resentment of the papal partisans, on the very ground of his subjecting the existing Church to the standard of the ancient Church; 66 as if," says one of them, "the Church had either lost or abused the power which she received from her Divine Founder, to govern and instruct; or as if she were no longer guided by that unerring spirit, which, by Christ, is promised to remain with her through every age to the end of time. The Abbé Fleury has the assurance to assert, that, through the undue influence of her school divines, through the forgeries of her librarians, through the ignorance, in fine, and supine negligence of her bishops, the Church has fatally deviated from the path of wise antiquity." I believe the sentiments here expressed may be regarded as a true specimen of the principles which are acted upon in the Church of Rome; and our only conclusion can be, that, the government of that Church is a despotism which admits of no restraints but those of subtle policy and present expediency; and is, therefore, neither to be trusted nor treated with, though its offers were, in appearance, ever so plausible.

I have, however, no shadow of apprehension that our Church will ever be deluded by such artifices, as are, in truth, all such overtures. I do not mean, that they were such in the intention of Archbishop Wake's correspondents, for they were men of worth and integrity; but, I conceive, no overtures nor concessions which would not be deceitful and fallacious, could, without a miracle, come from the constituted authorities of the Roman Catholic Church.

And, I believe, such a miracle is not likely to be performed. The intimations of prophecy point another way: the Church of Rome, properly so called, I mean, the ecclesiastical monarchy of which Rome is the seat,-appears clearly to be destined for signal malediction. Until the eve of that catastrophe, the mixture of true Israelites with the men of Babylon, appears to be permitted; but when the final calamities are approaching, a cry will be heard, by all who have ears to hear, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her plagues." There will, therefore, be no union of already enfranchised Israelites with that Babylon, from which those who, till a late period, will be permitted to reside in her, shall at length be withdrawn.

But, such a summons supposes a terminus ad quem, as well as a terminus a quo. It supposes a Jerusalem to which those emigrants from Babylon may betake themselves. In a word, it would seem to imply, that the Holy City, which had been so long trodden down by the Gentiles, shall, by that time, have been so re-edified, and shall be so distinguishable and conspicuous, as to leave, to willing and honest minds, no doubt of the course they should steer, and of the quiet habitation and sure resting-place which was to be their asylum. On a comparison of the Old Testament prophecies with the Apocalypse, a provision of this kind, an indubitable and authenticated centre of the Catholic Church, appears to be ensured: "a city at unity with itself, whither the tribes may go up;

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where shall be "the seat of judgment, even the seat of the House of David."

But, is there any prognostic of such a provision, or is there, in any part of the yet trodden down city, a visible commencement of the promised reedification? I deliberately answer, that, whether I consider the form, the spirit, or the singular history of our Anglican Church, I think it wonderfully substantiates such an idea. That it is a part of the city, and not to be comprehended in the other figure of preserved Christianity (the woman in the wilderness), is proved by its retention of the same organisation, and, in substance, the same liturgical services that it had originally; as well as by its continued communion, in the matter of holy orders, exclusively with the yet unreformed portion of the Catholic Church. I could argue this point much further, but I think enough is found to establish my position in the slightest comparative view of our castellated structure, exhibiting so much of its ancient grandeur, and the homely tabernacles in which reformed Christianity, in every other instance, finds a shelter rather than a seemly abode.

But, that there is a treading down by the Gentiles, in our portion of the Holy City, though not as gross and unrestrained as elsewhere, may, I think, too clearly be shewn. It is remarkable, that, in our Reformation, the papal power was not simply rejected, but was, as far as it could be by a lay personage, assumed by our sovereign. This assumption, after ceasing in Mary, was claimed

and exercised by Elizabeth, under the solemn sanction of Parliament. Hence arose the High Commission Court, from which the Church of England received her greatest scandals; and it was only at the Revolution that this dishonour was got rid of. But, still, the supremacy so much remains, as to keep the Church under their predominant influence, who ask, "What shall we eat, what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" In truth, who can look around him with an enlightened eye, and not perceive that our portion of the Catholic Church is as really, though not as revoltingly, "trodden down by the Gentiles," as ever were our unreformed neighbours of the Gallican Church? Other reformed communions do not present this appearance; because (to use another sacred metaphor) they have no branches in which the birds of the air can lodge. I, therefore, do not make these remarks in the way of complaint, as if our Church loses, on the whole, by its liability to such abuse: I believe rather, that it would be far less fitted for great eventual purposes, if it were not now an alluring nestling-place for unconscious agents in the yet permitted mystery of iniquity.

But, even now, the developed and depurated good which our Church exhibits to its honest and cordial members, richly compensates for those remaining marks of captivity and desolation, which, after all, are the proofs of its union with the great organised mass, of whose ultimate liberation and Αποκατάστασις, I cannot but hope that itself is intended to be the centre of attraction. I humbly

conceive, that this supposition alone explains the mysterious order of Providence respecting the Anglican Church; that, at once, its interior spirit and tendency should be so pure, so sublime, so simply and superlatively evangelical, breathing the very air of the four Gospels; while its outward administration should be so secular and political, and, what is strangest of all, that this very subjugation to the state, should have served to protect and perpetuate its internal excellences; for, had the principles of the English Church been under no other guarantee than that of her ecclesiastical chiefs, could we say, what, by this time, they might have become? I conceive, it might be demonstrated that (if individuals) individuals only, and those in a very small number, have for the last hundred years, either relished or apprehended the profound interiority of those forms of worship with which they were officially conversant. Could those, therefore, who made no great estimate of the treasure, be its competent or certain preservers? But those forms, having become as a tablet built into the lofty structure of the national constitution, were guarded with jealous care, as a part of that constitution, by those who could least appreciate the intrinsic worth of that which they were preserving.

Thus far, then, I conceive, we can discover the hand of Providence; and, may I not add, "Whoso is wise, will ponder these things, and he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord?" The inference I would on the whole dare to make, is, that a providential apparatus so