: again what she was under Elizabeth-the noble Queen who (unlike Victoria) refused to be called "the supreme Head of the Church"-when our doctrines and our ritual had fair play and there can be again, as there was then, no danger! It was the exiles under Mary, returning from the Continent, that first rent the Church with the Genevan doctrines. While the Church was one, she conquered the strongholds of Popery, and she can do it again. She has kept off the malaria of infidelity from England, and she can do it here! She stands with open arms to receive the thousands and ten thousands that, except for her, would have no other home to flee unto from the apostate sects, but to the bosom of Rome! Puritanize the Church, and Rome's work is done! CHAPTER XXVI. THE TWIN SISTERS. THE political world presents at this moment a painful illustration of the maxim, that "Extremes meet." The feeling at the North against involuntary servitude, carrying men's minds in one direction; and the settled conviction at the South, that the circumstances of the case make such servitude both lawful and humane, operating in another: have produced, under our eyes, the one result of trampling under foot the wholesome compromises of the Union. In like manner Popery, by pressing its pretensions in one way, and Presbytery, by doing the same in the opposite direction, agree only in the common result of disregarding the ancient compact under which the Church was One, at the beginning: while the Episcopal Church, adhering still to the sacred terms of that original Bond, holds both the extremes in check, and invites all, who profess and call themselves Christians, back to the basis of the Ancient Union, for which the noble army of Martyrs fell gloriously in the field. If the page were sufficiently wide I should exhibit in parallel columns the two extremes, and between them the Church of our love crucified, as between the two-bearing alike the taunts of both, and yet ever holding forth the Lord, the Faith, the Baptism of Antiquity. Popery affirms that the Church of Rome, or, as some say, the Pope Presbytery (or old Calvinism) teaches that every man of the elect himself, (which, now that Mary is deified, will probably be the next article foisted into their creed,) is infallible in doctrine, although either he or his may fall into sin and perish. is individually infallible in things essential to salvation, and can never deny his Lord; and outpopes the Pope in insisting that no man, once a Christian, can be ever left to depart this life in any griev ous sin, The true Catholic believes that an individual, or even a particular Church, may fall for ever away: and that it is only the Church in its totality that cannot fall from the faith, or yield to the gates of hell. Popery refuses to be governed by antiquity; alleging that the Pope and his underlings are capable of defining and discovering truths that the times were not ripe for in the days of St. Paul. Presbytery refuses to be governed by antiquity; alleging that every man is capable of interpreting for himself: and whole sects of Presbyterians are, even now, discovering new doctrines for which they imagine the less enlightened ages were not prepared. While these Twin Sisters, Trent and Geneva-born, as we said before, in the throes of the fifteenth century-refuse to have their legitimacy tested by calling into court the ancient Mother: the true Catholic flies to her arms, and appeals confidently to her testimony, that the Church,—as he holds it in the Creed, and the Episcopacy,-is the Church that was born in the throes of Calvary. Popery, without remorse, adds to the ancient Creed her incongruous dogmas concerning relics, and dead men's bones, and purgatorial fires, and-in short, the decrees of the Tridentine Synod. Presbytery has also, without compunction, added to the ancient Creed, or substituted for it, the dogmas of predestination, limited redemption, and-in short, the resolutions of the Synod of Westmin ster. Episcopacy maintains the ancient Creed intact, as the ancient compact and sacred bond of union: and would no more presume to add to that sacred instrument, or to take from it, than she would alter or mutilate the Scriptures. You may see her agitated to her centre, but in her rashest hours she has never tampered with the Creed. The Papists, with unhallowed hand, have touched the ark of the Testament: and, as late as the fifteenth century, have added to the Holy Scripture the Apocrypha as of equal inspiration and authority. Sectarians, from Luther to the "evangelical" Neander, have cast out one and another and another of the Books of Scripture, until all in their turn have been rejected: while some have added the words of Swedenborg, and others the Book of Mormon, and others the Revelations of Davis, and others the ethereal ravings of Madame Hauffe, the seeress of Wittemberg, whose “spirit-nerve” and “illuminated eye," and "epigastric ghost. seeing" and "language of spirits," are esteemed by many of the savans of that place, as more entitled to philosophical belief than the Bible, which Luther has been, poetically enough, represented as exhuming from its monastic sepulchre, in that very city. Only the Episcopal Church, with her Northern and Oriental sisters, has kept, and will ever keep, the ancient Word of God intact. Popery fetters "private judg ment" by binding it down to insufferable trifles in the dogmas of Trent, each one of which must be received on pain of damnation. Presbytery leaves also little room for the free exercise of "private judgment," by the multitudinous dogmas required of her ministers to be subscribed, as essential portions of a consistent system. Episcopacy, still content with the articles of the most brief and ancient Creed, leaves mankind free to differ on other questions, for the sake of promoting the chances of agreement and of peace in those matters which are alone essential. Popery is still employed in tinkering at the faith, and has lately added, or is about to add, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, with which it appears all parts of the Romish Church have been simultaneously inspired. : Sectarianism likewise is yet occupied with mending her creeds; and new and startling dogmas, often based also on alleged inspi ration, are so often propounded, that both the novelty and the enormity have ceased to create surprise. The Episcopal Church has no such work to do, and never had but has received her faith, as she has received her Bible and her Priesthood, complete from a pure and inspired antiquity.. Popery rides over the Bishops, as being in the way of the supremacy of the Pope. Sectarianism rides over the Bishops, as being in the way of the supremacy of the pastor. The follower of the ancient should bear themselves meekly, and set their flocks a heavenly example by showing docility and obedience to their pastors. It is a discipline for the clergy, but it fits for the kingdom of heaven. Church insists that the pastors Popery destroys the nature of a sacrament, (which, to be a sacrament, must have both an outward and an inward part,) by denying that, after consecration, the outward elements of the bread and wine remain. Presbytery destroys the nature of a sacrament, by denying that, after consecration, the outward elements have an inward part, or convey to the soul the Body and Blood of the Lord. True Catholicity adheres to the ancient definition of a sacrament, and retains both the outward or visible, and the inward or invisible: alleging that the bread and wine are still bread and wine, but that the Body and Blood of the Lord are conveyed through them, to our condemnation or glory. In a way we have explained Presbytery gives to the cheated before, Popery avowedly gives a infant a blank baptism, signifying |