intended merely for the self-defence of Christians, but as one intended for and contributing to the good of all parties, as a practical rule; and this he does most fully. In a passage more than once quoted of late years with reference to the Disciplina, he forbids the catechumens to communicate the knowledge which he says to those who are unprepared for it is highly injurious. He forbids those whom he is instructing to communicate to catechumens the things which were revealed to them. "If any should ask and say, What harm will there be in my being acquainted?" he adds, " They who are sick ask for wine; but if it be unseasonably afforded them, it occasions frenzy; and from this two bad consequences ensue, the sick man dies, and the physician is blamed."

In another place he speaks of the secret discipline as closely connected with our LORD's own teaching, as the example and authority on which it was formed. After speaking of the Gospel being hid from those that are lost, and saying that the GoD of the New as well as of the Old Testament concealed things in parables, he adds, "The sun renders blind the weak-sighted; not that it is the nature of the sun to make persons blind, but that the state of their eyes cannot bear its light. Thus it is that they whose hearts are diseased from unbelief, are not able to look upon the bright rays of Godhead. The LORD spake to those who were able to hear in parables, and those parables He explained privately to His disciples. The brightness of His glory was for those who were enlightened, the blinding for the unbelieving. These mysteries the Church now declares to one who ceases to be of the catechumens. It is not her custom to declare them to heathens. We often speak of many things covertly, that the faithful who know may understand, and others be not injured."

Origen, in like manner, speaks of the discipline then observed among Christians as a moral system, which was considered as best calculated to do good. And so far from its having any connexion with heathen practices, he speaks of it as opposed to them. Against Celsus, (p. 142,) speaking of some heathen philosopher, he proceeds: "Let us see if the Christians have not a much

wiser way of leading people to what is good and virtuous.

For

these ancient philosophers speak publicly, and make no discrimination of their hearers, but whosoever pleases may stand by and hear. But the Christians, as far as they are able, make a trial of the souls of those who wish to hear them; and first having privately brought their minds in tune, when they appear to have been sufficiently advanced by some evidence they have given of their desire to lead a good life, they then introduce them; and make a private distinction between those lately introduced, who have not yet received the sign of their purification, and those who, as far as in them lies, have indicated their determination to have no other principles of life but those of a Christian. And they have persons among them appointed to inquire into the lives and conduct of those who come to them, that they may prevent those who do things that are forbidden from coming into the common assembly; but those who are not such, they receive with their whole heart, and take pains daily to make them better."

And a little after he proceeds, (p. 143,) "For we endeavour, as far as we can, that our assemblies should be formed of serious persons; and things which are especially of a divine character we then venture to bring forward in our public discourses, when we have no want of understanding hearers; but we conceal and pass over in silence things which are more deep, from an audience who are figuratively said to require milk. For thus Paul writes to the Corinthians, who were not yet sufficiently recovered in their morals from their former heathen state: " I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able," &c. (1 Cor. iii. 2.) And the same Apostle, well aware of the more perfect food of the soul, and that that of new converts might be compared to milk, says, (Heb. v. 12,) "Ye are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat; for every one that useth meat is unskilful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

VOL. Y.- -87.

C

In the same book we find Celsus reflecting against the Christians, and accusing them of inconsistency, for now, says he, "they cry out to those of clean hands and a pure heart, washed from all wickedness, to come and be initiated in their sacred purification, now, on the contrary, they call on the sinner, the foolish, the childish, the miserable-he shall receive the kingdom of GOD." To which Origen answers, that "it is one thing to invite the sick to be healed, and another those that are healthy to the knowledge of divine things."

Much more to this effect does Origen mention respecting the system then observed in the Church; and what is very observable, he not only does occasionally fully bear testimony to our supposition that our LORD did in the days of His flesh reveal Himself only so far as men were able to bear it, but he speaks of our LORD Himself in expressions that might very well, by analogy and metaphor, be applied to the secret discipline he describes. In the treatise just quoted, he says, (contra Celsum, l. iv. p. 170,) that our SAVIOUR condescended to come down to the level of him who was unable to look upon the excessive lustre and brightness of His divinity. He became flesh and spoke in a bodily manner until such a one having received Him as such, by little and little was lifted up by the WORD, and was able to behold His former person. For there are different forms of the WORD, according as the WORD appears to each of them who are being trained to knowledge, in accordance with their respective moral habit and spiritual advancement, and different progress in virtue. So that it is not in the manner that Celsus has supposed that our GoD became changed in form'. And when He went up into an high mountain, He showed Himself to them in another form, and far transcending that which they beheld, who remained below and were not able to follow Him to the height. For they who were below had not eyes capable of beholding the glorious and divine transfiguration of the WORD, but indeed were scarce able to comprehend such as He was among them, so that of them who could not perceive His Divine beauty it is said, "He hath no

1 Celsus had been saying that JESUS CHRIST in becoming Man had ceased to be GOD; had become other than He was before. (ix. v.)

The whole subject connected with a great religious principle. 19

form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

6. The whole subject connected with a great religious principle and rule of conduct.

From all that has been said it may, I think, be clearly seen with regard to the Disciplina Arcani, that it could not have been a system suggested by heathen mysteries, but that it is so closely connected with Scripture, that allusions to it naturally rise out of, and again fall into Scriptural allusions, or some account of our LORD and His Apostles; so much so, as that all relating to it is perfectly consistent, and all of a piece with what they evidently considered to be the teaching of Holy Scripture. If either of them is attacked, Origen seems in defending the one to pass imperceptibly into a defence of the other, as if the method of the Church and the method of Holy Scripture were one and the same, mutually implying each other; and as if the former gradually had its rise out of the latter, by means of an identity or similarity of conduct in the inspired Apostles or teachers in the early Churches; although the principle might have now assumed a more definite and marked character, from being formed into a system. And these remarks would be more fully seen were we to quote the numerous passages in which the expressions of St. Paul are cited in allusion to it, particularly by Clement of Alexandria and Origen. Besides this very high and Divine character with which Origen invests the practice, he at times refers it to a principle of natural modesty, such as nature has clearly given us in many instances for our protection. Nor is this incidental mode of connecting this system of the Church with our LORD's example at all confined to Origen, but frequent among other early writers; thus St. Augustine (in his Commentaries on St. John, p. 1804, Par. edit.) speaking of where it is said that many "believed in CHRIST, but He trusted not Himself to them," says that "it is the same with the catechumens; they believe, but are not admitted to the Eucharist." The practice is immediately applied as illustrating our SAVIOUR'S conduct. In another passage, St.

Augustine speaks of himself as doubting how to act up to this as a known and acknowledged duty. In his Enarration on Ps. 39, (tom. iv. 439,) he applies to himself the words, "I said, I will take heed to my ways that I offend not in my tongue. I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle while the ungodly is in my sight. I held my tongue and spake nothing: I kept silence, yea, even from good words, but it was pain and grief to me." He applies this passage to his own great difficulties and perplexities on this subject of reserve; that, on the one hand, he might not offend by an undue display of holy things, so contrary both to Divine and Apostolic precept. For our LORD and St. Paul, he says, held back even from those who were exceedingly eager to learn those spiritual truths which were beyond them; and his advice to his hearer is, "Be not hastening to hear what you cannot receive, but improve in holiness that you may receive it." On the other hand, he was anxious and struggling with the difficulty arising from the opposite duty, as one "set over the LORD's household to give them their meat in due season." "Positus," he says, “in hâc fluctuatione dicendi et tacendi; periclitans ne projiciat margaritas ante porcos; periclitans ne non eroget cibaria conservis."

If St. Augustine here speaks of this rule of reserve as a duty in individuals, Origen also speaks of it as a necessary circumstance in good men, inasmuch as the world cannot understand them. In the following passage He thus beautifully expresses it: "As the solar ray affects the countenance of him who looks to the sun, and it is not possible for any one to stand in the sun, and not himself to partake of its light; so must we suppose that he will become a partaker of God, who shall have meditated on the law of the Divine Word, and shall have given up his mind to become acquainted with God." "I suppose that this secret is declared in Exodus, when the countenance of Moses, after he had familiarly conversed with GOD, was so glorified, that the children of Israel were not able stedfastly to look upon the glory of it, and on this account he who attended on GoD took a veil to converse with His people. Thus every soul which is given up to GOD, and hath entered into His truth, beyond what is known to the many, and hath partaken of His Divinity, surpasses the