the Apostle calls "rejoicing in iniquity;"-exulting over what evil they can find in their brethren. At least, so it would appear from recent experience. Nothing seems to have so long retarded those who have just now been passing away from us, as the apprehension they had of real sanctity in the Body which they were leaving. And no wonder: since by the act of leaving, they were also denouncing it as no part of the Body of Christ. Well might they pause on such a step, which, if wrongly hazarded, would not only prove an outrage on natural piety and affection, and an ungrateful rejection of the methods by which Divine Mercy had fed them all their life long unto this day, but would bring with it besides something profane and sacrilegious, akin to denying the grace of God in His Sacraments:-making out that to be human and ordinary, which was the especial and immediate work of the Holy Ghost.

I suppose there is no one of us, who thinks of such matters at all, but has known from his childhood, by experience or history or both, some one or more on whom he has depended, as the models of Christian goodness providentially thrown in his way, and specially appointed for himself to work by. Think of bringing one's self to regard those very persons as no more than very good heathens, and their works as no portion nor fruit of the Un

d 1 Cor. xiii. 6. cf. Aristotle, Eth. Nicom. ii. vii. 15. on ἐπιχαιρεκακία.

speakable Gift! It seems almost like being forced to part altogether with our faith in sacramental grace, or in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Besides the profaneness, a glory would be departed, such as never could be replaced.

More especially in this case, where the change would be simply negative-a loss without any compensation. It is not that we are introduced to a fresh type of holiness, an order of Saints which before we knew not of; but whereas hitherto we were happy in believing that we were interested in all the Saints of the whole Church, we are now required to cast off all but the Roman. Not so in the opposite case. A Roman Catholic joining the English Communion has no occasion to conceive himself separated from the undeniable sanctity of the Church of Rome. There is nothing to prevent our acknowledging their Saints: there is much to make them slow and jealous in recognising any true holiness beyond their own border. And it is a great additional unhappiness, surely, for those who, with or without their own fault, are haunted with misgivings about the reality of our Church, that they are continually tempted to something like" rejoicing in iniquity :"-to grudging and disparaging thoughts of that, which after all may prove to have been the grace of God in their brethren. Sad exemplifications might be given of this, were it a subject which would bear dwelling upon.

But I rather pass on to the fifth and last-men

tioned of the moral warnings, (so to call them,) which seem mysteriously to stand in men's way, as the Angel in Balaam's, when they would withdraw themselves from our Church: I mean, the amount of offence and scandal, quite inseparable from such a movement.

Most considerate persons know something of the grief and perplexity, if but one doubting thought flash across them in their devotions. Judge what it must be to have to answer, though it be for a single soul, haunted for whole years with the like waverings of imagination, every time it addresses itself to prayer.

But the pain and anxiety is the least part of the mischief. What shall we say, if some hasty step of ours, unsettling the principles of some weak brother, leave him either a sceptic for life, or drive him back, by a kind of reaction, into the cold uncatholic ways, the region where each man does what is right in his own eyes? What if we confirm the prejudices of the unbelieving world, and put a clue into her hand, whereby to entangle anew those who were just beginning to disengage themselves from her? What if we aid in setting an evil mark on primitive truths and counsels of perfection;-provoking persecution, discouraging novices, breaking the bruised reed, and quenching the smoking flax? One would not wish to write on such a subject from a mere overflow of feeling; one would rather be guilty of under than of over

statement. But none of these perilous consequences are denied by those who would most wish to deny them. And being such as they are, and coming in addition to all that has been before enumerated, they surely do throw the burthen of proof with unusual force upon the side to which they adhere.

Is that side capable of sustaining the burthen? This is the third and most momentous step in our inquiry; not to be entered on but in fear and trembling, and under an urgent sense of duty: but so guarded, we may have good hope that it will not take us from the safe way. Here, however, the direct and obvious course is, by supposition, out of our power; I mean, the detailed examination of the controversy, balancing the arguments on each point. This, I say, our hypothesis excludes, as a task requiring extraordinary endowments; our endeavour all along being to provide for average cases. Ways, however, of tolerable satisfaction are open, if men will be content with such certainty as the matter allows, and not require absolute instead of practical demonstration.

Thus, we might survey some one branch of the subject; the more comprehensive the better, provided it were manageable; and judge of the whole by the result in that instance. Take the Supremacy, or Purgatory, or the worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints; remembering all

d

along that the question is not simply of the truth of what is taught, and the dutifulness of what is done, but of its necessity as a condition of Church communion. Is the evidence in either case of that overwhelming amount, which leaves no material scruple in a fair mind? and ought it to be less, if it is to sweep away all the moral difficulties just now enumerated? Is it not mainly made up of subtle inferences, philosophical, historical, or grammatical, from premisses more or less ambiguous and obscure? so that we long to close the discussion, instinctively certain, that this cannot be the sort of process, intended to counteract so many of our best feelings.

Or we might take the broad undeniable facts of the dispensation, as stated by the Roman Catholic writers themselves, and see how they correspond with the known dealings of Providence, in cases alleged as analogous.

For example: one of the principal difficulties which haunt thoughtful Anglicans in the present state of things, is the contrast between what they really find, and what they seem encouraged, in Scripture and Antiquity, to expect. The Church should be one; but to us the present Church seems palpably and incurably divided. The Church should be a guide; but by us the present Church is hardly felt to be such in several important points. And persons are tempted hastily to conclude, either that the promises have failed, or that we are not in the Church.