Has our nation shewn itself inhospitable; or less bountiful, than you had perhaps anticipated, to your virtues?

Surely you cannot urge that plea; you, on whom the liberality of a most beneficent King has heaped, without solicitation, preferments so ample and so rich; and on whom, were occasion offered, he would doubtless have bestowed yet greater; you, whom the Court, the City, each of our Universities, in fact the whole multitude of the people, has been accustomed so to honour and respect! The very liberty of departure which you now enjoy, by the kindness of his Most Serene Majesty, sufficiently declares how handsomely you have here been treated. The same facility is not always granted us, in other countries, of going and returning just where we please. There have been those of our countrymen, whom it has cost their heads, only to have seen Rome: and those there are, who, in evil hour, have scarce set their feet upon the threshold of that relentless city, but they were handed over to the officer, and have been now most cruelly detained in the prison of the Inquisition, about seventeen years, if at least they have been permitted to live so long. This is not the way we use our enemies, our invaders; much less our guests: here, earth and air are equally free to all: and those who have deserved worst of Britain, are sure of receiving at her hands but too liberal an entertain

ment.

Have our manners and customs displeased you?

Perhaps our style of living is somewhat too loose and free. The vices of the age they live in will certainly creep by degrees even upon the most pious population; nor make we boast, that all throughout our land are exempt from that flood of evils, for which the good are seriously affected both with shame and sorrow. Offences will come; Luke xvii. 1. it is an ancient warning of the Saviour. But, I appeal to yourself, both as witness and as judge; whatever we are, we have not yet equalled Italy in ungodliness. Here we will give place, and not unwillingly, to the nation of the Pope; nor envy him this hateful and disreputable distinction. Fancy us, if you like, much more wicked still, Rome will justify us; herself the Delos of the Pontifical Apollo, herself the heaven of the Italian Vice-Deity: of whom God may well say now, as of Jerusalem in days of old, As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters; Ezek. xvi. 48. Even among the purple-coated Moderators of that Church, you will encounter men, by whom the vilest of our sensualists will acknowledge themselves easily surpassed.

What, then? what, after all? Is it the religion we here profess, offends you?

God forbid that a Bishop, full of years, and endowed with

bus imbutus, recidivam patiatur! Apage mendacem famam! Non possum ego tam iniquis rumusculis aurem præbere: quicquid ogganniat vulgus, nolo ego istoc credere, nolo suspicari.

Quòd si quis, tui similis, tam malè consulet et suæ et aliorum saluti, eum sic audacter compellare non dubitarem.

Displicétne ergo religio? Non ea nunc primulum innotescit: diu est, ex quo utriusque Ecclesiæ dogmata seriò solicitèque pensiculaveris; ac notam à te probè sententiam nostram denique amplexus, solam veritati divinæ consonam orbi propinaveris, veracíque calamo palam consignaveris. Ecquod verò nunc novi luminis tibi improvisò obortum sic illustravit oculos, ut quæ solertissimâ viginti ferè annorum indagine frustrà perquisiveris, clarissimè demum cerneres? Res eadem est: tu si sis alius, videris quòd te numen mutârit.

Certè qui religionem nostram odio habent plusquam Eteocleo, fatentur nos verum dicere; sed totum non dicere criminantur. Quicquid est Positivæ, quam appellant, apud nostros Theologiæ, etiam adversariis perplacet. Negationum solummodo quarundam paulò atrociorum graviter accusamur. Nempe, audacem illam impiámque novæ fidei farraginem ferre nec posse nos, nec debere profitemur. Nihil quicquam addimus: nihil immutavimus. Non aut formosior est, quàm fuit olim, Romanæ Ecclesiæ facies; aut Reformatæ, turpior.

Dic mihi nunc, cur quæ intoleranda tibi primùm visa sunt religionis assumenta, placere incipiant? cur, jam serò, primigenia nostræ simplicitatis forma tibi sordescere videatur? Obsecro te, amplissime Domine, immo adjuro per Dominum Jesum Christum, redeas ad cor tuum, velísque animæ tuæ misereri.

Senex nunc es: moneant te cani tui, (flores illi cœmiteriales, qui nunc caput tuum gravi quodam decore obtegunt,) non longè abesse fatalem illum diem, quo tremendo Summi Judicis tribunali sisteris, rationem demutatæ sententiæ redditurus. Cogita jam seriò, quid responsi daturus sis illi, illi falli nescio, vivorum mortuorúmque Arbitro. Quicquid certè fiat cæcæ plebeculæ, cui, perfidâ doctorum tyrannide, cœlestis doctrinæ jubar intercludi solet; fieri non potest, quin ut tu, quem tam insigni eruditione rerúmque omnium scientiâ instruxit Deus, pœnam à

admirable gifts of intellect, should suffer a relapse! Away with false reports! I cannot bear to lend an ear to whispers so pernicious: whatever the commonalty may mutter, this I can neither credit nor suspect.

But should any one else, resembling you, act with so little care either for his own welfare, or that of others, I should not hesitate, with all boldness, to address him thus.

Is it our religion, then, offends you? Our religion is not now for the first time dawning upon your observation: it is a long time since you seriously and sedulously scrutinized the doctrines of either Church; and having finally embraced what you perfectly knew to be our judgment in the matter, propounded it to the world as alone consistent with the truth of God, and openly ratified its authenticity with your pen. What new light, now rising suddenly upon you, has so enlightened your eyes, that you should at length perceive most clearly, what you sought in vain after a most diligent inquiry of near twenty years? The object of research is the same it always was; if you have undergone a change yourself, take care your change is of the Lord.

Certainly those who hold our religion in detestation, worse than that of Eteocles against his brother, acknowledge that we speak the truth; only they avouch that we speak not the whole truth. Whatever we have, that comes under the distinction of Positive Theology, our adversaries approve. It is only of certain Negations, though of a somewhat fearful character, that we are so heavily accused. And verily we profess that we neither can, nor should, endure that bold and impious mixture of strange doctrines. We add nothing: we alter nothing. The aspect of the Roman Church is not more fair than it ever was; nor that of the Reformed more foul.

Tell me, why those shreds and patches, which once you deemed intolerable adjuncts to religion, now begin to please? why, at so late an hour, our forms of primitive simplicity seem mean and beggarly in your eyes? I implore you, honourable Sir, yea, I adjure you by our Lord Jesus Christ, return to sense and wisdom, and have compassion on your own soul.

You are now an old man let hoary hairs admonish you, (those flowers of the grave which already cover your head with graceful solemnity,) that the day of doom is not far off, when you will be arraigned before the terrible Tribunal of the Judge of all, to give account of the change you have adopted. Ponder now devoutly, what answer you will render up to him, who cannot be deceived, the Arbiter of quick and dead. However it may fare with a blind and ignorant multitude, from whom, through the tyranny and treachery of their instructors, the rays of heavenly knowledge are excluded; it is utterly impossible but that you, whom God has furnished with so eminent

veritatis agnitæ priùs abnegatáeque acerrimo Vindice reportes.

Assurgent contra te, in illo verendo die, scripta tua, egregia orthodoxias quondam tuæ monumenta æviterna; testabuntúrque, et quis olim fueris, et quàm solidis rationum nixus firmamentis ad nostras partes accesseris; turpémque tibi lapsum coram Deo et angelis exprobrabunt.

Interim, verò, cœlum et terra nobis attestentur, ecquid sit, in quo nos sacris indubiísque Dei eloquiis non firmissimè adhæreamus: ecquid, in quo sanctorum Patrum Conciliorúmque authoritate destituamur: ecquid, in quo nos à Romanis discessionem fecerimus; nisi ubi illos à se, à Deo, discessisse constiterit.

O pios salutarésque nostros errores! Ecquis bonus est, qui cum beatis Patribus, cum gloriosis Martyribus, cum sanctissimis Apostolis, cum Deo denique ipso, errare dubitaverit? Aliam profectò semitam qui sibi calcandam elegerit; erret, cadat, pereat, necesse est!

Fige ergo, si sapis, venerande Præsul, fige istic pedem. Mane usque nobiscum; et fruere Deo, fruere Evangelio, fruere suavissima bonæ conscientiæ pace.

Quòd si te ista parùm moveant, age orna hanc modò, et abripe, quandoquidem ita vis, fugam ab hoc asylo pacis simul et religionis; daque aurem noctuis illis, si quæ sint, Loyoliticis, quæ tibi istæc suaserint olim. Vivit Dominus; Ps. xviii. 47. serâ duceris facti pœnitentiâ; Brittaniamque nostram, aut nunquam vidisse, aut nunquam dereliquisse, frustrà exoptabis. Quod ex animo deprecor,

Reverentiæ vestræ humillimè deditissimus,

JOSEPHUS HALLUS,

Archipresb. Wigornien.

acquirements in the knowledge of all things, should bear the punishment of your guilt from the Avenger of that truth, which you have first avowed, and afterwards denied.

Against you will arise, in that dread day, your writings; the illustrious and imperishable monuments of orthodoxy once your own: these will certify both what you once were, and how substantial were the grounds of argument on which you rested, when you joined our ranks: these will also reprove you with the baseness of your defection, in the presence of God and of his angels.

Meanwhile, may heaven and earth bear record, what point there is, on which we cleave not most faithfully to the sacred and indisputable oracles of God: what, on which we are abandoned by the authority of Holy Fathers and Councils: what, on which we have departed from the Romanists; except where it is plain that they have departed both from themselves and God.

O, the piety, the value of what are deemed our errors! Where is the good man that would not thus err, in company with blessed Fathers, with glorious Martyrs, with most holy Apostles, with God himself? Surely, he who chooses to tread any other path but this, must needs not only err, but fall and perish!

Fix here, venerable Prelate, fix here your foot, if you are wise. Continue still with us: enjoy God, enjoy the Gospel, enjoy the most delightful peace of a good conscience.

But should these things fail to move you, go, prepare at once, and, when you please, accomplish your retreat from this receptacle of peace and piety; and lend your ear to those owls of Loyola, if such they be, who first won you by their persuasions. The Lord liveth; Ps. xviii. 47. too late perhaps you may be moved by repentance for your deed; and wish, but wish in vain, either that you had never seen, or never left, our Britain. A result I deprecate from my heart; who am

A most humble servant of your Reverence,

JOSEPH HALL,

Dean of Worcester.