ve any security
to that government for their allegiance and peaceful behavior.
But this, no Romanist can do; not only while he holds that 'no
faith is to be kept with heretics,' but so long as he
acknowledges either priestly absolution, or the spiritual power
of the Pope.

"If any one pleases to answer this, and set his name, I shall
probably reply. But the productions of anonymous writers I do
not promise to take any notice of.

"I am, sir, your humble servant,

"JOHN WESLEY.

"CITY ROAD, January 12, 1780."

But, sir, you know as well as any living man that the history of the
Church, from the days of the first Pope down to the iniquitous reign of
Pius IX., sustains Mr. Wesley in his views on this subject, and
justifies the steps taken by the American party. Notwithstanding the
oft-repeated profession of Catholic liberality and Romish toleration, so
triumphantly paraded by you, and other interested aspirants and
unprincipled demagogues, the Catholic Church has invariably shown
herself to be destitute of both, whenever she had the opportunity of
using them. Sir, _intolerance_ is an element of her faith, and
_persecution_ a specimen of her piety; and no man knows it better than
you do. In taking upon herself the obligation of "true obedience to the
Pope," the Catholic Church imposes upon herself a task that proves
beyond all doubt she cannot, under any circumstances, remain faithful to
that obligation, and yet maintain "allegiance" to such a government as
ours!

Sir, I have no patience with a Protestant minister who stands forth as
the apologist of Catholicism; nor have I any confidence in one who does
it, provided he is a man of _intelligence_, as I admit you to be. The
only excuse I can render for your strange and inconsistent conduct is,
that you are in your dotage; that you are a violent old partisan; and
that you are the tool of designing demagogues, infamous disunionists,
and unmitigated repudiators. I shall not be at all surprised to hear
that you have apostatized from the Methodist Church, and gone over to
the Roman Catholics. I learn from the Little Rock Gazette, a Democratic
paper, that but the other day, Gov. E. N. Carway, of Arkansas, a member
of the Methodist Church, had actually apostatized from Methodism, and
the Protestant faith, and united with the Roman Catholics. And what
makes his defection from the faith of his fathers still more notorious