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terests; and its appetite is now cultivated and corrected accurately to estimate, and naturally to desire, that which is its real good. As for loving our enemies,-we need not even love our brethren. But party and opposition are the principle and the essence of all good policy and wise conduct:-society must be sustained by a balance of opposite interests, and a system of counteractions,―by a war system. The nearest in opinion and belief are the hottest in hatred of one another, especially in the matter of religion;—and every heathen and infidel looker-on may point out a European Christian by this sign, and exclaim with wonder and admiration and astonishment,-See, how these Christians hate one another!

What has been just now said has reference to practice. I fully believe that in doctrine also there will be a more perfect Christianity,-exhibiting itself in greater beauty, consistency and simplicity, and bringing greater satisfaction, conclusiveness and confidence to the minds of men, then duly patterned and prepared to receive and appreciate it. The low conduct and principles of Christians make it impossible for them clearly to understand the sacred truths of Revelation. Where perfect practice is, there alone can true Christian doctrine be really seen and believed, and duly appreciated. The doctrine also re-acts upon the principles and practice; and both must be perfected together, when the body and mind shall be redeemed from the bondage of sin and blindness which oppresses them.

Let us look at some of the symptoms of our condition, and of the deviousness of our course:-though we have

scarcely any thing external to us and fixed, and not coloured by our own minds and the atmosphere about us, by which to examine our health and complexion, and to measure our position. And I do not pretend to define or to distinguish the doctrine at which we may hope to arrive, or scarcely to anticipate the nature of it. We are all surrounded and nourished by the same atmosphere of habit and error, from which every thought and action receives an impress, and some false colouring. Neither would I be misunderstood as believing or expecting, that Christianity is only a step and passage to something higher than it reveals, in conduct or doctrine; as those who define its ultimate perfection and end to be universal equality and philanthropy. I mean only to say, that Christianity will be better explained and appreciated hereafter, both in its letter and spirit:not that the Bible, no not even the letter of it, will be superseded, or a sentence added to it; but that, when fully understood, it will be found to contain much deeper and wider and higher truth and consistency, than we have now any conception of, and be a grand and sufficient fund and study for all purposes of instruction in the highest wisdom.

There seems to be an incapability, as Christianity now exists, that it should show itself entire and complete in any one church or person. Each person and each church seems to develope some one principle of the Christian doctrine more fully and perfectly than the rest. One portion of the Church exhibits Faith more fully; another, Works; another, the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit; our own Church must

be admitted to be practically deficient in self-denying Faith and Love, and spirituality and devotedness.

The Bible is full of seeming inconsistencies to the reasoning mind, in regard to doctrines which we deem essentially important. One rule seemingly contradicts another; one doctrine another; the same fact is differently described in different places, which seems to be contradictory to truth. As it is said, Believe and thou shalt be saved;-and, Do the Commandments and thou shalt live:—and again, By grace are ye saved :—and again, Ye shall be judged by your works.

And then again-The Father and the Son have both created:-and the Father has sanctified :-and Christ Jesus sanctifies:-and we are sanctified by Faith:and the Holy Spirit intercedes;* and thus the different offices of the Three Persons seem to be confounded. And, the Son is equal and inferior:-and He knoweth all things, and knows not the Day of Judgment :— begotten again and He was begotten before the world, —and He was at the Resurrection.

And still more in regard to moral precepts :-Answer a fool according to his folly,-Answer not a fool according to his folly:-He that is not against us is with us, -He that is not with us is against us :-The hand of the diligent maketh rich,-The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich :-All of you be subject one to another, &c. &c.

These sorts of moral and doctrinal oppositions and paradoxes are continually invading and disturbing our minds and consciences; and are perplexing us in our * Jude, i.; 1 Cor. i. 30; Acts, xxvi. 18.

endeavours to fix rules and definitions of doctrine and conduct. We feel as if in an atmosphere which is not congenial to us, as in an element in which we cannot breathe freely; as in a strange climate and country, where the manners and modes of thought and action are a constraint and impediment to us.

But more than all, the language and reasoning, and the figures of Scripture, are not clear and comprehensible to us. They do not run on all fours, like Aristotle's metaphors. There is an involution, and complexity, and a double intent and aspect, and a want of order and method and completeness, in the types and prophecies, and promises, and images, that quite perplexes and bewilders our senses and understandings, and leads and leaves us in difficulty and doubt, and distraction and amazement.

The Bible is a sealed book to every one of us. And those who have the greatest attainments in it confess, much more than any beginners, that they are continually picking up only some few bright, newly discovered, unexpected gems, which shine upon them more and more at every step, even in the most trodden paths, each of them being but indicators of the vast, unattainable depths and mountains of treasure from which they have been extracted.

Every searcher into revealed Truth perceives, whatever may be the stage of his attainments, that there are rich treasures beyond his present knowledge, and fresh paths opening themselves for the discovery of them. Every such person finds that there are multitudes behind him, to whom his present pursuits appear delu

sive; and he himself is apt to think that others more advanced are wandering in mazes of vain curiosity and imagination. It would be adventurous to advance much. in the way of example and illustration, lest it should be looked upon as the flights of vision and imagination. But what a field of wonder and desire and admiration opens upon us, when we first begin to be instructed in the typical signification of the different parts of the Tabernacle: -The Holy of Holies-Heaven, where God is enthroned invisible: The ark-his heavenly Church, where Christthe heavenly Manna, and the Rod that budded—is laid up: The Holy Place-his Church on earth,-fed by the shew bread, by Christ, the Bread of Life,—illuminated by the seven gold candlesticks, the Holy Spirit: approached by the laver of Baptism, and the altar of Christ's atonement: together with the exact typical allusion of each of the parts of the several sacrifices :— when we first begin to perceive that every incident in Elisha's life, even to the weeping over the city of his devoted country, exhibits him as a prefigure of our blessed Saviour;-and that every word and answer of our Lord himself has a deep prospective and prophetic meaning; -and that every sentence in Scriptnre is pregnant in like manner, and waiting for the birth;-we rest astonished and stunned at the vastness and depth of the ocean of divine truth, and must confess that it is an immense field of literature and wisdom, in itself sufficient to occupy a whole life in the attainment ;—and when a life so occupied should be at an end, we should still only the more earnestly be convinced that we were as yet at the threshold of that truth which is laid up

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