A

LETTER

Written by a

LADY

TOA

Romish PRIEST,

UPON HER

Return from the Church of Rome to the Church of England.

SIR,

I

Have ever had much honour for your Perfon, and have found your Friendship fo largely ex

preffed to me in your care of my Welfare, that I can neither be fo ungrateful, as to forget it, or fo unjust as not to acknowledge it. Your Merits therefore, and my Obligations which are so great, move me to give you an account of the Change I have once more made in Religion; in which, though I fear I fhall mifs of your Approbation, yet your Charity, I hope, will judge me no unmannerly or malicious Offender, fince in what I intend to write

I refolve to forbear all Invectives or Reflections that may justly provoke you, or any of your Communion; of which you must not any longer confider me as a Member.

Perhaps you'll impute my Change to the inconftancy of my Sex ; but though I may be fubject to that, as well as other Infirmities of Human Nature, and the weaker Sex, yet I can with a fafe Confcience declare, that of all Weakneffes belonging to the one or the other, I think I am as little fubject to any, as inconftancy; for which I have Contempt in the highest degree. I look upon ficklenefs as one of the most deplorable Infirmities, as well as dangerous, where it is habitual; and therefore have always guarded against it. And I speak it to the praise of God, in whom alone is no fhadow of Change, I have been ever true and conftant to my King, and to my Friends, in all Fortunes and Changes: And therefore to be only fickle in the great Concern of Religion, and Things relating to my Soul, is as improbable, I hope, as I am fure it would be miferable. No, I humbly thank my God, my love to that hath always been conftant, though I have varyed in the Opinion of Things that I thought beft fecured my eternal Happiness. Heaven was always the Mark I ever aimed at; and though through mistake of the wrong for the right Way, I have for fome time gone aftray, yet my Heart was ever fixed there, and in the love and fearch of Truth.

When you beftowed your Pains in inftructing me in your Principles, which I acknowledge with Gratitude, becaufe I believe you intended my good, you had two great advantages over me, the Eclipfe of the Church of England, and my own Youth; which was too weak to difcern her as the now is, and then really was in her felf, cleaned from those Mifts and Clouds of Error, with which like the Sun, the was furrounded and obfanted to 1 4

the

the greatest degree. In truth, Sir, when I look back upon thofe unhappy Times, and confider how the falfe new Lights dazled the Eyes of many, and indifpofed them from difcerning the pure light of Truth; and how the Enthusiasms of Pretenders to the Spirit passed for Divine Inspirations, I hope I may be excused for having wandred out of the way in those distracted Times: Efpecially confidering the great advantages I was promifed by you, if I would join my felf to yours, which you called the Catholick Church. There you made me believe I should find Unity without Division, Light for Darkness; Truth, even the ancient Catholick and Apoftolick Truth, instead of Errors; Certainty and Satisfaction instead of Uncertainty and Doubts; and wholfome Food instead of Poifon. And encouraged with these affurances, I entred in the fimplicity of my Heart, into the Field of your Church, in which you perfuaded me to expect nothing but pure Wheat without Tares.

But alas, Sir, I have been greatly disappointed, for I have found Plenty, great Plenty of Tares there, which grow fo thick, that in truth they almost choak the good Seed of God's most holy Word, Your Church was reprefented to me as an Heaven, or Paradife upon Earth, as all Peace and Purity; but how little have I, to my great Misfortune, found of all, or either of thefe, which upon your Authority I expected to find there.

For, Firft, as to the Unity of your Church, of which you boasted; not to mention the things in which you are united, I found it for the most part to be an Unity of Ignorance and Force; of Ignorance in the generality of your People; and of Force and Terror upon your learned Priefts: And yet notwithstanding thefe and your other Arts and Engines of Union, as your pretended Infallibility, you have more Parties, and Factions, and Divifions in your Church, than are in the Church of England

England. I fay, than are in the Church of EngLand: For as to the Divisions out of it, they do not affect her inward Unity, no more than they do that of yours. Tell me therefore in your Confcience, is the Unity of your Church in it self greater than the intrinfical Union of ours? Are you more of one Mind, or have you fewer Controverfies among your felves, than we have? You know you have not. You know what different Opinions and Disputes you haye about your pretended Infallibility, whether it is feated in the Pope, or in a General Council, or in both; or as fome fay in neither, but in the Church diffufive. You know, and I know, Sir, the implacable Feuds that are betwixt the Jefuits and Seculars; and that these are more inveterate against those, than the Calvinian Faction among us are against the Arminians; nay, even as much as thofe Puritans, and other Sectaries, who have divided from it, are againft our Church it self. In truth, Sir, I have found more Argument and Union of Opinion than is among your Priests, betwixt knowing Church of England Proteftants, and moderate Papifts; who though they will not for fake your Communion, yet defire what we have done, were done a little better, and more regularly in your Church by her own intrinfecal Authority, which they wish the would exert in reforming thofe things, which our Church hath reformed both in Doctrine, Worship, and Government, and that the Univerfal Church was reduced in all Points to the ftate it was in at the Council of Nice.

You told me you differ not among your felves in Fundamentals, but in Matters of mere Opinion, which may with fafety be held either way; but if that be an excufe for your inteftine Divifions, pray let it be admitted as an Apology for ours; and then Reproach us no more with them, nor make them an Argument against our Church. But I

deny

deny, Sir, that you differ not among your felves about Fundamentals, unless you'll fay that Epifcocy and Loyalty are not Fundamentals: Whereof the one fure is Fundamental to the Constitution and Government of the Church, and the other a very comprehenfive and fundamental Part of Chriftian Morality, enjoined by the first Commandment with Promife, and taught us by Chrift and his Apostles, as exprefly as any thing that belongs to Chriftian Practice. Certainly, Sir, that Order of Ministers, which all Antiquity held to be Fundamental to the Church, as a Society founded by Jesus Christ, cannot be a Matter of mere Opinion; and what Chrift and his Apostles taught by their Doctrine and Example, and Christians practised to a Man under Heathen, Heretical, and Apoftate Emperors and Kings with fo much conftancy and in so many bloody Perfecutions, must be a fundamental Duty, and as neceffary to Salvation as any other practical Duty in the whole Moral Syftem of the Chriftian Religion. And yet, Sir, do not your School-men, Canonifts, and other flavish Court-writers in a moft fad manner limit, and mangle, and diftinguifh away these two Do&rines, in afferting Epifcopacy not to be an Order but only a Dignity, and in making Bishops not the Minifters of Chrift, but of the Pope; and that it is lawful to take up Arms againft Sovereign Princes, to fecure the Church. Sir, you know this to be true, and that the Adverfaries of Epifcopacy and Loyalty, who have difhonoured the Church of England, make ufe of the Arguments they find in your Writers; and certainly will make ufe of them against the Church and King, to the end of the World. Then touching the Bible it felf, which I hope is a Fundamental too, did not Pope SIXTUS V. damn all other Copies

a

• See the Latin Book, Entituled, Bellum Papale, &c. Auctore Thoma James. In 4°. Londini, 1600.

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