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vations, will be included therefore in this reply; but I must premise that the Titular Bishop is not included in those acknowledgements of courtesy and expressions of respect, which are made with perfect sincerity towards you.

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You state,* Sir, in the words of Father Jones,

a Benedictine, called in religion Father Leander a Sancto Martino," the points both of discipline and doctrine wherein the Church of England and that of Rome agree and upon this you observe that, "when there is so near an approximation in religious creeds, there certainly should be an equal approximation in Christian and moral charity; an equal wish to soothe, to conciliate, to find the real points of difference very few, and to render them still fewer; and an equal unwillingness on each side to say, or to write, any thing unpleasing to the feelings of the other." To the first part of this observation I assent most fully upon the rest I must distinguish.

The points of agreement are so many and so important, that the members of the one Church who will not acknowledge those of the other to be their fellow Christians, show themselves to be deficient in the fundamental virtue of Christian

* Page 2.

charity. In the general dealings of society, and in the intercourse between nation and nation, it behoves us to remember these, and these only. But the points of difference are not less important; under certain circumstances, indeed, they become more so; and therefore in concerns of great moment, whether in private or public life, the points of difference are those which are mainly to be considered:... for example, in case of a proposed marriage between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant,... or of a proposed legislative measure which would give the Roman Catholics political power in a Protestant country. Is it not obvious that in either of these cases the party which has something to gain will endeavour "to conciliate, and to represent the real points of difference as very few?" and is it not a matter, both of duty and of common prudence on the other, to inquire, carefully, whether those differences may not, in their consequences, occasion, in the first case, individual unhappiness, and, in the second, national inconvenience and danger?

With regard to saying or writing anything on either side, unpleasing to the feelings of the other; ...how, Sir, upon such a subject is this to be avoided? A conciliatory and unimpassioned tone might easily, as well as fitly, be

maintained, if the controverted matter were merely theological or speculative; but I have to deal with historical facts,... and facts, too, some of them so appalling in themselves and in their consequences, that they cannot take possession of the mind, without calling forth "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." I could wish, earnestly wish, that these letters "might not contain a sentence or expression at which the very amiable and able person to whom they are addressed could take offence;" and as relating to himself, I dare promise that they shall not. But as they regard the subject, no such hope can, without folly, be entertained. Like yourself, Sir, "what* I consider to be truth, I must tell;" and much as, like yourself, I might desire

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tof tell it in a manner which may show sincere respect for those whose different notions it opposes," it would be dissembling pitifully, were I to pretend respect for a Church whose corruptions and practices I have been led to investigate and expose. The history of this country, and more especially its ecclesiastical history, is not one of those subjects which a writer may treat and "meddle only with toothless truths." You say, that "superstition and

* Page 4. † Page 11.

C

Page 338.

idolatry are the most offensive words in language to the ear of a Roman Catholic when they are applied to his religion," and that these words are "the burthen of the Book of the Church."

Ma quel ch'è ver bisogna dir per forza.

I am afraid, Sir, that if I were to substitute the tenderest synonimes, or, in imitation of your own polished manner, to convey an unpleasant meaning in the softest periphrasis, it would still be impossible to please you.

What's in a name?-that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

and, in like manner, the ramp and the stinkard will continue to be as offensive and as rank, although we should dignify them by their Linnæan appellations. The nature of things is not to be altered by altering their names; but the writer who knows that he is engaged in a good cause, will be especially careful to call things by their right names, because it is by the abuse* and misapplication of words, that men have most commonly been deluded by demagogues

* South has some admirable Discourses upon "the fatal imposture and force of words," taking for his text, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil." The reader who is not conversant with the works of this most powerful and excellent writer would do well to read these sermons.

and knaves of every description. We learn from history what political evils have been produced by an artifice which, though it is as old as the temptation in Paradise, is never repeated without some success; and its every-day effects are to be seen in private life. Are we improved. either in practice or in feeling, by calling a profligate life a gay one, giving to habitual drunkenness the name of social or convivial habits, and speaking of acts of seduction, or adulterous intercourse, as affairs of gallantry? Nullis vitiis desunt pretiosa nomina. Idolatry and superstition would cease to prevail if they were represented always in their true light, and known for what they are. How, Sir, am I to avoid these words, which are so "unpleasing to a Romish ear," without betraying the cause of the Reformation? It is because the Church of Rome is an idolatrous and superstitious Church that we have separated from her. It was for bearing testimony against her idolatry and superstition that our Martyrs died at the stake. If superstition has been rightly *defined to be "the observance of unnecessary and uncommanded rites or practices; religion without morality; false worship; reverence of beings not proper objects of worship:"... if idolatry be "the * Johnson. † Id.

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