fulfilled Church. For, together with the efforts of man, the silent measures of How co-operating Providence have borne a part too important and too to the manifest to escape notice. They are recognised in all those collateral Primitive events, which were beyond the forethought and control of men,—in the seasonable removal of the sceptre from Judah; in the universal empire, permitted for a time to the Romans; and in the very struggles for the imperial dignity, which occurred during the first era of the Gospel. These, then, have been pointed out in the progress of this inquiry, as the main features of that portion of the mighty work, on which the finger of God is apparent; while others more minute, but not less certainly discernible, have continually presented themselves. Still more will the presence of Christ with his Church be apparent, And as we trace its onward course, through the long lapse of time which afterwards. separates the first age from our own. In each successive period, we shall see the Church, sometimes languid and feeble in its efforts, sometimes awakened and refreshed like a giant from sleep. We shall see, too, the successive appointments of Providence, operating to aid the efforts of men in accomplishing the great scheme of the Gospel. As the distance has increased between the events recorded in the New Testament, and the several generations of those whose best hopes rest on the faithfulness of the record, a new art has been given to the world, and printing has furnished additional and ample security against all danger of corruption. This provision for checking the injurious effect of time on the authenticity of a record, has indeed been beautifully commensurate with the need. Science, art, commerce, all the shiftings of scene which have occurred in the world, have proved, often unexpectedly, the means of fostering or extending religion. Other instruments, more important than this, may be even now in action, in scenes and measures which we are imperfectly surveying; or may be reserved for a future age. the Meanwhile, did the primitive Church, has any Church, arrived at Future all that spiritual eminence on earth, for which the Gospel seems to progress of have designed us? There are various scruples, by which men are commonly deterred from candidly meeting this question. Some look back with blind admiration on the past; others regard all improvement, not yet made, as chimerical, and not contemplated in the Gospel scheme. That the provisions made-not indeed for the salvation of Christians-but for the perfection of the Christian body, the Church, have been hitherto gradual and progressive, there can be no denying; and if so, the primitive Church itself is not to be regarded as the exact counterpart of that holy pattern, which God in his last Revelation has given us, for this mysterious workmanship, -his Church. The purest Church will hardly abide the test of such an admeasurement. It may, perhaps, be called chimerical, to look for a more perfect realization of those glorious visions, which the Holy Spirit has left with us; but if it be fanciful, let us at least It is, to pause, and candidly confess in what the illusion consists. dwell on a scene, where every man shall be a Christian, and every Christian shall live, as if the Son of God were his daily companion, at home in his family, abroad in his intercourse with the world. It is, to hope for a period, when that awful feeling which deterred the Israelitish worshipper from profaning the holy vessels of the temple, and from polluting its altar, shall be even more strongly felt by the Christian in his use of himself, that vessel made unto honour, in the living temple of the Holy Ghost; when every member of Christ's Church, conscious that he belongs to a society with which God is mysteriously united, shall shudder to do aught that may be sacrilege therein. And, if all this be indeed fanciful and unfounded, be it excused for the sake of Him, who set no boundary to our hopes of improvement, bidding us purify ourselves even as He is pure; be perfect, even as our Father who is in heaven is perfect. But why should this state of things be unattainable? Is it because the Christian is already under the best and most advantageous circumstances for profiting by that Divine grace, through which alone, all acknowledge, that such an event, if practicable, must be accomplished? Or, is it from a view of the corruption of human nature,the strength of evil in man? One of these suppositions must be the ground of our doubt. The latter may be more fully stated thus. The natural corruption of human nature, it may be said, has all along prevented a more effectual and perfect operation of the Holy Spirit; and as this corruption must exist to the end of time, no future circumstances, however advantageous to the use of God's grace, ought to be supposed capable of advancing us much nearer to this perfection, inasmuch as they cannot remove that corruption. Now this view does really involve a denial of the sufficiency of Divine grace to accomplish the very object for which it was given: it implies a distrust in those promises and assurances which, in one sense, are extended to all Christians: "My grace is sufficient for thee," "My strength is made perfect in weakness, ̧” “ With man this is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible, out me ye can do nothing," but "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,' "I in you, and you in me. If therefore we believe the assurances of God, we cannot, consistently, maintain that the strength of evil in man is so great, that under no circumstances the promised help of God will completely counteract and overpower it. We cannot, as Christians, doubt that this is practicable; although we may differ about the conditions which may be requisite for rendering it so. "With Taking then the other view as the ground of our doubts, we must suppose, that our present condition admits of no such improvement, as would make it much more easy for us to obey God. On a survey of all the existing institutions of the Christian world-of the constitution of every Church, and of the means it provides for dispersing the seed and bringing to maturity the fruit, of true religion-can it be said that all these are, in any instance, so perfect, as to justify this despair? If so, we must be content to explain away, as best we may, the brilliant pictures of prophecy. We must be content to do more-to confess that Christ has put into our hands an instrument unsuited to our powers; that his gift of the "shield of faith" and the "sword of the Spirit," is like the weapons of a giant presented to a warrior of ordinary stature; and that an angel only could sustain the whole armour of God, or wield with effect the heavenly weapon. Surely this is a view of the Christian scheme not easily to be adopted. It is indeed a peculiarity of the Gospel, that, unlike a system of philosophy, or the dream of a theorist, it proffers the means of attaining perfection, instead of dwelling on Utopian plans for unassisted nature to aim at realizing. The philosopher and the theorist give a map of Elysium, to those who are separated from it by an insuperable barrier; the Gospel promises us that help which shall enable us to surmount the barrier,-to "pass over the great gulf." Luke xvi. 26. Precise description of the scene is no part of its office. It is THE WAY; let us pursue it in faith, not doubting the goodness of the promised land to which it is said to lead. Symbols. IN the ancient Egyptian religion the Supreme Being was pro- Egyptian bably represented by the emblem of a serpent coiled into a circle, with the head of a hawk, denoting eternity and omniscience.1 In time the symbol became in itself an object of reverence, whilst the meaning was lost. The same process is perpetually going on even in the case of words; to which we are prone to attach a regard so strong, as in time to divert the attention from their original application and character. There are some such in every language, so sanctified by use, that many minds would revolt at substituting any other arbitrary expressions for the ideas which they are supposed to convey, as much as at renouncing the ideas themselves. How much stronger this feeling must have been when the expression was symbolical or allegorical! Nothing is more likely, than that the creation of the world by the Supreme Being and his Word, was originally signified by the fable of Cneph, sending forth an egg from his mouth, which produced the universe.2 Yet this allegorical record only ministered afterwards to superstition. The case of the Jews, and the brazen serpent which Hezekiah broke, is familiar to all. See 2 Kings xviii. 4. The encroachment of idolatry on the true faith, cannot be supposed to have been made every where without a struggle. That such actually was the case in Egypt, may be inferred from a fragment which has been preserved of its earlier history. The Egyptians of Thebais, at one period, claimed exemption from the tribute paid for the support of the sacred animals in Lower Egypt, on the ground of their worshipping Cneph, the name by which the Supreme Being appears to have been designated, according to the fable before 1 Euseb. de Præp. Evang. Lib. I. C. 10, where a fragment of Philo Biblius's translation of Sanchoniathon is given. The emblem is described as very like the Greek . The prevalence of serpent-worship all through the idolatrous world is very remarkable. In this fragment of Sanchoniathon, preserved by Eusebius, it is attributed to the Phoenicians as well as to the Egyptians. Among the Greeks and Romans, it was an indispensable part of the representation of Esculapius (see Livii Epitome, Lib. II. and Ovidii Metamorph. Lib. 2 Præpar. Evang. Lib. I. C. 10, and Lib. |