likewise, that the fact is denied by Protestants, not 
 for want of evidence, as to its truth, but because this is neces- 
 sary for the defence of their system. f Still it is false that the 
 Catholic Church ever claimed a poioer 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 \vm. 
 
 * Bishop Watson's Charge, 1795. t Canon of the Mass. I Part ii. Let. xxiif. 
 
276 LETTER XLV. 
 
 The latest dealer in prophecies, who boasts tl at his book* 
 have been revised by the Bishop of Lincoln,'^ by way of show- 
 ing the confornnity 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, aa 
 in the case of St. Anthony's fire.'''-\ I am almost ashamed to 
 lefute so illiterate a cavil. True it is, that the hospital monks 
 of St. Anthony were heretofore famous for curing the eiysipelas 
 with a peculiar ointment, on which account that disease ac- 
 quired the 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 
 tht^ fourth alleged resemblance between Antichrist and the pope, 
 that of persecuting the saints, till I have leisure to treat that sub- 
 ject in greater detail than I can at present. I shall take no 
 notice at all of this writer's chronological calculations, nor oi 
 the anagrams and chronograms, by which many Protestant ex. 
 pounders have endeavored to extract the mysterious number of 
 666 from the name or title of certain popes, further than to ob. 
 serve, that ingenious Catholics have extracted the same num. 
 ber from the name of Martinus Lutherus, and even from that of 
 David Chrytheus, who was the most celebrated inventor of 
 those riddles. 
 
 Such are the grounds on which certain refractory children in 
 modern ages, have ventured to call their true mother a prosit' 
 tute, 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 ; 
 iheir object being only to inflame the ignorant multitude. I 
 have sufficient reason to think this, when I hear a Luther threat, 
 ening to unsay all that he had said against the pope, a Melanc. 
 thon lamenting that Protestants had renounced him, a Beza 
 negotiating to return to him, and a late Warburton lecturer la 
 menting, on his death-bed, that he could not do the same, with 
 out impoverishing his wife and children. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 JoHr* MiLNER. 
 
 • Interpret of Prophecy, by H. Kett, LL. B. Fref 
 
 t KeCt, vol ii. p 22. X Paquotius, In Molanum De Saci nag 
 
SUPREMACT. iT^ 
 
 1.ETTER XLVI.— TO THE REV. ROBERT CLAYTON, M.A. 
 
 ON THE POPE'S SUPREMACY. 
 
 Reverend sir — 
 
 This acknowledges the honor of three different letters from 
 you, which I have not till now been able to notice. The objec- 
 tions, 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 ike Pope^s Supremacy, as well as what Bishop Por- 
 teus has published upon it, you cannot be but 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, reverend 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 Tillotson's 
 assertion concerning it, is impudent, I shall leave you to deter- 
 mine, when you shall have perused the present letter. But aa 
 this, like other subjects of our controversy, has been enveloped 
 in a cloud of misrepresentation, I must begin with dissipating 
 this cloud, and with clearly stating what the faith of the Cath- 
 olic 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 depose 
 princes, or give or take away the property of other persons out 
 3f his own domain : for even the incarn?,te Son of God, from 
 whom he derives the supremacy which he possesses, did not claim, 
 nere upon earth, any right of the above-mentioned kind ; on the 
 contrary, he positively declared, that his kingdom is not of this 
 world f Hence, the Catholics of both our islands have, without 
 impeachment even From Rome, denied upon oath, that " the pope 
 has any civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence, 
 directly or indirectly, within this realm. "f But, as it is unde- 
 niable that different popes, ifi former ages, have pronounced sen- 
 tence of deposition against certain contemporary princes, and as 
 great numbers of theologians have held, (though not as a matter 
 of faith,) that they had a right to do so ; it seems proper, by way 
 of mitigating the odium which Dr. Porteus and other Protestan.9 
 rsise against them on this head, to state the grounds on which 
 
 • Tillotson's Preface to Barrow's Treatise. "• 31 Geo. III. c. 32. 
 
 24 
 
378 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 the poi/tiiTs acted, and the divines reasoned, in this business, 
 Heretoibre the kingdoms, principalities, and states, composing 
 the Latin Cfiurch, when tliey were all of the same religion, 
 formed, as it were, one Christian republic, of which the pope 
 was the accredited head. Now, as mankind have been sensible 
 at all times that the duty of civil allegiance and submission can. 
 not extend beyon(. a certain point, and that they ought not to 
 surrender their property, lives, and morality, to be sported with 
 by a Nero or a Heliogabalus ; instead of deciding the nice point 
 for themselves, wnen resistance becomes lawful, they thought it 
 right to be guided by their chief pastor. The kings and princes 
 themselves acknowledged this right in the pope, and frequently 
 applied to him to make use of his indirect temporal power, as 
 appears in numberless instances.* In latter ages, however, 
 since Christendom has been disturbed by a variety of religions, 
 the power of the pontiff has been generally withdrawn. Princes 
 make war upon each other at their pleasure, and subjects rebel 
 against their princes as their passions dictate,")" to the great detri- 
 
 * See in Mat. Paris, A. D. J195, the appeal of our king, Richard I., to 
 Pope Celestin III. against the Duke of Austria, for having detained him pris- 
 oner at Trivallis, and the pope's sentence of excommunication against the 
 duke for refusing to do him justice. 
 
 t In every country in which Protestantism was preached, sedition and re. 
 bellion, with the tota>l or partial deposition of the lawful sovereign, ensued, 
 not without the active concurrence of the preachers themselves. Luther 
 formed a league of princes and states in Germany against the emperor, which 
 desolated the empire for more than a century. His disciples, Muncer and 
 Storck, taking advantage of the pretended evangelical liberty which he taught, 
 at the head of 40,000 Anabaptists, claimed the empire and possession of the 
 world, in quality of the meek ones, and enforced their demand with fire and 
 sword, dispossessing princes and lawful owners, &c. Zuinglius lighted up a 
 Bimilar flame throughout Switzerland, at Geneva, &c., and died fighting, 
 Bword in hand, for the Reformation, which he preached. The United States 
 embraced Protestantism, and renounced their sovereign, Philip, at the same 
 time. The Calvinists of France, in conformity with the doctrine of their 
 master, namely, that " Princes deprived themselves of their power when they 
 resist God, and that it is better to spit in their faces than obey them," Dan. 
 vi. 22, as soon as they found themselves strong enough, rose in arms against 
 their sovereigns, and dispossessed them of half their dominions. Knox, 
 Goodman, Buchanan, and the other preachers of Presbyterianism in Scot- 
 land, having taught the people that " Princes may be deposed by their sub 
 jects, 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 per. 
 petration of those riots and violences, including the murder of Cardinal Beaton, 
 and the deposition and captivity of their lawful sovereign, by which Protest. 
 aniism 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 Re. 
 formation, especially that of each man's explaining the Scripture for himself, 
 
SFPREMACY. ^1>/ 
 
 ment of both parties, as may be gathered from what Sir Edward 
 Sandys, an early and zealous Protestant, writes : " The pope 
 was the common father, adviser, and conductor of Christians, to 
 reconcile their enmities, and decide their differences."* I 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 253 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 honor to 
 It by their virtues and conduct. On this head, I must again 
 fluote Addison, who says : " The pope is generally a man of 
 .earning and virtue, mature in years and experience, who has 
 seldom any vanity or pleasure to gratify at his people's ex- 
 i^-ense, and is neither encumbered with wife and children, or 
 tinstresses."f 
 
 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 ad- 
 dresses the whole church, and delivers the faith of it upon some 
 contested article,):]: nor would you, in case you were to become 
 a Catholic, be required to believe in any doctrines except such 
 as are held by the whole Catholic Church, with the pope at its 
 head. But without entering into this, or any other scholastic 
 question, I shall content myself with observing, that it is impos- 
 sible lor any man of candor and learning 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 pre-eminence, is called Papa, 
 
 and hatred of Popery, that ihe grand rebellion was begun and carried on, till 
 the king was beheaded and the constitution destroyed. Has, then, the cause 
 of humanity, or tha' of peace and order, been benefited by the change in 
 question f 
 
 * Survey of Europ;e, p. 202. t Remarks on Italy, p. 112. 
 
 t The follovs'ing is a specimen of Barrow's and Tillotson's chicanery, in 
 their Treatise cf the Supremacy. Bellarmin, in working up an argument on 
 the pope's infallibility, says, hypotketically, by way of proving the falsehood 
 of his opponent's doctrine, that " ^lis doctrine would oblige the church to be. 
 lieve vices to be good, and virtues to be bad, in case the pope were to err in 
 teaching this " Bell, de Rom. Pont. 1. iv. c. 5. Hence these writers take oc- 
 casion to affirm, that Bellarmin positively teaches that *' if the pope should 
 err, by enjoining vices or forbidding virtues, the church would be bound to 
 beheve vices to be good, and virtues evil I" P. 203 This shameful misre. 
 presentation has been taken up by most subsequent Protestant controvertists. 
 
 ^ Exereit. xv. ad Annal. Baron 
 
280 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 \Fope, or Father of the Faithful,) is, or is net, entitled to a supe. 
 rior ranlc and jurisdiction above other bishops of the Cnristian 
 church, so as to be its syiritua! 'head here upon eaith, and Jiia 
 see the centre of Catholic unity? All Catholics necessarily hold 
 the affirmative of this question ; while the above-mentioned ter- 
 giversating primate denies that nere is a tolerable argument in 
 its favor.* Let us begin with consulting the New Testament, in 
 order to see whether or not 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, Matt. x. 2. In like man- 
 ner, the other evangelists, while they class the other apostles 
 differently, still give the first place to Peter. f In fact, as Bos- 
 suet observes,:|: " St. Peter was the first to confess his faith in 
 Christ ;§ the first to whom Christ appeared after his resurrec- 
 tion ;|| the frsi to preach the belief of this to the people ;ir the 
 firstio convert the Jews,** and the first to receive the Gentiles, "ff 
 Again, I would ask, is there no distinction 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 Christ's 
 lambs, and, at length, \ofeed his sheep also, whom the lambs ap« 
 used to follow ?JJ What else is here signified, but that thia 
 apostle was to act the part of a shepherd, not only with respect 
 to the flock in general, but also with respect to the pastors 
 themselves ? The same is plainly signified, by our Lord's 
 prayer for the faith of this apostle in 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 
 
 * 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 
 lie ever received either episcopal ordination or baptism. His successor, 
 ^eckej, was also a dissenter, and his baptism has been called in question. 
 The former, with Bishop Burnet, was called upon to attend Lord Russell at 
 his execution, when they absolutely insisted, as a point necessary for salva 
 tion, on his disclaiming the lawfulness of resistance, in any case whatever 
 Presently after, the revolution happening, they themselves declared for Rua 
 sell's principles. 
 
 t Mark, iii. 16. Luke, vi. 14. Acts, i. 13. J Orat. ad Cler. 
 
 § Matt. xvi. 16. II Luke, xxiv. 34. IT Acts, il. .14. «» Ibid. &7-4L 
 
 ft Ibid. X. 47. tt John, xxi. 15. 
 
SUPREMACY. 281 
 
 our Lord's prophetic declaration to Simon : Fear not ; from 
 henceforth ihou shalt catch men ? Luke, v. 3, 10. But the strong, 
 est proof of St. Peter's superior dignity and jurisdiction consists 
 in that explicit and energetical declaration of our Saviour to him 
 in the quarters of Cesarea Philippi, upon his making that glori- 
 ous confession of our Lord's divinity : Thou art Christ, the Son 
 of thz living God. Our Lord had mysteriously changed hia 
 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 Father, who is in heaven : 
 and I say to thee, thou art Peter," (a rock,) " and UPON 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 heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
 earth, shall be loosed also in heaven," Matt. xvi. 17, 18, 19. 
 Where now, I ask, is the sincere Christian, and especially the 
 Christian who professes to make the Scripture the sole rule of 
 his faith, who, with these passages of the inspired text before his 
 eyes, will venture, at the risk of his soul, to deny that any spe- 
 cial dignity or charge was conferred upon St. Peter in prefer- 
 ence 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 *o his 
 primacy and jurisdiction. This cannot be questioned by any 
 serious Christian, who reflects that, when our Saviour gave his 
 orders about feeding his flock, and made his declaration about 
 building his church, he was not establishing an order of things, 
 to last during the few years that St. Peter had to live, but one 
 that was to last as long as he should have a flock and a church 
 on earth, that is, to the end of time — conformably with his prom- 
 ise to the apostles and their successors, in the concluding words 
 of St. Matthew : Behold, I am laith you always, even to the end 
 of the world. Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 
 That St. Peter, (after governing, for a time, the Patriaichale 
 of Antioch, the capital of the East, and thence sending ^is dis- 
 ciple, Mark, to establish that of Africa at Alexandria,) finally 
 fixed his own see at Rome, the capital of the world ; that his 
 successors there have each of them exercised the power of 
 supreme pastor, and have been acknowledged as such by all 
 Christians, except by notorious heretics and schismatics, from 
 
 24* 
 
t83 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 the apostolic uge down to the present, the writings of the. father*, 
 doctors, and historians of the ciiurch unanimously testify. St 
 Paul, having been converted, and raised to the apostleship in a 
 miraculous mannei, thought it necessary to go up to Jerumlem 
 to see Peter, where he abode with him fifteen days, Galat. i. 18. 
 St. Ignatius, who was a disciple of the apostles, and next suc- 
 cessor, after Evodius, of St. Peter in the See of Antioch, ad- 
 dresses 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 Co- 
 rinth, the case was referred to the Church of Rome, to which 
 the holy Pope Clement, whose name is written in the hook of life, 
 Philipp. iv. 3, returned an apostolical answer of exhortation 
 and instruction.! In the second century, St. Irenseus, 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.":!: TertuUian, 
 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 prelate," &c. I must add, that at 
 ihis early period. Pope Victor exerted his superior authority, by 
 threatening the bishops of Asia with exconnjnunication, for their 
 irregularity in celebrating Easter, and the other moveable 
 feasts ; from which rigorous measure he was deterred, chiefly 
 by St. Irenseus. II In the third century, we hear OrigenlF and 
 St. Cyprian repeatedly aflfirming, that the church was " found- 
 ed on Peter," that he " fixed his chair at Rome," that this is, 
 "the mother church," and "root of Catholicity."** The latter 
 expresses great indignation, that certain African schismatics 
 should dare to approach " the See of Peter, the head church 
 and source of ecclesiastical unity. "ff It is true, this father 
 afterwards had a dispute with Pope Stephen, about rebaptizing 
 converts from heresy ; but this proves nothing more, than that 
 \e did not think the pope's authority superior to general tradi- 
 tion, which, through mistake, he supposed to be on his side. 
 To what degree, however, he did admit this authority; appears 
 
 ♦ llpoKd9t,Tai, Epist. Ignat. Cotelero. t Coteler. 
 
 X "Ad hanc ecclesiam convenire, necesse est omnem ecclesiam." Con. 
 *ra Haeres. I. iii. c. 3. § Prescrip. 1. i. c. 22, De Monogam. 
 
 U Euseb. His. Eccles. 1. v. c, 24. IT Horn. 5 in Exord. Horn. 17 in Luc 
 •* Ep. ad Cornel Ep. ad Anton. De Unit, &c. tt Ep. ad Cornel 55. 
 
SUPREMACY. 283 
 
 by his advising the same pope fc 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 grouna 
 of the Roman pontiff's claim to superior authority, which .le de- 
 rives from St. Peter ;f we have also the great champion ^f 
 orthodoxy, and the patriarch of the second see in the world, St. 
 Athanasius, appealing to the Bishop of Rome, which see he 
 terms " the mother 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. § 
 
 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. || Even the pagan historian, Ammianus, about 
 the same time bears testimony to the superior authority of the 
 Roman pontiff.lF 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 
 named of these, scruples not to advise that the pope should send 
 visiters to the eastern churches, to correct the disorders which 
 the Arians had caused in them ;** and that the last mentioned 
 represents communion with the Bishop of Rome, as communion 
 with the Catholic Church. ff I must add, that the great St. Chry- 
 sostom having been soon after unjustly deposed from his see in 
 the eastern metropolis, was restored to it by the authority of 
 Pope Innocent ; that Pope Leo termed his church " the head 
 of the world," because its spiritual power, as he alleged, ex- 
 tended further than the temporal power of Rome had ever ex- 
 tended. if:]: Finally, the learned St. Jerom, being distracted with 
 the disputes among three parties, which divided the Church of 
 Antioch, to which church he was then subject, wrote for direc- 
 tions, on this head, to Pope Damasus, as follows : " I, who am 
 but a sheep, apply to my shepherd for succor. I am united in 
 communion with your holiness ; that is to say, with the chair 
 of Peter. I know that church is built upon that rock. He 
 who eats the paschal lamb out of that house is profane. Who- 
 ever is not in Noah's ark will perish by the deluge. I auow 
 
 ♦ Ep. 29 t Euseb. Chron. An. 44. X Epist. ad Marc. 
 
 ^ Socrat. Hist. 1. ii. c. 2. Zozom. || Can. 3. IT Rcrum Gest. l.xt. 
 
 •* Epist. 52. tt Orat. in Obit Satyr. 
 
 XX Serm. de Nat. Apos. This sentiment, another father of the churefa, ia 
 **ie fiUowiiig century, St. Prosper, expressed in these lines : — 
 " Sedes Roma Petri, quae, pastoralis honoris 
 Facta caput mundo, quidquid non possidet armia^ 
 Religione tenet " 
 
284 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 nothing ofA italis, I reject Meletius, I am ignorant of Paulinus* 
 -16 who does not gather with thee, scatters," &c.* It were use- 
 .ess, after th s, to cite the numerous testimonies to the pope's 
 supremacy, which St. Augustin, and all the fathers, doctors, 
 and church historians, and all the general 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 Bishop Porteus,f merely for 
 having censured the pride of John, Patriarch of Constantinople, 
 in assuming to himself the title of (Ecumenical or univeisal 
 iishop ; it is proper to show, that this pope, like all the other? 
 who went before him, and came after him, did claim and exercise 
 the power of supreme pastor, throughout the church. Speaking 
 of this very attempt of John, he says : " The care of the Avhole 
 church was committed to Peter, and yet he is not called the 
 universal apostle. "if With respect to the See of Constantino- 
 ple, he says: " Who doubts but it is subject to the apostolical 
 see ?" and again, " When bishops commit a fault, 1 know not 
 what bishop is not subject to it," (the See of Ronie.)^ As no 
 pope was ever more vigilant in discharging the duties of his ex- 
 alted station, than St. Gregory, so none of them, perhaps, exer- 
 cised more numerous or widely extended acts of the supremacy, 
 than he did. It is sufficient to cite here his directions to St. 
 Augustin of Canterbury, whom he had sent into this island for 
 the conversion of our Saxon ancestors, and v/ho had consulted 
 him; by letter, how he was to act with respect to the French 
 bishops, and the bishops of this island, namely, the British pre- 
 lates in Wales, and the Pictish and Scotch in the northern 
 parts ? To this question Pope Gregory returns an answer i» 
 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 au 
 thority he has received. But we commit all the bishops of 
 Britain to your care, that the ignorant among them may be in. 
 structed, the weak strengthened, and the perverse corrected by 
 your authority. "II After this, is it possible to believe, that 
 Bishop Porteus and his fellow-writers ever read Venerable 
 Bede's History of the English Nation ? But if they could ever 
 succeed in proving, that Christ had not built his church upop 
 St. Peter and his successors, and had not given to them the key>' 
 of the kingdom of heaven ; it would still remain for them to 
 prove that he had founded any part of it on Henry VIII., Ed 
 
 • Ep. ad Damas. t P. 78. X Ep. Greg. 1. v. 20. § L. ix. 59 
 I His. Bed. 1. i. c. 27. Resp. 9. Spelm. Council, p. 98. 
 
suraEMAcy. 285 
 
 ^*ii I fl. and their successors, or that he had given the mysticai 
 keya \J E'lzabeth and her successors. I have shown, in a for- 
 mer 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 ; ana yet no one will pretend to show from 
 Scripture, tradition, or reason, that these princes had received 
 any greatei power from Christ, over the doctrine and di?(up]ine 
 of his church, than he conferred upon Tiberius, Pilate, or He- 
 rod, or than he has given, at the present day, to the great Turk 
 or the Lama oi Thibet, m their respective dominions. 
 
 Before I close this letter, I think it right to state the senti- 
 ments of a few eminent Protestants, respecting the pope's 3U- 
 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 VIIL asserted 
 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 honor, Ann Bullein, and finding 
 the pope conscientiously inflexible, in refusing to grant him a 
 divorce from the former, and to sanction an adulterous con- 
 nection with the latter, he set himself up as supreme head of the 
 Church of England, and inamtained his claim by the arguments 
 of halters, kpives, and axes. James L in his first speech in 
 'Parliament, termed Rome '• the mother church," and in his 
 writings pllowed the pope to be " the Patriarch of the West." 
 The late Archbishop Wake, after all his bitter writings against 
 the pope and the Catholic Church, coming to discuss the terme 
 of a proposed union between this church and that of England, 
 expressed himself willing to allow a certain superiority to the 
 Roman pontiff.* 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, without 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 reform- 
 
 • *' S«o gaudeat qualicunque Primalu. See Maclaine's Third Apprndil 
 '.o Mosl cim's Eccl. Hist. vol. v. t Answe* to Militiere. 
 
286 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 ers, with whom he was connected, and the utter impossibility o! 
 putting a stop to these evils, without returning to the ancient 
 system, he wrote 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 certain bishops to 
 govern the pastors of several churches, and that THE RO 
 MAN 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 doc 
 trine ; so tha', if there were no bishops, they ought to be crea- 
 ted."* The latter great man, Grotius, was learned, wise, and 
 always consistent. In proof of this he wrote as follows, to the 
 minister, Rivet : "All who are acquainted with Grotius, know 
 how earnestly he has wished to see Christians united together 
 m one body. This he once thought might have been accom- 
 plished by a union among Protestants ; but, afterwards, 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 uni- 
 ted at present, nor prevented from splitting into fresh divisions. 
 Therefore Grotius now is fully convinced, 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, yours, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XLVn.— TO JAMES BROWN, JUN., ESQ., 
 
 ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE LITURGY, AND ON 
 READING 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 Salopian 
 Society in more respects than one ; and as it is his wish that 1 
 should address the few remaining letters I l^ave to write, in an- 
 
 * D'Argentre, Collect. Jud. t. i. p. 2. — Bercastle and Feller relate, thai 
 Melancthon's mother, who was a Catholic, having consalted him about hei 
 I'eiigion, he persuaded her to continue in it. 
 
LANGUAGE OF LITURGY. 287 
 
 bwer 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. Indeed the re- 
 maining controversies between that prelate and myself are of 
 light moment, compared with those I have been treating of, as 
 they consist chiefly of disciplinary matters, subject to the con. 
 trol of the church, or of particular facts, misrepresented by hii 
 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 domain, should 
 adopt its own language, in its public worship ; and, for a simi- 
 lar 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 com- 
 mon 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 unknown 
 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," he wust be conscious 
 of the irreligious calumnies he is uttering ; knowing, as he does, 
 that Latin is, perhaps, still the most general language of Chris- 
 tianity,* and that where it is not commonly understood, it is not 
 the church which introduced a foreign language among the people, 
 but it is the people who have forgotten 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 pastors everywhere, " to inculcate 
 che word of God, and the lessons of salvation, to the people in 
 -heir vulgar tongue, every Sunday and Festival throughout the 
 year,"! and to " explain to them the nature and meaning of her 
 divine worship as frequently as possible. "J In like manner, 
 We are so far from imagining, that the less our people under, 
 stand 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. 
 
 • The Latin language is vernacular in Hungary and the neighboring coun, 
 tries ; it is taught in all the Catholic settlements of the universe : and it ap. 
 preaches so near to the Italian, Spanish, and French, as to be understood, 
 in a general kind of way, by those who use these languages. 
 
 I Concil. Frid. Sess. xxiv. c. 7 t Idem. Sess. xxi. c. 8 
 
288 LETTER XLVll. 
 
 True it is, that a part of this is performed by the priest in silence ; 
 because, being a sacred action, as well as a form of words, some 
 of the prayers which the priest says, would not be proper or 
 lational in the mouths of the people. — Thus, the high priest of 
 old went alone into the tabernacle, to make the atonement ;* and 
 thus Zachary offered incense in the temple hy himself; while 
 the multitude prayed without. f But this is no detriment to tha 
 faithful, as they have translations of the liturgy, and other 
 books in their hands, by means of which or of their own devo- 
 tion, they can join with the priest in every part of the solemn 
 worship ; as 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- 
 swer, 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 im- 
 prudent and ostentatious use of the gift of tongues in speaking 
 all kinds of languages; which gift many of the faithful possess- 
 ed at the time, in common with the apostles. The very reason 
 alleged by St. Paul, for prohibiting extempore prayers and ex- 
 nortations, which no one understood, namely, that all things 
 should he 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 be- 
 fore 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 in- 
 stead 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 es- 
 sential forms, which would vitiate the very sacrament and sac- 
 rifice. The advantage of an ancient language, for religious 
 worship, over a modern one, in this and other respects, is ac- 
 knowledged 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. "J But to return to Bishop 
 Porteus's appeal to the judgment of St. Paul, concerning " the 
 Romanists' practice, in retaining the language with the sub- 
 stance of their primitive liturgy," I leave you, dear sir, an<l 
 
 • Levit. xvi. 17. t Luke i. 10. \ Lectures, vol. iv. p. Itl 
 
PROHIBITION OE SCRIPTURES. 28f 
 
 your frienJs, to pronounce upon it, after I v?hall 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 them- 
 selves made use of the Latin :* 2dly, that the Jews, after they 
 had exchanged their original Hebrew for the Chaldaic tongue, 
 during the Babylonish captivity, continued to perform their litur- 
 gy in the former language, though the vulgar did not understand 
 it :t and that our Saviour Christ, as well as his apostles, and 
 other devout friends, attended this service in the temple, and the 
 Synagogue, without ever censuring it : 3dly, that the Greek 
 churches, in general, no less than the Latin Church, retain their 
 original pure Greek tongue in their liturgy, though the common 
 people have forgotten it, and adopted different barbarous dialects 
 instead of it rf 4thly, that Patriarch Luther maintained, against 
 Carlostad, that the language of public worship was a matter of 
 indifference. Hence, his disciples professed, in their Augsburg 
 Confession, to retain the Latin language in certain parts of their 
 service. Lastly, that when the Establishment endeavored, under 
 Elizabeth, and afterwards under Charles L to force their liturgy 
 upon the Irish Catholics, it was not thought necessary to trans- 
 late it into Irish, but it was constantly read in English, of which 
 the natives did not understand a word : thus " furnishing the 
 papists with an excellent argument against themselves," as Dr. 
 Heylin observes. § 
 
 The bishop has next a long letter on what he calls the prohi ■ 
 hitionof the Scriptures, by the Romanists ; in which he confuses 
 and disguises the subjects he treats of, to beguile and inflame 
 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 under- 
 values 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 au/henficlty, their jmrity, and their inspiration. 
 Bui then, she knows that there is an miwrittcn w$rd of God, 
 called tradition, as well as a written word, the Scriptures ; that 
 tlie former is the evidence for the authority of the latter, and that 
 whe ^ nations had been converted, and churches formed by the 
 unwritten word, the authority of this was nowise abrogated 
 
 « St. Jeroni, Epist. 123. t Walton's Polyglot Proleg. Hey, &c. 
 
 t Mosheim, by Maclaine, vol. ii. p. 575. 
 
 § Ward has successfully ridiculed this attempt in his England^ Jieforma 
 thttf Canto II. 
 
290 LETTER XL VII. 
 
 by the inspired epistles and gospels, wl ich me apostles and 
 evangelists occasionally sent to such nations or churches. In 
 short, both these words together form the Catholic rule of faith. 
 On the other hand, the church, consisting, according to its more 
 general division, of two distinct classes, the pastors and their 
 flocks, the preachers and their hearers ; each has his particular 
 «.lu1ies in the point under consideration, as well as in other re- 
 spects. The pastors are bound to study the rule of faith in 
 tjoth its parts, with unwearied application, to be enabled to ac- 
 quit themselves of the Jlrst of all their duties, .hat of preaching 
 the gospel to their people.* Hence St. Ambrose calls the sacred 
 Scripture the Sacerdotal Book, and the Council of Cologne or- 
 ders that it should " never be out of the hands of ecclesiastics.'* 
 In fact, the Catholic clergy must, and do employ no small por- 
 tion of their time, every day, in reading diiferent portions of 
 Holy Writ. But no such obligation 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 an- 
 nounce and to explain it to them, whether by sermons, or cate- 
 chisms, or other good books, or in the tribunal of penance. 
 Thus, it is not the bounden 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 offi- 
 cers, pronouncing upon them ; and, by the same rule, the latter 
 would be inexcusable if they did not make the law and consti 
 tution their constant study, in order to decide right. Still, how. 
 ever, the Catholic Church never did prohibit the reading of the 
 Scriptures to the laity : she only required, by way of prepara- 
 tion for this most difficult and important study, that they shoulci 
 have received so much education 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 guaran- 
 tees to them ; or in case they were desirous of reading it in a 
 modern tongue, that they should be furnished with some attesta- 
 tion of their piety and docility, in order to prevent their turning 
 hi'S salutary food of souls into a deadly poison, as, it is univer- 
 sally confessed, so many thousands constantly have da e. At 
 present, however, the chief pastors have everywhere 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.'l' that is, 
 
 • Trid. Sess. v. cap. 2. Gess. xxv. cap. 4. 
 
 t See the Bishop of Lincola's Elements of Theol. vol. ii. p. 10. 
 
PROHTBTTION OF SCRIPTURES. 291 
 
 too faithful — But Dr. Porteus professes not to admit of any re 
 striction whatever, " on the reading of what heaven hath re- 
 vealed, with respect to any part of mankind." No doubt, ths 
 revealed truths themselves are to be made known as much as pos- 
 sible to all mankind ; but it does not follow from hence, that ali 
 mankind are to read the Scriptures : there are passages in them, 
 which, I am confident, his lordship would not wish his daugh- 
 ters to peruse ; and which, in fact, were prohibited to the Jews 
 till they had attained the age of thirty.* Again, as Lord 
 Clarendon, Mr. Grey, Dr. Hey, &c., agree, that the misappli- 
 cation 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 1780, I am confident the bishop, as a Chris- 
 tian, no less than as a British subject, would have taken the 
 Bible out of the hands of Hugh Peters, Oliver Cromwell, Lord 
 George Gordon, and their respective crews, if this had been in 
 his power, I will affirm the same, with respect to Count 
 Emanuel Swedenborg, the founder of the modern sect of New 
 Jerusalemites, who taught that no one had understood the Scrip- 
 tures, 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 serpenfs head, and the woman 
 of the Revelations, clothed with the sun, and crowned with twelve, 
 stars. Nay, [ greatly deceive myself if the prelate would not 
 be glad to take away every hot-brained dissenter's Bible, who 
 employs it in persuading the people that the Church of Eng- 
 land is a rag of Popery, and a spawn of the whore of Babylon. 
 In short, whatever Dr. Porteus may choose to say of an unre- 
 stricted perusal and interpretation of the Scriptures, with respect 
 to all 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 them, 
 " Aristarchus of old, could hardly find seven wise men in all 
 Greece ; but amongst us, it is difficult to find the same num. 
 bei of ignorant persons. They are all doctors and divinely :.i. 
 spired. There is not a fanatic or a mountebank, from the low . 
 est class of the people, who does not vent his dreams, for the 
 word of God. The bottomless pit seems to be opened, and there 
 come out of it locusts with stings; a swarm of sectaries ad 
 
 * St. Jerjir. in Proem, to Ezech. St. Greg. Naz. de Moderand. Dup, 
 
29^2 LETTER XLVII. 
 
 heretics, who have renewed all the heresies of former ages. 
 and added to them numerous and monstrous errors of theif 
 own.*" 
 
 Since the above was written, the Bihliomama, or rage for thf. 
 letter of the Bible, has been carried, in this country, to the ut' 
 most possible length, by persons of almost every description, 
 Christians and infidels ; Trinitarians, who worship God in three 
 persons, and Unitarians, who hold suc.i worship to be idola- 
 trous ; Pa3dobaptists, who believe they become Christians by 
 baptism ; Anabaptists, who plunge such Christians into the wa- 
 ter, as mere pagans; and Quakers, who ridicule all baptism, 
 except that of their own imagination ; Arminian Methodists, 
 who believe themselves to have been justified without repent- 
 ance, and Antinomian Methodists, who maintain that they shall 
 be saved without keeping the laws either of God or man ; 
 Churchmen, who glory in having preserved the w^hole orders, 
 and part of the missal and ritual of the Catholics ; and the 
 VJuntless sects of dissenters, who join in condemning these 
 Jiings as antichristian Popery. All these have forgotten, for a 
 long time, their characteristical tenets, and united in enforcing 
 the reading of the Bible as the only thing necessary ! The Bible 
 societies are content that all these contending religionists should af- 
 fix whatever meaning they please to the Bible, provided only they 
 read the text of the Bible ! Nay, they are satisfied if they can 
 but get the Hindoo worshippers of Juggernaut, the Thibet ado- 
 rers of the Grand Lama, and th e Taboo cannibals of the Pacific 
 Ocean, to do the same thing ; vainly lancying that this lecture 
 ^' will reform the vicious, reclaim the erroneous, and convert the 
 */^Cfc"4-v* pagans. In the mean time, the experience of fourteen years 
 ^^A**^ proves, that theft, forgery, robbery, murder, suicide, and other 
 V ^ crimes go on increasing with the most alarming rapidity ; that 
 '•'^* 1. i,.,every sect clings to its original errors, that not one pagan iscon- 
 4* ^td.^""^ verted to Christianity, nor one Irish Catholic persuaded to ex- 
 f^jftj" change }iis faith for a Bible book. When will these Bible en- 
 T* thusiasts comprehend what learned and wise Christians of every 
 
 Rge have known and taught, that the word of God consists not in 
 the letter of Scripture, hut in the meaning of it ! Hence it fol- 
 lows, that a Catholic child, who is grounded in his short but 
 comprehensive First Catechism, so called, knows more of the re- 
 vealed word of God, than a Methodist preacher does, who has 
 read the whole Bible ten times over. The sentiment expressed 
 above is nO' only that of St. Jeromf and other Catholic writers, 
 but also of the learned Protestant bishop whom I have already 
 quoted. He says, " The word of God does not consist in mere 
 
 • WtJton'a Polyglot Prolegom. t Cap. I. ad Galat 
 
VAItrOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS. 293 
 
 letters, but in the sense of it, which no one can better interpret 
 than the true church, to which Christ committed this sacred de- 
 fOsit."*-^-I am, &c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XUTIL— TO JAMES BROWN, JUN., ESQ. 
 ON VARIOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS. 
 
 Dear &ir— 
 
 The learned prelate, who is celebrated for having concentra 
 ted the five sermons of his patron. Archbishop Seeker, and the 
 more diffusive declamation of Primate Tillotson against Popery, 
 having gone through his regular charges on this topic, tries, in 
 the end, to overwhelm the Catholic cause, with an accumula- 
 tion of petty, or, at least, secondary objections, in a chapter 
 which he entitles, Various Corruptions and Superstitions of ll ". 
 Church cf Rome. The first of these is, that Catholics "eqna 
 the apochryphal with the canonical books" of Scripture ; to 
 which I answer, that the same authority, namely, the authority 
 of the Catholic Church, in the fifth century, which decided on 
 the canonical character of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Rev- 
 elations, and five other books of the New Testament, on the 
 character of which, till that time, the fathers and ecclesiastical 
 writers were not agreed, decided also on the canonicity of the books 
 of Tobias, Judith, and five other books of the Old Testament, 
 being those which the prelate alludes to as apochryphal. II" 
 the church of the fifth century deserves to be heard in one part 
 of her testimony, she evidently deserves to be heard in the othei 
 part. — His second objection is, that "the Romish Church," as 
 he calls the Catholic Church, has made " a modern addition of 
 five new sacraments to the two appointed by Christ ; making 
 also the priest's intention necessary to the benefit of them." I 
 have, in the course of these letters, vind'cated tl ". divine institu- 
 tion of these five sacraments, and have shown that they are ac- 
 knowledged to be sacraments, no less than the other two, by the 
 Nestcrian and Eutychian heretics, &c., who separated from the 
 c.iurch almost fourteen hundred years ago, and, in short, by ail 
 t.ie Christian congregations of the world, except a comparatively 
 few modern ones, called Protestants, in the north of Europe. Is 
 it from ignorance, or wilful misrepresentation, that the Bishop 
 of London charges " the Romish Church with the mctdern ad li- 
 tion of five new sacraments ?" With respect to the intention of 
 
 * Walton's Proleg. 
 25* 
 
2y4 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 the mvnriier of a sacrament, I presume there is no sensible per- 
 son who does not see the essential difference tliere is between 
 ttn action that is seriously performed, and the mimichwg or mock- 
 errj of it by a comedian or buffoon. Luther, indeed, wrote 
 that "the devil himself would perform a true sacrament, if he 
 used the right matter and form ;" but I trust that you, sir, and 
 my other friends, will not subscribe to such an extravagance, 
 I have also discussed the subjects of relics and miracles, which 
 the prelate next brings forward, so that it is not necessary for 
 me to say any thing more about them, than that the church, in- 
 stead of " venerating fictitious relics, and inventing lying mira- 
 cles," as he most calumniously accuses her of doing, is strict to 
 an excess in examining the proofs of them both, as he would 
 learn, if he took the pains to inquire. In short, there are but 
 about two or three articles in his lordship's accumulated charges 
 against his mother church, which seem to require a particular 
 answer from me at present. One of these is tiie following : 
 " ' f the same bad tendency is their (the Catholics) engaging 
 F jh multitudes of people in vows of celibacy and useless re- 
 rement from the world, their obliging them to silly austeritie's 
 and abstinences, of no real value, as matters of great merit." 
 In the first place, the church never engages any person whom- 
 soever in a vow of celibacy ; on the contrary, she exerts her 
 utmost power and severest censures to prevent tliis obligation 
 from being contracted rashly, or under any undue irfmence.* 
 True it is, she teaches that continency is a state of greater per- 
 iection than matrimony ; but so does St. Paul,f and Christ him- 
 self,:}: in words too explicit and forcible to admit of controversy 
 on the part of any sincere Christian. True it is, also, that 
 having the choice of her sacred ministers, she selects those for 
 the service of her altar, and for assisting the faithful in their 
 spiritual wants, who voluntarily embrace this more perfect 
 state ;§ but so has the Establishment expressed her wish to do 
 also, in that very act which allows her clergy to marry. || In 
 
 ♦ Concil. Trid. Sess. xxv. De Reg. cap. 15, 16, 17, 18. 
 
 t See the whole chapter vii. of 1 Cor. t Matt. xix. IQ. 
 
 § The second Council of Carthage, Can. 3, and Epiphanjus, Haer. 48, 59 
 trace the discipline of sacerdotui continence up to the apost es. 
 
 I) " Although it were not only better for the estimation of priests and other 
 ministers to live chaste, sole, and separated from women, and the bond of 
 marriage, but also they might thereby the better attend to the administration of 
 the gospel ; and it were to be wished that they would willingly endeavor 
 themselves to a life of chastity," &c. 2 Ewd. vi. c. 21. See the injunction 
 of Queen Elizabeth, against ihe admission of women into colleges, cathe- 
 drals, &c., in Strype's Life of Parker. See likewise a remarkable instance of 
 her rudeness to that archbishop's wife. Ibid, and in Nicol's Progresses, A 
 D. 1561. 
 
VARIOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS. 295 
 
 tike manner, I need go no further than the Homily on Fasting, 
 or tlie " Table of Vigils, Fasts, and Days of Abstinence, to bo 
 observed in the year," prefixed to the Common Prayer-hook, to 
 justify our doctrine and practice, which the bishop finds fault 
 with, in the eyes of every consistent church Protestant. I be- 
 lieve the most severe austerities of our saints never surpassed 
 those of Christ's precursor, whom he so much commended,* 
 clothed as he was with hair-cloth, and fed with he locusts of 
 ihe desen. 
 
 In a former letter to your society, I have replied to what the 
 bishop here says concerning the deposing of kings by the Roman 
 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 pretented gospel liberty of the 
 Reformation, within the first fifty years of this being proclaimed, 
 than the popes had attempted to depose during the preceding fif- 
 teen hundred years of their supremacy. To this accusation 
 another of a more alarming nature is tacked, that of our " an- 
 nulling he most sacred promises and engagements, when made 
 to the prejudice of the church." These are other words for the 
 vile, hackneyed calumny of our not keeping faith with heretics.^ 
 In refutation of this, I might appeal to the doctrine of our the- 
 ologians4 and to the oaths of the British Catholics ; but I choose 
 rather to appeal to historical facts, and to the practical lessons 
 of the leading 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, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, 
 Poynet, Sandys, and every other Protestant of any note, broke 
 their allegiance and engagements to her, for no other reason 
 than because she was a Catholic, and the usurper a Protestant. 
 On the other hand, when Mary was succeeded by her Protest- 
 ant sister, Elizabeth, though the Catholics were then far more 
 numerous and powerful than the Protestants, not a hand was 
 raised, nor a seditious sermon preached against her. In the 
 mean time, on the other side of the Tweed, where the new gos- 
 pellers had deposed their sovereign, and usurped her power, 
 their apostle. Knox, publicly preached, that " neither promise 
 nor oath can oblige any man to obey, or give assistance to y 
 
 * Matt. xi. 9. 
 
 t In the Protestant Charter-school Catechism, which is taught by author- 
 ity, the following question and answer occur, p. 9. " Q How do PapisU 
 treat those whom they call heretics ?" A. They hold that faith is not to 
 De kept with heretics, and that the pope can absolve subjects from their oaUl 
 of allegiance to their sovereigns." 
 
 t See in particular the Jesuit Becanus, De Fide Hareticis prestunda. 
 
296 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 rants against God ;"* to which lesson his colleague, Goodman, 
 added : " If governors fall from God, to the gallows with them.""f 
 A third fellow-laborer 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 tliat their sub- 
 jects are free from their oaths and obedience.":}: The same in 
 Bubs.ance were the maxims of Calvin, Beza, and the Huguenots 
 of France, in general ; the temporal interest of their religion 
 was the ruling principle of their morality. But, to return to 
 cur own country : the enemies of church and state having nunted 
 down the Earl of Strafford, and procured him to be attainted of 
 high treason, the king, Charles I., declared that he could not, in 
 conscience, concur to his death; when, the case being referred to 
 the archbishops Usher and Williams, and three other Anglican 
 bishops, they decided (in spite of his majesty's conscience, and 
 his oath to administer justice and mercy) that he might, in con- 
 science, send this innocent peer to the Mock, which he did accord- 
 ingly. § I should like to ask Bishop Porteus, whether this de- 
 cision of his predecessors was not the dispensation of an oath, 
 and the annulling of the most sacred of all ohligations ? In like 
 manner most of the leading n.en of the nation, with most of the 
 clergy, having sworn to the solemn league and covenant, for th'^ 
 more effectual extirpation of Popery, they were dispensed with 
 from the keeping of it by an express clause in the Act of Uni- 
 formity. || But whereas by a clause of the oath in the same 
 act, all subjects of the realm, down to constables and school-mas- 
 ters, 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 univ^^-sally dispensed with in the churches 
 and in Parliament at the /evolution. I have mentioned these 
 few facts and maxims concerning Protestant dispensations of 
 oaths and engagements, in case any of your society may objec. 
 that some popes have been too free in pronouncing such dispen- 
 sations. Should this have been the case, they alone, personally, 
 
 * In his book addressed to the nobles and people of Scotland. 
 
 + De Obedient. 
 
 t History of Scotland. The same was the express doctrine of the Geneva 
 Bible, translated by Coverdale, Goodman, &,c., in that city, and in common 
 Uee among the English Protestants, till King James's reign ; for in a note on 
 verse 12 ol 2d Matt, these translators expressly say, " A promise ought not 
 to be kept where God's honor and peaching of his truth is inju/ed." Hist. 
 Acct. of Eng. Translations, by A. Johnson, in Watson's Collect, vol. iii. p. 93 
 
 § Collier's Church History, vol. ii. p. 801. On the other hand, when sev. 
 eral of the Parliament's soldiers, who had been taken prisoners at Brentford, 
 had sworn never again to bear arms against the king, they were " absolved 
 from that oath," says Clarendon, " by their divines " Exam, of Neal's Hist 
 V>y Grey, vol. iii. p 10. || Statute 13 and 14 Car. II. cap. 4 
 
VARIOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS. 297 
 
 and not the Catholic Church, were accountable for ilj bolh to 
 God aiul 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 in- 
 stance of 1 his occurs in the conclusion of the chapter before me, 
 where he says : — " The primitive church did not att^^mpt, foi 
 several hundred years, to make any doctrine necessary, which 
 we do not: as the learned well know from their writings."* 
 The falsehood of this position must strike you, on looking back 
 to the authorities adduced by me from the ancient 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. Epiphaniusf 
 and St. Augustin+ rank Aerius among the heresiarchs, or found- 
 ers 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 offered up for the dead ;" and the two others by most of 
 them ; namely, that " there is no obligation of observing the 
 appointed days of fasting, and that priests ought not to be dis- 
 tinguished, in any respect, from bishops. § So far were the pri- 
 mitive Christians from tolerating these heresies, that the sup- 
 poiters of them were denied the use of a place of worship, and 
 were forced to perform it in forests and caverns. || Vigilantius 
 likewise condemned prayers for the dead, but he equally repro- 
 bated prayers to the saints, the honoring of 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 formerly did, St. Jerom 
 directs all the thunder of his eloquence, declaring them to be 
 sacrilegious, and the author of them to be a detestable heretic.^ 
 The learned Fleury observes, that the impious novelties of this 
 heretic made no proselytes, and, therefore, that there was no 
 need of a council to condemn them.** Finally, to convince 
 yourself, dear sir, how far the ancient fathers were from tole- 
 rating different communions or religious tenets in the Catholic 
 Church, conformably to the prelate's monstrous system, of a 
 Catholic Church, composed of all the discordant and disunited 
 sects in Christendom, be pleased to consult again the passages 
 which I have collected from the works of the former, in my 
 
 * P. 73. t Haeres's 75. \ De Haeres. torn. vi. Ed. Frob. 
 
 ^ Ibid. St. John Damasccn and St, Isidore equally condemn these tenati 
 M heretical. || Fleury's Hist. ad. An. .392. 
 
 ^ Epist. 1 and 3, adversus Vigilan. ** Ad. An. 405, 
 
299 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 fourteenth letter to your society ; or, what is still more demon 
 strative, on this point, observe, in ecclesiastical history, hoi* 
 Ihe Quarto-decimans, the Novatians,* the Donatists, and the Lu 
 cif'erians, though their respective errors are mere mole-hills, 
 compared with the mountains which separate the Protestant 
 communions from ours, were held forth as heretics by the fathers, 
 anj treated as such by the church, in her councils. — I am, <&c. 
 
 John Milner. 
 
 LETTER XLIX.— TO JAMES BROWN, J UN. ESQ 
 
 ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 
 Dear sir — 
 
 I promised to treat the subject of religious persecution apan , 
 a subject of the utmost importance in itself, and which is spoken 
 of by the Bishop of London in the following terms : " They, 
 the Romish Church, zealously maintain their claim of punish- 
 ing whom they please to call heretics, with penalties, imprison- 
 ment, tortures, and death. "f Another writer, whom I have 
 quoted above, says, that this church " breathes the very spirit 
 of cruelty and murder."^ Indeed, most Protestant controver- 
 tists seem to vie with each other, in the vehemence and bitter- 
 ness of the terms by which they endeavor to affix this most 
 odious charge of cruelty and murder, on the Catholic Church. 
 This is the favorite topic of preachers, to excite the hatred of 
 their hearers against their fellow Christians ; this is the last re- 
 source of baffled hypocrites. If you admit the Papists, they cry, 
 to equal rights, these wretches must and ivill certainly murder you, 
 as soon as they can : the fourth Lateran Council has established 
 the principle, and the bloody Queen Mary has acted upon it. 
 
 I. To proceed regularly in this matter, I begin with express, 
 ly 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 Manicheun heretics, who, as he asserted, laid all 
 modesty aside, prohibiting the matrimonial connection, and sub- 
 yerti'.ig all law, human and divine," says, that " the ecclesias- 
 
 * St. Cyprian being consulted about the nature of Novatian's errors, an> 
 Bwered : " There is no need of a strict inquiry what errors he teaches, while 
 he teaches out of the church." He elsewhere writes : " The church being 
 one, cannot be, at the same time, within and without. If she be with No. 
 vatian, she is not with (Pope) Cornelius ; if she be with Cornelius, Noyatiaa 
 IS not in her." Epist. 76, ad Mas:. 
 
 + Confut. p. 7l. I De Coetlogan's Seasonable Caution, p. 1ft. 
 
PSBSSCUTION. 299 
 
 tica! lenity was content, even in this case, witn the sacerdotal 
 judgment, and avoided all santruinary punishments,"* however 
 the secular emperors might inflict them for reasons of state. In 
 the same century, two Spanish bishops, Ithacius and Idacius, 
 having interfered in the capital punishment of certaiii Priscil- 
 lian heretics, both St. Ambrose and St. Martin refused to hold 
 communion vvith them, even to gratify an emperor, whose cle- 
 mency they were soliciting in behalf of certain clients. Long 
 before their time, Tertullian had taught, that " It does not belong 
 to n ligion to force religion ; "-I- and a considerable time after, when 
 St. A-ugustin and his companions, the envoys of Pope Gregory 
 the Great, had converted our King Ethelbert to the Christian 
 faiih, they particularly inculcated to him, not to use forcible 
 means to induce any of his subjects to follow his example.:]: But 
 what need of more 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, or even in a just war, or by exercising the art of surge- 
 ry, or by judicial proceedings, irregular ; that is to say, such 
 persons cannot be promoted to holy orders, or to 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 actual- 
 ly guilty of it, he is required by the church, expressly, to declare 
 in her name, that her power extends no further than such deci- 
 sion : and, in case the obstinate heretic is liable, by the laws of 
 the state, to suffer death or mutilation, the judge is required to 
 pray for his pardon. Even the Council of Constance, in con- 
 demning John Huss of heresy, declared that its power extended 
 no further. § 
 
 II. But, whereas many heresies are subversive of the estab- 
 lished governments, the public peace, and natural morality, it 
 doos 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 clergyman 
 incur irregularity by exhorting princes and magistrates to pro- 
 vide for those important objects, and the safety of the 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 for from claiming^ actually 
 disclaims the power of persecuting. 
 
 III. Bui Dr. Porteus signifies, || that the church itself haa 
 
 • Epist. ad Turib. t Ad Scapul. t Bed. Ecc. Hig. 1. i. c. 96 
 
 ^ Sess XV See Labbe's Concil. t. xii. p. 129. || Conf. p. 47. 
 
800 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 claimed this power in the third canon of the Fojrth Lateran 
 Council, A. D. 1215, by the tenor of which, tennporal lords ann 
 magistratt\s were required to exterminate all heretics from their 
 respective territories, under pain of these being confiscated <o 
 their sovereign prince, if they were laymen, and to their several 
 churches, in case they were clergymen. From this canon it 
 has been, a hundred times over, argued against Catholic?, of 
 late years, not only that their church claims a right to extern 
 minate heretics, but also requires those of her communion to aid 
 and assist in this work of destruction, at all times, and in all 
 places. But it must first be observed by those who were present 
 at this council, and by whose authority these decrees of a tem- 
 poral nature, were passed. There were then present, besides 
 the pope and the bishops, either in person or by their ambas- 
 sadors, the Greek and the Latin emperors ; the kings of Eng- 
 land, France, Hungary, the Sicilies, Arragon, Cyprus, and Je- 
 rusalem ; and the representatives of a vast many other prinr-i- 
 palities and states ; so that, in fact, this council was a congress 
 of Christendom, temporal as well as spiritual. We must, in 
 the next place, remark the principal business which drew them 
 together. 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 creator of devils, of animal flesh, of wine, of the 
 Old Testament, &;c. The other, the author of good spirits, of 
 the New Testament, &c. ; that unnatural lusts were lawful, 
 but not the propagation of the human species — that perjurjr 
 was permitted to them, &c.* This detestable heresy, which 
 had caused so much wickedness and bloodshed in the preceding 
 centuries, broke out with fresh fury, in the twelfth century, 
 throughout different parts of Europe, more particularly in the 
 neighborhood of Albi, in Languedoc, where they were support 
 ed by the powerful Counts of Thoulouse, Cumminges, Foix, and 
 other feudatory princes ; as also, by numerous bodies of banditti, 
 called Rotarii, whom they hired for this purpose. Thus strength- 
 ened, they set their sovereigns at defiance, carrying fire and 
 sword through their dominions, murdering their subjects, parti- 
 cularly the clergy, burning the churches and monasteries ; in 
 short, waging open war with them, and, at the same time, with 
 Christianity, morality, and human nature itself; casting /ne 
 Bible into the jakes, profaning the altar-plate, and practising 
 their detestable rites for the extinction of the human specie?. 
 
 • See the Protestant historian Moshefni's account of the shocking violation 
 Df decency, and other crimes, of which the Albigenses, Brethren of the Fret 
 ipirit, &,c., were guilty in the 13th ccnturv. Vol. iii, p. 284. 
 
PERSECUTIOIT. 801 
 
 ft was to put an end to these horrors that the great Later<»n 
 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 for- 
 feited to the sovereign princes, of whom thoy were held^ by an 
 authority derived from those sovereign princes. The deei'ee of 
 the council regarded only the prevailing heretics of that time, vv ho, 
 " though wearing different faces," being indifferently called AU 
 bigenses, Cathari, Poplicolse, Paterini, Bulgari, Bogomillii, Be- 
 guini, Beguardi, and Brethren of the Free Spirit, &c.. were 
 "all tied together by the tails," as the council expressed it, like 
 Sampson's foxes, in the same band of Manicheanism.* 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 Catholic fellow-subjects, by reason 
 of the third canon of the Council of Lateran.f 
 
 IV. But they are chiefly the Smithfield fires of Queen Ma- 
 ry's reign, which furnish matter for the inexhaustible declama- 
 tion of Protestant controvertists, and the unconquerable preju- 
 dices of the Protestant populace against the Catholic religion ; 
 as breathing " the very spirit of cruelty and murder," accord- 
 ing to the expression of one of the above-quoted orators. Nev 
 ertheless, I have unanswerably demonstrated elsewhereij: 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 molest- 
 ed 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 recommend persecution : nor is th^^e in the synod, which the 
 pope's legate. Cardinal Pole, held at that time, one word, as 
 Burnet remarks, in favor of persecution. This representative 
 of his holiness even opposed the persecution project, with all 
 his influence, as did King Philip's chaplain also, who even 
 preached against it, and defied the advocates of it to produce an 
 auiiiority from Scripture in its favor. In a word, we have the 
 
 * For a succinct, yet clear, account of Manicheanism, see Bossuet's Varit- 
 6ons, Book xi. ; also, for many additional circumstances relating to it, see 
 Letters to a Prebendary, Letter IV. 
 
 t For an account of the rebellious and anti-social doctrine and practices ol 
 .he Wickliffites and Hussites, see the last-quoted work, Letter IV. ; also 
 History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 298. 
 
 X Letters to a Prebendary, Letter IV., on Persecution ; also History of 
 Winchester, vol. i. p. 354, &c. See in the former, p. 149, &c., proofs i»i th# 
 infidelity of the famous mariyrologist, John Fox, and of tha great i b>it« 
 ments which are tD be made in his account of the Protestant suHerera. 
 
 26 
 
802 LETTER XTJt. 
 
 argumcns, made use of in the queen's council, by those advo» 
 Gates ibr persecution, Gardiner, Bonner, &c., by whose advice 
 it was adopted ; yet none of them pretended that the doctrine 
 of 'he Catholic Church required such a measure. On the con- 
 trary, all their arguments are grounded on motives of state 
 policy. At the same time, 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 
 se': 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 already observed. Mary had hardly for- 
 given 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 Regimen of Women, and 
 exciting the people of this country, as well as their own, to put 
 their Jezabel to death. Still, I grant, persecution was not the 
 way to diminish either the number or the violence of the enthu- 
 siastic insurgents. With toleration and prudence on the part 
 of the governors, the paroxysm of the governed would quickly 
 have subsided. 
 
 V. Finally, whatever may be said of the intolerance 
 of Mary, I trust that this charge will not he brought against 
 the next Catholic sovereign, James II. I have elsewhere* 
 shown, that, when Duke of York, he used his best endeavors 
 to get the act De Heretico Comhurendo repealed, and to afford 
 an asylum 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 Liberty of Conscience having been the deter- 
 mining cause of his deposition. But what need of words to 
 disprove the odious calumny, that Catholics " breathe the spirit 
 of cruelty and murder," and are obliged, 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 
 C "^ntrary, and has been as cordially received by the pope him- 
 self, in his metropolis of Rome, (where he is both prince and 
 bishop,) in the character of an English Protestant, as if he were 
 known to be the most zealous Catholic ! Still, I fear, there 
 an some individuals in your society, as there are many 
 other Protestants of my acquaintance elsewhere, who cling 
 fast to this charge against Catholics, of persecution, as the 
 
 • History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 436; Letters to a Prebendary, p. 376. 
 
PERSECUTION. 303 
 
 last resource for 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 it is an 
 essential part of the Catholic religion to persecute. On the 
 other hand, many Protestants, either from ignorance or policy, 
 now-a-days, claim for themselves, exclusively, the credit o.' 
 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 recommended by the most emment of our 
 reformers and divines."* In these circumstances, I know but 
 one argument to stop the mouths of such disputants ; which is, 
 to prove to them, that persecution has not only been more gen- 
 erally practised by Protestants than by Catholics, but also, thai 
 it has been more warmly defended and supported by the most 
 eminent " reformers and divines " of their party, than by their 
 opponents. 
 
 I. The learned Bergier defies Protestants to mention so 
 much as a town, in which their predecessors, on becoming mas- 
 ters of it, tolerated a single Catholic. f Rousseau, who was ed- 
 ucated a Protestant, says, that " the Reformation was intolerant 
 from its cradle, and its authors universally persecutors.":}: 
 Bayle, who was a Calvinist, has published much the same 
 thing. Finally, the Huguenot minister, Jurieu, acknowledges 
 that " Geneva, Switzerland, the Republics, the Electors, and 
 Princes of the Empire, England, Scotland, Sweden, and Den- 
 mark, had all employed the power of the state to abolish 
 Popery, and establish the Re formation. § But to proceed to 
 other more positive proofs of what has been said : the first 
 father of Protestantism 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 supporters, 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 oui 
 hands in their blood ?"|| He elsewhere calls the pope, " a 
 mad wolf, against whom every one ought to take arms, without 
 waiting for an order from the magistrate." He adds, " If you 
 fall before the beast has received its mortal wound, you will 
 have but one thing to be sorry for, that you did not bury your 
 dagger in its breast. All that defend him must be treated like 
 a band of robbers, be they kings or be they Caesars. "IT By 
 
 • Charge in 1812. t Trait. Hist, et Dogmat. X Letters de la Mont, 
 § Tab. Lett, quoted by Bossuet, Avereiss, p. 625. |I Ad Sihest Peri«r 
 f Thesus apud Sleid. A. D. 1545. Opera Luth. torn. L 
 
304 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 these and similar i^^entives, with which the works of Luthei 
 abound, he not only °xcited the Lutherans themselves to pro. 
 pagate their religiox- by fire and sword, against the emperor and 
 other Catholic print ^i'?, but also gave occasion to all the san- 
 guinary and frantic rcenes which the Anabaptists exhibited, at 
 the same time, thron.'rh the lower parts of Germany. Coeval 
 with these, was the civil war, which another arch-reiormer, 
 Zuinglius, lighted upJn Switzerland, by way of propagating h\n 
 peculiar system, and the persecution which he raised equally 
 against the Catholics wvd the Anabaptists. Even the moderate 
 Melancthon wrote a beck in defence of religious persecrdon,* 
 and the conciliatory Bucrr, who became professor of divinny at 
 Cambridge, not satisfied wifb the burning of the heretic. Serve- 
 tus, preached that " hie bowels ought to have been torn out, 
 and his body chopped to pieces. "f 
 
 II. But the grsat champion of persecution, every one knows, 
 was the founder of the second great branch of Protestantism. 
 John Calvin. Not content w.'th burning Servetus, beheading 
 Gruet, and persecuting othev distinguished Protestants, Castallo, 
 Bolsec, and Gentilis, (who, being apprehended in the neighbor, 
 ing Protestant canton of Berne, was put to death there,) he set 
 up a consistorial inquisition at Geneva, for forcing everyone 1o 
 conform to his opinions, and required that the magistrates should 
 punish whomsoever this consistory condemned. He was suc« 
 ceeded in his spirit, as well as in his office, by Beza, who wrote 
 a folio work in defence of persecution.i In this he shows that 
 Luther, Melancthon, BuIKnger, Capito, no less than Calvin, had 
 written works expressly in defence ot this principle, which, 
 accordingly, was firmly maintained by Calvin's followers, par- 
 ticularly in France. Bossuet refers to the public records of 
 Nismes, Montpelier, and othei places, in proof of the directions 
 issued by the Calvinist coLs'sJories to iheir generals, for 
 " forcing the Papists to embrace the Reformation by tsxes, quar- 
 tering of soldiers upon them, dcn^oiishing their hoi^ses, dz;c.; 
 and he says, " the wells into which the Cathoiics w^re flung, 
 and the instruments of torture which were used at the first- 
 mentioned city to force them to attend *he Protestant ".ermons, 
 are things of public notoriety. "§ In fi^ct, who has net read of 
 the infamous Baron Des Ad rets, whose rav.^ge sport v was, to 
 torture and murder Catholics, in a Cathob'c kingdom. » ^d wh,^ 
 forced his son literally to wash his hands in ♦be'r blooc' r Who 
 has not heard of the inhuman Jane, Queen o* Nava*> ' «*m 
 
 * Bcza, De Hseret. puniend. 
 
 t Ger. Brandt, Hist. Abrcg. Refor. Pais 6as, vol. i. p. f^-i. 
 
 t De HaBreticis puniendista Givili Magistratu, &,c,, a The-K !ioif 
 
 I Varia/.. L. x,m, 52. 
 
PBRSECUTlOn. S05 
 
 massacrf'd priests and religious persons, b) hundreds, merely 
 on account of their sacred character ? In short, Catholic 
 France, throughout its extent, and during a great number of 
 years, was a scene of desolation and slaughter, from the unre- 
 lenting persecution of its Huguenot subjects. Nor was the 
 spectacle dissimilar in the Low Countries, when Calvinism got a 
 footing in them. Their first synod, held in 1574, equally pro- 
 scribed the Catholics and the Anabaptists, calling upon the 
 magistrates to support their decrees,* which decrees were re- 
 newed in several subsequent synods. I have elsewhere quoted 
 a late Protestant writer, who, on the authority of existing public 
 records, describes the horrible torments with which Vander- 
 merk and Sonoi, two generals of the Prince of Orange, put to 
 death incredible numbers of Dutch Catholics. f Other writers 
 furnish more ample details of the same kind. J 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-mentioned work of Beza,) a new object of their perse- 
 cution arose in the bosom of their own society : Arminius, Vos- 
 sius, Episcopius, and some other divines, supported by the illus- 
 trious statesmen, Barnevelt and Grotius, declared against the 
 more rigorous of Calvin's maxims. They would not admit, that 
 God decrees men to be wicked, and then punishes them ever- 
 lastingly for what they cannot help ; nor that many persons 
 are in his actual grace and favor, while they are immersed in 
 the most enormous crimes. For denying this, Barnevelt was 
 beheaded. § Grotius was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, 
 and all the remonstrant clergy, as they were called, were ban- 
 ished from their families and their country, with circumstances 
 of the greatest cruelty, at the requisition of the Synod of Dort. 
 In speaking of Lutheranism, I have passed by many persecu- 
 ting decrees and practices of its adherents against Calvinists 
 and Zuinglians, and many more of Calvinists against Luther, 
 ans, while both parties agreed in showing no mercy .o the Ana- 
 ^ptists. Before I quit the continent, I mu.>t mention the Lu- 
 theran kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, in both which, as 
 Jurieu has signified above, the Catholic religion was extirpated, 
 and Protestantism established, by means of rigorous perseiu- 
 ing laws, which denounced the punishment of death against ihs 
 former. Professor Messenius, who wrote about the year 1600, 
 mentions four Catholics who had recently been put to death in 
 
 * Brandt, vol. i. p. 227. t Letters to a Prebend, p. 103. 
 
 t See the learned Estius's Hist, of the Martyrs of Gorcum ; De Brandt, etc 
 § Diodati, quoted by Brandt, says that the canons of Dort carried ofi *iw 
 head of Barnevelt 
 
 26* 
 
ue 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 Sweden, on account of their religion, and eight oth/rs who had 
 been imprisoned and tortured on that account, of whom he him- 
 self was one.* 
 
 III. To pass over now to the northern part of our own island. 
 The first reformers of Scotland, having deliberately murdeied 
 Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrew's,! and riotously 
 destroyed the churches, monasteries, and every thing else, which 
 Ihey termed monuments of Popery, assembled in a tumultuoui 
 and illegal manner, and before even their own religion wag 
 established by law, they condemned the Catholics to capital pun- 
 ishment for the exercise of theirs: "such strangers," says Rob- 
 ertson, " were men, at that time, to the spirit of toleration, and 
 *he laws of humanity !"J Their chief apostle was John Knox^ 
 an apostate friar, who, in all his publications and sermons, 
 maintained, that "it is not birth, but God's election, which con- 
 fers a right to the throne and to magistracy ;" that " no promise 
 nor oath, made to an enemy of the truth, that is, to a Catholic, 
 is binding;" and that "every such enemy, in a high station, id 
 to be deposed. "§ Not content with threatening to depose her, 
 he told his queen, to her face, that the Protestants 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':^ prophets. || 
 Conformably with this doctrine, he wrote into England, that 
 " the nobility and people were bound in conscience, not only to 
 withstand the proceedings of that Jezabel, Mary, whom tliey 
 called queen, but also to put her to death, and all her priests 
 with her. "IF His fellow-apostles, Goodman, Willox, Buciianan, 
 Rough, Black, &c., constantly inculcated to the people the 
 same seditious and persecuting doctrine ; and the Presbyterian 
 ministers, in general, earnestly pressed for the execution of their 
 innocent queen, who was accused of a murder, perpetrated by 
 their own Protestant leaders.** The same unrelenting intoler- 
 ance was seen among the most moderate of their clergy, " when 
 they were assembled by order of King James and his council to 
 inquire, whether the Catholic Earls of Huntly, Errol, and tneir 
 followers, on making a proper concession, might not be admitted 
 into the church, and be exempt from further punishment ?" 
 These ministers then answered, that, " though the gates of Wcr- 
 cy are always open for those who repent, yet, as these noble- 
 mer had been guilty of idolatry, (the Catholic religion,) a crime 
 df serving death both by the laws of God and man, the civil 
 
 • Scandia Illustrat., quoted by Le Brun. Mess. Explic. t. iv. p. 140 
 + Gilb. Stiart's Hist. ofRef. in Scotland, vol. i. p. 47, &c. 
 t Hist, of Scotland, An. 1560. 6 &ee Collier's Eccle Hist. vol. ii. p. 443. 
 II St'iari'fa 'iist. vol. i. p. 59. ir'CXted by Dj-. Paterson, in his Jerus and 
 Babel. *» Stuart's Hiet. vol. i. p. 255 
 
PERSECiniON. 307 
 
 magistrates could not legally pardon them, and that, thoug/i the 
 church should absolve them, it was his duty to inflict punish- 
 ment upon them."* But we need not be surprised at any se- 
 verity of the Presbyterians against Catholics, when, among 
 other penances, ordained by public authority, agains their own 
 mem')ers who should break the fast of Lent, whipping in the 
 church was one.'\ 
 
 IV. The father of the church of England, under the author, 
 ity of the Protector Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was confess- 
 edly Thomas Cranmer, whom Henry VIII. raised to the Arch- 
 bishopric of Canterbury ; of whom it is difficult to say, whether 
 his obsequiousness to the passions of his successive masters, 
 Henry, Seymour, and Dudley, or his barbarity to the sectaries who 
 were in his power, was the more odious : there is this circum- 
 stance which distinguishes him from almost every other perse- 
 cutoi, that he actively promoted the capital punishment, not only 
 of those who differed from him in religion, but also of those who 
 agreed with him in it. It is admitted by his advocates,^ that he 
 was instrumental, during the reign of Henry, in bringing to the 
 stake the Protestants, Lambert, Askew, Frith, and Allen, be- 
 sides condemning a great many others to it, for denying the cor- 
 poreal presence of Christ in the sacrament, which he disbelieved 
 himself ;§ and it is equally certain, that during the reign of the 
 child Edward, he continued to convict Arians and Anabaptists 
 capitally, and to press for their execution. Two of these, Joan 
 Knell and George Van Par, he got actually burnt, preventing 
 the young King Edward from pardoning them, by telling him, 
 that "princes, being God's deputies, ought to punish impieties 
 against him."|| The two next most eminent fathers of the Eng- 
 lish church were, unquestionably, Bishop Ridley and Bishop 
 Latimer, both of them noted persecutors, and persecutors of 
 of Protestants to the extremity of death, no less than of Ana- 
 baptists and other sectaries ! IT 
 
 Upon the second establishment of the Protestant religion in 
 England, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, it was again but- 
 tressed up here, as in every other country where it prevailed, 
 by the most severe, persecuting laws I have elsewhere shown, 
 from authentic sources, that above two hundred Catholics 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 condemned 
 
 • Robertson's Hist. Ann. 1596. t Stuart, vol. ii. p. 94 
 
 X Fox, Acts and Monum. Fuller's Church Hist. b. v. 
 \ See Letters to a Preb. p. 206. j] Burnet's Church Hist. P. ii. b. i. 
 i See the proofs of these facts collected from Fox, Burnet, Heylin, and 
 CoUw'^, in Letters to a Preb. Letter V 
 
S08 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 for denying the queen's spiritual supremacy, one hundred and 
 twenty-six for the exercise of their priestly functions, and the 
 rest for being reconciled to the Catholic Churcli, for hearing 
 mass, or aiding and abetting Catholic priests.* When to these 
 sanguinary scenes are added those of many hundreds of other 
 Catholics, who perished in dungeons, who were driven into exile, 
 or who were stripped of their property, it will appear that the 
 persecution of Elizabeth's reign was far more grievous than thai 
 of her sister Mary, especially when the proper deductions are 
 made from the sufferers under the latter. f Nor was persecu- 
 tion confined to the Catholics ; for when great numbers of for- 
 eign Anabaptists, and other sectaries, had fled into England, 
 from the fires and gibbets of their Protestant brethren in Hol- 
 land, they found their situation much worse here, as they com- 
 plained, than it had been in their own country. To silence 
 these complaints, the Bishop of London, Edwin Sandys, pub- 
 lished a book in vindication of religious persecution. :|: In short, 
 the protestant church and .state concurred to tlieir extirpation. 
 An assembly of them, to the number of twenty-seven, having 
 been seized upon in 1575, some of them were so intimidated as 
 to recant their opinions, some were scourged, two of them, Pat- 
 erson and Terwort, were burnt to death in Smithfield, and the 
 rest banished.^ Besides these foreigners, the English dissenters 
 were also grievously persecuted. Several of them, such as 
 Thacker, Copping, Greenwood, Barrow, Penry, &c., were put 
 to death, which rigors they ascribed principally to the bishops, 
 particularly to Parker, Aylmer, Sandys, and Whitgift.|| The 
 last-named they accused of being the chief author of the famous 
 inquisitorial court, called the Star-Chamber, which court, in ad- 
 dition to all its other vexations and severities, employed the rack 
 and torture, to extort confession. IT The doctrines and practice 
 of persecution in England did not end with the race of Tudor. 
 James I., though he was reproached with being favorable to the 
 Catholics, nevertheless signed warrants for twenty-five of them 
 to be hanged and quartered, and sent one hundred and twenty- 
 eight of them into banishment, barely on account of tlieir reli- 
 gion, besides exacting a fine of twenty pounds per month from 
 
 * Certain opponents of mine have publicly objected to me, that these Ctth 
 olics suffered for high treason. True : the laws of persecution declared 
 so ; but their only treason consisted in their religion. Thus the apostles, 
 and other Christian martyrs, were traitors in the eye of the pagan law ; and 
 the chief priests declared, with respect to Christ himself, we have a law^ and 
 according to that he ought to die. 
 
 t See Letters to a Prebendary, pp. 149, 150. 
 
 + Ger. Brandt, Hist. Reform. Abreg. vol. i. p. 234. 
 
 § Brandt, vol. i. p. 234. Hist, of Churches of Eng. and Scot. vol. ii. p. 19* 
 
 I Ibid IT Mosheim, vol. iv. p 40. 
 
PERSECXTTION. 5Ml9 
 
 (hose who did not attend the church service. Still he was re- 
 peatedly called upon by Parliament to put the penal laws in 
 force with greater rigor ; in order, say they, " to advance tne 
 glory of Almighty God, and the everlasting honor of your ma- 
 jesty;"* and he was warned by Archbishop Abbot, against 
 tolerating Catholics, in the following terms: "Your majesty 
 hath propounded a toleration of religion. By your act, you la- 
 bor 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 wrath and 
 indignation."-!- In the mean time the Puritans complained loudly 
 of the persecution which they 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 Litch- 
 field ; and the latter, with treating in the same way Bartholo- 
 mew Legat, who was consumed in Smithfield.ij: The same un- 
 relenting spirit of persecution, which had disgraced the addresses 
 presented to James, prevailed in those of the Parliament, and of 
 many bishops to his son Charles. One of these, signed by the 
 renowned Archbishop Usher, and eleven other Irish bishops of 
 the Establishment, declares, that " to give toleration to Papists, 
 is to become accessory to superstition, idolatry, and the perdi- 
 tion of souls ; and that, therefore, it is a grievous sin.^^^ At 
 length the Presbyterians and Independents, getting the upper 
 hand, had an opportunity of giving full scope to their character, 
 istic intolerance. Their divines, being assembled at Sion Col- 
 lege, condemned, as an error, the doctrine of toleration, " under 
 the absurd terra," as they expressed it, " of liberty of con- 
 science. "|| Conformably with this doctrine, they procured from 
 their Parliament a number of persecuting 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, IT Quakers, Seek- 
 ors, and Arians. In the mean time, they frequently appointed na- 
 tional fasts to alone for their pretended guilt in being too toleran.*^ 
 Warrants for the execution of four English Catholics were ex- 
 torte i from the king, while he was in power, and near twenty 
 others were publicly executed under the Parliament and the 
 protector. This hypocritical tyrant afterwards invading Ire- 
 
 « Rushworth's Collect, vol. i. p. 141. t Rushworth's Collect, 
 
 t Chandler's Introduct. to Limbroche's Hist, of Inquis. p. 80. Neal's Hi«t 
 of Purit. vol. ii. 
 
 4 Leland's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 482. Ne-.l's Hist. vol. ii. p. 469. 
 I Hist, of Churches of Eng. and Scot. vol. iii. ^ Ibid. ** Ibid NeaJ s HLit 
 
810 LETTER XLIJC. 
 
 land, and being bent on exterminating the Cathtilic population 
 there, persuaded his soldiers that they had a divine commission 
 for this purpose, as the Israelites had to exterminate the Canaan- 
 ites.'*' To make an end of the clergy, he put the same price 
 upon a priest's as upon a wolf's head.f Those Puritans who, 
 previously to the civil war, had sailed to North America to 
 avoid persecution, set up a far more cruel one there, particu- 
 larly against the Quakers, whipping them, cropping their ears, 
 boring their tongues with a hot iron, and hanging them. We 
 have the names of four of these sufferers, one of them a woman, 
 who was executed at Boston 4 
 
 V. During the whole of the war which the Puritans waged 
 against the king and constitution, the Catholics behaved with un- 
 paralleled loyalty. It has been demonstrated, § 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 land- 
 ed property confiscated by the rebels, belonged to Catholics. 
 Add to this, that they were chiefly insti'umental in saving 
 Charles II. after his defeat at Worcester : they had, consequent- 
 ly, reason to expect that the restoration of the king and consti- 
 tution would have brought an alleviation, if not an end, of their 
 sufferings. 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 this, I 
 need allege nothing more than that two different Parliaments 
 voted the reality of Oaies^s plot f and that eighteen innocent 
 and loyal Catholics, one of them a peer, suffered the death of 
 traitors on account of it : to say nothing of seven other priests 
 who, about that time, were hanged and quartered for the mere 
 exercise of their priestly functions. Among the absurdities of that 
 sanguinary plot, such as those of shooting the king with silver 
 bullets, and invading the island with an army of pilgrims from 
 Compostella, &c.,|| it was not the least to pretend that the Catho- 
 lics 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 ."S^ood, 
 which would serve the purposes of a persecuting faction. These 
 purposes were to exclude Catholics, not only from the throne, 
 but also from the smallest degree of political power, down to 
 that of a constable ; and to shut the doors of both houses of Par- 
 liament against them. The faction succeeded in its first design 
 by the Test Act, and in its second by the act requiring the De- 
 claration against Popery ; both obtained at a period of natioupl 
 
 » Anderson's Royal Geneal. quoted by Curry, vol. ii. p. 11. 
 t Ibid. p. 63. t Ned's Hist, of Churches. 
 
 § Lord Castlemain's Catholic Apology. || Echard's Hist 
 
PERSECUTION. 311 
 
 rfelirium and f'u-y. What the spirit of the c ergy was, at. thai 
 time, witli respect to the oppressed Catholics, appeared at their 
 solemn procession at Sir Edmunbury Godfrey's funeral,* and 
 still appears in three folio volumes of invective and misrepre- 
 sentation then published, under the title of A Preservative against 
 Papery. On the other hand, such was the unchristian hatreo 
 of the dissenters against the Catholics, that they ])romoted tha 
 Test Act with all their power, j- though no less injurious to them. 
 selves than to the Catholics ; and on every occasion they refu&ad 
 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 which time, as I ob- 
 served before, a Catholic king was deposed, because he would 
 not be a persecutor. Suffice it to say, that the number of penal 
 laws against the professors of the ancient religion, and founders 
 of the constitution of this country, continued to increase in every 
 reign, till that of his present majesty, George III. In the course 
 of this reign most of the old persecuting laws have been repeal- 
 ed ; but the two last-mentioned, enacted in a moment of delirium, 
 which Hume represents as our greatest national disgrace, 1 
 mean the impracticable Test Act, and the unintelligible Declara' 
 tion against Popery, are rigidly adhered to, under two ground- 
 less pretexts. § The first of these is, that they are necessary for 
 the support of the Estahlished Church; and yet it is undeniable, 
 that this church had maintained its ground, and had flourished 
 much more during the period which preceded these laws, than 
 it has ever done since that event. The second pretext is, that 
 the withholding of honors and emoluments is not persecution. 
 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 nega- 
 tive discouragements, for uniformity's sake, are so many perse- 
 cutions. An incapacity by law for any man to be made a judge 
 or a colonel, merely on point of conscience, is a negati\ e dis. 
 couragement, and, consequently, a real persecution," &c.|j In 
 the present case, however, the persecution which Catholics suf- 
 
 ♦ North's Exam. Echard. t Neal's Hist, of Puritans, vol. iv. IJiat. 
 
 of Churches, vol. iii. \ Ibid. 
 
 § Since the venerable and illustrious author wrote this letter, namely, in 
 the year 1829, the test act was partially repealed, and Catholics are now ad. 
 missible to Parliament, and all civil offices of the state, with the exceptioa 
 of lord chancellor of England, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and higii commis. 
 ■ioner of Scotland, on taking an oath of abjuration and promising to obsenrt 
 certain conditions therein specified. — Edit 
 
 H Dean Swift's works, lol. viii. p. 56. 
 
812 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 fer from the disabilities in question, does not consist so much ir. 
 their being deprived of those common privileges and advantages, 
 as in their being held out by the legislature as unworthy of them, 
 and thus being reduced to the condition of an inferior caste in 
 their own country, the country of freedom : this they deeply 
 feel, and cannot help feeling. 
 
 VI. But to return to my subject: I presume, that if the facts 
 and reflections which I have stated in this letter, had occurred 
 to the right reverend prelates mentioned at the beginning ot i, 
 they would have lowered, if not quite altered, their tone on the 
 present 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 the points 
 here suggested, will efl^ace 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 supposed 
 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 na- 
 ture ; and that, in pronouncing those to be obstinate heretics 
 whom she finds to be such, she always pleads for mercy in their 
 oehalf, when they are liable to severe punishment from the 
 secular power ; a conduct which many eminent Protestant 
 churchmen were far from imitating, in similar circumstances. 
 They must have seen, moreover, that if persecuting 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 circum- 
 stances of such weight, as must, at once, decide the question 
 about persecution in disfavor of Protestants. 
 
 In the first place, when Catholic states and princes have per- 
 secuted Protestants, it was done in favor of an ancient religion^ 
 which had been established in their country, perhaps, a thousand 
 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 
 
CONCLUSION. 318 
 
 hand, Protestants, everywhere, persecuted in hehsiif of new sys- 
 tems, in opposition to the established laws of the church, and of 
 the respective states. Not content with vindicating their own 
 freedom of worship, they endeavored, in each coa*try, by per- 
 secution, to force the professors of the old religion to abandon it 
 and adopt theirs; and they acted in the same way by their fellow 
 Protestants, who had adopted opinions different from their own. 
 In many countries, where Calvinism got ahead, as in Scotland, in 
 Holland, at Geneva and in France, it was by riotous mobs,which, 
 under the direction of their pastors, rose in rebellion against 
 their lawful princes, and, having secured their independence, 
 proceeded to sanguinary extremities against the Catholics. 
 
 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 Christians 
 who refuse to hear her voice, when she pronounces upon them, 
 are obstinate heretics. But on what ground can Protestants per 
 secute Christians of any description whatsoever? Their grand 
 rule and fundamental charter is, that the Scriptures were given by 
 Oodfor every man to interpret them as he judges best. If, there 
 fore, when I hear Christ declaring. Take ye and eat, this is my 
 body, I believe what he says, with what consistency can any 
 Protestant require me, by pains and penalties, to swear that I 
 do not believe it, and that to act conformably with this persua- 
 sion is idolatry ? But religious persecution, which is every- 
 where odious, will not much longer find refuge in the most gen- 
 erous of nations ; much less will the many victorious arguments 
 which demonstrate the true church of Christ, our common 
 mother, who reclaimed us all from the barbarous rites of pagan- 
 ism, be defeated by the calumnious outcry that she herself is a 
 bloody Moloch, that requires human victims. 
 
 I am, <&c., 
 
 John Milnsb. 
 
 LETTEB L.— TO THE FBIENDLY SOCIETY OP NEW COTTAOl. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Mt friends and brethren in Christ — 
 
 Having, at length, in the several letters addressed to your 
 worthy president, Mr. Brown, and others of your society, com- 
 pleted the task which, eight months ago, you imposed upon me, 
 I address this, my concluding letter, to you in common, as a 
 slight review of the whole. I observed to you, that to succeed 
 in any inquiry, it is necessary to know and to follow the right 
 
 27 
 
314 LETTER L. 
 
 method of making it. Hence, I entered upon the present im- 
 portant search after the truths of the Christian revelation, with 
 a discussion of the rules or method followed, for this purpose, 
 by different classes of Christians Having taken for granted 
 the following maxims : — that Christ has appointed some rule or 
 method of learning his revelation ; that this rule must be an un- 
 erring one / and that it must be adapted to the capacities and sit- 
 uations of mankind in general ; I proceeded to show that a sup- 
 posed private spirit, or particular inspiration, is not that rule ; 
 because this persuasion has led numberless fanatics, in everj 
 age since that of Christ, into the depths of error, folly and ^vick- 
 edness of every kind. I 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 the 
 capacities and situations of the bulk of mankind — a great pro- 
 portion of them not being able to read the Scripture, and much 
 less to form a connected sense of a single chapter of it ; and be- 
 cause innumerable Christians have, at all times, by following 
 this presumptuous method, given into heresies, impieties, contra- 
 dictions and crimes, almost as numerous and flagrant as those 
 of the above-mentioned fanatics. Finally, I demonstrated that 
 there is a two-fold word of God — the unwritten and the written • 
 that the former was appointed by Christ, and made 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 interpreter 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 tho 
 churc'h in constant 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 affords tranquility and security to in- 
 dividual Christians during life, and at the trying hour of their 
 dissolution. 
 
 At this point my labors might have ended ; as the Catholic 
 Church alone follows the right rule, and the right rule infalUiby 
 leads to the Catholic Church. But, since Bishop Porteus, and 
 other Protestant controvertists, raise cavils as to which is the 
 true church ; and whereas this is a question that admits of a 
 still more easy and more'jriumphant answer than that concerning 
 the right ru'.e of faith, 1 have made it the subject of a second 
 
oonolusion; 815 
 
 series of letters, with which, I Matter myself, the greater part 
 of you are acquainted. In fact, no inquiry is so easy to an at- 
 tentive and upright Christian as that which leads to the discov- 
 ery of the true church of Christ ; because, on one hand, ajl 
 Christians agree in their common creeds, concerning the char- 
 acters^ or marks, which she bears ; and because, on the other 
 hand, these marks are of an exterior and splendid kind, such a3 
 require no extensive learning or abilities, and little more than 
 the use of our senses and common reason, to discern them. In 
 short, among the numerous and jarring societies of Christians, 
 (all pretending to have found out the truths of revelation,) to 
 ascertain which is the true church of Christ, that infallibly 
 possesses them, we have only to observe which among them is 
 distinctively ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLI- 
 CAL — and the discovery is made. In treating of these char- 
 acters, or marks, I said it was obvious to every beholder that 
 there is no bond of union whatever among the different socie- 
 ties of Protestants ; and that no articles, canons, oaths or laws 
 have 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, afS it is, over the face of the globe, and consisting, as it 
 does, of all nations , and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, is strictly 
 united in the same faith, the same sacraments, and the same 
 church government; in short, that it demonstratively exhibits the 
 first mark of the true church, unity . W ith 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 themselves ; that 
 she possesses many means of attaining to 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 illus- 
 trates her exclusively. And, whereas many eminent Protest- 
 ant writers have charged the Catholics with deception and for- 
 gery on this head' I have unanswerably retorted the charge 
 upon themselves. I^o words were wanting to show that the 
 Catholic Church bears the glorious name of CATHOLIC, and 
 very few to demonstrate that she is catholic or universal^ with 
 respect both to place and time, and that she is also apostolical. 
 The latter point, however, I exhibited in a more evident and 
 sensible manner, by means of a sketch of an apostolical tree, a 
 genealogical table of the church, which I sent you, showing the 
 succession of her pontiffs, her most eminent bishops, doctors, 
 and saints, as also that of the most notorious heretics and schis- 
 matics who have been lopped off from this tree, in every age, 
 from that of the apostles down to the present. " No church 
 
316 LBTTEB L. 
 
 but the Catholic can exhibit anything of this kind," as Tertul- 
 lian reproached the seceders of his tiire. Under thi« head you 
 must have observed, in particular, the want of an apostolical 
 succession of ministry, under which I showed that all the Pro- 
 testant societies labor ; and their want of success in attempting 
 the work of the apostles, the conversion of pagan nations. 
 
 The third series of my letters has been employed in tearing 
 off the hideous mask with which calumny and misrepresenta- 
 tion had disfigured the fair face of Christ's true spouse, the 
 Catholic Church. In this endeavor, I trust, I have been com- 
 pletely successful, and that there is not one of your society 
 who will any more reproach Catholics with being idolaters, on 
 account of their respect for the memorials of Christ and his 
 saints, or of their desiring the prayers of the latter ; or on ao- 
 count of the adoration they pay to the divine Jesus, hidden un- 
 der the sacramental veils. Nor will they hereafter accuse us 
 of purchasing or otherwise procuring leave to commit sin, op 
 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 caricature 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 ; bearing, as nhe clearly does, all the marks of the true 
 church; gifted, as she manifestly is, with so many peculiar 
 helps for salvation ; and possessing the only safe and practica- 
 ble rule for ascertaining the truths of revelation. The con- 
 sideration which, I understand, has struck some of them, in the 
 most forcible manner, is that which I suggested from my own 
 knowledge and experience, as well as from the observation of 
 the eminent writers whom I have named — that no Catholic at 
 the near approach of death, i$ ever found desirous of dying in any 
 other religion, while numbers of Protestants, in that situation^ seek 
 to be reconciled to the Catholic Church. 
 
 Some of your number have said, that though they are of 
 opinion that the Catholic religion is the true one, yet they have 
 not that evidence of the fact which they think sufficient to justify 
 a change in so important a point as that of religion. God for- 
 bid that I should advise any person to embrace the Catholic 
 religion without having sufficient evidence of its truth ; but I 
 must remind the persons in question that they have not a meta- 
 physical evidence, nor a mathematical certainty of the truth of 
 Christianit}- in general. In fact, they have only a high moral 
 evidence and certainty of this truth ; for with all the miracles 
 and other arguments by which Christ and his apostles proved 
 
OONOLUSIOW. 817 
 
 this divine system, it was still a stumbling-block to the Jews and 
 folly to the Gentiles. 1 Cor. i. 23. In short, according to the 
 observation of St. Augustin, there is light enough in it to guide 
 the sincere faithful, and obscurity enough to mislead perverse 
 unbelievers ; because, after all, faith is not merely a divine 
 illustration of the understanding, but also a divine, and yet vol- 
 untary motion of the will. Hence, if, in travelling through 
 thi*" darksome vale, as Locke, I think, observes, with respect 
 to revelation in general, 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 afford us the light of the sun. The same 
 is to be said in respect to the evidence in favor of the Catho- 
 lic religion : it is moral evidence of the first quality ; far su- 
 perior to that on which we manage our temporal affairs, and 
 guard our lives ; and not, in the least, below that which ex- 
 ists for the truth of Christianity at large. At all events, it 
 is wise to chose the safer part; and it would be madness to act 
 otherwise when eternity is at stake. The great advocates of 
 Christianity, St. Augustin, Pascal, Abbadie, and others argue 
 thus, in recommending it to us, in preference to infidelity : now 
 the same argument evidently holds good for preferring the 
 Catholic religion to every Protestant system. The most emi- 
 nent Protestant divines, such as Luther, Melancthon, Hooker, 
 Chillingworth ; with the bishops, Laud, Taylor, Sheldon, 
 Blandford, and the modern prelates, Marsh, and Porteus him- 
 self, all acknowledge that salvation may be found in the commu- 
 nion of the original Catholic Church ; but no divine of this 
 church, consistently with her characteristical unity, and the 
 constant doctrine of the holy fathers, and of the Scripture 
 itself, as I have elsewhere demonstrated, can allow that salva- 
 tion is to be found out of this 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 seve- 
 rally take is taken for ETERNITY ! Oa this occasion, there- 
 fore, if ever you ought to do so, reflect and decide seriously and 
 conscientiously, dismissing all wordly respects, of whatever 
 kind, from your minds ; for what exchange shall a man receive 
 for his soul 'i* and what will the prejudiced opinion of your fel- 
 low mortals avail you at that tribunal where we are all so soon 
 to appear ! and in the vast abyss of eternity, in which we shall 
 quickly be all engulfed! Will any pf them plead your cause 
 at the bgj ? or will your punishment^be more tolerable from 
 theiji-sharing iu it? Finally, with alTthe fervor and sincerity 
 
 * UMit xyL 20. 
 
318 LETTER L. 
 
 of your souls, beseech your future Judge, who is now your 
 merciful Saviour, to bestow upon you that light to see your 
 way, and that 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 
 together at the tribunal I have mentioned ; and be assured that 
 I look forward to that meeting with a perfect confidence that 
 you and I, and the Great Judge himself^ shall all concur in 
 approbation of the advice I now give you. 
 
 I am, yours, &c., 
 
 John Milnkb. 
 
 Wolverhampton^ May 29, 1802. 
 
 TEDB 
 
 Bmb art TflMTl and uDon this rock I will build my Cbarcb. and the gatea 
 cCJiaQ liiall not MovaU afisiosl iL*' 
 
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