to the English
system, and say all that our divines said, whether I had fully
weighed it or not." I was sore about the great Anglican divines, as
if they had taken me in, and made me say strong things, which facts
did not justify. Yet I _did_ still hold in substance all that I had
said against the Church of Rome in my Prophetical Office. I felt the
force of the usual Protestant objections against her; I believed that
we had the apostolical succession in the Anglican Church, and the
grace of the sacraments; I was not sure that the difficulty of its
isolation might not be overcome, though I was far from sure that it
could. I did not see any clear proof that it had committed itself to
any heresy, or had taken part against the truth; and I was not sure
that it would not revive into full apostolic purity and strength, and
grow into union with Rome herself (Rome explaining her doctrines and
guarding against their abuse), that is, if we were but patient and
hopeful. I wished for union between the Anglican Church and Rome, if,
and when, it was possible; and I did what I could to gain weekly
prayers for that object. The ground which I felt good against her was
the moral ground: I felt I could not be wrong in striking at her
political and social line of action. The alliance of a dogmatic
religion with liberals, high or low, seemed to me a providential
direction against moving towards it, and a better "Preservative
against Popery," than the three volumes of folio, in which, I think,
that prophylactic is to be found. However, on occasions which
demanded it, I felt it a duty to give out plainly all that I thought,
though I did not like to do so. One such instance occurred, when I
had to publish a letter about Tract 90. In that letter I said,
"Instead of setting before the soul the Holy Trinity, and heaven and
hell, the Church of Rome does seem to me, as a popular system, to
preach the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, and purgatory." On this
occasion I recollect expressing to a friend the distress it gave me
thus to speak; but, I said, "How can I help saying it, if I think it?
and I _do_ think it; my Bishop calls on me to say out what I think;
and that is the long and the short of it." But I recollected Hurrell
Froude's words to me, almost his dying words, "I must enter another
protest against your cursing and swearing. What good can it do? and I
call it uncharitable to an excess. How mistaken we may ourselves be,
on many points that a