first formation retains the lineaments of the larva from whose existence to that of the perfect insect it. forms the transition: but as the time for the latter to burst into life approaches, the gradual development of its form becomes visible through the attenuated coating in which it is encased. In like manner, while the "high and dry" character of the Establishment, strong in the patronage of Toryism, disappeared but slowly and insensibly at the earlier period of the transition state of the Church which is coincident with Bishop Blomfield's Episcopate, its close is marked by unmistakable indications premonitory of some great change, by which the Church is to emerge into an entirely new condition.

On the character of that change the hearts and minds of all to whom the Primitive and Catholic Deposit of the Faith, and the Apostolic foundations of the Church, are dear and sacred, are fixed with intense desire, not unmingled with anxiety. That it will not be ushered in without a mighty struggle, mightier than any the Church has as yet passed through, we may be very sure. On the one hand, the Papacy, with unexampled daring, has revived her most extravagant pretensions to universal supremacy, whilst at the same time she bids defiance alike to Catholic Truth, and to the common sense of mankind: to the latter by lying miracles, surpassing in profane absurdity the "pious frauds" and legends of the darkest ages, to the former by the authoritative promulgation of a new dogma, which strikes at the very root of the

and to satisfy the exigencies, of an age of unprecedented mental energy, and of facility and rapidity of intercourse equally unprecedented between all the families of mankind. A development of the human mind as gigantic in its character, and as free in its movements, as that of which the seeds have been sown during the lifetime of the generation now about to descend into the tomb, requires, if it is to be spiritually controlled, a commensurate exhibition of power and of freedom in the Church. But to that state of power and freedom the Church could not rise all at once. The Church that shall display in fulness and vigour such power and freedom of spiritual life, the Church of the future-in a very different sense from that in which this expressive term is used, or rather abused, by the author of Hippolytus and his Age," is a Church differing in all her proportions, and in her whole aspect, as widely as the essential identity of the Church of all ages will admit, from the Church of whose ideas and feelings the Episcopal wig was a fitting type.

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Between this Church and that it needed a transition Church, and of this transition Church Bishop Blomfield-not insignificantly, as was noted at the time, the first Bishop that discarded the unecclesiastic substitute for the mitre, was the mainspring and the representative. To stimulate and to guide the Church's energies during the development of this transition stage of her existence, appears to have been his special mission. The chrysalis in its

first formation retains the lineaments of the larva from whose existence to that of the perfect insect it forms the transition: but as the time for the latter to burst into life approaches, the gradual development of its form becomes visible through the attenuated coating in which it is encased. In like manner, while the "high and dry" character of the Establishment, strong in the patronage of Toryism, disappeared but slowly and insensibly at the earlier period of the transition state of the Church which is coincident with Bishop Blomfield's Episcopate, its close is marked by unmistakable indications premonitory of some great change, by which the Church is to emerge into an entirely new condition.

On the character of that change the hearts and minds of all to whom the Primitive and Catholic Deposit of the Faith, and the Apostolic foundations of the Church, are dear and sacred, are fixed with intense desire, not unmingled with anxiety. That it will not be ushered in without a mighty struggle, mightier than any the Church has as yet passed through, we may be very sure. On the one hand, the Papacy, with unexampled daring, has revived her most extravagant pretensions to universal supremacy, whilst at the same time she bids defiance alike to Catholic Truth, and to the common sense of mankind: to the latter by lying miracles, surpassing in profane absurdity the "pious frauds" and legends of the darkest ages, to the former by the authoritative promulgation of a new dogma, which strikes at the very root of the

Christian faith by attributing to the Virgin Mary, in the place of Christ, the initiative of a new, purified and sanctified humanity, and the power of all-availing mediation between God and man. On the other hand the Spirit of Unbelief, with daring no less unparalleled, assails both the Church, God's Ordinance, and the Bible, God's Word; denying the supernatural origin, and repudiating the Divine authority, of both; and claiming for the mind of man the supreme right and power of decision on questions of truth, and of regulation on matters of religious observance, as well as of general determination of both the purpose of human existence, and the best means of attaining it;-on the principle, openly avowed, and broadly asserted, that religion is a matter in regard to which each individual is entitled to be his own lawgiver and instructor, and, as far as any public recognition and observance is concerned, a matter to be regulated in accordance with the will of the majority.

Whether in the conflict which thus awaits her, against the spiritual tyranny of the Popedom, and the spiritual rebellion of Unbelief, the Church be destined to prove victorious, or to suffer a temporary defeat, as the prelude to the final victory of the Second Advent of her Blessed Lord in the glory and power of His eternal kingdom, is a question which the event alone can decide. The prospect of this alternative, however, does not affect the principle by which the Church ought to be guided in entering

upon the conflict. That principle is the essential unity and identity of God's Truth and Ordinance, under every change of times and circumstances, and every variation of outward form and arrangement which the necessity of adaptation to times and circumstances may require. By that principle Bishop Blomfield held fast with a tenacity worthy of a successor of the Apostles; and it is by the example which he set of unbending adherence to Catholic Truth and Apostolic Order amidst concession and defeat, as well as by the prophetic warnings against impending conflicts and dangers to which he gave utterance, that the history of his Episcopate is rendered so deeply instructive to every thoughtful and observant member of the Church.

Certain it is, moreover, that if, according to God's predestinated counsel, the time of the end is "not yet,"-if before the advent of that great, that terrible and glorious day, the day of the end, another and a new era is opening to the Church, in which she is to put forth the powers of truth and holiness of which she is the Divinely appointed depositary and channel, for the healing of the nations, for the salvation of souls, and for the glory of Christ,-she can fulfil that high mission only by the display of her spiritual supremacy, curbing and controlling, by a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, the proudest assertions, and the boldest flights, of human intellect. That the tendency of the transition period, at the close of which we appear to have arrived, and in it