half concealed. Moreover when different modes of apprehension are held forth, the ignorant is deceived, the wise only understands."

Of our own Scripture, he says in another place, (1. v. p. 557,) it is plainly declared in the Psalms, that it is written in parables: "I will open my mouth in a parable," &c. And the illustrious Apostle speaks to the same effect: "but we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, which come to nought, but we speak in a mystery the hidden wisdom of GOD. Which none of the princes of this world knew; for, had they known it, they would not have crucified the LORD of Glory."

He often alludes to St. Paul as observing this rule of reserve, keeping, he says, to the prophetical and truly ancient mode of concealment (as in 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7; iii. 1, 2, 3); and he shows that St. Paul has, in numerous places, spoken of its being usual in Scripture thus to veil the truth (as in Eph. iii. 3, 4, 5; Col. i. 9, 10, 11, and 25, 26, 27; 1 Cor. iii. 10; viii. 7; and where he says to the Hebrews that, for the time, they ought to have known, considering how long they had had the Old Testament). (v. 679.)

It is difficult to do more than barely allude to what St. Clement says on subject which he enters into so fully. In the sixth book, he applies the same, in some degree, to our SaVIOUR's teaching: "Neither prophecy," he says, (vi. p. 676,)

nor our SAVIOUR Himself, promulgated the divine mysteries in a manner that they might be easily apprehended by all persons, but discoursed in parables. Certainly, the Apostles say concerning the LORD, that He spake all things in parables, and without a parable spake He not unto them,' (Matt. xiii. 34); and even in the Law and Prophets," he adds, "it was He that spake to them in parables."

He thus explains the reason of this reserve in Scripture, and continues, "For many causes, therefore, the Scripture conceals its full import. First of all, that we may be given to inquiry, and watchful in the discovery of saving words. In the next place, because it was not good for all to understand the saving truths of the HOLY GHOST, lest they should be injured thereby,

if they received otherwise what was intended for their salvation. Therefore it is, that those holy mysteries which are reserved for the elect, and for those who are from their faith judged worthy of knowledge, are concealed by parables. For such is the style of Scripture; wherefore our LORD also, being not of this world, yet came among men as if He were of this world; for He sustained the whole of (human) virtue, and was about to raise man, who had his dwelling here, to things high and spiritual, on from one world to another. Therefore, He hath made use of a metaphorical mode of Scripture, for such is a parable. A saying which is not itself the thing intended, but like it, and leading to it, and to the truth, him that understands it. Or, as some say, a mode of speech, which, by means of other objects, brings forward the thing intended with power and effect. The whole economy of God, as it exists in the Prophecies concerning our LORD, is a parable to those who did not know the truth." He then proceeds to say, that not the prophets only, but the disciples of our LORD, who preached the word after His death, used proverbs. And he afterwards adds to these observations: "For, as truth does not belong to all, it is concealed in various ways, and makes the light to arise on those only who are initiated in the mysteries of knowledge, and, on account of the love of it, seek the truth." (p. 678.)

13. The Testimony of the Ancient Church to the doctrine of Christ crucified.

Now, all that has been adduced from the Fathers goes to establish this point, (independently of others,) that all Divine and saving knowledge is derived by pains on the part of man, and requires a preparation of the heart; this is implied by both the two subjects which have been discussed, the systematic discipline of the reserve, and also that of the secret senses of Scripture revealed only to good men. It is implied by all their modes of speaking of it. All these things suppose some method of discipline necessary to ascertain the truth: so that the will and the understanding should both be exercised at once. "The

very method of all doctrine," says St. Augustine, "being partly most open, and partly by similitudes, in words, in deeds, in sacraments, adapted to all the instruction, and all the exercise of the soul, serves as a method of discipline for the reason. For both is the unfolding of mysteries directed to those things which are spoken most openly; and, if these were only such things as are most easily understood, truth would neither be sought for with study, nor be discovered with delight. If in the Scriptures there were no sacraments, and if in the sacra• ments there were not the symbols of truth, action and knowledge would not be sufficiently united. But now piety begins in fear, and is perfected in love."-(Augustine, Lib. de Verâ Relig. tom. i. p. 1223.)

And the whole of this subject, respecting the difficulty of arriving at Divine knowledge, will also bear upon another great and essential principle, which has been alluded to in the former treatise; although it be but one and a partial development of it, viz. that CHRIST crucified is the first doctrine taught,—the knowledge of our LORD's Divinity, the last men come to learn; that the study of the Cross of CHRIST, implying the humiliation of the natural man, leads to the living and practical sense of His Atonement; that through the humanity and sufferings of our LORD, men are brought to an union with the Godhead; that we cannot come to CHRIST but by bearing the Cross after Him, by which, as St. Bernard says, we are made to partake of that anointing which goeth forth from Him. The Fathers seem always to imply that the secrets of CHRIST's kingdom are obtained only by a consistent course of self-denying obedience; that a knowledge of these things is not conveyed by mere words, nor is a matter of excited emotion, but is a practical knowledge of the heart, obtained more and more by self-renouncing duties of prayer and the like; and thus it is, that, by the Cross of CHRIST, we are brought to Him, and led on to the knowledge of God. So that this higher degree of faith "goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting." This is often either explicitly stated, or incidentally implied by Origen and others. St. Augustine sets it forth in the following beautiful and figurative passage (in Johan. Evan. ii.

He compares the world to a sea that we must cross before we can arrive at the stable shore. He says, that "GOD has afforded the plank or wood by which we may reach the shore, and that wood is the Cross of CHRIST. For no one can pass over this sea, unless carried on the Cross of CHRIST. One who has no eyes to see embraces this Cross; and while from afar he knows not whither he is to go, if he looses not his hold on this wood, it will bear him to it." This," he says, 66 I would wish to instil into your hearts, that, if you will live piously, and as a Christian cling to CHRIST in that which He has been made for us, you may arrive at Him in what He is and hath been in Himself." "It were better not to perceive in the understanding that which He is, if notwithstanding we adhere to the Cross of CHRIST, than to see Him in the understanding, and to despise the Cross of CHRIST. It were, indeed, best of all that that might be beheld to which we are going, and that he that goeth might cling to that which should bear him thither." "And this hath been the case with those who are enlightened with higher degrees of faith. They have seen the shore from afar, and, in order to arrive at it, have loosed not their hold of the Cross of CHRIST, nor despised His humility. But those little ones who cannot understand this, if they depart not from the Cross of CHRIST, His Passion, and His resurrection, they are carried by this ship to that which they behold not; and they who behold it arrive also thither in the same ship." "And why was He crucified? because the wood of His humility was necessary for thee. Thou wert swollen with pride, and cast far away from thy country. Thy way was intercepted by the waves of this world, and thou hadst no means to pass over to thy country, unless carried by the wood. Be carried in the ship, on this wood; believe in the Crucified, and thou shalt arrive thither. He was crucified for thee, that He might teach thee humility; and because if He had come as GOD, He would not have been acknowledged. For He neither cometh nor goeth in that He is God, inasmuch as He is every where present, and contained by no place. What, therefore, was His coming, but His appearing as Man."

Such is the doctrine of the Cross as taught by the Ancient Church, and confirmed by the according testimony of all Scripture; so far as we are able to trace a principle, which must be inconceivably vast and incomprehensible in its nature and

extent.

14. The practice and principle of the Ancient Church perfectly analogous to our LORD's example.

The evidence therefore of Catholic Antiquity affords the fullest and most complete confirmation, in every point of principle and detail, to all that has been said in the former treatise respecting the conduct of our Lord when seen in the flesh. And as our LORD has vouchsafed His presence to be with His Church, and the condition of that His presence is union and agreement; therefore in this concurrent acknowledgment to this principle we have again in the eyes of Faith our LORD's presence, His spiritual as before His bodily presence. There is a wonderful analogy in all Gon's dealings with mankind; in the conclusion of Part II. (Tract No. 80.) it was observed that a perfect parallel might be found throughout our moral nature, wherein He who is "the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" discloses Himself. The same exact parallel may now be shown as He is revealed in His Church. (And that independently of the occasional testimony which the foregoing extracts bear to the conduct of our LORD having been as we describe, in the way of historical allusion to the fact.)

First of all, as our LORD in the flesh concealed His divinity and His miracles, so did the Disciplina Arcani of the early Church do the same. It was that high doctrine that this system concealed, and the nature of those Sacraments, which are as it were a continued miracle in His Church.

Secondly, it appears that, as our LORD spake by parable things hard to be understood to the multitude, and explained them to His chosen disciples, so does the Catholic and Primitive mode of interpreting Scripture imply that all the Holy Word is like a parable, containing within it Divine wisdom, such as is disclosed to the faithful and good Christian.-That, if we are inclined to feel sur