doubt: but not in the sense I contend for. This is only darkness made visible: dark light enough for optical deception, but not for mental abstraction; enough for deeds deserving reproof, but not for those which "may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God;" (John iii. 20, 21;) enough for eluding human observation, but not for eluding the observation of one to whom " the darkness and light are both alike." (Ps. cxxxix. 11.) Or, without depending on the flimsy shades of night, any particular part of a church calling itself catholic, orthodox, &c., may be secluded from the rest by adjournment to a walled town, or to one rather retired; to a pleasant island like another Capreæ, to an house or college surrounded and secured from the public gaze by great high walls, with gates doubly barred to prevent intrusion. But my idea of the Catholic church, or of the church's catholicity-of which I shall have more to say, is invisibility with illimitability, like the breath of the desert; and not invisibility with confinement, like "the blackness of darkness," (Jude 13,) which St. Jude speaks of. Catholicity does not consist with such invisibility by any means; any more than it consists with present chains and future purgatory. "For all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. iv. 13.) The most invisible things with us are perfectly visible with him. "For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." (Chron. I. xxviii. 9.)

Perhaps the most invisible things of God in a direct view may be the more visible for it sometimes in a prospective; the medium that is interposed being not only unavoidable, but so contrived likewise by divine Wisdom as to favour and encourage their pursuit. Or however that may be, we certainly have better means in this day, more perfect telescopes, if I may so say, for considering heavenly objects than either our own forefathers of heathen

antiquity, or even the old fathers and prophets of Israel, or the more polished stock of Egypt to a part of which St. Paul addressed his speculations, or any polished stock that ever survived in any degree the general deluge of ignorance has enjoyed. For we have all the light of the fathers in the first instance, with the greater light of the gospel: we have the light of Moses and the prophets: we have the light of Christ and his apostles for our medium; as well as the heathen's light of nature and their broken tradition: we have also many resources-lanterns, they may be called, in the visible church. And all this we have too at a period when the effect of prophecy being reduced almost generally into historical evidence by its daily fulfilment it is not necessary to believe a great deal more than what we see; and half the artificial aid may suffice for our spiritual sight of that which was required for it during "the dimness" of former ages. What more therefore could we desire, except the grace to use rightly and enjoy completely-these advantages? For, unfortunately people are apt sometimes to look no farther than these sometimes, to look on them too long; to look only on the things that are seen, without looking through them to the things that are not seen; taking one thing for another, as it may be a wall for an highway, or some empty medium for the blessing of eternal salvation, of which the prophets and others have inquired and searched so diligently. (Pet. I. i. 10.)

And indeed such as I have described being the exalted relation of the church through its union with God and Christ, such being too the means afforded us for improving this relation,-one would wish that a juster sense of its true dignity and importance prevailed among all ranks and degrees than we generally find even in its inner circle, the Christian ministry-according to the scale or standard of excellence determined by Christ, and not according to that which the world determines. For, as I have shewn, according to Christ, the highest dignity was to consist in

facts and performances, not in titles and professions; such dignity being indeed nearly synonymous with utility and worth. The highest in the church are they who deserve most in it and receive the least: "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; (said he) and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." (Matt. xx. 26, 27.) And as honour thus depends on humility, so victory according to Christ will depend in some instances on kindness, and revenge on concession; though it did not use to be thought so: as he tells the disciples— 66 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Ib. v. 43, &c.) It may be worth while to compare this wholesome, liberal and enlightened,-this high bred sort of church dignity— I may call it, with any that its members, and of the priesthood especially, can derive from gratified passions, from the vain world, with its troublesome remains of feudal power, and titles equally barbarous and forbidden, or any other source whatever: and I know which sort will satisfy most on a fair trial, if the first mentioned may but be tried fairly.

All the great good (satisfaction and importance included) that we can feel or enjoy in the church, is derived from the Head, and consists in the affinity or resemblance of its members to him, or as before signified in the participation of his excellent nature in every degree and proportion. And if the same be less obvious or apparent in some circles and situations respecting him as their centre than one should expect-less than it is in others with whom one should less expect it, being clouded in the first instance and mixed up with extraneous enjoyments, it

will rest notwithstanding on the same common foundation of Christian or intrinsic worth-offering to the intellectual observer a glorious object of contemplation in the whole church collectively regarded.

It may seem rather fond in me to speculate after this manner; and not unlike the nationality of some good people, who account every thing of their own country and kind better than others. But so I confess I am apt to judge, or to doubt if you will rather-of that which I call mine by a figure, as others do frequently that which they have but a share, and it may be a very small share in. And it has gratified me in my solitary walks before now, to contemplate on a broad scale the mass of heavenly riches which is diffused through the whole Christian family or society in this respect, and there invested, or embodied as it were, by the eternal Word; how poor the kingdoms and constitutions of the earth either are or would be without it, and what a fair spectacle it must present at last, with the same society cleansed from its dross and impurities: when the church shall begin to justify its descent more evidently, "coming down from God out of Heaven;" (Rev. xxi. 2;) as St. John beheld or conceived it.

For why talk of one degree or another, when-as Korah and his company observed more justly than respectfully, "all the congregation (that is generally speaking, or in its common person) are holy ........ and the Lord is among them;" (Numb. xvi. 3;) and the faithful witness, Jesus Christ, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth-who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father? (Rev. i. 5, 6.) True believers worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth are allcompared severally with the bulk of mankind, like scattered drops from heaven falling on the sea; or, more collectively in their several congregations, like the luminous crests of the waves, as they were in the dawn of

creation, when" darkness was on the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," (Gen. i. 2,)— their life, and the life of all that lives. True believers are collectively, or as his church-like "the river of God," which is full of water prepared for the earth, and individually-like drops of rain sent into the valleys thereof, to bless its increase; the first drop that falls being as much from heaven as the last, and those which the earth has long absorbed as those which are still glittering in the sky; albeit "in the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, and their departure is taken for misery." (Wisd. iii. 2.)

If my speculations on the subject of this glorious company or selection should seem fond and doting, let them be taken for the innocent reveries of a poor curate, who has little else to dote on. But I trust that my reveries, if such they may be accounted in this respect, are still however not without some foundation. For it is not concerning a lifeless trunk, nor a mere statue, nor several of them, nor concerning any particular body of men, that I dote, and am so fond; but concerning that which is formed and animated by "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory; who hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body-the fulness of him that filleth all in all." (Eph. i. 17, &c.) And if some who are wiser than to dote, or believe-can be content to bear the semblance only of a portion in this treasure; as some, without being more spiritually minded than others, can be content to bear the semblance of worldly wealth, rather than be thought poor in that respect; or, what is still worse, if some can be base enough to employ the semblance of religion, as some do that of worldly wealth, to impose on the credulous, or corrupt the innocent, we may say of the impostors, as Jeremiah said, "Surely these are poor, they are foolish: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God:" (Jer. v. 4:) while