day (Thy servant particularly, whose sufferings and labours we this day commemorate), receive the reward of our labours, the harvest of our hopes, then the salvation of our souls; and that for the merits, and through the mediation of Thy Son, our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen."

We continue, it is true, to pray for the hastening of Christ's kingdom, and when we do so, we must be considered as embracing the whole estate of Christ's Catholic Church; yet it is not to be supposed, when we adopt the closing words of Revelation, and say, " Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly," that we have the case of departed souls mainly in view; for if, on the one hand, we entertain a hope that we shall by our prayers, either make their felicity greater in the middle state, or hasten their accession to eternal glory at the day of judgment, we shall hardly escape from the dilemma which awaits us on the other hand, of virtually praying that the wretchedness of those who died in their sins

may be proportionably accelerated. "All those," Mr. Campbell tells us, "who are on the left hand side of Hades, are, during their abode there, in the miserable society of devils and of their fellow wicked souls, under great terrors, and a fearful expectation of judgment, have a hell within them, are in great agonies of soul and torment, from deprivation, reflection, and dismal expectation, yet far short of what they are to feel, both inwardly and outwardly, after the re-union of their souls

and bodies, after the resurrection and final judgment." Let us be thankful, then, that whatever apparent intimations there may be in Scripture of an intermediate state, it has not been revealed to us with such precision as to make it a fundamental doctrine of the Catholic faith. With respect to our Saviour's descent into hell (according to the words of the Apostles' Creed), we are told by Archbishop Secker, that probably all that was intended to be taught by this part of the Creed is, that when He died, as His body was laid in the grave, so His spirit went where other separate spirits are. And we should remember, in repeating these words of the Creed, that this is the whole of what we are bound to profess by them. But in what part of space, or of what nature, that receptacle is, in which the souls of men continue from their death till they rise again, we scarce know at all, excepting that we are sure it is divided into two extremely different regions, the dwelling of the righteous, called in St. Luke Abraham's bosom,' where Lazarus was, and that of the wicked, where the rich man' was, between which there was a great gulph fixed. And we have no proof that our Saviour went on any account into the latter, but since He told the penitent thief, that he should be that day with Him in Paradise,' we are certain that He was in the former, where they which die in the Lord, rest from their labours,' and

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' are blessed;' waiting for a still more perfect happiness at the resurrection of the last day."

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Archbishop Secker had said previously that "the assertion in the Creed is founded on Ps. xvi. 10, where David prophecies of Christ, what St. Peter in the Acts explains of him, that His soul should not be left in hell,' which imports that once He was there. The most common meaning, not only amongst heathens, but amongst Jews and the first Christians, of the word Hades' here translated Hell,' was in general that invisible world, one part or another of which the souls of the deceased, whether good or bad, inhabit." And I have thought it proper to give the foregoing quotation from that pious and learned Archbishop, to show that so far from entertaining any hostility to the doctrine it inculcates, I am most ready to admit that it is perfectly safe, and even obligatory upon all whose consciences lead them to embrace it.

But I have already said enough in vindication of my own opinions. I am satisfied with knowing that "As in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;" whilst with regard to the wretched advocates of Materialism, my view of this obscure subject leaves the door of hope open, that they, seeing that however intimate the connection of soul and body may be, and however difficult the attainment of any distinct cognition of the nature of the disembodied soul, yet that the doctrine of the Resurrection is totally independent of any such cognition; that the Scriptures affirm that we have immortal souls as well as mortal

bodies, and that, at the last day, they will assuredly again be united, so to remain in endless happiness or endless misery, conformably with the terms and conditions of the Gospel covenant. They assure us, in fine, that the day is coming, when "He that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood—when, behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.". Rev. i. 5—7.

A FRAGMENT, by Charles Babbage, Esq. was published last year under the title of "The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise," which title the author says he adopted because he believes that in advancing arguments in favour of natural religion, he is promoting the Earl of Bridgewater's object. But he assigns, as a further reason for the appearance of this Fragment, that he wishes to vindicate his own more immediate pursuits, and the pursuits of science generally, from what he deems to be an injurious opinion of Mr. Whewell, the author of the third Bridgewater Treatise, who denies to "the mechanical philosophers and mathematicians of recent times any authority with regard to their views of the administration of the universe;" and thinks that “we have no reason whatever to expect from their specula

tions any help when we ascend to the first cause and Supreme Ruler of the universe-nay, that they are less likely than men employed in other pursuits, to make any clear advance towards such a subject of speculation."-Whewell's Treatise, p. 334.

Without presuming to arbitrate between men so really great in talent and intellectual attainments as Mr. Whewell and Mr. Babbage, it may safely be conceded to the latter, that he has displayed extraordinary ingenuity in eliciting from so purely mechanical an invention as his calculating machine, an argument against Hume's doctrine, respecting miracles. Nevertheless, does not the very supposition that there can be any analogy between the seemingly miraculous performances of a piece of mechanism, and the miracles of the Bible, show that there is some reason for Mr. Whewell's apprehension of the anti-religious tendency of such pursuits, in particular, as are conversant with the properties of pure number and with abstractions of a like nature?"

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Mr. Babbage thinks that he has advanced a considerable step in the province of natural theology by showing that not only may the Almighty have established a law whereby the natural world is ordinarily governed, but that he may have so modified this law from the beginning as to have predetermined such occasional deflections from the ordinary course, such