realm of Faith by the Understanding has often led to a suspension of the rightful exercise of the Understanding in all matters relating to Faith; and Thought, when it would fain have been everything, became nothing. On the other hand bolder and more thoroughgoing thinkers, feeling the total inadequateness of an intellectual belief to effect a moral renovation, have too hastily taken offense at what they did not know to be a perversion of the truth, and in their recoil from a fallacious Faith have rashly sought shelter in the hollow lightless and shelterless caverns of infidelity. Every way it is awful to think of the multitude of souls that have been thwarted and checkt in the pursuit of a living Faith, from having the cold phantom of an intellectual Faith thrown across their path in its stead.

Nor will it suffice to reply, that, as these mighty workings are in the New Testament ascribed to Faith, we must therefore believe them implicitly; that we must receive them as a mystery, and not presume that we are to fathom all mysteries with the short reach of our Understandings. Most true indeed it is, that this and every other peculiar doctrine of the Gospel is a mystery, yea, a mystery which was hidden from ages and generations; although in this instance also there were many anticipations of the truth which was to be revealed, much yearning toward it, much groping about for it amid the darkness. Ever since the Fall it had been a mystery, how, by the brooding of what spirit, the invisible world could be enabled to burst through the shell of the visible, — how it could be clothed with such a glory as should not fade away before the garish light of the Senses. But through God's infinite lovingkindness the mysteries, into which so

many prophets and sages had vainly desired to look, have now been made manifest to his saints: and we may still rely with confidence on our Lord's gracious declaration, that to his disciples, to those who believe in him, it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Or has this assurance been revoked? Has the gift of the Spirit been withdrawn from the Church? Are we no longer to walk beneath the light, but darkly, as though the night had overspread us again? Nay, but it is still given to Christ's disciples to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To those who believe in him, it is given; but to those who do not believe in him, it is not given. It is given to Faith; but to unbelief it is not given. Just such however, we shall find in the course of the argument, is the case with all other mysteries, even with those of natural science. They too are revealed to Faith only: and the Faith in a manner forms the measure of the revelation. They who believe in nothing higher than mere generalizations, will discover nothing higher than mere generalizations. They who believe in laws, will discover laws. They who believe in principles, will have principles revealed to them. And a like reward will be vouchsafed to those who go forth on their enquiries into spiritual mysteries with a dauntless assurance that every word is true which comes from the mouth of the Alltrue, that all truth proceeds from Him alone, that to Him all truth must lead, and that whatever draws us away from Him is a lie, and springs from the Father of lies. We are to seek and search, not with our eyes half closed, as though we were fearful lest we should see too much of truth,- lest we should look beyond God, into a region where God is not. In this respect also, seeing that we have such a Highpriest, who

himself is past into the heavens, we may approach boldly to the temple of Wisdom. For He who has delivered our hearts and souls, has also delivered our minds from the bondage of earth. Therefore let no man say to the waves of Thought, Thus far shall ye go, and no further. Let Faith propell them; and they shall roll onward, and ever onward, until they fall down at the foot of the Eternal Throne.

That this is the office and province of Faith,—that it is something far livelier, more powerful, more pervading, than any merely intellectual acknowledgement of truth,—that it is the faculty in man through which the spiritual world exercises its sway over him, and thereby enables him to overcome the world of sin and death,-appears from the wellknown definition or description of Faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The passage is somewhat obscure, owing to the difficulty of expressing the fulness of Hebrew thought in the dialectic language of the Greeks: and our translation merely renders the words of the original, without bringing out the meaning more distinctly. That meaning doubtless must be, that Faith is that power or faculty in man, which gives substance and reality to such things as are not objects of sight, and which fills him with a lively assurance of the things he hopes for. He who believes, in the Scriptural sense, must believe, not merely with his mind, but with his heart, and with his soul, and with his strength. This is the only Faith by which we can live and stand.

It has been urged indeed, in objection to the doctrine concerning the paramount importance of Faith, as proclaimed by the Reformers, that it was a new doctrine, at variance with that system of doctrines which had for ages been held in the Church (T). Now this, in a certain

sense, we know and acknowledge: and therefore do we give God thanks that he was pleased to raise up Luther, to proclaim this great fundamental doctrine, and to gather the soldiers of Christ under the all-conquering banner of Faith. But must not every truth, when it is first drawn out into distinct vision, be new? although, if it be a great and living truth, it will have struck root long before in the heart of ages. Was not the Gospel itself new, when it first came down from heaven? and yet it had been the desire of all nations. Was it not an objection urged against the Copernican system of the universe, that it was new? And may we not discern an interesting analogy between the truths which the two great contemporary Reformers were commissioned to reveal? Man, when following the promptings of his own self-magnifying heart, will make himself the centre of the universe: yet only when he finds a centre out of himself, can he be led to truth. Nay, although both these truths had been hidden for ages and generations, had they not both been written long before, the one on the face of the heavens, the other in the pages of St Paul?

Many of the struggles and conflicts in the history of the Church have arisen from this,-that, while the mind of man in its progressive evolution was necessarily passing through new modes and phases of thought, attempts were made to perpetuate forms of doctrine, which belonged to antecedent epochs, and were at variance with the new one. It was attempted to uphold, not the pure spiritual doctrine of the New Testament, which is everywhere set forth in its essential universality, by being set forth in its living reality, and is thus capable of assimilating with every metempsychosis of human thought, but certain definite forms

of words, in which that doctrine had been promulgated at some particular epoch, and which had not the same expansive assimilative power. It was attempted to force the man into the clothes of the boy, which cramp and fetter him, and which at every motion he rends and bursts. In Christianity, as in everything else that enters into the region of time, there is one side which is variable and progressive, as well as one which is permanent and unchanging. Christ, as God, is the same yesterday, today, and for ever: as man, he grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man. So too in a certain sense has it been with Christianity, even from the very first. Therefore was it of such importance, that the Church should combine the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove; that it should become all things to all men, so that every variety of character, which the diversity of climes or of ages might call forth among mankind, should be hallowed by Faith; that every thought and feeling might stand exalted and glorified in the spiritual firmament of Faith. Thus, when the Gentiles were admitted at the Council of Jerusalem, the Church of Christ grew, not only in stature, but in wisdom. It was made manifest that the partywall of ordinances had been cast down, and that He who was the Hope of Israel, was also the Saviour of all the ends of the earth. Again, when the Council of Nicea declared the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father, and when the great Athanasius was called up to proclaim and uphold the true idea of the Trinity, that which had thitherto been the implicit faith of the Church, was brought out into more distinct enunciation. Thus by age after age new constellations have been markt out; and names have been given to stars, which had till then been