great mass of human kind, for they shall bear the same filial relation to the wicked one that the Church bears to Christ. And however appalling may be the views which are suggested to the mind in connexion with these statements, if they are the genuine truths of scripture, in vain shall we oppose to them the utterance of unbelief and ahhorrence. That there is something truly appalling and frightful in the idea that a race treading the earth who may be properly termed Satanic as well as human, and who as truly partake of the nature of the wicked one, as of the human nature of Adam, no believer will deny. But is this idea after all a less appalling or terrible one, than the plain and demonstrable fact, that in all ages of the world, multitudes of human beings have been found inhaling the vital air, who have not only been at one period of their lives dead in trespasses and sins (as indeed are all the members of the elect church, till quickened from their death in sin to a new life in righteousness) but pursuing to the end of their life's career the same course of malignant opposition to the Lord and to His anointed one, the same inveterate diabolic rage towards the woman and her seed, towards Christ and His saints. Surely the condition of such adversaries is not really improved by affirming that they are not the children of the wicked one, except in the same sense in which all Adam's race may be denominated his seed, and by boldly declaring that they are in fact the children of God in virtue of their descent from Adam, although they forego the privilege of their human descent, and make themselves the willing slaves of Satan.

And now may we not with propriety imagine that whilst our first father would necessarily rejoice in

the serpent's doom, and in the knowledge that one would spring from the woman who should bruise the malignant adversary's head, that he would also keenly feel the humiliation of finding that he as man was not so much as named in connexion with the war that should be waged between the serpent and the woman, and between his seed and her seed? Surely he must have perceived that he had now ceased to be the representative of the race who, like himself at the first, should bear the image and likeness of God. The man is the head of the woman, and the woman was of the man as well as created for the man, (1 Cor. xi. 3, 8, 9.) nevertheless, the man is passed by in our text, and mention is only made of the woman; clearly intimating to Adam that he was degraded from his first high and holy pre-eminence, and that the title of father no longer appertained to him save in a sense which would confer on him no honor. Rom. v. 12-19. But we may also believe that in spite of this humiliation which was apparently so complete, there would arise in Adam's heart (when he should be afterwards restored by grace and the new and sanctifying operations of the Spirit of Christ, to a love of God and man in some respects more perfect than that which he possessed in his unfallen state) feelings of dutiful resignation to the divine will in connexion with his own disgrace, allied moreover to a joyful sense of the immense advantage to be derived ultimately to the elect church from the transfer of their headship from himself to that Jesus who should not only be man, but also God. And in such a case we may suppose him saying with the same cordial satisfaction that animated the blessed Baptist's heart when he uttered the memorable

words, "He must increase, but I must decrease: he that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthy, he that cometh from heaven is above all." "The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled." John iii. 29-31. And that Adam rose again after his sad fall, at least to the state of holy loving resignation, and joyful, humble acquiescence in the divine counsels which so many of the elect church have realized, why should we doubt, or why limit the operations of the Holy Spirit in his case? The charity which hopeth all things, and believeth all things that are not evidently inconsistent with the revealed truth of scripture, must needs suggest the belief that after Adam had been duly humbled on account of his transgression, and made alive to the fearful evil of sin as an offence against the blessed God, he would rise again to a new life of faith and love, and possess, it is more than probable, such a sense of divine love as he could not have possessed except for the sad, yet joyful fact, that he had much forgiven him. Luke vii. 41–47.

In regard to the bruising of the heel of the woman's seed, predicted in our text, we cannot be at any loss to see the distinct accomplishment of the prophecy both in the person of Jesus and his saints; in the person of Jesus when he endured the varied evils of life, and the pains of death, in the nature which he assumed for man's deliverance, and in the persons of his saints, who have again and again suffered the loss of all earthly things, and of life itself, through the

enmity of Satan and his murderous brood. The heel therefore is, in our text, expressive of the human nature, also of the body and earthly life of man, and over this nature, and body and earthly life, Satan was to enjoy a partial rule, and to possess the power of injuring man in these vulnerable points. But his power would be limited to these, and the immortal soul, the spirit, the head, he was not to be permitted to touch having killed the body, there was no more that he could do, and therefore his triumph, however appalling to the eye of sense, would be but momentary and comparatively unimportant in the eye of faith. 2 Cor. iv. 16-18.

TO ROME, via OXFORD.

(From the Bishop of Ossory's Charge.)

I SHALL make no attempt to trace regularly the approximations to Rome which have accompanied this deepening hostility to Protestantism. They have gone on naturally, pari passu. And it would seem now that no changes, however great, in our doctrine, or worship, or discipline, would come up to their notions of what is necessary to the perfection of the church, if not to its very being, unless they led to reunion with Rome; and that upon the most unqualified terms of submission, which the highest maintainers of papal supremacy have claimed for the chair of St. Peter. And, accordingly, every obstacle to this consummation has been gradually taken away. It had been ostentatiously stated from time to time, that we can have no union with Rome as she is that she must change before we can become one again: that she must move towards us, before we can move towards her. And such declarations were confidently referred to as a full answer to all apprehensions on that head. But, after allowing her a reasonable time, it was found that she continued what and where she was, and that she gave no sign of any disposition to move towards us, or to make any such changes as might facilitate our