known, and that goes by the name of a principle and received theory, is after all only the best way of accounting for certain phenomena which the present state of knowledge furnishes; such is specially the case in the science. and practice of medicine: and principles are much more difficult to be ascertained where the subject is organised than where, as in astronomy, nothing but the mechanical forces of unorganised masses, planets, worlds, suns, winds, currents, &c. are to be treated of. Principles, therefore, relating to physiology, whether of plants or animals, are less positive in their results, more difficult to express, and more liable to error; and these difficulties are much aggravated in all that relates to man, the most complicated in his structure of all the creatures which God has made.

It is for the sake of this creature that truth has been revealed by God, which he had no other means of knowing; and the end of its being revealed is, that he may know his Creator better than can any other creature, and that he should be educated and trained to fulfil and accomplish certain destinies which the Creator has ordained for him, and which no

other creature can fulfil. Thus theology is divided into two parts, the one relating to what God has revealed concerning Himself, the other relating to what He has revealed concerning mankind. It is the second part only, however, which will be discussed at present, so far as it can be separated from, and is independent of, the former.

The revelation which God makes of Himself, and the instruction which He imparts, is not by the enunciation of propositions, but by the development of a series of acts. It is, indeed, by His Word that all things which do exist have been brought out of nothing into being, and it is by that same Word that all created things do continually subsist. Nevertheless the Scriptures which He has "caused to be written for our learning" are not a series of logical theorems, but the records of a series of acts, each one in succession tending more and more fully to develope the nature, mind, and purpose of God; and Tertullian well observes that "facts are God's arguments." Thus, whilst truth is in itself unchangeable in its very nature, the apprehensions of truth by man are or ought to

be in a state of continual progress, which, so far as age differs from youth, perfection from imperfection, and maturity from immaturity, may be termed change; and as principles of all sciences are better understood in proportion. as phenomena have been multiplied, and it has been possible to frame a law so general as to include them all, so ought the principles of theology to be better understood at the end of a course of six thousand years of actions expressly undertaken to manifest them than they were at the beginning of that series; and so ought the principles of theology to be better understood at the end of the Christian dispensation than they were at the beginning of it.

Recent writers are reviving rightly the doctrine long lost sight of amongst Protestants, of a principle of development in the doctrines, practices, and rites of the Church. It is obvious that, during the infancy of the Church, the full forms of its structure and administration could not be seen. The Apostle declares, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, that there were many things in doctrine which he was anxious to teach them, but which they were not at that time sufficiently advanced in the knowledge of

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the elements of Christianity to be able to learn. It is so self-evident on all subjects, in all sciences, in all arts, in all departments of human knowledge, that men learn, and must learn gradually, that it is a marvel to find it broached in the nineteenth century, that it is a heresy" to talk of "reserve" in teaching the mysteries of religion; and that it is error to speak of progress in divine knowledge. If people learn at all, they learn progressively; and if they do not learn progressively, it is because they are not learning at all: and this is probably the case with those who rail at the advance which the clergy of Oxford have lately made. The clergy of old, with more wisdom than their successors, divided their flocks into catechumens and faithful. In the mysteries of God, two things have been going on in a progressive state of development ever since the fall of man; the one the development of the character, ways, and purpose of God; the other the development of evil, in counteracting and obstructing, though not finally frustrating, that purpose. Hence, in the last revelation given to men in signs, the Church is first exhibited as a pure virgin,

and subsequently as having fallen into the condition of, and become, a drunken adultress. In this condition she is now: and the reference to past ages, to the practices and writings of the fathers, must be in order to study this progress in the road to apostacy, as well as to study the development of God's faithfulness in preserving a remnant in the midst of the all but total departure from Him. In tracing, therefore, the goodness and actings of God in His Church for 1800 years, and the development of His purpose, it is a narrow, partial, uncertain, and uncatholic statement of truth, if the evil actings of men in His Church are not traced also, by which they have polluted the spouse of Christ, and caused her to become as an intoxicated harlot, drunk with the blood of saints; and yet in her blind pride saying, "I sit as a queen, and shall see no sorrow." This development of the mystery of iniquity has been brought about by errors of various kinds being inculcated by the rulers, and consequently it is upon the rulers that the judgment of God primarily falls; for, as James IV. of Scotland said to his nobles, "They who lead

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