of the Church, it is not, on account of its very depth, understood in the same way by all; but 'different people interpret its divine sayings differently, so that it would seem as if as many meanings almost might be extracted from it, as there are men,' as Vincentius Lirinensis of old observed, and it abundantly appears from heretics and schismatics, who each obtain their own perverse opinions and practice from holy Scripture, interpreted after their own way. In matters, then, of this sort, if we would be secure against erring or stumbling, first of all, beyond question, we must beware of adhering too pertinaciously to the private opinions or conjectures, whether of ourselves or others; rather should we review what the whole Church, or at least the majority of Christians thought thereon, and acquiesce in that opinion, in which Christians of all ages agreed. For as in all things the agreement of all is the voice of nature,' as Cicero saith, so in things of this nature, the agreement of all Christians may well be accounted the voice of the Gospel.' But there are many things, which, although they are not read expressly and definitely in holy Scripture, yet by the common consent of all Christians are obtained from it. For instance. 'That' in the Ever Blessed Trinity Three distinct Persons are to be worshipped, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that each of these is very God, and yet that there is only one God: that Christ is táv@pwπоs, very God and very man is one and the same Person.' These and the like truths, although they are not delivered in so many words and syllables, either in the Old or New Testament, yet all Christians have been agreed upon them, as being founded in both; excepting only some few heretics, of whom in religion no greater account is to be had, than, in nature, of monsters. So, also, that infants are to be cleansed by holy baptism, and sponsors to be employed in that Sacrament; that the Lord's Day or the first in each week is to be religiously kept; that the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, are to be commemorated every year; that the Church is to be every where governed by Bishops, distinct frow the Presbyters, and set over them.' These and other things of the like nature are no where directed in holy Scripture, expressly and by name; nevertheless, for fourteen hundred years from the apostles, they were everywhere publicly received by this Church; nor can, within that period, any Church be found which does not agree therein. So that they are, as it were, universal notions, implanted in the minds of all Christians from the first, not so much from any particular passages of Scripture as from all; from the general scope and tenor of the entire Gospel; from the nature and design of the religion therein established; and from the uniform tradition of the apostles, who, together with the faith, delivered down Church-rites of this sort, and (so to speak) general interpretations of the Gospel, throughout the whole world; otherwise it were incredible, yea, it were altogether impossible, that they should be received with such universal consent, everywhere and always."

The Italics are Bp. Beveridge's.

III. IMPUTATION OF FALSE MOTIVES, AND SO SLANDERING.

There is, however, another class of desertions of the truth, which, in your natural character, as we are persuaded, you would most abhor, but which your assumed one has forced upon you; I mean, imputation of dishonesty to men whom, in your conscience, you believe and know to be honest. This was indeed a necessary part of the fiction; for an agreement with the Church of Rome in things indifferent, or upon which our Church has not deemed it necessary to pronounce, would even to ultra-Protestants appear to involve no very serious charge. It became requisite, then, to insinuate that they agreed with Rome further than was expressed, although prudential or other motives kept them from avowing it. This the fiction enabled you to do covertly, since such dishonesty has ever been part of the corrupt policy of modern Rome. Hence such phrases as

"We make allowance of those difficulties which impede your perception or your avowal of the truth." (p. 6.)

Further, you know that these authors had written also against Popery, and republished older writings against it: their very tracts are known by the name of "Tracts against Popery and Dissent," although, when they were commenced, Dissent was every where a pressing evil: Popery had scarcely begun to bestir itself, and was therefore the less noticed1. You know that all occasions of guarding against the corruptions of Rome had been used in the very tracts corrective of dissent. Such writers, however, would have been but bad allies to the Pope, and therefore this proceeding must, by the laws of fiction, be represented as insincere. Hence such passages as

"We pardon some expressions towards us; compelled, no doubt, partly by the unhappy circumstances of your country. You have indeed sometimes employed terms which we well know our adversaries use in derision of us; but, we repeat, we can pardon these, whether they are the result of prejudices still entertained by you, or are employed for some other

1 A new series of "Tracts against Romanism" had meanwhile been actually commenced, although not then published.

reason. (p. 6, 7.) That communion, of which the present circumstances of your country have made you, almost unavoidably, members. (p. 11.) While we perceive with delight that you have always spoken, in your own person, in accordance with our sentiments on this head, you have, at the same time, selected some tracts from early writers of your communion, in which our sentiments are impugned. These old tracts will not be read with much attention, compared, at least, with your own more lively productions they can too be readily withdrawn when it is expedient: for they are not a pledge of your opinions as strong as your own writings. In the mean time, you may appeal to your republication of them as a proof that you have not leagued yourselves with us."

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Now of all this, Sir, you do not believe one syllable; you do not think that, either in the republication of the older, or the protests of the more modern tracts against Popery, their editors or authors were actuated by any such motives; 'while you impute insincerity, you have reason to believe them as sincere as yourself. It is an ill tree which brings forth fruit thus corrupt.

But is it then a duty to forget that Rome was our mother. through whom we were born to Christ; that she was the instrument chosen by God's good providence to bring the Gospel to the wild Heathen tribes from which most of us are sprung? Are we to be so engrossed with modern controversies, and modern corruptions, as to forget ancient heresies, and those the most deadly, those of Arius and Pelagius, against which she maintained the faith once delivered to the Saints?—are we to forget all past gratitude, all bowels of mercy towards her who was our mother? So to pray against her corruptions as not to pray for her, to cherish no memory of what she was, to Europe and to ourselves? and in her present guilt, to forget our own gratitude? What should we think, if in some future age, New Zealand and Taheite were to cast out our name as evil? She

1 Meanwhile, however, the calumny is spread in real earnest. The anonymous compiler of the "Specimens of Theological Teaching," &c. among the very few statements on which he ventures, echoes it, "Indeed, while these writers profess their love and reverence for the Church of Rome, [as it is?], they take care to protest against it, as all Protestants of course must do." (p. 37.)

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has been an unnatural mother, but are we therefore to be unnatural children? Should we glory in a mother's shame ?

Let me quote the warm language of a modern writer', whose bias lay in an opposite direction, and whose words come fresh from a conscience freeing itself from such ingratitude.

"The aboriginal Briton may dispute the gratitude which he owes to the church of Rome for his conversion; the Englishman, who derives his blood from Saxon veins, will be ungrateful if he be not ready to confess the debt which Christian Europe owes to Rome; and to profess, that whenever she shall cast off those inventions of men, which now cause a separation between us, we shall gladly pay her such honours as are due to the country which was instrumental in bringing us within the pale of the universal church of Jesus Christ."

There is one more evil desertion of truth, which I fear cannot be ascribed to any wish to "adorn your tale," although you have thereby been enabled to convey it in a form less manifestly offensive. You say,

"Another piece of advice which we shall give to you, (as we give it to all our Missionaries,) is, that you should adopt every means to undermine the influence of those whose writings hold out no hope that they may be won over to the true Church. They are, in truth, dangerous men, and you should represent them as such. Be not deceived by their apparent amiability, by their virtuous conduct, or by their extent of learning. These very circumstances render them the more to be dreaded. Suffer not such men to be the instructors of youth. Do not permit them to occupy those places which public spirit alone ought to make you anxious to occupy, even independently of any desire for your individual advancement." (p. 34.)

I can the less lay this to the account of the fiction, because it is manifestly the one object of your whole attack upon these writers; whether out of private friendship to Dr. Hampden, or of alarm for yourself, as a member of the same schoolnam tua res agitur, cum proximus ardet Ucalegon—it is notorious that you imagined these writers to be the principal authors of the measures taken in consequence of that unhappy appointment, and that your avowed object was, to "effect a diversion." Herein you were mistaken; since there prevailed

1 Short's Sketch of the History of the Church of England, sec. 14. 2 The object, thus covertly conveyed in this first essay, is now boldly

throughout Oxford one universal feeling of alarm, (which under the name of "panic," the heathen, more religiously than we, would have ascribed to "the gods,") as soon as the appointment was known. These individuals but joined what already existed. But I would now speak of the truth of the imputation only; you have known, or have been aided (we have ground to think) by others acquainted with those of whom you speak; and you dare not, in your own person, avow your belief, or even your suspicion, of the truth of the allegation, which, under your assumed character, you have insinuated. You know and believe it to be untrue; and thus there is another evil of these unhappy disguises, that they furnish men the temptation of half saying, what they would shrink from speaking openly, as knowing or suspecting it to be untrue: but now, if untrue, it is to pass as part of the jest, and so they take courage, and stifle their consciences.

For ourselves, you will have done us good service; your attack will fall harmless alike on those who are now with the Lord, or upon those who remain; but your revival of the old Presbyterian cry against "Prelacy and Popery," will show the

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avowed in the "Specimens of Theological Teaching," and in the Edinburgh Review. To any one acquainted with Oxford, the notion is altogether absurd there is in Oxford, happily, far too much thoughtfulness and scrupulousness to be influenced by any party, however powerful: men here form their individual convictions, according to their own consciences; party-feeling neither existed, nor had it existed, would it have had any influence; but, in truth, individuals of every shade of religious opinion within the latitude left free by our Articles, were united by one feeling of common danger impending over the Church, and that, independently of each other; they met and acted together spontaneously, actuated only by one common apprehension. The opinions, then, of a certain number of the "Corpus Committee," is, in reality, nihil ad rem; but will any one say that the charges against Dr. Hampden were confined to undervaluing antiquity, or the sacraments, or the authority of the Church, or that the prominent charges were not rather his vague and Sabellian notions on the doctrine of the Trinity, the rationalizing of the Atonement, and generally, a system opposed to the Articles? The Articles of our Church, not the teaching of any set of men, were made our standard; and to this standard and primitive antiquity would we appeal for ourselves.