Page:A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Frome.djvu/20

12 in its perfection and fulness, than to be ever beginning to build and never completing,—but if it be God's will that this shall be our work in this generation, that work we must do, and do it manfully. I will tell you honestly, my brethren, that I am ever hoping and looking for the time when Church Rates may be abolished, and every compulsory or merely legal establishment of the Church's claims be for ever set aside, that the Bishops may no longer sit in the House of Lords, but legislate for the Church in the Church's legitimate way, in Diocesan and Provincial Synods, subject to the General Council of all Christendom; and so all men be left unfettered by ought save the obligations of conscience and the rule of the Gospel Dispensation in the exercise of their religion,—for if the Church of England be true, "Magna est Veritas et prævalebit," if it come of, no man can overthrow it; but if it be not true, and if it do not come of , the sooner it is put aside and the real truth ascertained the better. Only let the Church be free, meet in Synod and express her faith, independently of the State, then I verily believe you will see both Roman Catholics and Dissenters flocking back to her standard, and we shall be one again.

I was in the midst of writing the above, and was about to say some few more words, which I thought might be of use in allaying unnecessary alarm, when I was informed that a memorial had been presented to the Marchioness of Bath, and subsequently another to the Bishop of the Diocese, deprecating my presentation to the living; and I also learned to my dismay, that five of the Clergy of the parish of Frome had taken the lead in these memorials, bringing charges against me, as one, in their opinion unfit to come among you, and that they had conveyed the signification of their objection against me to the public newspapers.

Of course it does not become me in any way to notice what is said in newspapers, nor to give any heed to the comments and misrepresentations of