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LETTERS TO ADA. 
 

LETTERS TO ADA, 
 
 7. 
 
 FROM 
 
 HER BROTHER-IN-LAW. 
 
 " Rien n'est heau, je reviens, que par la verite': 
 C'est par elle qu'on plait, et qu l on peut long temps plaire 
 V esprit lasse aise'ment, si le cxur n'est sincere." 
 
 Boileau. 
 
 " Truth makes the beautiful — I urge again : — 
 Where truth inspires not, every hope were vain 
 To please ; the mind grows weary, if the heart 
 Be not sincere." 4 
 
 * 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 "FATHER ROWLAND," " PLEASURES OF RELIGION, n &c. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET, 
 
 AND SOLD !BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT 
 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 1834. 
 
^ 5 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 
 Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
 Southern District of New-York. 
 
 /fff 
 
 Printed by G. F» Bv.nct. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 Benevolent Reader. 
 
 The following familiar letters were written 
 during the last summer, and are now published 
 with the hope that they may afford you some in- 
 struction and entertainment. I know not what 
 you may think of them — what they are, they are. 
 
 Permit me to dedicate them to you. I know 
 not to whom, with more propriety, they should be 
 dedicated. If you like them, you may perhaps, 
 in the course of time be presented with another 
 series. For, although some topics may have been 
 discussed, and I hope to your satisfaction, others 
 of no less importance still remain to be treated. 
 
 In the mean while, kind reader, peruse attentive- 
 ly what is now placed before you ; and if you do 
 not become convinced, the fault w T ill not be mine. I 
 am sure that you are actuated by candour, sin- 
 cerity, and love of truth — I must hope for the 
 result. 
 
 Yours be every blessing, courteous reader, here 
 and hereafter. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The subjects treated in the following pages 
 will be found highly worthy of a diligent 
 perusal by the candid and inquiring : for, there 
 certainly could not be presented to the public a 
 volume containing more important matter. 
 Without dropping a single expression — cer- 
 tainly without intending to drop a single ex- 
 pression — that might reflect on the sincerity 
 and convictions of others, the Author of this 
 Volume stands forth in vindication of a very 
 numerous and much-injured denomination of 
 christians. His weapons are not abuse, or 
 unfair representation, or acrimony ; they are 
 a candid exposition of certain doctrines which 
 are entirely misunderstood, and an appeal in 
 their behalf, not to the passions, or the pre- 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 judices of the heart, but to the sacred tribunal 
 of the scriptures. 
 
 The Author's object is to ascertain, whether 
 there are any solid grounds on which the tenets 
 of Catholicity may repose : whether there is 
 any warrant for them in the bible : whether 
 they were known to the ancient christians : 
 whether many of them are not admitted by 
 other denominations. In a word, whether he 
 has not, at least, as much right to be a catho- 
 lic, as his neighbour has to be a pro test ant. 
 He wishes to convince the dispassionate in- 
 quirer, that a strict and practical member of 
 the Roman Catholic Church may be a genuine 
 friend of Republican Institutions, and must be 
 true to his country and his God. His motto 
 is Glory to God — peace to men ! 
 
 The effect which he would hope to produce 
 by publishing these letters, is to do away pre- 
 judice — to impart information to those who are 
 desirous of acquiring it, concerning our reli- 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 gious tenets : and he conjures the American 
 public to remember that, among the innumer- 
 able writers in favour of our religion, were a 
 Fenelon and a Kempis, whose piety all sects 
 admire, and whose amiable virtues never ap- 
 peared more beautifully, than when they vin- 
 dicated the cause of Truth. 
 
 Nothing, the public may feel assured, could 
 have induced the Author to publish these let- 
 ters — nothing could urge him to continue the 
 series — but the desire of rectifying certain 
 erroneous ideas which are circulating through 
 society, regarding the dogmas of the Catholic 
 Church. And it is to be hoped, that one fact, 
 will be made certain, viz : that our religion is 
 adapted not merely to the dark ages, but to all 
 times : and that the most enlightened scholar 
 as well as the poor domestic, may feel proud in 
 belonging to her communion, 
 
LETTERS TO ADA 
 
 FROM HER BROTHER-IN-LAW. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 My dear Ada, 
 
 The beautiful season of flowers has returned, 
 when all around is fragrance and balm; when 
 Zephyr trims his vernal wings, and the bee goes 
 forth upon his errand of sweetness and honey : and 
 as my ancestral oaks again begin to put out their 
 earliest verdure inviting to their fresh leaves the 
 birds— where they may build their nests, I think of 
 you ; young, blooming, and fair, destined to flourish 
 awhile among the bright and lovely things of earth, 
 and then to be translated into a region of bliss and 
 glolry ineffable. Yes, Ada, there is in the land of 
 the living, a stream of immortality, on whose 
 banks, such flowers as you are may bloom and smile 
 in everlasting verdure. Bat then, my fair friend, 
 mistake not, it is only religion, heaven-born spirit, 
 that can conduct you to that place of rest ; that 
 Eden of immortal bliss. 
 
 B 
 
14 LETTEKS TO ADA, 
 
 Oh f there is nought, my Ada fair, 
 
 Believe me, there is nought be!ow 7 
 Half so delightful, half so dear, 
 
 As that blest treasure which I now 
 Present, amid the flowers of springy 
 To thee — an heart-felt offering. 
 
 Religion is the wreath 
 Which my humble muse entwines, 
 
 For thy beauteous brows, beneath 
 The arbour's shade, where every thing combiner 
 
 To raise the mind to Him who gives us e-very things 
 
 Yes, religion is the most important topic that car* 
 interest the attention of man; infinitely more im- 
 portant than the great questions of human policy 
 which awaken the energies of the statesman, and 
 arouse the wisdom of a nation. For, the effects of 
 religion are felt in this world ; in all the concerns 
 of society : in all the vicissitudes of life ; in all the 
 contingencies of fortune; and they extend besides 
 into the grave, beyond the gloom of death, into 
 the very depths of eternity. That which in- 
 terests the immortal spirit, which will decide its 
 destiny during eternity, is so far above the petty 
 considerations which agitate the world, that no 
 comparison can be drawn between them. 
 
 But truth, my Ada, is an essential attribute of 
 religion ; it is impossible that religion could be as- 
 sociated with error, or deception : and consequently 
 it is infinitely necessary, that we endeavour to dis- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 15 
 
 cover the genuine and original truths of Christi- 
 anity, amid the doubts and uncertainties which 
 are every where found about us. 
 
 Truth, from the bosom of her God 
 
 Descends upon the earth : 
 To guide the wayward to the abode 
 
 Of glory, where she took her birth, 
 Religion's sister! twins of light! 
 
 Stars to the heart, in life's dark night i 
 
 Where'er they smile, there heaven appears, 
 
 Dawning upon these earthly spheres. 
 Seek, Ada, seek that light divine, 
 
 And peace and safety shall be thine. 
 
 In retracing all past ages ? we discover the in- 
 terest which this subject has, every where, excited. 
 We see what talent has been displayed, what indus- 
 try aroused, what zeal inflamed, in this primal of all 
 concerns, Th^ tears which Jesus shed, were shed 
 for this: the labours which his Apostles under- 
 went, were undergone for this : the torments which 
 the martyrs suffered, were suffered for this. For 
 this Stephen was stoned : Ignatius torn to pieces 
 in the coloseum : Lawrence broiled upon the grid- 
 iron. 
 
 Yes, Ada, when I stood on the arena of that 
 coloseum, the mighty ruins of which still remain 
 in the metropolis of the christian world, when there 
 in fancy, I saw the venerable martyr, heard the 
 
16 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 roarings of the beasts, the plaudits of the pagan 
 multitude, I said to my heait, behold what heroism 
 has been exerted in the cause of religion ! and why 
 are men so reckless, at the present day, about that 
 momentous affair, which cost the primitive chris- 
 tians so much suffering and so much blood? 
 
 I know that there are associations without num- 
 ber, in this country, for the propagation of tracts, 
 the diffusion of knowledge, and the spread of the 
 bible. I am aware of all this, my Ada, and 1 do 
 not venture to condemn the intentions of those who 
 form these associations. Their object, perhaps, 
 in substance, is commendable ; their zeal praise- 
 worthy. For they tend to confirm the inquirer in 
 this one fact — that they consider the subject of 
 religion as of vital moment, and consequently, 
 that too much pains cannot be taken to urge the 
 subject upon the thoughtless, the lukewarm, the 
 gay, to induce them to pause from the noise of the 
 r evel, and turn aside from the pageantry of the 
 festival, and give their minds to serious contem- 
 plations, To these I invite you, Ada, daughter 
 of sentiment, direct your susceptibilities to your 
 God, and give your heart to his church. For, 
 after all the liberality and charity which should 
 unite man with man, form the bonds of society, 
 and link together the great chain of existence, 
 after all, — and deem it not a groundless assertion, 
 ^.da, — truth, like its author, must be one. Oh \ 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 17 
 
 start not at the proposition ; I do not mean to deal 
 eternal vengeance on any individual not professing 
 the tenets of the church — I leave all to God. I 
 judge not their hearts, that I may not be judged ; 
 but yet, St. Paul, the favourite apostle of the dis- 
 senting communities, St. Paul expressly declares 
 that there is " one god, one faith, one bap. 
 
 TISM." 
 
 If this is the case ; if amongst the numberles- 
 denominations existing, there can be but one 
 faith, need I repeat, dear Ada, that the investiga- 
 tion into the claims of each particular church is 
 one of infinite importance. One which God re. 
 quires — and which reason itself dictates to be in 
 dispensably necessary. 
 
 Then as the young flowers freshly bloom, 
 
 Sending their fragrance to the sky ; 
 Turn, Ada, turn* to heaven thine eye, 
 
 And think, — for it is time to think — 
 Of those momentous truths which link 
 
 The present, with our hopes beyond the tomb. 
 
 Adieu- 
 
 B2 
 
18 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 True, my dear Ada ; if the Catholic religion were 
 what the disingenuousness of her adversaries re- 
 present her to be, she could not lay claim to any of the 
 prerogatives which should adorn the spouse of the 
 Redeemer. How often have you heard it said, that, 
 even granting there can be but one religion, it is 
 manifest it cannot be the Catholic; because it is 
 so corrupt, so full of superstition, so clogged with 
 useless and idle ceremonies : it is impossible that 
 religion could be the true one, in which the saints 
 are worshipped as gods and goddesses, licenses to 
 commit sin are granted, indulgences are purchased^ 
 and casuistry introduced in lieu of rigid morality. 
 
 This is the language of some of the most dis- 
 tinguished men, — you find it in almost every book 
 p{ travels, every romance, every geography, every 
 history ; — from the heavy and elaborated folio 
 down to the flying tract, and simple primer. 
 
 Are these charges true, my Ada? is there any 
 foundation for them in the nature of our holy re- 
 ligion ? say not there is: although your education 
 has been of a character to prejudice you against 
 the tenets of Catholicism; still there is in your 
 bosom a sentiment of candour, a principle of justice, 
 which forbid, you to pronounce judgment before 
 you have heard the real statement of the case, 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 19 
 
 In these letters, I will examine the question — 
 I will consider what these superstitions are, of 
 which we are accused: whether or not we have 
 any solid grounds on which to base the fabric of 
 our convictions, — and, I am much mistaken, if I 
 cannot make it appear that we have, at least, as 
 much right to be respected, for our opinions, as any 
 of our dissenting citizens have for their' s, — and if 
 this be the case a what means the incessant opposi- 
 tion which is encouraged, the warfare which is 
 carried on against our creed, in a land of universal 
 toleration, liberty, independence. 
 
 Why, as before my own dear shrine 
 
 I send my prayers to heaven : 
 Tho' tapers glimmer while the sun-beams shine, 
 
 And the cioss tells me of the Lamb divine, 
 Say, Ada, why shall I not be forgiven ! 
 
 And yet to be a catholic appears an irremissible 
 crime. You will, I hope, forgive me, my fair friend, 
 after you shall have had the patience to read these 
 letters, and hear my apology; and it affords me 
 peculiar pleasure that, retired from the dust of the 
 city at this beauteous season, and breathing all the 
 freshness of vale and glen, of streamlet and wood, 
 I have leisure to address you on a subject which is 
 very near my heart. Read them, Ada, and think 
 of me. Adieu. 
 
20 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 You remember, Ada, one moon-light night last 
 summer, as we sat on the portico of j^our father's 
 mansion, conversing on the subject of religion 
 that a friend approached and entering into the 
 conversation, remarked that the catholic rest his 
 faith entirely upon tradition. Never shall I forget 
 the expression of your eye that turned towards .me, 
 as it w T ere to inquire by a glance whether this re- 
 mark was true. No, it is not. We establish our 
 religion upon the first principles of protestantism 
 itself, I mean upon the interpretation of the scrip- 
 tures, according to our best judgment, and on the 
 authority of the unanimous exposition of the primi- 
 tive commentators — Yes, the bible lies before me — 
 It is upon my table, Ada, and shall ever be my 
 inseparable companion. Well, how do I act: do 
 not all denominations admit it to be the source of 
 all truth? and is not every individual authorised, 
 by their concession, and with their approbation, to 
 draw from its pellucid streams and drink, that he 
 may thirst not. If then, this privilege be granted 
 to all other men, why, tell me, why am I to be de- 
 prived of it? and if I can deduce my doctrines from 
 that inspired volume, why should not my deduc- 
 tions he as sacred and as convincing, as those of 
 the members of any other branches of the christian 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 21 
 
 community. Do thej^ not allow the Baptist, the 
 Quaker, the Methodist, to rest satisfied in the sin- 
 cerity of their convictions — then why is the catholic 
 condemned ? why is his church branded with 
 ignominy ? why are his tenets identified with the 
 pagan rites of antiquity? why do professors in 
 theological seminaries, " watchmen," and ecclesi- 
 astical doctors, seek to sear us with the fiery 
 brand of proscription and disgrace? 
 
 And let it not be objected, dearest Ada, that our 
 bibles differ: supposing for a moment, that ours 
 is not the genuine volume, (but it will not re- 
 quire much research to prove that it is,) still there 
 is so little discrepancy in the essential parts of 
 each, that I would be willing, in almost all 
 cases, to refer to the protestant translation; and 
 with that in my hand, if there be any consistency 
 whatever in the professions of those who send the 
 bible into every hamlet, I certainly must be per- 
 mitted to form my belief upon it. 
 
 I contend, therefore, that I have as much right 
 (to sajr the least) to be a catholic as any other in- 
 dividual has to attach himself to the chuich of 
 which he is a member. Again, then, I ask, if this 
 be true, what means the hostility that has raged 
 and is still raging, against the catholic religion ? 
 What mean those soi distant protestant associa- 
 tions, which, like Thespis of old, move about from 
 corner to corner, from street to street, systematic- 
 ally misrepresenting, and vituperating our church. 
 
22 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 " Dicitur et Thespis vixisse poemata plaustris." 
 
 You have learned Latin, Ada, and understand 
 well the meaning of this line of Horace; may I 
 paraphrase it? 
 
 'Tis said that Thespis used to drive 
 
 His cart from door to door, 
 And standing on his moving stage 
 
 To spout his verses o'er. 
 Like those musicians, Ada dear, 
 
 Who grind their songs, I ween ; 
 While fools and children at them stare 
 
 While little monkey squeals between 
 Petitioning the/are/ 
 
 What mean those religious periodicals, the 
 avowed object of which is to oppose the advances 
 of " popery," to disclose its "abominations" — 
 and to insult the whole catholic community. 
 Dear Ada, your charitable feelings, your kind and 
 general sympathy for all the human race, cause 
 you to revolt from the thought of reading such ef- 
 fusions — and, of course, you can have no idea of 
 their coarse, malignant, and vituperative spirit. — 
 But there are thousands of others, ladies as well 
 as men, who not only peruse them, but believe 
 their assertions as facts, and condemn, as intol- 
 erable and anti-christian, the doctrines of our 
 church. They believe that we regard the Pope 
 not merely as a spiritual, but a temporal head — 
 that we cannot, as his subjects, be good American 
 citizens — and that we are only waiting the propi- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 23 
 
 tious hour to establish his throne upon the ruins oi 
 republicanism — and the inquisition on the frag- 
 ments of our court-houses and legislative halls. 
 
 In vain do we repeat, that we know no authori- 
 ty of a temporal character in the Roman Pontiff — 
 that we acknowledge him only as our chief 
 Bishop 'residing in the capital of the European 
 world — and that were there a question to defend 
 oar liberties, or to attach ourselves to his political 
 rule, we should rise en masse against his encroach- 
 ments, and shed our blood in vindication of our 
 rights, and the freedom of American citizens. 
 
 But I will appeal not merely to the bible — 
 though more ought not to be required of me by 
 consistent protestants, I will array authorities, my 
 dear Ada, of the most indisputable weight and 
 veracity — I will call up from their silent vaults 
 the fathers of the church — I will question them and 
 the primitive christians — I will examine the tra- 
 ditions of age after age ; the common assent of 
 all believers during a period of fifteen hundred 
 years, and will then appeal to the vast majority of 
 christians now living, and you will hear the an- 
 swer, Ada: j^ou will judge for yourself, and I 
 will leave you to decide whether there is not a 
 host of authority on which to establish the claims 
 of that religion whose cause I have undertaken 
 to defend. Farewell. 
 
24 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Oh ! when I speak of defending my religion, 
 the hosts of illustrious apologists who have done 
 so, and so powerfully, ages before we were born, 
 crowd, my Ada, before my imagination. Had I 
 but a single spark of the zeal which enkindled 
 their souls — one solitary emotion of the exalted 
 piety which breathed through their writings, I 
 might hope to produce some effect. But alas !'— 
 
 Yet, 1 will not shrink from an effort : acquaint- 
 ed with so many amiable, intelligent, and natural- 
 ly pious members of society, and knowing the deep 
 prejudices which are fixed in their bosoms against 
 every thing pertaining to my church, I cannot be 
 silent. Ada, you yourself, though incapable of 
 entertaining a prejudice against any one, were so 
 educated, that you could not suppress, at times, 
 your wonder that I should be a catholic. And 
 yet I am, and I glory in the title ! a catholic ! yes, 
 Ada, but not imbued with the superstitions attri- 
 buted to my church by the~ ignorant and unfair. 
 A catholic, adhering to my church because she pos- 
 sesses the criterions of truth : because her doctrines 
 are uniform — she is one : because she has pro- 
 duced myriads of saints — she is holy : because 
 she comes down to the present time from the age 
 of the apostles — she is apostolic. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA* 25 
 
 You are not of those, dear Ada, who assert that 
 it is useless and unnecessary to enter into an in- 
 vestigation of religious trutfi ; I have heard you 
 declare, that you admit its importance ; and in 
 consequence of your desire to become acquainted 
 with the nature and tenets of our church, I have 
 determined to address you these familiar letters. 
 
 Still I have known hundreds who refuse to 
 read, perfectly satisfied, they say, with the reli- 
 gion in which they were born. And notwith- 
 standing their own security on the subject, many 
 condemn the unitarian, not reflecting that he acts 
 upon the verj^ same principle — and deems it ut- 
 terly unimportant to admit the divinity of Christ, 
 because he was born under a different conviction. 
 Yes, I have been amused, Ada, when, after hear- 
 ing this remark, that no one ought to change his 
 religion, the question has been put, "do you think 
 the unitarian can be saved." 
 
 The Jew says that he ought not to forsake the 
 belief of his fathers — the pagan asserts the same. 
 And yet they are both condemned by the very per- 
 sons who act upon precisely the same maxim, and 
 attempt, in their own regard, to defend it as invio- 
 lable ! What do you think of such inconsistency? 
 Ada? 
 
 But there are in this world too few 
 Like thee, my Ada — once again, 
 
 Adieu. 
 
26 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 There was a time, my Ada, when there exist- 
 ed but one only religion, and the spectacle was 
 truly beautiful, of the unanimity and accord of all 
 christians in believing the same doctrines, prac- 
 tising the same rites, frequenting the same sacra- 
 ments, and acknowledging the same head. What- 
 ever establishments were erected, whether for lite- 
 rature, or the relief of suffering humanity, all were 
 the offspring of her charity, solicitude and bene- 
 volence. It was a glorious sight to behold an. en- 
 tire nation kneeling at the same altars — its sove- 
 reign bending his brow before the tabernacle and 
 the tribunal : the noble, the wise, the learned, the 
 rich, the beautiful, the lovely, all vying in the 
 cause of that one religion. 
 
 Then did those monuments arise, 
 
 Where talent, wealth, and taste were lavished : 
 Whose spires in hundreds pierce the skies, 
 
 And which, though centuries repose 
 
 Upon their hoary casemates — still disclose 
 Beauties which fill the stranger with surprise, 
 
 And skill with which the admiring sight is ravished. 
 
 You have seen, Ada, these prodigious Gothic 
 structures reared under the influence of the catho- 
 lic religion, in England and Scotland. Oh ! those 
 were halcyon days, indeed; when the quiet of the 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 27 
 
 fireside was not disturbed by polemic disagree- 
 ments : when all thought alike, acted alike : con- 
 tent in the possession of that creed which was 
 transmitted from their forefathers, and happy in 
 their convictions which inspired their minds with 
 security, and their hearts with tranquillity. Those 
 brighter than Astrean days are gone — the noise 
 of controversial disputation is heard in the sanctu- 
 ary of domestic life, and the recesses of the temples 
 of prayer. Acrimony and prejudice have usurped 
 the tabernacles often thousand hearts, where cha- 
 rity and peace and love should ever abide : and 
 we, who still cling to the tenets which rendered 
 our ancestors so happy and so good, are hardly 
 tolerated amid the violence of modern opposition. 
 
 In lieu of that one religion that diffused her 
 blessings from pole to pole, there now exists a mul- 
 titude of others, all of them recent, all of them dif- 
 fering — all of them appealing to the bible — all of 
 them condemning us. 
 
 Before the birth of this numerous offspring of 
 sects, infidelity was unknown. Now, what desola- 
 tion has not been carried into society by the schools 
 of incredulity which propagate principles the most 
 pernicious to the world and the' soul. Schools, 
 which seek to confound spirit with matter — to ex- 
 tinguish the torch of immortal hope — to annihi- 
 late our being, in the cold and ignoble dust— 
 
28 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 schools which have burst the sinews of order, and 
 plunged society into blood. 
 
 Oh, Ada ! how widely has the spirit of infideli- 
 ty spread its baneful influence ! I have known 
 young, buoyant, feeling hearts — tinctured with 
 the gloom ! I have heard lips, from which we 
 could have expected no sentiment to fall, but that 
 of piety and devotion, uttering doubts, express- 
 ing misgivings — not about purgatory, or the 
 trinit}', or transubstantiation, but — the immortality 
 of the soul. To what is the world coming, dear 
 Ada, when such doubts are gaining upon the 
 minds of the fair and feeling? And what bar- 
 rier can he opposed to such ravages, except that 
 which the authority of our church can afford. 
 Take away that authority, and the consequence 
 will be fatal to society. It is on account of its 
 having been removed, that every other denomina- 
 tion has undergone change after change ; inso- 
 much that, in the language of Starke, " were Lu- 
 ther to rise again, he would not know the church 
 which was the work of his industry." This is 
 the effect of the so much vaunted private judg- 
 ment in matters of religion. What think you 
 of it, Ada? So pure a heart as you possess, and 
 so clear a mind as you are adorned with, cannot 
 approve of a principle which has been the parent of 
 so much mischief and so much doubt. Reflect on 
 this, my fair friend, and farewelh 
 
29 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 I am sitting upon the borders of a limpid brook, 
 dear Ada, under the shade of a venerable syca- 
 more. And while I fix my eye upon its stream 
 which the sun-beams are trying to play on through 
 the deep foliage of the shrubbery and green briar 
 bushes that are entangled along its course, I think 
 of you — 
 
 Yes, the sun-beam, in tremulous light, 
 Glimmers soft on the stream as it flows, 
 
 Which, shooting its way from the sight, 
 Mid the shades of the shrubbery goes. 
 
 It seems as if longing to hide 
 
 All its splendours and charms from the eye, 
 It steals to the thicket's dark side 
 
 And passes in loneliness by. 
 
 So virtue, when round her meek head 
 
 The halo of glory is bright, 1 
 Will fly to some desolate shade, 
 
 And hide her from flattery's sight. 
 
 Yes, true merit is always most modest — true 
 virtue most retiring. The more we mistrust our 
 own judgments, the more prudence we evince, and 
 the more secure do we repose on the authority of 
 the church of God. And yet the magna charta 
 of protestant liberty is private judgment. What 
 says archdeacon Blackburn? "When the pro- 
 
 C2 
 
30 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 testants first withdrew from the communion of the 
 church of Rome, the principles they went upon 
 were such as these: Jesus Christ hath, by his 
 gospel, called all men into liberty — and restor- 
 ed them the privilege of working out their salva- 
 tion by their own understandings" Upon this prin- 
 ciple, who could condemn the socinian or the unita- 
 rian? do they not act according to their understand- 
 ings ? and consequently, do they not act in con- 
 formity with the fundamental maxim of the au- 
 thor whose words I have last quoted. 
 
 Dr. Marsh maintains the same position. " The 
 church of England," he writes, " recognises to 
 the utmost extent, the right of every man to wor- 
 ship God according to his own conscience. 1 
 
 The Dr. might, perhaps, have justly excepted 
 the Catholic ; for it would appear, that that right 
 is not extended to one who is made the theme of 
 controversial animadversion, and the object of 
 bigoted vituperation. 
 
 The sincere protestant must feel bound, my Ada, 
 to examine the foundation of his belief. He 
 should put to his reason this question : Is it possi- 
 ble that God could have constituted private judg- 
 ment the rule of religious faith ? Who does not 
 know how changeable, how capricious such judg- 
 ment is % How seldom are two individuals found 
 to agree, in points infinitely less intricate, and im- 
 portant, than the sublime subject of divine revela- 
 
LETXERS TO ADA. 31 
 
 tion : Nay, how often does not the same individu- 
 al change his opinions — destroy at night the 
 work of an entire day : like the daughter of Ica- 
 rus, 
 
 " Nocturno solverts texta diurna dolo." 
 
 All day she weaves her subtle work, 
 
 But wastes her time in vain : 
 Her fickle genius, in the night 
 
 Undoes the whole again. 
 
 I know not how you like my paraphrase, Ada, 
 but I am sure that you do not imitate the whim- 
 sical attribute of Penelope. 
 
 I am aware that it is no easy matter to induce 
 men to undertake an examination into subjects of 
 this kind. Their prejudices, opinions, education, 
 associations, are opposed to every such inquiry. 
 Besides the discovery of truth is not always 
 agreeable : truth is rigid; the duties she prescribes 
 not congenial to the natural inclinations of the 
 heart — and there are, who, after the light of truth 
 bursts upon them, regret that ihey had not been 
 left in darkness. 
 
 The Redeemer himself complained of the little 
 disposition he found in men to become acquainted 
 with his doctrines. They loved darkness, he said 
 "because their deeds are evil." He proclaime- 
 his gospel throughout all Judea, and after all his 
 exertions, prayers, miracles, he succeeded in asso- 
 
32 LETTERS TO ADA* 
 
 dating to himself only twelve followers, and those 
 from the lowest walks of the world. 
 
 The eloquence of Paul, who addressed the as- 
 sembled wisdom of Greece, in the Areopagus of 
 Athens, though he dwelt upon the vital truths of 
 Christianity, and spoke of the most terrific of all 
 subjects — the resurrection of the dead, and the 
 last judgment, — converted but one of the members 
 of that august assemblage. 
 
 On another occasion, he could make Felix 
 tremble, and turn pale on his throne, but did not 
 convert him. How then can J expect to produce 
 a change, though I prove the necessity of seeking 
 for truth — though I succeed in convincing the un- 
 biassed mind that there exists a church, which he 
 who will not hear, " let him be as a heathen and 
 a publican." 
 
 This is not my language, Ada, strong as it is, 
 remember that it came from the mildest and most 
 amiable of all Beings — from Christ himself. If 
 you discover that church, will you hesitate to lis- 
 ten to her authority? no, Ada, you value too highly 
 the privilege of being a christian. — Adieu. 
 
33 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 A christian, Ada ! what a glorious title this ! 
 yes, the greatest honour which the philosopher 
 can possess, is to be decorated with the name of 
 that system which was founded by a crucified 
 Nazarean. It is an honour which we would not 
 forego for worlds — and yet are there existing 
 among us, persons illiberal, unjust enough, to make 
 it a matter of disputation whether or not the mem- 
 bers of the catholic church can claim the dignity 
 of belonging to that system! Ah me! What 
 motive can men have for treating the most ancient 
 and venerable church in this perfidious manner. 
 I am astonished how in this country, at least, such 
 prejudice — might I not rather say ignorance, 
 could be found ! In this republic, where learn- 
 ing has erected her shrine, where every facility of 
 acquiring information, and investigating contro- 
 verted points, may be had — where the spirit of 
 inquiry is abroad — where effusions of all de- 
 scriptions are sent forth in thousands — where peri- 
 odicals scientific, literary, critical, and religious, 
 ■issue from every village ; and the streams of infor- 
 mation flow, in redundance, over every portion of 
 "he country. 
 
 But unfortunately, Ada, these streams are not 
 oure; their waters are rendered turbid by the 
 
34 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 intermixture of those running from the fountains 
 of misrepresentation and prejudice. I have said it 
 before — and I cannot repeat the fact too often, the 
 periodicals, especially those purporting to be of a 
 religious character, are stored with false state- 
 ments, fraught with groundless criminations. The 
 works of fancy are a tissue of ridiculous fabrica- 
 tions, detrimental to our cause ; travels are made 
 up of superficial impressions, and even the muse 
 in striking her harp, is made to sing of the a su_ 
 perstitions of popery." 
 
 Do I exaggerate ? charge me not with giving 
 too deep a dye to the picture. No, Ada, some of 
 the most learned men of protestantism have ad- 
 mitted the truth of the sentiment of Dryden : 
 
 A hideous picture of their foes they drew, 
 
 Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades nor colours true. 
 
 I refer you to Mr. Wix, a writer of no ignoble 
 authority in the church of England: speaking 
 of our religion, "it is," he says, " calumniated 
 cruelly." And Dr. Parr, the rival of Dr. John- 
 ston in gigantic intellect, and powerful reasoning; 
 " It is insulted barbarously.'' Nightingale adds, 
 " No religion is treated so unjustly." And Hume, 
 who viewed the condition of things with a disin- 
 terested eye, as ail religions to him were objects of 
 illusion and folly, observes : " The protestants seern 
 to have thought that no truth should be told of 
 papists." The more, my dear Ada, you will be* 
 
35 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 come acquainted with the real state of the ques- 
 tion now before us, the more will you be convinc- 
 ed of the justness of these observations. 
 
 I have been acquainted with some very amiable 
 and otherwise enlightened individuals — and have 
 you not met with some, Ada, — who believed it 
 sinful to read a catholic book 1 I have known 
 others, who regarded a Priest, as you would a 
 mufti, and felt an indescribable aversion to have 
 any intercouse whatever with him, even in the 
 ordinary relations of society. Nor is it to be 
 "wondered at, when the catholic clergy are branded 
 by their instructors with epithets the most dis- 
 graceful, and accused of imposition, jugglery, 
 idolatry, and every abominable practice. 
 
 For myself, I have sometimes doubted whether 
 I should be amused, or offended, in reading the 
 descriptions of clerical legerdemain, and sordid 
 profanity, in books from which our protestant 
 jouth derive their hideous notions of Catholicism. 
 
 I certainly deem it necessary in self-vindication, 
 and from a motive of social benevolence, to do all 
 that lies in my power to disabuse them of such ri- 
 diculous ideas, and to represent our tenets as they 
 really are; and our clergy, in their merited cha- 
 racter, that of true christian ministers. 
 
 Even the pulpit, the sacred desk itself, is fre- 
 quently converted into a rostrum for polemical 
 declamation, and ill-natured misrepresentation. 
 
36 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Yes, it is too often the case, that the youth of our 
 country, whose minds should be imbued with chari. 
 ty for all mankind, and a respect for the convic- 
 tions of their fellow-christians, receive in the 
 churches which they frequent, impressions of 
 deadly opposition to the catholics. Is this in 
 conformity with the spirit of true and practical 
 religion ? 
 
 Yet, am I far, very far, dear Ada, from impli- 
 cating all dissenting clergymen in this charge of 
 illiberality. J am acquainted with some, whose 
 virtues are an ornament to the world, and whose 
 feelings of sympathy and benevolence, bounded 
 only by the limits of creation ; personages, whc r 
 convinced that they are discharging their own 
 duty, look with veneration upon the virtues, tal- 
 ents, and zeal, of their catholic brethren. Yes,. 
 Ada, there are in the number of dissenting clergy- 
 men, some whose friendship I possess, and em- 
 proud to enjoy — whose acquirements are great I- 
 whose piety sincere; and whose good will and 
 heart-felt respect, for our religion, are conspicuoas.. 
 It was your good fortune, my fair friend, to hive- 
 been placed when a child under the direction of 
 a minister of the most amiable and liberal cha- 
 racter ; and I was pleased to hear him remark, 
 that were you to be convinced that you would be; 
 more secure in the catholic religion, you ought,; 
 by all means, to embrace it. Oh ! Ada, I do not 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 37 
 
 wish to render you unhappy. I would not, for 
 the world, plant a thorn in that heart, where calm, 
 and peace, and happiness, have hitherto abode ; I 
 desire to make you still more happy — to convey 
 to your mind an unsophisticated view of the te- 
 nets which I profess, and to impart to your spirit 
 some of the consolations, which are found so 
 abundantly in the catholic church. — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 It is a beautiful saying of St. Francis de Sales, 
 my dear Ada, " That a good christian cannot be 
 outdone in good manners." And, if ever there was 
 a practical comment upon an aphorism, the life 
 of that amiable prelate was an exemplification of 
 the. maxim. 
 
 It is a pity that a similar spirit does not direct the 
 pens and language of many of our most distinguish- 
 ed writers. We should not then have to complain 
 of the abrupt sentence of condemnation which is 
 passed, and sometimes, too, in very unchristian-like 
 terms, against the religion of the best and wisest 
 of men. 
 
 How few are there among the multitude of mo- 
 dern dissenters, who have ever reflected, that the 
 doctrines and ceremonies which they denounce as 
 absurd and superstitious, were believed and prac 
 
 D 
 
38 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 tised, by a Constantine the great; a Charle- 
 magne; a Louis IX.; an Alfred; a Thomas 
 & Kempis ; a Dryden ; a Pope ; a Fenelon ; a 
 Massillon ; a Bossuet; a Columbus; a Charles 
 Carroll ; and countless other no less illustrious per- 
 sonages — That religion numbered among here hil- 
 dren all the flower of the nobility, chivalry, and 
 talent, and learning, and virtue, of those very 
 countries where she is now most, condemned, and 
 proscribed ! 
 
 When in fashionable circles, the subject of 
 Catholicism is accidentally introduced, I have 
 heard it often remarked, that that religion is con- 
 fined to the servants — and those, too, are not na- 
 tives, or at all instructed. You yourself once 
 remarked, dear Ada, that were you to judge of 
 our religion from the answers made to your in- 
 terrogatories, by persons of that description, you 
 would be induced to believe that the church to 
 which they belong was a compound of absurdities 
 and superstitions. 
 
 It amuses me to hear persons speaking of the 
 want of respectability in the catholic church 
 True there are not many very fashionable families 
 in this city belonging to her pale, yet are there 
 some as intelligent, respectable, and well educat- 
 ed, as any of our dissenting friends. And I would 
 ask, not you, dear Ada. for you have too much 
 discernment and judgment to form your ideas on 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 39 
 
 the simplicity of domestics ; but I would ask 
 some of our acquaintances, whether it is fair, justi- 
 fiable, judicious, to take up violent prejudices 
 against the whole community of catholics, be- 
 cause their domestics happen not to be as tho- 
 roughly instructed in their religion as they might 
 be. 
 
 But I repeat it, I am amused at the term respect- 
 ability — when almost all the crowned-heads in 
 Europe, and by far the majority of the wealthi- 
 est, and most ancient families, beyond the Atlan- 
 tic, and in our southern hemisphere — are catho- 
 lics. Even in our own republic I might name not a 
 few, who yield to none, in ample fortunes, elegant 
 acquirements, and splendid virtues. 
 
 Besides, my Ada, the men of profound erudition, 
 vast investigation, boundless research, indefatiga- 
 ble industry, who defend the catholic system, are 
 more numerous and certainly far more conspicu- 
 ous, than those who are arrayed against it. I 
 have before me the writings of Dr. Milner, Dr. 
 Lingard, Dr. Fletcher, and the Bishop of Aire ; and 
 I smile when upon my mantel I seethe flimsy and 
 badly written " Renunciation of Popery," which, 
 my Ada, will be buried in the grave of the writer 
 and yet how many will devour this miserable pro- 
 duction, who would turn with horror, from the 
 classic, and logical effusions of those master-minds. 
 " Res sunt humanse flebile ludibriumy ' 
 
40 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 is a sentiment as true, as it is difficult to translate it 
 into English, yet you understand it perfectly, and 
 will often have occasion to apply it in the passing 
 events of life. 
 
 •' There are among the things of earth," 
 
 (Thus might I rhyme the poet's saying,) 
 " Which rouse one's grief, another's mirth," 
 
 The reason is beyond portraying : 
 As for myself, where'er I see 
 
 Pedantic efforts to be wise, — 
 What might call forth a tear from thee 
 
 To mark such folly in disguise, 7 
 Will always, Ada, cause a smile in me. 
 
 And it is because, perhaps, I have less sensibility, 
 and more acquaintance with the world, than you 
 possess. I am never more convinced of the truth 
 and sanctity of the catholic church, than when I 
 peruse the angry " renunciations" of men who, 
 from sordid or baser motives, were induced to 
 abandon her communion. Show me a man, who, 
 even in defence of a bad cause, or of a precipitate 
 step, writes well and politely, and he shall not be 
 without the respect which talent should always 
 be entitled to. I am sure, Ada, you do not differ 
 with me, on this point. To-morrow I shall pur- 
 sue my subject. The moon is shining brightly in 
 the azure heavens, and echo seems to have gone to 
 rest in the deep windings of the vale — good night, 
 and-— farewell. 
 
41 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 u Les cloches, dans les aires, de leurs voix argentine^ 
 Appelloient a grand bruit les chantres a marines." 
 
 Thus opens, as you well know, Ada, the fourth 
 canto of Boileau's " Lutrin." Embosomed in the 
 quiet and sequestered shades of the country, far 
 from the smallest village, I hear no sounding of 
 clocks, no ringing of bells ; but my ear is saluted 
 at early morn, with the wood-land matin song 
 of the lark and robin. 
 
 There is a charm, at this hour, in the country.— 
 I love to ramble over the dewy fields — to pause by 
 the side of the gurgling streams — to muse in the so- 
 litude of nature — where the lively warblers of thefo- 
 rest, strain their little throats, in the praise of him 
 " who feeds the birds of the air." There is as 
 much wisdom to be learned here, by the contem- 
 plative mind, as the disciples of Plato could de- 
 rive from the instructions of the academus. 
 
 When I left my study this morning, Ada, I put 
 in my pocket a small volume, containing extracts 
 from the most eminent protestant divines. I am 
 fond of reading the works of celebrated men, no 
 matter what may be their profession — and among 
 the writers of the various denominations, there are 
 some of exalted talents and admirable concep- 
 tions. D 2 
 
42 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 In turning over the pages of the volume at 
 random, 1 fell accidentally upon a passage from 
 the far-famed Jeremy Taylor, which, I think, will 
 prove a perpetual refutation of all the abuse and 
 calumny which the illiberal and interested have 
 heaped upon our church. 
 
 " There are many considerations," writes that 
 excellent divine, " which may retain persons of 
 much reason, and more piety, in its communion. 
 They know it to have been the religion of their 
 forefathers, which had possession of men's under- 
 standings before protestantism had a name. Its 
 doctrines have had a long continuance and pos- 
 session of the church, which, therefore, cannot 
 easily be supposed in the present possessors to be 
 a design, since they have received them from so 
 many ages. — Then comes the splendour and beau- 
 ty of that church. Its pompous service ; the state - 
 liness and solemnity of its hierarchy; its name 
 catholic : the antiquity of its doctrines, the con- 
 stitutional success of its bishops and their imme- 
 diate derivation from the apostles, its title to suc- 
 ceed St. Peter. Add. to this the multitude and 
 variety of persons who are of its persuasion; the 
 consent of elder ages. — To this again add its 
 happiness in being the instrument in converting 
 divers nations — the piety and austerity of its re- 
 ligious orders; the severity of its fasts; the great 
 reputation of its bishops for faith and sanctity ; the 
 known holiness of some of its founders of religi- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 43 
 
 ous orders ; the single life of its bishops and 
 priests/' &c. &c. 
 
 Now, my dear Ada, in comparison with Jeremy 
 Taylor, what are those ephemeral writers, who 
 make it their 'business, in this country, to propa- 
 gate slanders, to gather up the cobweb invectives- 
 of political economists, whose object was to pan- 
 der to the vanity and prejudices of power. Was 
 this learned man ignorant, do you think, of 
 the history of our church, which certain fanati- 
 cal compilers of mis-statements, which they style 
 facts, are pleased to designate as the mother of 
 iniquity and abominations! It seems to me, the 
 most effectual antidote that can be applied to the 
 malevolence of those men, is to place before a can- 
 did public, the sentiments and language of the 
 ornament of the protestant religion, Dr. Jeremy 
 Taylor. He soars like an eaglf, far above the 
 prejudices of petty minds: he can, with unflinch- 
 ing eye, look upon the sun of truth, while other?, 
 whose spirits are of two vulgar a kind to bear 
 them aloft to such brilliant contemplations, are left 
 in gloom and cloud. 
 
 Fix your -eye, Ada, upon that orb of religion, from 
 which light is diffused throughout this nether 
 world. You are one of the few, who can stand 
 the rajs, can tolerate the glory ! Pure spirits are 
 destined for regions of light beyond the most bril- 
 liant stars: prepare your's for those glorious 
 
44 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 spheres, — the genius of religion points to them, 
 my friend, and may we meet — Adieu ! 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 As I mused, my Ada, upon the beautiful terrace 
 which stretches down upon a blooming garden, I 
 was checked on my way, by a swarm of busy 
 ants, that covered the superficies of the path for a 
 considerable space. I was cautious how I trod 
 among these interesting insects, whose industry 
 has been presented by the Redeemer, to the imita- 
 tion of christians— and, as I watched them, I said 
 to myself, how these little labourers toil to provide 
 for the time to come, and how thoughtless ar e 
 most of the rational portion of creation about the 
 future ! I was struck, and could not help repeating 
 an elegant sonnet, written by a lady, Ada — the 
 baroness Caraccioli da Termini : 
 
 " Provida formichetta esce da quella, 
 Che natura le die, misera stanza, 
 E Scorrendo per tutto have speranza 
 Di portar nuovo cibo a la sua cella. 
 
 Da ciel appena questa parte e quella 
 Fervido il sole a rhcaldars 'avanza 
 Che sua raccolta espone a l'inconstanza 
 Del vento, e a'improvisa e ria procella. 
 
 Formichetta infelice ! e pur trovasti 
 
lE^IIE-RS TO ADA. 45 
 
 In me chi compatir possa il tuo duolo, 
 Se indarno, al par di me, ti affiticasti 
 Tuin van gioisti, in vano io mi consolo 
 In aver raunato esca che basta : 
 Disperde ogni fatica un soffio sdio — " 
 
 It is no easy matter to translate well from any 
 foreign language: but I confess, that with me, the 
 most difficult of all attempts is to put into English 
 verse a good Italian sonnet. — Pardon me, then, if 
 I do not succeed in the present. You are welcome 
 to it, my Ada, as it is : — 
 
 The prudent little emmet strays about 
 
 From her poor cell, by nature's hand dug out; 
 
 Scouring, with patient industry, the earth 
 
 In quest of some provision : from the birth 
 
 Of the Aurora — as the orb of day 
 
 Ascends the heavens, all she seeks to lay 
 
 In her small granary, may be swept away 
 
 By wind and storm. Poor ant, thou find'st in me, ,1 
 
 One who can feel compassion for thy worth ! 
 
 And if in vain, as it appears to be, 
 
 Thou strugglest to provide for future want, 
 
 I think how little / can hope, poor ant, 
 
 The good things I have treasured to enjoy, 
 
 Which one small breath, alas ! may suddenly destroy-. 
 
 And yet man exhausts all his labours, wastes all 
 his strength, in hoarding up perishable treasures — 
 which cannot follow their owner farther than the 
 tomb ; while he is reckless of those eternal things 
 which only commence after the present life ! 
 
40 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Am I too grave a moralist, dear Ada ? alas ! I 
 have seen instances of persons, who were not only 
 regardless themselves of their immortal interest, 
 but sought to interfere with the consciences of 
 those under their care : unamiable beings, who 
 imbued with prejudices against the catholic church) 
 exerted all their influence and authority, to prevent 
 their relations, or friends, from following their own 
 most sacred and awful convictions ! 
 
 You may turn Moravian, Socinian, Unitarian, 
 any thing Ada, and not much will be said about 
 it — but become a Catholic, and there is a general 
 excitement — u What ! has she forgotten herself so 
 far |" exclaims one: " Has she really lost her senses, 
 then? exclaims another. All her friends are in arms : 
 the clergyman who receives her into the church is 
 denounced, her dearest associates cease to be her 
 intimates, and, to speak in plain terms, a persecu- 
 tion is commenced against her. 
 
 I am not rash in making these remarks, I speak 
 from experience ; I am representing in description 
 many a striking original — and I think you will 
 agree with me, Ada, when you call to your recol- 
 lection the history of a young and much injured 
 convert whom you knew when living, and over 
 whose grave you have wept, for her untimely fate. 
 You will not object that I should bring the details 
 of that history again before your mind, I know 
 you will shed some tears at the recital, but — fare* 
 well. 
 
47 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 Among the tomb-stones, Ada, which arrest the 
 stranger's eve, as he muses through the grave-yard 
 belonging to the Cathedral of — there is one, sim- 
 ple in its construction, pure in its design, surround- 
 ed by a neat pailing, and shaded by a young cy- 
 press, bearing the name of her who there lies buri- 
 ed. While others are filled with sculptured pfraise, 
 and melancholy panegyric, upon this is carved the 
 monosylable — Jane. This is all her epitaph ! The 
 wild-flower blossoms over the remains of her, who, 
 had she not been brought to a cruel, and prema- 
 ture end, would now be its rival in freshness and 
 bloom ! There is no one who visits that sadly, 
 beautiful spot, devoted to the dead of the Cathe- 
 dral, but, after reading the many elegant and 
 some well merited eulogies inscribed upon their 
 monuments, turns, w T ith infinite interest, to this 
 and feels that there must be something plaintive 
 associated with that brief word — Jane. 
 
 Yes, stranger, her story is a doleful one ; she fell 
 in the spring-tide of youth, a victim to the unre 
 lenting prejudices of her once dearest friends; she 
 pined away in the deepest pangs of affliction, a 
 martyr to her conscience, and there lie her ashes ! 
 
 You knew her well, dear Ada, when she was 
 the glory of her family: beautiful, accomplished 
 and gay as the timidly sportive fawn. She was 
 
48 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 then a protestant, rigidly devoted to her churcfa ? 
 first in all good works, and zealous in her princi- 
 ples. You have seen her, yes I know too, Ada 7 
 you have frequently accompanied her, when she 
 left the comforts of her fire-side, to carry relief to* 
 some poor sufferer, to wrap in comfort some wretch- 
 ed babe, to administer solace and aid to some heart- 
 broken widow. You have seen her, an angel of 
 charity and love, cheering with her presence, the 
 despondency of sickness, dispersing with her 
 smiles, the deep-fixed gloom of want and derelic- 
 tion, and delighting, with more buoyancy of heart y 
 in such scenes of mercy, than in the beauteous 
 circles which she adorned and enlivened. 
 
 In one of her errands of charity, as she was dis- 
 tributing tracts from door to door, with the purest 
 intention of enlightening, as she thought, a catho- 
 lic clergyman, she ventured to call at his house. 
 She had never conversed with a priest, and she 
 conscientiously pitied his delusion, and trembled 
 for his condition. 
 
 She was met at the door by the reverend gentle- 
 man, whose manners were refined, and whose ac- 
 quaintance with the world extensive. 
 
 4t Pardon me," she said, "dear Sir;" perhaps 
 it may be deemed an unjustifiable obtrusion on my 
 part, thus to present myself before you, without 
 any introduction ; but I have so far overcome my- 
 self, and set aside the formalities otherwise to be 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 49 
 
 observed, for the purpose of presenting you a tract, 
 will jou accept it?" 
 
 " With great pleasure," returned the priest — 
 " and allow me to ask you to walk into my 
 room — your motive in presenting me this tract 
 must be sincere ; and I respect sincerity wherever 
 I meet it." 
 
 Jane entered the room. Every thing around 
 seemed strange ; over the mantel piece hung a pic- 
 ture of the Pope, whom she had been taught to re- 
 gard as antichrist ; around the walls were ranged 
 other sacred pictures, and on his secretary stood 
 an ivory crucifix. 
 
 A conversation immediately ensued on contro- 
 versial topics, and was conducted with becoming 
 mildness, perspicuity, and elegance, by the priest. 
 He explained to her the light in which we view 
 the Pope, the nature of the veneration we pay to 
 images and to the crucifix: he marked, with pecu- 
 liar emphasis, the difference between the proper 
 doctrines of the church, and the misrepresentations 
 of those doctrines. The effect of this interview was 
 a correspondence on religious subjects, which con- 
 tinued for six months. — During that period Jane 
 read every thing that was put into her hands by 
 her ministers, to save her, as they said, and by the 
 catholic clergyman, to convince her of the truth. 
 
 After a thorough investigation, and a difficult 
 struggle with her dearest prejudices, she deter- 
 
 E 
 
50 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 mined to embrace the tenets of that church which 
 she had learned to identify with error and sacri- 
 lege. Being fully instructed, she was admitted to 
 communion, at the foot of the altar, in the little 
 gothic chapel of 
 
 Oh, my Ada, what an edifying sight it was to 
 behold this fervent christian, bathed in tears, and 
 rapt in divine centemplation, receiving, for the first 
 time, the body of the Lord. It was early on a 
 bright Sunday of May, w T hen the first-born flow- 
 ers of the garden decorated and perfumed the 
 tabernacle, and the gentle tapers calmly glimmer- 
 ed, like the peace-stars of Eden, around the shrine 
 of saint 
 
 There knelt the lovely convert, a wreath of flow- 
 ers on her head ; a w T hite vail flowing to the 
 ground ; a smile of rapture upon her cheek ; her 
 hands softly clasped on her bosom; and her eye 
 beaming with serenity and joy. 
 
 Oh ! from that heaven 
 
 To which her spirit hath now flown 
 (By persecution from this cold world driven J 
 
 Angels, my Ada, then looked down 
 And smiled upon the sight : 
 
 They saw in her, 
 One, fit to mingle in their throng 
 Too pure, too meek, to be a sufferer 
 
 On earth, and now she shines among 4 
 Her sister- angels bright. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 51 
 
 I pause here, Ada : we shall soon arrive at the 
 conclusion of her history— until then. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 I resume the story of Jane. Dear Ada, have 
 you not wept yourself almost sick, at the manner 
 in which she who had been her family's idol as a 
 Protestant, was afterwards treated as a Catholic : 
 
 On returning home from the chapel, she was 
 met not with the welcome of a parent's love, but 
 with stern reproof, and cold disdain. Even her 
 youngest sisters, who formerly used to rush into 
 her arms, and vie for the first embrace, were in- 
 structed to keep aloof, and look askance ! Oh, 
 what a pang to the tender heart of Jane ! What 
 agony did she not suffer, when she found her fa- 
 ther's house, the once abode of love and happiness, 
 suddenly converted into a strange place, in which 
 she felt as lost ! 
 
 " What means this woful change papa!" she 
 sighed, as her father coldly past her by, and burst 
 into a flood of tears — Her father made no reply. 
 
 She then flew into her mother's room — but on 
 her mother's face the benign expression of affec- 
 tion smiled no more ; she fixed a scowling look on 
 
52 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Jane, and exclaimed : " disgrace ! disgrace !" 
 
 " Oh mamma!" she sighed — and sobbed bitterly, 
 " how have 1 become the disgrace" — she could say 
 no more. 
 
 " Yes you have brought shame upon your fa- 
 mily." 
 
 " Have I been guilty of any crime, mamma I" 
 
 " Guilty ! no words can express the enormity of 
 your guilt." 
 
 " What then have I done I" 
 
 u Do you ask me such a question ? Where 
 were you this morning? Whence have you just 
 come ? What have you been led to " 
 
 " Mamma, I became a catholic from convic- 
 tion " 
 
 " So much the greater guilt— you acknowledge 
 that you are convinced you are lost, gone, ruined — " 
 
 "Alas! my dearest, dearest mamma, speak 
 not thus r " 
 
 " You will no longer find a mother in me— 
 You have forfeited my love, you have incurred 
 the displeasure of your family for ever!" 
 
 " For ever !" exclaimed Jane — and almost dis- 
 tracted with anguish, left her mother's room. 
 
 Yes, Ada, it was for ever ! for Jane there was no 
 more the endearment of home ; the angel of peace 
 took his flight from that sanctuary, where the 
 demon of prejudice prevailed. The temptation to 
 relapse, to yield, was powerful ; no, to a spirit like 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 53 
 
 her's, it was nought. Her conscience told her she 
 was acting well ; the panoply of heaven was ex- 
 tended over her heart, and, with the grace of him 
 who penetrates the secrets of the soul, and who 
 judgeth justices, she acquired an almost omnipo- 
 tent energy. For the sake of her heavenly Father, 
 she could brave the frowns of her earthly parents, 
 whom still she loved — adored : and, in order to ob- 
 taina mansion in his kingdom, she hesitated not to 
 be exiled from'their house, of which, but a short time 
 since, she was deemed the guardian angel. She 
 remembered the awful sentence of the Redeemer, the 
 most dutiful of all children : " he that loveth father 
 and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." 
 
 Among strangers, however, there was not want- 
 ing an asylum for the young victim of paternal 
 intolerance : the bosom of sympathy beat warmly 
 in her regard, and hundreds of new friends emu- 
 lated one another in wiping away her tears, and 
 inspiring her with consolation. 
 
 But, what can compensate for the loss of home ! 
 what could soothe the wasting affliction of a heart, 
 which clung with the tenderest devotion, to the 
 sacred associations of her family ! No, Ada, there 
 was nothing to support her moral energy but re- 
 ligion ; her physical strength began to yield, and 
 her spirits, lately so elastic and buoyant, to wither 
 and decay. She sickened, and, in the space of a 
 few weeks, she was but the shadow of herself, the 
 
 E 2 
 
54 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 skeleton of Jane ! She could not eat ; sleep fled 
 from her pillow : and death hastened apace. You 
 were among the few true friends, who did not for- 
 sake her; at the peril of the intimacy of her fa- 
 mily, you sat by her bed-side, during her illness, 
 you mingled your tears with her's, you breathed 
 the spirit of solace into her sinking bosom. 
 
 You witnessed the last moments of a perfect 
 christian — praying, with oppressive emotions, for 
 her dear parents ; naming, with kindling affection, 
 her little sisters; and only expressing one wish, to 
 die in their arms ; — she died in your's, Ada — 
 
 And while that tomb, that simple tomb, 
 
 Beneath the willow shall remain, 
 The stranger Oft shall learn the doom , 
 
 Recorded in the name of Jane. 
 
 Ada, farewell. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 May it not then be asserted, with some grounds, 
 dear Ada, that there exists even in this free coun- 
 try an unrelenting spirit of opposition to the ca- 
 tholic religion ? Was I guilty of rashness when I 
 remarked, that, if a member of a family brought up 
 in any dissenting denomination, becomes a ca^ 
 tholic, too often a persecution is commenced, and 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 55 
 
 every means had recourse to. in order to shake the 
 convictions, and fetter the liberty of the convert ! 
 
 Still, notwithstanding this, how many have de- 
 fied all opposition, have risen above all prejudice 
 and attached themselves to the catholic church; 
 From all ranks of society, from the first class of 
 wealth and fashion — young and old, male and fe- 
 male, ministers and laymen, I could number many. 
 
 Yes, Ada, even the desks of Protestantism have 
 been forsaken by some of their most eminent men, 
 who have done homage to the truth of our church, 
 and become her firmest pillars. You have not 
 forgotten the conversion of the honourable and 
 reverend George Spencer, formerly chaplain to the 
 Bishop of London, and brother to lord Althorp — 
 I knew him well, dear Ada ; I saw him a simple 
 student in the English college at Rome; I heard 
 him deliver his first discourse, as a catholic divine, 
 in the church of Gesu Maria, in the Corso, to a 
 crowded assemblage o^ English, and Americans : I 
 marked the sincerity of his manner, plain but dig- 
 nified ; serious but amiable ; energetic but liberal. 
 
 It afforded me extreme pleasure to meet in per- 
 son that illustrious character, concerning whose 
 conversion, which was denied by a writer in the 
 Gazette of , I had been drawn into a corres- 
 pondence. The account of his change, which 
 was stated in that paper to be a fabrication, I 
 found to be perfectly authentic : all the details 
 
56 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 were true, all the facts as they originally occur- 
 red : and I cordially shook the hand of my brother 
 priest, the son of lord Spencer. 
 
 In our country, Ada, several potestant minis- 
 ters have embraced the catholic religion. Within 
 my own recollection there were four — three of 
 whom are still living, practising, with primitive 
 fervour, the duties of that church. The other is 
 dead — and never died a man of more sterling in- 
 tegrity, honest conviction, and genuine virtues? 
 than George I*******. 
 
 Faith has lighted her torch over his grave ; and 
 peace watches over his ashes ! 
 
 These men were educated in prejudice, and, be- 
 fore they made themselves thoroughly acquainted 
 with catholicity, as much opposed to its doctrines 
 as they were afterwards convinced of their truth. 
 It was a glorious triumph to our cause, to gain 
 over, at once, from the protestant church four of 
 her former champions. It was a spectacle calcu- 
 lated to awaken public attention, and induce in- 
 vestigation. "What!" did many observe, "If 
 such men as these, learned, wise, and virtuous, 
 brought up from their cradle in a system so differ- 
 ent from that which they embraced, could, after 
 mature inquiry, avow their change in so import- 
 ant a matter, must they not have had solid grounds 
 to act on ? 
 
 Yes, they had, dear Ada. they could not be ac- 
 cused of interested motives, for they resigned their 
 
LETTERS TO ADA- 57 
 
 livings and threw themselves upon theirtalents, and 
 their resources. They must have been influenced 
 by supernatural inducements. Their subsequent 
 conduct has proved it, and their example should 
 serve as a model of imitation for others. 
 
 I have placed it before you, Ada, because I 
 know you will admire their consistency; and, I 
 feel too, that when once convinced, your name 
 will be added to their' s, as another light kindled 
 from the sun of truth, and mingling its meek lus- 
 tre with the splendour of- religion — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 I write this under a broad oak, dear Ada, on as 
 beautiful a morning as ever dawned on the world. 
 Upon the lawn, fragrant with fresh grass, and be- 
 spangled with dew-drops, the snowy sheep are 
 browzing and the tender lambs are sporting. And, I 
 remember, besides, that this is your birth day, Ada. 
 
 This is thy birthday — know'st thou not, fair friend, 
 That from thy years of life one more hath gone 
 For ever, and for ever ! — hast thou ne'er 
 Paused in thine innocence before the leaves 
 That show their first, fair greenness to the spring? 
 Perchance while viewing them, some lovely one, 
 Nipped in its youth, hath fallen at thy feet, 
 And withered, never to be fair again, 
 
58 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 That fallen leaf, methinks, resembles, Ada, 
 The year which hath just left thee. There are still 
 Many remaining — but there is one less. 
 
 Yet hath thy birthday joys to greet thee still ; 
 Health, vigour, beauty, still are left with thee. 
 Hope's wild, yet fragrant flower, is opening bright 
 And heaven is smiling on thine innocence. 
 
 This is thy birthday — yes it is — it is : 
 Then joy be with thee and thy parents ; joy 
 With all who soothe thee with the name of friend, 
 And as thy years flow from thee, turn thine eyes 
 To that bright heaven, where time shall be no more. 
 
 For my own part, I love to carry my thoughts 
 into eternity, where the spirits of the just are 
 mingling in the communion ofheaven, and looking 
 down with vigilant anxiety upon their friends who 
 are still struggling in this valley of tears. I am 
 not among those, who hold, that the saints in the 
 bosom of their God, have forgotten their brethren 
 on earth; that they feel no interest in, and have 
 no knowledge of, the affairs of mortals. 
 
 No, Ada, u I believe in the communion of 
 saints." — I believe that I may address my prayers 
 to them, and I believe that they can hear, and 
 through the merits of Christ, can assist me. Yes, 
 all this I believe, notwithststanding the charge of 
 idolatry which is alleged against me, for so 
 doing, by no obscure opponents. 
 
 I will examine whether the charge be ground- 
 ed — whether for requesting a parent or a friend 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 59 
 
 in heaven to pray for me, I am to be ranked among 
 the pagans, and made like to those who invoked 
 the gods and goddesses of old. 
 
 The reformation, dear Ada, was not undertaken 
 on this ground : when Luther separated from the 
 ancient church, it was not because he saw in the 
 practice of praying to the saints anything that 
 bordered on idolatry; he had other motives; he 
 was impelled by other causes. For, in his sermon 
 on the feast of St. John the Baptist, addressing 
 his audience on this very topic, he says: " you do 
 not sin by asking them (the saints,) to pray for 
 you." 
 
 The pretext of idolatry was assumed, as the 
 learned Dr. Milner remarks, by the Duke of So- 
 merset, with a view of inflaming the passions of the 
 ignorant against the catholic church, and in or- 
 der to effect the revolution which ensued. The 
 tenet regarding the invocation of saints, was ac- 
 cordingly misrepresented — it was identified with 
 the senseless rites of paganism ; it was denounced 
 as derogatory from the infinite merits of Christ, 
 and contradictory to the plain meaning of the 
 scriptures. 
 
 This was a popular manoeuvre: — the igno- 
 rant multitude began to imagine that the religion 
 of Christ was at stake — and that it depended 
 on their zeal and energy, to save the last remnant 
 of truth ; to kindle once more the dying embers 
 
60 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 of pure religion — and to inflict a merited chastise- 
 ment on those sacrilegious beings, who had spread 
 darkness over the face of Christianity, and almost 
 plunged the world back into the chaos of idola- 
 try. 
 
 Not was this spirit confined to the ignorant and 
 the low ; it communicated itself to many of the 
 ablest writers of those days, it breathed through 
 their discourses, and insinuated its venom into all 
 their productions. 
 
 The outcry raised against this doctrine at that 
 era of confusion and change, has rebounded from 
 clime to clime, and from century to century. The 
 echo of the present age, and in our free republic, 
 still repeats, though with a fainter sound — Idola- 
 try. 
 
 Yes, Ada, too often does the grave " professor," 
 instead of instructing his theological pupils in the 
 science of truth, instead of proclaiming facts, and 
 expounding ecclesiastical history, too often, I re- 
 peat, does he forget his dignity, and join in the 
 vulgar cry — Idolatry. 
 
 Even the drowsy " watchman," as he paces 
 his solitary rounds through the darkness of the 
 night, as he attempts to vociferate the hours, stam- 
 mers, with stentorian lungs, — Idolatry. 
 
 Thus is the popular shout kept up, from the 
 all-solemn Doctor of Divinity, down to the all- 
 ludicrous menial of the midnight tribe ! 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 61 
 
 What motive can there be, dear Ada, in this 
 age of investigation and liberal opinion, to con- 
 tinue the odious shout ? Is it to be supposed 
 that Americans are to be alarmed by the bugbear 
 of old English invention ! Is there not intellect, 
 judgment, perspicacity enough, in the minds of the 
 " Lord's of human kind," to see through the flim- 
 sy texture in which prejudice and policy have 
 laboured to involve the tenets of our church? 
 
 I have merely to state those tenets as we really 
 believe them, as they are taught by the Church 
 and the candid minds of our countrymen will 
 perceive how much we have been injured and 
 abused. They will be convinced that it is only 
 by misstating, that, our opponents can succeed in 
 exciting opposition, and keeping alive prejudice. 
 It frequently happiness, that the most rigid be- 
 lievers in those misrepresentations, when they dis- 
 cover how systematically they have been imposed 
 upon — are the first to enter into an investiga- 
 tion of religious matters — and often too the first 
 in returning to the bosom of their mother, the 
 much injured and calumniated church. 
 
 Oh Ada, that I may succeed in convincing you 
 that the ideas which you have derived from your 
 earliest education on the subject of our religion, 
 are incorrect — I know what the result will be — 
 Adieu. 
 
 F 
 
62 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 I was on the point of returning home to break- 
 fast, after concluding my last to you, dear Ada, 
 when a gentleman of advanced years, and accom- 
 plished manners rode up, and inquired of me the 
 way to — - — . He observed that he was a mission- 
 ary of the church, and his object in going 
 
 to the village in question was to preach a series of 
 sermons. As I found him communicative, I took 
 the liberty of asking him to accompany me to my 
 country-house, to rest himself, and breakfast with 
 me. He readily consented, and, in a few minutes ? 
 we reached the a alley green." 
 
 The reverend gentleman had no idea that I was 
 a catholic, and I deemed it prudent, lest I might 
 have destroyed his appetite, not to reveal the se- 
 cret to him until we had finished our breakfast. 
 
 " You observed sir," I then said, " that you are 
 
 on your way to in order to deliver a set of 
 
 sermons, may I inquire, on what subject it is your 
 intention to preach :" 
 
 " I purpose sir," he replied, " to expose the ab- 
 surdity of the Roman catholic doctrines, they are 
 so perfectly unscriptural, so untenable, that I am 
 surprised how any one who feels any respect for 
 the christian system, can possibly admit them." 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 63 
 
 11 And still they are believed by most of the 
 learned, and the good," I returned. 
 
 The missionary looked doubtfully upon me, and 
 becoming suspicious of my orthodoxy, would glad- 
 ly have diverted the conversation, had t not pur- 
 posely continued the subject. 
 
 " I thank you sincerely, sir," he blandly said, 
 "for the hospitality you have extended to me 
 
 " and was on the point of departing, 
 
 when, 
 
 " Pray, reverend sir, may not your ideas of 
 Catholicism be erroneous:" I asked— 
 
 "Every one knows enough of that religion to 
 condemn it," was his reply. " For instance, the 
 doctrine it maintains of praying to the saints is 
 abominable. It places Mary, a mere woman, on 
 an equal footing with the Son of God, and trans- 
 forms the saints into deities." 
 
 "Are you certain that the doctrine of the Ro- 
 man catholic church is as you have stated it?" I 
 aga.n asked. 
 
 " Read the Renunciation of Popery, — Blanco 
 
 White, the History of Popery, Dr. 's Essay, 
 
 and judge for yourself." 
 
 ".Read Dr. Milner, the Amicable Discussion, 
 and the Papist Misrepresented and Represented," I 
 retorted. " It is surely not from the avowed ene- 
 mies of the church, that you are to learn her genuine 
 doctrines. We should drink of the pure fountain. 
 
64 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 if we desire to be refreshed with a limpid draught ? 
 and not of that turbid stream, thickened with the 
 influx of a thousand prejudices and a thousand 
 misrepresentations." 
 
 "If you do not believe the doctrine, my dear, 
 sir, as 1 have stated it to be, you cannot be a catho- 
 lic," he insisted. 
 
 " I do not believe it in that sense," I returned, 
 " and yet I am a. catholic : and moreover, I con- 
 tend that were I to admit your interpretation of it, 
 instead of being a catholic, I would be an idola- 
 ter." 
 
 " You are an enlightened scholar,' 7 urged the 
 missionary, " but the ignorant, do they not believe 
 that the saints may be invoked as possessing power 
 of themselves, independent of the merits of the Re- 
 deemer ?'' 
 
 " The ignorant are taught the common cate- 
 chism," I returned : and having a copy upon my 
 table, I opened the part relating to this subject, 
 and read the following passage: " We are to ho- 
 nour them (the saints) as God's special friends and 
 servants, but not with the honour which be- 
 longs TO GOD." 
 
 The missionary became manifestly impatient, 
 and begging me to excuse him, as the time ap- 
 pointed to reach the village had almost arrived, 
 and not a moment was to be lost. He mounted 
 his horse, bade me good morning, and rode off. I 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 65 
 
 did not hear what was the tenor of his ser- 
 mon on the subject we were discussing. But I 
 should not wonder, Ada, if he repeated the very 
 same misstatements which I carefully sought to 
 rectify. 
 
 When for the future, then, you hear us stigma- 
 tized as idolaters for praying to the saints, remem- 
 ber the missionary. — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 " Yet hear me, Samson ; not that I endeavour 
 To lessen or extenuate my offence : 
 But that on th' other side, if it be weighed 
 By itself, with aggravations, not surcharged, 
 Or else with just allowance counterpoised, 
 I may, if possible, thy pardon find, &c." 
 
 You have read the Samson Agonistes of Milton, 
 dear Ada, and remember, no doubt, these lines, 
 put into the mouth of Delila. Had the missionary 
 remained a little longer, I might have repeated 
 them to him, in whose estimation, I was guilty of 
 the most grievous offence against the spirit of 
 Christianity, by admitting the propriety of praying 
 to the saints. I rejoice that you have the patience 
 to read my letters, and hear my views and argu- 
 ments on these important articles of religious faith. 
 
 F 2 
 
66 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Is it then true, that the catholic church teaches 
 that the saints possess any power to grant our pe- 
 titions, except as far as they derive it from God ! 
 can I pray to the virgin Mary as to one who can 
 command her son in the strict acceptation of the 
 term 1 am I to believe that the merits of Christ are 
 insufficient of themselves, or that it is absolutely 
 necessary that I should invoke any particular 
 saint, in order to have those merits applied to my 
 soul ! In a word, dear Ada, is it derogatory to the 
 mediatorship of the Redeemer to recommend my- 
 self to the prayers of the just in heaven ? 
 
 I refer you to the Council of Trent, the constitu- 
 tion, I may call it ; of the catholic church : in 
 which our doctrines are distinctly defined, and 
 from which there can be no appeal. 
 
 In the twenty-fifth session, you will find this pro- 
 position. " The saints reigning with Christ, offer 
 up their prayers for men. It is good and useful 
 suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to 
 their prayers — to obtain favours from God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alone our Redeemer 
 and Saviour." 
 
 And in the catechism of the Council, published 
 by order of Pope Pius V., part the fourth on prayer, 
 it is expressly stated, that " we do not address God 
 or the saints in the same manner: God we implore 
 to grant us the blessings of which we stand in need ; 
 but the saints because they are the friends of God, 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 67 
 
 we solicit to undertake the advocacy of our cause 
 with him, to obtain for us, from him, all necessaries 
 for soul and body. Hence we make use of two 
 different sorts of prayer ; to God we properly say, 
 u have mercy on us f but to the saints, " pray for 
 us." 
 
 This is very different from the doctrine imputed 
 to us, dear Ada, in the periodicals, and bigoted 
 essays of the day. I adhere not to the creed form- 
 ed for me by my adversaries, but to that drawn up 
 and promulgated by the councils of the church. 
 
 Again permit me to direct your attention to 
 another authority of high respectability: which 
 every catholic reveres, and whose statements of our 
 tenets are, in every respect, conformable to the 
 unanimous belief of all instructed members of the 
 church. 
 
 Drs. Challoner and Gother are two venerable 
 names in the records of Catholicism : under their 
 sanction and supervision, a small book was pub- 
 lished, to which I before alluded, entitled " The 
 Papist Misrepresented and Represented :" in that 
 book I find the following anathema: " Cursed is 
 he that believes the saints in heaven to be his re- 
 deemers, that prays to them as such, or that gives 
 God's honour to them, or to any other creature." 
 
 To this anathema, I most cordially subscribe; 
 and so will you, Ada, and every consistent chris- 
 tian. Nor will I, or you, or any other christian, 
 
68 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 hesitate a moment to say " amen" to this one: 
 " Cursed is every goddess worshipper, that believes 
 the B. Virgin Mary to be any more than a crea- 
 ture, that worships her, or puts his trust in her 
 more than in God ; that believes her above her son, 
 or that she can in any thing command him." 
 
 Judge now, my dear Ada, whether the invoca- 
 tion of saints is idolatrous ; and whether I should 
 be condemned for vindicating its propriety. 
 
 And yet 1 know, it will be said, 
 
 Repeated, urged, insisted on, 
 That rites idolatrous are paid 
 
 To saints, by every genuine son 
 Of popery ! 
 
 That Mary, like some goddess old, 
 Some Juno glittering on her car, 
 
 Can o'er her Son dominion hold 
 And hurl his thunderbolts afar 
 O'er land and sea. 
 
 That the deluded papist leaves 
 The altar of the sovereign Lord, 
 
 And making her his goddess, weaves 
 His chaplets at her shrine — adored, 
 (Oh! profanation !) 
 
 In place of Him, the eternal One, 
 
 Who claims the homage of mankind: 
 
 And heedless of the only Son — 
 To saints and Mary is confined 
 His adoration ! 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 69 
 
 This is not the most elegant poetry, my Ada, but 
 perhaps a ludicrous strophe or two will occasionally 
 tend to vary the monotony of a grave controver- 
 sial correspondence. Perhaps there is no subject 
 which presents fewer attractions to the young 
 mind than that of controversy. Even Moore's 
 work, " Travels of an Irish gentleman in search of 
 Religion," is left on the shelf untouched and un- 
 read, by thousands who devour his Llala Rookh, 
 and feast on his Melodies. The Hind and Panther 
 of Dryden, which contains as much good poetry as 
 any other of his productions, finds very few ad- 
 mirers ; and had he written nothing else, he would 
 have been, long since, buried in oblivion; or had 
 that poem been the offspring of some modern ca- 
 tholic, it would have been regarded as unworthy 
 a liberal and poetical mind. And yet it is the 
 effusion of Dryden. Farewell. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 I this day heard the doleful news of the death of 
 
 our dear and promising young friend Oscar . 
 
 The letter communicating this intelligence, my 
 Ada, now lies on my table deeply sealed with 
 black, and stained with the tears of her who wrote 
 it. It informs me that his brother is actually at — 
 
70 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 awaiting the arrival in port of the ship which 
 brings to his mother's arms the remains of her 
 darling ! oh what an amiable youth has been 
 taken from us! — what a generous, high-minded, 
 religious member of society has fallen! and how 
 sad is the reflection, that, after an absence of so 
 long a time, when on the point of finishing his 
 education in Europe, and about to return to his 
 native land, he was attacked by a mortal disease, 
 and, ere yet the shores of Europe had disap» 
 peared, he died on the sea ! 
 
 Oh never breathed upon this earth 
 
 A nobler, purer, gentler spirit: 
 I knew him, Ada, knew his worth, 
 
 His viitue, and his merit! 
 
 His features manly and refined, 
 
 His person elegant and tall, 
 His manners graceful, and his mind 
 
 Pure and ethereal — 
 
 Upon the distant shores of France 
 
 Afar from her he lov'd so dearly, 
 He sought in science to advance 
 
 And to improve in virtue yearly. 
 
 At length approached the welcome day 
 
 When all his anxious studies o'er, 
 He was again to bend his way 
 
 Back, Ada, to his native shore. 
 
 The sea was lovely, through the foam 
 The gallant ship in triumph sped : 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 71 
 
 As though exulting towards her home 
 
 To bear this boy — she bore him dead- 
 Yes, scarcely had the misty peaks 
 
 Of Europe's mountains shrunk away 
 Than death sat on his pallid cheeks 
 
 And closed his eyes for ever to the day ! 
 
 The sea breeze has sung his requiem, on the 
 trackless ocean, and the mermaids have wept for 
 the early and premature fate of poor Oscar ! While, 
 we can have no doubt, Ada, the angels have borne 
 away his immortal spirit to the regions of the good 
 and the pious. Oh ! may not he, that loving son, 
 brother, friend, in the bosom of his God, pour 
 forth his prayers for those who are left bewailing 
 behind him ! where is the feeling heart that could 
 doubt it ! where the bosom that could not throb 
 to think that that there is in heaven one spirit that 
 will ever interest itself for an exile on earth. And 
 if he can pray for me, what impropriety can 
 there be in my invoking him; will not his prayers 
 avail me? does not St. James declare that " the 
 prayers of the righteous avail much." He maRes 
 no distinction between those of a righteous jnan 
 on earth, or in heaven. The proposition is gene- 
 ral and explicit ; u the prayers of the righteous 
 avail much ." 
 
 Gentle spirit, that hast departed from that 
 cornel v frame which now lies in the stream, look 
 down from the celestial spheres to which thou hast 
 
72 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 flown, upon thy friend ! mingle thy orisons with 
 those of the myriads of spirits which surround the 
 throne of the most High, and pour forth the odours 
 of their prayers, to the Lamb who was slain for 
 us. Pray for me, that I may pass in safety 
 through the infinite perils which beset my path in 
 this valley of wo ; and forget not her, to whom I 
 address these letters, fair Ada. 
 
 Will you not join in this supplication, dear 
 lady? oh how consoling it is to the feeling heart 
 to sigh out its aspirations to those who are in 
 heaven ! Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 St. Paul, dear Ada, was in the habit of recom- 
 mending himself to the prayers of the faithful. In 
 his epistle to the Romans, fifteenth chapter and 
 thirtieth verse, he writes thus : " I beseech you, 
 therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and iy the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you 
 assist me in your prayers for me to God," &c. 
 
 Cannot 1, with the same spirit, and always re- 
 ferring the efficacy of their prayers to the merits 
 of Christ, call upon the brethren in Heaven, to as- 
 sist me ? 
 
 God himself commanded the friends of Job, to 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 73 
 
 go to that good man, and supplicate his inter- 
 cession.— You will find this fact recoided in the 
 forty -first chapter of the book of Job, verses seven 
 and eight: "And after the Lord had spoken these 
 words to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite; my 
 wrath is kindled against thee and against thy' two 
 friends ; because you have not spoken the thing 
 that is right before me, as my servant Job hath 
 take unto you therefore, seven oxen, and seven 
 rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer for 
 yourselves a holocaust : and my servant Job shall 
 pray for you ; his face I will accept, that folly 
 be not imputed to thee." 
 
 Thus does it appear manifest, that, the Lord 
 would not receive the holocausts of Eliohaz until 
 Job prayed for him. It was a condition, which 
 could not to be dispensed with : and, had not 
 that holy man interceded for him, the wrath of 
 heaven must have fallen upon his head. 
 
 Who knows but there is some Job amono- the 
 saints of heaven, whom the Almighty wills me to 
 invoke? who can tell, whether it will not depend 
 on the prayers of that righteous spirit, that the 
 indignation of God may be appeased ? My holo- 
 causts, my tears, my supplications may not be ac- 
 ceptable: those of Eliphaz were not. Is it then 
 improper for me to send up my prayers to the 
 saints, beseeching them, if / cannot find mercy 
 that they, like Job, would intercede before the throne 
 of divine justice! 
 
 G 
 
74 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 But ; it is said we worship the saints. What is 
 meant by worship, dear Ada? Do we pay to 
 them that adoration which is due to God alone, 
 and which he will not suffer to be given to ano- 
 ther. If so, we are indeed idolaters — worse than 
 the ancient Romans, more inexcusable than the 
 modern Chinese. 
 
 I need hardly answer such a question. You 
 know full well, that we merely venerate or respect 
 the saints, as the special friends of God ; we adore 
 only God. 
 
 Nor does it follow because we kneel before an 
 image, that we are guilty of idolatry. Abraham 
 bowed before the angels, as is related in the 
 nineteenth chapter and second verse of Genesis: 
 " And when he had lifted up his eyes there ap- 
 peared to him three men, standing near him; and 
 as soon as he saw them he ran to meet them 
 from the door of his tent, and adored down to 
 the ground. Think you, Ada, was it idolatry in 
 Abraham to prostrate himself thus, before the an- 
 gels ? You know that it was not, let it not then 
 be deemed idolatry, when the catholic kneels be- 
 fore a sacred image. 
 
 Joshua too, as we find recorded in his own book, 
 fifth chapter and fourteenth verse, fell on his face 
 in the presence of an angel. "Joshua fell on his 
 face to the ground, and worshipping, said : what 
 saith my Lord to his servant.'' 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 75 
 
 We worship the saints, as that great prophet 
 worshipped the angel. If it is wrong, he has 
 given the example. But who will accuse him 
 of derogating from the honour due to God : ca- 
 tholics, then, should cease to be vituperated, when 
 they have so unexceptionable a precedent to guide 
 them. 
 
 But it is objected, saint John attempted to wor- 
 ship the angel, and was reproved for so doing — 
 '* And I fell upon my face," he writes, " to adore 
 him, and he saith to me, see thou do it not ; I am 
 thy fellow servant — adore God." This text is 
 found in Revelations, chapter nineteenth, tenth 
 verse. 
 
 This proves nothing against our dogma, dear 
 Ada. In the first place, it must appear evident? 
 that one angel would not reprehend, what another 
 had approved. But, in the two former cases, the 
 angels accepted the worship of Abraham and 
 Joshua. John would not therefore have been 
 chided, for following the example of those venera- 
 ble men. 
 
 He must consequently have imagined that it 
 was the Deity himself he was conversing with 
 and, under that impression, fell upon his face in 
 order to offer him strict and religious adoration — 
 that latria, which is due to God alone. It was 
 then the angel informed him of his misapprehen- 
 sion, and assured him, that it was the vision mere- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 ly of a servant of the Almighty, not of the Al- 
 mighty himself. 
 
 "Adore God." Yes, my Ada, it is to that su- 
 preme and omnipotent being, we must pay our 
 adoration. But as he does not forbid me to respect 
 you, to feel towards you all the regard which your 
 merit and virtues deserve, neither is he unwilling 
 that I should evince some external tokens of vene- 
 ration for those who are already in possession of 
 that glory, which is prepared for you — oh may we 
 enjoy it together ! Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 In conversing, some time since, with a very de- 
 voted friend of yours, dear Ada, the subject on 
 which I wrote you in my last letter was accident- 
 ally brought up. She, at first, had strong objec- 
 tions \o praying to the saints. But, after hearing 
 several arguments in defence of the doctrine, she 
 was compelled to admit, that if they can hear us, 
 there can be no impropriety in invoking them. 
 
 Let us examine whether it be necessary for them 
 to be omnipresent, in order that our prayers may 
 reach them. I affirm that it is not, that through 
 the power of Him whose presence they are enjoy- 
 ing, and in whose majesty all things are reflected. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 77 
 
 they may know what is going on in this world, and 
 may hear the praj'ers which are sent up to them. 
 
 Eliseus was a mortal, and certainly not possess- 
 ed of any of the attributes of the Deity, still, from 
 the banks of the Jordan, he saw as far as Syria, 
 and knew what was going on in that distant re- 
 gion. The sacred writer relates that " the king 
 of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel 
 with his servants saying : in such and such a place 
 let us lay ambushes, and the man of God sent to 
 the king of Israel saying : beware that thou pass 
 not to such a place : for the Syrians are there in 
 ambush.' 2 Kings, chap. 6. v. 8 and 9. 
 
 If the prophet in Judea knew what was occur- 
 ring in Syria, why cannot the prophet in heaven be 
 aware of what is taking place on earth? 
 
 Nay, my dear Ada, our Saviour himself ex- 
 pressly assures us, that the angels not only know 
 the manifest transactions of the world, but even 
 penetrate into the deepest secrecies of the human 
 heart. 
 
 He says, in the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke, 
 tenth verse. : that " there shall be joy before the an- 
 gels of God doing penance," or, as the protestan^ 
 version has it repenting. 
 
 Now, that the angels might rejoice at the con- 
 version of a sinner, it is surely necessary for them 
 to be acquainted with that conversion. But you 
 
 G 2 
 
78 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 will admit Ada, every one will admit, that con- 
 version may take place in the silence, and pro- 
 foundest secrecy of the soul ; the last dying aspi- 
 ration may be sufficient. Consequently the an- 
 gels, who rejoice at the repentance of a sinner* 
 must see the most silent workings of the human 
 conscience Therefore it is plain, that the angels 
 know what is transpiring in this nether world. 
 But the saints are participators of the sublime pri- 
 vileges of the angels, enjoying the same heaven, 
 and possessing the same God, therefore the dif- 
 ficulty of our friend is solved, and no other objec- 
 tion remains in her mind, against the practice of 
 praying to them. 
 
 The question how they hear us, is quite irrele- 
 vant ; we may as well ask where heaven is. Cer- 
 tainly spirits disenthralled from the incumbrances 
 of the body, do not stand in need of visual rays, 
 and undulating sounds, to see and hear us. If 
 with the velocity of the lightning flash, my fancy 
 can speed away to the most remote realms of the 
 old world ; if, while I am writing in this rustic 
 abode, on this side the Atlantic, my imagination 
 instantaneously bears me to the cupola of St. Pe- 
 ter's, or upon the leaning tower of Pisa, tell me, 
 Ada, is it philosophical to ask how the spirits of 
 the just, free and glorified, can hear when I in- 
 voke them ? 
 
LETTERS TO ADA 79 
 
 Wrapt into ecstasy, 
 
 And feasting on the presence of their God, 
 From their bright thrones on high 
 
 They see the things of earth — th' abode 
 Of mortals is traced out upon 
 
 The mirror of his splendour — there they view, 
 Reflected brilliantly whate'er is done 
 
 On this dark orb — they hear each sigh 
 And count each tear — Ada, believe. 
 
 Adieu, 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 You tell me, dear Ada, that Dr. of the 
 
 episcopal church, considers the difficulty of the 
 saints hearing our prayers as insuperable. " If they 
 can be aware of the events occurring in America 
 and Europe, Asia, and Africa, at the same time, 
 they must be omnipresent" he remarked. 
 
 This objection I have, I think, already replied 
 to : but I am singularly astonished that it should 
 be urged by a gentleman, devotedly attached to 
 his religion, which believes in the existence of 
 witchcraft, sorceries, &c. That is to say, a minister 
 admitting all the doctrines of the church of En- 
 gland, is bound to believe, that the evil spirit may, 
 and sometimes does, exercise his malign influence 
 when imprecated in any part of the world. Does 
 
80 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 it follow that he is obliged to believe the devil to 
 be omnipresent ? And if that dark spirit can exert 
 his diaboiical power over the persons of individuals 
 of every clime, how is it that the bright spirits of 
 heaven cannot exercise a benevolent and holy in- 
 fluence over men, in every region. I think, there- 
 fore, that Dr has evinced and expressed much 
 
 inconsistency, in this particular. What think 
 you, Ada 1 
 
 The case of Dives and Abraham seems to de- 
 cide beyond the cavil of speculation, the question 
 under consideration. Dives, after feasting sump- 
 tuously, and disregarding the miseries of Lazarus 
 died, and, in scripture language, wiis buried in hell. 
 Finding himself in that abode of wo and repro- 
 bation, he called upon Abraham to relieve his suf- 
 ferings. There was a chaos between them ; and 
 yet Abraham could hear him. You know the 
 particulars of the narration I allude to, and I shall 
 not repeat them. 
 
 Now, Ada, if Abraham could hear the com- 
 plaints of that unfortunate rich man, why cannot 
 Abraham hear the prayers of a soul on earth. 
 Heaven, if I may be allowed to speak thus, is not 
 more distant from earth, than was the place in 
 which Abraham then was, from the realms of 
 perdition. 
 
 This objection being removed, can you refuse to 
 admit the proposition, that it is lawful and proflta- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 81 
 
 ble to pray to the saints ? that they may assist and 
 bless ns ? We read in Genesis, the twenty-second 
 chapter and twenty-sixth verse, that Jacob demand- 
 ed the blessing of the angel with whom he had 
 wrestled: " I will not let thee go," he said, "un- 
 less thou bless me." 
 
 Again, in the forty-eighth chapter and sixteenth 
 verse, he invoked the angel's blessing upon the 
 sons of Joseph, " the angel," he exclaimed, "that 
 delivereth me from all evil, bless these boys." 
 
 Certainly, if Jacob could call upon the angel, 
 and the angel could hear him, the two-fold diffi- 
 culty is resolved: namely, first^ that it is lawful to 
 invoke the heavenly spirits ; and secondly, that 
 they can hear our invocations; and this, my Ada, 
 is the whole secret and mystery of that tenet of 
 our church, which is so grossly misrepresented, 
 and so recklessly condemned. 
 
 St. John, in the book of Revelations, chapter 
 eighth, verses third and fourth, relates how he saw 
 the prayers of the saints poured out before the 
 throne of God. 
 
 " And another angel came, and stood before the 
 altar, having a golden censer: and there ws 
 given to him much incense, that he should offer of 
 the 'prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar? 
 which is before the throne of God. 
 
 " And the smoke of the incense of the prayers 
 
&Z LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 of the saints, ascended up before God, from the 
 hand of the angel." 
 
 What farther scriptural evidence do we need in 
 support of this catholic tenet? I leave you to judge, 
 my dear Ada, whether the assertions of our ad- 
 versaries on the subject are true or false. After 
 calmly reviewing the premises I have established 
 on grounds the most incontrovertible, you will 
 draw your own consequence— or rather the con- 
 sequence will flow, of itself— that it is proper and 
 useful to pray to the saints. 
 
 Oh ! as before 
 
 The golden altar, from their censers flinging 
 Their incense, angels pour 
 
 The fragrance of their prayers, 
 May they remember thee ! when singing 
 
 .Their hallelujahs through the heavenly spheres. 
 In one sweet chorus vieing, 
 
 May they implore, 
 The pity of our Maker,— wipe thy tears 
 
 Daughter of feeling — cease thy sighing — > 
 Angels will pray for Ada, and watch o ? er ! 
 
 Adieu. 
 
83 
 
 LETTER XXL 
 
 Not long since, I attended, dear Ada, the conse- 
 cration of a new Jewish Synagogue : and I must 
 confess that much interest was excited in my 
 bosom for the strange condition of the once chosen 
 people of God. I could not but indulge in the 
 most solemn reflections, when I beheld these frag- 
 ments of the remnant of Israel, without priest, or 
 sacrifice, and with an altered and meagre ceremo- 
 nial, dedicating for themselves a temple — oh ! how 
 little like that of Jerusalem ! 
 
 No rams smoked on their altars: no oxen pour- 
 ed out their blood in sacrifice : no incense, flung 
 from the golden censers of the Levites, ascended to 
 the throne of the most High. No " workmanship 
 of the ephod" appeared — the breast plate of Aaron 
 was not to be seen — the eye looked in vain for the 
 il tunics and girdles and mitres of glory and beauty." 
 The splendid, the magnificent ceremonial of the 
 ancient law, has dwindled away into a meagre 
 and almost unmeaning form. 
 
 But, while I find fault with the ceremonies of 
 the Jewish people, at the present day ; while I de- 
 plore their condition, and pity their delusion, I 
 must not forget the exclamation of a daughter of 
 
84 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 the Synagogue when witnessing the solemnities of 
 Good Friday in the catholic church : " what an 
 infatuation to be a christian'?" 
 
 You, too, Ada, have assured me, that a truly 
 amiable and elegant companion of yours, once ob- 
 served, that she deemed the Catholics as benight- 
 ed, and as much to be pitied, as the modern He- 
 brews- 
 It does not astonish me to perceive how preju- 
 diced the Jew r s generally are against us. Birt 
 if you continue to devote your attention to the 
 arguments which I adduce in favour of my reli- 
 gion, you will be able to- convince the otherwise 
 
 intelligent Miss of her mistake. 
 
 Read to her, Ada, what I have said on the sub- 
 ject of the invocation of saints : and then inform 
 her, on the authority which I am about to bring 
 before you, that this tenet was admitted and re- 
 duced to practice, hy all Christendom, before the 
 Reformation. 
 
 To ascertain the belief of the ancient christians, 
 on this topic, we must refer, dear Ada, to the 
 writings of the most distinguished men. We must 
 consult the fathers of the church whose works 
 are extant, monuments at once of their learning 
 and their faith. 
 
 St. Irenaeus, who lived but a short time after 
 the aspostolic times, in his work against heresy ? 
 book fifth, chapter nineteenth, writes thus : 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 85 
 
 11 As Eve was seduced to fly from God, so was 
 the Virgin Miry induced to obey him, that she 
 miorht become thea.Vr.9Cfl/eoflier that had fallen." 
 
 " I will fall on my knees !" exclaims Origen in 
 his Treatise on the Lamentations, " and not pre- 
 suming, on account of my crimes, to present my 
 prayer to God, 1 will invoke all the saints to my 
 assistance. O all ye saints of heaven, 1 beseech 
 you.. ..fall at the feet of the Lord of mercies for me 
 a miserable sinner." 
 
 " Hear now, O daughter of David," cries out 
 St. Athanasius, in his work on the gospel, " in- 
 cline thine ear to oar prayers ! We raise our cry 
 to thee. Remember us, O most holy Virgin ; and 
 for the feeble eulogiums we give thee, give us 
 some share in thy precious treasure of grace, thou 
 who art full of grace." 
 
 " We stand in need of many graces," said St. 
 Gregory of Nyssa to the martyr Theodosius : " in- 
 tercede for your country before our common mas- 
 ter and sovereign We are fearful of great mise- 
 ries and the utmost perils. The cruel Scythian ap- 
 proaches and threatens war. O soldier fight for 
 us. Martyr, speak boldly for us your country- 
 men 
 
 " Admonish Peter, solicit Paul, call John, the 
 beloved disciple, and let them intercede for the 
 
 churches which they themselves have founded." 
 
 H 
 
86 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 St. Ambrose, in his preparation for death, ex«* 
 
 presses himself thus : 
 
 " That my prayer may become more efficacious, I 
 invoke the suffrage of the B. Virgin Mary I im- 
 plore the intercession of the Apostles.. ..the assist- 
 ance of the martyrs.. ..the supplications of the con" 
 fessors." 
 
 St. Augustine bears testimony in his book " on 
 the City of God," that it was customary for the 
 christians to address this simple prayer to the 
 saints: " Remember me." 
 
 In his meditations, chapter fortieth, he calls up- 
 on the " holy and immaculate Virgin Mary to in- 
 tercede in his behalf — celestial choirs of angels, 
 archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evan- 
 gelists, martyrs, confessors, priests, levites, monks, 
 virgins, and all the Just, by him who has elected 
 you, and the contemplation of whom forms your 
 felicity, I entreat you to supplicate the Lord for me, 
 a miserable sinner." 
 
 These are but a few isolated and brief extracts, 
 my dear Ada, from some of the doctors of the 
 church, whose names are revered, not only by 
 catholics, but by all denominations of Christians. 
 
 An Augustin, an Ambrose, a Jerome, a Chry- 
 sostom, a Gregory Nazianzen, a Gregory of Nyssa, 
 a Basil, an Athanasius, invoked the saints, demon- 
 strated the propriety of it — and I certainly feel 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 87 
 
 more safe in imitating such illustrious personages, 
 than in condemning the venerable dogma which 
 they reduced to practice* 
 
 Tell me, Ada, would you not rather be the dis- 
 ciple of those sainted men, than of the author of 
 certain quaint and shallow " Renunciations." 
 When } T ou hear the modern teacher inveighing, 
 with dogmatic self-sufficiency, against -he invoca- 
 tion of saints, think of the testimonies 1 have cited 
 in its vindication ; and judge for yourself. — Adieu . 
 
 LETTER XXI-L ' 
 
 When on a visit to New-York, last winter, I 
 chanced to pass, in the evening, by a small church, 
 which, being well lighted up, presented an inviting 
 appearance. With the view of examining the in- 
 terior, and to hear the sermon which was then 
 going on, I entered, and seated mj'self in a remote 
 place to observe more easily and freely every thing 
 around. There were few auditors of the discourse, 
 which was delivered by a middle-aged gentleman, 
 of grave appearance, and unaffected manner. 
 
 From the text, I augured favourably of the 
 discourse: I believed, that a minister commenting 
 on the beauti^i precept of charity, could not utter 
 an expression which would not breathe sympathy 
 
88 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 and benevolence towards all mankind. But what 
 was my surprise, dear Ada, when digressing from 
 the amiable topic, he began to descant on the 
 fanaticism of the crusaders, and the terrors of the 
 Vatican, and the abominations of popery. 
 
 Oh charity, sister of faith, 
 
 And hope divine! 
 Daughter of heaven, tell me, where hath 
 
 Thy spirit fixed her shrine ? 
 Methought that in the unruffled breast 
 
 Of meek religion's humble priest, 
 That spirit should preside : 
 
 That he who peace proclaims, should be 
 The pattern of his ministry, 
 
 The foe to envy and to pride. 
 But no ; in preaching peace to earth 
 
 He grasps the thunders of his wrath 
 And hurls them at the sacred hearth. 
 
 Kindling anew the bigot's flame, 
 
 And strewing, in religion's name, 
 With discoid and dismay his neighbour's path. 
 
 Let us see, dear Ada, whether all the ministers of 
 the church to which the gentleman of the little 
 temple belongs, were as uncharitable, and illiberal. 
 Consult the works of the father of the Reforma- 
 tion, and though you will find in them incredible 
 inconsistency, still, in his more solemn moods, ho 
 does not refuse his tribute of respect for the custom 
 of praying to the saints. In his treatise "on the 
 Six Precepts," chapter fifth, he holds this lan- 
 guage: 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 89 
 
 " The saints can do all things, and through 
 them God will grant you as much as you believe 
 you will receive from them." 
 
 " I have never denied," he again writes in his 
 reply to the theologians of Louvain, " that we were 
 assisted by the merits and prayers of the saints — 
 as some miserable wretches have maliciously en- 
 deavoured to impute to me." 
 
 QEcolampadius, in his notes on the homilies of 
 St. Chrysostom. declares : 
 
 "■ That the saints pray for us. Neither would I 
 assert that it is an impiety and idolatry to implore 
 their protection. The saints are inflamed with 
 charity in heaven ; they cease not to praj> for us. 
 What hawn therefore is there in asking them to 
 do that which we believe to be agreeable to God. 
 — It is what has been done by Chrysostom and by 
 .Gregory of Nazianzum in his panegyric on St. 
 Cyprian ; and what has been practised by almost 
 all the churches in the, east and west." 
 
 Am I then to be condemned for observing a 
 practice which, according to the admission of one 
 of the founders of protestantism, was observed by 
 the greatest and most venerable personages of the 
 eastern and western churches ! 
 
 But, there are other authorities still more con- 
 vincing, my fair friend. There is the celebrated 
 Dr. Montague, bishop of Chichester and Norwich, 
 who, in his Antidote, page twenty, writes thus : 
 
 H2 
 
00 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 " I do not deny but the saints are mediators ,as 
 they are called, of prayer and intercession, but in 
 general, and for all in general. They interpose 
 with God by their supplications, and mediate by 
 their prayers." 
 
 Again, in a treatise on the Invocation of Saints, 
 page 103, he gives the reason of this belief: 
 
 "This," he says, "is the common voice with 
 general concurrence, without contradiction of 
 reverend and learned antiquity, for aught I could 
 ever read or understand : and I see no cause or 
 reason to dissent from them touching intercession 
 in this kind." 
 
 Page 118: " Indeed I grant Christ is not wrong- 
 ed in his mediation. It is no impiety to say as 
 they do : Holy Mary pray for me ; Holy Peter, 
 pray for me." 
 
 Will you not consent then, my dear Ada, to 
 join with me, after such authority, in invoking the 
 saints to think of us, poor exiles, in their prayers : 
 that we may be guided in peace to the realms of 
 bliss which are prepared for us. O Holy Virgin ! 
 obtain, by thy intercession, that Ada may be for 
 ever happy. Adieu. 
 
91 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 Who has not heard of Bishop Heber, dearest 
 Ada, and the sweet effusions which he breathed 
 from a sacred lyre, among the fragrant bowers and 
 lovely scenery of the east ? Seldom has the genius 
 of poetry inspired the heart of her bard with senti- 
 ments more pure, and language more simply 
 beautiful, than flowed from the fresh fountains of 
 his soul. Pathos, sublimity, elegance, and piety are 
 blended in one deep strain, in the warblings of his 
 lyre. 
 
 Upon the banks of Ganges' stream 
 
 The bard of Britain sir : 
 And echo, breathless, it. would seem, 
 To catch each wild note of his theme 
 
 Insacred silence hung. 
 
 Now on the weeping willow's boughs 
 
 Its strings all loose and broken, 
 His lyre is hung — the lone wind blows 
 Its wail among them — and the vows 
 
 Of boys and maids are spoken, 
 
 Beneath their cool and hallowed shade, 
 
 Where oft they loved to lie, 
 Drinking the sounds those strings once made, 
 ADd weaving wreaths, for him who played, 
 
 Of immortalitv. 
 
92 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 What, dear Ada, were the sentiments of this 
 sweet bard and most amiable prelate of the 
 episcopal church, concerning the subject which 
 we are now considering ? Did he join the hoarse 
 outcry of bigotry and prejudice? did he profane 
 his lyre with a spirit of rancour on this subject? 
 
 I refer you to his journal, as quoted in the Edin- 
 burgh Review, number ninety-six. December, 1828. 
 
 In concluding a letter to Miss How, who had 
 recently lost a dear brother, he says: "And now 
 farewell. God support, bless, and comfort you. 
 Such as my prayers are you have them fervently 
 and sincerely offered. But you have better and 
 holier prayers than mine. That the spirits in 
 paradise may pray for those whom they have left 
 behind, I cannot doubt; since I cannot suppose 
 that they cease to love us there: and your dear 
 brother is stili empkrved in your service, and still 
 recommending you to the throne of mercy." 
 
 From this passage, it is plain, that Bishop 
 Heber believed in the efficacy of the praj'ers of 
 the spirits in paradise — can you doubt it, Ada, 
 after all that I have brought forward in its vindi- 
 cation? Can any consistent protestant, who 
 venerates the opinions of his most enlightened 
 prelates and writers, who respects the testimony 
 of the fathers, and the unanimous practice of all 
 past ages, and who regards the convictions of the 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 93 
 
 majority of christians at the present day. I ask 
 you, Ada, can any candid protestant condemn 
 me, and accuse me of superstition, for praying to 
 the saints — Pensez-y-bien, my dear Ada. 
 
 Oh ! myriads of celestial beings, deeply interest- 
 ed in your welfare, and who long to have you as 
 a companion in their society for all eternity, are 
 pouring forth their prayers for you — Blend your's 
 with their's, dearest lady, and while 3 T ou breathe 
 out your fervent aspirations, pray, pray for me. 
 — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXIY. 
 
 The scenery around me is calm and beautiful, 
 Ada. 'Tis the sweet hour of twilight, when the 
 delightful interval between day and night gives 
 respite to the wearied bosom, and quiet to the 
 agitated heart. I am sitting on the portico of an 
 
 ancient mansion, on the banks of the . Tufts 
 
 of trees, half lost in dusk, lift their boughs in thick 
 confusion, through which, ever and anon, a vista 
 opens upon the clear stream, tinged with the 
 sunken rays of the gone sun. The big black 
 watch-dog is fawning at the feet of his master, 
 keeping fixed upon him his large fine eye, and al- 
 
94 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 most intelligent of what is going on. The melo- 
 dious notes of the mocking bird are swelling from 
 the strained throat of the caged warbler, and 
 mingling with the soft whisperings of the sportive 
 zephyr. 
 
 Around the white pilasters twines the wood- 
 bine, clustering with the sweet-briar and the 
 wild-rose; fragrance is sweetening the atmosphere 
 — my cousin is listening to the reading of her love- 
 ly little Maria Louisa — and Theodore is watching 
 the bounding colt. 
 
 Seated in a corner, with just light enough from 
 the reflected sun beams, to see by, Ada is not for- 
 gotten. Were she here, we could converse at leisure 
 on the subject which now occupies all my thoughts* 
 and on which I snatch the present moment to 
 write again. ) 
 
 Scarcely had I commenced, than my cousin, 
 interrupting her daughter's lesson, cried out to me, 
 as she drew an image from her work-basket : _ " I 
 forgot to show you this picture, cousin. w 
 
 " Whom does it represent V 1 I asked. 
 
 She fixed her eyes, suffused with tears, upon it 
 — " my dear mother V she faltered with a voice 
 half-stifled with sobs ; and kissed it. 
 
 I looked at it — returned it — she resumed her 
 amiable occupation, and I was left again to my 
 musings. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 95 
 
 I thought how strange it is, that veneration is 
 allowed by a natural impulse, to images and relics 
 of our friends, and yet, condemned in the catholic 
 who refers it to sacied things, as superstitious. 
 Modern polemics inveigh, with no little acrimony 
 against this tenet, and yet it is a fact not known 
 to many, that Luther did not separate from the 
 ancient church, on this adopted ground. Nor did 
 his immediate disciples, and intimate friends, object 
 to the respect which we pay to the crucifix, since 
 Melancihon, in the frontispiece of the editions of 
 the Reformer's works, represents him kneeling in 
 prayer before that instrument of redemption. 
 
 Nor did the primitive heads of the church of 
 England object to this dogma. You have read in 
 Dr. Milnor's works, dear Ada, that James the 
 first reproached the Scottish bishops with the fact, 
 that they placed in the churches the royal lions 
 and Queen Elizabeth's devils (griffins) and re- 
 fused to admit the statues of the apostles and 
 martyrs. How will the Rev. Dr. — of the little 
 church answer the king's strong argument ? Do 
 you think he will attempt to do so, Ada ? I cer- 
 tainly cannot be accused of illiberaiity when I 
 bring protestant against protestant — yoic surely will 
 acquit me of any intention of uttering a syllable 
 that might be offensive to thousands, who though 
 not within the communion of my church, are sua* 
 
96 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 cere in their convictions, and disposed to embrace 
 the truth, if they discover it, at any peril, ^ou are 
 among these, dear Ada — God bless you, and direct 
 you. — Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 'Tis said, my Ada, that before 
 
 His wooden God the papist bows : 
 
 And muttering his senseless vows 
 
 He loves some image to adore : 
 
 M Blinded idolator !" exclaims 
 
 Some voice oracular and deep ! 
 
 Old men groan forth — old women weep, — 
 We laugh at such nick names. 
 
 " Papists," "Romanists," and similar misnomers, 
 seem now, to be the titles by which the conscien- 
 tious member of the ancient church is designated. 
 Pitiful invention ! In England, in former times of 
 intolerance, this artifice might have produced its 
 effect — but in a free country, and an enlightened 
 and liberal age, it is unmeaning and contemptible. 
 
 The nature of the tenet of our church regard- 
 ing sacred images and relics has been as disinge- 
 nuously misrepresented, as the members of that 
 church are miscalled. Authors of high repute 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 97 
 
 and respectable authority on other subjects, appear 
 as ignorant on this as the most insignificant scrib- 
 bler of the nge. 
 
 It is stated, dear Ada, that we pray to images ; 
 and adore the cross — that we believe there exists 
 a divine efficacy in relics, by which, forgetting the 
 Almighty giver of every good gift, we hope to de- 
 rive from them blessings and graces. Have you not 
 frequently found this assertion made with all the 
 gravity of truth, in the course of your reading? 
 Yes, from archbishop Seeker in England down to 
 the obscure " Watchman" in the United States, 
 this silly assertion is transmitted, and continued— 
 until at length it has almost become a proverb in 
 the world. 
 
 You know how to treat such aspersions, Ada, on 
 the good sense and religious understanding of so 
 many excellent and virtuous catholics. You smile 
 with pity when you hear it said that your elegant 
 
 friends, the amiable,* the accomplished Misses 
 
 are bound to transfer, as catholics, their adoration 
 from the great Creator, to a stock, or a stone — to a 
 crucifix or a picture. 
 
 What, then, is the true doctrine of the church, 
 on this point ? We find it in the Council of Trent, 
 session the twenty -fifth — 
 
 " The images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of 
 God, and the other saints, are to be kept and le- 
 
 I 
 
98 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 tained particularly in the churches, and due ho- 
 nour and veneration to be paid them : not that we 
 believe in any divinity or power in them, for which 
 we respect them, or that any thing is to be asked of 
 them ; or that trust is to be placed in them, as the 
 heathens trusted of old in their idols." 
 
 Consult the catechism in use throughout this 
 country ; and to the question, " Are we allowed to 
 pray to crucifixes, relics, and hoK pictures? 1 ' you 
 will discover this answer : u No, by no means ; 
 for they have no life, or sense, to hear or help us." 
 
 It is false, therefore, that we adore these memo- 
 rials : it is true that we offer them a species of 
 veneration. We have to examine, what is the 
 character of the veneration which tha church ad- 
 mits, and the catholic pays to them. 
 
 After going into the investigation, I feel assured, 
 that there is one candid, sincere, and ingenuous 
 enough to condemn, with heartfelt emotion, the 
 strange, but strong exertions that are now made, 
 in the most enlightened of all countries, lo keep up 
 the wild cry of idolatry, Romanism, Popery ! 
 That one, is Ada. — 
 
 Adieu. 
 
99 
 
 LETTER XXVI 
 
 I ask then, Ada, what is the character of the 
 veneration which we pay to relics and images ? 
 
 Let the church of Smyrna, in their letter to their 
 brethren in Pontus, as recorded by Eusebius, an- 
 swer the question: 
 
 iC Our subtle enemy, the devil, did his utmost 
 that we should not take away the body (of Poly- 
 carp), as many of us anxiously wished. It was 
 suggested that we should deny our crucified Master, 
 and begin to worship Polycarp. Foolish men, 
 who knew not that we never can desert Christ, who 
 died for the salvation of all men ! nor worship 
 any other. Him we adore as the Son of God, but 
 we show deserved respect to the martyrs, and his 
 disciples and followers. The centurion therefore 
 caused the body to be burnt. We then gathered 
 his bones, more precious than pearls and more 
 tried than gold, and buried them. In this place, 
 God willing, we will meet, and celebrate with joy 
 and gladness, the birthday of this martyr, as well 
 as the memory of those who have been crowned 
 before, as by his example, to prepare and strength- 
 en others for the combat ! n This passage is taken 
 from the fourth book, fifteenth chapter, of Euse- 
 bius' Ecclesiastical History. 
 
 The faith of the present age, dear Ada, is here 
 
100 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 defined in the clearest terms, by the christians of 
 the second century. They were, at that early pe- 
 riod, accused of adoring the relics of the mar- 
 tyrs; the same accusation is laid to us; tut 
 we reply, in the triumphant language of those 
 enlightened christians : " Foolish men 1 we never 
 can desert Christ — nor worship any other." 
 
 Whatever veneration, therefore, we give to relics 
 and images, is merely relative; referred to the per- 
 son represented, or of whom any memorial re- 
 mains ; and that veneration is entirely of an infe- 
 rior character — similar to that which my amiable 
 cousin paid to the image of her departed mother. 
 
 I contend, my dear Ada, that this veneration is 
 proper ; is rational ; is founded upon scripture. 
 Turn to the thirty-seventh chapter of the book of 
 Exodus, and you will find there a description of 
 the ark, before which Joshua prostrated himself to 
 the ground. 
 
 " And Bezaleel made the ark of sittim wood; 
 
 two cubits and a half was the length of it and 
 
 he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, 
 and made a crown of gold to it round about.... 
 
 "And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out 
 of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the 
 mercy seat, one cherub on one end of the side, and 
 another cherub on the other end.".... 
 
 Now, Ada, I request you to pay peculiar attention 
 to the images of the cherubim, formed upon the 
 ark ; and then turn to the book of Joshua, seventh 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 101 
 
 chapter and sixth verse, and see how that prophet, 
 who understood the nature of idolatry better than 
 those who now object to paying respect to images 
 and relics, observe, I entreat you, how that holy 
 man bowed before the cherubim of the ark : 
 
 "And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the 
 earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord un- 
 til even tide ; he and the elders of Israel; and put 
 dust upon their heads." 
 
 I presume no one will accuse Joshua and the el- 
 ders, of having fallen into idolatry because they 
 prostrated themselves before the ark. Upon what 
 principle, then, are we condemned for bowing be- 
 fore a crucifix, or a sacred memorial, in the same 
 spirit, and with the same motives which influenced 
 that venerable man ! 
 
 How often have I not heard some of your inti- 
 mate friends regret that catholics could so far for- 
 get the adoration due to the Supreme Lord, as to 
 prostrate themselves before a crucifix, and j-et the 
 precedent which 1 have just adduced, to authorize 
 o \t practice, exists, recorded and approved, in the 
 ancient testament ! 
 
 By venerating the crucifix, which brings so vi- 
 vidly to my mind the sufferings of him who redeem- 
 ed us, I do no more than protestants themselves, 
 when they venerate the bread and wine, the sym- 
 bols of the body and blood of Christ. There is no 
 one, I believe, who approaches the communion ta- 
 
 I 2 
 
109 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 ble, but feels and evinces, a high veneration for the 
 elements containing the memorial of his passion, 
 who is represented under them. 
 
 Why then, may the catholic not exhibit a pro- 
 per and decent veneration for the crucifix, or an 
 image representing him still more perfectly? 
 
 It is prescribed that, at the pronunciation of the 
 name of Jesus, every knee shall bend ; according- 
 ly, at the sound of that venerable name, I have no- 
 ticed, with no little edification, that it is customary 
 for the more devout among our protestant brethren, 
 to bow their heads. 
 
 If it be lawful and proper to bow before the mere 
 name of the Redeemer, where can there be dis- 
 covered any derogation from the eternal majesty 
 to bow before the image of Christ. 
 
 In London, dear Ada, you yourself remember, 
 when you were introduced into the house of lords, 
 how those noble personages, as they entered, bent 
 their knees to the empty throne! It then occurred 
 to you, as you stated in a very elegantly written 
 letter, that these men at least, could with no con- 
 sistency whatever, condemn the catholic for bow- 
 ing before a picture or a relic ! 
 
 The most violent fanatic against the veneration 
 of images, does not hesitate to pay external respect, 
 to the volume of the scriptures. He will treat it 
 with religious decorum, he will kiss it with vene- 
 ration. But this same person, when he sees me 
 treating a sacred picture, or relic, or crucifix, with 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. "" 103 
 
 precisely the saxne regard, affixing to them my 
 lips, in testimony of a similar respect, this same 
 person, Ada, will exclaim " superstition !" and 
 ■will affect to pity the lamentable delusion of poor 
 u papists !" 
 
 We ask not their pity, we call upon them to 
 examine our tenets, and to act consistently, and 
 fairly. Ada, farewell. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 Whenever I entered the house of delegates in my 
 own native city, Annapolis, I felt a reverential 
 emotion at the reflection, that in that venerable 
 hall, the father of our country once appeared, and 
 that there he resigned his office of President, in 
 order to retire to the tranquil enjoyments of his 
 ancestral farm. And that sentiment was very 
 much enhanced, dear Ada, when I cast up my 
 eye to an ancient likeness of Washington, which 
 hangs in the hall. 
 
 Who could look upon the image of that immor- 
 tal patriot, and would not experience a sentiment 
 of profound respect for the original, and veneration 
 for the picture of so illustrious a man ! The con- 
 templation of such an image excites a thrilling 
 feeling in the bosom ; awakens a deep desire to 
 imitate the example of the original, and kindles a 
 
104 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 glow of admiration for his virtues. An American 
 youth, whose heart would not throb with the love 
 of country, when his father points to the likeness 
 of Washington, cannot be worthy of the liberties 
 which were won for him. 
 
 If scepticism itself, dear Ada, would shrink from 
 the condemnation of such respect towards the 
 image of a hero and a sage, may I not be allowed 
 the privilege, or rather may I not claim the right, 
 to venerate ihe image of my Saviour, or of a saint; 
 may I not hang up such a representation in the 
 churches, that the faith of the christian may be 
 excited, his gratitude roused ; his hopes invigorat- 
 ed; and his devotion increased ! 
 
 Certainly, Ada, if the likeness of a patriot urges 
 the heart of him who contemplates it, to a pure love 
 of country, and the desire to emulate the civic vir- 
 tues which distinguished the original, the contem- 
 plation of the likeness of the founder of our reli- 
 gion must excite us to the love of our heavenly 
 country, must stimulate us to the practice of su- 
 pernatural virtues. Is not this a plain and na- 
 tural deduction, Ada! Can you discover any in- 
 consistency in the argument, any flaw in the con- 
 clusion ? 
 
 But * tis objected, that the hand profane 
 
 Of mortal artist dares to represent 
 On canvass what the loftiest mind in vain 
 
 Seeks to conceive — and what was never meant 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 105 
 
 To be depicted to the human eye : 
 
 And what is this ? — that as an aged man, 
 The papist represents the eternal Deity ! 
 
 Yes, Ada, this seems, in an especial manner, to 
 scandalize the more devotional, and contemplative 
 portion of our opponents; and yet, the catholic 
 does what he is justified in doing : he describes 
 on canvass, what the inspired penman describes 
 in writing. He conveys to the eye, what the di- 
 vine author traces to the mind. 
 
 If the Eternal ever deigned to appear as an 
 aged man ; if he is described as such, by the au- 
 thor of a book which all denominations admit to 
 be canonical, I contend, that there is no possible 
 ground of complaint against the catholic for re- 
 presenting Him, in that character, on canvass. 
 
 Turn, dear Ada, to the seventh chapter of 
 Daniel, verse the ninth, and j^ou will read this 
 sentence : 
 
 " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and 
 the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was 
 white as snow, and the hair of his head Hke the 
 pure wool" 
 
 Can there be any impropriety in tracing out 
 this idea, presented by the author of the book 
 whence I quote the passage, in a painting, or in 
 sculpture. If the hair of the Ancient of days, is 
 represented to my mind's eye as " like the pure 
 wool,'' why cannot that hair be thus represented 
 to my sight, by the pencil of the artist ! 
 
1C6 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 I am at a loss to perceive the slightest reasonable 
 imparity in the case — Revolve the subject serious- 
 ly in your own mind, dear Ada, and then tell me, 
 can you see any foundation for the objection I 
 have answered. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 Would you believe, dear Ada, that so intelligent 
 
 a young lady as Laurentia would seriously 
 
 ask the question, if the catholic church does not 
 suppress the second commandment ? Has she ever 
 looked into our common catechism ? Has she 
 read our editions of the bible ! If she would take 
 the trouble to convince herself by referring to those 
 books, she would find that we inculcate, with as 
 much emphasis and zeal as she can desire, the 
 commandment: 
 
 " Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven 
 thing, or the likeness of any thing that is in 
 heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the 
 waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore 
 them, or serve them." 
 
 Is this suppressing the commandment in ques- 
 tion, Ada, or can it be urged that we violate it, by 
 having sacred pictures, statues, crucifixes, &c. ? 
 By no means ; the force of the injunction does not 
 lie in the terms : " thou shalt not make to thyself 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 107 
 
 the likeness of any thing; otherwise the painter 
 would be subjected to the continual violation of it; 
 for if we be solemnly forbidden to make the like- 
 ness of any thing, then it would be wrong to have 
 the image of a parent, friend, or relation. 
 
 The meaning then, of the first part of the com- 
 mandment, is modified and must be understood, 
 by the conclusion : a thou shait not adore them, 
 or serve them." 
 
 Now, as Laurentia does not adore or serve 
 
 the beautiful picture of her aunt which is display- 
 ed in her parlour, so I do not adore or serve the 
 image of a saint or of the Virgin Mary, which is 
 presented to my observation in the churches. 
 
 It may not be irrelevant to remark here, Ada, 
 that it is not to the crucifix, or any painting that 
 may hang over the altar, that we bend our knees on 
 entering the church ; j'ou are aware, that we 
 believe there is something in our tabernacles in- 
 finitely more deserving of our veneration. Con- 
 vinced of the real presence of Christ in the eucha- 
 rist, we adore him — and certainly he is entitled to 
 our adoration, whether he appears arrayed in the 
 majesty of Thabor, or is hidden in the obscurity of 
 the elements of the bread. 
 
 On this subject, I shall write hereafter — and in- 
 credible as the fact may seem to thousands, I am 
 much mistaken if I cannot adduce the most solid 
 arguments to support its truth. 
 
108 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 For the present, I wish to convey a clear idea of 
 the subject now under investigation. And I p~ay 
 you, Ada, when next you meet your dear Lauren- 
 tia, to assure her for me, that the second command- 
 ment remains untouched, and inviolable, in the 
 catholic community. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 " There is something exceedingly disgusting, to 
 say nothing of the absurdity of the practice, in 
 kneeling down to the bones of dead men." 
 
 This is a sentence extracted from an essay 
 written by a gentleman, whom the public esteem 
 as a liberal and honourable scholar — the writer 
 alludes, dear Ada, to a subject, concerning which 
 he manifestly entertains but a confused and incor- 
 rect idea. He means to state, in other words, that 
 the doctrine of the catholic church concerning the 
 veneration of relics, is disgusting and absurd. 
 
 What is a relic ? < 
 
 Thou knowest, Ada — for thy mind 
 
 With graceful learning is refined : 
 It means a token left 
 
 By some dear friend, or saint, or sage, 
 Some patriot, hero, of his age, 
 
 Of whom the world is reft* 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 109 
 
 A lock of thy dark flowing hair 
 When thou art mingling with the blest, 
 
 Bequeathed to him thou lovest here, 
 Will be a relic, sacred to his breast. 
 
 The sword, which in the battle-hour 
 
 The father of his country wore, 
 Fighting for liberty, 
 
 Is now — when he is laid in dust, 
 Beheld with veneration just 
 
 By all the good and free. 
 It is a relic, on the shrine 
 
 Of patriotism, with sacred car: 
 Pieserved — and Freedom's flame divine 
 
 Burns in their breasts who to that shrine repair, 
 
 Then, when before the martyr's tomb 
 
 Within the ancient walls of Rome, 
 With reverence a kneel ; 
 
 Say, who can blame, my Ada fair, 
 Knowing whose bones are resting there, 
 
 The sentiments I feel ! 
 For there the hallowed relics lie 
 
 Of the brave champions of our cause i 
 Heroes of Christianity — * 
 
 Defenders of religion, and her laws ! 
 
 Perhaps there are many, in this wise age, who 
 would smile, were they to be told, that I would 
 venerate the handkerchief of St. Paul, were it 
 possible to procure it. — But they should suspend 
 their mirth, dear Ada, until they turn to the nine- 
 teenth chapter and twelfth verse of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. What will they find there recorded 1 
 
 K 
 
110 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Why, strange it is, they will find that the hand- 
 kerchief of Paul, seemed to possess a miraculous 
 virtue — certainly wonders were wrought by it — 
 " And God wrought special miracles by the hands 
 of Paul/' writes the author of the Acts. 
 
 "So that (I quote the protestant translation) 
 from his body were brought, unto the sick hand- 
 kerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed 
 from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." 
 
 Now, if these identic handkerchiefs and aprons 
 could be exposed to public view in our churches, 
 would they not claim a certain species of venera- 
 tion from every christian ? would not every believer 
 feel it a pleasure and honour, to be allowed to 
 touch them? and if he could obtain a particle of 
 them, would he not delight in preserving tfce 
 relic, of which such extraordinary powers are 
 recorded in the scripture ? 
 
 But as the essayist whom J quoted in the be- 
 ginning of this letter, lays peculiar stress upon 
 venerating the bones of the dead, I would advise 
 him to peruse with, attention, the thirteenth chap- 
 ter, and twenty-fi/st verse of the fourth book of 
 Kings. He will read there of the prodigious effiacy 
 attached to the relics — the bones- — of the prophet 
 Eliseus ; that they, by their merely coming in con- 
 tact with a dead body, effected the resuscitation to 
 life of the deceased person thrown upon them. 
 
 " And it came to pass" (again I cite the pro- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. Ill 
 
 testant version second Kings, chap. 13. v. 21) " as 
 they were burying a man, that behold, they spied 
 a band of men : and they cast the man into the 
 sepulchre of Elisha : and when the man was let 
 down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, 
 and stood upon his feet." 
 
 I do not think there would have been any thing 
 very disgusting or absurd, if the man, restored to 
 life so miraculously by the relics of Elisha, had, in 
 the fervour of his gratitude, knelt down to thank 
 his God, for having conferred upon htm so signal a 
 favour, through the instrumentality of the bones of 
 the deceased prophet — and oh ! could he be deem- 
 ed superstitious, had he procured a fragment of 
 those relics, enshrined it in gold or silver, kept it by 
 him, with due veneration, and exhibited to his 
 friends, as the instrument under providence, of his 
 restoration to life? How would you have acted in 
 such a case, dear Ada ? Reflect upon this, and. 
 
 Adieu, 
 
113 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 I love to go back, dear Ada, to long-past ages, to 
 consult the wisdom of antiquity, on the subjects 
 which we are discussing. There is a voice speak- 
 ing from the tombs — there is an echo sounding 
 from the vaults of the dead. When I question 
 that voice, when I ask, was it customary in times 
 that have gone, to venerate relics, I am answered 
 by a deep burst of testimony ; it was ! — and echo 
 says — u was." 
 
 As I sit on the willow-shaded banks of a broad 
 stream, over which the matin-zephyr is sporting, as 
 he dips his aerial wings in the gently rippling 
 waves — I love to consult the venerable and wise, 
 who no longer exist save in their immortal works. 
 
 I turn over the far-famed pages of EusebiuSj 
 who is styled the father of ecclesiastical historj', 
 and I discover among his writings the following 
 testimony : 
 
 "It is our practice to honour their (the martyrs) 
 sepulchres, there to utter our prayers and our 
 vows, and to venerate their blessed souls: and 
 this we say is justly done." 
 
 Next I consult Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, and, 
 in his eighteenth Catechesis on the Resurrection, 
 he addresses me thus: 
 
 " From the fact of a dead man being raised to 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 113 
 
 life by touching the body of Eliseus, we learn, that 
 when the soul is departed, a certain virtue remains 
 in the bodies of saints, and thar, on account of the 
 merit of the souls that resided in them. Of this we 
 cannot doubt, for if the handkerchiefs and aprons, 
 mere external appendages, cured the sick that 
 touched them ; more efficacious, we conclude, 
 would be the body of a prophet." 
 
 Saint Cyril, in his first discourse against Julian 
 the apostate, condemns him for not respecting the 
 relics of the saints : 
 
 " How is it," he says, "that thou payest no re- 
 spect to those, who are honoured with festivals, 
 and by whom devils have been expelled, and 
 infirmities cured." 
 
 Saint Ambrose, in his eighty-fifth epistle on 
 St. Gervase and Protase, expresses himself thus: 
 
 " Let these triumphant victims be lodged in the 
 place, where Jesus Christ is our host: upon the 
 altar, Him who has suffered for all: under the 
 altar, them who have been redeemed by his death. 
 I had intended this place for myself: for it is just 
 that the priest should repose where the priest has 
 so often offered sacrifice. But I yield my right to 
 these sacred victims; it is due to martyrs." 
 
 Hear the eloquent saint Augustin, Ada, in his 
 forty-second epistle: 
 
 11 You see the illustrious chief of the greatest 
 K2 
 
114 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 of empires, appear as a suppliant at the tomb of 
 the fisherman, and the head that bears the diadem 
 humbly bowing before the remains of Peter." 
 
 And the sublime appeal of Saint Chrysostom in 
 his thirty-second Homily on the Epistle to the 
 Romans. 
 
 "For myself, I admire Rome and celebrate it, 
 not for the splendour and abundance of its wealth, 
 not for its magnificent edifices, but for those two 
 columns of the church which it possesses. Oh ! 
 who will give me to embrace the body of Paul.... 
 to cling to his sepulchre, to contemplate even 
 the dust of his body.. ..the dust, I saj T , of that 
 mouth, by which Jesus Christ has spoken to us, 
 and from which came forth a light more resplen- 
 dent than the sun — yes I could wish to see the 
 tomb which encloses those weapons of justice, 
 and truth... This body with that of Peter, shall 
 alwaj's be for Rome, a more secure defence than 
 walls or towers." 
 
 " I honour, in the body of a martyr," exclaims 
 St. Ambrose, " the scars received for the name of 
 Christ. 1 honour the memory of him, who lives 
 eternally by his virtue. I honour the ashes be- 
 come sacred by confessing the Lord. I honour 
 in these ashes the seeds of immortality." 
 
 Can you then refuse, dear Ada, to join with so 
 illustrious a man, in honouring the remains of the 
 
LETTERS TO ADA, 115 
 
 martyrs, the relics of the saints? I do not ask 
 you to pay blind veneration to every thing offered 
 you as a relic; the object must be authenticated, 
 proved,— and such an object, such a relic, you 
 would not refuse, with St. Ambrose, to honour in 
 the proper acceptation of the term — Would you, 
 Ada? Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 I have often been asked, what is the meaning of 
 having* so manj 7 lighted candles upon our altars! 
 One of your most lovely friends, Ada, once remark- 
 ed, that our altar reminded her of a baby-house. I 
 am far from willing to defend the manner in which 
 every catholic altar is adorned — but I can learn 
 from the most authentic authority, that our chris- 
 tian forefathers were accustomed to burn a num- 
 ber of candles, and place very gorgeous ornaments 
 upon the altars, near which were deposited the 
 remains of the martyrs — I will cite a few lines of 
 tolerably good latin poetry, by Saint Paulinus, 
 descriptive of the shrine in which were laid the 
 bones of Saint Felix. 
 
 " Aurea nunc niveis orbantur limina velis : 
 Clara coronantur densis altaria lychris, 
 Limina ceratis adolentur odora papyris. 
 
J 16 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Nocte dieque micant: sic nox splendorque diei 
 
 Fulget, et ipsa dies coeleste illustiis honre 
 
 Plus micat, innumeiis lucem geminata lucernis." 
 
 You have studied some Latin, dear Ada, and 
 with the aid of jour dictionary, I have no doubt 
 but j^ou can make out the meaning. I will, how* 
 ever, attempt to translate them : 
 
 The snow-white curtain, from the golden shrine 
 
 Is now removed ; upon the altar shine 
 
 Lamps thickly placed — and waxen tapers throw 
 
 Their mingled lights upon the shrine below, 
 
 There day and night they shed their glimmering ray, 
 
 Chasing the gloomy shades of night away, 
 
 And rendering still more bright the light of day. 
 
 Among the presents which the emperor Constan- 
 tine made to the- shrines of Saint Peter and Saint 
 Paul, were gorgeous candlesticks, splendid lamps, 
 and perpetual lights to burn before the relics. 
 
 When the remains of Saint Chrysostom were 
 translated, they were carried in great pomp, pre- 
 ceded by innumerable lights. This fact is re- 
 corded by Theocloret. 
 
 It is extraordinary to hear objections raised 
 against the propriety of venerating sacred relics, 
 dear Ada, by those very persons whose classic 
 enthusiasm glows before a fragment of Roman 
 or Grecian antiquity. I have seen the sternest 
 sceptics weep before the statue of a pagan lady, 
 holding in her hands the urn containing the ashes 
 
LETTERS TO ADA, 
 
 117 
 
 of him she loved. I have seen the most unbend- 
 ing enemies of our creed, musing, in deep venera- 
 tion, among the tcmbs of Pompeii; touching with 
 profound respect, the very marble, and entering 
 with a hallowed sentiment, the ruinous temples of 
 the gods. 
 
 May I not then be allowed, dear Ada, to kneel with 
 religions respect before the tombs of the martyrs — 
 to enter with sacred awe the dark chambers-of the 
 catecombs — to venerate the relics of the champions 
 — the heroes — the sages, of Christianity ! I leave it 
 to your candour to answer the question — I know 
 what will be your reply. It is not only allowablej 
 it is meet. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 You ask, dear Ada, whether any protestant 
 authority can be cited, in support of the veneration 
 of sacred images ? Yes, my fair friend, and 
 authority too of the most respectable character. 
 Take for instance Molanus, the oracle of Luther- 
 anism, in the last century, he writes thus: 
 
 "It is very certain that there is no virtue in 
 images, and therefore that we cannot adore them 
 nor pray before them, but in as much as they are 
 
118 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 a visible means of exciting in us the remembrance 
 of Christ and heavenly things. And if we would 
 adore or invoke God before an image, we must 
 put ourselves in the same disposition in which 
 the Israelites were before the brazen serpent, be- 
 holding it with respect, but placing their faith not 
 in the serpent but in God." 
 
 I agree, in every word, with the learned and 
 candid writer. His sentiments, on this subject, 
 are precisely mine ; and those of every catholic. 
 Are they not yours, dear Ada ? 
 
 Among the ornaments of the episcopal church, 
 no one will deny an exalied place to the illustrious 
 Dr. Montague. And that immortal prelate de- 
 clares in his " Appeal," chapter the twenty-first 
 that sacred images have the virtue of producing 
 emotions of piety, and awakening feelings of re- 
 ligion and devotion. 
 
 " The pictures of Christ," that I may cite his 
 own words, " the blessed Virgin, and saints, may 
 be made, had in houses, set up in churches. The 
 protestants use them : they despise them not. 
 Respect and honour may be given to them: the 
 protestants do it, and use them for helps of piety, 
 in rememoration, and more effectual representation, 
 of the Prototype." 
 
 What, after this explicit acknowledgement, are 
 we to think of those ungenerous writers of the 
 present day, who represent it as idolatrous to have 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 119 
 
 and pay honour to religious memorials ? Whose 
 authority would have more weight with a think- 
 ing mind, no matter how prejudiced — that of a 
 modern opponent to our creed, or that of the ve- 
 nerable Bishop of Chester. 
 
 Again, in the contents, he lays down this propo- 
 sition : 
 
 " That images may affect the minds of religious 
 men, by representing unto them the actions of 
 Christ and his saints : in which regard, all 
 reverence simply cannot be abstracted from them." 
 
 Is not this quite plain, quite satisfactory ! 
 
 But there is still higher authority, dear Ada; 
 higher, not on account of greater learning, but of 
 a more elevated rank, in the church of England 
 — the authority of archbishop Laud. In a speech, 
 delivered in the star-chamber, on the fourteenth of 
 June, 1637, he thus addresses the Lords of the 
 Garter : 
 
 " I hope a poor priest may worship God with 
 as lowly reverence, as you do, since you are bound 
 by your oath and your order, according to a cons- 
 titution of Henry V., to give due honour to the 
 Lord your God, and to his altar] (for there is 
 reverence due to that, too, though such as comes 
 far short of divine worship) and this in the manner 
 as ecclesiastical persons both worship and do him 
 reverence." 
 
120 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 According to this arch-prelate 5 then, my dear 
 Ada, there is respect due to the very altar: if the 
 altar deserves respect, certainly the image of 
 Christ demands the same ; a relic is entitled to as 
 much, and consequently the controversy regarding 
 this tenet which has grown so noisy, and so 
 clamorous, as almost to drown the voice of vindi- 
 cation and truth, should, in the estimation of every 
 unprejudiced understanding, be brought to a con- 
 clusion ; all should agree, since I have quoted ihe 
 authority of scripture, of the fathers, of the custom 
 of antiquity, of the very protectants themselves^ 
 that to venerate images and relics, in a proper 
 manner, is not only an excusable, but a praise- 
 worthy and religious custom. 
 
 As for yourself, & ear Ada, I am certain you will 
 acquiesce in this conclusion. Truth has no ob- 
 stacle to encounter in you : its rays, like those of 
 an unclouded sun, will shine upon your con- 
 victions and irradiate your heart. Adieu* 
 
121 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 At the foot of Mount Cenis, dear Ada, there 
 stands a small rustic shrine, in honour of the 
 Virgin Mary; a rude statue of the mother of the 
 Redeemer, bearing her Son in her arms, salutes 
 the stranger's eye, as he turns an abrupt ascent to 
 the snowy mount. It seems to admonish the 
 traveller, that the way is perilous and dreary; 
 that there are snows everlasting piled upon the 
 summits of Cenis, and the avalanches may fall ! 
 
 As we turned the circuitous route, immediately 
 as the shrine came in view, I observed the VeturinOj 
 rough and half ferocious though he seemed, mak- 
 ing upon his forehead the sign of the cross. 
 
 " Did you observe the superstition of that 
 Italian?" said an English traveller to me, "he 
 crosses himself, to arm him, I suppose, against 
 the dangers that await us : poor creature !" 
 
 " Perhaps," I replied, " the honest, though un- 
 couth driver, acts from a much more laudable 
 principle, than you are aware of." 
 
 " Principle!" exclaimed he, "the fool is blinded 
 with the darkest, deepest shades of ignorance and 
 stupid superstition." 
 
 Perceiving, from the tenor of his language, that 
 it would be useless to reason with him, I said no 
 more: but I thought, much. I looked upon the 
 
 L 
 
122 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 simple act of the Veturino, as sublime, and emi- 
 nently religious: and I will give you, dear Ada, 
 my reasons for entertaining this conviction. 
 
 In recurring to the works of the most ancient 
 fathers, I find that it was a custom universal 
 among the early christians, to sign themselves 
 with the cross. And, I conclude therefore, that 
 it is a religious, not a superstitious practice, ob- 
 served at this day, by the catholic church. 
 
 " If a catechumen is asked," writes Si. Angus- 
 tin, in his Second Treatise on St. John — "do you 
 believe in Christ? He replies yes; and instantly 
 makes the sign of the cross. He describes it, and 
 carries it on his forehead, and is not ashamed." 
 
 u Keep the door of your heart shut," thus ad- 
 vises St. Jerome, in his epistle to Demetrius — - 
 "frequently make on your forehead the sign of 
 the cross, that the exterminator of Egypt may 
 have no hold upon you." 
 
 " The sign of the cross," says St. Ambrose, "is 
 on our foreheads, and in our hearts, on the fore- 
 heads to confess him always, in our hearts to love 
 him — we ought, on waking, to give thanks to 
 Christ, and to begin the labours of the day with 
 the sign of our Saviour." 
 
 " Whenever we move," Tertullian observes in his 
 Treatise on the Soldier's Crown, chapters third 
 and fourth, " when we enter and go out : in 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 123 
 
 dressing : in washing : at table : when we retire 
 to rest : during" conversation — we impress on our 
 foreheads the sign of the cross !" 
 
 Was not the Veturino authorised then, dear Ada, 
 to make the sign of the cross, as he commenced 
 his arduous journey up the fearful steep ! 
 
 " Every where/ 7 exclaims the eloquent Chry- 
 sostom, u the cross is displayed ; every where is 
 it honoured. In the houses, in the public places, 
 in the deserts, on the ways, on the mountains and 
 hills, in the valleys, on the seas and vessels, on 
 our habits, arms, vessels of gold and silver, on the 
 paintings of our walls. We are far from being- 
 ashamed of the cross." 
 
 " Protect yourself," saj's saint Ephrem in his 
 Treatise on the Spiritual Armour, w with the sign 
 of the cross, as with a shield ; and this not only 
 with your hand, but with your mind. Employ 
 it in your studies, in going out, in returning home, 
 when retiring to rest, and on rising in the morn- 
 ing ; bless the places where you walk by this sign, 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son. and of 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 " Be not ashamed of the cross," Saint Cyril 
 thus addresses his catechumens, "if any one 
 conceal it, do you make it openly on your fore- 
 head—eating, drinking, entering or leaving j^our 
 houses, or retiring to rest, when rising up, make 
 with confidence the sign of the cross upon your 
 forehead." 
 
124 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 "At the hour of prayer," says Saint Justin, 
 (Question 118,) " we turn towards the east, and 
 immediately with our right hand, we sign ourselves 
 in the name of Christ, with the sign which is so 
 necessary for us." 
 
 Judge now, dear Ada, whether the Italian was 
 as superstitious as the Englishman deemed him 
 to he. Read over and over the passages I have 
 cited from the primitive writers, and then see 
 which of all the now existing churches has pre- 
 served the venerable custom of making the sign 
 of the cross. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 From the journals of the day, I learn that the 
 funeral ceremonies which engrossed the interest 
 and attention of your capital, were grand and 
 solemn. The tolling of bells, and beating of 
 drums, and firing of cannons, were the awful he- 
 ralds to the public of the departure from this scene 
 of agitation, of the lamented Lafayette. 
 
 The pageant's o'er, my Ada — still 
 The deep tones of the solemn bell : 
 
 The dirge is sung — the exciting thrill 
 Of martial music hushed — the knell 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 125 
 
 Hath passed away upon the breeze ; 
 
 The death-flag streaming on the seas 
 Is furled — thus every light shall set — 
 And sage and hero, follow Lafayette. — 
 
 A great writer has remarked, dear Ada, that at 
 the hour of death, he would rather be an obscure 
 and pious peasant, than a distinguished and impi- 
 ous philosopher. There is a fund of wisdom in 
 the observation. The hero, whose death has just 
 filled our whole continent with mourning, is less 
 enviable in the last hour, than the unknown saint, 
 who has lived in silence, and died in the arms of 
 peace and religion. 
 
 I am lead by this train of meditation, to the 
 consideration of purgatory. I may be pitied for 
 associating this unpopular topic, with the idea of 
 the obsequies of a philosopher; but Ada, perhaps 
 after we shall have examined the grounds on 
 which this tenet is situated, you, at least, will ac- 
 knowledge, that even purgatory is not without 
 its philosophy. 
 
 I am aware, that very popular wricers have re- 
 presented this doctrine, as the inveniion of the 
 priesthood, for mercenary ends : as a perpetual 
 source of wealth, extorted from the superstitions 
 and fears of the credulous ; and the most baseless 
 and corrupt of all the errors of popery. — Suspend 
 your judgment until you read my letters on the 
 subject, Ada : meanwhile*— Adieu. 
 
126 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 Is it then true, as oft we hear, 
 That there is nought, my Ada fair, 
 More groundless, more unscriptural 
 Than purgatory ; are we all 
 Who candidly believe we find 
 Authority of every kind 
 Supporting — proving it, still lost 
 In ignorance, from error tost 
 To error, from one foaming surge 
 Upon another 1 has the scourge 
 Of angry heaven deprived our reason 
 Of all its light — or is it treason 
 To adhere to past and saintly ages — 
 Or for ourselves to explain the pages 
 Of holy writ ; (a right which they 
 Who blame us most, will hardly say 
 We are not like the rest of men 
 Entitled to.) Why hear we then 
 Such uproar, angry opposition 
 When We defend this proposition : 
 " There is a middle place" — we'll see 
 If solid argument there be 
 This tenet to substantiate 
 Which has been so much scorned of late. 
 
 Yes, we will enter upon this investigation, Ada, 
 with the pure desire of ascertaining the character 
 of the grounds on which it is based. We will 
 convince ourselves of the truth or falsehood of the 
 proposition, not by vituperating it, but by discuss, 
 ing the topic. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 127 
 
 Is there, then, any scriptural authority for the 
 doctrine of purgatory, and praying for the dead : 
 I assert that there is : — Turn to the second Book 
 of Macchabees, chapter the twelfth, verses 43, 44, 
 and 46, and you will read the following texts : 
 
 11 And making a gathering he sent twelve thou- 
 sand drachms of silver to Jerusalem, for sacrifice 
 to be offered for the sins of the dead — for if he had 
 not hoped that they that were slain should rise 
 again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain 
 to pray for the dead. It is therefore a holy and 
 a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that 
 they may be loosed from sins." 
 
 If these books form an integral part of the in- 
 spired scriptures, then the controversy is for ever 
 settled. For the language is as plain as it can 
 possibly be : it is beyond the possibility of mis- 
 construction or distortion. 
 
 The question, therefore, is resolved, dear Ada, 
 to this point: are the books of Macchabees a por- 
 tion of the divine scriptures — or are they apochry- 
 phal? 
 
 I contend, that they are as divinely inspired, as 
 any other portion of the ancient Testament ; or 
 the Book of Genesis, or the Canticle of Canticles. 
 
 Protestants reject them as uncanonical : how, 
 then, are we to decide whether or not they be the 
 word of God ? whether or not they be entitled to 
 our veneration, as any other part of the scrip- 
 
128 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 tures 1 Certainly not by appealing to modern 
 criticism : for there are as many- — to say the least 
 — as learned, and grave, and religious, who claim 
 these books as divine, as there are who reject 
 them. We must recur, dear Ada, to the authority 
 of the ancients; and if we find that the primi- 
 tive fathers of the church admitted them, we cer- 
 tainly must not rashly assen that they are not 
 authentic, that they are apochryphal. 
 
 The third council of Carthage says : 
 
 " These are the truths which our fathers taught 
 us to read in the church, under the title of divine 
 and canonical scriptures." 
 
 St. Augustin, in his treatise on the doctrine of 
 Christ, chapter the eighth, places these books in 
 the canon of the scriptures, and quotes them in 
 writing against the heretics of his times. 
 
 They are ranked among the holy scriptures by 
 Innocent I. in his reply to Exuperius, in 405 : and 
 by Gelasius, book first, On the Care of the Dead, 
 in 494. 
 
 Of course I have sufficient authority on which 
 to rest the authenticity of these books, and conse- 
 quently no man has the least right to condemn 
 me for believing the doctrine which they inculcate 
 of praying for the dead. 
 
 At any rate, the authority of the books of Mac* 
 chabeesmust be great, even with those who bind 
 them up in the same volume with the Holy Scrip- 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 129 
 
 tures. In alP'the ancient editions of the Bible 
 these books are'to be found contained — merely en- 
 tiled ajpochryphal : — that is to say not of divine 
 authority. 
 
 But, as a history, who will question their re- 
 spectability, and veracity? Now, they testify, 
 that it was customary for the Jews, at that time 
 the people of God, to pray for the dead. That 
 Judas Macchabeus, a most valiant man, an en- 
 lightened follower of the customs of his religion 
 and nation, was accustomed to pray for the dead ; 
 that he sent money to the temple for the purpose 
 of having sacrifices offered for the dead : That it 
 is a good and wholesome thought to pray for 
 the dead, and consequently, that it was a tenet 
 inspired by the Almighty himself — and there* 
 fore true ; for what was once true, must conti- 
 nue true for ever ; truth is unchangeable, and, 
 therefore, if in the days of Judas it was a whole- 
 some practice to pray for the dead, it must be 
 so now— and, it follows, that the church which 
 teaches this truth is the true one. The catholic 
 church alone teaches it : Ada, draw your conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 Josephus, in his " Wars of the Jews,' 1 chapter 
 ninety-one, clearly indicates the ancient custom 
 of his nation, when he states, that the Jews did not 
 pray for those who had committed suicide. From 
 
130 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 which we manifestly gather, that they prayed for 
 those who did not. Let those who ridicule pur- 
 gatory reflect on this, and, I am much mistaken, 
 if they will not cease their pleasantry. — Adieu, 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, dear Ada, that while our 
 Saviour was in the habit of condemning the su- 
 perstitions into which some of the Jews had fallen? 
 we do notfind the most distant allusion to their cus- 
 tom of praying for the dead. But if it was a cus* 
 torn not authorised by the scriptures, he undoubt- 
 edly would have expressed his disapprobation of 
 it. And if the old adage " Silence gives consent" 
 be true; it is certain that he consented to, and 
 consequently approved of, the system which I am 
 now defending. 
 
 Nay, there can be alleged texts, from which 
 this doctrine naturally flows: for instance, the 
 thirty-second verse of the the twelfth chapter of 
 Saint Matthew, our Saviour expressly says: 
 
 u And whosoever speaketh against the Son 
 of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever 
 speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
 forgiven him neither in this world, nor in the 
 world to come." 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 131 
 
 It follows, that, if that particular sin cannot be 
 forgiven in this world or the world to come, other 
 sins may be forgiven in the world to come. But 
 there is no sin in heaven — and in hell there can 
 be no forgiveness — consequently there must exist 
 a middle place — a purgatory — I care not by what 
 name it is designated — where sins may be for- 
 given . 
 
 Again, Saint Paul, who was divinely inspired, 
 has left a text, in which this doctrine seems to be 
 implied. Writing to the Corinthians, in his first 
 epistle, chapter xv. verse 29, (I quote the protes- 
 tant bible, ) he expresses himself thus : 
 
 "Else what shall they do which are baptized 
 for the dead, if the dead rise not at all !■ why are 
 they then baptized for the dead ?" 
 
 Although this text be very obscure in its general 
 import, still it elucidates the fact, that some 
 ceremonies were performed for the dead, in refer- 
 ence to their happy resurrection : and, grounding 
 my interpretation on the conjoint authority of the 
 earliest fathers of the church, I have a right to 
 deduce from it the doctrine of praying for the 
 dead — of the existence of purgatory. 
 
 That I may not make an assertion without 
 substantiating it, I will bring forward some pas- 
 sages from the primitive writers, in vindication 
 of this point. 
 
 Saint Cyprian, in his ninth epistle, writes thus: 
 
132 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 "Our predecessors prudently advised that no 
 brother, departing this life, should nominate any 
 churchman his executor, and should he do it, that 
 no oblation should be made for him: no sacrifice 
 offered for his repose." 
 
 Here is a specified case in which no sacrifice is 
 to be offered : consequently in other cases, sacrifices 
 might be offered for the repose of the departed. 
 
 Saint Chrysostom assures us, that this tenet 
 was ordained by the apostles themselves. To 
 quote his own words: 
 
 " It was ordained by the Apostles, that in cele- 
 brating the Sacred Mysteries, the dead should be 
 remembered ; for they well knew what advantage 
 would be thence derived to them." This passage 
 is taken from his sixty-ninth Homily to the people 
 of Antioch, 
 
 Saint Augustin, in his 172d Sermon, has left 
 the following eloquent passage : 
 
 " Funeral pomp, the crowds that follow, sump- 
 tuous expenditure in the structure of mausoleums, 
 without being of the smallest service to the dead, 
 may afford some consolation to the living. But 
 it cannot be doubted, that, by the prayers of the 
 Holy Church, and by the salutary sacrifice, and 
 by alms w T hich are given for the repose of their 
 souls, the dead are helped, so that God may treat 
 them more mercifully than their sins deserved. — 
 This the whole Church observes, which it received 
 
LETTERS TO ADA, 133 
 
 from the tradition of the fathers, to pray for those 
 who died in the communion of the body and blood 
 of Christ, when, in their turn, they are comme- 
 morated at the sacrifice, and it is announced that 
 the sacrifice is offered for them." 
 
 Saint Isidore, in his book on divine offices, 
 chapter fifteenth, writes thus : 
 
 " Since the oblation of sacrifice and prayer for 
 the repose of the departed are made in the church 
 throughout the world, we believe that the apostles 
 left us this custom. For the church every where 
 observes it ; and it is certain, that if she did not 
 believe that the faithful could obtain pardon for 
 their sins, she would not give alms for the relief 
 of their souls, and would not offer sacrifice to God 
 for them." 
 
 Thus does it appear incontrovertible, dear Ada, 
 that this custom was universal throughout the 
 church in the primitive ages, at a time when 
 according to the admission of our very opponents, 
 religion was incorrupt and pare. 
 
 Am I, then, blinded by superstition, when I 
 believe with the first christians ! when I offer 
 sacrifices and oblations, as they did, for the repose 
 of the departed 1 You will decide, my fair friend, 
 and your own wisdom and candour will direct you 
 in the result. Adieu. 
 
 M 
 
134 
 LETTER XXXVIL 
 
 As I entered the cemetery near Bologna, dear 
 Ada, called La Ctrtosa, which, for the beauty of 
 its situation, and splendour of its monuments, 
 hardly yields to the famous Pere la Chaise, I per- 
 ceived kneeling at the side of a superb mausoleum, 
 a pious monk, who had come down from the 
 monastery perched upon the top of the mountain, 
 to offer his prayers for the repose of the deceased, 
 whose remains lay there interred. 
 
 A stranger suddenly passed me, and taking me, 
 from the language which he heard me speaking, 
 to be an English protestant : "you perceive 
 there," he said, pointing to the discalceate friar, 
 "a specimen of the Romish church. That igno- 
 rant being thinks that his prayers will avail the 
 departed." With this, he was called away by 
 his companion, who seemed in a hurry to enter a 
 subterraneous cha'pel, which was opened by a lay- 
 brother of the order of St. Bruno — and left me to 
 my own reflections, as I fixed my eye attentively 
 on the humble suppliant. 
 
 Since I have commenced with you the calm 
 investigation of these matters, I have often thought 
 of the monk of the Certosa, and the remark of 
 the stranger. I know not of what denomination 
 the latter was, but certain I am, that the custom 
 
LETTERS TO ADA, 135 
 
 which he identified with superstition, was con- 
 sidered as religious, by the father of the reforma- 
 tion, and some of the most learned writers of the 
 protestant church. It is curious to mid Luther 
 expressing- himself in the following terms : 
 
 " As for me, who believe strongly, I might even 
 venture to say more, who know that purgatory 
 exists, I can readily be persuaded that it is men- 
 tioned in the scriptures. All that I know of 
 purgatory is, that souls are there in a state of 
 suffering, and may be relieved by our works and 
 prayers." 
 
 Calvin himself, while he opposes the catholic 
 church with unsparing satire, acknowledges that 
 it was "more than thirteen hundred years since it 
 became the custom to pray for the dead." (Institute 
 book, 2. chap. 5.) 
 
 Molanus affirmed, as Bossuet testifies, that one 
 portion of the Lutherans not only approves, but 
 practises this kind of prayer. This we find in 
 the posthumous works of the Bishop of Meaux, 
 vol. first, page 90, "and this is a remnant," ob- 
 serves that immortal writer, "of those ancient 
 sentiments which we honour in Lutheranism." 
 
 From the testimony of the Lutherans, I pass, 
 dear Ada, to that of some of the lights of the 
 Church of England. " What !" perhaps you may 
 exclaim r " is it possible that any one belonging to 
 the protestant church, can have written in favour 
 
136 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 of a dogma, which all modern protestants seem 
 determined to reject T 
 
 Yes Ada, it is a fact, which deserves to be for 
 ever remembered. Bishop Forbes was a strong 
 advocate of this doctrine. He has composed a dis- 
 course on Purgatory, in which he has left the 
 following passage : 
 
 "Let not the ancient practice of praying and 
 making oblations for the dead, received through- 
 out the universal church of Christ, almost from 
 the very time of the Apostles, be any more re- 
 jected by protestants as unlawful or vain. Let 
 them reverence the judgment of the primitive 
 church, and admit a practice strengthened by the 
 uninterrupted profession of so many ages: and let 
 them, as well in public as in private, observe this 
 
 rite, as lawful and likewise profitable, and 
 
 as always approved by the universal church ; that, 
 by this means, at length, a peace so earnestly de- 
 sired by all learned and honest men, may be re- 
 stored to the christian world." 
 
 In another place he adds : 
 
 " So we may maintain the prayers of the church 
 for the souls departed, to be beneficial, and not in 
 vain : inasmuch as that practice of the church, of 
 praying for the dead, is derived, as Chrysostom 
 confesses, and is very probable, from the institu- 
 tion of the apostles." 
 
 Is not this satisfactory, my dear Ada? and 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 137 
 
 when we hear other theologians of the same 
 church, condemning this dogma, as false and anti- 
 scriptural, Jet us not forget Bishop Forbes. 
 
 There are others, who are not less explicit on 
 this subject, whose authority I will cite in my 
 next letter: meanwhile, reflect upon what I have 
 adduced, and judge for j'ourself. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 With sacred awe, and solemn dread, 
 
 I love to muse alone, 
 
 To read the record on the stone, 
 And hold communion with the dead. 
 Oh! by the torch's glimmering light, 
 
 My Ada, I remember well, 
 I strayed, at Rouen, in the silent night, 
 
 Through the vast aisles, from cell to cell, 
 Where Rollo, and where William sleep, 
 In sculptured mausoleums, dark and deep. 
 
 Yes, there is to my taste, something most awful- 
 ly interesting in the epitaphs recorded on the 
 tombs of the departed. They seem their last legacy 
 to the world — they are the eternal farewell to this 
 transitory life, especially when those epitaphs 
 were composed by the persons whose mortal re- 
 mains lie buried under the stone. 
 
 In the course of my reading, I have discovered 
 M2 
 
138 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 two epitaphs of great importance : both of which 
 were written for their own tombstones, by two 
 enlightened protestant divines of the highest stand- 
 ing; and which bear testimony of their belief in 
 the efficacy of prayer for the dead. 
 
 EPITAPH OF BISHOP BARROW. 
 
 " The remains of Isaac, Bishop of St. Asaph's, 
 deposited in the hands of the Lord, in the hope of 
 a joyful resurrection solely by the merits of Christ. 
 O all ye that pass by into the house of the Lord, 
 the house of prayer, pray for your fellow servant, 
 that he a ay find mercy in the day of the Lord." 
 
 Who, after perusing this, dear Ada, will doubt 
 of the convictions of Isaac Barrow, on the subject 
 in question ? He recommended his departed spirit 
 t) i he prayers of all who should enter into the 
 church in which he is buried. 
 
 EPITAPH OF THORNDIKE. 
 
 "Here lies the body of Herbert Thorndike, 
 formerly a prebendary of this collegiate church, 
 (Westminster,) who in his life time endeavoured 
 by prayer and study, to discover the right method 
 of reforming the church. Do thou, reader, im- 
 plore for him rest and a happy resurrection in 
 Christ." 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 139 
 
 Of course this eminent man was convinced that 
 the prayers of the living- would contribute to the 
 object for which he requested them, viz. to obtain 
 rest for his soul, and a happy resurrection for his 
 body. 
 
 When, therefore, the catholic, seriously impress- 
 ed with the sentiments recorded by the celebrated 
 personages just cited, kneels in silent prayer be- 
 fore the grave of a departed friend, and while the 
 tear of sorrow drops from his ej'e, his heart heaves 
 forth its deepest supplications, you, my dearest 
 Ada, will not condemn him, you will rather com- 
 mend hi in for his pious remembrance, and with 
 him, sigh : " may the souls of the faithful departed, 
 through the mercy of God, rest in peace.' ' Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 Saint Augustin was a firm believer in the doc- 
 trine of purgatory. Ada, you have read in his 
 confessions, the history of his conversion from 
 manicheism to catholicity — and you have felt a 
 lively sympathj r , when he records the prayers and 
 tears of his mother, Saint Monica. After her death, 
 he relates how, at the altar, he remembered the 
 soul of her, who had brought him forth to the 
 world, and to the truth. Consult his confessions, 
 book the ninth, chapter thirteenth. 
 
140 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 If we have to render an account for every idle 
 word, where is the man, who can hope to be 
 perfectly innocent, when he appears before the 
 tribunal of God ? and yet this is an inspired fact: 
 Saint Matthew distinctly states it, in his twelfth 
 chapter, and sixth verse. 
 
 An idle word, unrepented for, defiles the soul, 
 and consequently excludes it from the regions of 
 purity. It is not, however, so grievous as to con- 
 demn its victim to eternal perdition; what then 
 will become of the soul in such a condition? must 
 it not be doomed, for a time, to a place of purga- 
 tion, a middle state, in which it will remain until 
 rendered worthy to be admitted into heaven. 
 
 It is not essential to know what is the character 
 of punishments to be endured in purgatory; nor is 
 it of material importance, by what name that 
 middle place may be designated. I contend for 
 essentials merely, not for questions which cannot 
 be determined. Whether the soul in a temporary 
 separation from heaven, will suffer the torture of 
 fire; or whether the punishment will consist merely 
 of being deprived of the presence of Him, for whom 
 it will pant with inextinguishable ardour, is not 
 decided : we are free to believe either position. 
 The existence of a middle place must be admitted ; 
 indeed, Ada, after the arguments I have laid before 
 you, it seems no longer controvertible. For, as 
 you have seen, it is proved by Scripture ; by the 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. HI 
 
 testimony of the earliest writers ; and by the ac- 
 knowledgment of some of the ablest protestant 
 Divines ; — What more can we require ? 
 
 Then, Ada, when some bosom friend, 
 
 By death is torn away ; 
 Go, over his lonely ashes bend, 
 
 And for his spirit pray : 
 Yea, sigh thy fervent vows to heaven, 
 That every venial stain may be forgiven. 
 
 What, though the cold philosophy 
 
 Of this most heartless earth, 
 Would seek to hush the bursting sigh, 
 
 Or turn it into mirth ; 
 Religion will approve thy prayers, 
 And consecrate thy monumental tears. 
 
 Ada, adieu. 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 One of the most difficult points of the catholic 
 religion, dearest Ada, is the subject of confession. 
 For here commences the practical part, here begins 
 the warfare against nature; the struggle against 
 pride, the victory over one's self. — To believe in 
 the speculative articles of the creed, demands only 
 the conviction of the mind. To carry that belief 
 into effect, requires a triumphant exertion of the 
 whole man, and hence, since confession of sins is 
 
142 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 so totally repugnant to the nature of our being, 
 we find every effort made to deny its necessity, 
 and even question its utility. 
 
 To many, it would appear impossible thai this 
 topic could be defended. By thousands it is con- 
 sidered an invention of the dark ages, for the pur- 
 pose of acquiring an unlimited influence on the 
 part of the clergy over the people ; and more es- 
 pecially yet, to procure money, from the deluded 
 victims of their domination. 
 
 If this were the case, confession, dear Ada, would 
 indeed bean abomination: and far from attempting 
 to vindicate it, I, as an honourable American, would 
 be obliged to condemn it. But instead of being 
 an invention of the dark ages, it is a divine institu- 
 tion, descending from the days of the Apostles 
 down to the era of our own existence. 
 
 How often have you not read, in works of a 
 very popular character, that the catholic may 
 purchase absolution, that, no matter what sins he 
 may be guilty of, he need only run to the priest, 
 with a handful of monej', and he will immediate- 
 ly obtain absolution. Nay, he will be encouraged 
 to return to the same, and even more enormous, 
 sins, with the hope that he will soon return, with 
 a larger sum of money, to purchase a second abso- 
 lution. 
 
 1 remember you once brought me an extract 
 from a book with a very plausible title, " The Taxes 
 
LETTERS TO ADA, 143 
 
 of the Roman Chancery," in which a certain 
 specified amount is attached to every kind of sin, 
 for murder, so much, for stealing, so much — and 
 so on, with the whole catalogue of abominations. 
 This specious work is quoted by Guthrie in his 
 Geography, and by almost every scribbler from 
 his day down to a certain " Watchman" of the 
 present period. 
 
 You asked me whether this pretended work was 
 authentic; and, you know well, dear Ada, what 
 reply I made: you know, I asserted, and I did so 
 not without the gravest authority, that this is a 
 spurious composition — and that as often as it was 
 republished in Germany and England, so often 
 was it condemned at Rome. If therefore it has 
 been scathed by the very lightnings of the Vati- 
 can, it manifestly is of no authority — it is a triste 
 bidental, — and it is imposing upon the ignorance 
 of the people, to palm it upon the public, as an 
 authentic register of penitential statistics ! 
 
 The genuine doctrine of our church is this ; 
 that the minister of penance, deriving his authority 
 and power from God, can absolve the sinner, if 
 he be truly penitent. But, if he have not the 
 necessary dispositions — absolution would be of no 
 avail — confession would be but a mockery. 
 
 The priest is of his own nature, like every other 
 man — frail, peccable, and helpless: but, he is in- 
 vested by the Omnipotent with a delegated power, 
 
144 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 which he can and must exercise. But that 
 power will ever be ineffectual, if the person over 
 whom he exerts it, be not properly disposed to profit 
 by it. — For, it is manifest, that the priest cannot 
 forgive one whom the Almighty himself cannot 
 pardon: for the Almighty cannot pardon a sinner, 
 who feels no sorrow for his past iniquities, and 
 who is determined to persist in the commission of 
 sin for the future. 
 
 In order the more clearly to explain myself, and 
 elucidate my subject, take two persons as exam- 
 ples, the one a protestant, the other a catholic* 
 Suppose them to be of the same age, equally 
 instructed, and educated. Both, in looking ove: 
 their past career, see much for which they must 
 repent: both have sinned, and we suppose, griev- 
 ously, and both are sincerely desirous to reconcile 
 themselves with their heavenly Father, whom 
 they have offended. In the estimation of the pro- 
 testant, what would the former have to do, what 
 course would he be obliged to pursue, in order to 
 obtain pardon? 
 
 First, he must necessarily repent, in the amari- 
 tude of his heart, for his transgressions. Second- 
 ly, he should resolve to avoid, as far as he can, 
 the sins, and circumstances, which led him to the 
 sins committed. Thirdly, he must have recourse 
 by fervent and humble prayer to God, that he 
 would be pleased, in his mercy, to wash out his 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 145 
 
 iniquities, and receive him back, as he did the 
 prodigal, into his favour and his arms. With 
 these dispositions, according to the universally 
 admitted principles of all dissenting denominations? 
 the young penitent is pardoned — his sins are for- 
 given. 
 
 Well, dearest Ada, in the catholic, precisely the 
 same dispositions are indispensably necessary : 
 and without them confession would be useless? 
 void. The catholic must repent from the bottom 
 of his heart: he must resolve to avoid the sins 
 committed, and the circumstances which led to 
 them. He must recommend himself, in the most 
 humble and fervent manner to God : — and, of 
 course, were he to do no more, he has as much 
 right to pardon, as the protestant can claim. 
 Were he to stop here, he would, according to the 
 general belief, have done enough — his iniquities 
 would be washed away. But, according to our 
 church, he must go still further. To all these 
 sincere and necessary dispositions, he must add 
 the confession of his sins, and consequently he 
 does more than the protestant — and therefore has 
 another claim to pardon. 
 
 Without these preliminary dispositions, you 
 must understand, dear Ada, confession, far from 
 being beneficial, would be another sin ; it would 
 be a profanation. For, it cannot be seriously 
 
 believed, that the catholic can dupe his own con- 
 
 N 
 
146 LETTERS TO ADA* 
 
 science, and blind his own reason, so far as to rest 
 satisfied with the mere enumeration to his confes- 
 sor of a dark catalogue of sins; he cannot be so 
 recklessly stupid as to flatter his passions that the 
 priest can forgive, what the Almighty himself 
 cannot pardon. You, my fair friend, are adorned 
 with too lofty a mind, to- entertain the smallest 
 misgiving against your neighbour — because he is 
 a catholic. Where will you find a purer heart, a 
 more gentle spirit, a more brilliant pattern of the 
 sweetest and loveliest virtues, than in the person 
 of your bosom friend Aurelia ? and Aurelia is a 
 catholic— Cultivate her friendship; converse freely 
 on these subjects with her — ask her to pray for 
 you, and request her not to forget me, when she 
 kneels at her shrine. Adieu* 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 Yes, Ada, by confessing, the catholic penitent 
 evinces the most unequivocal testimonial of humili- 
 ty and sincerity. For, deem it not a matter of mere 
 form: it is a serious thing, to rehearse to a fellow 
 man, the sins, the frailties, the propensities of the 
 inmost heart; and I am persuaded that were con- 
 fession not required by the institution of Christ 
 himself, no one could ever be induced to practise 
 it.— 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 147 
 
 <c What !" Mirandula exclaims, 
 
 11 Can it be possibly required ? 
 Show me, on what authority inspired, 
 
 The papist rest his claims. 
 Persuaded I can never be, 
 That man should humbly bend his knee 
 
 Before his fellow man. 
 And whisper to his anxious ear, 
 
 Each thought, each word, each wish, each fear, 
 Confess to God, who will and can 
 In silence wipe away each stain, 
 
 Confession to the priest is vain." 
 
 So sings Mirandula, in rather a strange lay: 
 having little claim to pure poetry or sound reason. 
 In brief prose, her objection is resolved to this. It 
 cannot be required of man to reveal his sins to his 
 fellow men: why? because it is too humiliating- 
 this argument may be soothing to human nature, 
 but it is destitute of logic, dear Ada. 
 
 The whole system of christian morality is in 
 direct opposition to the nature of man: and the 
 fact of a system so contrary to all our propensities 
 being admitted, and practised by all nations, 
 proves the divinity of its character — and I contend, 
 that for the very aversion which we all feel to the 
 practice of confession, which prostrates the pride 
 of the heart to the dust, a strong argument is de- 
 rived in favour of the divine origin of the institu* 
 tion. 
 
 fl Would man forge fetters for himself to wear?" 
 
148 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 Believe me, Ada, if there were not some positive 
 command, issued by the Redeemer himself, and 
 recorded in the holy scriptures, no christian would 
 be so infatuated as to yield to the inversion of 
 fanaticism, no honourable man would submit to a 
 scheme of degrading speculation on the part of an 
 interested portion of the community. There is 
 a positive command, and I will adduce it in its 
 proper place. In the meanwhile, dearest Ada, 
 farewell. 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 The night is lovely on the banks of the 
 
 Over the fresh waters, glistening here and there 
 in the beams, the silvery car of Diana ascends; 
 while the Genius of the night, from his magic urn, 
 sheds his dew, freshness, and fragrance upon the 
 bosom of the river. The hour is beauteous — 
 around me all is stillness, save where the whipo- 
 will complains iu darkly solitude, or the owl 
 screeches in his kindred shades. 
 
 As I muse upon the spectacle, oh ! how many 
 soothing associations crowd upon my memory, 
 take possession of all the sensibilities of my heart ! 
 
 I thank you for the description of that delicious 
 excursion which you made on the Hudson, in 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 149 
 
 company with a clergyman, with whom you 
 had leisure to commune on subjects which are ever 
 interesting; to contemplate the grandeur, beauty, 
 and magnificence of the scenery, on that splendid 
 river, and to blend your sympathetic impressionsof 
 the majesty of the Creator, and of the necessity of 
 adoring and serving him, in the manner most ac- 
 ceptable to his attributes. I once wrote a sonnet 
 on the Hudson, which you are welcome to. 
 
 Oh! seldom shone upon the Hudson's stream 
 
 A more enchanting evening : — every beam 
 Of the most beauteous sun-set, meek and calm, 
 
 Melted away in hyacinthine hues : 
 While from the bank, cool zephyr stole the balm 
 
 Of every blooming thing ; — pleased to diffuse 
 The spirit of perfume about the deck. 
 
 Then hill on hill — on mountain mountain rose, 
 Till on the vision, Catskill seemed a speck, 
 
 And the deep shades fell from the "nest of crows." 
 I gazed — when starting in majestic flight, 
 
 Free as the winds he cleaved, an eagle soared, 
 And towering nobly o'er the mountain's height, 
 
 Streamed like our own proud flag aloft — the desert's Lord, 
 
 You, perhaps, may call to } r our recollection an 
 observation I made, when we once found ourselves 
 hemmed round on the waters, by hills and rocks, 
 without any visible aperture through which to 
 proceed, " Ada, ;J I said, " it is thus we are sur- 
 rounded with dangers in this world; and we re» 
 N2 
 
150 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 quire a skilful pilot to steer our way in safety to 
 the port of eternity." 
 
 "A confessor," you replied, "if discreet and 
 wise, must be an excellent pilot to the soul, 
 through the perils of temptation." 
 
 " True," I returned, " for he not only can pre- 
 scribe the proper course, but can absolve you from 
 past irregularities." A gentleman standing by, 
 overhearing the remark, with much politeness of 
 manner, but evident reluctance to suppress his 
 emotion, begged me to inform him whether man 
 can forgive sins ? 
 
 " Of himself" I answered, " man cannot forgive 
 sins, the nature of man is the same in every human 
 being : in all it is frail, peccable, and depraved." 
 
 "But Sir," rejoined the stranger, begging to be 
 excused for urging the subject, " do not the Ro- 
 man catholics believe that their sins may be for- 
 given by their priests ? ' In other words do they 
 not believe that the priest can forgive sins V- 
 
 I explained the matter thus : 
 
 " The catholic believes that God has given the 
 power to priests to absolve those who confess their 
 sins with the necessary dispositions. The con- 
 fessor is in a spiritual sense what the judge is in 
 a political point of view — The latter is constituted 
 of the same frail and human propensities as the 
 former: he may, to-morrow, be guilty of the 
 very crime against which, to-day, he pronounces 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 151 
 
 the sentence of the law : and jet, guilty as he is 
 liable to become, and imperfect as he may be, his 
 country has empowered him to adjudicate, decide, 
 pronounce sentence, inflict punishment, or to re- 
 lease, acquit, absolve. 
 
 " The case is the same with regard to the former ; 
 he may, in the presence of an Omniscient Provi- 
 dence, be infinitely more guilty than the sinner 
 who kneels at his tribunal, confesses, and implores 
 pardon. And yet, there is conferred on him by 
 the church, who derives it from God, the power of 
 releasing and absolving: of loosing and binding." 
 
 The gentleman at first seemed a little silenced, 
 on the subject, but, after a few moments of rumina- 
 tion, "the catholics," he remarked, "are the only 
 denomination who admit that the power of for- 
 giving sin, was ever given to man." 
 
 I observed that he was mistaken, " all those 
 christians who admit the efficacy of beptism, 
 must and do at the same time, admit in the mi- 
 nister the power to wash away original sin by the 
 waters of regeneration." " Now," 1 argued, "if 
 a minister, by the application of water, and the 
 pronunciation of certain words, can efface original 
 sin, why could not an equal power be conferred 
 by Him who is omnipotent, by the pronunciation 
 of a specified form of words, to efface the 
 stain of actual sin? Certainly if God can make 
 use of man as his agent and minister, in one in- 
 
158 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 stance, he might do so in the other. The question 
 is, has he done so? the catholic contends, that he 
 has, and we insist that it is the conscientious duty 
 of all who differ from us to examine the grounds 
 on which our doctrine is established. For, if 
 such power has been conferred on the priest, then 
 the church which teaches this truth, contains 
 within her pale, a tribunal, before which the 
 seared heart may pour out its contrition and be 
 healed — the lacerated conscience may find a balm, 
 more soothing than that of Gideon — and the 
 wounds of the soul may receive the oil of peace 
 and health, more fragrant than that which stream- 
 ed down the beard of Aaron." 
 
 My explanation appeared reasonable to the 
 stranger — was it not satisfactory to you, dear 
 Ada? you assured me that j'ou would expect with 
 impatient anxiety the proof, which I promised to 
 send you, that the Redeemer did impart to the 
 Apostles and their successors, the power of absolv- 
 ing — In the following letter, I will comply with 
 that promise. — 
 
 It is neaily midnight — my light is dim — the 
 breeze is rustling through the forest-trees, Ada, 
 — Adieu, 
 
153 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 In order to obtain the pardon of his sins, Ada t 
 the catholic believes that three conditions are 
 necessary, when they can be had : but, that one 
 is at all times, and under all circumstances, indis- 
 pensable. In other words, he believes that pe- 
 nance is composed of three parts, viz. contrition, 
 confession, satisfaction: contrition always neces- 
 sary ; confession and satisfaction when practicable. 
 
 With regard to the first, all christians agree. In 
 this there is no difference of opinion, no matter 
 how wide and deep the chasm that may separate 
 them in other respects. We too, believe, that 
 confession would be utterly useless, and that there 
 can be no real satisfaction, where there is not 
 contrition, or sorrow. The heart must undergo 
 a thorough change, the will must he purified and 
 all the faculties of the soul sublimated by repent- 
 ance, and the love of God and hatred of sin. 
 Without this, the Almighty could not forgive us, 
 much less the priest. 
 
 The question, then, is concerning the second — 
 confession, which we will now examine. 
 
 Let us first have recourse to scripture, Ada, and 
 see if we can discover any texts, from which the 
 necessity of confession can be proved. Refer to 
 the twentieth chapter of Saint John, verses twenty 
 
154 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 one, twenty-two, and twenty-three. I will cite the 
 protestant translation. 
 
 " Then Jesus said to them again : peace be 
 with you, as my Father hath sent me, even sol send 
 
 you. 
 
 " And when he said this he breathed on them, 
 and saith to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost : 
 
 " Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted 
 unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain they 
 are retained." 
 
 Here it evidently appears, that the apostles 
 received the power to forgive sins. This is claim- 
 ed not only by catholic divines, it is admitted 
 by Chillingworth, in terms which should be en- 
 graven on brass: treating on this text he says : 
 
 " Can any man be so unreasonable as to imagine, 
 that, when our Saviour, in so solemn a manner, 
 having first breathed upon his disciples, thereby 
 conveying and insinuating the Holy Ghost into 
 their hearts, renewed unto them, or rather confirm- 
 ed that glorious commission, &c. whereby he de- 
 legated to them an authority of binding and loosing 
 sins upon earth, &c. can any one think, I say, so 
 unworthily of our Saviour, as to esteem these words 
 of his for no better than compliment?" 
 
 " Therefore, in obedience to his gracious will, and 
 as I am warranted and enjoined by my holy mo- 
 ther the church of England, 1 beseech you, that, 
 by your practice and uses you will not suffer that 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 155 
 
 commission which Christ hath given to his minis- 
 ters, to be a vain form of words, without any sense 
 under them. When you find yourselves charged 
 and oppressed &c. have recourse to your spiritual 
 physician, and fully disclose the nature and ma- 
 lignity of your disease, and come not to him only 
 with such a mind as you would go to a learned 
 man, as one that can speak comfortable things 
 to you ; but as to one that hath authority delegat- 
 ed to him from God himself, to absolve and acquit 
 
 YOU OF YOUR SINS." 
 
 This passage is taken from his Seventh Sermon 
 on Religion, pages 408 and 409. 
 
 It is very remarkable, dear Ada, that this acute 
 writer meets the objection you have heard so often 
 made; that the priest may counsel and direct the 
 penitent but that he cannot absolve him. Chilling- 
 worth expressly asserts, that the minister of pe- 
 nance hath authority to absolve, and acquit of 
 
 SINS. 
 
 Turn next to the gospel of St. Matthew, six- 
 teenth chapter and eighteenth and nineteenth 
 verses : 
 
 " And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter 
 and upon this rock I will build my church and 
 the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : And 
 I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
 shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou 
 shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
 
155 LETTERS TO ADA, 
 
 Upon this text the Lutherans establish their 
 doctrine, in common with our's, that absolution is 
 a sacrament, and particular absolution is to be re- 
 tained in confession. This appears from the Con- 
 fession of Augsburgh, articles 11, 12, 13. 
 
 The same is contained in the eighteenth chap- 
 tar and eighteenth verse of the same gospel. 
 
 " Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall 
 bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what- 
 soever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
 heaven." 
 
 Again, the Acts of the Apostles inform us that 
 the first christians declared their deeds ; see the 
 nineteenth chapter, and eighteenth verse : 
 
 " And many that believed came, and confessed, 
 and showed their deeds.' 7 
 
 St. James, in his Epistle, fifth chapter, and six- 
 teenth verse, exhorts us to confess to one another. 
 There certainly, then, can be no impropriety, on the 
 contrary it is required, to confess to the ministers 
 of religion, * 
 
 " Confess your faults to one another,' 7 he writes, 
 "and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.' 7 
 
 Lastly, Saint John, in his first epistle, chapter 
 first, verse the ninth, declares : 
 
 11 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
 to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
 unrighteousness." 
 
 Although it may be urged that these two lass 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 157 
 
 cited texts do not unequivocally prove the necessity 
 of auricular confession, still, no one can condemn 
 me if, interpreting them according to the wisest 
 and gravest commentators ancient and modern, I 
 derive such necessity from them. Otherwise, the 
 privilege, vindicated by all the eloquence of pro- 
 testantism, perishes. I mean that of private inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 I leave thee, then, to ponder o'er, 
 
 Dear Ada, in thy solitude, 
 These 6acred texts, which ne'er before, 
 
 Perhaps, by thee were understood : 
 But candour dwells within thy heart ; 
 
 The love of truth illumes thy mind: 
 When truth her lustre will impart, 
 
 Thou'lt leave dark prejudice behind. 
 
 Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 " It is ludicrous," I once heard a man of some 
 repute for wisdom say, dear Ada, — u it is ludi- 
 crous in the extreme, to see the catholic running to 
 confession, as if that practice were founded in 
 scripture, or authorized by the primitive writers!" 
 
 You may conceive how little impression such 
 language could make upon me, who had convinc- 
 ed myself from the closest investigation, that it is 
 
 O 
 
158 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 an injunction emanating from the founder of Chris- 
 tianity, and recorded in the earliest monuments of 
 ecclesiastical history. 
 
 I have, within rny reach, the authentic testimo- 
 nies of the primitive fathers of the church, and I 
 will quote some passages from them, which will 
 convince you, my fair friend, that nothing is more 
 venerable than the practice, so much decried by 
 modern fanaticism, of auricular confession. 
 
 First then, Saint Athanasius, a Greek father, in 
 the first volume of his works, page 990, writes 
 thus : 
 
 " If your bonds are not broken, surrender your- 
 selves to the disciples of Jesus Christ ; they are 
 ready to set you free by the power they have re- 
 ceived from our Saviour . we all 
 
 labour under our respective vices: we all stand in 
 need of being healed by our Saviour, and of the 
 assistance of his ministers^ that we may be freed 
 from the captivity of the Devil. w 
 
 In this passage, the venerable author places the 
 ministry of the clergy in conjunction with the 
 power of Christ : and asserts, that by both united, 
 the sinner will be pardoned, confession is certain- 
 ly insinuated by " the assistance of the ministers ? J 
 
 Saint Basil, another Greek father, is still more 
 distinct : 
 
 " Necessarily," he writes, (in Quast brev. 
 Reg. page 288) "our sins must be confessed to 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 159 
 
 those to whom has been committed the dispensa- 
 tion of the mysteries of God." 
 
 This quotation requires no comment — the ne- 
 cessity of confession is distinctly urged. 
 
 Saint Chrysostom, likewise a Greek, in his 
 twentieth Homily on Genesis, speaks in the fol- 
 lowing terms : 
 
 u If the sinner, as becomes him, would use the 
 salutary aid of his conscience, and hasten to con- 
 fess his crimes and disclose his ulcer to the phy- 
 sician, who may heal and not reproach, and re- 
 ceive remedies from him ; if he would speak to him 
 alone, without the privity of any one, and with 
 care lay all before him, easily would he amend his 
 failings — for the confession of sins, is the absolu- 
 tion of crimes. " 
 
 In such strong and unequivocal language, did 
 the oriental fathers insist on the efficacy and ne- 
 cessity of confession. What would the grave per- 
 sonage who accused us of acting ludicrously in 
 this matter, have said, had this passage been placed 
 under his consideration ! what is your impression 
 thus far, mv dearest Ada ? 
 
 But let us consult the Latin fathers, and com- 
 pare their sentiments on this subject, with those of 
 the Greek writers. Turn to saint Cyprian, in his 
 work on the Fallen, page 134, and conclude for 
 yourself : 
 
 H All, my brethren, must confess their faults, 
 
160 LETTER3 TO ADA. 
 
 while he thai has offended enjoys life ; while his 
 confession can he received, and while satisfaction 
 and pardon imparted by the priests are acceptable 
 before God. 
 
 Saint Augustin, in his work on Visiting the 
 Sick, addresses the sick person in this manner : 
 
 " Beg, therefore, the priest to come to you, and 
 open to him your conscience. Be not seduced by 
 the reveries of those superstitious ones, who would 
 persuade you, that confession made to God, of 
 which the priest knows nothing, will save you — 
 undoubtedly we ought frequently to be acknow- 
 ledging ourselves guilty before God : this we do 
 not deny: but we tell you, and sound doctrine 
 teaches you, that you have need of the salutary 
 sentence of the priest, which is to intervene between 
 you and your God." 
 
 Can there be any doubt, after this passage, and 
 especially that marked in italics, of the conviction 
 of Saint Augustin, on the subject of confession ? 
 Does he not speak as plainly as language can 
 convey his ideas ? Does he not express himself 
 precisely in the terms of a modern catholic ? and 
 should not our adversaries, before thej' ridicule our 
 custom, read attentively the original texts of this 
 venerable, this saintly writer. — 
 
 Saint Jerome agrees perfectly with Augustin. 
 One very short extract will suffice to convince you 
 
Letters to ada. 161 
 
 'of this, Ada. In his Commentary on the Sixteenth 
 Chapter of St. Matthew, he writes as follows- 
 
 " The priest having heard, as his duty requires, 
 the various qualities of sin, understands who 
 should be bound, and who should be loosed." 
 
 It is then, according to Saint Jerome, the duly 
 of thepriest, to hear the various sins of the peni- 
 tent — this can be clone only by confession : con- 
 sequently confession to the priest is a duty. — 
 
 Is not this correct reasoning, dear Ada ? — and 
 is it not beyond all* question, that Saint Jerome 
 believed in the necessity of confession — and, of 
 course, was a catholic. 
 
 I have met with another passage from Saint 
 Augustin, which I cannot refrain from copying: 
 it is taken from his Enarration on the sixty-sixth 
 Psalm : 
 
 " Be sorrowful, therefore," he writes, "before 
 confession; after it be glad, for now thou shalt be 
 healed. Thy conscience had collected matter: 
 the imposthume had swelled: it pained thee: it 
 allowed thee no rest. The physician applies the 
 fermentation of advice: he has recourse, when the 
 evil requires it, to the knife. Do thou embrace 
 the hand — confess, and, in this confession may all 
 that is foul be done away." 
 
 These quotations will suffice, dear Ada, to con- 
 vince you of the fact, that confession, as practised 
 at the present day in the catholic church, was in 
 02 
 
162 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 use, .and considered necessary, in those ages, when 
 according to the concession of all, religion was in 
 her original purity. I will next show from the 
 most indisputable authority, that it was approved 
 of, and deemed an Apostolic Institution, by many 
 of the gravest writers of the church of England — 
 nay, I will go farther — I will make it clear, that 
 the original canons of that church, required under 
 certain circumstances, that confession should be 
 made. For the present, Ada, farewell. 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 I have just got back from a ride, dear Ada, 
 through a very beautiful country — and although 
 I have been out no short time, it is yet very early, 
 the sun just beginning to send forth from the clear 
 horizon his first rays. What a healthful, and 
 cheering mode of exercising 1 every breeze inhaled 
 imparts new vigour to the lungs, fresh alacrity to 
 the spirits, anc( an enlivening elasticity to the 
 nerves. 
 
 When gloom enshrouds the drooping hearjt, 
 
 And languor loosens every nerve , 
 Knowest thou what will effectually impart 
 Fresh vigour, Ada ? what preserve 
 
 Decaying health f 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 163 
 
 Rise, as the morning streaks the east, 
 
 With its first tints of orient light ; 
 Mount the sleek steed, the mountain breezes breast j 
 Upon the verdure feast thy sight, 
 
 And catch by stealth, 
 
 The passing fragrance of the field, 
 
 Where on the grass and clover sweet, 
 
 The dew-drops glistening all their freshness yield : 
 
 There wilt thou bracing vigour meet 
 Dearer than wealth. 
 
 Refreshed after my morning exercise, I sit down, 
 full of the subject of my correspondence, dear Ada, 
 and joyfully continue the theme, which at once 
 elevates the mind to the highest speculations, and 
 recalls the image of truth in all its fairest delinea- 
 ments, before my fancy's eye. 
 
 Have I not satisfied you with regard to the 
 testimonies adduced from the primitive Fathers, 
 on the subject of confession? From the au- 
 thorities which I mean to quote below, it will as 
 evidently appear, that the founders of the church 
 of England, admitted the importance of this an- 
 cient dogma, and sought to enforce the practice 
 of it, at least on certain occasions. 
 
 The following passage is familiar to all Episco- 
 palians, dear Ada, at least the language is imprint- 
 ed on their memories, though its meaning perhaps, 
 has never been seriously analyzed by many. 
 
 "And because it is requisite that no man should 
 
164 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 come to the holy communion, but with a full trust 
 in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience ; 
 therefore, if there be any of you, who by this 
 means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, 
 but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him 
 come to me," (says the minister,) "or to some 
 other discreet and learned minister of God's word, 
 and open his grief; that by the ministry of God's 
 holy word, he may receive the benefit of absolution^ 
 together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the 
 quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all 
 scruple and doubtfulness." 
 
 There is a manifest stress laid upon absolution, 
 which is contradistinguished from "ghostly coun- 
 sel and advice.' ' The minister is stated to have 
 the power to impart that blessing, and it is declar- 
 ed to be the duty of all such as experience the 
 least disquietude or scruple of conscience, to have 
 recourse to his ministry, and profit by his power* 
 
 The principle is then admitted by the ancient 
 protestant, as well as the catholic church* We 
 only extend the duty further than our separated 
 brethren, and instead of binding those whose 
 consciences cannot be perfectly calmed by their 
 own devotion and faith, we command all, at least 
 once in the year, to approach to the tribunal of 
 confession. 
 
 In the visitation of the sick, the obligation is. 
 made almost indispensable on the part of thfe 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 165 
 
 infirm penitent, to confess : for the minister is en- 
 joined to exhort him 
 
 "To make a special confession of his 
 sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any 
 weighty matter." 
 
 Now, where is to be found the person, who, as 
 the shades of death are gathering about his pillow, 
 when the delusion of life is fading away, and 
 fashion, and dissipation, and mirth are hushed 
 into the anticipated silence of the grave — where, I 
 ask, is the person, under these circumstances, 
 when examining his conscience with the awe of 
 God's judgment before his mind, when surveying 
 the past, from the dawn of reason to the day of his 
 decline, but will feel his conscience troubled ? and 
 therefore, where is the christian, who will not be 
 bound to make "a special confession of his sins?" 
 
 After his confession, the priest shall absolve 
 him — the piotestant ritual directs in these words : 
 
 " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to 
 his church to absolve all sinners, who truly repent 
 and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive 
 thee thine offences: and by his authority commit- 
 ted to me, I absolve Thee from all thy sins, in 
 the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost. Amen." 
 
 This is, in substance, the very form of absolu- 
 tion used in the catholic church, dear Ada. And 
 yet, when the poor servant-girl asks permission of 
 
16G LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 her protestant mistress to go to confession, she is 
 laughed at, deemed priest-ridden and silly. — " Do 
 you go to the priest for absolution ?" she exclaims, 
 — "who can forgive sins but God alone V J 
 
 Little does she reflect upon the requisitions of 
 her own church, or understand the spirit of its 
 primitive institutions. As for yourself, dear Ada, 
 you have ever respected this dogma, and, after 
 reading what I have to adduce on the subject, 
 peradventure you may feel it a duty to practise 
 what you respect. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XL VI. 
 
 In order to leave no doubt whatever on your 
 mind, dear Ada, touching the spirit and meaning 
 of the general rubric of the church of England, I 
 will, in this letter, bring before your consideration 
 several passages from the works of the most emi- 
 nent authors. I have before, on several occasions, 
 quoted Dr. Montague, I again refer you to his u Ap- 
 peal," chapter thirty-second : 
 
 " Private confession to a priest," (he there 
 writes) " is of very ancient practice in the church, 
 of excellent use and benefit ; being discreetly han- 
 dled. We refuse it to none, if men require it, if 
 need be to have it : we urge and persuade it in 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 167 
 
 extremis : we require it in the case of perplexitie 
 for quieting of men disturbed, and their con- 
 
 sciences.'' 
 
 The church of England, then, has the right, ac- 
 cording to this distinguished prelate of that com- 
 munion, to require the confession of sins. The 
 catholic church claims the same right: and the 
 only difference is, that instead of requiring it 
 merely under certain circumstances, she requires 
 it once a year, at least, and especially in extremis. 
 
 What ground, then, has the modern protestant 
 to inveigh, with so much emphasis and artful al- 
 lusion, against this practice, which is manifestly 
 grounded upon scriptural authority and vindicated 
 by such a man as the bishop of Chester. 
 
 But think not Ada, that he stands alone in 
 his opinion: no, there are others of no less emi- 
 nence in the same church, who confirm his doc- 
 trine, and assert the claims for which I now con- 
 tend. 
 
 Bishop Andrews, his contemporary, not merely 
 admits the expediency of private confession, but 
 goes still further, and contends for its necessity. 
 In his court sermon, preached before James I., dis- 
 cussing the twenty-third verse of the twenty -se- 
 cond chapter of St. John, he expresses himself 
 thus : 
 
 " We are not, the ordinance of God thus stand- 
 ing, to rend off one part of the sentence : There 
 
168 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 are here expressed, three persons: 1. Trie person 
 of the sinner, in whose, 2, of God, in are forgiven. 
 3, of the priest in you shall forgive. Three are 
 expressed ; and where three are expressed, three 
 are required : and where three are required, two 
 are not enough." 
 
 Is not this the genuine doctrine of the catholic 
 church, dearest Ada? and do 1, in defending the 
 institution of confession, do any thing more, than 
 was done, so clearly and ably, by the renowned 
 protestant prelate whose language I have cited 1 
 
 When friend and foe unite together 
 
 To vindicate a fact, 
 I ask you, fairest Ada, whether 
 Reason could more desire, 
 Philosophy require, 
 Or incredulity exact ? 
 
 Certainly not ; every ingenuous mind must admit 
 that, since confession is advised by one denomina- 
 tion, and required by another, it does not deserve 
 the sarcasms which the hollow wit of certain su- 
 perficial writers would fain cast upon it. 
 
 The authority of bishop Andrews will prepon- 
 derate over all the sophistry of our prejudiced ad- 
 versaries ; and what will be the power of argu- 
 ment, when to his name is added that of Augustin, 
 whom he quotes to support his position : 
 
 " It is," he continues in the above-cited sermon, 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 169 
 
 " Saint Augustin that thus speaketh of the eccle- 
 siastical act in his time." 
 
 After which he makes the following solid ob- 
 servation : 
 
 11 God ordinarily proceedeth in remitting sin, by 
 the church's act. And hence they have their part 
 in this work, and cannot be excluded ; no more in 
 this than in other acts and parts of their function, 
 and to exclude them, is (after a sort) to wring the 
 keys out of their hands, to whom Christ hath 
 given them ; is to cancel and make void this clause 
 of you shall forgive, as if it were no part of the 
 sentence ; to account of all this solemn sending 
 and inspiring, as if it were an ^idle and fruitless 
 ceremony." . 
 
 In enforcing the necessity of auricular confes- 
 sion, therefore, Ada, I merely insist upon carrying 
 into effect the commission given by the Redeemer ; 
 a practice common to all divines, during past 
 ages; and a requisition acknowledged and ap- 
 proved by the most learned divines of the protes- 
 tant denorniaation. Luther himself, though in 
 most points, avowedly hostile to the usages of 
 the catholic church, far from condemning this doc- 
 trine, affirms that he believes it to be of infinite 
 utility — in his own language : 
 
 " Man," he writes, " ought to confess to God 
 all his sins, even those he knows not of ; and to 
 his director those only he knows and feels 
 
 P 
 
170 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 in his conscience." This is all that we require — 
 In these words of the arch-reformer are contained" 
 the meaning" and spirit of the injunction of our re- 
 ligion regarding sacramental confession. But r 
 unfortunately, dearest Ada, the system even of 
 that far-famed champion in the cause of the refor- 
 mation has long since changed in this particular 
 and every other one adopted upon similar grounds, 
 depending upon the mobility of the human mind,, 
 the caprice of the human intellect, must be subject 
 to perpetual changes. 
 
 11 Tanquam 
 
 Sit proprium quidquam, puncto quod mobilis horae, 
 Nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc sorte suprema 
 Permutet Dominos — " 
 
 No, Ada, there is nothing unchangeable but the 
 institutions of that true religion which stands 
 established, supported, and secured, on the pro- 
 mises of its divine founder. His word has been 
 given ; and, though heaven and earth may pass 
 away, his word shall not pass away. 
 
 Adieu, 
 
171 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 May I be allowed, dear Ada, to quote one of the 
 ■most beautiful, though, unfortunateljr, one of the 
 most dangerous, writers of France ? Perhaps the 
 topic which 1 am now discussing could not derive 
 in its support a more popular argument than that 
 founded on the authority, based upon the dispas- 
 sionate observation, of a philosopher. I am not cer- 
 tain that you have ever read the Emileoi Rosseau, 
 a work fraught with talent, beauty, sentiment, 
 science, truth, and extraordinary inconsistency. 
 
 The greatest writer now living in France, I do 
 not except even Chateaubriand, has in a very 
 powerful and elegant essay, styled " L'Essai sur 
 L' indifference" clearly detected the strange inco- 
 herencies and refuted the singular sophistry of that 
 splendid writer, I have the honour to be person- 
 ally acquainted with the author of that essay. 
 
 Yet, we must admit, that no man is better able 
 to take a dispassionate view of the effects and na- 
 ture of things, than a philosopher ! and the more 
 opposed he may be to Christianity, the more potent 
 and satisfactory should be his testimony in favour 
 of any particular dogma of religion. Rosseau 
 then, my dearest Ada, in observing the salutary 
 consequences of confession, could not restrain his 
 .admiraiion, but broke forth into the following ex- 
 
172 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 clamation, which I treasure up as worth more than 
 all the declamation of certain professors in certain 
 theological seminaries, or the sickly productions of 
 certain "Watchmen" who smell strongly of the 
 lamp: 
 
 " What works of mercy are the works of the 
 gospel !" exclaims Jean Jacques — " What repara- 
 tions and restitutions does not confession cause to 
 be made among the catholics ! Among all, what 
 effect has the approach of the period for commu- 
 nion in producing reconciliation and alms-deeds !" 
 Emile, Tom. III. 
 
 Fair Ada, well mayest thou 
 Judge of the nature of confession now : 
 
 Thou now canst see 
 How very easy it may be 
 
 To ridicule, to sneer at, and 
 
 Condemn, what we least understand. 
 
 But when we calmly view the grounds 
 
 On which the church her doctrine founds : 
 The practice of the great and good 
 The scripture rightly understood ; 
 The fathers of the earliest times 
 
 The Liturgies of east and west; 
 The custom of all climes — 
 
 The authority of all the best 
 And wisest of the reformation 
 
 With Martin Luther at their head : 
 The brightest prelates of the English nation, 
 
 Whose works survive, though they are dead r 
 Viewing these grounds, my Ada, it were vain 
 Against this doctrine ever to complain. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA, 173 
 
 Oh ! were we truly penetrated with sorrow for 
 'sin — were we thoroughly acquainted with the na- 
 ture of sin! did we solemnly reflect upon what it 
 has cost the Redeemer, the punishment conse- 
 quent upon it in this and the future world, did 
 we consider how the angels fell from their bright 
 spheres pursued by thunder into the abyss of eter- 
 nal wo — how our first parents were banished from 
 the calm and blissful shades of Eden; what scourges 
 have devastated the guilty world; the wars, famine., 
 pestilence, that have swept away its inhabitants — 
 we should be more ready to submit to any humili- 
 ating condition which the Almighty might have- 
 thought proper to require, in order that sin may be 
 pardoned. He has been offended: it rests with 
 him, not with ourselves, to prescribe the conditions 
 of pardon. Those conditions, no matter how re- 
 pugnant to our nature, it is manifest we must sub- 
 mit to, if we desire to obtain mercy and reconcilia- 
 tion. But from every side, from all possible au- 
 thority, I have derived the necessary condition of 
 confession : from the scripture, from the primitive 
 fathers, from the universal practice, from the tes- 
 timony of the most eminent protestant divines, and 
 what more remains, dearest Ada, but to leave you 
 to your own considerations, to your own calm con- 
 clusions, and sacred convictions. 
 
 Adieu, 
 P 2 
 
174 
 
 LETTER XLVI1I. 
 
 (t Whatever may be alleged in favour of con- 
 fession" said a learned jurisconcult to a venerable 
 clergyman in your presence, Ada, " Indulgences 
 can have no foundation to rest on." This is, in- 
 deed, a very positive assertion; it is a sweeping 
 sentence, whicn, if true, lays low the entire edifice 
 of Catholicism. If no authority, of the most in- 
 dubitable character, could be adduced to support 
 the divine origin, and proper administration of 
 indulgences, certainly the church which maintains 
 them, would not possess the attribute of truth, in 
 all her doctrines. It will require but a few words 
 to convince you, my fair friend, that however 
 learned the gentleman may be in the law, he cer- 
 tainly evinces no little ignorance with regard to 
 the original institutions of Christianity. 
 
 I am fully aware, in entering on this subject, 
 that no other article of the catholic creed has been 
 animadverted upon with more keen severity, and 
 bitter satire, than this. I do not forget that it 
 was this that shook the foundations of Christen- 
 dom, in the beginning of the sixteenth century — 
 that was " the spring 
 
 of woes unnumbered." 
 and that even now constitutes the theme of the 
 modern controvertist, and the taunt of the modem 
 infidel. 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 175 
 
 But it is necessary, in order to form a correct 
 idea of the tenet, that you should receive a real 
 definition of it. I am ready to avow, that were 
 the doctrine such as it is mis-stated to be, no one 
 would stand forward too promptly or too ener- 
 getically to condemn, refute, repudiate it. The ad- 
 versaries of the catholic church would not be able 
 to wield against such a system a more unrelenting 
 weapon than myself. 
 
 But, Ada, you will soon be convinced of the in- 
 justice which is done us — of the temerity, not to 
 use a harsher term, of our opponents, in framing 
 for us a doctrine, as senseless as it is impious ; as 
 absurd as irreligious. 
 
 They state, and you find it in the most popular, 
 as well as the most prosing effusions, that an in- 
 dulgence is the permission to commit sin, and an 
 unconditional pardon for the past, present, and the 
 future. 
 
 Now, I put the question, in all the simplicity 
 which language admits of, and I ask : what is an 
 indulgence I 
 
 I answer first, negatively : it is not a license to 
 commit sin, it is not an encouragement of sin, it is 
 not a pardon of sin, either in this world or that to 
 come. 
 
 You remember — no, not you, my dearest Ada, 
 for you never conceived of our doctrine the opinions 
 propagated by its adversaries ; yet I am sure you 
 
Hf> LETTERS TO ATU. 
 
 feel a sentiment of astonishment how, after every 
 enlightened writer on these subjects protests so 
 unequivocally and solemnly against the manner 
 in which they are mis-represented, the mis-state- 
 ment is believed, and little or no attention is paid 
 to the plain and genuine doctrine concerning in- 
 dulgences. 
 
 There is one, however, wh6 will turn an atten- 
 tive ear to the voice of candour and truth : and 
 she is Ada. 
 
 Having given a negative definition of an indul- 
 gence, I will now state the positive definition of it. 
 
 An indulgence is the release from temporal pu- 
 nishment due to sin, after the sin has been forgiven. 
 
 You will observe, then, that it has nothing to do 
 with the remission of sin : it pre-supposes that the 
 sin is forgiven. It merely affects the punishment 
 which often is inflicted upon the sinner, after he 
 has repented for his iniquities. 
 
 You will not ask, as Florentine, 
 
 With satire playing in her smile — 
 (Such is the calm, pure ray of thine, , 
 
 It could not be bedimmed by guile) 
 " What ! does the punishment remain ; 
 
 After repentance has effaced the stain ! 
 This is a dream of popery ! 
 It cannot, no, it cannot be !" 
 
 You know, though Adam was forgiven, 
 The woes which/rom his sin have flowed : 
 
 With Eve, his fickle consort driven, j 
 From their once innocent abode : 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 177 
 
 Sent by the seraph's burning sword, 
 Exiles, before the vengeance of the Lord ! 
 
 Condemned, alas ! with their own sweat, 
 
 The bread of bitterness to eat ! 
 
 And David, though his lyre had oft 
 
 Been watered with contrition's tears : 
 And sorrow's minstrelsy, so soft 
 
 And deeply plaintive wailed his prayers ; 
 And though the holy seer of Heaven 
 Assured him that his sin had been forgiven ; 
 Still was he doomed, at the same time, 
 To lose the offspring of his crime. 
 
 You have only to consult, dear Ada, the second 
 book of Kings, chapter the twelfth, verse the 
 fourteenth, to make yourself acquainted with, or 
 rather to bring back to your memory, all the par- 
 ticulars of this fact. 
 
 Florentine, then, need not lay such a significant 
 stress upon her interrogatory, for, nothing is more 
 certain than that certain punishment does remain 
 to be inflicted after the sin itself has been forgiven. 
 
 I desire you particularly to bear in mind, dear 
 Ada, that the guilt of sin is not in any manner, 
 remissible by the application of an indulgence- 
 Forgiveness of sin requires the deep sorrow of the 
 heart, a detestation of the iniquity, a resolution to 
 avoid it : without these conditions, no indulgence, 
 no absolution, nothing can confer pardon. When, 
 therefore, it is asserted, that by purchasing an iu- 
 dulgence, the catholic may obtain a general license 
 
178 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 to commit sin, you will know how to treat so 
 baseless, and calumnious statement; you will re„- 
 member what I love to insist upon, as it is the real 
 doctrine of my church, that unless there be sorrow 
 and repentance, all the indulgences ever granted 
 from the earliest ages down to the present day, 
 would be idle, useless, and inapplicable. 
 
 Inform Florentine of this, Ada,, and assure her 
 that I am a catholic. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 " I have brought you, my dear uncle," said The- 
 odore, running to me with an eye beaming with 
 sentiment, " one of my prettiest flowers, it is a wild 
 moss rose, smell it, how fragrant ! keep it, as long 
 as it retains its freshness — " and he placed it upon 
 my breast. 
 
 I thought, when I viewed that lovely flower, how 
 evanescent is life ! and I said to myself, this flower 
 so fresh and beautiful reminds me to continue the 
 correspondence we have been carrying on, and I 
 retired to my study with that intention. 
 
 Hardly had I sat down at my desk, before the 
 servant knocked at my door, to inform me that a 
 stranger wished to see me. He was a professor in a 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 17^ 
 
 neighbouring theological seminary, and " not un- 
 known to fame." In the classics, and polite lite- 
 rature, he was an accomplished scholar ; on the 
 subject of the catholic religion, as ignorant as a 
 child. 
 
 He introduced himself to me, of whom, he said) 
 he had often heard ; and peremptorily declared 
 that his object in troubling me, on this occasion, 
 was to converse on the subject of indulgences. 
 
 ? How can an educated man defend the abuses," 
 he observed, " growing out of the system of indul- 
 gences ?" 
 
 "The abuses, sir," I replied, "no sensible catholic 
 would pretend to vindicate ; on the contrary, it is 
 the duty of every one to deprecate them most can- 
 didly." 
 
 11 Of course, then, the whole system must fall." 
 
 11 How do you arrive at such a conclusion?" I 
 returned. 
 
 " Because what is liable to be so egregiously 
 abused, cannot be the work of God," he urged. 
 
 il This is very illogical reasoning, sir ; Christi- 
 anity itself has been abused in every possible man- 
 ner ; the deist argues against it, on the same ground 
 which you assume, against this particular tenet. I 
 care not how many vessels may have been freighted 
 with indulgences for South America — I have no- 
 thing to do with them ; all I contend for, is the 
 pure original doctrine as it was established, and is 
 believed by the church." 
 
180 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 The conversation continued for a considerable 
 time, the substance of which, as it is precisely on 
 the topic which I have been treating, I will make 
 the subject of my next letter. The professor's ideas 
 seemed to undergo a serious change, before we se- 
 parated ; and, I am confident, that you, my fair 
 friend, will agree with me. that the doctrines of 
 the catholic church need but be examined,, to be 
 admired ; perhaps, I might add, when there is ques- 
 tion of one so sincere and ingenuous as yourself 
 to be admitted. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER L, 
 
 The substance of my conversation with the pro- 
 fessor, dear Ada, was as follows : I stated, that an 
 indulgence, in its original acceptation, was nothing 
 more than a dispensation from the whole or a 
 part of the punishment required by the canons of 
 the church, for sufficient motives of which the chief 
 pastor was the judge. For instance, certain sins 
 were visited with certain rigid penalties. The 
 man guilty of a public crime, was condemned to 
 undergo a public penance. If, then, it appeared 
 that such a person had the dispositions of sorrow 
 which the modern protestant would require, he 
 might, by contributing a certain sum of money for 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 181 
 
 the relief of the sick in the hospitals : or for the 
 orphan in asylums; or for the propagation of the 
 christian religion among infidels, or for the build- 
 ing of churches, be relieved from the shame and 
 rigour of the penalty, which the canons demand- 
 ed. In one word, Ada, an indulgence was merely 
 an exemption, for good reasons, and granted by 
 proper authority, from the canonical punishment : 
 not a remission of the sin. 
 
 The professor asked me, if there was any text 
 in scripture from which the propriety of such in- 
 dulgence could be derived 2 I referred him, as I now 
 do you, dear Ada, to the example of St. Paul, who 
 certainly exercised the power claimed by the pas- 
 tors of the church, when after excommunicating the 
 Corinthian, he restored him, upon being convinced 
 of his sorrow, to the privileges and communion of 
 the faithful. 
 
 Turn to the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 chapter fifth, and you will read these verses : 
 
 " It is reported commonly," this is the protes- 
 tant version, " that there is fornication among you, 
 and such fornication as is not so much as named 
 among the Gentiles, that one should have his fa- 
 ther's wife. 
 
 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather 
 mourned that he that hath done this deed might 
 not be taken from among you. 
 
 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in 
 
 Q 
 
182 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 spirit, have judged already as though I were pfe* 
 sent, concerning him that hath done this d eed. 
 
 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when ye 
 are gathered together, and my spirit with the 
 power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruc- 
 tion of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in 
 the day of the Lord Jesus." 
 
 In these texts, it is very certain, St. Paul ex- 
 communicates, to make use of the proper, though 
 not the most popular term, the sinful Corinthian. 
 
 I will show you, from another passage, that, 
 perceiving in him extraordinary signs of repent- 
 ance, the apostle did away the punishment to 
 which he had originally doomed him ; granted 
 him, if I may use the term, a plenary indulgence. 
 
 Take the trouble, Ada, to turn to the second 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter the second, 
 verses tenth and eleventh. 
 
 " To whom ye forgive any thing I forgive also, 
 for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, 
 for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. 
 
 Lest Satan should get advantage of us : for we 
 are not ignorant of his devices." 
 
 That this refers to the same individual whom he 
 delivered over to Satan, all the ancient commen- 
 tators agree. St. Paul restored him to the com- 
 munion from which he had been ejected : he dis- 
 pensed with the long and rigid penalties which 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 183 
 
 under ordinary circumstances, be would have been 
 compelled to undergo. In one word, the apostle 
 granted an indulgence, which indulgence had no 
 reference to the sin committed, but merely, as in- 
 dulgences are granted by the church, to the 
 punishment due to that sin. 
 
 But, I have seen it objected, Ada, that the col- 
 lectors of the moneys derived from the application 
 of indulgences, proclaimed that they had the ef- 
 ficacy to do away both punishment and guilt. 
 
 I have merely to answer, in the language of the 
 Council of Vienna, held in the year 1311, under 
 Clement V, (a very dark period no doubt !) 
 
 " We, desirous of abolishing such abuses, which 
 degrade ecclesiastical censures, and bring contempt 
 upon the keys, forbid most strictly the com- 
 mission in future, of any and all such unworthy 
 practices — ." 
 
 This 1 deem a sufficient reply to all the parti- 
 culars, collected and exaggerated and published, 
 and re-published, by " professors," " Watchmen," 
 .and " essayists." 
 
 Then from their pages turn, 
 
 My friend to ours : 
 Tell me, if thou wouldest learn 
 
 The nature, tenets, powers, 
 
 Of an association, 
 Wo«ld it be proper, wise 
 
 Or fair to read 
 
184 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 What its worst enemies 
 
 In hate against it spread ! 
 Wouldst thou not rather seek 
 
 In their own works, 
 In which their learned speak , 
 
 Than in those books where lurks 
 Fierce indignation ! 
 
 Believe not, then, our pure religion's foes, 
 
 The catholic best his own religion knows. 
 
 And the more you will become acquainted with it, 
 the more, or I am egregiously mistaken, you will 
 admire it. Adieu. 
 
 LETTER LI. 
 
 You have read, dear Ada, the beautiful lines of 
 Cowper, to the Cricket. There are few pieces that 
 congenialise, if I may be allowed to form a new 
 verb, more sympathetically with my feelings, than 
 that simple, impromptu-effusion of one of the most 
 pleasing writers, as I believe him to be, in our lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Well, the household song of the cricket is now 
 chirruping in my ear, and I pause, and with the 
 tenderest reminiscences breaking on my memory, I 
 think of long since departed days, when I was a 
 child, Ada; when I nodded, half asleep, at this 
 hour, upon my mother's lap, the solitary cricket 
 kept his vigils on the hearth, singing I know not 
 what ditty, plaintive, feeling, and home-born! 
 
Letters To ada. 1S5 
 
 Home ! Home ! oh sacred name ! 
 
 Where is it? — where we played 
 In child-hood — where the hallowed flame 
 
 Of young affection was first lit : 
 Oh, is there aught, fair maid, 
 As life advances, to compare with it ! 
 
 One as devoted to home, as you are, dear Ada, will 
 feel, as I do, that, travel where we may, form what- 
 ever new friendships we may, there is nothing to 
 compare with the sweet scenes, the sacred associa- 
 tions, the tender reminiscences of our domestic 
 hearth. I have wandered much. Four times has 
 the ocean borne me upon his perilous waters, I 
 have passed the beauteous realms of France, I 
 have seen the romantic valleys of Savoy, I have 
 crossed the tremendous Alps, I have travelled 
 through Italy, and have enjoyed the classic scenes 
 of that most beauteous country, and yet " sweet, 
 home !" 
 
 I think I very much need an indulgence for di- 
 gressing so often from the subject before us, do 
 I not, Ada ? 
 
 Gregory the Seventh, in the year 1057, some 
 four hilndred, and more years, before Luther arose 
 to preach against the practice, granted indulgences 
 to the bishop of Lincoln, "on condition," to use 
 the Pope's own language, "that applying yourself 
 to good works, and bewailing your past sins, you 
 make of your body a pure temple of God." 
 
 Gelasius II. in the year 1118, asserts, that " each 
 
 Q 2 
 
186 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 one receives the value of indulgences, in proportion 
 to his penance (or repentance) and good works." 
 
 Innocent IV. in 1243 writes : " Indulgences are 
 generally granted to labour, perils, and devout ex- 
 ercises ; some, nevertheless, derive more benefit 
 from them than others, according as they dispose 
 themselves for them with greater devotion." 
 
 Urban VIII., proclaiming the customary jubi- 
 lee, in 1300, thus addresses the archbishops and 
 bishops : 
 
 " Instruct your people that in vain will they ex- 
 pect to derive any benefit from the sacred treasure 
 of indulgences, if they do not prepare themselves 
 hy a contrite and humble heart, and do not exer- 
 cise themselves in works of christian piety." 
 
 Does this look like a full pardon for sin past 
 and future, Ada ! Do not these pontiffs, who flou- 
 rished amid the reputed darkness and ignorance 
 of the middle ages, agree perfectly with the doc- 
 trine which I have laid down, and the church in- 
 culcates, in the nineteenth century ! In the name 
 of honour, therefore, and justice, and religion, give 
 no credence whatever to the fabrications of men 
 who invent to suit the taste of prejudice, or falsify 
 to pander to their own interest and speculations. 
 
 But, Ada, how surprising will it appear to the 
 modern protestant to learn, that even the church 
 of England was in the habit of conceding indul- 
 gences, granting commutations! and that there 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 18? 
 
 were certain officers appointed by the ecclesiastical 
 courts, to collect the moneys, paid for such commu- 
 tations. 
 
 There are authentic documents substantiating 
 this fact: and, for your satisfaction, Ada, and the 
 instruction of your friends who may peruse this let- 
 ter, I will cite the original canon, which refers to 
 them : 
 
 <( That no chancellor or commissary, or official 
 shall have power to commute any penance, in 
 whole or in part, but either together with the 
 bishop, f &c. that he shall give a full and just account 
 of such commutations to the bishop, who shall see 
 that all such moneys shall be disposed of for cha- 
 ritable and public uses, according to law — saving 
 always to ecclesiastical officers their dut and accus- 
 tomablefees." Canon four teenth. Sparrow, page 368. 
 
 Is it not undeniable, therefore, dear Ada, that 
 indulgences were granted by the canon law, as 
 well as approved and regulated by the civil law, 
 in England. Did not the framers of the constitu- 
 tion of the English church understand its spirit 
 and bearing better than the professors of the same 
 creed do, at the present era, in this country? If 
 your protestant friends ridicule the idea of indul- 
 gences in the catholic church, do not fail to point 
 their attention to the canon above quoted, and they 
 will there perceive their inconsistency. For your- 
 self, dear Ada, Adieu. 
 
188 
 
 LETTER Lll. 
 
 Thus, have I brought the present series to a 
 close, dear Ada. Never was a more grateful task 
 undertaken, than that I have performed. With a 
 correspondent so amiable, intellectual, and sincere, 
 it is a pleasure, seldom enjoyed, to commune. 
 The summer is now verging towards its close : the 
 country has lost many of its comforts and beau- 
 ties, and the approaching autumn, which will soon 
 lay bare the luxuriance of the forest foliage, and 
 chill the lengthening evenings, warns me to return 
 to the city, and to resume my wonted occupations. 
 
 Fair seat of my ancestors, adieu ! spirit of sum- 
 mer, that didst scatter thy fragrance and loveliness 
 around me; cool zephyr whose aerial wings, wet 
 with morning-dew and stored with health; were 
 wont to fan me in my matin ramblings; pure 
 stream, whose crystal mirror gave back, in pellu- 
 cid reflection, the calm azure of the vesper firma- 
 ment ; and ye blythe warblers of the grove, fare- 
 well. The dull monotony, the rigid realities of my 
 professional avocations await me, amid the busi- 
 ness, and selfishness of the city's noisy vortex. 
 
 How empty, Ada, all that may be there acquir- 
 ed ! how vain every thing, save that eternal trea- 
 sure, which truth, religion, and heart-felt piety, 
 can alone bestow : 
 
LETTERS TO ADA. 489 
 
 Oh ! is not all that glares and smiles 
 
 In wealth's deep mines, in beauty's glow- 
 On ! is not ail for which man toils, 
 
 And labour wastes itself below, 
 Vain fleeting, false I— and genius, too, 
 
 With all its lustre beaming bright, 
 And fancy, with each varied hue, 
 
 Sparkling, like rainbow tints, with light; 
 
 And fashion, with her gaudy train, 
 
 Decked with her flowers, adorned with gems, 
 And grandeur towering by, are vain, 
 
 And vain the monarch's diadems. 
 Pleasure, with wanton tresses fair, 
 
 Tripping luxuriant o'er the mead, 
 With scented chaplets on her hair 
 
 And roses springing where she treads, 
 
 Is but a phantom gliding through 
 
 The fragrant moon-lit bower at night ; 
 Scarce has it charmed the incautious view 
 Than flits it from the wondering sight ! 
 
 Oh spirit of immortal man ! 
 Wouldst thou enjoy true bliss and rest ? 
 Extend thy hopes beyond life's span ; 
 In heaven thou mayest be ever blest ! 
 
 Yes, Ada, as I remarked, in the beginning of 
 this correspondence, religion, and the truths inti- 
 mately connected with religion, are infinitely more 
 important than any other study that could occupy 
 the human mind, or interest the human heart. I 
 have attempted to direct your attention to this 
 study. I have endeavoured to show you how 
 
190 LETTERS TO ADA. 
 
 ignorant some of the wisest men are of our tenets, 
 ceremonies, and customs. 
 
 But the subject is not yet exhausted: much 
 still remains to be expounded and defended : while 
 the storms of winter rage about us, and the snow 
 whitens the fields but lately so lovely and verdant ; 
 while the crackling flame usurps the hearth, which 
 the fragrant flowers ©f summer so recently adorn- 
 ed, I will pursue my investigation, and continue 
 my correspondence. 
 
 For the present, adieu. — Peace attend you in 
 all your ways ; may happiness be your companion, 
 religion shine upon your mind, and charity warm 
 all the affections of your heart. Again, adieu. 
 
 THE END, 
 
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