And now, in conclusion, I shall take notice of one or two objections to which the foregoing representation may give rise. It may be said, first, to proceed upon an unsound method of reasoning; and next, to be no protection after all to the sacred interests which it professes to advocate.

1. On the one hand, it may be urged that it is very dangerous to guide ourselves by our feelings in religious inquiries, and very unwarrantable to judge of creeds by their effects. If we seek to determine what truth is, what falsehood, by evidence taken from the course of things, then evidence on both sides of the question must be taken into account. Almighty God, it may be said, often seems to be fighting against a man, and to be driving him away from the religion he at present professes, as the Angel resisted Balaam. Providences befall him which he is justified in interpreting as a suggestion to seek God elsewhere; and thus the search after religious truth is made a matter of mere feeling, or imagination. I reply, that I have said nothing to sanction such a proceeding. I have said nothing to lead men to consult the fluctuations of their minds in the passing hour, for information concerning God's will. We all are depressed at one time, and encouraged and revived at another; we have our times of gloom, of disquiet, of doubt, of impatience, of disgust. And further, if we have but lately turned to God at all, we have no real experience whatever of God's dealings with us to which we can appeal; and if we attempt to judge by such personal evidences, we are guided as a matter of necessity by the feeling of the moment. It is also

certain that we are apt to magnify present evils; and we may easily be led to fancy that any communion, or, at least, that some communions are more in the light of day than our own, with less of dimness and of scandal. And of course we may act according to such feelings while we are under them, and may consider such a procedure as an acting from what is within us, not without us.

All this we certainly may do, but without any sanction from the doctrine which I have been laying down. The simple question is, whether such temporary frames of mind can be proved to come from God. Now we cannot be sure of the divine origin of any suggestion which comes to us for the first time. He indeed is always like Himself, and is Himself, whether He comes once or many times; but to our limited faculties, the Tempter is able to represent Christ so closely at first sight, that Christ alone can enable us to detect the difference; and He generally grants the knowledge by careful waiting on Him and examination, not at once. Now when we look back on the course of our whole lives, we secure two advantages: first, the absence of present excitement, and next, a sufficient extent of time to make our remarks upon. And, moreover, what we must look for is proof of improvement in our heart and life, and not mere comfort or transport. And, again, we should look for plain external facts, however private and secret, not for mere emotions, to determine whether or not God is with us. Now all these conditions being observed, the inquirer being a consistent Christian, and that for years, and the motions and works of holiness being taken as

the sign of Christ's presence, and calmness and sobriety having their due place in his inquiry, I really do not think that, however he might determine, we could justly find fault with the process, or throw the blame of his error, if he made one, upon it; nor, again, that it would often happen that a son of our Church would not find evidence that Christ is with us still, in spite of our many sins and great corruptions.

And let no one say, that to judge of the religious communion in which we find ourselves, by its fruits, is worldly-wise and unbelieving. To judge of doctrines indeed in this way, is presumptuous, because these are divine revelations, and are commonly mysteries, and are to be received on faith, whatever comes of them. But it is otherwise with religious bodies; they are to be tested and judged of by their visible effects, our Lord saying expressly of the false prophets, "Ye shall know them by their fruits;" and St. Paul, "There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you;" and St. John, "They went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us;" and Gamaliel," If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought;" and the Psalmist, "I went by, and lo, he was gone;" and the Prophet, "Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; . . . let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified, or let them hear and say, It is truth. Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen ;" and again, "Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let

them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen,

that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together." And if the outward notes of the Church are thus matter for our judgment, surely its inward power may be religiously inquired into also.

2. But now, in the next place, it may perhaps be asked, whether there never was an instance when it was a person's duty to leave the communion in which he finds himself; and if so, whether what I have been saying about private tokens of grace would not apply to his case as well as ours. If it serves to keep religious persons in the Church, it will equally well serve to keep religious persons in dissent. Abraham, it may be urged, was doubtless under God's Providence, even in Chaldea, yet he had to quit his country; and the Jews were under God's Providence, yet they were commanded to quit the Law for the Gospel. Nor can we doubt that the merciful Hand of God has before now dealt with man in those far-spreading communions, though heretical, which have so long existed in the East; yet it is a duty to leave them for the One True Church. And as little can we doubt that the secret influence of Christ operates at this day in the large dissenting bodies which exist here and in another continent; and yet we think it right to invite their members to Catholic communion, though they surely might in like manner appeal to their experience of God's Providences, and turn a deaf ear to our call.

1 Matt. vii. 16. 1 Cor. xi. 19. 1 John ii. 19. Acts v. 38. Ps. Xxxvii. 37. Isa. xliii. 9, 10; xli. 21-23.

I answer, that there seem to be two reasons which may lead a man to leave the communion in which he was born: first, some clear indisputable command of God to leave it, and secondly, some plain experience that God does not acknowledge it. The Ethiopian eunuch came to Jerusalem to seek Him; and the Christians left Jerusalem to obey Him. If Almighty God moves away from us, or if we are away from God, in either case we must go forward at all risks, and "forget our own people and our father's house." But consider what great signs have generally been attendant upon the calls of God. What prophecies, what miracles, what portents, what judgments were displayed to convince the Jews that Judaism was at an end! Consider what plain tokens of God's wrath rested on those ancient heresies which I have spoken of, especially the perishable nature of certain of them; how they began from the first swiftly to "draw to an end, and had no sign of virtue to show," so that they left the world almost before men had time to leave them, or at least to leave them was but to be beforehand with them. And as to heathen religions, consider what plain contrariety to the first laws of all true faith and morality is involved in many of their first principles; how they sin against sincerity, purity, and mercy. Here then are abundant indications afforded to the thoughtful and honest inquirer, who is born in such religious body as is in question, that the Divine Presence does not go with it, as a body.

And then, as to the various forms of religion of this day, let this be considered, that we call their members to join us indeed, but we do not call them really to quit