Wesley Corpus

6. “Was he the trumpeter of persecution when he was per secuted himself?” Just as much as now. Cruel aspersions still ! designed and calculated only to inflame. “Did he then abet persecution on the score of conscience?” No, nor now. Conscience is out of the question. “His Letter contains all the horrors invented by blind misguided zeal, set forth in the most bitter language.” Is this gentleman in his senses? I hope not. Else I know not what excuse to make for him. Not one bitter word is in my Letter. I have learned to put away “all bitterness, with all malice.” But still this is wide of the mark; which of those three points does it prove? 7. “In his Second Letter, he promises to put out the fire which he has already kindled in England.” Second Letter / What is that? I know nothing of it. The fire which he has kindled in England. When? Where? I have kindled no fire in England, any more than in Jamaica. I have done, and will do, all that is in my power to put out that which others have kindled. 8. “He strikes out a creed of his own for Roman Catholics. This fictitious creed he forces upon them.” My words are these: “Suppose every word of Pope Pius's Creed to be true.” I say not a word more of the matter. Now, I appeal to every reasonable man, Is this striking out a creed of my own for Roman Catholics? Is this forcing a fictitious creed on them, “like the Frenchman and the blunderer in the comedy?” What have I to do with one or the other? Is not this dull jest quite out of season? And is the creed, composed by the Council of Trent, and the Bull of Pope Pius IV., a fictitious one? Before Mr. O’Leary asserts this again, let him look into the Concilia Maxima once more, and read there, Bulla Pii Quarti super formá Juramenti professionis fidei.* This forma professionis fidei I call Pope Pius’s Creed. If his “stomach revolts from it,” who can help it? 9. Whether the account given by Philip Melancthon of the * The Bull of Pius IV. concerning the form of the oath on the profession of faith.-EDIT.