Towards the end of the seventeenth century, we find sets of the Evangelists in which the emblems are altogether omitted, and the personages distinguished by their situation, or by their names inscribed under or over them: but we miss those antique scriptural attributes which placed them before us as beings foreshadowed in the prophecies uttered of old; they have become mere men.
This must suffice for the Evangelists considered as a series and in their collective character; but it will be interesting to pause for a moment, and take a rapid retrospective view of the progress, from first to last, in the expression of an idea through form.
First, we have the mere fact; the four scrolls, or the four books.
Next, the idea; the four rivers of salvation flowing from on high, to fertilise the whole earth.
Thirdly, the prophetic Symbol; the winged cherub of fourfold aspect.
Next, the Christian Symbol; the four ‘beasts’ in the Apocalypse, with or without the angel-wings.
Then the combination of the emblematical animal with the human form.
Then the human personages, each of venerable or inspired aspect, as becomes the teacher and witness; and each attended by the scriptural emblem—no longer an emblem, but an attribute—marking his individual vocation and character.
And, lastly, the emblem and attribute both discarded, we have the human being only, holding his gospel, i.e. his version of the doctrine of Christ.