and, by God's grace, burn at the ftake, rather than depart from any material point of the Proteftant religion as profeffed in the Church of England. Once more, can I be supposed to favour arbitrary power? The whole tenor of my life has been otherwife: I was always a friend to the liberty of the fubject; and, to the best of my power, conftantly maintained it. I may have been thought mistaken in the measures I took to fupport it; but it matters not by what party I was called, fo my actions are uniform." Afterwards, fpeaking of the method of proceeding against him as unconstitutional, he fays: "My ruin is not of that moment to any number of men, to make it worth their while to violate, or even to feem to violate, the Conftitution in any degree, which they ought to preferve against any attempts whatsoever. Though I am worthy of no regard, though whatsoever is done to me, may for that reafon be looked upon to be juft; yet your lordships will have fome regard to your own laiting intereft, and that of posterity. This is a proceeding with which the Conftitution is unacquainted; which, under the pretence of fupporting it, will at last effectually deftroy it. For God's fake, lay afide these extraordinary proceedings; fet not up these new and dangerous precedents. I, for my part, will voluntarily and cheerfully go into perpetual bauifhment, and please myself that I am, in fome measure, the occasion of putting a stop to fuch precedents, and doing fome good to my country: I will live, wherever I am, praying for its profperity; and do, in the words of Father Paul to the State of Venice, fay, Efto perpetua. Let me depart, and let my country be fixed upon the immovable foundation of law and justice, and stand for ever." After a folemn protestation of his innocence, and an appeal to the Searcher of hearts for the truth of what he had faid, he concludes thus: "If, on any account, there fhall ftill be thought by your lordships to be any feeming strength in the proofs againft me'; if, by your lordships' judgments, fpringing from unknown motives, I fhall be thought to be guilty; if, for any reafons or neceffity of ftate, of the wisdom and juftice of which I am no competent judge, your lordships fhall proceed to pass this bill against me; I fhall difpofe myself quietly and tacitly to fubmit to what you do; God's will be done; naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked fhall I return; and, whether he gives or takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord." After confiderable fufferings in a state of exile, Bishop Atterbury died in Paris, Feb. 15, 1731. The affliction, which he sustained by the death of his daughter, Mrs. Morice, is fuppofed to have haftened his diffolution. His relation of that event, in a letter to Mr. Pope, cannot fail to reach the heart of every reader of fenfibility; nor is it lefs calculated to edify than to affect. "The earneft defire (faith the bishop) of meeting one I dearly loved, *5Z2* called called me abruptly to Montpelier; where, after continuing two months under the cruel torture of a fad and fruitless expectation, I was forced at last to take a long journey to Toulouse; and even there I had miffed the perfon I fought, had fhe not, with great spirit and courage, ventured all night up the Garonne, to fee me, which the above all things defired to do before she died. By that means, fhe was brought where I was, between 7 and 8 in the morning, and lived twenty hours afterwards; which time was not loft on either fide, but paffed in fuch a manner, as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as, on her part, every way became her circumstances and character: for fhe had her fenfes to the very gafp, and exerted them to give me, in those few hours, greater marks of duty and love, than fhe had done in all her life-time, though the had never been wanting in either. The laft words the faid to me, were the kindeft of all; a reflection on the goodness of God, which had allowed us in this manner to meet once more, before we parted for ever. Not many minutes after that, the laid herself on her pillow, in a fleeping posture, Placidaque ibi demum morte quievit.' laft Judge you, Sir, what I felt, and ftill feel on this occafion. At my age, under my infirmities, among utter ftrangers, how fhall I find out proper reliefs and fupports? I can have none, but those with which reafon and religion furnish me; and those I lay hold on, and grafp as fast as I can. I hope, that he who laid the burden upon me (for wife and good purposes no doubt) will enable me to bear it, in like manner as I have borne others, with fome degree of fortitude and firmnefs." This brief account of Bifhop Atterbury, and his lovely and heroic daughter, Mrs. Morice, will enable our younger readers to understand several allufions found in the Poem on the death of that lady, which muft otherwife be to them unintelligible. We can afford room for no more than a few extracts from it. "When inward fretting grief had almost drain'd Her ebbing veins, nor much of life remain'd, Each hour her pious pray'rs more ardent grow To meet her exil'd father once below. Whoe'er the hazards of her health display, Against their purpofe urge her fpeedy way, "Behold Behold they meet! fo Providence decrees, The most affecting part of this excellent Poem is that in which poet reprefents the bishop expreffing himself immediately on death of Mrs. Morice. The concluding lines are, "Yet, oh! had judgment fall'n on me alone, The general character of Mr. Samuel Wesley's Poems, is that REVIEW OF THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. SIR, To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine. AS many of your readers have probably heard, that a periodical work has been recently publifhed, entitled, the CATHOLIC MAGAZINE, I wish, through the medium of your Mifcellany, to lay before them the following Remarks upon that novel publication. A PROTESTANT. THE Pope is very appropriately chofen for the subject of the firft article of THE CATHOLIC MAGAZINE, for if his infallibility and vicarship be once admitted, all proteftants, without exception, are heretics, feparated from that church, out of which his infalli bility declares falvation to be impoffible. In this ill-written, rhapfodical article, Luther, whom the papifts will never forgive, is called called an arch heretic, and reprefented as a man grofsly imm But the great Saxon reformer's character ftands too high in at of legitimate fame, as a Divine and a Chriftian, to be r danger, fhould it even be attacked by " JOHN, BISHOP OF TURIIAE, VICAR APOSTOLIC OF THE LONDON DISTRICT." page 3, we find the following account of the church of In fpite of all the falfifications and metamorphofes e catholic works and the Bible, the pope, cardinals, and can minifters, ftill form that univerfal, indivifible, unfullied, ca apoftolic church, without fpot or wrinkle, built upon a roc Jefus Chrift himfelf, and is to laft fo until the end of time; the gates of hell (the innumerable feets) fhall not prevail againit Here we have, in the plaineft terms, the charge of falfifying metamorphofing the Bible, preferred against the proteftants; and innumerable fects in the Chriftian world, the Church of Engi not excepted, termed the gates of hell; and all this by permi of the pope's " VICAR APOSTOLIC of the LONDON DISTRICT Such vile, ignorant calumnies, are not worthy of a confutati their being barely recorded is fufficient for the purpofe. Mad learning among the papifts themfelves, however difpofed they be to call proteftants, the gates of hell, perfectly know that the have not "falfified or metamorphofed" the Bible. We are told, (page 6,) that the church of Rome has had hundred and fifty popes; and that "St. Peter was the first pro or vifible head, of the unalterable, immaculate church of Chrif. and that "he reigned thirty-fix years, five months, and twe days." A fit opportunity will occur, in the course of our oble vations, for giving a true picture of that corrupt church, which has been, for many ages, a reproach to the chriftian name. Th St. Peter was ever bishop of Rome, remains to be proved; bu admitting that he was, his being fo would not prove that he wa fuperior to the reft of the apostles, much lefs the infallibility of y of his fucceffors. St. Paul acknowledged no fuperiority in St Peter, but challenged an equality with him, in common with the reft of the apoftles, Gal. i. 15, 17, and upon a certain occafion "withflood him to the face, because he was to be blamed," Gal. ii. 11. And St. Cyprian faith, "The other apoftles are the fame St. Peter was, endowed with an equal fellowship of honour and power." "Vain, deluded men! you are battering the wind, you a attempting to deftroy a divine inftitution. Proteftants often cry, THE CHURCH IN DANGER! which, according to my opinion, the greatest infult that can be offered to the church of Englan It is faying, in other words, that it is a human fabric, continually tottering and threatening ruin. As foon as a few new fects t up, the alarm bell, or tocfin, is founded-THE CHURCH IN DANGER. So are all human fabrications."-" Not fo with the church rift." By the church of Chrift, the writer would be underto mean, the church of Rome exclufively; the language of hurch being, "Dicimus, definimus, pronunciamus abfolute arium ad falutem, omni humanæ creaturæ fubeffe Romano ici," p. 7. We fay, define, and pronounce, that it is abfolutely ry to falvation, for every man to be fubject to the pope of Rome. a note, p. 7, the writer, after noticing the increase of new and chapels in this country, fays, "Parfons come pretty in fuch places; and what is worthy of notice is, the connefs of the national clergy of their own weakness: for when ritable fubfcription is to be raised, such a fellow is hired to h." This fingle fentence proves, that the editor, with all his ng of his acquaintance with the works of protestants, is y ignorant of the economy of the church of England; for no er, of any denomination, ever occupies any of her pulpits. he known this, prudence would have probably fuggefted to he impropriety of calling a regularly ordained minifter of the lifhment, "fuch a fellow." But he thought he was defcribing of the fectarian minifters, and therefore might fafely use the eft language. The "national clergy," as he calls them, will o way obliged by his pofitive declaration, that they are cons of fuch a weaknefs as he lays to their charge. But they are able to anfwer for themselves. page the 9th, Mr. Blanchard and Mr. Gafhet, two French fts, are abused as apoftates, on account of their having been, he writer expreffes it," pamphleting and fcribbling against our fathers," i. e. the popes. The answer to what they have ten is, both for language and fenfe, worthy of the wretched fe which it is intended to fupport. The following is given as ecimen :-" It feems to me an eafy matter to write against the d of the faithful; why? because they are powerfully afflifted. their cunning mafter the devil, who conducts their hand and ins, and blows in their ears delufive and engaging demonologies. Nick is much concerned in it; and he must have fucceeded. h them to the utmost of his expectations." It is well for those tlemen that they live under the protection of a proteftant ernment, where they may queftion the holiness of popes, hout dreading the horrors of an inquifition. Were they at old 4, they would foon be taught by the inquifitor Jofephus a Dolous, how dangerous it is to doubt of either the holiness or infallibility any Roman pontiff. They would foon occupy a place among fe victims of popith barbarity, of whom Dr. Buchanan gives account, in his Chriftian Refearches. Soon would they heighten feftivity of an Auto de Fé, at "the place of burning, in the mpo Santo Lazaro." But who were those holy fathers, for whom such veneration is claimed? |