Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

178 Defect* and their Remedy in Re-union.
they been so ? They have had persecution to
purify them; they have been fettered by no
connection with the State ; they have had the
perpetual Divine Presence with them always on
the Altar ; and yet are they as a Christian
body so very superior to ourselves ? Is there
the difference between them and us, which on
their own showing you would expect to find
between the Church and a mere human insti
tution ?" Have they been the one nucleus of
all that is good and holy in England, meekly
submitting or
gloriously triumphing; and
manifesting to all the world that those who
meet their LORD every day can never resemble
those who meet Him but seldom, and. then ac
knowledge
not his Presence? We cannot see
that it is so : and further, we see that the
English, not the Roman body,
spring of all the good and religious progress in
is the main
England, and that we have endured the toil
o /
from which they are reaping the harvest.
The practice of the Ancient Church and the
length of time for which
deprived of communion and
penitents were
other Christian
blessings, proves that the principle of de
priving a sinful Church of its privileges in
mercy as well as in one. What could at
punishment, is a sound
first siolit ~ be better for
the penitent
soul than the reception
of its
and who more fit for it than the return-
Lord,