will be dilated beyond measure in that part which relates to the love of God. In another, on the contrary, who possesses an authoritative nature, and a severe demand for justice, his personal creed will be dilated beyond measure in that part which relates to the sovereignty and justice of God.

But, farther, though the intellectual powers and temperaments of all men were similar, still each man's opinions would be more or less different from those of every other man, as often as there was a difference either in the quantity or the quality of the materials on which each mind worked, and of which his opinions were the digest. Add to this the limited capacity of the human mind, even when assisted to the utmost by Divine grace, for retaining facts, and still more for viewing them simultaneously, and for assigning to each its relative importance, and it cannot but be perceived that each thinking man must have opinions of his own. It belongs to the very nature of the human mind to give rise to private opinions. Such a result is necessary; nor can it be prevented any how. Let us withhold the Bible, and forbid all private inquiry and speculation on the subject of religion, as the Church of Rome does, what is the result? Why, by so doing, we just throw every quick mind upon its own fancy for its faith, and force it to create, out of its own conceits, errors instead of the truths which ought to have been derived from the word of God and the converse of the pious. That this is really the case in the Church of Rome, is easily to be discovered. Let any one who enjoys the confidence of uneducated Roman Catholics mark their discourse on religion, he will soon discover that all their ideas on this subject, beyond the questions and answers of their little catechisms, is a mere dream.

But while it thus belongs to the very conditions on which opinions exist to produce variety in them, it be

longs also to these conditions to produce unity in that variety, in such a case as that now considered. For not only are the laws of reason the same in all, but, on such a subject as religion, the subject-matter, the primary truths, are the same to all. For all equally refer to the word of God as their guide and standard of appeal. We are, therefore, plainly to expect an unity as well as variety among the opinions of the pious. And it may be safely said, that what exists in the church, in the action and reaction between the word of God and the individual soul, is a spiritual appliance, not for producing an absolute uniformity in the universal creed, or an abstract, ideal, unapplied faith, but, on the contrary, an unity of faith in variety of terms,—an unity of faith in personal application to different tones of intellect and sensibility,—such a particularised form of the faith, in short, as may suit each individual case, and lead each man who is under its influence, whatever his abilities or peculiarities, to seek the glory of God and a holy life as the chief end of his being.

Nor let it be supposed that the truth is incapable of being clothed in this variety of forms, or of adapting itself to so many appliances. Every time that truth emanates from the mind of God and assumes a place in the mind of man, it naturally and necessarily undergoes a change. God sees all truth exactly as it is with all its circumstances around it. But God alone does so. Who of men will say that he sees any thing just as God sees it? The very thought is impious, and the scriptures assure us of the contrary. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."* "We know in part, and we prophesy in part." "We see

*Isaiah lv. 8.

ence us.

as through a glass darkly." There are certain classes of truths, indeed, which we cannot conceive to be different either in themselves or in the eye of God from what we perceive them to be. But there are other truths which, in becoming clothed in the language of men, and in penetrating to our minds, unavoidably become tinged with some particular colour-tinged with something foreign (viewed as truths in the abstract), though not inconsistent with them as truths, nay, even proper and necessary to them as truths designed to affect and influ"As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so it is with the word of God that goeth forth from His mouth;" it does not merely echo through the world in a form comprehensible only to the Infinite, and return to Him void. It addresses the heart of man and embraces it. It clothes itself in that language and those feelings which the heart of man can respond to, and appears in the presence of the heart in the forms which the heart loves. And thus it awakes, converts, delights. And thus the people of God,—animated by His word in their hearts, as the bud is by the heaven-descended rain,—the believing people go out with joy and are led forth with peace. All the creation appears to them to breathe of the God who made it. "The mountains and the hills break forth before them into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands.”+

To illustrate this subject a little farther, we may say that the absolute truth (truth as it exists in the mind of God), when it leaves the Divine mind and enters the mind of the finite creature, undergoes a dispersion which may be compared to that which a sunbeam undergoes when it enters a refractive medium, as, for instance, a Isaiah lv. 12.

1 Cor. xiii. 3.

rain-cloud. As a sunbeam in these circumstances loses its absolute whiteness and invisibility, and is decomposed into an all but infinite variety of beautiful tints and forms of light, which the eye of man delights to contemplate, so the absolute truth, the truth as existing in the Divine Intellect (into which all its circumstances and relations enter), when it penetrates such a medium as the minds of finite creatures, is decomposed into an all but infinite variety of shades or forms of truth. As in the refracting medium on which the white light falls, there is one ray which is red, another yellow, another green, another blue, another violet, so the absolute truth, as it is in God, when it is incident upon the minds of different men, becomes tinted, and is as it were red to one, yellow to another, and of another tint to a third. It is still the truth. It is still light, but it is not the light inaccessible of the dwelling-place of the Invisible. It is the light bent and suited to the vision of the creature whom it is designed to illuminate and conduct to holiness and happiness.

But let us not dwell on this conceit too long. And to conclude, let us state, as the sum of all that has been advanced on this subject, that unity of spirit in variety of form, is the only condition under which speculative truth can exist in the minds of a variety of men. No one thing, stated in the same terms, will prove equally affecting to all. When men are seeking the supply of what they feel to be the wants of their souls, they will ever associate themselves, in various groups, around the system of things or ministry which affects them most. Nothing but force, or a divine millennial consent, could ever establish or maintain an uniformity over all. And though it were lawful in the Christian economy to use force (which it is not), and though a force adequate to the effect could be found, still the uniformity forced on, could be impressed on the

mere surface only. In the intimacies of hearts, there would still be as much variety as ever. Since, then, this

Yexpress

variety must be in the inner man, why not suffer it to express itself outwardly? Better even discord than hypocrisy. But why either? Let but all evangelical communions now existing, cultivate the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace, and the church will in due time be visibly one. God's own love will in due time shine forth visibly on all his children, and the wants of every soul that is seeking salvation will be satisfied with truth.

CONCLUSION.

I have now presented my subject under so many aspects, and still confined myself so exclusively to one theme, that I fear the reader may be already weary of a seeming iteration. Here, therefore, let us conclude, resuming, in one word, that the object of this work has been to endeavour to shew, that, WHERE WE disagree, we

WILL BEST ARRIVE AT TRUTH THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF

LOVE; and that, where there is a want of a proper understanding between different evangelical churches, they will soonest arrive at a true assimilation and uniformity, by mutual recognition and esteem, and by cherishing an unity of spirit in variety of outward form, in the mean time.

There is a marked difference between a church expanding and changing from day to day, such as that which now exists, and a church fully expanded and assimilated in spiritual condition all over. And I request the reader always to keep in mind that it is to the former only—the actual church-which the arguments of this work apply. Would that I could assure him also that it is the love of