and do the first works"-God grant that the Church of England may be spared to accomplish those high destinies which seem to be awaiting her—may she be “a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" -may she be a united Church in these troubled times and may such of her children as have "thoughtlessly and ungratefully lifted up their heel against her," know and see that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake and betray her by whom they have been "nourished and brought up!"

"For my brethren and companions' sake, I will wish her prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do her good."

APPENDIX.

No. I.

THE letter of the Earl of Manchester to his son, Mr. Walter Montague, (referred to at page 32,) was written under the following circumstan

ces:

Having given his son an excellent education, he sent him on his travels into France and Italy, where he imbibed such an opinion of the Romish religion, from the many Roman Catholics with whom he associated, that he was induced to give up his religion and his country, and retire into a monastery in France. He soon after addressed a letter to his father from Paris, a. D. 1635, in which he attempted to justify his change of religion; and among other grounds for so doing, declared that the Church of England being defective in one essential mark of a true Church, namely, her visibility at all times, she was, on that account, a false Church, and that he was therefore justified in quitting her communion.

Mr. W. Montague appears to have been led

astray on this point, by an assertion of St. Augustine, in his book Contra Petil. c. 104, that "the true Church has this certain sign, that it cannot be hid ;" on which he (Mr. W. M.) thus argued "Therefore it" (a true Church) "must be known to all nations; but that part of the (Protestant) Donatists is unknown to many, therefore cannot be the true; no inference can be stronger than from hence, that the concealment of a Church disproves the truth of it."

That such wretched sophistry could ever have misled a mind so acute as that of Mr. Montague, is almost incredible; for if "the concealment of a Church really disproves its truth," then is the Church of Rome not a true Church, for concealed she certainly was for a much longer period than the Protestant Church, having no identity whatever in the most essential of her doctrines with the primitive Church-purgatory, indulgences, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, and many other distinguishing doctrines, being absolutely unknown for several hundred years after the establishment of Christianity. Thus the two Churches, as far as this argument goes, would be nearly on a level, were there not this difference-that we, Protestants, are "troubled to show our Church in the latter and more corrupt ages, and the Roman Catholics theirs in the first and purest-that we can at least find ours at night, and they theirs at

noon."*

On which side, then, even by Mr. Montague's own rule, does truth the most preponderate ?

Let the admirable letter of the Earl of Manchester answer the inquiry.

Henry Montague Earl of Manchester's Answer to his son Walter Montague's Letter to him, on changing his religion, and becoming a Papist. Communicated from the original, by the said Walter, to the Right Hon. Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, when he was ambassador in France.

"Walter,-Your letter sent from Paris tells me how much debate you had with yourself, whether with silence to suspend my belief, or by a clear profession to assure me what you feared to present me; but what was most satisfactory to your first duty to God, that you thought most justifiable to your derivative duty to nature, therefore resolved to give me an ingenuous account of the declaration you had made then. Had you asked my counsel before you signified the resolution, it would have showed more duty in you, and bred less discontent in me; but think how welcome that letter could be, that at once tells of the intention, and signifies the resolution.

66

Say you could not expect from me so much

* Lord Faulkland's Answer to Mr. Montague's Letter, also published by Dr. Hammond.

theological learning, as to satisfy your scruples, yet it had been a fair address, of a son to a father, in a matter of that importance; nor are you ignorant of my care, I dare say knowledge studied, for the settlement of my children in that true faith which their father professed, and the Church of England hath established: Therefore, it would have been your greater justification, and my less sorrow, [so] sorrow, [so] to have lost yourself with love, if I could not have held you in with religious reason. Haply you will return. upon me the misconstruction of that speech, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, he cannot be my disciple. But I must tell you that by this post-dated duty, you have trespassed both upon love and duty; for you have robbed me of the means of helping you with mine advice; which, as it is the best part of a father's portion to give, so it is not the least testimony of filial duty to ask.

"Now, to lay such a blemish upon all the cares of your former education, as not to think me worthy to see your aim, until you have set up your rest, is such a neglect, that without overmuch fatherly candour, cannot be forced into an excusable interpretation. It makes me suspect that some politick respects, or private seducements, if not discontentments, have wrought upon you. Policy and religion, as they do well together, so do they as ill asunder, the one being