Page:A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Frome.djvu/16

8 me tell you this remarkable fact, and judge for yourselves as honest men of common sense, whether, however you may differ in matters of opinion, (that you know we may do, and still be friends,) whether I was not right?

The remarkable fact is this—the very things which were wrong in me, so wrong, that I was virtually driven from my pastoral office on account of them, are still permitted in others, as you may see any day, if you visit several churches in London. Now, my brethren, if these things belonged to the Roman, and not to the English Church, could they or would they be permitted there, to say nothing of other Dioceses?

But you say, all very well. Such things may be strictly lawful, but all things are not expedient; and if they are not essentially Roman Catholic they are very like Roman Catholic practices, and have a tendency to make people become Roman Catholics. That is a question certainly, but it is a different question. And so we might argue that the use of a surplice ought to be abolished, because it is like the Roman Catholic usage; or perhaps the use of an altar; or perhaps the Creed, or the Prayer; or perhaps the use of the Cross in Baptism; or perhaps the singing of Psalms. Or perhaps even that very old time-honoured Church, in which your forefathers and yourselves have worshipped for many centuries, ought to be abolished, because it is like the Roman Catholic's. No, that will not do. Just then let me say this.

I am no more a Roman Catholic, or tending to become a Roman Catholic, or wishing to become a Roman Catholic, because I am fond of the old English Church, than your old S. Peter's parish church of Frome, with its venerable walls, its sacred graves, its monuments, its organ, its chancel, its painted windows, its holy altar, is Roman Catholic. If these are Roman Catholic, I am; if not, I am not.

In regard to what I did and said in the matter of the controversy concerning Baptismal Regeneration: it is quite true, that I took part with some of our best