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Again, though by the word persons v do not mean to divide from each other those three t, who a: ever the blessed and undivided One Eternal, and One Infinit and One Spirit, yet you who join many persons (and even pe sons once human) in One Divine Intelligence, should not stumb at whatever may be difficult in our human words when applii to things Divine. Nor should the Hindiis, who believe in mai Intimations, blame us if we say that truth, and love, ai wisdom, embodied in Jesus, was * the express image * of t Divine Being made Hesh. For the coming forth of spirit frc spirit, though undivided, like the radiance of light from ligh^ is not like a coarse division of material persons. It is rati like Wisdom out of Majesty, or Reason from Will, or Trt from Being. But in whatever way you think Deity can ha become Incarnate, suffer us to say that it was so in Christ t Son of God and Man, until coming to His Truth, and drinki into I lis spirit, and partaking of His life, you learn better th 1 can explain, how He is the true Offspring of the Father. ] then will raise you into a better knowledge, and into a spiriti sonsliip, not foreign to His own. (6) " Again, if I remember rightly the place in both t • See above, p. 13. + Tres ncscio quid. St Aimelm, inro<rrd<r€is might be rendered suhaiHencies, t iwaOyofffJM, St Athanaaius and St PauL CHRISTIAN FAITH. 441 Bauddha and Veddntine systems assigned to faith, I do not see how you can blame Christianity for consisting mainly of faith. It is this which gives body to things hoped for, and is the sight of things imseen. Upon faith even our earthly knowledge is most fundamentally built, and by it especially things holiest to our better souls are apprehended. By faith we believe in Eight, and Mercy, and Truth, and Goodness, and God ; and in Immor- tality, and even in our own Souls. We surely need some deep principle to withdraw us from the splendour of things that glitter and pass away, reminding us in temptation of a law, and in sorrow of a comforter, and in all life of some truer home of our souls. The martyr in the flame, and the fallen patriot in the dimgeon, or in sight of death, have ever by such power turned endurance into joy. Nor was Sdkya, whom you extol, without some such feeling, either when he turned from the stir of earth to a deeper tranquillity, or again when he found bodily penances less help than the strength born of the mind. But if you claim such a feeling yourselves, you should not blame Christianity for endeavouring to purify and guide it. But you ask, is our faith intellectual belief? I answer that it is not without belief, as instrumentally necessary ; but in so far as it is itself intellectual, it neither goes without ground, nor claims merit. He, however, who trusts in any one, must first believe tliat he is. You ask, again, is it confidence ? I answer, that it grows into hope ; for so the trustworthiness of the object leads it; and our hope maketh not ashamed ; but yet the essence of faith is not con- fidence for ourselves, except so far as we arc confident of God's truth. With more reason, you ask, if faith is trust. If you mean trust in all that God is, and all that He docs, and com- mands, and promises, I answer. Yes. For thus it means con- fidence in one holier than ourselves. It leads us beyond our own weakness. It persuades us that God is the Father of our spirits, that He is our Guide and Judge and Saviour. So, when He commands, it persuades us to obey ; and when He promises, to hope ; and when He trusts us, to be faithful ; and when He 442 CHRISTIAN FAITH. speaks by His inspired servants, or by their records, to believe what they have spoken of His indwelling thought Faith, therefore, is belief, and a taking hold of the unseen, and trust, and confidence, and obedience, and faithfulness. For it puts on a dress and aspect according to the object it lays hold of. Here then is the peculiar character of Christian faith, that it has the most glorious object in God unveiling Himself in Christ. This it is which kindles it into hope and love and faithfulness ; for by this it becomes truly alive to sin, and puts it away, and is encouraged, and goes on in a life of joy, in which its Saviour never forsakes it. You may now understand how our faith has something of its nature in common with what good men feel among yourselves, but yet is transformed into a more glorious shape, when it comes through Christ to our God and Father ; nor will you see unreasonableness in our saying, that by such a faith our souls are saved. For certainly thus we grow better ; nor do we say that pure heart and upright life are ever of no avail witli God ; but without a right faith a man is less likely to be either pure or upright. But it is the greatest of errors for you to speak of our putting faith in a name, above true righteousness. For since He whom we trust is the very Truth, and Holiness, and Love, and since the salvation He gives us consists in delivering us from evil, and making us like Himself, it is not possible to have faith in Him, without growing into a like nature. But having His hope, \ve purify ourselves, even as He is pure. This is even our deliverance : and to this we are called. ^ (7) " You are prepared now to anticipate all that I need say about exclusivcness. It is no part of Christianity to believe that God acts unjustly by any man. But if He deals better by Christians, it is because He makes them better in themselves; and His gifts are according to fitness. You trust your best servants with your highest offices. So the Ruler of the world gives great things to those who have been faithful in little ; and may often make rulers of human things those who will rule them in his faith and fear. But in general, earthly virtues have HIGHEST GOODNESS EXCLUSIVE OF LOWER. 443 from Him an earthly reward ; while the meek or pure in heart are great in the kingdom of heaven. Not that their greatness is, as many think, in the mere inversion of a temporal scale, as if we could abase ourselves on a calculation of being exalted. Rather the reward is the excellence of that which God works in us. For there is no higher happiness than to partake of His Holy Spirit, and to be like Him. Hence it is more blessed with us to give, than to have given to us. "How then can you call Cliristianity exclusive? Its only exclusiveness consists in its higher goodness. It is not reason- able to sit down with the lowest knowledge, when we can reach a higher. So, if Grod gives men in His gospel more light, and with light the means of growth in godliness, they condemn themselves, if they turn back to darkness ; and by doing so, throw away a gift of life. You ask, why Sdkya may not be ranked so high as Jesus, whom we call Christ and Deliverer. I answer, because his faith is inferior, both as regards God and man. On the one side, he brings us to no clear sight of the Father as our judge and our friend ; on the other, he gives the con- science no true sacrifice, by which sin shall be at once acknow- ledged and put away. Here also we see why Brahmanism, as compared to the religion of the Hebrews, greatly fails ; for it leads to nothing. It was, as you have said, an usurpation ; and one not without good in its time, but with a yoke, which humanity required broken. But it left little inheritance by which a deeper faith could profit. It would have been useless for Buddha to preach the Vedic Deities, and very difficult for him to trace in the whole Brahmanical system a leading idea, as of a heavenly guide, leading forward mankind; whereas Christ speaks all along to his disciples in the name of the eternal Lord God who had led their fathers of old, and had brought up their nation from a child. He takes hold of the ritual, and shews its Divine institution, by fulfilling it in himself. In the same spirit St Paul compares the Law to teachers and nursery-masters* * GralatianB, ch. ill. iv. 444 MOSAIC IDEAS PREGNANT — BRAHMANISH BARREN. who have charge of a youthful heir. They are not given for nothing, but to teach him. So the old Hebrew belief in a Judge of the whole earth has not passed from Christians. The old sacrifices have not lost their significance ; but that out of which they came, and to which they tended, is fulfilled in us, if we walk after this spirit of Christ.