PREFACE. THE two first and the third of the tracts here published, have* for some years past been frequently called for, and the author has been repeatedly solicited to allow a new edition of them. Motives of delicacy only, have prevented his compliance. He was unwilling to renew any uneasy feelings in the breast of the venerable writer of the "Address to the Roman Catholics in the United States of America," for whom, notwithstanding many illiberal insinua. tions in this address, he never ceased to entertain sincere esteem and attachment. By the decease of Archbishop Carroll, every disinclination and obstacle to the republication of these tracts, is removed. They who may now enter the lists against them, will not be able to advance any thing unnoticed by him, and therefore no dread is entertained of their being refuted. If it should be said, that publications of this nature are only calculated to nourish the acrimonious spirit of controversy, which Christian charity should rather strive to suppress, let the reader turn to "the Appendix to the Catholic Question," published at New-York in 1813, and candidly determine whether such a wanton attack upon the Protestant faith, did not call for more severe animadversion than that which it received. A pamphlet in support of this publication, and written by a Dr. O'Gallagher, was put into my hands last fall. With the exception of some coarse abuse, and an arrogant affectation of theological superiority, it contains little or nothing, which was not refuted in the Short Answer to the Appendix. My friends, however, advised me to notice it, and I have done so accordingly. The malignity of the Doctor's remarks, meets the pity of the writer of these sheets, and is freely forgiven; although, if unrestrained, he has no doubt, that, by some fiery bigots, it would be extended to personal persecution. As an evidence, that such [*The tracts by Dr. W. himself, here numbered I. III. IV. are probably meant. The former edition was printed in 1817. G. W. D.] feelings exist, he will take the liberty of presenting the reader with the copy of a letter which he lately received from a Romish Priest, together with his reply to it. The letter was written in French, and is literally translated. The original is with the printer. The spirit which dictated it, is, I hope, confined only to` few of that communion; but, however limited it may be, it is fraught with such malignant and mischievous materials, that no attempt to keep it under, can be unseasonable or superfluous. It is hoped that the present publication may contribute something to this effect. SIR, THE LETTER. Baltimore, 30th March, 1816. I WROTE to you about two years ago.* With equal simplicity I will write to you again-solely for the good of your soul, and for the glory of God and his church. I never mentioned the first letter to any person, nor shall I mention this. The same secrecy I have a right to exact from you, until it shall be violated by some infidelity on my part. You are very old. Mr. Carroll, your friend, has died first. He has borne before God the testimony of the scandal, which your renunciation of his Church, and of your sacred priest-hood, has occasioned in his diocese; of the scandal of writings so outrageous, from your apology, down to that Theological Magazine in the first number of which, you begin by venting such strange effusions of hatred against your Mother, the Church; saying, for instance, in the eulogium on Fenelon, that ignorance only can embrace, and cruelty only propagate her doctrine-thus violently insultting those of your former friends, whom not being able to pronounce either ignorant or cruel, it remained only to consider as hypocrites; (Mr. Carroll at their head) asserting again, that charity is incompatible with the Catholic faith; that Fenelon, like Fra. Paulo, was nothing more than a Protestant in disguise: He, who wrote so many controver sial treatises against the Protestants, and the Jansenists; the Missionary of Poitou, which continued Catholic during the French revolution; the confessor, for ten years, of the * This letter was equally insolent, and was burnt without being answered. new female converts; the friend of the Jesuits and of St. Sulpice, societies so decidedly Catholic; nay, further, the antagonist of the liberties of the Gallican Church, and even jealously attached to what is called, in France, the ultramountain, or Italian system. Alas! was it reserved to you to make Fenelon also a hypocrite, than whom no man ever enjoyed a higher reputation for sincerity? Rather read, O wretched Priest! his beautiful treatise upon the ministerial functions, or his eight letters to a Protestant, and the rational retractation which they occasioned. How dare you; how dare you, I say, go to death and to judgment in your present melancholy situation? What account will you have to render to Jesus Christ, of your conduct against his Church? You are imposed npon by the caresses of the sect you have embraced. I have seen with grief, on your account, their efforts to entangle you to the last, by proposing you as Bishop of New-Jersey. A Bishop, indeed! A Bishop, on whose account? A Bishop! O miserable Priest, a priest at present without faith, without sacrifice. I say, without even faith; for among all the Protestant sects, what choice can be made, one opinion being as good as another, whether it be Luther's, or Calvin's, Fox's, Wesley's, Socinus's, Priestley's, or any other non-descript society. At Mr. Carroll's death, I was struck with the desire of writing to you: at present this desire occurs very forcibly, and I yield to it with simplicity, nay, with excessive emotion. Return to the fatal moment of your separation. Remember poor Lucas ;* ;* imitate his repentance; abandon the fatal courage to die in your apostacy, and plunge into despair. Reflect, old man, still respectable for your age, and the excess of your wretchedness, reflect on the good which your return would yet do, and the true consolation it would impart to yourself. I do not expect that you will answer me, but ponder before God, what you had best do. Do not die in this manner-rather follow to the other world your favourite Fenelon, than the apostate Luther. A spirit of indifference, the dissenters, the Bible Societies, are hastening on the ruin of the establishment of Henry VIII., Elizabeth, and Edward; and Unitarianism, new commentaries, *Of this person I know but little. I am glad, however, to find that he died a penitent for his immoralities. I never heard that he became a Pro testant. liberality, &c. threaten Christianity itself. Membership with the only Church in possession of the promises, is the duty of every enlightened and sincere Christian: how much more so of the miserable Priest who has had the misfortune to betray his divine priesthood. Does not an edifying return become urgent? Ah, do not be so dreadfully courageous, as thus to die in your apostacy. In thinking,myself bound to give you my name, I am not afraid of dishonouring it. My intention is pure, and I disavow any unnecessary affront. A. BRUTE, (I believe,) President of St. Mary's College. The Rev. MR. WHARTON, Burlington, New-Jersey. ANSWER. SIR, Burlington, April 20th, 1816. In answering yours of the 30th ult. I will begin by sending you a parody of a celebrated letter written by the great Dr. Samuel Johnson, to Mr. James Macpherson, whom he considered as a literary impostor, and by whom he was threatened with a personal assault.* "I received your foolish and impertinent letter. Any arguments against my religious opinions, I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself against bigoted abuse, my friends will do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred from abandoning what I think an error, by the denunciations of a fanatic. What would you have me retract? I thought your Church unscriptural in many points, and I think so still. For this opinion have given my reasons to the public, which I dare you to refute. unprovoked resentment I defy-your pity I reject. To judge from your letter, your abilities are not formidable; and I am not sufficiently acquainted with your erudition, to pay regard to what you can say, but what you can prove. You may show this to whom you please, or print it, if you will." Your This parody will probably appear uncourteous language to the president of a College; but when a president throws * See Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p, 133. Boston edit. off the gentleman, and condescends to dabble in the dregs of bigotry, he has no right to expect any other. The feelings which your letter excited, would not have partaken of any thing like resentment, had you not mentioned my vene. rable relative and former friend, Archbishop Carroll, as countenancing your denunciations and abuse. I knew him well. I loved him during his lifetime, and shall revere him during my own. Were he still among us, I would have transmitted your letter to him; where, I am confident, it would have met the reception it deserves. He was too well acquainted with the sacred rights of conscience, and the anomalies of the human mind, to condemn the exercise of the first, or wish to regulate the latter by the standard of his own opinions; much less would he have presumed to consign them both to perdition. Sir, we Americans are better taught in these matters; and it must stir our bile to hear arrogant foreigners, presuming to vilify the most numerous classes of Christians in our country; to find them, when scarcely escaped from the fury of Jacobinism, breathing among their kind receivers the spirit of Inquisitors. On every occasion, both in public and private, I have uniformly treated my former connexions with respect. In abandoning some of their doctrines, I still entertained for their persons and virtues the most tender attachment, and have never, for a moment, harboured the presumption of passing condemnation on them for opinions, which to profess myself, would be a sinful prevarication. If you had understood our language, you could not have mistaken what is said of Fenelon in the Theological Magazine. It is merely asserted, that although a member of the Roman Church, he was, in some sense, a Protestant; and, was not this the case, when he protested against propagating religion by the sword, a practice zealously advocated by Bossuet, and most Roman Catholic divines, as emanating from religious intolerance, and a holy incompatability, as they call it, with any other Christian societies-a practical doctrine, involving the very essence of heretical pravity, and calling loudly for the anathemas of an infallible Church, unless, indeed, she regard practical errors, most destructive to society, beneath her notice, when compared with speculative tenets, which seem to shock the dictates of reason, and invalidate the evidence of all our senses. These true principles of the Church of Rome, viz.: intolerance and persecution, which she has al |