fact, even if they have ignored the law on which the certainty of that fact is based.

We might go on to show how, when the nation seemed about to be brought again under the Papal yoke by James II, and when that monarch was cajoling successfully with the Puritan party to accomplish his ends, just as Puritans and Papists had conspired together for the overthrow of the English Church in 1558, and as they are conspiring now*—that then it was that Churchmen came to the rescue. Those noble Prelates, Sancroft, Kenn, Lake, Turner, Lloyd, White, and Trelawney, went to the Tower, amidst the mingled cheers and lamentations of all classes for their bold resistance to a measure which had the establishment of Popery as its only object. And then, at that period it was-of lethargy and corruption as her revilers would have it-that from the bosom of the English Church there sprang into existence that first and noblest Missionary organization of Protestant Christendom, which has encircled the earth with its charities, and is now, with its younger sister Society, planting the Cross on the extremest verge of modern discovery and enterprise. At least twenty-four Missionary Dioceses and more than thirty Missionary Bishops, nearly four thousand living missionary teachers, forty thousand communicants in Missionary Churches,† numerous Mission Schools and Colleges, and nearly a million and a half of money poured annually into her Missionary Treasury,-these attest the vitality and power of the English Church at the present day. We are aware that the religious and political papers of this country, almost without exception, either systematically abuse and vilify her, or fail do her justice. We grant the fact of the most unequal and unjust distribution among her working classes of her vast wealth. We do not forget the drift wood cast of late upon the Roman and Genevan shores, of which the two Mannings are specimens; and yet no intelligent man can fail to see that

"

Dr. South quotes Coleman, as follows:- That all the advantages they (the Papists) expected to make was by the help of the Nonconformists, as Presbyterians, Independents, and other sects. Let, says he, all our Separatists and Dissenters know that they are but the Pope's journeymen to carry on his work, and that even they who are the loudest criers against Popery, are the surest and most industrious factors for it."

None were noiser in preaching among the Puritans against Episcopacy, and Liturgies, and Surplices, &c. &c., than these Jesuits in disguise. We have full proofs on this point which we propose at some future time to lay before the reader.

The communicants in the Churches of the Church Missionary Society are reported as about eighteen thousand. The Reports of the Venerable Propagation Society are very imperfect, yet from a careful estimate of its last Report the number of Communicants cannot be less than twenty-one thousand.

beyond all question her progress is steadily and gloriously onward; and that her prospects were never so bright as now.

And what, on the other hand, let us now ask, have been the fruits of English Dissent? A very large portion of the Baptists, as is well known, have gone over to the ranks of Unitarianism. Recent authority states that out of 258 Presbyterian chaples in England, 235 are avowedly and openly Unitarian. Among the Independents, even of that portion hitherto regarded as nominally orthodox, no one can read the criminations and recriminations at this moment going on in Englandno one can see the false ground taken on the most vital doctrines of the Gospel-without endorsing the judgment of a late non-Episcopal writer who confesses, under date of Aug. 7, 1856, that recent events have "sadly shaken public confidence in the evangelicalism of the Nonconformist pulpits of the land." And the Morning Advertiser, (London,) edited by a Dissenter, lately said: "The distinctive doctrines of the Gospel-those which constitute the glory of the Christian system, are ignored among both the Noncomformist bodies to an extent which it is awful to contemplate. The Cross has become an offense, even with those whose avowed mission it is to preach Christ and Him crucified. A ban is put upon all that is vital in the Gospel. All is cold, heartless, cheerless in their places of worship. Never was evangelical religion in so low a state as it is at the present time in the Nonconformist bodies. A large number of the young men who are studying in Independent and Baptist Colleges are more or less tinctured with neological heresy. They have partaken more or less deeply of German Rationalism."

Such are the palpable and undeniable fruits of that English Puritanism which scoffed like an infidel at "Episcopacy," and "Liturgies," and "bowing at the name of Jesus," and "Surplices," &c., &c., and we may say that the tree is to be known, and ought to be known, by its fruits. And now we ask, where, even at that day to which our modern eulogists point as the golden age of English Puritanism, where was it that the real heart and strength and glory, the bone and sinew, of the English nation, was to be found? With the past before us up to this hour, was it to be found in the old Church of England, or in the ranks of Dissent? We are willing to spread this question till it shall embrace all the elements of national prosperity and glory.

The fragments of history which we have cited above, though familiar to the scholar, are not familiar to the great mass even of intelligent readers. They ought to be diffused by the popu

lar literature of the day, until no man who cares for his reputation will dare echo the silly nonsense which has been too long current among us. We take no pleasure in poring over the record of Puritan cruelty, sacrilege, and intolerance. But we are driven by necessity to recall the memory of facts, which are now both studiously concealed and habitually denied; and we are then branded as bigots because we will not stultify ourselves, by joining the popular and unqualified praise of that system which persecuted our forefathers unto the death. We hope the descendants of those men are more tolerant from choice and not from necessity; and yet we cannot help saying that there is a vast deal of as thoroughly bitter hatred of the Church now as there was in the days of Pryn and Bastwick, though it lacks somewhat of their vulgarity and coarseness.* And now, in conclusion, one word to the "Memorialists," whose suggestions have so long occupied the attention of the Church. Is it not wise to pause a little before important concessions are made? Are we quite sure that our "pearls" will not be trampled upon, and we in turn be rent in twain? We may forget the dividing line between what is human and what is divine in the economy of Christ's Kingdom. We may change, or attempt to change, the whole tone and genius of the Church. We may give up one point after another until there is little left worth contending for. We may abandon the old policy of the Church, and barter away Christian faith for human expediency, and so forfeit the Divine favor. We may yield, one after another, those venerable walls and bulwarks which frown so formidably in the eyes of some Churchmen, and yet which are the chief points of attraction to those outside our pale, who alone have the spirit to appreciate our privileges. And what then? What shall we have gained? We may perchance increase in numbers, though this is doubtful, but not in strength. We have introduced elements of weakness, restlessness, strife and discord; and if there be an apparent growth, it is yet unhealthy and unreliable. Doubtless there are certain changes in the practical working of the Church system suited to our age and times. It would be strange if it were not so; yet they do not touch one vital part; it is only a better adjustment of her machinery to the conditions of society which is called for.

*Pryn called "our Church music a bleating of brute beasts; choristers bellow the tenor as if they were oxen; bark a counterpoint like a kennel of dogs; roar a treble as if they were bulls; and grunt out a bass like a parcel of hogs.' Compare this with those scurrilous pamphlets, of New England orgin, " A Serious Call," &c., and "A Looking Glass for High Churchmen."

But the whole subject is one to be approached only with those rarer virtues, the deepest reverence, and the highest wisdom, and with the most earnest prayer. A profane hand alone dare touch and tamper with the Ark of God. More faith, more obedience, more self-sacrifice, more taking Christ at His word, and less of self-will and presumption are what the Church now needs. Nor ought we to forget that multitudes without, are even now giving up their prejudices and owning allegiance to that glorious old Reformed Martyr Church of England which has proved herself the conservator of Primitive Truth, and which, we trust, is to be the Palladium of Constitutional Liberty in England and the United States. We think we understand the position which the Puritans of other days occupied; nor ought we to wonder at the tenacity with which their descendants still cling to their hatred. Still time will do its work, and we can afford to wait. We dare trust the future; espe cially when we see men like Bancroft liberalized by study into a truer Catholicity, and witness the remarkable changes of sentiment and tone which appear in the earlier and later editions of his History. All that we contend for, is, that the record of those stirring and pregnant times to which we have adverted shall be given with unsparing fidelity; and that record we are willing to leave to the verdict of all honest-minded and truthloving readers.

ART. VI. THE POSTSCRIPT TO THE MEMORIAL.

TO THE RT. REV. JAMES HERVEY OTEY, D. D., BISHOP OF TENNESSEE, CHAIRMAN OF A COMMISSION OF BISHOPS, APPOINTED ON THE MEMORIAL OF SUNDRY PRESBYTERS, &c.

REVEREND FATHER IN GOD:-At so late a day in the history of your Commission I should not venture to address you, except with the primary purpose of expressing, for myself and others, an earnest desire that your Commission should be continued for a longer time, if not perpetuated. That your Report is already prepared, and your work in some sense complete, I suppose should be taken for granted. But I trust it will not be found inconsistent with any result you may have reached to consider the expediency of a further prosecution of the great objects to which you have successfully directed the attention of the Church, but which are too important, and as yet too little digested, to be in a shape for legislation. The idea of an entirely abortive conclusion to beginnings, so promising and so wholesome, I cannot for a moment entertain; and yet, even this might be a result, less deplorable, than hasty and crude attempts at reforms.

Intending to press this appeal in the conclusion of this letter, I shall endeavor to show, in the course of it, that great and momentous matters are now fairly before the Church, as the result, under GOD, of the appointment of your Commission, the discussion and settlement of which are the work of an age, and not of a moment; and to which hearts, and minds, and souls must elevate themselves by sympathies, and studies, and progressive piety, before they can be competent to the grave task of attempting the improvement of what is now so precious and so practically good, and withal so sacred, as the work of our fathers.

If the expression, at the outset, of a spirit so cautious, if not timid, should be judged inconsistent with a deep interest in the Memorial, on which your Commission was raised, allow me to say that such will be found to be the spirit of that Postscript to the Memorial, to which alone I am a subscriber, and in coincidence with which, rather than with the Memorial itself, I now venture to address you.

Emboldened by a kind personal invitation from yourself I address, through you, the Commission over which you preside,