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were under why should we break away from it? It has wrought upon us in and through that form of religion, those doctrines, those Ordinances, those Sacraments, those teachers, under which we find ourselves; what want we more?

4. It is impossible to speak, without the risk of misconception, on the subject of answers to prayer; I mean, this is just one of those sacred matters upon which one man deceives himself, and another does not. A man will tell you, as an excuse for his following the wildest and most pernicious errors, that he has consulted God, that God has answered him, and that he is obeying God. What can you say in reply? Nothing. You think, and think rightly, that the man is deceiving himself; but you cannot show to his own satisfaction, or that of others, that he has not as much right as another to believe that God has revealed to him His will. Yet, because some men are presumptuous and mistaken in this most sacred subject, this does not show that another may not judge rightly. In dreams, in delirium, in madness, men think they see and hear what they do not; yet, for all that, do not men, awake and in their senses, see and hear? And, in like manner, religious men are right in thinking their prayers answered, and half-religious men are wrong; and the real answers which religious men receive are an evidence to them, whereas the apparent answers made to halfreligious men are no evidence; because in the case of religious men such tokens are in addition to those other tokens arising from their habitual obedience and subjection to Christ, but in enthusiasts they are the very

foundation of their faith, which conscience, sense of duty, love of truth, and the Divine Law, ought to be. But let us turn from such as make much of the lesser and secondary tokens of God's favour to the disparagement of the greater, to those who are possessed of the greater and lesser also, who strive to please God in their hearts and lives, and are in many ways rewarded. We are told, that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;" now, of course, the more fully he realizes that God is thus mercifully dealing with him, the less he will like to speak about it; and this is one reason why the pretenders whom one meets in the world have not the real insight into the course of Providence which they think they have, viz. because they talk of it so freely. Were the privileges of which they boast what they think they are, they would not speak of them. Religious men, on the contrary, are very reserved, if only that they dare not betray, if we may so speak, God's confidence. This circumstance, however, makes it the more difficult to speak on the subject without unreality; still I suppose it is true that religious men have their prayers answered in a wonderful way, and with sufficient distinctness to be, in addition to other evidences, a ground of confidence to them that God is with them.

5. I might go on to mention a still more solemn subject, viz. the experience which, at least, certain religious persons have, of the awful sacredness of our Sacraments and other Ordinances. If these are attended by the Presence of Christ, surely we have all that a Church can have in the way of privilege and blessing. The [s. D.]

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promise runs, "Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." That is a Church where Christ is present; this is the very definition of the Church. The question sometimes asked is, whether our services, our holy seasons, our rites, our Sacraments, our institutions, really have with them the Presence of Him who thus promised? If so, we are part of the Church; if not, then we are but performers in a sort of scene or pageant, which may be religiously intended, and which God in His mercy may visit, but if He visits, will in visiting go beyond His own promise. But observe, as if to answer to the challenge, and put herself on trial, and to give us a test of her Catholicity, our Church boldly declares of her most solemn ordinance, that he who profanes it, incurs the danger of judgment. She seems, like Moses, or the Prophet from Judah, or Elijah, to put her claim to issue, not so openly, yet as really, upon the fulfilment of a certain specified sign. Now she does not speak to scare away the timid, but to startle and subdue the unbelieving, and withal to assure the wavering and perplexed; and I conceive that in such measure as God wills, and as is known to God, these effects follow. I mean, that we really have proofs among us, though, for the most part, they will be private and personal, from the nature of the case, of clear punishment coming upon profanations of the holy ordinance in question; sometimes very fearful instances, and such as serve, while they awe beholders, to comfort them;-to comfort them, for it is plain, if God be with us for judgment, surely He is with us for mercy also: if He punishes, why is it

but for profanation? and how can there be profanation, if there is nothing to be profaned? Surely, He does not manifest His wrath, but where He has first vouchsafed His grace.

6. And, further, much might be said, were not a suggestion sufficient, of the manifestation of Christ which often attends on death-beds for the benefit of survivors. Consider whether, under certain circumstances, an evidence is not thereby given to the reality of our religious principles, and the divine origin of our Church, as great as any note or token of any kind which can be given. What is any note of the Church, but an indication that Christ is invisibly within it? It cannot prove more than this; a hundred notes cannot prove more. If so much as this is proved, it is enough, and there are single tokens which, by themselves, suffice to prove it; and such, surely, to those who witness them, are many of the scenes which take place on death-beds. May not we reverently hope, that Almighty God does sometimes vouchsafe to show bystanders then, that our Church, in spite of its manifold disorders, is a safe Church to die in?

7. And, lastly, I might say much on what is a more ordinary evidence, yet perhaps as cogent,-the evidences of sanctity in the living, which we are from time to time vouchsafed. Surely that is a Church visited by the influences of Divine grace, which contains in her pale men so saintly in their lives, so heavenly in their hearts and minds, so self-denying, so obedient, as are vouchsafed to her even in this degenerate time. Is it not safe to trust our souls in their company? is it not

dangerous to part company with them in our journey across the trackless wilderness?

On such subjects as I have been led to treat, whatever be the words made use of, they will be sure not precisely to touch and satisfy the feelings of others, nor even to be adequate to one's own meaning; they must, after all, be poor and unreal. and unreal. Yet the great use of language is, not to represent, but to suggest and convey thought; and we must bear to use words which we feel to be deficient, if they serve to rouse the mind, and to begin trains of reflection which they do not end. I think there is a truth in such considerations as I have been urging, which will be acknowledged by the serious and thoughtful, though it may be cavilled at and denied by others.

And should any one consider, that the very raising the question of the Catholicity of our Church, entertaining objections to it, and replying to them, is a great irreverence towards her, and inconsiderate and cruel towards hearers who are thus introduced to them, I would have him reflect that his objection strikes very deeply, considering how very frequent have been defences, in Sermons and other religious works, of Revelation altogether. I am not defending the tone of divinity prevalent among us during a century and a half past; but such persons at least as justify the writers of that period, in admitting the possibility of the Gospel being false, on the ground that they were but solving, not raising, a difficulty, cannot blame others who, in a similar necessity, do that towards their Church which these authors have ventured towards their Lord.