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But perhaps of the three sister graces, faith is nearest to us on earth, and love has most of heaven. Some again give the practical conscience a large place in religion ; and I think rightly so ; but others say, the cleansing of conscience must needs follow the grace of God, which therefore we should first apprehend. Thus some teach the truth with their eyes bent on himian life; and others the same truth, gazing on nothing lower than heaven. Some speak more of grace, and others more of faith ; the one placing before us God our Saviour, and bidding us come to Him ; the others searching our hearts to see what we have answering to Him. Some grasp more easily the sign, others value more the tliin*' signified ; some make a banner of the sacred book, others strive to have grow in them the truth and life, of which the book is the expression. Thus to some the rites and sacraments, which I have just spoken of, seem the very substance of Christianity, or the things which make it a religion, as distinct from a moral wisdom, and which represent to us all that God reveals and • The fatal ingenuity of theologians lias Rymbolised in a letter, or a diphthonf, {fid€8 QDiB viva est, or fides qua viva est,) the controversy betweea faith and low or fiiith and works, which perpetually divides Christendom. wisdom's children diverse. 509 does for us, and convey to us His grace. Bnt others look rather at the intention of giving ourselves to Gt)d, with which the parent dedicates his child at the fount, and with which the con- trite spirit comes to renew its memory of Christ's patience, and, by receiving its symbol, to acquire the power of imitating it; and the more they are convinced of God's kingdom being a kingdom of the mind, the more earnestly they contend that in Christ Jesus* no external rite avails anything, except as a legiti- mate expression of an inward life, but rather a casting of the motives in a new mould of holiness, and a fashioning the heart after the will of Grod. But so long as we consist of body and of soul, and some men give their conceptions more a bodily shape, while others feel rather that ineffable power, which is most akin to our forecasting spirits, and which we love without knowing, and believe without comprehending, so long will there be a wavering to and fro in our diverse thoughts of the one truth, by which yet we all live and have our being. Nor dare I speak as if I had skill to decide, where minds far wiser have foimd the waters too deep for them. Which comes nearest the truth is for Him to judge, whom all I have spoken of seek alike, and who alone knows, and has a right to take account. Probably He suffers each of us to apprehend that aspect of the one truth, which each can best bear, and which is fittest for each. We see that in different ages He has suf- fered the mind of His Church to gravitate, now on one side, and now more on the other. In the patriarchal time was the sim- plicity of childhood ; under the Mosaic law all was precept and rule of outward building ; with the prophets and great teachers of righteousness, either in song or in judgment, came a percep- tion of the soul's freedom from lifeless forms, and of its rightftil nearness to God. In the ecclesiastical books (such as that of Wisdom) which intervene between the older scriptures of the Hebrews and the newer ones of the Christian Church, we find no fervid burst of song, or fresh clearness of insight ; but yet * Galatians ▼!. 15 ; ColoBsians ii. so ; Romans ii. 39. 510 EVANGELICAL FREEDOM OF PRIMITIVE CHURCH. the moral clement is developed in them with reasoning; and both their language and their thoughts passed into the store- house of the earliest Christianity, and had no slight share in preparing for it. Then among the Apostles of Christ we seem first to find the Jewish stage of conscientiousness, with zeal for ritual. In St James we have moral earnestness ; in St Peter single-hearted zeal for his Master ; in St John the love of God and of His truth ; and in St Paul faith, as the preparation of heart which God counts righteousness rather than any outward claim, and as oneness of Spirit with Him who freely saves us. The first victories of Christianity over the world were won by faith and patience, but yet eminently in freedom. They all had the Spirit; and because they Jiad an unction from the Holy OnCy they knew all things : and if there was anytliing they knew not, they trusted that tlie Spirit would teach thefn that also. Then, in building up the Church, it was natural to seek firmness by taking solidity of framework somewhat after the Jewish model. So, although the primitive doctors, who came next after the Apostles, were steadfast in rcftising to own the legal sabbath of the Jews, and the limited sanctity of local temples, or the bloody sacrifices of the ancient nations, yet they strengthened their government, and developed their ritual, with a view to consecrated precedents, both in Jerusalem and elsewhere. It is not easy to dexiidc, whether such imitation went always upon real analogies, so as to have a sort of Divine authority, or whether it was the result of circumstances, and had only a tem- porary necessity. But since the God of the Jews is still the Governor of the world, it is reasonable to believe that, settino* aside their admitted imperfections, tlie social firamework good for them may be found good for other nations; and although Christ has left His Church free to leaven the world -with His truth as she best can, yet, in doing so, she must work in harmony with the general laws of Divine Providence ; and even if she can discover these by interrogating nature and human consciousness, yet she may derive help in doing so from the precedents of an- GRACE NOT ALIEN TO PROVIDENCE. 511 cient Churches and nations, both as regards their ritaal and their law. We cannot rightly appreciate Christianity if we consider it nakedly as a complete whole, and as destined to supersede everything else ; for it is intended by our Maker as rather a supplement to His general providence in nature, or as capable of working in harmonious relation with the whole. In more modem times, with an increase of the study of our earliest sacred writings, and perhaps a larger outpouring of the Divine Spirit in various forms of intelligence, there has come a revival in the Church of that freedom for which St Paul was jealous, as for a thing wherewith Christ had made us free. " But we are truly taught that wisdom is justified of all her children. Nor do I know through which way it might please God most naturally to lead you. We have spoken to you of the life of Christ. Perhaps, if you would read that life in our gospels, you would fall in love with the beauty of that likeness of God, shewn as it were before our eyes. You might be glad to listen to Him who brings good news for the plague of every maris hearty and who heals all manner of diseases. If you are weaiy, as all your speculations seem to say, of this transitory world, you might hear Him saying. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If you doubt the reality of sin, and think it only a play of natural forces, and not hateful before God, you might change your mind if you contrast its ugliness with that beauty which comes forth in all His words and works, and see its hatefrilness in the malice with which it rose against the meek Teacher of the truth of God. If you doubt, whether souls have each an individual life and an eternal one, you might be convinced, when you see the same Jesus who died rising again, and entering visibly into His glory. If you speak of the thought of Deity embodying itself in the world, you might find such a speculation turned to a higher idea in the wisdom of Him who is from everlasting coming forth as the Word, and made manifest in man, as ftdl of grace and truth. If penances weaiy you, here is Christ taking away their need ; 512 PERSUASIVES TO CHRISTIANITY. if you yearn for what they aim at, here is Christ giving it you freely. What manner of love could God have shewn more than in thus giving His dear Son as the messenger of His love to us, and suffering Him to be smitten, while the charge of guiltiness was laid upon Him, rather than that we should perish in sin, without His good news ? What can keep us from Him except a greedy desire to continue in some wickedness ?