the law fall into disuse. Being now impressed, he never passed a day "without some ardent aspirations toward the author of his life and existence." But lest this should not have a sufficiency of effect, we of course are not left without "eyes streaming with tears." Yet the conversion

was not complete.

I shall here give the passage by which the English Protestant clergy were bound to read the Office daily, to shew Mr. White's friends that originally the Church which that gentleman joined required, if not an hour and a half, at least upwards of half an hour in the twenty-four to be spent in reciting prayers. In the first preface to the Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth was the following passage:

"And all the priests and deacons are bound to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer, either privately or openly, except they be let by preaching, studying divinity, or some other urgent cause."

To which the Scotch Liturgy added:

"Of which cause, if it be frequently pretended, they are to make the Bishop of the diocess, or the Archbishop of the province, the judge and allower."

To show that this was not public reading in the Church, the next sentence provides specially for that object:

"And the curate that minstereth in every parish church or chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably letted, shall say the same in the parish church or chapel where he ministereth, and shall toll a bell thereto, a convenient time before he begin, that such as may be disposed may come and hear God's word and pray with him."

But what altogether removes any doubt upon the subject, is the testimony of Hammond L'Estrange upon the subject; in his Alliance of the Divine Offices, printed in London in 1699, third folio edition, page 27, letter S.; commenting upon the above passage, he has the following:

"The act preceding (respecting the liturgy, 5 and 6 Edward VI), telling us so expressly that open prayer is such as is made in a cathedral, church, chapel, or oratory, in a consecrated place, we need no Edipus to unriddle the import of private, or to doubt that it signifieth any thing other that such as is performed at home. But, why is the minister bound to say it daily either in publick or at home? Some think our Church had under consideration how ignorant and illiterate many vicars were, and ordered thus, that they might con in private, the better to enable them for the publick. But I am of another perswasion: for first, the Church I conceive would not as she doth enjoin them to officiate in publick, did she not suppose them already in some tollerable degree fitted for the servise. Again, the words are general, not definitely such and such of those

mean abilities, but all ministers without exception. Now, though very many were, yet it is no cheritable judgment to believe them all dunces; and it is apparent, that where such ignorance fell under the consideration of authority, the phrase doth vary, with a particular application to them alone who were guilty of it; so it is in the Queen's injunctions (Eliz. Injunct. 35) such; (such only, not all) as are, but mean readers, shall peruse over before, once or twice the Chapters and other Homilies, to the intent, that they may read to the better understanding of the people, and the more encouragement of godliness. So that I rather think the Churche's policy was the better to inure and habituate clergy to religious duties," and so forth.

From this, it is plain, that originally the Church of England, which only omitted some portions of our breviary, and translated the retained part into English, enjoined its daily recital to her clergy, as a good and sanctifying religious practice. I believe, like Mr. White, they considered it to be an unmeaning and extremely burthensome practise, and have long since permitted this and many similar regulations to fall into disuse. My object is to show that the prayers were no novelty to the gentleman, if he had been in the habit of reading his breviary; but I ought to have recollected what he had written in Doblado's Letters, page 299: "The breviary, in its black binding, clasps, and gilt leaves, is kept upon the table to check the doubts of any chance intruder;" and in all probability this was the only use which had been made of it during several years; so that, perhaps, the prayers were new to the gentleman, and what he could have known in the Catholic Church was forgotten.

I shall conclude this letter, by giving you a tolerable large extract from Mr. White's Evidence, so as in his own words to lay before you the whole process of his conversion from infidelity to the English Protestant Church:

"This was all the change that for a year or more took place, in my religious notions. Obliged to support myself chiefly by my pen, and anxious at the same time to acquire some branches of learning, which Spanish education neglects, my days and nights were employed in study; yet religion had daily some share of my attention. I learned that the author of the Natural Theology had also written a work on the Evidences of Christianity, and curiosity led me to read it. His argument appeared to me very strong; but I found an intrinsic incredibility in the facts of revealed history, which no general evidence seemed able to remove. was indeed laboring under what I believe to be a very common error in this matter-an error which I have not been able completely to correct, without a very long study of the subject myself. I expected that general

evidence would remove the natural inverisimilitude of miraculous events; that, being convinced by unanswerable arguments that Christ and his Apostles could be neither impostors nor enthusiasts, and that the narrative of their ministry is genuine and true, the imagination would not shrink from forms of things so dissimilar to its own representations of real objects, and so conformable in appearance with the tricks of jugglers and impostors. Now, the fact is, that probable and likely, though used as synonymous in common language, are perfectly distinct in philosophy. The probable is that for the reality of which we can allege some reason: the likely, that which bears in its face a semblance or analogy to what is classed in our minds under the predicament of existence. This association is made early in life among Christians, in favor of the miraculous events recorded in the Holy Scriptures; and if not broken by infidelity in after-life, the study of the Gospel evidence gives those events a character of reality, which leaves the mind satisfied and at rest; because it finds the history of revealed religion not only probable but likely. It is much otherwise with a man who rejects the Gospel for a considerable period, and accustoms his mind to rank the supernatural works recorded by revelation, with falsehood and imposture. Liklihood, in this case, becomes the strongest ground of belief; and probability, though it may convince the understanding, has but little influence over the imagination.

"A sceptic who yields to the powerful proofs of revelation, will, for a long time, experience a most painful discordance between his judg ment and the associations which unbelief has produced. When most earnest in the contemplation of Christian truth, when endeavoring to bring home its comforts to the heart, the imagination will suddenly revolt, and cast the whole, at a sweep, among the rejected notions. This is, indeed, a natural consequence of infidelity, which mere reasoning ist not able to remove. Nothing but humble prayer can, indeed, obtain that faith which, when reason and sound judbment have led us to supernatural truth, gives to unseen things the body and substance of reality. But of this I shall have occasion to speak again.

"The degree of conviction produced by Paley's Evidences was, however, sufficiently powerful to make me pray daily for divine assistance. This was done in a very simple manner. Every morning I repeated the Lord's prayer seriously and attentively, offering up to my Maker a sincere desire of the knowledge of him. This practice I continued three years. My persuasion, that Christianity was not one and the same thing with the Roman Catholic religion, growing stronger all the while. As my rejection of revealed religion had been the effect, not of direct

objection to its evidences, but of weighing tenets against them, which they were not intended to support; the balance inclined in favor of the truth of the Gospel, in proportion as I struck out dogmas, which I had been taught to identify with the doctrines of Christ. The day arrived, at length, when, convinced of the substantial truth of Christianity, no question remained before me, but that of choosing the form under which I was to profess it. The deliberation which preceded this choice, was one of no great difficulty to me. The points of difference between the Churches of England and Rome, though important, are comparatively few; they were, besides, the very points which had produced my unbelief. That the doctrines common to both Churches were found in the Scriptures, my early studies and professional knowledge left me no room to doubt; and, as the evidence of revelation had brought me to acknowledge the authority of the Scriptures, I could find no objection to the resumption of tenets which had so long possessed my belief. The communion in which I was inclined to procure admission was not, indeed, that in which I was educated; but I had so long wandered away from the Roman fold, that, when approaching the Church of England, both the absence of what had driven me from Catholicism, and the existence of all the other parts of that system made me feel as if I were returning to the repaired home of my youth.

"Upon receiving the sacrament for the first time, according to the form of the English Church, my early feelings of devotion revived; yet by no means, as it might be feared in a common case, with some secret leaning to what I had left; for Catholicism was thoroughly blended with my bitterest recollections. It was a devotion more calm and more rational; if not quite strong in faith, yet decided as to practice. The religious act I performed, I considered as a most solemn engagement to obey the laws of the Gospel; and I thank God that, since that period, whatever clouds have obscured my religious views, no deliberate breach of the sacred law, has increased the sting of remorse, which the unbelieving part of my life left in my breast.

"The renovated influence of religion, cherished by meditation and study, induced me, after a period of a year and a half, to resume my priestly character; a step without which I thought I had not completed the re-acknowledgment I owed to the truth of Christianity. If any one, unacquainted with my circumstances, should be inclined to suspect my motives, he may easily ascertain his mistake, by inquiring into the uniform tenor of my conduct since, in 1814, I subscribed the articles of the Church of England."

I must reserve my comments upon this passage to my next letter, and remain

Yours, respectfully,

B. C.

LETTER VIII.

CHARLESTON, S. C., Oct. 23. 1826.

To the Roman Catholics of the United States of America.

My Friends-I now come to consider the process by which Mr. White asserts he became a member of the Church of England. He attributes his conversion, in the first place, to the study of Paley's Evidences of Christianity. But he informs us, that no reasoning can remove infidelity, page 29, that "nothing but a humble prayer can obtain that faith which when reason and sound judgment have led us to supernatural truth gives to things unseen the body and substance of reality." cerning this, to use his own phrase, we shall have more hereafter.

Archdeacon Paley sets out with a plain proposition: That it is only by miracles a revelation can be made. "Preparatory Considerations,' paragraph 3. "Now in what way can a revelation be made by miracles? In none which we are able to conceive." If Mr. White was then converted to Christianity by Archdeacon Paley's Evidences, he must have been convinced of the truth of the miracles by which the divine mission of the Apostles was attested; and indeed, the Archdeacon has put the proof strongly. But if Mr. White had been in the least degree conversant with the history or theology of his former Church, which is ours, he must have plainly seen that in the two chapters of the archdeacon's proofs of his second proposition part I, he was guilty of a great number of palpably false statements; and it was only by supposing the truth of those statements, he was able to prevent the full force of his Evidences in support of Christianity, from becoming proofs of the exclusive truth of Catholicism. Here Mr. White must have been either very ignorant of what he ought to know; or it is perfectly impossible that he could, through Doctor Paley's Evidences, have become a Christian without becoming a Roman Catholic. I do not think his ignorance is so great as this would require, and therefore I am of the opinion that to this moment Mr. White is not a believer in the truth of the Christian religion.

Doctor Paley having in his first proposition established the fact, that miracles were wrought to attest the commission of the teachers of Christianity, and having in his preparatory considerations, admitted the principle, that it is only by miracles we can obtain a revelation: it fol