THE following Letter has made so great a noise in France, and other parts beyond the Seas, for more than these five Months past, since it was first published by the Illustrious Author, who is a Bishop of the Roman Church, that I have won­der'd it has not, in all this time, appear'd in an English dress, till the other day; especially since the Press and the Publick have been so long pester'd with swarmes of Insipid as well as Malicious Pamphlets, from Persons of that Communion, which daily flye abroad, and serve for no other end, but to expose the Folly or Wickedness of the Writers; and therefore I have some reason to be confident, that this excellent Letter, which is now sent into the World in our own Language, will be the more welcome, because the Instructions contained in it, and the Inferences that may be drawn from them, together with the Merit and Character of the Author, are of great use to give us a right Information in matters of the highest Importance, which hitherto have not been of such clear and unquestiona­ble Credit.

And because the Age wherein we live seems to be made up of Contradictions, there are two Things which will not [Page 4]be ingrateful to the Reader to take notice of, and which will farther serve to commend the Letter, and to Apologize for the present Publication of it: The one is, The great Opposition it has met with from the Jesuits, who have endeavour'd all they could to suppress it; and the other is, The Kings Appro­bation of it, who upon the reading it, was pleas'd to say, He saw nothing in it but what was very Innocent. Which shews who are the Authors of those Severities that have been of late us'd against the Protestants in France; and that the Grand Lewis himself, by whose Authority they Act, has not so wholly divested himself of all Principles of Humanity, but in his private Judgment he condemns those Proceedings, to which it may be presum'd, his Consent has been extorted by these Mens Importunity.

The Conformity of those Rules in the general, to the Do­ctrine of the Gospel, which this Reverend and most Worthy Prelate here lays down for the Direction of his Clergy, how to behave themselves towards the New Converts, and the Contrariety they bear, for the most part, to the constant Doctrine and Practice of the Roman Church, as it is a plain Demonstration that their Church, even in the Opinion of some of her chiefest Members, is not Infallible in all her De­terminations, and that she stands in great need of a Reforma­tion, which, as I am very well assured, is heartily wish'd, as it has been in part attempted, by the Author of this Letter; so it gives apparently the lie to some late Writer of the French Nation.

Instances of this Contrariety are so visible, that they ap­pear at first sight, without any wresting or forc'd Interpreta­tion, in every Article of the Letter.

In the First and Second Articles, the Bishop in Obedience to the Command of our Saviour and his Apostles, and in con­formity to the Universal Practice of the Primitive Church, [Page 5]would have the Scripture (at least the Epistles and Gospels) and the Publick Prayers read to the People in the Vulgar Tongue, whereas nothing is more strongly pleaded for, or more strictly injoyn'd and observed in the Church of Rome, than the contrary practice.

The Third Article concerns, especially the Bishop of Meaum, and his Disciples, and some late Representers of our own Na­tion, who have found no way so effectual to gain Proselytes, as to disguise the Tenets of their own Church, which have so horrid an Aspect of themselves, that they would make any Man of common sense afraid to look upon them; and therefore they must be new drest up, and made to come so near to that which they call Protestant Heresie, that the one can hardly be distinguisht from the other, and when the turn is served, and the man by this means is perswaded to be of their Religion, then off goes the Vizard, and there is no more believing your own Senses, but you must believe as the Church believes, and like those Men who have had an old painted Strumpet imposed up­on them for a Wife, instead of a young Beautiful Virgin, you must resolve to be pleas'd with your New Religion, with all her Deformities.

The Fourth Article is a Rejection and Condemnation of se­veral important Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome; as first, the Worship that is given to Saints and Angels, and the Prayers that are made to them, is here absolutely condem­ned as vain, insignificant, and superstitious, and every thing else that is contrary to the truth and sincerity of that Worship and Adoration which belongs to God only. Secondly, It con­demns the Romish Doctrine of the Merit of Good Works, and Supererogation, by teaching us to place our Confidence in the Sole Merits of Christ, which is the true and saving Do­ctrine of the Gospel, and of the Reformed Churches: And last­ly, It condemns that common belief in the Church of Rome, and all those Pilgrimages that are undertaken upon that ac­count [Page 6]that there is a particular and extraordinary Virtue in Images and Relicks, and a Vertue peculiar to some Images of the same Saint, more than there is in others; as is notorious to all the World in the different regard that is had to the Images of the Blessed Virgin at Loretto, Hall, Namur, and o­ther places.

The Fifth Article condemns that empty and ridiculous way of Preaching which is so common among the Priests of the Roman Church, and which is made up of nothing else, but either Sottish and Ill-contriv'd Stories of pretended Miracles, or else of Invectives, without any solid or convincing Arguments against the Reformation.

The Sixth Article condemns the Barbarities that have been exercised in France against the Protestants, and the new Mission of Dragoons, which has been sent into all parts of the Kingdom, to ruine them in their Estates, to torment them in their Bodies, and so to convert them by forcing them against their Consci­ences to set their hands to a prescribed form of Abjuration; which, as I said before, gives apparently the lie to some late French Authors, as Maimbourg for example, who has the Con­fidence to publish to the World, in his Epistle Dedicatory to the King, which is before his Life of Gregory the Great, that there has been nothing but sweet and gentle Methods us'd to bring over the Protestants to the Catholick Church, and that his Majesty had found out the secret of Constraining his Sub­jects, without violence, to be of his Religion.

The Seventh Article is a Confirmation of what is obser­ved upon the former, and gives us sufficiently to understand, that among the great Numbers they boast of, who have abju­red their Religion wherein they had been Educated, there are but very few sincere Converts, by their not coming to Mass, and refusing to participate of any of their Sacraments, when they are not compell'd to it, (which the Bishop in this, and in the 8th and 11th Articles condemns) and by their taking all [Page 7]Opportunities to leave their Native Country, and to seek for Relief and Protection among Strangers; where, upon their Repentance, they may be again receiv'd into the Communion of that Church, from which, through Fear and Coward [...]se they had Apostatiz'd, as appears by the vast numbers, who daily come out of France, and take Sanctuary in England, Hol­land, Suitzerland, and other Protestant Countreys.

The Ninth Article, is an Insinuation of the Abuses that are committed in Auricular Confession, and the Impurities which usually accompany it, and which are almost inseparable from it, when one of the frail Sex is forced upon pain of Damnati­on to lay open her own shame, with all the Circumstances that attended her sin, and especially when the gentleness of a favourable Pennance is made a fresh encouragement to her for the Repetition of the same Crime.

The Twelfth Article is a Condemnation of that barbarous Inhumanity which has been, and is still practised all over France, towards the dead Bodies of those pretended Converts, who refus'd their Sacraments before their death; by dragging them about the Streets, and not suffering their Friends to bury them, but carrying them into the Fields, and there setting a Watch over them till they are devour'd by Dogs, and other ravenous Creatures. A Practice unknown to the most barbarous Nations, who never extended their malice even to their great­est Enemies beyond death; and which nothing but a Religion that delights in nothing but Cruelty, could ever prompt Men to.

The remaining Articles are an earnest Exhortation of the Clergy of that Diocese, to whom the Letter is particularly ad­dressed, to painfulness, and watchfulness in the discharge of their Duty; to meekness, forbearance, condescention, and a Uni­versal Love and Charity, which shews that the Author is a Person of a truly Evangelical Spirit, and deserves a better fate than to live any longer in the Communion of that Church, [Page 8]which is by its very Essence and Constitution apt to inspire its Members with Principles of a quite different and contrary Na­ture.

Those things which the Reverend Author mentions, as ha­ving been constantly of Faith and the Belief of his Church, in opposition to the Doctrine of the Schools, I must beg his Emi­nencies leave to say, that it will hardly be proved, that they were always the Faith of his Church, and that his meaning is, he wishes they had always remain'd in the same Purity wherein Christ and his Apostles left them.

And now let N. Thomson, who was the first Publisher of this Letter in English, make the most of it he can, for the ho­nour of his Church, which besides a little respect to his own gain, was the main design of Printing it in English, nor is it to be doubted but his Translation is as Catholique as the letter it self. But I have one word of Advice to him, and then I have done, That when he publishes a Second Edition of it, he would alter the Title, and call it, A Catalogue of some Corruptions of the Roman Church, both in Doctrine and Practice, by an Author of that Communion.