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of England," printed in 1837, and also a work entitled Popery Represented and Misrepresented." These had been put into my hands with the hope of convincing me that there was nothing to fear from the teaching of Rome. I had carefully read them both, and gladly acknowledged that they contained many good things; yet I clearly perceived that in the midst of much truth, errors were inculcated, by which it might be fatally counteracted, and which, like the Rata in New Zealand, a little creeper that crawls up the sides of trees, and appears at first so insignificant as to excite very little attention, yet in time grows so strong as to throttle the tree it grows upon and to become itself a huge tree; so these errors in a genial soil might, and do, bear down and overpower the truths in which they are imbedded. In this country the truths are made so prominent as to dazzle the reader, and we cannot say that the Christianity taught by our Lord and his Apostles is evidently, in this Catechism, throttled by the errors it contains; but in countries where they have full sway this is literally the case, of which we might give most striking instances. I therefore hailed with delight the invitation from the Roman Catholic, and immediately set to work to analyse the doctrines, and then wrote to him as follows:

TO A ROMAN CATHOLIC INHABITANT OF ISLINGTON.

"SIR,

June, 1847.

"I read with fixed attention your appeal to the Protestants of Islington in behalf of the Roman Catholic

Church, and was particularly struck with your request that they would calmly examine her books. I have begun to act upon this suggestion, and have carefully examined every word of the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine,' recommended by your Bishops for the use of the faithful in the four districts in England.

"I have compared it with other documents of your Church, and with the Holy Scriptures, of which you make mention; and, though you do not appeal to their authority, I trust you reverence it, and will be willing to follow me in this interesting investigation. Piety and Truth are to be respected wherever they are found, and we owe it to you to acknowledge that there are many things in this Abridgment which tend to edification, and which it would be a loss to any Church to throw aside. If all those upon whom the government of the Roman Catholic Church has devolved, had looked, as your letter leads me to believe you have done, to the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, and had also made the Word of God the touchstone of all their doctrines, the Church of Rome would have been in unison with the ancient Apostolic Church of Rome, and with every other Christian Church; for this was the actuating principle of the Reformers, and you will find in their confessions of faith whatever in Roman Catholic works may be acknowledged as in unison with Scripture. Had the heads of your Church been faithful to this standard, we should have had harmony and peace instead of controversy."

a This letter is a little enlarged from that printed in 1848, in consequence of having perceived some omissions, and received no reply.

"Allow me, Sir, to dedicate to you this humble attempt to carry out your own suggestion, and may He who is emphatically the Truth and the Light deign to superintend our investigations.

"Yours in the love of the Truth,

"THE EXAMINER."

The Catechism selected for examination, which circulates in England, contains the most favourable view it is possible to present of the teaching of the modern Church of Rome, in which all her errors are mitigated and softened down; and I am aware that in doing justice to all the good I find in it I am laying myself open to the charge of bringing into notice a Roman Catholic profession of faith more moderate and more favourable to their doctrines than many others might appear; but it will, I trust, be evident that my purpose is only to do justice to what is right, and to warn those who may be attracted by the good, to shun the errors with which it is entwined. In these days Protestants are in great danger of being led astray; for when Roman Catholics give their books to them they sometimes particularly point out the passages that are true, and some, even Protestant Dissenters, have been so influenced by this means, that when spoken to by those who wished to guard them against error, they have replied: "Do you not see that these portions teach what we believe?"

The same may be said of "Popery Represented and Misrepresented," which not only softens, but explains away the doctrines taught in that Church.

It becomes therefore our more imperative duty to show them the errors which either neutralise or contradict the truths.

C

As no notice was taken of my letter by the individual who invited the examination, who I now perceive did not desire his books to be tried by the Bible, but only by themselves, as if it was only ambiguity and not error which was the point at issue, and as if the theology of the Church of Rome stood upon as sure ground as the Word of God, I can have little expectation that this will be read by Roman Catholics in general; but there are a few who are open to conviction, and who have begun to feel anxious as to their own position in an anti-scriptural Church: these are sincere in the endeavour to gain light from Protestants; and some discussions which they of themselves have brought on, have issued in making them renounce all mediators between their own souls and the Saviour of sinners, for they have perceived that the errors that have been instilled into their minds depreciate His mediatorial work, which they now accept in all its fulness.

Some of the readers of my former work thought me too indulgent, and (as Dean Howson observes in his interesting Essay on Party and Party Spirit, in the valuable volume" Principles at Stake," in which he evinces

• Amidst many writers there are various opinions; and therefore, instead of only comparing one writer with another, we must judge of the doctrines of the Church of Rome by what she looks upon as the voice of the Church speaking authoritatively in the decrees and definitions of her Councils, and above all in her last Council, when she anathematises all those who question her statements.

the candour and calmness so desirable for gaining attention) some turned away from it and would have nothing to say to what seemed to them to favour agreement with Rome, not from passion, but from righteous indignation at the corruptions introduced by her. Others thought me too severe, and two really treated the effort with contempt. Nevertheless the majority hailed it with pleasure, and expected it would do good, and a fresh spring has been given to my mind in looking back to their encouraging letters, especially one from a very superior mind, from which I give the following extract:

"I trust your 'Calm Investigations' will have weight with those minds who are disposed to lay so much stress on our agreement with the Church of Rome in the main articles of Christianity, as to consider her errors comparatively unimportant. No mean names have taken this view of the case, and therefore your attempt cannot be unnecessary. As for myself, not only they appear to me to be under a dangerous mistake, but it strikes me that such an argument is quite beside the question. There is no persuasion of religion that has not some foundation of truth, or it would deceive no one. error and mischief lies in what is 'added or diminished,' so as to make the truth of none effect, and this is preeminently the case with the additions of the Roman Catholic Church. Every article of faith is practically rendered inoperative in this manner; as the Divinity of Christ by the exaltation of the Virgin, His mediation by that of the Saints, &c., &c. I fully believe that it is the very master-piece of His invisible but inveterate

The