"
"Prithee, my lord," said I, "may we approach so as to obtain a better
view of this magnificent royal court (for my heart waxed warm towards the
place since first I had beheld it). "Oh yes, easily," answered the
Angel, "for therein is my place, my duty and my work." The nearer I came
thereto the more I wondered at the height, strength, splendour, grandeur,
and beauty of its every part, how skilful the work was, and how apt the
materials. Its base was an enormous rock wondrously fashioned, and of
strength impregnable; upon it were living stones, laid and joined in such
perfect order that no stone could possibly appear finer elsewhere than in
its own place. One part of the church projected in the form of a
wonderfully handsome cross, and the Angel saw me looking at it, and said,
"Dost thou recognise that part?" I knew not what to answer. "That is
the Church of England," he said. I was somewhat startled, and looking up
beheld Queen Anne on the church-top enthroned, with a sword in each hand-
-the one in the left called "Justice," to defend her subjects against the
inhabitants of the City of Destruction, the one in the right, to preserve
them from Belial and his spiritual evils, and this was called "the sword
of the Spirit," or the Word of God.
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