and the doctrine so believed, instead of being a manifestation of God, is a veil between God and the soul, or even it may be an idol, receiving the honour which is due to God only. Doctrines received in that way, however true they may be in their own place, are yet to such receivers no better than rosaries or crucifixes, or the serpent of brass in the days of Hezekiah. Let us remember that all revealed truth is merely God's provision for awakening, and nourishing, and expanding the έμφυτος λογος, the word in the heart, which is the only seed of true religion, and which, as it is the spirit of God within man, so it requires from man a continual personal dealing with God himself.

The history of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God's purpose towards every man; inasmuch as it is the history of the word of God in the conscience of man, fully revealed and fully followed. And God has put the seed of the word in every conscience, desiring that it should have the same history in all, as it had in Jesus. He is the quickened and purged conscience of the whole race, as each man's conscience is Christ, or the spirit of Christ the hope of glory, in his own individual person. This is our con

nection with Him, and the cord that unites us to Him, and we can only rightly understand his history, in following this cord. He is in the root of the race as the fulness of God, and out "of his fulness have all we received:" that is, a stream of his Spirit flows to each of our hearts, "and as many as receive Him, to them gives he power to become the sons of God." John i. 12, 16.*

I believe that the Socinianism of the heart, that spiritual evil, of which the outward creed of Socinianism is merely the type, consists in separating the doctrines of religion from the living presence of God, so that they change their nature and become plagues instead of blessings. The reproof of all this false religion lies in that word, "no man can come unto me, except the Father draw him," except by listening to the inward word sown in his heart.

And here let me repeat, that when I speak of listening to the inward word, I mean list

*The language of revealed religion must be interpreted in our hearts, into a language which our hearts understand, in order that its doctrines may have their true meaning to us, and their true power over us. Revealed religion is a telescope, which is of no use unless it is fitted to the eye, the natural organ of vision.

ening to it as consciously knowing it to be indeed the word of God, spoken by Himself to our own souls-so that in it, we not only know His will, but, what is still higher, we know Himself. Nothing below this is true faith, for nothing below this, is eternal life, according as it is written, "This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." John xvii. 2. And faith and that knowledge are one and the same thing-being the one channel of eternal life. I urge this explanation of "listening to the inward word," because I believe it to be no less possible, to use the conscience as a Moses, or as a screen, between us and God, than it is, so to use the outward word. When we attend to conscience only as a voice indicating what is right and wrong, and do not seek to rise through the voice, into the personal presence and fellowship of the speaker; it becomes to us like a mere message from a distance; we are at our ease in hearing it; we can hear it and live, for it thus appears to us rather as a direction how we may so conduct ourselves as to secure the enjoyment of a blessing in this present world, than as the call of the crucified and risen Saviour, inviting us

to partake of his death here, that we may partake of his eternal life in his Father's kingdom, yet to be revealed.

The Bible then is a blessing as leading to faith, but its chief blessing is to those who believe it, that is, to those who receive it on the witness which is greater, knowing its truth by its oneness with the word in their own hearts. And its blessing to them is not merely that it is nourishment to their inward life; but also that it is a test by which they may try the word within them. The flesh is continually seeking to mix up its voice, with the voice of the Spirit in the heart, so that the truth may be in a measure received, and yet be without fruit, in consequence of this mixture. And in this state we generally find the inward word, where the light of revelation does not shine. Now the Bible comes to us pure— and whilst it commends itself to the conscience, by calling forth the echo of the inward word, it also detects the mixtures of the flesh, so that we may not take our own fancies for the Spirit's voice. It reveals to us, moreover, what the inward word is, and "whence it comes, and whither it goes." It is an unspeakable blessing; and yet it would be nothing to us, unless we had the inward

word as the telescope would be nothing to a man without eyes. And this inward word is more than eyes; it does not merely give us a capacity of apprehending spiritual things, but it farther enables us to judge of the truth or falsehood of spiritual things-so that, without it, we could have no real means of ascertaining that Jesus was the eternal Word, the Son of God, or that the Bible was the inspired word of God.

Jesus himself declared this, when he said to the people, "If any man wills to do the will of God, (as the literal translation is,) he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself;" that is, he shall have the witness which is greater, testifying in him to the truth. It is evident that this is only another way of saying, that if any man will be faithful to the voice within his own conscience, and to the law written in his heart, he shall be in a condition to discern the divine truth and authority of the gospel. Jesus thus Himself referred to the inward word in man, as to the test by which His own outward preaching was to be tried; and thus it was that He spoke as one having authority, and not as the scribes, for He spoke to the conscience,-to that principle in man