and bless His holy Name, for these indications of His gracious presence, even in these awful mysteries, and " give thanks unto Him because we are fearfully and wonderfully made;" for this very mysteriousness creates a feeling of awful regard, and is a subject of thanksgiving, as bringing palpably before us, that in all things "His is the kingdom and the power."

Thus far, therefore, we seem to have arrived at this point,that there are in our moral nature indications of the same kind of concealment and disclosure, according to our various dispositions of heart, as we before observed to be the case in the history of our LORD's life. But much more than this, that such light and darkness is attributed, in a very singular manner, to the immediate agency of God.

3. This knowledge is considered as something Infinite and

Divine.

But this analogy will carry us still further: as it was our blessed LORD's divinity, which, we have seen, He studiously concealed, but wished all men to come to the knowledge of; so the knowledge which is supposed in morals to be the result of a good life, is something which is of a nature very great and infinite. In Aristotle it is the going out of mortality, as it were, into the earnest contemplation of things that are wonderful, eternal, and divine 1. Such is the shadow of that truth which Scripture

1 The whole of this is illustrated with exquisite beauty in that admirable canto of the Faery Queen (c. x. Book I.), where, after his abode in the house of Religion, the dwelling-place of Faith, Hope, and Charity, the penitent is led, by a path difficult of access, to a retired mount, which is represented as the abode of Heavenly Contemplation.

"Thence forward by that painful way they pass

Forth to an hill, that was both steep and high,
On top whereof a sacred chapel was,

And eke a little hermitage thereby,
Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
That day and night said his devotion,
Nor other worldly business did apply;
His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
Of GOD and goodness was his meditation."

Book I. Canto x. 46.

unfolds to us. For certainly those pre-eminent saints of GOD, Abraham, St. John, and St. Paul, seem to stand out, as it were, from the human race, by a kind of solitude of spirit, from their minds appearing to be conversant with things above human nature. Abraham, of whom it is said, on account of his obedience, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?" St. Paul, who saw things that it was not lawful for man to utter ; and St. John, whose character is not more strongly marked by that divine love for which he is known, than for what may be termed, but very inadequately, heavenly contemplation; so as to have been found worthy, not only to have written his divine Gospel, but to whom the book of the Revelation should have been entrusted. Add to this, that those Christians, who appear, from many circumstances, to have been the most advanced of all St. Paul's converts, the Ephesians, are especially addressed on the subject of growing in knowledge. The Apostle's unceasing prayer for them is, that "GOD will grant them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they might know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."

This knowledge is always spoken of as something so vast, and, as I said, infinite, that persons seem never to be addressed as if they had attained, but rather to be urged on to the greater attainment: it does not seem spoken of in terms such as Peace and even Faith, but more like Divine Charity, and perhaps, as co-existent and co-extensive with it, as a part only at best of what is boundless, and will be more fully developed hereafter. It is said, "in knowledge of Whom standeth eternal life;" as eternal life cannot be defined by bounds, no more can this knowledge have any limits.

And, indeed, it is often thus spoken of as directly connected with the Divinity. It is called "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid in CHRIST." It is "the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." It is to "be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of CHRIST which passeth know

ledge," and by St. Peter it is "growing in the knowledge of CHRIST." It is expressly spoken of by St. John as our SAVIOUR "manifesting Himself." (John xiv.)

4. It is of a moral, and not of an intellectual nature.

The next point to be observed is, that this hidden wisdom is entirely of a moral nature, and independent of any mere cultivation of the intellect. Indeed the latter of itself would appear to be a hindrance to it,-for such "knowledge puffeth up." Even Aristotle cautions us that knowledge in morals can only be gained by practice. And that heavenly knowledge, of which St. Paul speaks, he is cautious of disclosing to those who are carnally minded. "Add to virtue knowledge," says St. Peter; and this knowledge he considers as the very end of obedience. "If these things (i. e. these graces) abound in you, they will make that ye shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our LORD JESUS CHRIST." (2 Pet. i. 8.) It was seeing that he would command his family to keep the ordinances of GOD, which was the reason given, why GOD would not withhold from Abraham the thing which He did. And indeed the character of this knowledge in all its fulness, its secret and hidden,—its vast and infinite nature, and its being entirely a matter of moral attainment, is sufficiently expressed in our blessed LORD's own words "Judas saith unto Him, (not Iscariot,) LORD, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world? JESUS answered, and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My FATHER will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." It might also be considered that holiness in man is, in fact, nothing else but a sense of the Divine presence; to improve in holiness, therefore, is to grow in the consciousness of God's presence. And would again bring us to the same point, i. e. our blessed SAVIOUR revealing Himself according to the state of each man's heart.

St. John often mentions this knowledge in connexion with love, and such love as the result of obedience. And experience thus confirms it; actions of self-denial dispose the heart to prayer,

prayer to the love of God, and the love of GoD to the knowledge of Him. And this secret and heavenly knowledge, thus attained, seems alluded to in the expression, (Rev. xiv.) "They sang a new song, which song no man could learn, but the hundred and forty and four thousand."

Moreover, it is to such as Daniel, "the man of loves," which are divine and not earthly, that revelations are made and it is worthy of consideration, that those who speak of the intimate connexion of CHRIST with His Church, under the type of marriage, are the Baptist, St. Paul, and St. John. As if it were to the higher, or virgin, state of life that the mysteries signified by this figure were confided.

5. That we may perceive intimations of what it may be.

Of the nature of this Divine knowledge, which God is pleased to reveal to His obedient children, it is of course quite impossible for us to speak adequately, "seeing that it is secret," by our very supposition. But the manner in which this light that lighteth the path of the just may make our way clearer, and open and disclose things to us, before obscure, as we advance, may be shown in one or two instances. First of all, in morals we may see how it is that if any sincere person be otherwise minded, in any point, than what holiness of heart requires, GoD will reveal even this unto him. It may be seen that the whole system of morals is one of progressive light, as far as we can discern. Take, for example, two controverted cases in morals, and observe how the faith of Christian duty throws light upon them. First, the love of praise, a subject so debated in morals, with regard to its merit or demerit. Is it not a sign of good, and therefore praiseworthy, in the worst and most indifferent characters, that they should desire the praise of their superiors in virtue? it is an endeavouring to persuade themselves that they have some merit, which their betters approve, and therefore an intimation of some wish to attain it. It is a step, as it were, in the scale of virtue, that leads us, by human means, to the footstool of GOD. On the other hand, in the best men it is a fault to desire praise

at all-something that sullies their best actions; it is because they ought to look to the sole infallible standard of goodness. The approbation of man was only, in the former case, a weak substitute for this-for it was a looking to the erring judgment of the creature, instead of that unerring judgment and approbation of GCD, in which the life of the soul consists. True goodness of heart can only acquiesce in the judgment of God; therefore, says Taylor, a good man, when praised, trembles, lest the judgment of GOD should be different. And our SAVIOUR has said, "How can ye believe who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh of God only." And yet we have in this case GoD calling us on, through the medium of parents and superiors and good men, to whose good opinion we naturally look, to seek for some approving judgment out of ourselves, and thus to rest in Himself alone. The circumstance, which in this case appears to involve a difficulty or a self-contradiction, does, in fact, more strongly confirm the analogy; for to state, as this instance seems to imply, that the same thing should be right, and yet that it should also be wrong and blameable, may appear extraordinary. But the case would seem to be similar to that of typical rites and offerings, which were commanded in the Old Testament, and, therefore, of course approved of, and yet the same are strongly and repeatedly condemned, i. e. with a reference to a higher standard of those great moral duties and heavenly significations, which they represented and were intended to lead to.

The same may be seen in another case, considered questionable in morals, whether emulation is consistent with Christian holiness, or to be considered as distinct from envy. The fact is, that wherever there is a desire after, and a resting in, finite good as an end, such a good, being finite, must be lessened by another obtaining the same, from the very nature of finite good: emulation cannot exist in such a case, without envy as its shadow. For objects, which are finite, we estimate merely by comparison. But, with regard to that which is infinite, as to obtain the love of GOD, which love is infinite; to do His will, which is infinite; to know Him better; all this, being of an infinite nature, can