The End of Religious Controversy, in a Friendly Correspondence Between a Religious Society of Protestants and a Catholic Divine ...

"Let those treat you harshly, who are not acquainted with the difficulty of attaining to truth and avoiding error. Let those treat you harshly, who know not how hard it is to get rid of old prejudices. Let those treat you harshly, who have not learned how very hard it is to purify the interior eye, and render it capable of contemplating the sun of the soul, truth. But as to us; we are far from this disposition towards persons who are separated from us, not by errors of their own invention, but by being entangled in those of others. We are so far from this disposition, that we pray to God, that, in refuting the false opinions of those whom you follow, not from malice, but imprudence, he would bestow upon us that spirit of peace, which feels no other sentiment than charity, no other interest than that of Jesus Christ, no other wish but for your salvation."—St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, A. D. 400, contra Ep. Fund. 1. c. ii.

ON THE RULE OF FAITH; OR, THE METHOD OF FINDING OUT THE TRUE RELIGION.

LETTER I.

FROM JAMES BROWN, ESQ., TO THE REV. JOHN MILNER., D.D.

REVEREND SIR

F.S.A.

INTRODUCTION.

New Cottage, near Cressage, Salop, Oct. 13, 1801.

I SHOULD need an ample apology for the liberty I am taking in thus addressing you, without having the honor of your acquaintance, and still more for the heavy task I am endeavoring to impose upon you, if I did not consider your public character, as a pastor of your religion, and as a writer in defence of it, and likewise your personal character for benevolence, which has been described to me by a gentleman of your communion, Mr. J. C-ne, who is well acquainted with us both. Having mentioned this, I need only add, that I write to you in the name of a society of serious and worthy Christians of different persuasions, to which society I myself belong, all of whom are as desirous as I am, to receive satisfaction from you on certain

doubts, which your late work in answer,to Dr. Sturges has suggested to us.*

However, in making this request of our society to you, it seems proper, reverend sir, that I should bring you acquainted with the nature of it, by way of convincing you that it is not unworthy of the attention which I am desirous you should pay to it. We consist then of above twenty persons, including the ladies, who, living at some distance from any considerable town, meet together once a week, generally at my habitation of New Cottage; not so much for our amusement and refection, as for the improvement of our minds, by reading the best publications of the day which I can procure from my London bookseller, and sometimes an original essay written by one of the company.

I have signified that many of us are of different religious persuasions: this will be seen more distinctly from the following account of our numbers. Among these, I must mention, in the first place, our learned and worthy rector, Dr. Carey. He is, of course, of the Church of England; but like most others of his learned and dignified brethren, in these times, he is of that free, and, as it is called, liberal turn of mind, as to explain away the mysteries and a great many of its other articles, which, in my younger days, were considered essential to it. Mr. and Mrs. Topham are Methodists of the Predestinarian and Antinomian class, while Mr. and Mrs. Askew are mitigated Arminian Methodists, of Wesley's connection. Mr. and Mrs. Rankin are honest Quakers. Mr. Barker and his children term themselves Rational Dissenters, being of the old Presbyterian lineage, which is now almost universally gone into Socinianism. I, for my part, glory in being a stanch member of our happy establishment, which has kept the golden mean among the contending sects, and which, I am fully persuaded, approaches nearer to the purity of the apostolic church, than any other which has existed since the age of it. Mrs. Brown pro

fesses an equal attachment to the church; yet, being of an inquisitive and ardent mind, she cannot refrain from frequenting the meetings, and even supporting the missions of those selfcreated apostles, who are undermining this church on every side, and who are nowhere more active than in our sequestered valley.

With these differences among us, on the most interesting of all subjects, we cannot help having frequent religious controversies but reason and charity enable us to manage these

* Letters to a Prebendary, in answer to Reflections on Popery, by the Rev. Dr. Sturges, Prebendary and Chancellor of Winchester.

without any breach, either of good manners or good will to each other. Indeed, I believe that we are, one and all, possessed of an unfeigned respect and cordial love for Christians of every description, one only excepted. Must I name it on the present occasion? Yes, I must, in order to fulfil my commission in a proper manner. It is then the church that you, reverend sir, belong to: which, if any credit is due to the eminent divines whose works we are in the habit of reading, and more particularly to the illustrious Bishop Porteus in his celebrated and standing work, called A BRIEF CONFUTATION OF THE ERRORS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME, extracted from Archbishop Secker's FIVE SERMONS AGAINST POPERY,* is such a mass of absurdity, bigotry, superstition, idolatry, and immorality, that to say we respect and love those who obstinately adhere to it, as we do other Christians, would seem a compromise of reason, scripture, and virtuous feeling.

And yet, even of this church we have formed a less revolting idea, in some particulars, than we did formerly. This has happened from our having just read over your controversial work against Dr. Sturges, called LETTERS TO A PREBENDARY, to which our attention was directed by the notice taken of it in the houses of Parliament, and particularly by the very unexpected compliment paid to it by that ornament to our church, Bishop Horsley. We admit then (at least I, for my part, admit) that you have refuted the most odious of the charges brought against your religion—namely, that it is necessarily, and upon principle, intolerant and sanguinary, requiring its members to persecute with fire and sword all persons of a different creed from their own, when this is in their power. You have also proved that Papists may be good subjects to a Protestant sovereign; and you have shown, by an interesting historical detail, that the Roman Catholics of this kingdom have been conspicuous for their loyalty from the time of Elizabeth down to the present time. Still, most of the absurd and anti-scriptural doctrines and practices alluded to above, relating to the worship of saints and images, to transubstantiation and the half communion, to purgatory, and shutting up the Bible, with others of the same nature, you have not, to my recollection, so much as attempted to defend. In a word, I write to you, reverend sir, on the present occasion, in the name of our respectable society, to ask you whether you fairly give up these doctrines and practices of Popery, as untenable; or other

* The Norrisian Professor of Divinity in the university of Cambridge, Dr. Hey, speaking of this work, says: "The refutation of the Popish errors is now reduced into a small compass by Archbishop Secker and Bishop Porteus."-Lectures in Divinity, Vol. IV. p. 71.

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The End of Religious Controversy, in a Friendly Correspondence Between a ...