346 APPENDIX. 



that which many a righteous man (more righteous 

 than we) desired so much to see, and hath not 

 seen it. And blessed be this day,* (let God re- 

 gard it from above, and a more than common 

 light shine upon it !) in which we see the Phoenix 

 arising from her funeral pile, and taking wing 

 again ; our Holy Mother, the Church, standing 

 up from the dust and ruins in which she sate so 

 long, taking f beauty again for ashes, and the 

 garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; re- 

 mounting the episcopal throne, bearing the keys 

 of the kingdom of Heaven with her, and armed 

 (we hope) with the rod of discipline ; her hands 

 spread abroad, to bless, and to ordain, to confirm 

 the weak, and to reconcile the penitent; her 

 breasts flowing with the sincere milk of the word; 

 and girt with a golden girdle under the paps, 

 tying up all by a meet limitation and restriction 

 to primitive patterns, and prescripts Apostoli- 

 cal. A sight so venerable and august, that, me- 

 thinks, it should at once strike love and fear into 

 every beholder, and an awful veneration. I may 

 confidently say it. It was never well with us, 

 since we strayed from the due reverence we ought 

 to Heaven and her ; and it is strange we should 

 no sooner observe it, but run a maddening after 

 other lovers, that ruined us, till God J hedged in 

 our way with thorns, that we could no longer find 

 them, and then we said, I will go, and return to 



* Job. iii. 4. t Isa. Ixi. 3. | Hos. ii. 6, 7. 



