again in the Church. It is connected in the first LECT.VIII. century with the name of Cerinthus. To whatever place he belonged, it seems clear that he was a Jew, and that there were many who dreamed his dream, of a visible throne on which Jesus should sit, while His ministers and subjects should be free to enjoy themselves, and to trample upon other men.

a crisis like

Churches.

It would be an error to suppose that though this Pauline opinion had a Jewish origin, and a Jewish character, the Churches which St. Paul had founded in Gentile cities may not have been infected with it. They had also their own temptations, to which, at this, they were especially likely to yield. The Ebionites were disposed to shrink from the thought of Christ's divinity; yet some of them, as I have told you, also lost sight of His actual humanity. The Churches which had learnt from St. Paul,-which had heard him say, "That he would know no man after the flesh, yea, that though they had known Christ after the flesh, now henceforth they knew Him no more,"―might easily pervert his doctrine to the denial Abuse of that the Son of God had taken flesh. They might doctrine by even think it a low, grovelling conception, that them. so pure a Being could come into contact with our earthly nature. I need not tell you how far such a doctrine was from St. Paul's meaning; and that though he apprehended Christ with his spirit, not with his flesh, no one would have been more ready to die for the truth that He took an actual body, brought it from the tomb, and ascended with it on high. But it is needful to show you, thus early in our course,

I

St. Paul's

LECT.VIII. how the doctrines of Apostles, as well as of inferior

General conclusion.

Christ's words fulfilled literally.

doctors, may be corrupted and inverted by those who profess to take one or another of them as their guide. When once the party or sect spirit possesses men, they must turn sacred portions of truth to the denial of other portions of it, which are as sacred and as needful for mankind.

On the whole, I can use no other language concerning this period than that which Christ and His Apostles used. They speak of events in the nations generally, in the Jewish nation particularly, and in the Churches of baptized men, which would be signs of the coming of the Son of Man as a Judge. The events I have reported, which were accompanied with a number of physical portents such as our Lord hinted at, seem to me such signs. But I could not interpret them, or understand the issues of them, or how the kingdom of the Son of God and the Son of Man was to be manifested by means of them, if Transition we had not the help of another divine Teacher, of whose person and whose writings I hope to speak in the next Lecture.

to S. John.

LECTURE IX.

ST. JOHN.

respecting

the Apo

ST. LUKE does not tell us in what directions the LECT. IX. majority of the twelve Apostles went to fulfil their Traditions Master's command. The traditions which report to what countries they travelled are, some more, some stles. less, probable. Those which concern the East are many of them worthy of credit, and are confirmed by later investigations. Since the first business of the Apostles was to gather Jews into the fold, they would be likely to go wherever their countrymen had settled. It is not proved that they had many colonies in Western Europe; we need not, therefore, be surprised if we find that the notions which the different Churches in Gaul, or Spain, or Britain have cherished that their [St. Paul's origin was apostolical, may be commonly traced to some mistakes in names, overlooked and favoured by national vanity. If you wonder that we have not the Epistle New Testament information on this subject, you must learn once for all, that the New Testament is not written to tell us about the doings of men, but about the great purposes of God to the world, and how, by this agent or that, He has accomplished them. St. Luke has made occasional allusions to St. James the

intended journey to

Spain, men

tioned in

to the

Romans,

was pre

vented by

his impri

sonment.]

St. Luke's silence.

LECT. IX. Less; he has spoken much of St. Peter; he has given us a continuous narrative of St. Paul's labours up to a certain point. But he says nothing of St. James's death, of St. Peter's journeyings, or how they terminated,—of the issue of St. Paul's imprisonment: upon all these points we must get such tidings as we can; when not supplied by the Epistles, they are very doubtful. St. Luke has given us such a view of the principles and development of the kingdom, which John the Baptist said was at hand, as we can find nowhere else. It is well that we should understand how precious that knowledge is; of how little worth, except for the satisfaction of curiosity, the other would be.

logist.

If you want a proof of the difference between the sacred historian and the later ecclesiastical historians, St. Luke as take this instance. There is scarcely any Apostle a martyro who is spoken of more frequently in the Gospels than that James, who was with our Lord on Tabor and in Gethsemane, whose mother desired that he and his brother John might sit, one on the right hand, and one on the left, in their Lord's kingdom. He was the first Apostle who died for the faith of Christ. What an opportunity for a long and eloquent discourse, for an accurate description of sufferings, for records of divine and mysterious succours afforded to the martyr! St. Luke says, "And Herod slew James the brother of John with the sword." That is all. He fell fighting in the ranks where he was set to fight: what more could be said of him? But there is an omission which may seem to you more surprising

still. What has become of the other son of thunder? of him who leaned on Christ's breast at the last supper? of him who is called the beloved disciple? We hear of him as joined with Peter in the first miracle of healing, after the day of Pentecost. He stands with Peter before the Sanhedrim. He goes with Peter to Samaria. Then he vanishes out of the narrative; we have no more news of him. He is called, in the letter to the Galatians, an Apostle of the circumcision. But we are not told how he worked for the circumcision, or whether he had any connexion with the Apostle of the Gentiles.

LECT. IX.

The rare

ness of his

allusions to

St. John.

How it is

to be ac

I believe that the failure of information in the sacred historian on this subject, is not merely owing counted for. to the general cause which I have assigned for his silence. St. John, it seems to me, could have no conspicuous place in St. Luke's narrative; his work belongs to a later time. We could not understand what it was, and why it was needed, if we had not that narrative; if we had not the Epistles of St. James, St. Peter and St. Paul; nay, if we had not those notices which general history supplies us with of the convulsions in the Roman empire, and its progress to perdition, till the time of Vespasian,-of the strifes and crimes by which the Jewish nation was hastening to a still deeper ruin,-of the way in which the Church in Jerusalem, and the baptized Jews generally, were shaken by the catastrophe which their guides and teachers had predicted.

The traditions which have come down to us re- Notices of St. John by specting St. John are even more uncertain, and have