their capacities will very possibly be enlarged, yet this more from the withdrawal of that which now cramps and confines them than from any positive increase; but they will not be altered. The four faces of the Cherubim are emblematic of eternal truths; of truths which are the essential properties, and not accidents of the things they represent; as true in the Garden of Eden, although undeveloped, as in the Church in the Apocalypse in all its fulness, just as every property which an oak can ever exhibit is contained in the acorn out of which the tree is merely developed and as these four faces represent four different divisions or classification of the members of the Church, each class must have its own peculiar characteristic, and in so far differ from the other three.

The polish given by civilisation to men of strong and rough characters is by rubbing off their peculiarities, and inducing to that amount a likeness to others, and therefore a sameness. Whilst there must be persons in each class who nearly approach, there must also be others who are as distant as possible: these latter would come into collision unless they were kept under restraint of some kind, whether internal or external, by their own wills or by the wills of others. It is not easy to give examples, in order to make this subject clear, without running into a very long dis

quisition; in which, to avoid the appearance of novelty, it would be necessary to transcribe from many authors metaphysical descriptions of different characters of mind. Leaving, therefore, the higher and truer branch of the question, it will be more practically useful now to confine our consideration to instances taken from outward things.

There are many persons who have a positive dislike to music, whilst there are others who are musical fanatics. Un fanatico per la musica is a character to be found constantly in Italy and Germany, though rarely or never in Great Britain. To the generality of mankind music is pleasing: the degree, and also kind of pleasure, varies from association, from knowledge of the art, and many other causes. The same observations apply to all the other arts with equal force. Some persons never read a line of poetry, and can see no beauty in it: dislike of poetry, painting, and sculpture is not so commonly expressed by those who feel it, because they can always avoid annoyance from those arts, not being obliged to read or look at what displeases them, whilst from music there is no escape but by flight. There are minds which cannot be made scientific: excellence is not attainable in many things: Admirable Crichtons are monsters, not genuine examples of the genus :

the elegance of the antelope and the strength of the elephant are incompatible.

A common error amongst religious ascetics is to consider the Christian Church, not as the heading up of all the rest of the creation, but as the antagonist to it; whereas the Church is the contradiction to the evil that is in the world by taking only the good; or in other words, by employing all things for God's service which are now used by Satan in opposition to God's will, and for the torment of mankind. Evil or misuse pervades the material, moral, and spiritual regions alike; and the material, moral, and spiritual regions are redeemed, and shall, by the means of the Church, yet be delivered from the bondage of corruption under which the whole creation groans; and hence must the public worship of the Catholic Church exhibit the first-fruits of the material, moral, and spiritual world combined in giving glory to God, as has been explained in the preceding lecture.

Every character of mind, however, every affection of the heart, every variety of knowledge, is in equal perfection in our Blessed Lord, the Man Christ Jesus; and every other man possesses only a fragment of that mind, affection, and knowledge; and as, according to the laws of the nature which the Son of God has condescended to assume, He can put forth the peculiar action of the hand and of

the foot through the members of His body alone, so can He put forth His intellectual and spiritual power through those members of His mystical body alone who are of dispositions fitted for the exhibition of those powers. Thus it is that, in gathering the election, we find many different ways by which God turns the minds and affections of men to Him, so different as to be utterly unintelligible to men of an opposite character. Many pious and meditative persons have been drawn by visions; many argumentative minds by abstruse treatises; some are known to have begun to study in order to confirm themselves in infidelity who have become eminent believers: means have been effectual in some cases which would have been wholly inoperative in others.

If a man precisely of the character of St. Paul

had been a bishop within the last 1700 years, and another precisely of the character of St. Peter, bishop of another diocese, they would certainly have excommunicated each other. Heretics, however, abounded in the early Church, and it was necessary to put heresy and false doctrine out of it: but a statement by one bishop might appear contradictory to the truth advanced by another bishop, without its being so in reality. There wanted, in order to keep the peace between the contending bishops, a third party, who could only do so properly by containing a greater measure

of truth than either, and thus make full allowance for, and do justice to, both. The elevation of the Bishop of Rome into a supremacy over both, was a move in the right direction, and has thus been the means of preserving the orthodoxy of the Church: but it was still the exaltation of a bishop into that situation with no larger gift of the Holy Ghost than another bishop; with capacity indeed to govern a diocese, but not capacity sufficient to govern many dioceses as one, save by compelling each one to become a copy of his and it is this kind of unity to which the Roman Catholic Church has attained, or rather been reduced. The dread of breach of unity, of heresy, and division was so great, that the Romish Government was driven into all kinds of cruelty to suppress them. Silence was enforced on all except such as would flatter the ruling power at Rome; and all vices were tolerated, provided there was no denial of the authority of Popes. The Romish Government performed the true prophetic character of the Church in testifying to the word of Scripture that the Church and the World would ultimately be destroyed by the fire of the unruly tongue, which would set on fire the whole course of nature, and was set on fire of hell: and by this fire, first, was the unity of the Western Church destroyed at the Reformation, and then monarchies began to crumble away also, till now