which together make up the universal Church of Christ on earth; then, to say that the (so-called) Church of Rome is one of those branches, is to say, that she is, properly and strictly speaking, a visible and a real Church. But of what is the visible Church of Christ composed, according to the definition given in our nineteenth article? "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same."-How, then, am I to believe, as a Minister of the Anglican Church, that a congregation of not faithful men, in which the pure word of God is not preached, and the sacraments are not duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, is a branch of the Church Catholic? To suppose that the Article which carefully describes what that congregation is, which constitutes the visible Church of Christ, will allow me to say, that a congregation of an entirely, not diverse only, but opposite description, is also a visible and a real Church of Christ is, to my mind, a supposition as entirely beyond the bounds of credibility, as any that ever was made. It appears to me, that no inference, no corollary from a demonstrated proposition, was ever more clear, direct, and inevitable, than is the inference from the nineteenth article; that the (so called) Church of Rome is not a branch of the visible Church of Christ: or, in other words, of the Church Catholic.

But it is not in the way of direct and necessary inference alone, that we are to collect the decision of our Church on the question before us. She has pro

nounced that decision in another of her authorized

Formularies; in terms as plain and positive as it is in the power of language to supply. In the second part of the Homily for Whit-sunday, we read as follows:-"The true Church is an universal congregation or fellowship of God's faithful and elect people, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head cornerstone. And it hath always three notes, or marks whereby it is known. Pure and sound doctrine, the sacraments ministered according to Christ's holy institution, and the right use of ecclesiastical discipline. This description of the Church is agreeable both to the scriptures of God, and also to the doctrine of the ancient fathers, so that none may justly find fault therewith. Now, if you will compare this with the Church of Rome, not as it was in the beginning, but as it is at present, and has been for the space of nine hundred years and odd; you shall well perceive the state thereof to be so far wide from the nature of the true Church, that nothing can be more." "Which thing" (viz. that "the Bishops of Rome have forsaken, and daily do forsake, the commandments of God, to erect and set up their own constitutions,") being true, as all they which have any light of God's word must needs confess; we may well conclude according to the rule of Augustine, that the Bishops of Rome and their adherents, are not the true Church of Christ; much less then to be taken as chief heads and rulers of the same. Whosoever, saith he, do dissent from the scriptures concerning the head, although they be found in all places where the church is appointed, yet are they not in the church; a plain place concluding directly against the church of Rome. Where is now the Holy Ghost

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which they so stoutly claim to themselves? Where is now the Spirit of truth that will not suffer them in any wise to err? If it be possible to be there where the true church is not, then it is at Rome; otherwise, it is but a vain brag and nothing else." In common with every other minister of the established Church, I have subscribed, amongst the other thirty-nine Articles, that which declares of the second book of Homilies, whence the above extract is taken, that it "doth contain a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary for these times." From my heart I believe it to be so; and truly should I rejoice, if the doctrine promulged in the Homily I have quoted from, respecting the true Church of Christ, were earnestly commended to the attention of the clergy, in the pastoral charges of our Bishops and Archdeacons, as emphatically necessary for these times." I think we should not then see so many of the ministers of our Church unworthily pandering to the pride and arrogance of the Romanists, for the sake of upholding the vain imagination of our having received through them an uninterrupted Apostolical succession. "If it be possible" for Apostolical succession "to be there where the true Church is not, then it is at Rome; otherwise, it is a vain brag, and nothing else.” However true it may be, and true it undoubtedly is, that if we have not this unbroken succession from Rome, we have it not at all; still let truth be adhered to, be the consequence what it may. If, indeed, the Church of England rested for support on the rotten foundation of Rome, well might her friends and advocates tremble for her safety. But, blessed be God, she rests on a firmer basis, being "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."

In conclusion, I would only further beg to say, that although I do not in general attach much weight to any of the notes which the Romish Annotators have annexed to the Douay Edition of the New Testament; there is yet one note of theirs, connected with the present subject, which appears well worthy the attention of all those Protestants who hold that the (so called) Church of Rome is a branch, however corrupt, of the Church Catholic. To the concluding words of 1 Tim. iii. 15., viz. "the pillar and ground of the truth," the following concise, but pithy, annotation is attached, "Therefore the church of the living God can never uphold error, nor bring in corruptions, superstition and idolatry." From these premises can any conclusion be more plain and obvious, or more strictly logical, than the following:-"Therefore the corrupt, superstitious and idolatrous Church of Rome, is not the church of the living God."

C. T.

"LET your prayer be short, and think a long time before you begin, what you are going to say, and what you mean by it: that is, to speak plainly,—whether you would be taken at your word, and put to the pain of having your prayers answered. It would be death to the generality even of those who appear on the side of religion, to receive or be what they pray for."-Adam's Private Thoughts, p. 156.

EXPOSITORY REMARKS ON GENESIS.

VIII.

CHAPTER II

VERSE 18.-" And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him." The mystical writers have fabled many things in their comments on this text. It does indeed present difficulties, but none which can be solved by the help of allegory, because its obscurity arises, not from the circumstance of its possessing any deep hidden meaning, but because it is not easy to understand how the creation of the woman could have taken place, as it is generally supposed it did, on the sixth day, if Adam was alone any considerable period. That he was some time alone, appears evident from the facts recorded in the following verses 19, 20; where God is described as bringing all the different orders of living creatures to Adam to see what he would name them, and where it is said that Adam gave names to all. In the account of the creation of man on the sixth day, (chap. i. 27.) it is particularly stated, "male and female created he them;" which words seem evidently to imply, that the woman was formed on the sixth day, as well as the man; whilst on the other hand some parts of the context