stand what they had before precluded themselves from seeing and understanding; and if they do not become conformists themselves, suffer their children to become so. The same hereditary and rooted feeling prevails among the yeomanry of the land. Here, then, we have a strong ground of hope and confidence on which to rest. But our strongest is in the Church. itself, and in the character of its ministers. In Roman-Catholic states, and more especially in those which are most Catholic, and most Papal, infidelity is as common among the higher and better educated clergy, as the grossest superstition is among those who are taken, with little education, from the lower order of the people. Among the clergy of the Church of England, there may be some who believe and tremble; and a few, (they are but few,) who are false to the Establishment in which they are beneficed, and would let the wolf into the fold: but, if there be an Infidel among them, it is known only to that Almighty and Most Merciful Father to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are hid. Such a man may live selfreproached, but his want of belief will never infect others,.. it will be a hidden wound,.. quod proxima nesciat uxor.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

The heart of England then, in this respect, is sound!

MONTESINOS.

An unbelieving clergyman would be regarded as a monster. And, as this is one of the healthiest symptoms of public feeling, so is it one of the most remarkable points of difference between the state of the English and of the Romish Church. For in Roman-Catholic countries, even where the Inquisition is established, the Infidel Priest may always have a circle as well among his own brethren, as the laity, wherein he would think it a reproach were he supposed to believe in the religion which he professes. In that circle his understanding would be impeached by such a supposition but it is no impeachment of his integrity that he continues publicly to profess what the laws will not permit him to abjure. He must go on with his part in the drama of delusion; or he must cast himself upon the world a voluntary exile, exposed to all the privations and miseries of that condition; or he must remain, and suffer martyrdom: and how should he be expected to bear this testimony against falsehood, who is ready with Pilate to ask, What is truth?' being, like Pilate, in that pitiable state of mind which conceives that no answer can be given

to the question! One fatal error, which is most carefully inculcated, keeps its hold upon him, when he has shaken off the authority of his Church in other respects; he still supposes Christianity to be such as that Church in its dogmas and rituals represents it; in no other form has it ever been presented to his consideration, and he never thinks of turning from the mythology of the Breviary to the religion of the Gospel. Meantime, the exercise of his office tends to confirm him in his unbelief. He is engaged in functions which, when performed by one who does not implicity believe himself to be invested with the portentous attributes which he assumes, must sear the conscience, and farther indurate the already hardened heart. He performs the daily routine of a service, in which, indeed, there is much that in itself is good, but in which it is not less certainly true, that folly and imposture stare him in the face; he sees the weakness of human nature, and too much of its wickedness, also, is laid open to him; till, learning at last to congratulate himself that his lot in life has been assigned among knaves instead of dupes, (for into these classes it is that he divides mankind,) he says complacently, populus vult decipi et decipietur,'.. as so many of his fraternity have said before him, and so

many say with him at this day. Let it not be supposed that men cannot attain to this fearful state without a strong predominance of evil in their nature! Such persons may have, and are likely to have better dispositions, as well as better understandings, than those who, being found unfit for any other branch of ecclesiastical service, are, for that reason, destined* to preside over matters of faith as members of the Holy Office! The more selfish sensualists, the thoroughly profligate, the sollicitantes, are as likely to be found among those Priests who trust in the validity of absolution, and expect to buy themselves off from Purgatory, or at the worst to be prayed out of it in some reasonable time, as among those who doubt of every thing beyond the grave, and standing in no awe of judgement to come, trouble themselves with no devices

That this was the case in the Spanish Universities we learn from Dr. Villanueva. 'Era voz comun entonces (he is speaking of the reign of Charles III.) que para los mas habiles de aquellos colegios (que ciertamente los hubo) eran 'por lo general las mitras, y las dignidades y canongias, especialmente las de oficio: y en el orden civil las togas de las audiencias, chancillerias y consejos supremos; y para los ineptos las plazas de Inquisicion; á cuyo propósito se decia con escandalo, y lo oi yo muchas veces, præstet fides supplementum.'-Vida Literaria de D. Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva, t. i. p. 11.

for eluding it. Ministers of the Romish Church, though they be persons of natural piety, good feelings, and virtuous aspirations, may fall into the state of infidelity which I have described; and such in melancholy truth were they who are present to my thoughts while I speak, .. for the picture has been taken from reality: . . men far above the standard of their countrymen; richly gifted with moral not less than intellectual endowments; just, generous, high-minded, and gentle-hearted; respected and admired and loved by all around them, but most so by those who knew them best; men who, in more favourable circumstances, might have been the pride of their country, and the benefactors of their kind, as they were the ornament, and the delight of the circle in which they moved; but who have perished miserably, and guiltily, in revolutionary movements, . . because the root of religion was wanting in them, and they ventured to do evil in the hope that good might follow. God be merciful to them, for His dear Son's sake! I will not think that the sin of rejecting Him can be laid to their charge, for in truth they knew Him not! They did it ignorantly, in unbelief* !'

* 1 Tim. i. 13.