shown in her Lord himself, or in his and her members;—­looking lovingly upon her elder sisters, the ancient churches, and delighting to be in communion with them, as she hopes that her younger sisters, the churches of later days, will delight to be in communion with her;—­what has she not, that Christ’s bride should have? what has she not, that Mr. Newman’s system can give her?  But because she loves her Lord, and stands fast in his faith, and has been enlightened by his truth, she will endure no other mediator than Christ, she will repose her trust only on his word, she will worship in the light, and will abhor the words, no less than the works, of darkness.  Her sisters, the elder churches, she loves and respects as she would be herself loved and respected; but she will not, and may not, worship them, nor even, for their sakes, believe error to be truth, or foolishness to be wisdom.  She dare not hope that she can be in all things a perfect guide and example to the churches that shall come after her; as neither have the churches before her been in all things a perfect guide and example to herself.  She would not impose her yoke upon future generations, nor will she submit her own neck to the yoke of antiquity.  She honours all men, but makes none her idol; and she would have her own individual members regard her with honour, but neither would she be an idol to them.  She dreads especially that sin of which her Lord has so emphatically warned her—­the sin against the Holy Ghost.  She will neither lie against him by declaring that he is where his fruits are not manifested; nor blaspheme him, by saying that he is not where his fruits are.  Rites and ordinances may be vain, prophets may be false, miracles may be miracles of Satan; but the signs of the Holy Spirit, truth and holiness, can never be ineffectual, can never deceive, can never be evil; where they are, and only where they are, there is God.

There are states of falsehood and wickedness so monstrous, that, to use the language of Eastern mythology, the Destroyer God is greater than the Creator or the Preserver, and no good can be conceived so great as the destruction of the existing evil.  But ordinarily in human affairs destruction and creation should go hand in hand; as the evergreen shrubs of our gardens do not cast their old leaves till the young ones are ready to supply their place.  Great as is the falsehood of Mr. Newman’s system, it would be but an unsatisfactory work to clear it away, if we had no positive truth to offer in its room.  But the thousands of good men whom it has beguiled, because it professed to meet the earnest craving of their minds for a restoration of Christ’s church with power, need not fear to open their eyes to its hollowness; like the false miracles of fraud or sorcery, it is but the counterfeit of a real truth.  The restoration of the church, is, indeed, the best consummation of all our prayers, and all our labours; it is not a dream, not a prospect