perfect Catholicism than that with which it started at the time of its
estrangement; every act, every crisis which marks its course, has been
upward.

* * * * *

"What a note of the Church is the mere production of a man like
Butler, a pregnant fact much to be meditated on! and how strange it
is, if it be as it seems to be, that the real influence of his work is
only just now beginning! and who can prophesy in what it will end?
Thus our Divines grow with centuries, expanding after their death in
the minds of their readers into more and more exact Catholicism as
years roll on.

* * * * *

"Look across the Atlantic to the daughter Churches of England in the
States: 'Shall one that is barren bear a child in her old age?' yet
'the barren hath borne seven.' Schismatic branches put out their
leaves at once, in an expiring effort; our Church has waited three
centuries, and then blossoms like Aaron's rod, budding and blooming
and yielding fruit, while the rest are dry. And lastly, look at the
present position of the Church at home; there, too, we shall find a
note of the true City of God, the Holy Jerusalem. She is in warfare
with the world, as the Church Militant should be; she is rebuking the
world, she is hated, she is pillaged by the world.

* * * * *

"Much might be said on this subject. At all times, since Christianity
came into the world, an open contest has been going on between
religion and irreligion; and the true Church, of course, has ever been
on the religious side. This, then, is a sure test in every age _where_
the Christian should stand.... Now, applying this simple criterion to
the public Parties of this DAY, it is very plain that the English
Church is at present on God's side, and therefore, so far, God's
Church; we are sorry to be obliged to add that there is as little
doubt on which side English Romanism is.

* * * * *

"As for the English Church, surely she has notes enough, 'the signs of
an Apostle in all patience, and signs and wonders and mighty deeds.'
She has the note of possession, the note of freedom from party-titles;
the note of life, a tough life and a vigorous; she has ancient
descent, unbroken continuance, agreement in doctrine with the ancient
Church. Those of Bellarmine's Notes, which she cert