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less offspring, yet is it unbending as the promises of GOD, which change not, a property which, far from repelling, draws us rather to her bosom "with cords of love," and binds heart, soul, and intellect, to her embrace, from the very circumstance that we know that She is that Rock on which alone the foot can be firmly planted, and which alone, in this valley of waving hopes and broken promises, we feel to be as immutable and unchanging as the Divine Spouse Himself,whose word is plighted to be her guide and guard for ever and ever, and which, by the impossible negation of the GOD of Truth's being able to deceive (ad Heb. vi. 18) assure to us, by such an infinite pledge, that it shall be continued without variableness or shadow of alteration for all eternity.

Now by the like token of her stability clearly proved, since it is derived from such an Almighty source of immutability, the holy rule of GoD's Church on earth is modelled after the form and likeness of that eternal principle, of which she may on earth be called the channel, through whose influence the garden of paradise is made fertile, and the hearts of regenerated men refreshed, so as to bring forth many and goodly fruits. But these dispensations presuppose a full acquiescence, first in GOD'S power, and secondly in her vicarious authority; a question admitting of no doubt; for to refuse this assent is to acknowledge that we are indeed out of her pale, and uninfluenced by the regenerating rite which infused into our souls the supernatural gift of faith. Hence she speaks, and we hear; she propounds, and we assent;-she commands, and we obey. For by the same creed that teaches our belief to rest on the Blessed Trinity and the holy mysteries of the Incarnation, we believe the Catholic Church, and all whatsoever she proposes to our belief. And why is this? Is it not that the mantle of God's power has been given to her for our salvation?—that the sceptre of His commandment has been delegated to her hand;-and that HE who is all Love hath clothed her also in the garment of power, and by His own words hath pronounced that "he that heareth her, heareth HIM.""HEAR THE CHURCH," he says. Audi, Filia. "Hearken, my daughter.” (Ps. lxxxiii.) "Hearken to my voice." "My son, hear the instructions of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother, that grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck." (Prov. i. 8, 9.) For "wisdom hath built herself a house; she hath hewn out seven pillars. She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table. She hath sent her maids to invite to the tower, and to the walls of her city. Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me. And to the unwise she said, Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I

have mingled for you." (Prov. ix. 1-5.) And again collectively to both she says, "Children, hear the judgment of your father, and so do that you may be saved." (Eccles. iii. 2.) HEAR THE CHURCH, for it is not she that speaketh of her own gift and strength, but it is the spirit of GOD within her that beareth witness. HEAR THE CHURCH, for she is the appointed channel of communication whereby the bounties of God's wondrous treasury are dispensed, and through her alone can we receive, or at least have His gifts confirmed to our souls. (Acts x. 31, and xi. 7, 17.) HEAR THE CHURCH, for in so doing we obey Him whose express mandate it is; and as we know that GOD is Love, and JESUS all Love, so we feel absolutely certain and secure that she whom He hath bid us hear partakes of His spirit, and rules us, the humblest and the weakest of his flock, with the same authoritative voice, the same despotic tone, rod, and sceptre of love!

Hitherto we have spoken most of our joys in bowing before her sway; we have spoken most of the glories of our restoration; but let us now illustrate this blessed doctrine of Love, by the darker shades that overspread our earthly course. For in our passage through this valley of death, life's course is chequered as an April day, in which the clouds, winds, and tears, prevail; and can it be otherwise, while we are yet prone to evil, and our bodies are still liable to the penalty of sin? How sadly does experience prove that, in the slippery path of life, we fall continually, and give way, alas! to how light temptation. How often "the good which we will, we do not; but the evil which we will not, that we do." (Rom. vii. 19.) How often to will is present with us, but to accomplish that which is good we find not. (Ib. 18.) Nor, as we showed above, is this all; but we have countless enemies around, amidst, without, and within us. Hence, albeit the holy grace of baptism, where is he that sinneth not? Doubtless there have been, and, even in these time-serving and evil days, there now ARE, some who have kept unsullied their baptismal robe; but woe is us, how few!for the sad truth each heart must tell, each lip confess, that we fall continually, like overripe figs, that have within them, even in their fulness, the germ of corruption.

But see how gracious and how good is the government of Almighty GOD over his poor, weak, frail, and evil-prone creatures. A crowd of unholy suggestions arise within us;-circumstances which the evil one knows full craftily to avail of, rise around and before us ;—we are, as it were, lost in a maze, with seemingly never a thread to lead us back through the ungodly labyrinth ;-here in fair characters is writ up the

hall of pleasure, there the bower of love, there the chamber of dais, where joy holds her court, and mirth her revelry,-there the curtain is withdrawn, and through the vista we behold the queen of pleasure sitting beneath a bright and glistering canopy, attended by nymphs and countless masquers, all in gay trappings of bravery, and "silks that rustle who but the wearer. "'* Here a fancied hope leads on the dance, and holds her discoloured glass to the eye of her victim, so that all he looks on, being seen through the distempered medium, seems for the while fair and comely;—there faith, in a masque, makes a mockery of her deluded believer; and a false love tinsels over the emotions of the heart, and says, in the pride of her self-conceit, "This is charity, and I sit as a queen." There, beneath the veil of humility, masks pride; and under the hood of philanthropy, a cancrous and despiteful heart. Each and all the passions walk there veiled in sheep's clothing, or guised as angels of light, are ever ready to pour in "their leprous distilment into the ear" of the heart, that listens but too eagerly, and looks too earnestly, till, amid the bewilderment, it desires, consents, and falls. Oh! amid such a rout and revelment, do we not give way continually?—with glozed hearts do we not fall like over-ripe figs, and bend before the least temptation, as if that were the god of our idolatry? Alas! it is but too true; and sad experience, with a sigh, must needs set the seal of its testimony to the fatal deed.

But dark and gloomy as is the prospect, yet are we not left a prey to these vain suggestions; while we struggle and consent not (however hard the discrimination be, and not to be left to our favouring self-love) yet we are not left hopeless, nor without a means,-yea, many means of escape. If many be against us, yet are there many more for us;—if the evil spirit lay his snare, the guardian angel spreads his protecting wing;-if fiendish influence pour its poison into the unsuspecting soul, the soil has been prepared by the counterscarp of grace;—if the wicked one suggest, the Blessed interpose ;-if demons clothe themselves as angels of light, blessed Angels unseen pour forth, with the Saints, Martyrs, and Confessors, at the throne of heaven, their intercessional prayers; and more than all, he who in the hour of need and day of trial looks to and BEHOLDS HIS MOTHER, knows well and is assured that SHE will not forget that precept of most powerful appeal, MOTHER, BEHOLD THY SON! Hence, if many be against us, yet are there more

* "Then came brave glory puffing by,

In silks that rustled who but he." "

MASTER GEO. HERBERT.

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for us; and in the long array of Blessed Creatures on which episcopal authority hath set its seal in this place, there are means and appliances vouchsafed to us by the Church of GOD an hundred-fold more numerous than the machinations of our foes; and why?-because her authority is sovran,--it is a despotism of love!

But yet how often in our waywardness do we cast a deaf ear to her manifold calls, turn away from all her means and appliances of strength, and while angels weep, play our fantastic tricks before High Heaven; for howsoever we have been holpen, yet such is our tendency to sin, and such our weakness, that we fall, through our fault,-through our own fault, through our own most grievous fault, and have fallen, alas! how often. With a wayward will, we listen to the voice of the Siren; we taste the Circean cup; we have a glimpse of Sybaris; and open our ears to the soft measures of the Lydian lyre. In the caprice of our waywardness, we prank ourselves in the garb of this world's servitude; we put on the livery of pride, and take wages of the lord of this world; we doat on gifts which should urge us but the more to love GOD; and having set our hearts thereon, we rest contented, with what was designed but for a passing refreshment, and a stepping stone to eternity; we give the rein to our passions, and wallow in the base and dreary lees of unworthy desires; we sell our birthright for a pitiful price; and we awake to the worthless value of our purchase, and to unfeigned regret. We sin, and lose the grace of God's favour,—we plunge into wickedness, and are wretched; we become as unclean creatures, and feed on husks; we hew out cisterns, but find them rent and broken,broken cisterns that can hold no water. But is all hopeless? No! Blessed be GOD, and the holy grace of baptismal regeneration, and the holy ROOD, on which that grace was purchased; we have still left a means to return again, and whence is this to come, but from the fathomless depths of that despotism of love, which has provided for the fallen creature a means of escape, that in its origin and appliance could only be conceived in such a source !

Now as this world was created in beauty, but, for man's prevarication, was destroyed by the waters of the deluge, and is reserved for fire, which one day shall cleanse and change it; so as baptism is passed, yet fire is reserved for the soul of man,—be it the cleansing or that drearier flame,—and in the intermediate state of human life, that stands, as it were, with these two in front of it ;-the soul that has fallen after being washed in baptism, and must be refined by fire;-must needs be cleansed in this intermediate state by the fire of contrition, and the tears of sorrow; and be raised again to the life and joys of grace, which

alone are to be attained by a worthy reception of those means which GOD hath provided in His Church for that end, those namely which are to be found in the HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE.

We are looking on THE FONT; but if we have fallen, as, alas! how few there are who fall not,-cast the eye along this venerable NAVE, and behold the CONFESSIONAL. Behold there the means that GOD hath appointed for fulfilling his precept of telling the Church! Behold the physician of souls, who sits there in judgment on the afflictions of the contrite and broken heart!—not to condemn, but to pardon ;-not to reprove, but to soothe ;-not to upbraid, but to comfort;-not to probe and gall, but to ease and pour in the balm of spiritual consolation on the bruised and wounded spirit. There sits one who has power given him to forgive sins; who with all the tenderness of a father, and with all the gentleness that betokens Christian love, listens, not in anger nor reproach, but with that sorrow that is ever ready to weep with us in our contrition, and to pour in, the while, the balm of holy comfort. But is that all? Ah, no! while the tears of contrition are falling in confession, the holy absolution is given, and words of holy import, of sweet contentment, of unction and grace, to strengthen and confirm, to urge on to resolution and stedfastness, are poured forth; and as the humble penitent is told, to go and sin no more, the sorrow of contrition gives its hand to the sorrow of love, and holy grace is infused into the soul, emboldening, but not making worthy to approach to the foot of the altar, there to receive that crowning GIFT, not because he is worthy, but because he is weak, and because he has been invited to the heavenly banquet, there to partake of what he is so much in need-THE BREAD OF THE STRONG!

There is a certain reserve which is doubtless natural to the human heart, in speaking of the solemu mysteries of religion, where they have individual application, or where, after the most has been said, speech falls short of what the heart alone can feel. In nearly all the mysteries of Redemption, especially the Incarnation and Passion of our dear Lord, the language of the heart is more to be used than the tongue or the head; for as human intellect cannot fathom nor comprehend, so the lips cannot express what is left alone for the soul, in silence to meditate on and love,—so in the wondrous appliance of grace to the souls of men, there is much that claims reserve, and much that devout experience alone can teach. It is not given to all, as it was to the evangelic Prophet, to have their lips touched by a coal from the altar, by the hands of an Angel; but it is given to all to weep in the CONFESSIONAL, and, through the ministry of an appointed priesthood, there