ger with the Church of
England, except in mere Lay Communion;' or people might say you
repented of the cause altogether. Till you see [your way to mitigate,
if not remove this evil] I certainly should advise you to stay." I
answered as follows:--

"Since you think I _may_ go on, it seems to follow that, under the
circumstances, I _ought_ to do so. There are plenty of reasons for
it, directly it is allowed to be lawful. The following considerations
have much reconciled my feelings to your conclusion.

"1. I do not think that we have yet made fair trial how much the
English Church will bear. I know it is a hazardous experiment--like
proving cannon. Yet we must not take it for granted, that the metal
will burst in the operation. It has borne at various times, not to
say at this time, a great infusion of Catholic truth without damage.
As to the result, viz. whether this process will not approximate the
whole English Church, as a body to Rome, that is nothing to us. For
what we know, it may be the providential means of uniting the whole
Church in one, without fresh schismatising or use of private
judgment."

Here I observe, that, what was contemplated was the bursting of the
_Catholicity_ of the Anglican Church, that is, my _subjective idea_
of that Church. Its bursting would not hurt her with the world, but
would be a discovery that she was purely and essentially Protestant,
and would be really the "hoisting of the engineer with his own
petard." And this was the result. I continue:--

"2. Say, that I move sympathies for Rome: in the same sense does
Hooker, Taylor, Bull, etc. Their _arguments_ may be against Rome, but
the sympathies they raise must be towards Rome, _so far_ as Rome
maintains truths which our Church does not teach or enforce. Thus it
is a question of _degree_ between our divines and me. I may, if so
be, go further; I may raise sympathies _more_; but I am but urging
minds in the same direction as they do. I am doing just the very
thing which all our doctors have ever been doing. In short, would not
Hooker, if Vicar of St. Mary's, be in my difficulty?"--Here it may be
said, that Hooker could preach against Rome, and I could not; but I
doubt whether he could have preached effectively against
transubstantiation better than I, though neither he nor I held it.

"3. Rationalism is the great evil of the day. May not I consider my
post at St. Mary's as a place of protest against it? I am more
certain that the P