Yet, far from the English Churchman be undutiful words, unloyal thoughts, and unholy sarcasms. For it he looks on the past,-can he trace our Church from its apostolical planting through successive ages downwards, and mark how wondrously her Lord and Head hath protected, guided, chastened, and controlled her,—without prayers and presentiments of the deepest order? From what invasions hath she recovered, what shocks withstood, what persecutions overcome, what heresies silenced, and over what martyrdoms, fires, and fetters hath she triumphed? And who can contrast her unparalleled consistency at the Reformation,-when she REJECTED alike Roman falsehood and schismatic novelty, while she RETAINED Evangelic truth in combination with Apostolic order,-and not perceive "the good hand of God" upon her? And if with what she has been, he also reflects on what, under the promised guidance of her Divine Master, she may yet become,-even the Educatrix of nations and the great Ambassadress for Christ to the world's Gentile myriads,-how can he view with any but a religious eye, every danger that threatens her catholicity, and every schism that would rend her unity?

While then the plotting Romanist, and his unnatural ally, the Political Dissenter, in combination with a miscellaneous rabble of Deists, Socinians, philosophic Infidels, Chartists, Socialists, and all who abhor the "things which belong unto Cæsar," while these are malevolently enraptured with the bare idea of our Church's downfall, her faithful son will behold her warfare with reverence, sympathy, and prayer. He has not read history in vain; and therefore cannot be blind to the undeniable fact that our Church has ever been bound up with the solid glories, the substantial interests, and the per

manent welfare of the Empire. To a great extent we may say, that with all her allowed faults, sins, and inconsistencies, and after a candid and full confession of her manifold short-comings, declensions, and carnalities,—yet has she been on the whole the peerless blessing of our country. For in so far as Her sacred function has been duly exercised, and her spiritual apparatus successfully applied, the Church of England has proved the spring of national piety, the root of public morals, the guardian of political liberty, the protector of social rights, and the universal sanctifier of every home she has visited, and every heart where her doctrines have been permitted to prevail. It is not then that a loyal Churchman is ready to say, with King James, "No Church, no King;" but more than this: he is convinced that if the national Church of these realms were overthrown, she would not be alone in her ruins; but around her prostrated temples and demolished shrines would lie scattered in awful waste, public religion, national morality, and private virtue.

The scoffing democrat indeed will wag his audacious tongue against her faults, and delight to expose what he calls her defects; and the Papist will be all alive to every seeming rent or threatened division in her unity, which appear to contrast her discords with that hollow unity his own apostate communion enjoys, under the headship of that antichristian invention, called a Pope. But in opposition to these mockers, gratefully may the true Catholic call to mind, that his beloved Church is not only associated with a "noble army of saints and martyrs ;" but that whatever has made the name of Briton a talismanic word among the nations of the earth, is more or less connected with the doctrines she has professed, the

principles she has maintained, and the vast influences she has wielded. Religion, science, art, literature, and eloquence, had not the Church of England been preserved, how different perchance would the inspiring history of these have been? In truth, as regards theological literature, by the confession even of her bitterest foes, she has, by her magnificent authorship, her profound erudition, and polemical masterpieces, laid the instructed intellect of mankind under an obligation which can never expire, while such a thing as spiritual appreciation remains. It is thus then, while he regards our Church as indeed the very apple of the nation's eye, the catholic Churchman will survey the agitations which now disturb her principles within, and also the perils which assail her security from without, with thoughts "too deep for tears ;" and yet not with morbid dejection nor despair. He is taught by a consoling Volume which cannot err, that as a true branch of Christ's apostolical and universal Church, “He who keepeth our Zion will not slumber nor sleep," but indeed be "with HER always unto the end of the world." Nor let it be unremembered, that amid the dimness and perplexity of things in which we are now enveloped,— there is much of cheering promise, which demands from every patriotic believer the glowing acknowledgment of gratitude and praise. For besides what we have already suggested as material for thanksgiving, let the following FACTS be taken into account when we speak of our ecclesiastical condition. The extension of churches is proceeding at a glorious rate; district societies, headed by the clergy of their respective localities, are multiplied on all sides; diocesan schools are being numerously formed; our three great societies, the "Propagation of the Gospel," the Society for "Promoting Christian

Knowledge," and the "Church Missionary Society," are zealously at work, and spreading the triumphs of the Redeemer's truth and the infallible Word of God almost to the very confines of humanity: the English Episcopate is being established amid our colonial possessions and dependencies; on the magic soil of Palestine itself we shall soon have erected an Episcopal Temple, where the once crucified Jesus will be worshipped on Calvary's Hill, in the prayers and chants of our unrivalled Liturgy; popular education and means for instructing the infant poor are now engaging the devoted attention of our bishops and clergy;—and these surely are things for which we may well thank God and take courage! And let us append to this brighter view of our position another consideration; namely, that the savage yell which the unprincipled destructives of our day set up against the English Church, is a PROOF that with all their pretended scorn for her constitution and claims,-there is a Divine charm in her apostolic Orders, primitive Liturgy, evangelic Creed, Sacramental privileges, and catholic orthodoxy, beyond this world, with all its devilish wisdom, to contravene.

II.

ON THE IDEAL OF THE CHURCH AS TO THE GREAT

PRINCIPLE OF HER CONSTITUTION.

SINCE Christ is "the All in All," of true Religion—may we venerate our own ecclesiastical mother, THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Let the adherents of the Romish schism in this country pray for her downfall; let those, whose Papal yearnings for a spurious catholicity are not satisfied with our Church, strive to betray her interests, distort her doctrines, and abuse her services after a Jesuitical fashion; let the unbelieving radical imprecate curses on her powers and prerogatives, and the political Dissenter plot and scheme for her ruin; or, lastly, let the morbid victims of Trentine Theology, mutter their treason and whisper their dislike against her formularies and creeds-but be it our privilege, as it is our duty, evermore to say," Peace be within thy walls;"-when we

forget thee," may "our right hands forget their cunning!" And why should we not thus supplicate the God of heaven to protect our venerated Zion, when her Orders and Sacraments, her Rites and Ceremonies, her Services and Chants, her Symbols, Articles, and Homilies, do each and all, with unvarying fidelity and firmness, maintain this blessed doctrine,-that "Christ" is "All and in All." But in order to illustrate how truly she does respond to the theology of Scripture, let us venture to

Contemplate the great Principle of her Constitution.

Now as to the Episcopate, it would be quite out of the province of a transient allusion such as this, to repeat the inviolable arguments which learning, genius, eloquence, and piety have produced as evidence that the Church of