and offer up her prayers to God for relief at the tomb of St. Agatha. St. Lucy accompanied her thither, and their prayers were successful!" "St. Lucy is often painted with the balls of her eyes laid in a dish; perhaps her eyes were defaced or plucked out, though her present acts make no mention of any such circumstance. In many places her intercession is particularly implored for distempers of the eyes!" And this is fit stuff-if not to find a place among the formularies of a Protestant Church, yet to be implicitly authenticated by it!

DECEMBER 26. O SAPIENTIA ! A seasonable invocation if uttered at this moment by the Church of England, and uttered in sincerity !

"O wisdom, which comest out of the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; come and teach us the way of understanding!"

We may confidently predict that when "that wisdom which is from above" shall indeed descend upon the Church, she will hasten to throw aside the coat of many colours, which is, in fact, the livery of idols.

DECEMBER 31. SILVESTER, B. Is it a circumstance of any significance, that the Church of England closes its select list of the worthies beneath the shadow of whose favour she is fain to abide, with a pope of Rome!

Is then the Calendar, with its inauspicious commemorations, a matter of no moment? Are the many objections to which, unquestionably, it is liable, frivolous? I have already declared my belief that the subject, unimportant as it may have been years ago, assumes, at this time, a serious aspect; and that it will connect itself with the great course of events, now in progress. Christendom, as every one feels and sees, is hastening on toward a disruption, more signal, and more extensive in its consequences, than any that has heretofore had place. On the one side are the adherents of Biblical Christianity, and on the other, those of whatever is human in religion; the first advantaged by no visible organization, and having no centre of union, and guided by no conclave of concerted movement, is yet every day drawing nearer, part to part, and is reaching a clearer and a deeper conviction at once of that substantial unity which might lead them to a state

of visible combination; and is also discerning more distinctly the common danger which is likely to cement all-by the bond of sufferings.

On the other side there is a visible coherence, and intelligent and well-directed concert, and political, as well as spiritual influence, and economized resources, and a scheme of religion well adapted to the tastes of perverted human nature, and moreover a manifest tendency, throughout Europe, toward the restoration of a gorgeous and mystic spiritual despotism.

In this present equipoise of spiritual forces, the position of the protestant Episcopal Church of England is-we must not say neutral, but ambiguous. It is not as if the Church, strong in a calm unanimity of feeling, had taken up a position between the two parties, prepared to mediate and to rescue Truth from the expected collision of the two. This is not the fact; for

the Church, intestinely sundered in opinion, reels to and fro, between the two, apparently inclining toward the side of AntiBiblical Despotism, and yet, in the feeling which pervades very many of its individual and private members, connected by vital sympathies with the Church-truly catholic, and protestant.

At such a moment, when human sagacity must quite fail in the attempt to forecast the issue even of a year's events, no circumstances, no alliances, no symbols, are unimportant which in fact stand forth as badges of filiation and paternity, and which may be appealed to as such, in some moment of ecclesiastical conflict.

A day may come and such a day seems to be at handwherein the Church of England will be dealt with-not according to its intrinsic, and its ancient merits; but according to its badges -according to the colours it wears-according to its ostensible. armorial distinctions. And it may thus be dealt with-first, by its declared opponents, who will snatch an incalculable advantage in thus denouncing the episcopal Church as a body decorated with the scarlet fringes and the meretricious ribbons of Polytheism.Secondly, it may thus be dealt with by the mass of the people, whose rude impressions would be confirmed, while they listened, at once to the denunciations of its adversaries, and to the plausible pretexts of Romish seducers.

And next, it may thus be dealt with by statesmen, who, finding

the Church resolved not to relinquish its symbols and bearings, will promptly act on the assumption that this pertinacity is not without an inward motive and a reason; and that, therefore, the Church of England ought, in a legal sense, to be regarded as mainly one with the Eastern and the Romish Churches.

Yet this is not all; for a moment may come when He who looketh down from the High heavens, and who deals with public bodies according to their visible merits, even He who, in preparation for a day of terror, sends his angel to seal the faithful few in their foreheads, that they may be known, as his, in the tumult— it may be that He will deal with the Church of England according to its badges of ecclesiastical alliance!

And what are these badges? They are those of the idolatries of an apostate Church! The very same names, names recommended alone by, and known even to this apostate power alone; commemorations which, through a long course of ages, have been the occasions of wicked delusions and infamous corruptions these names, these commemorations, these unholy holidays -these festivals of Satan-these anniversaries of blasphemythese flaunting impieties, in the which everything truly sacred is hung up to scorn ;-these names-commemorations-festivals, which have been rejected by purer reformed communions, and are retained by the Romish, the Greek, and the Episcopal English, stand in the view of Earth, and of Heaven as broad notifications of party;-they are watch-words, held ready for mustering a host; they are symbols on banners, which may be descried, and followed, amid the confusion of that last Armageddon-field, whereon are yet to be gathered all the antagonist forces of the world!

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EXPLANATIONS AND CORRECTIONS, AFFECTING THE EVIDENCE ADDUCED IN THE COURSE OF THIS WORK.

Ir the circumstances under which this work has been carried forward, had been such as to preclude all reasonable hope of the Author's being able to adduce the various evidence appealed to, with a substantial fidelity, and with argumentative effect, he ought not to have undertaken it; and I think I may say, that, in that case, it would not have been entered upon.

It is true that, as I advanced, I found much less leisure than I had at first hoped to command, to be at my disposal; and yet the actual consequence has been-not a more hurried performance of my task, but the protraction of it through a course of four years, instead of two.

This elongation of the period of my labours, I have most heartily regretted, and have done all in my power to shorten the term of toils so heavy and so anxious. Nevertheless, several advantages have resulted from this delay; and particularly these That I have had opportunity calmly to reconsider the ground originally taken, and to assure myself, by more extended researches, that I had not, in a moment of eager zeal, mistaken the main facts of the case. This confidence has, in truth, become stronger and stronger, from month to month, during the past three years. Incidental errors-which I shall, with the utmost readiness, acknowledge and correct, I have fallen into; but on no one principal, or important point-no point vitally connected with the general argument, have I seen reason to distrust the assumptions with which I commenced. On the contrary, a more ample acquaintance with ecclesiastical literature, as well as the mature reflection, thence arising, has impressed me with a very serious conviction, as well of the infinite moment of the present controversy, as of the soundness of the argumentative position of those who are labouring to withstand the progress of Oxford Tract doctrines.

Again the length of time that has elapsed since the early numbers of this work drew down upon the Author the hot indignation of the periodical press, has allowed me to review my Reviewers-I hope I may say so, with absolute coolness, and under the guidance of one motive only-a conscientious desirenay anxiety, to avail myself-for the benefit of my kinder and more candid readers, of what, in the midst of so much ire, I could think to be just criticism.

The fruit of this review I shall presently offer to this class of my readers. As to my Critics-great and small, I beg to present to them my unfeigned thanks for every service they have done me, with whatever intention, in my endeavours to render the work serviceable to Truth. As to the temper they have manifested I leave it all with themselves. As to the misrepresentations the imputation of bad motives, and the mass of ill-savoured paragraphs which have been the vehicle of these criticismsI entirely forget the whole of them-excepting only the few instances in which TRUTH, and not merely the Author, has to be defended.

In the following pages, and while either adopting a correction, or explaining what has been misunderstood, I shall not make any formal reference to-reviews, magazines, newspapers; because, were I to do so, it would be scarcely possible to keep clear of a personality-perhaps an asperity of rejoinder, which, while it would in no way promote the reader's advantage, must almost inevitably draw me on into a direct controversy with my opponents -a consequence which to me, would be insufferable.

I have adverted, generally, to the circumstances under which this work has been carried forward. What I mean, in a word, is this, that the pressure and multiplicity of other engagements has precluded that never-tiring iteration of revision, and references to authorities, which men who are jealous of their literary reputation deem indispensable, in any case of risking it on difficult ground. Not commanding leisure for any such purpose, I have deliberately anticipated the consequence-That some inaccuracies would sully my performance, and that the eager, and perhaps uncandid opponents with whom I should have to do, would find occasions against me:-be it so: I do not repent. The worst