how, when the Papacy was rampant, a subject, like Becket, backed by Rome, was able to beard his sovereign, and make him shake in his throne; though that sovereigns was one of the greatest of our kings, and had raised the proud prelate from the dust.Our people remember how Magna Charta had scarcely become law, when a Pope had the insolence to assert that the king who had granted it, and the whole realm, were his vassals, and that the crown should only be held as given by him, and tributary to Rome. Our nobles remember how, in the third Henry's reign, foreigners and their tools filled all the most sacred trusts in the Church, and all the highest offices in the State. And Englishmen of all ranks remember how, at the time of the Reformation, two sisters reigned in suecession under the first of whom England's glory seemed expiring: under the second of whom it revived and beamed forth anew, in more than its former splendour. And what occasioned the difference? Mary favoured Rome-Elizabeth the Reformation. Mary, in attempting to restore the Papal power, alienated the affections of her people, and weakened her own power to that degree that her sceptre became contemptible, and Spain even dared to put forth an armada to wrest it from the hand of her successor. But Elizabeth→→→→ Protestant Elizabeth-strong in the affections of her people, again made England to appear first among the nations of Christendom. She scorned the threats of Spain, and scattered to all the winds that proud armada, backed by all the authority and influence of Rome; and not only defended her own realms, but spread a protecting shield over the Protestants of the Low Countries, and of all other lands to which her power and in→ fluence could reach. It is comparatively safe and harmless for men to amuse themselves, in their studies and private chapels, with the forms and superstitions of Rome, and to write sentimentally about these things in tracts and newspapers, as long as the people of England are not roused to take part therein. But let them beware how they rouse the people. The English yeomanry and peasantry are still resolutely Protestanti/Those who should think of rousing them would be sporting with a firebrand which, if it once catches, will kindle a conflagra tion that will blaze and run like wildfire through the land; and those who shall have madly kindled it would be assuredly its first victims. .......

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ART. II. An Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the 2Colossians. By BISHOP DAVENANT. Translated by the Rev. JOSTAIL ALLPORT. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Cob1844. moduz 01 "ikout.

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THE course of Providence is always above and beyond the comprehension of man at the time; and is only to be understood aright by looking at the results which have been brought to pass at the end. We shall then often find that circumstances which have, at the time, appeared to be the most adverse, and that not merely to the things which seem to be good and right in our estimation, but which are beyond question good and right, turn out to have been ordered for the best, and even for the furtherance of those ends which they appear at first to contravene. of om bonda

The imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome is one of these cases, since it could not but be regarded at the time as a complete bar to that work of preaching the Gospel on which he had been set by God himself, and to which he had so entirely devoted himself, that he seemed to live for no other end: his whole heart was bent upon it, for he said, "A necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel." (1 Cor. ix. 16). Yet was Paul himself able, in part, to discern that this imprisonment, and frustration of his immediate hopes, forwarded the work which he had at heart, rather than hindered it; so that he could say, even while in prison, that the things which happened to him had fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel, that many, waxing confident by his bonds, had become much more bold to speak the word without fear that it had become known in all the palace, and in all other parts of Rome. And though some preached of envy and strife, yet some preached of good-will; and as, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ was preached, he could rejoice therein, yea, and would rejoice. (Phil. i. 12, 18).

The result which St. Paul witnessed in that short time amply consoled him under imprisonment, and he could even then see the hand of Providence at work in bringing about those results. But the Church of all succeeding generations has cause to rejoice before God in that imprisonment of St. Paul, inasmuch as it gave to the Church a blessing which is clearly to be traced to that long imprisonment, and which, but for such a seeming calamity, we have no reason to suppose the Church would ever have obtained-a blessing, the value of which St. Paul could not possibly either foresee the need of for the Church, or himself appreciate, as we appreciate it in

his writings. He could not foresee the ignorance of divine things which would creep over the Church during the long ages of darkness and corruption which ensued after his departure, and that of those, like Timothy, to whom he had committed the sacred deposit of the whole mystery of the Gospel; nor how rich a treasure he was bequeathing to the Catholic Church in those epistles written on the temporary occasion of his imprisonment, and when he was thinking only of the instructions and admonitions which it was necessary to send at that time to those particular Churches.

To the imprisonment of St. Paul we are indebted for his Epistle to the Hebrews the most elaborate and closely reasoned of all his writings; but we are not so much speaking of this, which is evidently a Catholic epistle, as of those to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, which are to particular Churches; and yet all have one feature in common, showing the one subject with which the mind of St. Paul was occupied, so as to make it prominent in them all-namely, the purpose of God, or "the mystery of his will" (Eph. i. 9); "the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. 14); "the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. ii. 3). For although the same mystery is the basis of the Epistle to the Hebrews, as is evident from its commencement, it is brought to light through the law, and its types and symbols, with special reference to the Jews. But in the three other Epistles it is the bringing of the same mystery to the Gentiles, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which, from the beginning of the world, hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. (Eph. iii. 6,9). Therefore, although the Epistle to the Hebrews is a confirmation of what is contained in the other Epistles, and what we have to say concerning them does also apply to it; yet there is a specialty in the argument addressed to the Jews which makes it advisable not to consider that Epistle in connection with those of which we are speaking, and which were addressed to Gentiles.

The Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, and Thessalonians were written at various times, during those journeyings and labours which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, at the end of which we find Paul a prisoner at Rome, yet in honourable restraint, dwelling in his own hired house, receiving all that came in unto him, and preaching to those that came, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. And

it was during this restraint that the Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians were written, and all nearly at the same time. We should remember how abundant the revelations made to St. Paul had been, as appears from his Epistles to the Corinthians, and also how wide had been the sphere of his ministry, and how diligently he had laboured therein; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, he had fully preached the Gospel of Christ. (Rom. xv. 19). So that he was not one whit behind the chiefest of the apostles in knowledge, and had laboured more abundantly than they all. (1 Cor. xv. 10). And all this knowledge, and all this experience in preaching the Gospel, he had acquired before he became a prisoner at Rome. And this imprisonment does not appear to have cut short any work in which he was engaged; for he himself says that there was no more place for him in those parts where he had been hitherto labouring, and that he had a great desire to visit those at Rome, and from thence, after some time, proceed to Spain. (Rom. xv. 23). But it was a time of repose and reflection, which was not lost upon this zealous servant of God, which produced fruit for the benefit of the whole Church for all generations.

It was late in the life of St. Paul that he was imprisoned at Rome; and when, in the reflective wisdom of one thus advanced in years, all the abundant revelations which he had received, and all the experience which he had gathered in preaching the Gospel, were brought together, pondered, and matured during his long restraint; when he was thus cast upon himself and upon God, and thus shut up as it were unto God alone, and giving his whole soul to contemplation, and to meditating upon all that he had learned during the active labours of his past life; and bringing all to bear upon the records of God's intentions concerning man contained in the holy Scripture; he attained that deep insight into the purpose of God which is the burden of these three Epistles-a mystery which seems to have overwhelmed him with astonishment, to have tasked his powers of language to the utmost, and to have even left him in doubt whether he could give intelligible expression to it, or others could by any means be brought to comprehend it, except as the understandings of both parties were, by the grace of God, enlarged. For which cause, therefore, he bows his knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the mystery which, by revelation, had been made known unto him (Eph. iii. 3), according to the eternal purpose in Jesus Christ our Lord (11), they might, through the Spirit, be strengthened

to receive (16), and be able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge (19).

All the three Epistles evince the same extraordinary grasp of the same mighty mystery; but the subjects of the three Epistles appear to be different, though they are only three different aspects of the same purpose of God. The Epistle to the Ephesians treats of it chiefly with reference to the work going on in the Church, in consequence of the resurrection of Christ, and of the gift of the Holy Ghost; but this is a gift, "for the perfecting of the saints, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man; no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine-but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ." (iv. 15). The Epistle to the Philippians treats chiefly of that love in which the truth is to be spoken, which is the bond of unity, and without which the gifts of the Holy Spirit would be but as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." (1 Cor. xiii.) "If there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." (Phil. ii. 1). While the Epistle to the Colossians sweeps the whole range of the sublime mystery which is unfolded in the Gospel, from that primal image of the invisible God which Christ had been from all eternity, as the second Person of the blessed Trinity, before any part of this mystery came into manifestation in creation; and dwells upon creation but as the manifold rendering out of that one image of God, the unity and fulness whereof is only to be found in Christ Jesus; and points to a realization of it, even in him, only when he rose again, and became first-born from the dead, and was seated at the right hand of God, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. Unto whom we looking, and in whom we dwelling, and with whom we being risen through the Spirit; we, even we also, and that even now, are called to show that all things were made by him and for him-to show it as an earnest, and enjoy it as a first-fruits, of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is within us at present-is a spiritual and invisible hope; but it shall appear in all its fulness at the time which is called by St. Paul the adoption to wit, the redemption of the body; for which time the Church, which hath the first-fruits of the Spirit, must wait; and he also tells us that it is a consummation which the whole groaning creation

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