unity of spirit in variety of form and endowment. It is even opposed to the idea, that an absolute unity or uniformity over all would be more beautiful. To these remarks we might add such illustrations as the Psalms afford. Nor are they few. More especially, in the 48th Psalm, the church is compared to Jerusalem in all its variety of bulwarks, palaces, and towers. And to this we might subjoin a description of the bride's attire in the Song of Solomon, in which her glory and beauty is in like manner chiefly laid in the variety of her ornaments. In a word, all these passages point equally to a state of things in which, along with unity of spirit, there is great variety of form. But let these remarks suffice of the poetic books. Turn we now to the New Testament.

Yet may we not touch the New ere we part with the Old, by calling to the reader's remembrance the vision of Peter, so similar in many respects to the above description of Isaiah, the vision whereby he was instructed in the first great principle of Catholicity, to which, along with his countrymen in general, he was, till then, too much a stranger? The time was now come when it became the duty and the privilege of this apostle to begin the great work of" binding and loosing," binding to the moral law, loosing from the ceremonial, which all the apostles afterwards, but he alone in the first instance, was charged with. Cornelius, the reputedly unclean Gentile, must be visited; and the apostle must be prepared for this act, deemed by his countrymen, and till now by himself also, to indicate a great dereliction of religious principle. Accordingly, for the purpose of enlightening him, a vision was given to him, which is thus related in the Acts of the Apostles.* "On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the house-top to pray about the

* Acts x. 9.

sixth hour. And he became very hungry, and would have eaten but, while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth; wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call thou not common. This was done thrice; and the vessel was received up again into heaven." Such was the vision, and the apostle speedily understood it; and, when he met Cornelius, he thus expressed the lesson he had been taught by it: "Ye know how it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or to come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean."

Now, from this narrative it appears, that the great sheet, with all the life in it, which St Peter saw, represented the Christian Church. From this passage of holy scripture, therefore, similarly to that pictured by Isaiah on the holy mountain, we learn that the church, in so far as it is represented by these images, consists in great variety of forms in unity of spirit only. In both there is an unity that of love in the vision of Isaiah, that of purity in the vision of Peter. But, along with this, there is a variety so great, that in both cases the church is represented by the whole variety of the creation. Ought we not, then, during the present epoch to which these scriptures and our duties apply,-the epoch intermediate between the first and the second coming of our Saviour,consent to such a state of things?

THE EVANGELISTS.

The peculiar characteristics of our Saviour's preaching are a spirit of all-pervading piety, all-embracing benevolence, and uncompromising holiness. These graces He breathes in his every utterance, and commends in His every discourse. Many a precept does He give, enjoining and illustrating them. And His own love to the world, nay, His own life does He give, not only as an atonement for the sins of the world, but also as a pattern of that mutual love and self-denial which ought to animate the redeemed children of God. "A new commandment (says He) I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."*

Nor let us wonder that He should call this a new commandment. For, not to speak of the supreme excellence of that love of His which He gives as the type and pattern of that which He commends, it is to be remarked, that the whole doctrine of love which He taught was new in those times. The Pharisees, with a semblance of reason indeed, but, in reality, prompted only by their own exclusive and wicked hearts, generalizing the facts and necessities of their nation's history into permanent principles of morality, had altogether obscured the benevolent character of the law of Moses. They had even made it of none effect by their traditions. Thus, because they found their forefathers commanded to exterminate certain idolatrous nations, in order to make place in the fit region of the earth+ for a people who might preserve the worship of the true God until the world should be ready for the Incarnation of the Son of God-because they thus found the heroic spirit of man made use of as a weapon of God, in order to serve a mighty purpose which a heroic + See page 168.

* John xiii. 34.

spirit could alone effect, they seized on this fact as a cover and sanction for the spirit of hatred and vengeance which animated them. By a vicious generalization, they consecrated that spirit, and made it a general principle in religion, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy."* Nay, not content with the wide field for hatred which the latter part of the precept opens up, they narrowed the former most shamefully. To the term neighbour they gave so restricted a sense, that they looked upon, as their greatest enemies, those whom we should call their nearest neighbours. These were the Samaritans. And to such a pitch did a Jew carry his hatred of a Samaritan, that he would not even ask a drink of water from him. But their antipathies were not confined to the Samaritans only. It was, as has been already stated, held contrary to the law (a law which a Jew's natural pride would plainly render very congenial to him to observe) to have any social intercourse with any man of another nation. In a word, the Jews were hateful, and hating one another; and this was over all. And, but that the love of money overcomes all difficulties, we should find the same spirit in that people still. Let any one enter a synagogue, and attempt to look on the same prayer book with one of the worshippers, the Jew will shrink or steal away from him, eyeing him askance with a look full of hatred and contempt. So ruinous, even to the ordinary principles of humanity, does a conceit of exclusive religious privilege prove when redeeming grace is wanting in the heart.

But do we see any trace of any thing like this in Jesus? Nay. In His every feature the contrast which He displays to this, though it was the all-pervading spirit of His age and nation, is itself a most convincing proof of His divinity. For as to the merely great men of history † John iv. 9.

Matt. v. 43.

On

they are just made by their times,-they are just the spirits of their times. They are acknowledged to be great only because they unite many voices in their own, and thus are oracles by which the many speak, and by whom, therefore, the many are pleased and flattered, as every one is by an echo of his own opinions. But it was quite otherwise with our Saviour. Because it became Him to fulfil all righteousness, He did indeed observe the law of Moses, and during all His life He gave a perfect example of what a son of Abraham ought to be. But He never identified himself with the Jews of his own times. the other hand, He speaks of them as a race wholly distinct from himself, and having no sympathies with Him. "Am I a Jew ?" said Pilate; "Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done ?" Pilate looks on Him merely as a Jew. But our Saviour answers, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." In which words He contrasts himself with His countrymen according to the flesh, as He did with his relations according to the flesh, when he said, "Whosoever doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother." He stands out both from country and kindred. He stands alone. He is the Son of God. The character of our blessed Saviour never could be explained by supposing Him to be merely a great man. No mere man could ever emancipate himself so completely as He did from the spirit of His times. He existed and he preached in direct contradistinction to that spirit and those times. In the midst of hardheartedness and hatred, "A root in a dry soil, He grew up a tender plant." Though forced to breathe an impure atmosphere of hatred and hypocrisy during all His life, still He remained altogether uncontaminated by it; and