you, where you will find an admirable solution of all your difficulties and doubts, and a clear statement of the uncorrupted doctrines of Christianity as laid down in the Word of God, and verified and confirmed by the testimony of the fathers. More for you I cannot do, and trust me, my dear -, you, a member (thank God) of the uncorrupted Catholic Church, will find this a much better method of becoming settled and grounded in the holy faith, than requesting an oral solution of every carnal difficulty which your very natural want of acquaintance with the grounds of Reformation and Evidences of Christianity may lead you to entertain. I again entreat you, therefore, if you will put what Dr terms the poisoned chalice to your lips,'—and if you will entangle yourself in the labyrinth of theological controversies,—or if you will discuss controversial subjects with those who have fallen from light into darkness,' when you feel yourself little informed on such subjects, that you will make yourself, in the first instance, or at the same time, master of the defence of Anglican doctrines contained in Bishop Burnet's (or Bishop Beveridge's) works, or any of the authors which I have recommended to your attention. Whether you act well and wisely, or as one settled and grounded in the faith of your fathers, your baptism, and your foregone life, in thus reading Romish writings, I will not now stop to consider. Were I in your position, I would not certainly venture my salvation on so perilous a risk. The condition of those who are baptized and hereditary members of the Romish Church is, no doubt, much to be deplored, as it is sufficiently alarming; but the defection of members of the Reformed Catholic Church to the Romish Communion, is a subject of much deeper apprehension, as such a secession is the result of a personal voluntary act, which, if the Church of Rome be a departure from Primitive Christianity, will render those who voluntarily connect themselves with it, in a peculiar manner highly amenable to the displeasure and punishment hereafter of God.

6. Lastly, I once more pray you most earnestly and solemnly to reflect whether this primary and reiterated reference to the Church and the Fathers does not indicate an unreasonable and highly disrespectful treatment of the Inspired Canon of Holy Scripture which has been 'given for our learning,' and whose design is to make fallible and erring man wise unto salvation.' The Romish Church has all along offered this disrespect to the Word of God, and gives it only the secondary place after the Church. When the sun shines

6

at noonday, no man, who has his senses entire and is possessed of vision, needs a director to inform him that what he beholds is the light, and that the sun is the author of that light. So, when the Inspired Word of God is put into our hands,-though there be in it certainly many things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction,'-still, the general directions of that Divine Chart are so plain, that 'he that runneth may read,' and 'wayfaring men though fools will not err therein.'* Compare spiritual things with spiritual, and different parts of Scripture with other passages, to assist you in ascertaining the mind of its Divine Author, the Spirit of God. If men, however, will sin against their own mercies, if they will show disrespect to the Bible by postponing it to the Church,-if they will place their dependence upon the words and writings of fallible men in former times or their own,-if they will carp at casual expressions detached from the usual tenor of the writers' works, and plainly at variance with Scripture,if they will be seduced by those who have garbled Christianity, materialized its high spiritual mysteries, and moulded it into a low, degrading, and human system,-and lastly, if they will run voluntarily into temptation, and forsake the vantage ground which they possess as members of the Reformed faith, then, such persons need not be surprised, and can only have themselves to call to account and blame, if God leaves them to their own devices, and suffers them to choose darkness rather than light, because their works (that is, their inconsiderate if not presumptuous tampering with the primitive doctrines of Christianity and the Church) are evil.'

In conclusion, I would again earnestly 'beseech you, by the mercies of God,' and as one of the watchmen and stewards of the mysteries of Christ, that you will not allow yourself, by any influence or human ties, to trifle with so momentous a concern as the wellbeing of your soul. If the tenets of the Church of Rome are a corruption of Christianity, you, if you be seduced to embrace them, and fall from the pure Catholic faith, will, as I have formerly reminded you, most inevitably incur a tenfold more awful reckoning and punishment hereafter from a justly offended and dishonoured God. I for one, as His servant, do hereby warn you, in the most earnest and solemn terms, not to become the victim of this miserable delusion, which all prophecy has intimated would make a final effort to recover its power over the consciences and souls of men, before its utter over* Isaiah xxxv. 8.

throw and extinction in the latter days. These days, I am firmly persuaded, have now arrived; and the time of the end, or the winding up and dissolution of this dispensation, are near at hand. And now I leave you to God and your own conscience, having done all that lies in my power to caution you against the 'wiles of the Destroyer.' I must decline farther controversy on this subject; for 1 know that further discussion will only serve to injure rather than to benefit you in this lamentable state of doubt. May God, however, enable you to become wise unto salvation.'

I thank you for your offer of introducing me to the Romish libraries you mention; but as my views of the Christian religion and Church have been long since firmly-thank God, irrevocably-settled, I need no such aid, nor can I ever have any connection or intercourse on such subjects with members of an apostate communion. -I am, most truly yours,

P.S.-One of the best answers, perhaps, to Romanism is Mr Newman's own Treatise on this subject, before his secession from our Church.

LETTER III.

July 31, 1848.

MY DEAR -I have again to acknowledge and thank you for your letter of the 29th inst. Pray do not suppose that I take in bad part your having mentioned my name, or shewn my letters, to others, without my knowledge or permission. I only expressed some regret, as such a course is unusual; and had I been aware of

your intention, I might have worded my remarks, perhaps, more carefully. I do not believe, however, that there would in this instance have been any occasion for greater care, as, on recurring to Dr Hook's Dictionary, I find my statement borne out respecting the Index Expurgatorius most fully, and to that concise and excellent epitome of ecclesiastical matters I beg to refer you.

Yon have taken up a most erroneous notion in supposing that I wish you to believe implicitly all that I, or Dr -> or the Anglican Church, tell you; on the contrary, while I regret the necessity of your recurring to the fundamentals of our holy faith, I have, in common with Dr recommended you to peruse certain Anglican works, and given you a short list for that purpose, which I have stated most distinctly, more than once, contain a full refutation of all

the corruptions of the Church of Rome. When you have read all, or even a portion, of these works (which you do not appear to have done), I shall be ready to assist you, to the best of my power, in relieving you from your melancholy, and, I must add, extraordinary doubts. Surely this is not like debarring you from enquiring, but urging you to do so, while you are seemingly holding back, and reading only Romish controversial works. I certainly did expect, and still do think, that the assistance of the clergy of the Church of which you have as yet the happiness to be a member, was both necessary, and would have been desired and appreciated by any of her sons who were unhappily involved in doubts; nor did I, nor do I, consider any application to the ministers of God as an infringement of the legitimate limits of private judgment or opinion. And surely, when I had reason to suspect that you were applying for assistance, directly or indirectly, in other quarters, hostile to the opinions of your own Church, and, at the same time, knew from yourself that while you had consulted, and were still perusing, Dr Milner's and Dr Wiseman's writings, you had not acted on Dr -'s recommen

dation, or my own, and consulted the admirable works of Anglican divines, I felt both surprised and discouraged at the hopelessness of attempting to reclaim you from your wanderings, and establish you in the Catholic Faith,—that only 'Faith which was once delivered to the saints.'

I feel myself again constrained, however, to repeat, that until you have really studied the works recommended to you, I must decline entering on the beaten path of refuting Romish corruptions, though, after that, if then necessary, you shall be most welcome to any assistance I can render. Meanwhile, you have my most sincere sympathy and regrets for this sad position in which you have placed yourself, by tampering with your faith. Remember the impressive admonition of the sacred volume, They that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies';* and bear likewise always in mind another express statement of holy writ, that whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.'t In the Holy Scriptures you will find no mention of the vicegerent authority of the Romish Pontiff,-of the conversion of the Eucharistic elements into the actual corporeal matter of the Saviour's body,-of the infallibility of the Pope, of Purgatory,-of the idolatrous worship (greater or * Jonah ii. 3. † Rom. xv. 3.

less) of angels or saints, or the mother of our Lord, or their images, -of the public service of God in a language unknown to the worshippers,-of masses for sins and for the dead,-or, in short, of any of the corruptions of Popery, many of them derived from the ancient Pagan superstitions and idolatries of the Roman Empire, and engrafted on the spiritual and holy religion of Christ.' Therefore, I would urge you to 'take heed' to these Holy Scriptures, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts.'* And of this I am further very sure, that if you consult Dr Cave's Primitive Christianity during the three first Centuries' (on which I am willing to stake the whole cause, as historical evidence for matters of fact), you will not find one single Romish error believed or practised by the Early Church. On the contrary, you will find a close and habitual adherence to the writings of the Holy Evangelists and Apostles in their strict, and literal, and reasonable signification. To the three closing verses of the 2d chapter of the Second Epistle of St Peter I would painfully refer you; and remain, my dear. -, your very sincere friend,

MY DEAR -After the few remarks and suggestions which I have made in my former letters on the subject which at present engages your attention, I did not intend to have added anything more, nor again to have alluded to the question of Romanism, till the completion of your design of perusing certain Anglican authors had enabled you to refer to me for a further solution of your difficulties, if such a solution were in my power. I am led, however, so far to break through my intention as to request you once more- -for I think I have already done so-to procure and peruse a small work of only about seventy pages, entitled, A Letter from Rome, shewing an exact conformity between Popery and Paganism, by Conyers Middleton, D.D.,' an English divine, formerly distinguished for scholastic and theological attainment. I have lately procured and read, with much satisfaction, this little work, which most fully demonstrates, as its title imports, the conformity which still subsists between modern Romanism and the ancient religion of the Roman Pagan empire. * 2 Peter i. 19.