by which they are prevented from extending it to

ALL.

POSTSCRIPT.

Want of books, or rather want of sufficient health to undergo the fatigue and discomfort of consulting them in public libraries, had made me proceed in the composition of these Letters deriving the materials from my own stores, and from the book itself against the general tendency of which I was induced to take up the pen. My knowledge of the Roman Catholic doctrines led me soon to conclude that Mr. Butler was a writer who, on the fairest construction, knew how to divert his adversaries from all the weak points of his cause. Yet I trusted that the accuracy of his quotations might be depended upon, especially when he gave us authorized statements of the Roman Catholic tenets. The translation of the creed of Pius IV., which Mr. Butler inserted in his Book of the Roman Catholic Church, was, therefore, the only document of that kind from which I deduced my arguments to prove the duty incumbent on Roman Catholics to propagate their

religion by every means in their power. Whether I have succeeded or failed in proving that fact by inference, my readers will decide. But upon a revision of my arguments, I do not regret that an omission which I subsequently discovered in Mr. Butler's translation of that creed deprived me, at first, of the easiest and most direct proof which I could wish to support my assertion. For had I consulted the original at once, the positive confirmation which that document gives it, and my own familiar conviction of its truth, would have induced me to save myself the exertion of fully developing my argument. As it now happens, I flatter myself that my readers will give me some credit for accuracy in the knowledge of the Roman Catholic doctrines, when they shall see that a theoretical reasoning from her established general principles, fully and accurately agrees with a positive injunction of the Church of Rome, of which lapse of time had made me forget the existence..

Let us, then, compare the last article in Mr. Butler's translation of the creed, with the original. Mr. Butler's translation:-" This true catholic

direct support to any Protestant establishment, or to omit such measures as may, without finally injuring the cause of Catholicism, check and disturb the spread and ascendency of error; is in itself sinful, and cannot, therefore, be obligatory. In the second place it must be evident that if, for the advantage of the Catholic religion suffering under an heterodox ascendancy, some oaths of this kind may be tolerated by Catholic divines, the head of that church will find it his duty to declare their nullity upon any change of circumstances. The persevering silence of the Papal see in regard to this point, notwithstanding the advantages which an authorized declaration would give to the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland, is an indubitable proof that the Pope cannot give his sanction to engagements made in favour of a Protestant establishment. Of this, Bossuet himself was aware, when to his guarded opinion upon the scruples of James II. against the coronation oath, he subjoined the salvo:-" I nevertheless submit with all my heart to the supreme decision of his Holiness." If that decision, however, was then, and is now, withheld, notwithstanding the

disadvantages to which the silence of Rome subjects the Roman Catholics, it cannot be supposed that it would at all tend to remove them. To such as are intimately acquainted with the Catholic doctrines, which I have just laid before you, the conduct of the Roman see is in no way mysterious.

It would be much more difficult to explain upon what creditable principle of their church, the Catholic divines of these kingdoms can give their approbation to oaths tendered for the security of the Protestant establishment. The clergy of the church of England have been involved in a general and indiscriminate charge of hypocrisy and simulation, upon religious matters. It would ill become one in my peculiar circumstances to take up the defence of that venerable body*; yet I cannot dismiss this subject without most solemnly attesting, that the strongest impressions which enliven and support my Christian faith, are derived from my friendly intercourse with members

* Since writing this passage, a most spirited and modest defence of the church of England clergy has been published by Doctor Blomfield, Lord Bishop of Chester.

of that insulted clergy; while, on the contrary, I knew but very few Spanish priests whose talents or acquirements were above contempt, who had not secretly renounced their religion. Whether something similar to the state of the Spanish clergy may not explain the support which the Catholic priesthood of these kingdoms, seem to give to oaths so abhorrent from the belief of their church, as those which must precede the admission of members of that church into parliament; I will not undertake to say. If there be conscientious believers among them, which I will not doubt for a moment, and they are not forced into silence, as I suspect it is done in similar cases*, I feel assured that they will earnestly deprecate, and condemn all engagements on the part of the Roman Catholics, to support and

* I recollect something about the persecution of one Mr. Gandolphy, a London priest, who was obliged to appeal personally to Rome against the persecution of his brethren, for exposing too freely the doctrines which might increase the difficulties of Catholic emancipation. The Pope did not condemn him.—Since writing this note I have seen the case of Mr. Gandolphy stated in an able publication of the Rev. George Croly, entitled Popery and the Popish Question. Mr. G.'s doctrines were highly approved at Rome.