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A LETTER TO LORD FIELDING.

SUGGESTED BY THE LATE PROCEEDINGS AT THE NEW CHURCH AT PANTASA.

INCUMBENT OF ROSSETT, DENBIGHSHIRE.

LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO.; CHESTER, PRICHARD; MOLD, PRING AND PRICE; HOLYWELL, MORRIS; WREXHAM, PAINTER.

LETTER, &c.

MY LORD;--

The first of the "chief points" is: "the Canon of the sacred Scriptures."

Claud D'Expence a very celebrated Parisian divine, writes thus--"Shameful to relate they give permission to Priests to have concubines, and to live with their harlots, who have children by them, upon paying an annual tribute, and in some places they oblige Priests to pay this tax saying they may keep a concubine if they please." Espen: Com: ad Cap. 1. ad Tit. Dig: 2.

Hear again, how your Cardinal Baronius writes--"What then was the face of the Roman Church? How very filthy when the most powerful and sordid harlots then ruled at Rome, at whose pleasure Sees were changed, and Bishopricks were given, and what is horrible to hear and most abominable--their gallants were obtruded into the See of Peter, and made false Popes; for who can say they could have been lawful Popes who were intruded by such harlots without law? There was no mention of the election or consent of Clergy, the Canons were silent; the decrees of Popes suppressed; the ancient traditions proscribed,--lust, armed with the secular power, challenged all things to itself." Bar: Ann: A.D. 912.

This is the system of a celibate Clergy for which you, my Lord, have forsaken that Church which honors "holy Matrimony"--knowing that the Apostle declares that "Marriage is honorable in all." Heb. xiii. 4.

"O Lady of Heaven and earth," &c., Ib. p. 12.

"Most prudent Virgin, who by redeeming thy Son Jesus Christ, according to the law, didst co-operate in the salvation of the world; rescue our poor souls from the slavery of sin, that we may be always pure before God. Hail Mary."--Ib. p. 21.

St. Joseph, who for so many centuries had actually no commemoration in the Roman calendar, is now exalted to a height of glory, from which the rest of the blessed company are excluded--

"There is no saint in heaven I worship like Thee, Sweet spouse of our Lady! O deign to love me."

And St. Mary is actually made our mediatrix with him--

"With her babe in her arms surely Mary will be, Sweet spouse of our Lady! my pleader with Thee."

Oh! my Lord, as you value His glory who is a jealous God, cease from such refuges of lies as Popery holds out to you.--As you value the Salvation of your soul continue not to serve the creature beside, yea more than, the Creator who is blessed for evermore. Pray to him whose attribute it is that He hears prayer, and whose gracious promise is that He will answer it. Dare to show yourself inconsistent, by flinging off the trammels by which you are bound. And may God direct you by his blessed Spirit to the frame of mind of him who cried--"Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee." Ceasing to look to Saints or Angels or deified men and women, may you be directed to the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, and may your attitude be, while here below, not looking to Saint Mary, or any other creature, but "looking unto Jesus."

And now, my Lord, I call on you, as a man of sense, as a man of honesty, as a man wishing the salvation of your neverdying soul, to reject a doctrine "which would rob the believer of his peace, which would throw around the glorious attributes of Heaven's Sovereign the funereal pall of darkness, and obscurity, which would transform a God of love into a God of terror, mingle our paltry satisfactions with the agonies of Calvary, and attach to the seamless robe of Christ's righteousness woven from Bethlehem to the Cross, the tattered vestments of personal suffering."

And now, my Lord, I have done. I offer no apology for addressing you. I trust you may be enabled to thank me, however unworthy, for having done so. I offer no apology for my manner of writing to you. I have endeavoured to show you "the error of your way," and if I have used "great plainness of speech" "it is what I could attain unto," and what I desired. That God may show you the fearfulness of the step you have taken--the grovelling bondage under which you have placed yourself, and rescue you from that bondage, before it be too late, when your eyes shall have closed upon everything of earth once and for ever, is my fervent prayer; and with every good wish for you, and for the unconscious partner in your guilt,

I beg to subscribe myself, MY LORD, Your well-wisher, and obedient humble servant,

G. L. STONE.

Some readers of the foregoing Letter may have expected to find in it some allusion, at least, to what Gavazzi calls "the broken faith of Lord Fielding." I have purposely avoided any remarks on the subject; and do not think it necessary to account for the omission.

PRINTED BY T. PAINTER, HIGH-STREET, WREXHAM.

FOOTNOTES.

Analysis of Divine Faith, p. 359.

Omnes libros quos Protestantes, &c. De verbo dei. lib. 1. cap. 10.

Cardinal Cajetan also rejects the Apocrypha. Com: in Om: authen: vet: testam. Paris, 1546. p. 481-2.

"Cum ea geminae interpretationis opulentia de S. Johannes testimonio Ecclesia frueratur, quarum utraque probationem ab hoereticis inde deductum impugnabat, ad unius tantummodo paupertatem non esse redigendam."

St. Augustine's Commentary on this is well worth your reading.

Second Book of Homilies.

Reply to the Appendix of the Bishop of Fern's Charge--p. 7.

The Achilli trial is fresh in the recollection of all. View this matter as you may,--whether Dr. Newman was a libeller, or Dr. Achilli a debauchee,--it proves your system to be what your own celebrated Espenseus long ago called it--"A Custom House of sin." Ubi sup.

Is not this at variance with the Blessed Virgin Mary's own confession? St. Luke i. 46, 47.

Warden Neale's Lectures. Lond. Cleaver. 1852.

Vide Arnob.

In Dr. Wiseman's reply to Dr. Turton's work on the Eucharist I find the following--

I will here add that Dr. Turton's "suspicions" have been more than realised as regards Dr. Wiseman's performances. Dr. Wiseman tells us in the preface to the first edition of his "Lectures, p. viii." that "he has in general drawn his quotations of the fathers from the useful compilation of Messrs. Kirk and Barrington." In the address "to the reader" in the second edition of this work we are informed that "the venerable Prelates and many other Catholic writers, have made use of the Faith of Catholics in their publications." p. p. vii. viii. Now what is the fact, as regards this Romish text book? Let the title of the following book give you some idea--"Romish Misquotation: or certain passages from the Fathers, adduced in a work entitled--"the Faith of Catholics," &c., brought to the test of the originals, and their perverted character demonstrated, by the Rev. Richard T. P. Pope." A work which verifies its title beyond the possibility of refutation.

Since the above went to press I have looked into titular Bishop Doyle's "Analysis of Divine Faith." I find that he also used Barrington's Compilation. His words are: p. 176: "The testimony of these witnesses"--the fathers--"I shall insert here, copied or translated from the original records, by the late Rev. Joseph Barrington, whose fidelity and accuracy in this respect, has never, to my knowledge, been impeached or even suspected." I will only say here, that a more gross and unprincipled misrepresentation and perversion of the testimony of the Ancients was never published. See Pope's Roman Misquotation. London. Holdsworth. 1840.

Mr. Faber in his last edition of "the Difficulties of Romanism" has left little for any one else to say in proof that the Fathers are opposed to the peculiarities of the Latin Church. 'Tis true that Mr. Husenbeth has published a ponderous reply--approaching to a thousand pages. Mr. Faber's little pamphlet demolishes the huge affair. Its title is: as well as I remember--"An Account of Mr. Husenbeth's refutation of the argument of the Difficulties of Romanism, upon the entirely new principle of a refusal to meet it."

Your French Testament of Bourdeaux, 1686--most disgracefully has here--"he shall be saved, yet so as by the fire of Purgatory"--ainsi toutefois comme par le feu du Purgatoire.

Discussion with Mr. Pope. Report, p. 150. Comp. p. 158.

The Canons of your Council of Trent on these are as follow--

"If any one shall say that Confirmation is not a true and proper Sacrament--let him be damned." Can. 1. De Confirm.

"If any one shall say that Penance is not truly and properly a Sacrament--let him be damned." Can. 1. De paen. Sac.

"If any one shall say that Extreme Unction is not truly and properly a Sacrament--let him be damned." Can. 1. De Sac. Ex. Unc.

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