archbishop of Prague; declaring, "that he "knew not that John Hufs was culpable or faulty in any crime or offence whatsoever."

Let us now suppose those testimonials to be genuine, and grant them to Mr. Wefley to get rid of a bad caufe. What advantage can he derive from them? The bishop of Nazareth declares, that he talked very often with John Hufs, and that in their converfation, he difcovered nothing finifter or erroneous in him. Doubtless, in converfing with a bishop who' was an Inquifitor, John Hufs was upon his guard. The archbishop "knew not that he "was culpable." The converfation of the first, and the know not of the other, muft counterbalance the pofitive and decifive proofs, produced on a criminal's trial, in prefence of a general council, no ways interested in the condemnation of a man, in whom there " was no “evil, nothing finifter or erroneous." Teftimonials are often granted to people from tenderness, or ignorance, which will avail but little on a trial.

The thirtieth propofition, extracted from Hufs's works, and condemned by the council, runs thus: "There is no temporal lord, there " is no pope, no bishop, when he is in the state " of mortal fin." Hufs himself acknowledged this feditious propofition, which authorizes the

fanatical

fanatical faint to take the king's crown, if he fees him but once drunk; or to feize the property of the lord of the manor, if, in scolding his coachman, he curfes. The fruits of this doctrine were as vifible in Bohemia, as the fruits of Mr. Wefley's Apology for the affociations, are legible in the glowing embers of London.

L'Enfant, the Calvinist historian of the council of Conftance, better informed than Mr. Wefley, can instruct him in these words:

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John Hufs, by his fermons and writings, and "violent and outrageous conduct, had ex"tremely contributed to the troubles which then distracted Bohemia." *

What becomes now of teftimonials which carry contradiction on the very face of them, whereas John Hufs was excommunicated a year and a half before he obtained them? Those bishops, then, must have been mistaken if their teftimonials be genuine. Each of them muft have been the Burnet of his days; of whom Proteftant as well as Catholic hiftorians remark, that he is never to be believed less, than when he relates facts, of which he pretends to have been an ocular witness.

Mr. Wesley denies that " John Hufs ever "attempted to make his escape." He may deny

* L'Enfant, B. 3. No. 57.

deny his own journals. Dacher and Reichenthal, two German hiftorians, prefent at the council, and on whom L'Enfant paffes the higheft encomiums for candour and integrity, relate that John Hufs attempted to make his escape. Here he violated his fafe-conduct, and forced his judges to confine him. L'Enfant exhaufts his wit, to invalidate the relation of thofe, (according to himself,) "unprejudiced "hiftorians." His chief reafons are, "the "filence of the acts of the council about "Hufs's flight." To this it is answered, that in the acts of a council, the judicial acts done in full council, are alone related; not every incident that happens in a city where it is held. Hence Hufs's imprisonment is not mentioned, Jerome of Prague's flight is mentioned, because the council fent him a fafe-conduct, and the cause required to be fpecified. Secondly, he fays that "it appears that Hufs was appre“hended on the twenty-eighth of November; "and confequently could not efcape in the fol

lowing March." Befides other reasons, it can be answered that the mistake of a date, often owing to the fault of copyers or printers, cannot invalidate the truth of a public fact attested by fuch ocular witneffes, as L'Enfant defcribes the two German hiftorians to have been.

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But Mr. Wesley infifts, that "the emperor Sigifmund granted Hufs a fafe-conduct, promifing

..

mifing him impunity, in cafe he was found "guilty." I explained the nature of fafeconducts, in my Remarks on that gentleman's letters and I infift that fafe-conducts of the kind are never granted. It is enough for fovereigns to extend the mercy of prerogative to criminals, when they are found guilty by their judges; without faying to a rebel, or an incendiary, or to a highwayman: "Go and take

your trial: never fear: I will grant you your "pardon, when you are found guilty, though I

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am convinced you are an arrant rogue. They never enter into compacts of the kind with fuch people. A man who is to take his trial, and has enemies in the way, may call for a fafe-conduct to go to the place of trial, and return unmolested, if he is acquitted: and this was the cafe of Hufs. He offered of himself to take his trial, and to submit to the sentence, if found guilty. He never upbraided the emperor with his breach of promife, when he was given up to the fecular arm; which he would have done, had the emperor given him fuch an affurance. The Huffites themselves went, on the faith of a fafe-conduct, to the council of Bafil, and never alleged breach of faith with John Hufs.

It was, then, in the fixteenth century, when interested men fomented divifions between Catho

lics and Proteftants, that the hand of calumny wrote falfe commentaries on the text of the canon of the council of Conftance; and handed it down as a theme to religious declaimers, whom the test of orthodoxy propofed by the very council, will ever stare in the face.

Here is the teft inserted in a bull published with the approbation of a general council, not by the pope in his perfonal capacity, but faero approbante concilio. "Let the perfon fufpected be asked, Whether he or she does "not think that all wilful perjury, committed

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upon any occafion whatfoever, for the pre"fervation of one's life, or another man's, or 66 even for the fake of the faith, is a mortal "fin?"

I have read near upon a thoufand religious declamations against popery: not one of the authors of those invectives has candour or honour to produce that teft in favour of Catholics : which fhews the fpirit that actuates them. They fhould, at leaft, imitate the limner who firft painted Pope's Effay on man, and contrafted, on the fame canvas, the blooming cheek with the frightful skeleton, linked together in the fame group. No. They will paint the Catholic religion in profile, and fix a Saracen's cheek into the face of the Chriftian. The declaration of a general council, which can af

ford