But the Priest was provoked, forsooth, by the conduct of certain Protestant Clergymen and their agents who enter the house of the poor Romanist, to pervert his faith! The charge is that we are making proselytes. If by this it be meant that we are trying to get people over from one Church to another, I demur to it. It is my object, with God’s assistance, to make them Christians, to draw them to Christ, but I wish to make them _converts_ and not _proselytes_. I wish indeed to see them Church of England Christians, because I believe that my own dear Church exhibits Christ in her Articles and formularies, and is a truly Scriptural Church. But I confess that I was almost provoked to a smile when I read of _the complaints of Rome_ that we are seeking to proselytise! Rome which is literally setting wife against husband, daughter against father, by the most insidious artifices; perverting Protestants, and even the children of Protestant Clergymen, by artifices the most subtle! Rome which is not content with contesting the ground with us in our own land but in heathen countries also, as well as in our colonies! The charge of proselytising comes with a very bad grace from the Church of Rome! Let me however say that though I do not wish to _proselytize_ but to _convert_, I will not undertake to keep my Scripture Readers out of any house at the dictation of Priest or Pope. I will not undertake to leave men in error and darkness. Let us use lawful, open handed, means, let us not have recourse to subtle artifice. Let us have all as open as the day, and I have no fear for the ultimate progress of the truth. And we ask all members of the Church of Rome to confine themselves to honourable, straightforward, proceedings. It will perhaps be said that in what I am now about to urge I am trenching on party politics. I appeal to my two years’ ministrations in this town, whether I have at any time been guilty of advancing anything in the shape of party politics. But there are some questions in which politics and religion are so intimately blended, that I hold it to be false delicacy to abstain from the bold avowal of our sentiments. I put it to you—are we prepared to pay money to the Romish Priests for burning Bibles in Ireland or in England, without a manful, constitutional, struggle? I know that if you deviate from the simple ground of principle, and begin to talk of _expediency_, a strong case may readily be made. On grounds of expediency, I myself should be disposed to yield, but _as a sworn minister of the Church of England_, _I have proclaimed Rome to be_ IDOLATROUS; _and if you are ashamed of your Church_, I AM NOT; and I will not consent, either directly or indirectly, to support idolatry—I will not consent to pay money for a Priest who goes into London ’Prentice-street or into Ireland to burn the Word of God.