same family he must practise the things which conduce to holiness, especially those which shall be hereafter considered: he must have and live on the conviction, that all he knows and has read of the extent of the Church is as nothing in comparison of its true universality: he must know, not abstract apostleship, but living apostles, through whom he sees God effecting the outward organization of all the believers in Christ, and that perfection of unity which they are appointed by God to accomplish.

Almost all Christians, however, regard the assertion that the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, as a mere theory, and not a practical fact and, so far as the experience of the larger number goes, they cannot do otherwise. The circulation of the blood in a man is a theory, and concerns him no further so long as the members of his own body are in health: but if his hands or his feet become mortified, he knows that the union of his extremities with his whole body is a practical fact, and that "if one member suffer, the whole body suffers with it." It is a mere theory also to all who do not sensibly feel that their spiritual state is really affected by the condition of every member of the Church; even the looking for the Lord to come, and to raise those who have died in the faith, and to establish His kingdom, and to translate their

bodies without seeing death, is a mere theory of no practical importance if they do not know and feel that their hope never can be realized unless they all grow up together into the One perfect body which the Lord will unite to Himself.

That there be no confusion of ideas on this subject, let us commence by accurate definitions of terms. By the word Church is meant all men who have been united together by the rite of baptism, as all Jews were, and are united together by the rite of circumcision. The common faith of this body of persons is contained in the three Creeds called the Apostle's, Nicene, and Athanasian; and all agreed in this Creed until the Reformation, when the Church was split into many sects, and the Church of England added thirty-nine Articles to the ancient Creeds for herself: the Presbyterians added the Westminster Confession for their sect: the Germans added the Confession of Augsburgh: and the Latin sect added that of Pope Pius the IVth. The word sect, therefore, is not a term of reproach any further than it is the true character of those who have committed the sin of schism; it simply declares an ecclesiastical and theological fact.

When Nicodemus came to our Lord he shewed, by his manner of address, that he was in earnest upon the subject of religion, and desirous of learning

from any one, however despised, whom he thought competent to instruct him in more than he already knew. Our Lord, therefore, at once made a statement to him which would necessarily surprise him, as similar statements surprise, stagger, and alarm men continually in these days. The assertion implied, that, if he really wanted to know all that one commissioned from God was able to tell him, he must be prepared to hear things of a nature very different from any he had ever heard before; yet these things, whilst new in their form, were only a development of what God had of old time declared in His word that He would bring to pass.

In his public ministrations our Lord continually insisted upon two points: first, that the priests and scribes were truly the lawful teachers of the people, and that the people ought to respect them as such; secondly, that these lawful teachers had substituted traditions, doctrines, and observances enjoined by their predecessors, for things enjoined in the word of God; so that in fact, although not in theory, they had set aside God's word, and even taught men to act contrary to it. There were many sects and parties among the Jews, but our Lord made no distinction between them. He did not charge this fault upon one sect more than upon another: but in our days every sect amongst Christians imagines that a

fault which it perceives in another is peculiar to that other, but that itself is free from the same; whereas, in the greater number of instances, the same errors are to be found in all, modified by natural and other circumstances.

Every science has a language peculiar to itself, which is very convenient, as saving much circumlocution amongst those who are agreed upon the points which the terms express; but if there be a difference of opinion upon these, then the dispute becomes virtually one on definitions, and not on truth, and can lead to no profitable result: and it may be laid down as a universal rule, that men understand no subject on which they cannot express themselves without the use of any scientific or conventional term whatever. Now God has shewn us latterly much truth concerning the organization of His Church, and the adaptation of each organ of it to produce a particular effect in reducing the unruly wills and affections of sinful men to obey Him. He taught this truth, first, by placing, through the word of prophets, certain individuals in particular places, by which this organization was shewn to be the same as that which was established in the beginning; and, secondly, by shewing, through the same word, the meaning of what He had done. The word of prophecy abounded in symbolic expressions, such as

pillars, and boards, and bars, and brass, and gold, and silver, taken from the component parts of the tabernacle of Moses. This tabernacle, we were reminded, was declared by St. Paul to be a model of the Christian Church; this symbolic language was necessary, because eternal truth, which does not change as the fitful caprice of man changes, can only be expressed by an unchangeable thing: but no one does really understand the work which God has done if he cannot explain it without making use of those symbolic terms.

A grievous error runs through the Christian world in speaking of sects. A name is taken by a sect, or affixed to it by its opponents, which quite as often tends to mislead as to instruct; and some of these peculiar names contain contradictions which make them palpably absurd: for example, some call themselves Roman CATHOLICS, Some German CATHOLICS, others Anglican CATHOLICS: the terms are contradictions ;-in so far as men are Romanists, or Germans, or Anglicans, they cannot be Catholics; in so far as they are Catholics, they cannot be exclusively Romanists, or Germans, or Anglicans. The word Protestants originally signified those who protested against certain assertions of the Papists; but now the greater part of Protestants protest equally against other Protestant sects-as, for example, Presbyterians and Independents against Episcopalians.