"that many priests and monks kept concubines without offending God, because it was no sin in them."

We now close, with an appeal to the common sense of all men, whether, if the nun of Lisbon (to keep to her case) had not, by the circumstances mentioned, excited the enquiry and detection which took place, she would not have continued down to the present time in possession of the honours of miraculous saintship which she enjoyed for many years; and whether she would not have been regularly canonized, and kept her place in the Roman calendar, together with the Catharines and Bridgets and various other luminaries of the papal orb. And why may not Lord Shrewsbury's miraculous virgins be impostors, personal or collusive, as well as the nun of Lisbon? And we would put it seriously and respectfully to his lordship, whether he does not believe that the authorities of his Church can get up and put down such exhibitions as we have been engaged in considering perfectly at their pleasure?

His lordship, p. 94, has objected the uneasy conscience which would attend so wicked an imposition, without, as we conceive, being sufficiently alive to the unction which his church affords in all such cases by the supremacy which she gives to the end in all moral questions. There is not an obligation from which the good of the church (the papal) will not release.*

But independently of the argument from the comparison and contrast which have here been exhibited, we may be allowed to ask, is it possible, that an individual, with any conception of what Christianity is, every reasonable allowance being made for difference of time and circumstances, can prevail upon himself to believe that corporal wounds on the body, resembling those of the Redeemer, and corporal elevations from the earth, whether quiescent or oscillating, in both of which convicted impostors have for a time been equally successful, can be regarded as the marks of eminent sanctity and claims upon extraordinary veneration, or be any marks at all even of passable Christian character? In our own view, whatever it may be worth, all such bodily performances are at best subjects of high suspicion, and perfectly unsatisfactory even as long as they are undetected. The main probability is, that they are sheer impostures, active, passive, or both, and a solemn instance, by which we are taught that they who reject the simplicity of God's truth are delivered over to a strong delusion, and to feeding upon trash and ashes.

* See the Maynooth Class-book, Bailly, Theol. Mor. ii., Precept. 2 (our 3), pp. 105, seqq. and 120, 122: likewise Dent's Theol, iv., 182-3. Both detail the highest authorities of their Church.

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ART. V.-Three Letters humbly addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the inexpediency and fatuity of any attempt to convert the Jews to the Christian Faith in the way and manner hitherto practised; being a General Discussion of the whole Jewish Question. By the Rev. JOHN OXLEE, Rector of Molesworth, Hunts. London: Painter.

2. Tracts for the Last Days. Nos. 1 to 7. London: Painter. TO those who mark the signs of the times, whether in a political, moral, or religious aspect, the phenomena which now appear, from the breaking in of light upon regions that seemed wrapped in eternal night-from the crumbling of empires that once threatened to engulph the whole of the civilized worldand from the astounding discoveries every day made, by which such openings as these become so much more available for diffusing the light, knowledge, and influence which we possess, are most portentous. We might say, that there are trigons, and conjunctions, and aspects of these things now at work upon the earth, far more significant, and prophetic, and ominous than any which the astrologers professed to read in the heavens. And so striking are the signs become, that even those who were not accustomed to give heed to such things formerly, cannot but regard them now, and prophecy of weal or woe in consequence, according to the bearing of these things upon their own pursuits, and the side to which the bias of prejudice or interest may incline them.

The causes and principles, by the operation of which these signs have been brought into manifestation, also tend to give increased importance to the signs themselves; for the principles continue in operation, ready to use to the utmost the new machinery which they have created, in pushing the advantages that may be derived from the openings which they have made, or the triumphs they have gained. And we need only advert to the unprecedented extent of information we possess, and our unexampled rapidity of communication, to be at once understood. By these energies it has been brought to pass, that no part of the habitable globe remains unexplored; science has penetrated all countries, and to reach the remotest regions is but a journey of a month or six weeks. We heard of two old friends, the other day, proposing a trip to Ceylon for the sport of hunting elephants-fishing parties undertake for pleasure expeditions of greater extent and difficulty than the Argonauticvisiting the Pyramids is advertised as a pleasant Midsummer excursion-and the circumnavigations of Solomon and Hanno, which occupied about three years, and the expeditions of Sesostris and Alexander to India, which required in preparation and

accomplishment talents and resources such as none but themselves possessed, may now be undertaken by any one just applying at Mr. Waghorn's office, who books passengers to India, and ensures their safe arrival in a day or two over the month. In proportion as our knowledge of all things has become more extensive, so have the means of communication been accelerated and facilitated.

The increase of knowledge and power is itself the sign which some persons rest on; others insist most on the consequences of a political or commercial nature which may ensue; but to others, amongst whom we may probably reckon the great majority of our readers, the moral and religious consequences which the signs of the times indicate and prepare for are the great points for consideration, and it is to these consequences that we would confine our attention on the present occasion. And in this point of view some of the signs acquire an importance which they would not otherwise seem to have, and all of them have their universally acknowledged importance prodigiously increased.

All Christians believe that a time shall come when the nations of the earth will receive the Gospel, and when, according to the prophecy cited at every Missionary meeting, "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the deep." They may differ as to the time when this shall come to pass, and as to means by which such an event will be accomplished, but the fact itself, we presume, is universally believed. And when we reflect on the standing commission of the Church, "Go ye and teach all nations;" and couple it with the declaration of our Lord, "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached through all the world, and then shall the end come;" we cannot but conclude that some more extensive, some universal publication of the Gospel, will usher in, and will accompany the last times, or last generations of the Church. While for such a publication of the Gospel, and in a more complete manner than before, and in a shorter space of time than at any former period, our more extensive information concerning all the earth, and our more rapid means of transition from one place to another would certainly present the means. And though we believe that the immediate disciples of our Lord did their utmost, in the first generation of the Church, to fulfil the divine commission of preaching to all nations, this does not interfere with our belief of an abiding duty resting upon the Church to do far more extensively the same kind of work in the last days. But, on the contrary, we should expect, judging from analogy, that the work at the beginning and at the end of the dispen

sation would be very similar; to show the oneness of commission and standing of the whole Church, from first to last-from those who heard his last words in departing, to those who shall hear his first words in returning to the Church; and to both of whom collectively he shall say, "Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

At the first preaching of the Gospel all men's eyes were turned towards Jerusalem, as the place from whence the preaching began; according to the commandment of Christ," that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke xxiv). Towards Jerusalem, also, as the centre of authority, and place of appeal, when the Church of Antioch sent thither for advice, in Acts xv.; and when St. Paul delivered to all the churches the der crees which were ordained by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem (Acts xvi. 4). And in these last days, and after such longn eglect, or such long occupation with other cares and other interests, it is one of the most striking signs of the times to religious men, that the eyes of the Church should be again set upon Jerusalem—that a Christian bishop should be quietly seated there, his independence allowed by the Moslem rulers; and that the Christian communities throughout Syria are about to be placed under governors of their own creed.

These quiet workings of Providence, by steps which are unperceived by men, are the things which most powerfully affect those who have been accustomed to meditate on the ways of God-of Him who brings the greatest results to pass by means which man would think utterly insufficient-would hardly notice at the time, or regard as contemptible. And in the present instance the train of circumstances was such as rather to draw off attention from Jerusalem itself, and rivet it upon the mere agents--and upon the effect which their contentious might have upon the policy of Europe; man's desire was only to interfere so far as to keep things as much as possible in the state in which they were before these Syrian contests began. And now the contending parties have sunk into comparative insignificance, and Jerusalem appears to be the object in view.

Some centuries ago Jerusalem itself was the chief object, and all Europe was agitated from end to end, and mustered as one mighty host, whose march, numerous as the locusts, desolated the countries through which they passed-all to deliver Palestine from the infidels-and all undertaken in vain. The time for the judgment of the false prophet was not then come; nor were the crusaders the appointed instruments. In our own day the fleet of one alone of the states of Europe, and that but a

small portion of the fleet, and that on a peace establishment, possessed itself of Palestine in a couple of months, and utterly discomfited the hosts of Ibrahim. A most striking demonstration this, of the far mightier energies, and far more rapid movements of modern times, which could accomplish, in a few months, and with a few hundreds of men, that which all the powers of Europe had failed to accomplish in more than three centuries of enthusiastic hostility, and though nearly three millions of men had sacrificed their lives in the vain attempt. And although it may be said that the resistance of the Mahommedans is become weaker than of old, this is itself another sign of the times, and another beacon-light to draw our attention to the same quarter of the horizon. It is the Providence of God that weakens them, and endows us with strength. From the vain efforts of the crusaders, breaking themselves like ocean spray against a rock, we may learn how little all the power of man can effect, before the appointed time is come; and in the recent accomplishment of that which they failed in, we may see the finger of God, and thank Him both for the re-establishment of Christianity in that land, and for the waning and paling of the crescent before the advancing light of the Gospel. We may well thank him for withering up the strength of that power which has exercised the longest, most cruel, and most degrading oppression with which God has at any time visited the civilized portion of the earth in righteous judgment upon the sins and apostasies of the baptized.

In speaking of the re-establishment of Christianity in Syria, we do not at present stop to enquire in what sense Jerusalem may now be deemed a bishopric, nor how far such an appointment is canonical, nor whether the concurrence of a German King and an English Archbishop, both of them only acknowledging national establishments, can make a Catholic establishment, as that over which the Bishop of Jerusalem presides, ought to be. This may have been all that could be done now, and the nearest approach to Catholicity which is at present attainable. And sure we are that the heads of our Church have been actuated by the best motives, and have done all that lay in their power. We know also that the appointment has kindled very great enthusiasm throughout Protestant Germany, and the day when the bishop entered Jerusalem has been set apart as a holyday, in commemoration of the event. We speak only of the fact; there is a Bishop of Jerusalem, tolerated both by the Christian and by the Mahommedan powers, and this fact is a most striking sign of the times. And it is also a fact in which the Providence of God has been conspicuously manifested, and we may therefore reverently and profitably enquire in what