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Upon supposition of its falsehood," he says, (which falsehood, be it remembered, he had engaged to demonstrate, and was demonstrating,)" the Pope and his chief adherents are the teachers and abettors of the highest violation of divine commands and most enormous sins; of usurpation, tyranny, imposture, perjury, rebellion, murder, rapine, and all the villanies complicated in the practical influence of their doctrine."* This, Sir, is from that learned treatise, (and most truly have you so called it,) which you have instanced as an example of the proper kind of controversy. Yet neither Burnet nor Barrow was reproached for having insulted the English Romanists. The Roman Catholic reader knew that they had written as Protestants, and as it became Protestants to write. No personal offence could be intended, and none was taken.

You have yourself, Sir, written Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish Roman Catholics; and though three editions have been published, I do not know that a single remonstrance (not to say reproach) has ever been made against you for the accusations you have there advanced against the English Church, its

* Barrow's Theological Works, vol. vi. p. 27. ed. 1818.

founders, and its martyrs, in words which, though "softer than butter," and "smoother than oil," are yet intended to be "very swords.'

But what is written in the Book of the Church requires no precedents to justify it, nor is any apology to be made for it. I have said it, and shall repeat it, and will maintain it. It was said in its proper place, and with its proper proofs. I expressed what I believed and knew to be true,..knew it with the sober certainty of one who was writing upon a subject into which he had long and diligently inquired. It was fully borne out by the view there given of the Papal System,..a view which, in all its parts, I am prepared to vindicate and authenticate. I stated the facts which rendered our Reformation necessary; and in so doing I expressed the sentiments which the Church of England professes and inculcates, which I believe with all my heart and with all my soul, and which I will defend with all my strength.

The Romanists are offended if the Papal System is called a system of imposture. The Protestants are not offended when they are called Heretics by the Papists; they receive the appellation just as they would that of Dogs or Kaffers from the Moors. They are not galled by it, because" their withers are unwrung."

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LETTER II.

FIRST INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

CONCERNING the introduction of Christianity among the Britons, the documents are scanty, and, by your own admission, questionable. But it seems difficult," you say, "to deny that they favour the Catholic doctrine of the Pope's Supremacy, and his right of general superintendence over the spiritual concerns of the Church of Christ." To so qualified a mode of insinuating an opinion, it is sufficient to reply that it would be bold to assert, and impossible to prove it. And with this I conclude a letter which may remind the reader of the Chapter concerning Owls in Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland.

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LETTER III.

THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

WE come now to the Anglo-Saxons.

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Apostles' Creed," you say, was taught among them as it is now taught to us. How large a proportion of the articles of their and our faith are contained in this venerable document !"* Yes, Sir; and if the Popes had added nothing to those articles, there would have been no division in the Western Church.

You proceed to say that "the doctrines of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors respecting the supremacy of the Pope; the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the seven sacraments; the invocation of the Virgin Mary and the other Saints, and prayers for the dead, were the same as ours,"...that is of the English Romanists at this time. A distinction must be made here: the Anglo-Saxons received from Rome all the corruptions which had then been introduced into the Romish system; but the most monstrous of the Papal doctrines had not yet been

* Page 28.

broached. The temporal supremacy of the Pope had not been dreamt of; and the opinion which was held concerning the real presence in the Eucharist, was that which the Church of England professes at this day. For transubstantiation had not then been invented.

I

You ask those who are conversant with the writings of Bede, "*whether the Gospel inculcates a single duty, or recommends a single practice, which does not appear to have been taught and recommended by the Apostles of the Anglo-Saxons and their successors?" answer that the missionaries, by whom our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were converted, and the successors of those missionaries, most assuredly did inculcate the practices and duties which the Gospel enjoins they did this as Christians; but it is not less certain that, as Romish Christians, they introduced as practices, and inculcated as duties, observances concerning which the Gospel is altogether silent; all of them unauthorized by its letter or its spirit, and some in plain contradiction to both.

Of this more fully hereafter. I am called upon to notice here the misrepresentation concerning St. Eligius, which Dr. Lingard has detected, and which you †have brought forward in the strongest light. The fact is as you have stated * Page 30. + Page 33.