PRINCETON, N. J. '"S, Presented by Mr Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. Agnczv Coll. on Baptism, No. ^J^^'*^-^*;^ ^^^^y^ik^-^t^'ir ^^-z.^-^ -^^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/sermonsonscriptuOOhawk SERMONS SCEIPTURAL TYPES AND SACRAMENTS, PREACHED BEFORE fJjB Eniunsilii nf (Dxfnrii, OBSEEYAIIONS UPON SOME EECENT THEOEIES. BY EDWARD 'Hawkins, d.d. PROVOST OF ORIEL COLLEGE, CANON OF ROCHESTER, IRELAND PROFESSOR. LONDON : B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET; , AND J. H. PAEKER, OXFORD. 1851. LONPON : R fT.AV, PRlNTKIi BI!EAT> STRF.FT IIII.T,. PEEEACE. In the great contest, for which we should be prepared, between Faith and Infidelity, it should be our earnest endeavour not only to uphold all Scriptural truth, but to restrain every addition to the truth, whether derived from a merely fanciful, or from a speculative Theology. For in every age, to a certain extent, but to a very great extent in an active inquu'ing age, too busy and restless, perhaps, for calm inquiiy and solid information, to add to revealed truth is to endanger Revelation itself. And as the following Discourses were composed with these principles in view, so they are published, and more especially the last two Sermons^ in the humble hope of impressing them practically upon the minds of some of the students of theology, and teachers a 2 IV PREFACE. of Christian truth, lay and clerical, from the pulpit and in the family. As to the First and Second of these Sermons, they require little introduction. " The elements of forgotten typology," says Olshausen, "are becoming more and more recognised, and cannot, consistently with truly historical exposition, be overlooked in the New Testament."^ In this country, indeed, the Typical System has not been forgotten. Rather, perhaps, it has been often pressed too far. But in cordial agreement with this author, that the fact of a designed Typical system in the Old Scriptures is of no slight mo- ment towards a just understanding of both the volumes of Holy Writ, I have endeavoured in the First Sermon to trace a slight outline of the Scriptural Evidence in favour of the system itself; and in the Second — without adopting the rigid but somewhat arbitrary rule of Bishop Marsh and others, which would allow of no Type in the Old Testament which is not, either expressly or by implication, recognised in the New — I have called the attention of the student to some • On Romans, v. 13, p. 200. Ediub. Tiansl. 1849. PREFACK. V Cautions and Limitations, with the view of checking that fanciful and exaggerated exhibition of a system of Types under the earlier dispensa- tions, which raore than anything else, perhaps, has caused some minds to doubt or deny the existence of Scriptural Types altogether. Some additional examples and references have been given in the Notes, which may not bo without their use to junior students. The Third and Fourth Sermons, upon the Person AND Offices of the Saviour, upon our Union WITH Christ, and our Sanctification by the Holy Spirit, although suggested by different circumstances, are based upon the same principles applied to subjects of deeper importance. For they refer especially to some novel phrases, and novel theories, or rather revived than altogether new, touching our union, and more particularly throu2;h the Sacraments, with the- "man's bodv" of Christ, with His " glorified manhood," or His "glorified humanity" — theories and expressions much in favour, it is said, with several of our younger Clergy, but unknown, T think, to the VI PREFACE. Scriptures, and to the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of England. Not, of course, that the views in question are unconnected with acknowledged truths. On the contrary, they start from the truths of Scripture the most universally admitted ; such as the Scrip- tural facts and doctrines of the Pall of ]\Tan, and his Redemption ; his natural depravity, the neces- sity of his regeneration and renewal to holiness ; the Incarnation of the Son, that Christ is both God and man, that He is our Mediator and Advocate; that Christians are members of His mystical body the Church ; the Divine institution, and the efficacy, of the two Sacraments, and that they are channels of grace, and means of union with Christ. It is their connexion with admitted truths which has given currency, no doubt, to these speculations. But if they add ought to what is revealed, then, as we tender the im- portance of Revelation, we should avoid them. Nay they should be avoided, even if what are here spoken of as theories should be regarded as nothing more than modes of statement, new ex. pressions for old truths, the offspring of poetry PREFACE. Vll and fancy, rather than of speculation. And no doubt this is sometimes so. Yet even thus, as they are heard from our Parochial pulpits, the mere expressions perplex some of our hearers, and offend others; and suggest ideas, perhaps, not intended by the preacher. Sometimes, however, if I do not greatly err, they are much more than this. They are speculations, theories, developments ; passing beyond the disclosures of Revelation upon subjects of which, except from Revelation, we know not, and cannot know, anything. Thus we are told, not merely that our blessed Lord is our only Mediator and Advocate, that He has exercised, and still continues to discharge, this His gracious office^ having made atonement for us, and recon- ciled us to His Father, and ever interceding for us ; but that He was and is the Mediator by virtue of His Incarnation, and the actual constitution of His Divine and human natures ; that these His two natures mutually influence each other ; that hence He is the Second Adam, and as we have inherited a corrupt nature derived to us by our natural descent from the first man, so we are to restore and purify it by our union with the nature Vm PREFACE. oi the Second man ; that His humanity having . been restored, glorified, deified, by its union with His Divinity, ours must become so in hke manner by union with His ; so that none can be truly members of His mystical body the Church, who are not united to His " man's body/' or His " glorified humanity." Hence, again, as a natural result, we have a physical theory of Sacramental grace. True, the authors of these speculations would earnestly dis- claim everything physical or material. The natural body of Christ, they would declare, is in heaven, *but the Presence of om- Mediator is " not inde- pendent of His fleshly nature," and " the Holy Communion connects us with that slain humanity of the Incarnate Word, which is present by spiritual power in holy ordinances." True, also, they would earnestly disclaim the thought of any doctrines of theirs derogating in any way from the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ, or superseding the great doctrine' of Sanctification by the Holy Spirit. But we must regard their speculations in their ob- vious bearing and practical working. And, practi- cally, if not professedly, their theory is that we are PREFACE. IX to be united to " the man's nature" of Christ mainly and chiefly through the Sacraments. It is styled " the Sacramental System." Sacraments are " the extension of the Incarnation." The Eucharist is "the Christian sacrifice;" Christian ministers are " sacrificers ;" their work below " is a constituent part of that general work which the one great High Priest performs in heaven ;" and, generally, Sacra- ments " are the means through which His man's nature is communicated to His brethren." To those who are acquainted with the works alluded to, these brief notices will sufficiently recall their peculiar views. Those to whom they are new, will find them explained by the passages cited in the following pages, and especially in the Notes annexed to the Third Sermon. But such, in few words, are the theories against which I have chiefly sought, in that Discourse, to caution the Theological student ; whilst in the succeeding Sermon a few hints are suggested to him tending to show, that these ambitious structures rest upon insecure foundations. Let him at least bestow a candid consideration upon the hints which I have ventured to suggest. It may appear that these X PREFACE. speculations, notwithstanding the support which they derive from venerated names, are yet unsup- ported by Revelation ; that they rather depend upon Scriptural expressions misinterpreted or mis- applied; or, sometimes upon sentences of good authors expanded into theories ; nay, in some in- stances, even upon a mere play of words. But may it not be after all that many of the expressions alluded to are simply misapprehended? — It may be even so. There are abstract and mystic phrases, the " slain humanity of the Incarnate Word," " the communication of His man's nature to His brethren," " the body of the regenerate per- son becoming the flesh of the crucified one," which do not readily suggest a definite and certain mean- ing. And others, possibly, as " the Sacramental system," or, " Sacraments are the extension of the Incarnation," to which difi'erent writers may at- tach different meanings. To the latter expression, e. g., which is said to be obtaining currency among us. Archdeacon Wil- berforce, in his learned and elaborate work on the Incarnation, appears to assign considerable value. PREFACE. XI He devotes a large space (chapter xiii.) to the sub- ject of " Sacraments, as means of union with the manhood of Christ." The first line of the " Con- tents" is, " Sacraments ' the eccte'iision of the In- carnation! " And the Chapter itself declares that there are indeed " other pm-poses which Baptism and the Holy Eucharist serve, and other views which may be taken of them ; but that circumstance on which all the rest depend, and which especially connects itself with the present inquiry, is that Sacraments are the ' extension of the Incarnation ;' that through these means we are united to the man's nature of Christ."^ And we are referred in the note to Taylor's Worthy Communicant, i. 2. Is it in- tended, then, that Christ uniting with His humanity, through the Sacraments, that of all believers, becomes, as it were, incarnate anew in all the members of His mystical body ? — For this is the sense attached to the phrase by modern Romanists, though it is by no means the sense of Bishop Taylor. His words are : " The sum is this — Christ's body, his flesh and his blood, ' Wilberforce on the Incarnation, ch. xiii. p. 405. Ed. 3d. 1850. XU PREFACE. are therefore called our meat and our drink, because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh, he became life unto us : so that it is mysterious indeed in the expression, but very proper and intelligible in the event, to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood, since by these it is that we have and preserve life. But because what Christ began in his in- carnation, he finished in his body on the cross, and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body, was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us, — the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of His death, which was the consummation of our redemp- tion by his body and blood, does contain in it a visible word, the word in symbol and visibility, and special manifestation. Consonant to which doctrine, the Fathers, by an elegant expression, call the Blessed Sacrament, ' the extension of the incarnation.' " Bishop Taylor then had no thought of such a sense of the expression as has been above supposed. His " word in symbol " is not the Incarnate Word, but the doctrine of redemption, " Christ died for our sins," expressed in a visible PREFACE. XIU action ; " our hearts are to be replenished, and by receiving his Spirit we receive the best thing that God gives : not his Ufeless body, but his flesh with hfe in it ; that is, his doctrine and his Spirit to imprint it, so to beget a Hviiig faith, and a Hvely hope, that we may Hve, and hve for ever." ' With his particular views, however, we are not at pre- sent concerned : but the meaning of the phrase above supposed, which thus appears not to have been that of Bishop Taylor, and which may not be the sense of the learned writer by whom he is cited, is the very sense of modern Romanists, who speak of the Word as now incarnate, sometimes in the Church, sometimes, through the Encharist, in its individual members. " L'Eglise," says Moehler, "est done Jesus-Christ se renouvelant sans cesse, reparoissant continuellement sous une forme hu- maine ; cest V incarnation permanente die FiJs de Dieii. II suit de la que I'Eglise, pour etre com- • posee d'hommes n'est pas une institution purement humaine. Comme, en Jesus-Christ, la divinite et I'humanite, bien que distinctes entre elles, n'en sout 1 Worthy Communicant, ch. i. § 1. Works, vol. xv. p. 419 ; cf. pp. 417,418,420,428,430. XIV PREFACE. pas moiiis etroiteraent unies ; de meme, dans sou Eglise, le Satweur est continue selon tout ce qiiil est. L'Eglise, sa manifestation permanente, est divine et hiimaine tout a la fois ; elle est 1' unite de ces deux attributs. C'est le Mediateur qui, cache sous des formes humaines, continue d'agir en elle ; done elle a necessairement un cote divin et un cote humain. Unis par des liens intimes, ces deux natures, si ce mot peut nous etre permis, se penetrent I'une I'autre, et se communiquent respectivement leurs prerogatives. Sans doute c'est le divin, c'est I'Esprit du Christ qui est infaillible, qui est la verite eternelle ; mais I'homme est aussi infaillible," &c. And so the writer proceeds to found upon this notion of the permanent incarnation of Christ in the Church, her visibihty, unity, infallibility, eternity, divinity. " Elle est divine, car elle repre- sente le Sauveur d'une maniere vivante ; elle est humaine, car elle est une societe composee d'hommes."' But M. Gaume adopts the phrase in question with reference to the Eucharist. " Comnicncec ' La Symbolique, § xxxvi. T. ii. p. 5, as translated by Lacliat. Translator's Preface, t. i. pp. vii. viii- PREFACE. XV par la foi, perfectionee par I'amoiir, 1' union de rhomine avec le nouvel Adam se consomme par la Commimioji. Cast la que I'homme devient com- pletement un autre Jesus-Christ; c'est la qu'il perd sa vie premiere pour prendre une vie nouvelle ; c'est la que son esprit, son cceur et ses sens sont pleinement regeneres par la participation a la nature divine. Qui dira I'intimite de cette union deifique ! " — " C'est dans I'Eucharistie que s'accom- plit pleinement le dessein du Sauveur de nous transformer en lui. En se faisant homme, il ne prit qu'une chair individuelle ; mais dans I'Eu- charistie, il prend, dit Bossuet, le corps et I'ame de nous tous. C'est pom-quoi les Peres de I'Eglise, et les Theologiens catholiques appellent TEucharistie V extension de V Incarnation ; car ce n'est plus seule- ment a uu corps et a une ame, c'est a chaque etre humain que le Verbe s'unit par la Communion. Son incarnation en nous a pour embleme 1' union qui transforme I'aliment en la substance meme du cor|DS qui s'en nourrit. Ne demandez pas une autre union plus intime, vous demanderiez a etre FHomme-Dieu. Ne demandez pas que les voiles du sacremeut soient leves, vous demanderiez le XVI PREFACE. Ciel sur la terre, la patrie dans I'exil, 11 suit de la que la Communion est Facte le plus eleve et comme le dernier mot de tout le Christianisme. Done tons les sacrements, le Symbole, le Decalogue, la Religion toute entiere se rapporte a I'Eucliaristie : telle est la doctrine expresse de St. Thomas. ' L'Eu- charistie,' dit-il, ' est la fin de tous les sacrements ; c'est en elle que tous out leur perfection, car tous se rapportent a elle.' La raison en est claire. Tous les sacrements, et la Religion meme, out pour but de nous sanctifier, c'est-a-dii'e, de nous unir a Jesus- Christ. Or, c'est dans I'Eucharistie que se consomme cette union deifique." — " Puisque I'Eucharistie est par excellence le mystere de foi, d'amour etd' ?mite, il s'ensuit que tous les moyens d' union avec le nouvel Adam se rapportent a celui-la. Or, la sainte Eucharistie, c'est Jesus-Christ perpetuelleraent in- carne an milieu du monde." ^ The reader will observe in these extracts not only the meaning attached to the expression " Sacra- ments the extension of the Incarnation," but traces also of considerable similarity between the views of ' Catechisme de Perseverance, par I'Abbe J. Gaume ; Introd. pp. Ixxix Ixxxi. Ixxxv. (Paris, 184/>. -Ed.' 5r.ie.) PREFACE. Xvii this writer and the theories above mentioned. Two or thi'ee other passages from the same work, (which was communicated to me by the kindness of a friend after the following Sermons had been de- Uvered,) are given in Notes A and C, annexed to Sermon III. For indeed I must not conceal my apprehensions that the theories in question are much too closely allied to those of modern Rome ; of which the work of M. Gaume, sanctioned as it has been by the express approbation of Pope Gre- gory XVL, three Archbishops and six Bishops of the Roman Communion, may be considered an authentic exposition. And so, again, of another technical expression, " the Sacramental System" the echoes of which we have heard so frequently of late from Brechin, Leeds, and London, and elsewhere : I take it as I find it, and by no means assume that it has always been adopted precisely in the same signification, or at least that it constantly implies the adoption of the theories here alluded to. I hope it does not. Yet the views implied in the phrase, however explained, present for the most part similar features, and, according to b XVlll PKEFACE. iiiy nnderstaiidiiig at least of Holy Scripture, indi- cate similar faults. That is to say, they go beyond the disclosures of Revelation, and the declarations of the Church ; whence also, by an inevitable reaction, how much soever opposed to the Avishes of their advocates, they at once endanger Truth, and obstruct a due appreciation of the Sacraments themselves. For these are some of the views in question. The Eucharist is studiously called a " Sacrifice." Sometimes the Sacrifice of Christ Himself is repre- sented as commencing with His institution of the Eucharist, and not so much completed on the Altar of the Cross, as continued, a permanent and per- petual sacrifice, in heaven. Then the office of the Christian Minister at the Holy Table becomes " a constituent part " of the great work above, and " tilings done on earth are one with those done in heaven." The priest is a "sacrificer;" and the Eu- charist, in some peculiar sense, propitiatory ; and Christ is, perhaps, " adored as Really Present on the altar under the form of bread and wine." And, not to advert to mediaeval forms, postures, tones, dresses, designed apparently to invest the Priest and the Eucharist with attributes unknown to Holy Writ, PREFACE. XIX the office of the human Priest becomes unduly magnified. It is his to " offer for his own sins and the sins of others ;" to enjoin penances ; and, if not to exact, yet to encourage frequent Confession to himself as the natural fruit of a Hfe of superior holi- ness ; and next, perhaps,ensues the use of crucifixes, rosaries, images ; and if the Invocation of Saints is discouraged, their Intercession, at least, for their brethren on earth is taught as a Christian doctrine. Such are the ideas which, as we may collect from no mean authorities, belong, some or most of them, to "the system preeminently called sacramental!' And though all who speak of such a system may not be exactly agreed in their views, yet in fact, and notwithstanding every pious disclaimer, they agree, I fear, in assigning to the Christian Minister a por- tion of the Sacerdotal office of the great Mediator \ whilst they bring into peril those great truths which we all hold, and which we should all be anxious to teach and spread in unison, by adding to them without warrant. This is not the place in which to pursue so large a subject. Let it only be inquired. Where do we find in Holy Writ, or in the principles of the Church of England, anything like a warrant b 2 XX PREFACE. for the so-called religious use of images ? or for such a tenet as the Intercession of the Saints ? or for a propitiatory virtue in the Eucharist, other than might be predicated of all prayer in Christ's name ? whilst as to the conception of the Eucharist as a sacrifice, upon which so much is made to turn, (not to speak here of the notion of some material sacrifice adopted, or half-adopted, by Mede and Grabe, and other pious men, but not often, perhaps, at present countenanced,) the popular phrases, a " Commemorative Sacrifice," or a " Representa- tive Sacrifice," can no doubt be innocently ex- plained, as they are, for instance, by Waterland, yet I venture to observe that it is by ex- plaining them away. For what this excellent writer, usually as exact as learned, would style a " true and proper sacrifice," he presently resolves into a collection of metaphorical sacrifices — a sacri- fice of alms and oblations (not, he says, the material offering, but the service), the sacrifice of prayer, praise, thanksgivuig, of a penitent hear^, of faith and hope, and the like.^ The Church ' See Waterland, " Review of the Doctrine of the Eucha- rist," ch. xii. Works, vol. vii. p. 349, and Bishop Van Mildert's PREFACE. XXI of England not only bids us " take heed lest, of the memory, it be made a sacrifice;"^ but, as has been well observed by the late Bishop of LlaudaflP," she pointedly employs such terms ("this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving," the " reasonable sacrifice" of " ourselves, our souls and bodies,") as must exclude the proper, and admit only of a figurative, meaning. And as to the Scriptures, they countenance, I think, no idea of any sacrifice in the Eucharist at all. — Why then these partial views and expressions ? For partial they are. AYe are to be " faithful dispensers of the Word of God, and of his holy sacraments," the Church is "a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered;" partial expressions tend to obscure the due proportions of truth. — But those who most extol " the Sacra- mental system" imagine that all who hold not with them in their peculiar views are impugners Life of "Waterland, &c. vol. i. pp. 408—445. And Mede's "Christian Sacrifice." Works, b. ii. pp. 355—382. Ed. 1672. ^ First Part of the Homily of the Worthy Receiying of the Sacrament. ^ On Eoman Catholic Errors, pp. 26, 27. XXli PREFACE. of the doctrine that the blessed Sacraments are " effectual signs of grace ;" that, as one expresses it, "the water of regeneration is no water of re- generation," the holy Eucharist, if not a sacrifice, '* is a nullity and a shadow, and gives us nothing but an act of communion;"' or, as it has been supposed by another, that without the adoption of his views Baptism is " merely the expression of a charitable hope," the Lord's Supper " a bare act of pious recollection,"^ So far from it, very many at least, if not all of their opponents, cordially and thankfully believe in the spiritual grace of the Sacraments of the Gospel, in the full assurance that Christ will bless His own institutions. Nay — and woidd that the advocates of these theories could understand it, for it might greatly tend to promote the cause of truth and peace — one of the very reasons why these theories are objected to, is theii' manifest tendency to impede a general belief in the importance, and the spiritual efficacy, of Christ's holy ordinances. ' Mr. Bennett, "Letter to his Parishioners," p. 171. Mr. Wilberforce on the Incarnation, ch. xiii. p. 454. Ed. 3d. 1850. PREFACE. XXlll But a few words more upon my immediate subject. In the prosecution of a task, suggested at first by actual observation of the ill effects of the phrases and theories alluded to, it has given me pain to throw so much of the air of controversy over some of the following pages, and more especially to occupy them with animadversions upon some of my personal friends. But it was unavoidable, if I would make my meaning clear. To the work of Archdeacon Wilberforce, in par- ticular, on the Incarnation, I could not but make frequent references. Not that it is the original source of these theories ; nor that they are without recent support from high authority. Traces of them appear, indeed, from very early times ; and germs of thought have been by degrees expanded into theories, until at length, in his learned volume, the hints scattered through the Fathers, or in our earlier writers, have been built up into an imposing structure. What was little observed also amidst the three ponderous volumes, for example, of Dr. Jackson's works, or had obtained little circu- lation in ^Mr. Newman's book on Justification, in consequence of the unhappy aberrations of that XXIV PREFACE. highly-gifted writer, has gained currency and popularity among numerous readers through the evident piety and erudition, and the appearance of system and cohesion, in this elaborate per- formance. But he will himself be among the most anxious to ascertain the truth ; and all that has been here attempted is to suggest such hints to my readers as may induce those who desire it, or who may have been dazzled by these specu- lations, to pursue the search after the truth for themselves. And this I thought it my duty to attempt, so far as my little leisure and ability would permit, when I had become acquainted with these speculations, and had witnessed some of their injurious consequences. I have regretted also the apparent necessity for occasional observations with reference to the errors of the Church of Rome, of greater severity than I would willingly employ in speaking of any of my Christian brethren. Certainly they have not been drawn forth by any recent acts or expressions of the Pope or his emissaries in this country, which are but the natural results of then' old assumptions, the most narrow at once, and the most arrogant. PEEFACE. XXV But what we have deeply to lament, and what may well excuse any apparently harsh expressions, whose object was to deter the waverer from plunging inconsiderately into an abyss of darkness and sin, bowing down before images, or worshipping departed human beings, is that any teaching within the Church of England should have led, however unintentionally, to results so awful. Yet, my subjects leading naturally to this thought, I must not disguise my strong conviction that this has been the fact. Not that I doubt the sincere belief of others that the theories which I am persuaded lead towards Rome are even the best calculated to attach oui- hearers to Catholic truth, and to om' own branch of the Catholic Church. My experience satisfies me, that the reverse of this is the truth ; that theories of the Church and of the Sacraments, such as are here mentioned, have prepared the way for the many lamentable secessions which we have wit- nessed in the last twenty years from light to dark- ness. A revived study of the Fathers, not always prosecuted with due discrimination, has contributed to the same result. They indeed are not to be XXVI PREFACE. censured for somewhat extravagant or unguarded language on topics not as yet the subjects of con- troversy, and where they had not anticipated cor- rupt doctrine ; but we may be to blame if we adopt such language now, when its dangerous tendency may be easily known. An inconsiderate desire of Unity, again, has led to very ill-advised palliations of the errors of Rome. The desires also of morbid minds have been treated with mistaken kindness, as if they were natural, and ought of com'se to be gra- tified, — a strange procedure this for the physician of souls, one that would have openly encouraged Idolatry in ancient times, and may do so even in our own. And distinctions have been attempted with the design of guarding unstable minds from error, which can only lead them into it. The use of images, we are told, for example, is to be sepa- rated from their adoration. Surely the so-called religious use of images will presently become irre- ligious, or rather is at once irreligious. Or the Intercession of the Saints is to be held as a doc- trine, though we are not to invoke their prayers. It is safest, we are told, " for members of the English Church, who desire the prayers of the PREFACE. XXVU departed, to pray for them to Him ' of whom and through whom and to whom are all things,' our God and our All, who according to the cm-rent Roman explanation also, reveals to them the desire of those below to have their prayers." Alas, how few w^ho advance so far would rest satisfied in this " safest " course. The Roman teacher sees his path more clearly. According to him, " inter- cessio et invocatio sunt relativge, quarum priori posita, altera ponatur necesse est." ^ Without ad- mitting his position, we may easily allow that the downward course which he describes is the natural and obvious course. The Council of Trent premises " the doctrine of the Intercession of the Saints," (as we now hear it styled by English Clergy- men !) to her Decree concerning their invocation. The Creed of Pope Pius unites both doctrines in one Article — one of those Articles, let us recol- lect, of which a Romish Priest, when received into the Church of England, solemnly declares, that they are " grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God." ^ ^ Perrone, Prselectiones Theologicse, torn. i. f. 1176 : cf. Coaicil. Trident. Sess. xxv. ^ According to the form at least adopted by the Bishop of XXVIU PREFACE. It must suffice to have glanced at these things. But there are two leading causes, we have been recently informed, of the late unhappy secessions to Rome — dissatisfaction at the apparent absence of Scriptural Unity, amidst the distractions and inter- ruptions of Communion in the Church ; and, secondly, a belief that the Church of England does not perform the office of a Church, since her teachers seem to be at issue among themselves upon articles of faith.^ It is quite plain, that neither of these causes, nor both of them together, could pos- sibly of themselves induce any intelligent member of the English Church to fly from her pale to the worship of the creature. For so fearful a delusion there must be some other predisposing causes. And they will be found, I believe, in the kind of teaching which has been slightly indicated above. But let it suffice to have glanced at these things. And I shall not be thought, I trust, to have tra- velled widely from my subject, or to have exceeded London upon such an occasion in 1841, and agreeing with that drawn up by the Convocation in 1714. Cardwell's Synodalia, p. 801. 1 Letter from the Regius Professor of Hebrew to the Bishop of Loudon, 1851, p. 25o. PREFACE. XXIX my province as a Guardian and Teacher of youth, in having thus adverted to these painful topics. That fundamental fault in Christian theology, — the indulgence of speculation beyond what is revealed in Holy Scripture, upon subjects of which with- out Revelation we can know literally nothing, — that it is which lies at the root not only of those theories against which the cautions in the following pages are more especially directed, but of all that theological system against which I have entered this earnest protest. Heaven for- bid that I should be suspected of wishing to drive any one further off from the truth, or from the pale of the Church of England, or of entertain- ing any other than the kindliest feelings towards those of whose speculative opinions I have spoken with a freedom which the occasion seemed to re- quire. Would that all who differed from them could emulate their piety and their zeal. Only let us distrust and avoid a Theology which is neither safe nor Scriptural ; which is not safe, because it is not Scriptural. E. H. Oriel College, June 2, 1851. CONTENTS. \ SERMON I. (Page 1.) TYPICAL SYSTEM. Part I. — Scriptural Evidence. PAGE I. — No antecedent improbability in tlie idea of Types . 5 II. — Scriptural proof of Types. 1. Intimations given by our Lord ; 2. by St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John. 3. Proof in Epistle to the Hebrews. Example ; the Levitical Priesthood: (1) its divine appointment j (2) its typical intention declared ; (3) its abolition, when fulfilled 7 III. — Extent and uses of the subject. 1. Typical im- port of Levitical system. 2. Types, not declared to be such by Scripture. 3. Types illustrative of Christian doctrines and Jewish rites. 4. Subject important to Christians 22 Note. — On admission of Types not declared or intimated to be such in the New Testament 30 'nr>V»T^' SERMON II. (Page 34.) TYPICAL SYSTEM. Part II. — Cautions and Limitations. I. — Types — 1, important for evidence, illustration, &c. ; 2, as probable as prophecies j 3, proved by Scripture 35 IT. — Cautions — 1, as to Types declared to be such by Scripture ; 2, as to inferred Types. Not to be pressed into details 38 XXXU CONTENTS. PAGE III. — Types of Christian Institutions call for greater caution than Types of Christ. 1 . Typical adumbra- tions of Christian Church. 2. No Types of the Christian ministry. 3. Doubts concerning proper Types of Christian Sacraments. 4. Spiritual uses of " like figures" 46 Conclusion 62 SERMON III. (Page 71.) PERSON AND OFFICES OP THE REDEEMER. I. — Doctrines concerning the Person and Ofiices of Messiah ; 1, to be stated according to the Creeds of the Church ; 2, proved by holy Scripture ... 73 II. — Cautions respecting the use of, 1, Terms ; 2, Argu- ments ; 3, Theories of explanation and development 85 III. — The doctrines not mere mysteries. 1. Condescen- sion to human reason as to the OflSces of Christ, as our Example ; the Sacrifice for sin ; our Advocate and Intercessor. 2. Analogies of the Law illus- trating Christ's Sacerdotal Office 88 Conclusion 97 Notes ; A. Terms to be avoided 102 B. Inadmissible arguments 104 C. Theories 105 SERMON IV. (Page 314.) union with christ; and sanctification by the holy spirit. I. — Holiness here necessary to happiness hereafter. 1. The Holy Spirit the immediate author of holiness. 2. Our claim to spiritual aid grounded upon Christ 115 II. — Theory of holiness from union with the sanctified humanity of Christ through the Sacraments. 1. Its supposed support from authority, or from the Scrip- tures ; 2, from the doctrine of the Sacraments . .121 HI. — Conclusion — 111 effects of these Theories, &c. . .145 V'>, ■^ K SERMON I. SCRIPTURAL TYPES. PART I.— EVIDENCE. Eeb. viii. 4, 5. — " For if he were on earth, he should nut BE A PRIEST, SEEING THAT THERE ARE PRIESTS THAT OFFER GIFTS ACCORDING TO THE LAW : WHO SERVE UNTO THE EXAMPLE AND SHADOW OF HEAVENLY THINGS." In that striking portion of Holy Writ which we have read this morning, (the third chapter of the Gospel according to St. John,) abounding in subjects of the deepest interest to all believers, reference is made, and made by our Lord himself, to an event in the history of Israel which is usually regarded by Christians as a Tjj2Je of our Saviour's crucifixion. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."' ' Jolin iii. 14, 15; viii. 28; xii. 32; Numb. xxi. 8, 9. See Glassius, Philologia Sacra, lib. ii. pars i. tract ii. sect. ii. De Sensu Mystico in Genere, and sect. iv. De Typis, § 5. viz. in the genuine editions, for the whole subject of types is B 2 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serji. I. Was it, then, a type of Christ? or are there any Types, properly so called, under the old cove- nant, or recorded in the Old Scriptures, of Christ or of Christian truths ? To a part of this subject we may, perhaps, with advantage dii-ect our attention. As to this particular example, indeed, we need not dwell upon it at present. No doubt there is a striking correspondence between the repentant Israelite looking upon the uplifted serpent and living, and the Christian believing in his crucified Redeemer, and rising even to eternal life. But correspondence is no proof of an intended type. Our Lord might have referred to the history merely as an illustration. Nay, had this example stood alone, we should have regarded it probably as an illustration, and nothing more; although, indeed, many similar examples taken together might indi- cate a system. But at present I refer to this particular instance only to suggest the general subject. Por whilst some theologians, as it has been said, find Christ everywhere in the Old Testament, some appear to find him nowhere. And so as to types : clesignedlj omitted in the edition, so called by Datlie, 1776, and its continuation by Bauer, 1795, which are rather works of another character, — "his temporibus accommodata," accord- ing to the writers themselves. Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 3 some reject them, some multiply them indefiuitely. According to some writers, and even in the most remote antiquity, Clement, Justin, Irenseus, and those whom Irenaeus himself cites as Elders, the six days' work of the creation prefigured our Lord and his Church; the whole history of the going forth of Israel from Egypt typified the future fortunes of the universal Church; the several Egyptian plagues prefigured the chastisements which should befal the nations ; the scarlet cord of Rabab was a type of the precious blood-shedding of the Redeemer; the extended limbs of the victim in the Paschal sacrifice, or the extended arms of Moses on the mount, with many other images, were types of the cross of Christ. ^ On the ' The extension of the arms of our Lord upon the cross was in like manner supposed to represent his embracing both Jew and Gentile within the mercies of the new covenant. See Irenteus (after one of the Elders), contra Haereses, 1. v. c. xvii. p. 314. ed, Massuet. 1780; and Routh, Reliq. Sacr. vol. i. p. 5Q. The very faults of patriarchs and prophets, when not actually rebuked in the Scriptures, were regarded as typical. See Routh, ibid. p. 50 ; and Irenceus, as citing an ancient presbyter, c. Ha?reses, 1. iv. c. xxxi. (li.) p. 268, (ed. 1780.) See also as to the history of the Exodus, ibid. c. xxx. (1.), and as to the scarlet line, ibid. c. xx. (xxxvii.) p. 257. (ed. 1780) and the note. But Irenaeus only repeats the idea after Clement (ad Corinth, c. xii.) and Justin, (c. Tryphonem, part ii. p. 205, ed. 1742.) And he is followed by Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustin, Theodoret. See notes on Clement, Patres Apost. ed. Jacobson, pp. 48 — 50. Justin spiritualizes the extended limbs of the Paschal Lamb, c. Tryphonem § 40 B 2 4 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Sekm. I. one hand, patriarchs and prophets, events and rites, the law and the history of Israel, have been pressed into the array of the typical system by many, or perhaps by most Christians, from the earliest to the latest times ; whilst in this and the preceding century, on the other hand, sceptical writers, in our own and other countries, have rushed into the opposite extreme, and treated the very idea of a type as the day-dream of an idle imagination. And, doubtless, imagination has been far too busy, frequently, in these speculations. Yet the typical system may rest on solid grounds, notwith- (p. 137, ed. 1742) ; but be bas a multitude of types of tbe cross. See also concerning tbe Hexaemeron, Papias, Clement, &c. as reported by Anastasius, Routb, Keliq. Sacr. vol. i. p. 15. For many otber instances see below Sermon ii. and on most of tbe examples above-mentioned see tbe learned and most candid work of tbe late Mr. J. J. Conybeare on tbe Secondary and Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture, (Bampton Lecture for 1824,) Lect, iii. p. 94, et seq. A modern writer cites Augustin, Quapropter in Veteri Tes- tamento est occultatio Novi, in Novo Testamento est mani- festatio Veteris. (De Catecbizandis rudibus, c. iii. n. 8.) Denique universa ipsa gens totumque regnum propbetia Cbristi Cbristianique regni, (c. Faust. 1. 22, et passim,) and be parapbrases tbe passages tbus : " L'Ancien Testament est la figure du Nouveau ; toute la religion Mosaique, les Patri- arcbes, leurs vies, leurs alliances, leurs sacrifices, sont autant de figures de ce que vous voyons ; le peuple Juif tout entier et son gouvernement n'est qu'un grand prophete de Jesus- Cbrist ct de I'Eglise." (Catecbisme de Perseverance, par I'Abbc J. Gaume, T. I. p. xvi.) Serm, I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 5 standing the wild excesses into which the system has been sometimes carried by an unrestrained fancy. I. And in the first place, is there any antecedent IMPROBABILITY in the idea of a Typical System? And if in the idea itself there is no intrinsic im- probability, there is no cause for distrusting it, merely because a modern school, pretending to philosophy, presumes to speak of types as an exploded dream. We are not, therefore, to look upon old truths with suspicion or distrust ; but we should re-examine their foundations with the greater care, ever anxious lest our want of caution should prove a stumbling-block to our brethren. And truly the system of types has often been treated with so great a want of caution, as may easily have suggested objections to the mind of the unbeliever, or of the hesitating, un- settled believer. But as to the nature of the case itself, there would not appear to be any antecedent difficulty in the idea of a typical system foreshadowing a dispensation afterwards to be revealed. In what- ever degree a revelation from God is probable, the evidences of revelation, some of them at least, are also probable;' and in this particular case what ' Paley, Evidences, Prefatory Considerations, pp. 1, 3. 6 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. is there in the idea of a type less probable than in that of prophecy? A type is but a prophecy in action. And a prophetic action or institution seems as intelligible and natural, if we may so speak of what is above nature, as a prophecy in words. He who can foretell, may as easily foreshadow. " Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world."' Here, in the pious conclusion of St. James, is the foundation equally of Type and of Prophecy. Sometimes, indeed, even the prophets cast their predictions into the form of a symbolic action, or themselves became the living symbols of events to come ; as in the instances of Isaiah walking naked and bare- foot three years ; or Jeremiah wearing a yoke ; or Ezekiel removing his household stuff, to proclaim to the people defeat, desolation, and captivity ; — these symbolic actions answering in fact in every- thing to om' idea of types, except in their applica- tion to events more near at hand, and less connected with doctrine.^ Nay, perhaps there is not only no greater ante- cedent difficulty in the idea of a type than of a prophecy, but even less — if at least it should appear further that such typical or prophetic rites ' Acts XV. 18. * See Isa. viii. 1 — A, 18; xx. 2 — 6 ; Jer. xxvii. 1 — 11 ^ xxviii.lO — 14; xiii. 1 — 11; xix. 1 — 15; xxxii. G — 15; xxxv- Ezok. iv. V. xii. 1 — 16; xxiv. Sehm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 7 were subservient to great moral and reli(fious uses of themselves, and this for a long period, prior to the revelation of that truer system for which they prepared the way. But of this presently. II. Meanwhile let us pass from probabihties to proofs. Let us inquire, in the second place, what is the fact ? What proof have we of the typical intention of any rite or institution, or of the existence of types at all ? — and how may we know whether any rite or institution was or was not typical ? If, indeed, we speak of types in the strictest sense of the term, we could know this from revela- tion ; and we could not know it certainly in any other way. For by a Type, in the strictest sense of the word, is understood something of divine appointment in the first instance ; prefiguring something future, and having this, its prophetic or typical meaning, intimated to us at least if not declared by authority j and itself ceasing and passing aicag when it has h^QVi fulfilled, or in other words, when its antitype has been established. Upon this hypothesis Revelation alone, it is obvious, can assure us, with certainty, of the existence of any type ; although, if we are first assured of the existence of types in this restricted sense, we may then, perhaps, with more or less 8 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. probability, bring other similar cases into the same category, prove the typical intention by the event, and even extend the name to cases which would not fall under the strictest definition of a type. And we shall not reason in a circle, it may be observed by the way, if having ascertained the authority of the revealed word by other indej)endent evidence, we collect from revelation the truth of a preparatory typical system, which then supplies, over and above other uses, additional confirmation of the truth of revealed religion. Are we then in fact assured hy Jievelaiion of the existence of any types strictly so called? And the answer to this question must obviously be derived from the New Testament, rather than from the Old. Actual declarations at least of the typical, and therefore preparatoiy and subordinate character of the earlier institutions, we should scarcely look for during their continuance. Hints might be expected, perhaps, even in the Old Testament, that the earlier dispensations were only preparatory, (as there are such hints in fact even hi Moses as well as in the prophets, ^) yet it is in 1 As when Moses speaks of some future prophet like himself, (Deut. xviii. 15, 18, 19, and Acts iii. 23 ; vii. 37,) and when, under what may be called the Prophetical Dispensation, Psalmists and Prophets appear to depreciate the Legal institu- tions and covenant, (Ps. li. 16, 17 ; 1. 8, &c. ; xl. 6 — 8. Com- pare Heb. X. 4 — 10 \ Jer. xxxi. 31 — 34 ; compare Heb. viii. 7 — 13; Micah vi. 1 — 9 ;) and these hints were afforded over and Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 9 the New Testament that we should most naturally expect the typical character of the old system, if it be typical, to be declared. And in the New Tes- tament, accordingly, we find intimations of the typical nature of the Law given even by Messiah himself, whilst from his apostles we may gather sufficiently clear declarations of the fact. 1. You recollect, for example, the words of our Lord Himself: " I am the living bread which came down from heaven."^ " As Moses lifted up the Seiyent in the loilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."^ " The sign," as He ex- pressed it, "of the Prophet Jonah;" "As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." ^ " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."^ All these were so many hints and indications, obscure perhaps in themselves separately, yet illustrated and enlarged by what followed, that there were circumstances in the old dispensation, which had a prophetic import, and might be above that inadequacy and inherent weakness of the Law, (Acts xiii. 39 ; Heb. vii. 18,) which might indicate to reflect- ing minds its preparatory character. ' John vi. 30 — 51 ; Ex. xvi. 15. ^ John iii. 14, 15 j Numb. xxi. 9. ' Matt. xii. 39, 40 ; Luke xi. 29, 30, 32 ; Jonah i. 27. ' John ii. 19, 21. 10 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. fulfilled ill a higher sense under the gospel, having a distinct reference to the Divine mission of Messiah, to His crucifixion and burial, and resur- rection. And of all these it may be observed, moreover, that they were not casual expressions, but uttered under striking circumstances ; and two of them in reply to the special demand of the Jews requiring a sign to attest our Lord's divine commission. They agreed also with John the Baptist's designation of Him, as, " the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the w^orld;"' they tended probably to explain the mode, or one of the modes, by which, as our Lord declared, He came to " fulfil " the Law "as well as the Prophets;"^ and they both illustrated, and were illustrated by, that still more pointed expression of our Saviour's, when He spoke of his blood as " the Blood of the New Covenant shed for many for the remission of sins."^ And here again, we have no casual words, but expressions most remarkable both in themselves, and for the solemnity of the occasion when they were spoken, and calculated at once to direct the minds of the apostles, as they should lead ours, both to the inauguration and the rites of the Law of Moses, 1 John i. 29. 36 ; 1 Pet. i. 19 ; Rev. v. 6. ' Matt. V. 17, 18. =* Matt. XXV. 18; Mark xiv. 24; Luke xxii. 20 ; 1 Cor. xi. 25. Serm. 1.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 11 and to the anticipations of the New Covenant in the writings of the Prophets/ 2. Hence it might be conjectured, that St. Peter intended something more than a mere comparison, when he spoke of om^ being redeemed " with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb icifltout blemish and witJiout spot,"^ and that St. Paul was not employing merely figurative language when he said, that " Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." ^ And this, more especially, since we find St. John in his Gospel, when he is expressly, and with great solemnity, recording some of those facts at the Crucifixion which fulfilled the ancient prophecies, introducing one among them which is naturally referred to the Passover — " Por this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken.'' ^ If this were the whole of the case, then, we coidd scarcely do less than determine that the Institution ' Exod. xxiv. 8; Lev. xviii. 11; Isa. liii. 5 — 7, 12; Jer. xxxi. 31 — 40; xxxiii. 14—26; Ezek. xxxvii. 26; Heb. viii. 10. ^ 1 Pet. i. 19. M Cor. v. 7. ' Jolin xix. 33 — 36; comp. Ex. xii. 46; Numb. ix. 12. Ps. xxxiv. 20, has been also considered by Kennicott and others to have been referred to by St. John. Grotius thought this the true reference. And certainly the words of St. John more nearly correspond with the Septuagint version of Ps. xxxiv. 20, than with those of Exod. xii. 46, or Numb. ix. 12; but the Evangelist may have referred both to type and prophecy. 12 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm- !• of the Passover, which Avas, no doubt, immediately from God, had a prophetic, or typical intention superadded to its original use as a commemorative festival ; that this mystical sense is neither the mere offspring of our imagination based upon the resemblance between" the temporal deliverance which the Jewish festival commemorated, and that spiritual redemption which Christians acknowledge ; nor j^et an inference incorrectly drawn from the merely figurative language of Christ or the apostles ; but that its typical import has been, if not declared, at the least plainly impilied in the New Testament ; that accordingly it was part of the design of Pro- vidence that the type should presently be done away when the antitype had appeared, and the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage had become as a shadow compared with the redemp- tion of the world by the blood of Christ. 3. We might arrive, perhaps, at this conclusion, if this were the whole of the case ; but it is not so. We were not left only to those scattered notices of the typical sense which have just been mentioned. We have intimations of it in one of the Epistles, much fuller and more distinct. In those Epistles, in- deed, which were addressed to the various Churches which consisted, not, indeed, exclusively, but yet largely, of converts from Heathenism, we should scarcely expect any very copious or systematic Sekm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 13 references to Jewish rites and history ; but exactly where "we might look for them, there we find them. They form, as we all know, a very large portion of the Epistle to the Hebrews, much too large, indeed, to be cited at length ; but in this epistle the Typical nature — not, certainly, of every particular, but generally of the legal rites and institutions, the Temple, the Priesthood, the Sacrifices, the rites of Purification, Sanctification, and Expiation, and the services of the great Day of Atonement — of all these the Typical sense is so clearly shown, that it seems impossible to admit the authority of this Epistle, and not acknowledge the existence of these types in the Law. And yet, as was observed before, whoever admits the truth of prophecy, cannot deny the antecedent probability of symbolical or prophetic rites ; and, again, this was the very place and occasion when we might expect, if anywhere, to find the subject opened and insisted upon. One of the necessary purposes, moreover, of the apostle's argument, as you are well aware, was to convince the Hebrews of the vast inferiority of the Legal institutions. Their divine origin was acknowledged ; to observe their prophetic import was to perceive their subordination to something future ; to per- ceive further their shadowy and transitory nature, their weakness and inferiority, was to recognise the harmony and yet the difference between the new covenant and the old; and so might the disciple of 14 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. the Law be raised to the firm faith of the Christian behever. And all this we find at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews. There are in the first place, two or three expres- sions which almost appear conclusive as to the typical intention, (jenercdly, of the Levitical services. For of the Priests under the Law the apostle speaks in the text, as " serving," that is, performing the temple services, " unto the example and shadow of heavenly things T ' and of the Tabernacle which had been made after a pattern showed to Moses in the mount, he speaks as " a figure for the time then present."^ He mentions expressly what the Holy Ghost signified by the High Priest alone entering once every year into the second taber- nacle;^ and of this, and of the altar and vessels of the ministry altogether, he speaks as patterns and figures of heavenly things.^ Thus the Levi- tical system in gene)'al aii^eavs to have had a pro- spective intention.^ But if we pursue one particular example into some of its details, w^e shall arrive at the same 1 Heb. viii. 4, 5. - Heb. ix. 9. ' Heb. ix. 7. &c. ' Heb. ix. 23, 24. ^ Heb. X. 1 may seem at first sight to be another general expression to the same purpose, " the law having a shadow of good things to come," &c. ; but considered with the context, and compared with Col. ii. 17, it will appear to denote the shadowy and unsubstantial character of the Law, rather than its typical import. Serm I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 15 conclusion, perhaps, with greater satisfaction. Does the Leviticcd priesthood^ for instance, answer to the description ah'eady given of a perfect type ? — having a divine appointment — prefiguring something to come, and with this its typical meaning declared — and itself vanishing away when the antitype had arrived, and the type had been fulfilled. (1 .) As to the divine appointment of the Levitical priests, this is perfectly clear. If their office was to act as mediators between men and God ; to inter- cede for men, make atonement for them, present their offerings, render them acceptable, present that atoning blood by which the altars, vessels, sanctuary, and persons appointed to the service of God, were to be hallowed and sanctified, and the unclean were to be purified, and the sinner to be forgiven, — and such, we know, was their office,^ — then nothing less than a divine appoint- ment could give acceptance or efficacy to such, services. Nor could anything be more distinct and marked than the separation for their peculiar functions, of the Levites, and then of the family of Aaron, and then of Aaron himself, and his heirs after him ; their call, the description of their ^ See Lev. iv. 20, 26, &c. ; v. 6, 10, 13, &c. ; vi. 7, &c, ; (comp. Numb. viii. 19 j Exod. xxx. 11 — 16) ; xiv. 20; xvi. 14, 15, &c. ; (comp. ix. 12, 14 ; Exod. xxv. 8, 22 ; Ps. Ixxx. 1.) See also Outram, De Sacrificiis, 1. i. c. iv. ; and Veysie, Bampton Lecture, pp. 88, 93, 94. 16 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. qualifications, the ceremonial of their investiture and consecration.' The divine appointment then in this instance is abundantly clear. (2.) But then what scriptural intimatioyi have we of a typical intention in these remarkable appoint- ments over and above those general expressions which have been already noticed? These expres- sions themselves, however, are of peculiar im- portance to the argument, because, if not so precise, they are more direct than some of those passages which are even the strongest to our present purpose. For it was not the immediate object of the apostle to display the typical intention of the Law, or to show the correspondence between the priesthood of Christ and that of the sons of Aaron. Rather, his immediate object was to show the Hebrew Christians the infinite superiority of the Gospel above all preceding dispensations, and of the Son of man above priests or prophets, or even the angels of God.^ Then having spoken of the Incarnation of the Son of God, which was necessary to his death, and sacrifice, and priest- hood,'^ he does not argue from the Law to the priesthood of Christ, but, stating that distinctly, he bids the Hebrews '' consider the apostle and ' See Exod. xx. xxvili. 1,2; xxix. 4, 30, 31 ; Lev. viii. G, 12 ; Numb. iii. viii. xvi. 5, 40 ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 13. ''Ileb. i. ii. •' Heb. ii. 14—17. Serm. I.] SCRIPTUIIAL EVIDENCE. 17 High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus /'' he dwells first upon his Priesthood being after another model anterior and superior to that of Aaron, the priesthood namely of Melehizedec;' and so pro- ceeds to dwell directly upon the superiority of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ above those of the Law ; that superiority being the main topic, whilst the correspondence between them is for the most part noticed incidentally. Yet even thus, that correspondence is noticed in every essential particular. Our High Priest was " called of God as was Aaron ; " ^ " they " (the Priests under the Law) " were many priests," the son succeeding the father, " He hath an unchange- able priesthood." " He ever liveth to make inter- cession for us." " Por such an High Priest became us, who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's : for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the Law maketh men high priests which have infirmity ; but the word of the oath, which was since the Law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore."^ — " We have such an High Priest, who is set on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the ' Heb. ii. 17, 18 ; iii. 1 ; iv. 15. - Heb. V. G ; vi. 20 ; vii. 1—22. ' Heb. v. 4—10. ' Heb. vii. 22—28. IS TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. Lord pitched, and not man." " Who hath obtained a more excellent ministry," " the IMediator of a better covenant." ^ " Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." — Those sacrifices " sanctifying to the purifying of the flesh " — " the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purging the conscience." ^^ — " For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us .- nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others ; — but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself — once offered to bear the sins of many — by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." ^ Tn such minute detail does the apostle to the Hebrews expound what he had concisely stated to the Romans, when he spoke of Christ " at the right hand of God, making intercession for us ; " ■* or what ' Hel). viii. 1, 2, G. ' Ileb. ix. 11—14. ^ Iloix ix. 24—28 ; X. 1—24 : c*". Eph. ii. 12, 13, 15— 18 ; iii. 12. ' Kom. viii. 34. Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 19 St. John expresses by the words, " we have an A.dvocatc with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- eous, and He is the propitiation for our sins."' Nay, he even refers to a minute but expressive circumstance connected with the sin-offerings, (which is indeed to pass into another image, but connected with that of the Priesthood,) as if in the very place of His suffering the Messiah fulfilled the significant .symbols of the Law : — " For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned imtliout the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanc- tify the people with his own blood, suffered toithout the gate y^ We cannot, then, admit the authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews without acknowledg- ing not merely tlie likeness, but the designed and declared likeness, of the priests of the Law, and especially of the high priest, to the true High Priest of the Gospel : which was the second point in question. (3.) As to the third point mentioned, the disap- pearance, namely, of the Type when the Antitype has siip2ilied its place, this, indeed, is not essen- tial to the idea of a Type, although it seems to ' 1 John ii. 1, 2. * Heb, xiii. 10 — 13. See the use made of this passage by Outram, (De Sacrificiis, 1. i. c. xviii.) in establishing the typi- cal import of the four Sacrifices, of which the blood was hrouc/ht into the Sanctuary. Cf. Lev. iv. xvi. ; Numb. xix. 2 20 TYPICAL SYSTEM, [Serm. 1. give to that idea its completeness and perfection. And in this instance of the priesthood of the Law it is plain, (or but for two circumstances would surely have been plain,) that the Type presently vanished away when the Priesthood of Christ had been established. The fall of Jerusalem, and the utter destruction of the Temple, never again to be restored, not- withstanding the perverse attempts even of the imperial apostate, determined the question. The synagogue continued, but the Temple was no more ; and the sacrificial services of the Temple, which belonged to the essence of the Priest's office, could not be celebrated elsewhere. From that day to the present hour that portion of Israel which has rejected Christ has remained " without a sacrifice," and, therefore, " without a priest." ' This is plain matter of history, and would have been conclusive on the whole question, but for a grievous error on the part of Romanists, and a misunderstanding on that of Protestants, both suggesting the idea of another earthly priesthood in the Church of Christ. Romanists, no doubt, by the supposed renewal or continuation of the one offering of Christ in the sacrifice of the mass, in violation of the very letter of Scripture, have fostered the false notion of a proper priesthood ' IIos. iii. 4, Sekm. 11 SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE, 21 under the Gospel besides that of Christ. And Protestants by their adoption of the term " priest " for the Gospel "presbyter," although they have discarded in fact the notion of a sacrificing priest in the Christian minister, have yet appeared in name to retain it. In the New Testament, on the contrary, as you are well aware, the term lepevs in no single instance denotes the Christian minister. There, Christ Himself is the Priest or High Priest of the Gospel system. In Him exclusively is the legal type fulfilled; and when He came, it was, together with the whole of the old covenant, "■' ready to vanish away!' ^ ' Ileb. viii. 13. It has been said, indeed, that " the Articles of the Church of England recognise the Clergy in their various orders as sacerdotes, lepelg, ministers of sacrifice." (Palmer's History of the Church, part vi. ch. x. vol. ii. p. 347.) And this on the authority of the title of Art. xxxii. " De conjugio Sacerdotum." But the Article itself runs, " Epi- scopis, Presbyteris, et Diaconis, etc.," employing the appropriate scriptural expression for the second order of the ministry, whilst the title merely uses a general term applicable to the three orders without any reference to sacrifice. The Church of Rome does indeed connect this term with sacrifice. " Sa- crificium et Sacerdotium in Dei ordinatione conjuncta sunt, ut utrumque in omni lege exstiterit, &c." (See Concil. Trident. Sess. xxiii. c. i. ii.) But the Church of England, in the First Part of the Homily " Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament," bids us " take heed, lest, of the memory, it be made a sacrifice ;"" and, speaking of the faith of the recipient, whereby he " sticks fast to Christ's promise made in His insti- tution,makes Christ his own, and appliesHis merits to himself," says, " Herein thou ncedest no other man's help, no other ^2 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Seem. I- III. This, of course, is but a limited view of a single portion of a large subject. Let us, there- fore, before we conclude, advert very briefly to the proper extent, and the practical uses, of the subject which has thus been opened. 1. It will be obvious, in the first place, that Avhat has been said at some length of one par- sacrifice or oblation, no sacrificing priest ; no mass, no means established by man's invention." (Pp. 37G, 370, Ed. Oxon. 1814.) That Christian ministers, like all other Christians, may be figuratively termed priests, no one denies ; nor does any one refuse the title to the minister with reference to his office, yet still figuratively ; but to whom and to whom alone the titles of ieptvQ and dp^ispevg can now be properly attributed is well set forth by Outram : " Jam vero quamvis S. Paulus tralatitio loquendi genere utens Sacerdotis personam sibi sumat, (Rom. xv. 16, 17,) quamvis et Christianl omnes, ex sacris illis spiritualibus, quae ipsi quotidie Deo ofFerunt, Sacerdotes nonnunquam appellentur, (Apoc. i. 6,) id tamen maxime advertendum, nullos Evangelii ministros, quocunque in ordine constituti fuerint, hujus ipsius muneris ratione usquam in scripturis sacris upeiq aut dp-)(itptiQ vocari. Quod ideo moneo, ut ministerium Evangelicum a Sacerdotio Aaronico multum differre intelligatur ; idque in eo prajcipue cerni, quod illud pro Deo apud homines prascipue constitutum sit, hoc pro hominibus apud Deum. Ex quo et illud intelligitur, illud prascipuc circa homines, hoc circa Deum versatum esse. Quibus adde, quod Sacerdotio Judaico successit Sacerdotium Christi, non ministerium Evangelicum. . . Ut ne7)io nunc nini ipse Christus autoritate a Deo data UpEvg aut dpxuptvQ super- sit ; nempe hominum apud Deum patronus." (De Sacrificiis, lib. i. c. xix. § V.) See also Archbishop Whatcly's Sermon on Nov. 5th, and Appendix to Essays on Peculiarities of the Christian Religion. Ed, 3d. Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 23 ticular type, or very briefly of a few others, is by no means to be restricted to these instances. If we have estabUshed anything we have estabhshed dk principle ; and a principle of considerable extent in the interpretation of Holy Scripture. If it holds good of the type of the priesthood, it is also applicable generally, I by no means say in all minute details, but (jenerally, to the Le\dtical ser- vices, and more particularly to those of Sacrifice, Atonement and Purification, and the peculiar solemnities of the day of Expiation. The very words which have been cited go to this extent. 2. Again, if I have spoken expressly of those types alone whose typical intention has been either declared, or at least intimated to us by revelation, it is not necessary that we should, with some great divines, limit the typical system so rigidly. We cannot now pursue the subject; and it is here, undoubtedly, that the subject more especially re- quires to be treated with great caution. I will only observe that there may also be types, whose prophetic intention is opened to us only by the event. To adopt the words of an able writer, " This species of prophecy, by type, is in its nature of a latent hind. It needs to be interpreted hy its divine Author, or by the event : that is, either by his icord, or by his providence. For the type being a sign of some distant purpose in the divine 24 TTPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. intention not yet revealed; and not a representa- tion of human thought or action ; it defies the power of the human intellect, and is milocked only by God, either by a specific revelation, or by its completion in due time, which then becomes the luminous exhibition of the sense designed."* ^O' 3. And if, again, I may have appeared to speak of types only as a species of evidence, that is far from being their only use. Whilst they con- firm, they also illustrate. They illustrate both Testaments. They illustrate at once the doctrines of the new covenant and the rites of the old. They show forth the uses and intention of the legal institutions, whilst they bring the Law into har- mony with the Prophets, and exhibit both these leading portions of the Old Testament, or rather all the leading portions of the Old Scriptures, the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, as consenting witnesses for Christ. In particular they give an important meaning to those remarkable institutions of the Law of Moses, ' Davison, Primitive Sacrifice, p. 174. See also his Dis- courses on Prophecy, Disc. iv. pp. 181 — 200, both on the latent meaning of types to the Jew under the Legal dis- pensation, and' their moral use at the same time, and still more afterwards with the aid of the Prophetic dispensation. On the question whether any types are admissible, of whose typical intention we have neither express declaration nor intimation in Holy Writ, see Note at the end oi this Sermon. Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 25 which the sceptic in his presumption dismisses as inconsistent with the teaching of the Prophets, and with the divine character. What he per- versely and ignorantly describes as " mere punc- tilious ceremony and gorgeous parade, the defining and atoning for external defilements, burning of incense, and vain slaughter of beasts, alike foreign to the genius of the prophets, as to the real demands of the only true God," — all this appears to have been adopted by divine wisdom to fore- shadow the same divine economy which the Pro- phets foretold. " The Law foreshadowed, the Prophets foretold. This," said the high authority already cited, " is the difference between these connected members of the predictive economy of revelation."' But not this alone. What this writer has displayed in so able and instructive a manner respecting the structure of jprophecy, its admirable adaptation, namely, not merely to Christian uses, but to the religious benefit of the successive generations of men, to whom the pro- phecies were ori(jlnaUy addressed, this also the Christian believer discovers in the Typical system. He finds the sentiments of the Gospel taught through its means to the disciple of the Law ; he finds a variety of circumstances, — all those, in fact, in wdiich the legal ofi'erings and services corre- sponded the most clearly with their Christian anti- ' Davison, riimitive Sacrifice, p. 170. 26 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serji. I. types, — he finds tlicm calculated to inspire the ancient worshipper with a sense of guilt, yet a hope of pardon, to convey, as I said, almost Chris- tian sentiments, though under inferior knowledge, respecting Mediation, Atonement, Vicarious Suficr- ing, the Divine Holiness and Justice, yet the Divine Placability and Mercy. Still, at the same time, in the very midst of these immediate religious uses, there was that inherent 'weakness and deficiency in the Typical system of the Law which might lead the more reflecting mind even of the Hebrew wor- shipper to feel the need of some higher and truer system, some better covenant, and more real atone- ment, by which the conscience also might be cleansed, and he " might be justified from all things from which," as he might feel instinctively, " he could not be justified by the Law of Moses."' For through its " weakness and unprofitableness " as well as through its slynificancy, was the Law contrived by the prescient wisdom of its Divine Author to prepare the pious Israelite for the Gospel of Christ. 4. And as these things are all of them important, so are they especially important to us. Everything is of importance to us which may tend to neutralize the poison of a sceptical philosophy, miscalled ' Acts xiii. 38, 39 ; Rom. viii. 3 ; x. -1 ; Epli. ii. IG ; Ilcb. vii. 18, 19 J ix. 15. Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 27 philosophy, which is again beginning to taint the air around us. We know not ho\y soon we are to be tried by the temptations of unbeHef. Already the sceptical Treatise, scarcely two years old, reappears in a diluted form, in the lighter literature of the current year, to work a less suspected and more extended mischief. But, independently of such dangers, it is the obvious use of the considerations which we have been pursuing, to enhance the vast importance of that Revelation which we profess to believe and obey. Most important must that Revelation be to which God has borne witness by type and by prophecy, directly and indirectly, line upon line, continually during 4,000 years. And we all need everything which may impress this importance of our Divine religion practically upon our hearts and minds. If there ever were a place which should be the very centre and stronghold of piety and learning, of truth and holiness, it should be this. All around us, at home and in our colonies, we see collegiate institutions springing up, from which their pious founders hope everything that is good and lovely and Christian. Here surely, amidst the hallowed foundations of our fathers' piety, the Gospel should be the living principle of all our thoughts and words and actions. We are at once blessed and tried by the very highest privileges. All who flock to these seats of learning are the sons of the most highly 28 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. favoured families in our land, trained from infancy, if they have not miserably abused their privileges, in all good and virtuous habits ; blessed from their baptism, if they have not despised the highest of all gifts on earth, with the holy influences of the Spirit of God. And here every day begins and ends with prayer ; and every study is hallowed and consecrated by Christianity. And yet what do we too frequently witness? Sometimes most unhappily, a low, sottish, carnal sensuality, ruinous to body and soul, the pest of society, the disgrace of humanity. But, setting this aside, we see too often a course of extravagance either vain and thoughtless, or even most selfish, unfeeling and heartless ; or we see many, and not least those who should have the very strongest incentive to continual diligence ; those namely, who hope and intend to undertake the most awfully responsible of all Christian callings, the office of the Christian minister, — we see them indifferent to their privileges, and deaf to all who W' ould persuade them to seek their real improvement ; or again, we see even those who are really studious, and regular, and intent in some shape upon theu' improvement, yet actuated chiefly by secondary motives, and not habitually influenced by the high principles and aims of the Christian. Therefore it is that we need everything that may possibly, under the Divine blessing and the grace of the Spirit, show us what wc arc, and to Seum. I.] SCRIFTURAL EVIDENCE. 29 what we arc called, and what God has done for us through so many ages. For He knows the intense importance of om' Christian calhng. But it is not only the young who need every in- centive to a life of genuine, that is to say, daily and hourly Christian principle. All need it. The oldest ■and the most consistent Christian feels, it may be feared, that he docs not advance, as he could desire, in grace as well as in knowledge ; that heaven is not in all his thoughts ; that he is not wholly devoted to Christ ; that he is not subduing all evil within him ; not exalting and purifying his motives of action, regulating his temper, his words, his thoughts, his Hfe, employing all his faculties in his Master's service, to promote the welfare of man, the extension of the Gospel, the glory of God. The very pursuits of the theologian, and the labours of the Christian minister, may interrupt growth in grace. We need everything that may bring home to om* souls the supreme importance of salvation. Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scrip- tures to be written for our learning ; grant that we may in such wdse hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy Holy Word, w^e may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 30 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. Note — p. 24. Bishop Marsli is one of those who, without at all assent- ing to the sceptical objections against the existence of types refuse to recognise any type not declared to be so by Holy Writ. To the reality of a Scriptural type, he argues, it is essential not only that there should be a resemblance between type and antitype, but that this resemblance should have been intended and 2^>'^-ordained. No doubt it is so. But such intention, he contends, cannot possibly be known except from Revelation. The sacred writings are " the sole basis on which we build our theories of types and typical prophecy. We have therefore no warrant to conclude, that the events or ceremonies of one period were designed by the Deity to be typical, and therefore prophetical,, of the events or ceremonies of another period, unless (as in the two examples which I selected as an illustration of types) Revelation itself has declared them to be such." (Lectures on the Interpreta- tion of the Bible, vi. vii. pp. 371—375 ; 390—391. Ed. 1838.) I shall be obliged to object hereafter to both his examples, but as to his argument, if it proves anything, it proves too much. By parity of reasoning we could never know a Scrip- tural 2^>''''diction to be such, if its prophetical intention were not also declared by Scripture. But if the event may prove a passage to have been prophetical, why may not the event prove a fact to have been typical 1 True, the proof will not be demonstrative ; but we cannot commonly hope for more than probable proofs in our interpretations of Scripture. A passage has also been cited from Bishop Van Mildert, as if he also adopted the same rigid principle — " It is indeed essential to a type, in the Scriptural acceptation of the term, that there should be competent evidence of the Divine ■intention in the correspondence between it and the antitype ; a matter not left to the imagination of the expositor to discover, but resting on some solid proof from Scripture itself, that this was really the case." (Bampton Lecture, Serm. I.] SCRIPTURAL EVrDENCE. 31 vii. p. 199, quoted by Mr. II, Home in his useful Introduction to Scripture, vol. ii. p. 455. Ed. 1828.) But this writer, whose caution was equal to his learning, admits that we may some- times have sufficient evidence of an intended typical meaning without any declaration of Scripture to this effect. Those, he says, who would confine the mystical interpretation of Scripture entirely " to the expositions already given by our Lord and his apostles . . . may possibly deprive us of many typical and prophetical adumbrations of the Gospel not expressly inter- preted as such by the writers of the New Testament." But then he would have "something like necessity" produced for the secondary sense. " If, with respect to the general intent and meaning of the whole passage, what is literally applicable to one event in Sacred History, be so clearly applicable in its figurative sense to some other event of subsequent date, that the coincidence cannot be overlooked — in such a case, the internal evidence of Scripture itself" — (he is here opposing the internal evidence of Scripture to the authority of Revelation directing us, either expressly or by implication, to the mystical sense) — " the internal evidence of Scripture itself, without giving undue scope to conjectural ingenuity, requires that the spiritual or mystical interpretation be adopted." (Lecture vii. pp. 191 — 193.) In his valuable Appendix he cites Rambachius, and refers to Witsius speaking to the same purpose. " Witsius argues upon St. Paul's intimation, that there were other figurative services enjoined in the Old Testa- ment requiring a mystical interpretation, of which he ' could not then speak particularly.'" (Heb. ix. 5.) But this appears rather a strained interpretation of the apostle's words. And the expressions of Rambachius are perhaps too strong. " Suf- ficit, quod a viris deoTrreucTToiQ clavem acceperimus, qua ad niysticum plurimorum locorum sensum recludendum feliciter uti et possumus et debemus." (De Sensus Mystici Criteriis, § viii. p. 27 ; cf. § iii. pp. 8, 9 ; vii. 24, 25.) Bishop Van Mildert, however, repeats his former conclusion in some-^ what stronger terms. '• Doubtless there are types and symbo- lical representations, as well as prophecies in the Old Testa- 32 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. ment, relating to Christ, and applicable to the Christian dispensation, of which the apostles have not left particular expositions. Too much caution, however," he adds, " can hardly be used in extending the rule." (Appendix, p. 347.) I have already cited Mr. Davison, both for the prin- ciple and for the reason of it. Let me add the con- clusion to the same effect of my late excellent friend Mr. Conybeare, the first English writer, if I mistake not, who has attempted to treat, at any length, of the history and nature of the mystical interpretation of Scripture, of which typical interpretation forms, perhaps, the most important branch. In the conclusion of his valuable work, having touched upon the question whether there are, or are not, types in the Old Scriptures to which the writers of the New Testament have not directed us, and having noticed some arguments and authorities on the affirmative side of it, he adopts the same conclusion, but not without some apparent reluctance. " There are, doubtless," he says, " some details and coincidences in the history of the two covenants so striking, as to impress at once on the pious reader the almost positive conviction, that the objects which present them must have been so connected in the original intention of Him Who gave the Scriptures. Thus in the histories of Joseph and of Joshua (though neither be distinctly referred to by the writers of the New Testament as prefiguring our Lord), there are many points which would seem to justify the Christian in so re- garding them. Thus, if we do not admit that our Lord's argument, in the sixth chapter of St. John, amounts to a posi- tive assertion, that He was typified by the manna given in the wilderness, and that even the title of St. Paul ((3pMfj.a -Kveviia- TiKov) does not immediately attach its mystical purport Ito our Lord Himself, we may yet, from the general character of typical things, and from the known analogy of that mystic rock from which flowed the living waters, fairly conclude that it was so. The ordinance, too, of the cities of refuge, and the liberation of the ofi"ender by the death of the high priest, presents a yot more striking instance of such an adumbration, •Serm. I] SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE. 33 unnoticed by the writers of the New Testament. "But," he concludes, " the number of such cases is so limited, the examples adduced, even by systematic writers, anxious to establish the point, are at times so questionable and irrelevant, and the use of the liberty thus assumed has been frequently so injudicious, that it is scarcely possible for the student to be too strongly guarded against a practice which, in the hands of persons especially of a lively and fervid imagination, has often exposed that religion which in truth is founded upon a rock, to the unmerited sneers and cavils of the unbeliever, and has contributed, perhaps, in many instances, to shake the faith and arouse the suspicions even of the more candid inquirer after truth." — £a7npt07iLecture for 1824:, Lect.viii. pp.312 — 315. SEEMON II. SCRIPTURAL TYPES. PART IL— LIMITATIONS. 1 Cor. X. 1 — 5. — "All our fathers were under the cloud, AND all passed THROUGH THE SEA : AND WERE ALL BAPTIZED UNTO MoSES IN' THE CLOUD AND IN THE SEA ; AND DID ALL EAT THE SAME SPIRITUAL MEAT ; AND DID ALL DRINK THE SAME SPIRITUAL DRINK : FOR THEY DRANK OF THAT SPIRITUAL ROCK THAT FOLLOWED THEM : AND THAT ROCK WAS ChRIST. But with many of them God was not well pleased : for THEY were overthrown IN THE WILDERNESS." " In this passage," says a writer of remarkable acuteness and ability, "it is evident that St. Paul considered the being baptized unto Moses as typical of being baptized unto Christ." ' And many may subscribe to this opinion, and discover in the manna, the cloud, the Avater from the rock, and the passage through the Red Sea, very obvious types of the Christian sacraments. We may see reason perhaps, before Ave conclude, to doubt the correctness of this opinion ; nay ' Bishop Marsh, Lectures on the Interpretation of the Bible, vii. p. 384. Ed. 1828. Sf.rm II ] LIMITATIONS. 35 perhaps to doubt whether there are any types in the Old Scriptures of the Christian Sacraments at all. But of this presently. I. Let me first be permitted to recall your thoughts to the subject of types generally, to which your attention was invited on a former occasion. 1. The most opposite opinions, as you are well aware, are entertained on this question, some Chris- tians discovering in the Old Scriptures unnumbered tj^pical representations of Christ and His doctrines and institutions, others discarding the whole Typical system as an idle dream. But if it be indeed a di'eam, what a golden link is broken between the Law and the Gospel ! w^hat a world of most instructive significance is cut away from the volume of the Old Scriptures ! For the Typical system, if it be a verity, is not merely an important element in the Christian evidences, it gives a truth and a meaning to the earlier religious system worthy of the God who gave it. It cuts the ground from beneath the feet of the would-be philosopher, who disparages the Mosaic Ritual as " mere punctilious ceremony and gorgeous parade, atoning for external defile- ments, vain slaughter of beasts, alike foreign to the genius- of the prophets as to the real demands of the only true God." It exhibits this whole Ritual, on the contrary, as foreshadowing that D 2 36 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Skrm. II. last and best dispensation which the prophets fore- told ; as explaining also and illustrating to the Chris- tian those mysterious doctrines which even at the best we can but faintly comprehend; ?itS preparing the Jew likewise to receive the Christian scheme of atone- ment ; and at the same time guiding him practi- cally to almost Christian sentiments, long before the period when in the fulness of time he could receive the doctrines of Christianity; in fine, as manifesting the wonderful harmony and consistency of the successive dispensations of religion, and dis- playing in a clear light the signal imjjortance of that last Divine economy on which depends our salvation, the Law uniting with Prophecy in bearing witness to Christ. No doubt, if this be so, the Typical system is not lightly to be set aside with a supercilious sneer. 2. And surely, Scriptural types are equally pos- sible, and equally probable, to say the least, with Scriptural prophecies. " Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." ' The Divine Spirit might as eixsily foreshadoiv as foretell. And if the Typical system presented all the various and com- bined advantages which have just been alluded to, its adoption by our Heavenly Father was almost ' Acts XV. 18. Seuh. II.] LIMITATIONS. 37 more probable than his employment of Prophecy for some of the same great ends. 3. But the existence of Scriptural types is a question of Fact; and the fact is to be established, in part at least, some will have it altogether, by Hevelation. We adverted therefore, on the last occasion, to the Scrijjfurcd proof exhibited in the New Testament of the existence of types in the Old Scriptures, and, especially, in the rites and economy of the Law. We dwelt upon the full and clear recognition in the Epistle to the Hebrews of such a typical system in the ^losaic Law, and even before the Law : the priesthood of Melchisedec, as well as the economy of the Levitical priesthood, foreshadowing the Priesthood of our Lord and Saviour. It would seem impossible to admit the authority of that Epistle, and not admit the fact of the existence of types in the Mosaic Law. But whilst the Epistle addressed originally to the Hebrew Christians is preeminently the place where we might expect the fullest recognition of the typical character of their Law, it is not the only part of the New Testament which adverts to the same fact. The more copious evidence in that Epistle only throws light upon the scattered hints and intimations of the same truth which we receive upon the authority of St. Paul in another Epistle, 38 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. and not of St. Paul alone, but of St. Peter and St. John, and even of our Lord Himself. Let US hold to the truth, then, of the fact, established, as we believe, upon Divine authority, and einplo}^ it thankfully and devoutly, in our study of the sacred Scriptui-es, New and Old, and in confirming as well as illustrating some of the more mysterious doctrines of the Gospel, and espe- cially the Priesthood, Atonement, and Mediation of our Divine Redeemer. IL But what if the imaginations of pious men have expatiated uncontroUed upon so tempting a theme, and pushed the Typical system to manifest extravagance ? — Yet this is no reason for rejecting it either in theory or in practice. It is a good reason, however, for cmition .- and the more we recognise the great importance of the system in the general scheme of revelation, so much the greater reason is there for guarding ourselves, and the truth we hold, against that extravagance which has perhaps tended in a great degree to prevent the full acceptance of the Typical system itself. And therefore it is that I would ask your attention to- day — not to any technical rules or canons of criticism, but — to some practical cautions and LIMITATIONS wliich may be of use to the student of Holy Scripture in his pursuit of this subject. Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 39 1. And, first, there is obviously great need of caution, lest we pursue an acknowledged scrijjtiiral type into mmute details. Take, for example, the Levitical Bitual. We believe that it is in ge?ieraliy^\c?\ of the mysterious doctrines of Mediation and Atonement; that the Levitical priests were types of our great High Priest. But it does not follow that all the various particulars belonging to the type are prophetical of the antitype. It is a vain attempt, for instance, which is made in the Epistle ascribed to Barnabas, (a copious storehouse of idle and fanciful interpre- tations,) to find in the legal institutions a type of the vinegar and gall offered to our Lord upon the cross/ ' § vii. p. 21, ed Coteler. upon Lev. xvi. xxiii. 29 ; Numb. xxix. 7, 11. Compare J. J. Conybeare, Bampton Lecture, iii. p. 89. And so of the Passover ; admit that the sprinkling of the houses of the Israelites with the blood of the Lamb, in order to the preservation of their first-born, and their re- demption from Egypt, was typical of that true Passover \>y whom our souls are redeemed and saved, we need not there- fore suppose that the time at which the Paschal Lamb was killed, at even, and in the first month, was also prophetical of the time of day and year at which our Saviour died, and of his suffering " in the last days :" much less are we to call the killing of the lamb at even a type of " the Sun of Righteous- ness " setting at even, and of the miraculous darkness which ensued ; and its being " roast with fire " a type of the awful sufi'erings of Messiah ; and its being " eaten with bitter herbs " an emblem of our mortification to sin, of our readiness to suffer for Christ, and of the necessity of true repentance in all who 40 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. 11. The rites of the Law had their own independent and immediate uses. They were required by the low and grovelHng views of the Israelites, emanci- pated from their long- continued slavery, and by their propensity to copy the idolatries of their heathen neighbours. And these, and other in- dependent uses, were additional to their use as typical institutions. They were not, therefore, types, and nothing more. And so of typical persons ; if Jfoses was a type of the Redeemer as a Prophet, a Mediator, and the deliverer of the typical Israel, we are not, with Bishop Taylor, to find a type of Christ as a Shepherd, in Moses tending the flock of Jethro, previously to his divine commission, or of the death of the Saviour on Golgotha in that of Moses on Mount Abarim. Far less are we to seek an argument, with Ter- tullian, for the Divinity of our Lord in the expres- sion that Moses was made "a god to Pharaoh."^ would feed on Christ to their soul's health. This is to confound facts with metaphors, typical interpretation with mystical, and to pass into the region of pure imagination. See Cruden's Concordance, under " Passover." ' Exod. vii. 1. Moses, again, marrying the Ethiopian woman is made by Irenasus a type of Christ adopting the Gentile Church, (Contra Hseres. lib. iv. c. xx. [xxxvii.] p. 257, ed. Massuet.) But there may have been an important purpose, though not a typical intention, in the intermarriage of the great Jewish lawgiver with a descendant of another stock ; and still more in that of a direct ancestor of David, and there- fore of ]\Iary, and of Christ according to the llesh, with Faith Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 41 Nor, again, because David was an eminent type of the future King of the spiritual Israel, are we to do discredit to types and truth together, by treating his rescue of his two wives from the Amalekites, as typical of the future deliverance of the spiritual sisters Israel and Judah, daughters of the heavenly Jerusalem.^ I forbear from adducing numerous instances, with even less foundation than these, of the pur- suit of acknowledged types into various details, of which there is no proof that the apparent coin- cidence between the supposed type and antitype was intended in the Divine mind, and therefore no proof of the alleged particulars being typical at all. 2. But are we rigidly to restrict ourselves to those types in the Old Scriptures, wliose typical the Moabitess. These events struck at the root of an invete- rate prejudice among the Jews, adverse to their reception of the Gospel ; and this idea may have been present to the mind of Irenasus and others when they passed beyond it to the recognition of actual types in such passages of sacred history, but in this we may decline to follow them. ' 1 Sam. XXX. 17, 18. Or how shall we presume to speak of David's reception into his company of "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt," as a type of our Lord's receiving " publicans and sinners f 1 Sam. xxii. 2 ; Luke xv. 1, 2. See Glassius Philologia Sacra, p. 327, (ed. 1084,) and J.J. Conybeare, Bampton Lecture, viii. pp. 306-308, referring to Taylor's " Christ Revealed," ch. vii., and the "Analytical View of Christianitv." 42 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I meaning is intimated either expressly or imjjlicitly, in the Neio ? It is a disputed question. But I ventured to state on a former occasion, that in principle we might hold with those divines, some of them of singular judgment and caution, who admit the existence of types not referred to ^as typical in the New Testament. What is a type, in fact, but a prophecy, as it were, in action ? And if we recognise predictions in the Old Testament whose prophetical import is not pointed out by our Lord or his apostles, why not also types? To employ once more the clear statement of one of the writers alluded to : " This species of prophecy by type is in its nature of a latent kind. It needs to be interpreted by its Divine Author or by the event ; that is, either by his loord or his providence either by a specific revelation, or by- its completion in due time, which then becomes the luminous exhibition of the sense designed."' But, admitting the principle, we have here the greatest need of double caution; both, as before, lest we should extend the type into minute details ; and also lest we should mistake mere resemblances for intended types. If, for example, we allow that Joshua was a type ' Davison, "Primitive Sacrifice," p. 171, and "Discourses on Prophecj," IV. pp. 181 — 200. See note at the end of Sermon 1. Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 43 of Christ, as the leader of the chosen people into the Land of Promise, let us not, therefore, suppose with Origen, that " the warfare of Joshua presented a continued picture of the spiritual victories of his great Antitype."' Or if Joseph, again, sold by his brethren, bound, cast into a pit, and afterwards raised to glory, be considered typical of the Saviour, let us not regard his imprisonment also with the two servants of Pharaoh as a type of our Lord crucified between the two thieves.^ But there is still greater danger lest we should multiply types of this class indefinitely, and in- dulge that fanciful method of interpretation which discovers adumbrations of Christ, His cross, His nature, His church, in half the events and persons of the old sacred history. Adam awaking out of sleep,^ Samson rising by night, and carrying away the gates of Gaza,* David vanquishing Goliath,^ Daniel returning from the den of lions,'' are all so many types, according to this method, of the Saviour reviving from death, and returning to his Father's glory. Types of the Saviour's cross are fonnd in the Tree of Life in Eden, in the hands of Moses stayed up by Aaron ' See J. J. Conjbeare, Bampton Lecture, iv. pp; 137, 138, and viii. p. 314. See also Chrysostom on Joseph as a type, or at least as a figure of Christ. Horn. Isi. on Gen. xxxvii. Op. torn. ii. p. 89-1. Ed. Fronto. Ducasi. ^ Gen. xxxvii. ei stq. '' Gen. ii, 21, 2.^1. * Judges xvi. 2, 3. M Sam. xvii, 49. "^ Dan. V\. 22, 23. 44 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. U. and Hur/ or Absalom suspended from the oak.- The land of Canaan " flowing with milk and honey," is called a type of the human or earthly nature of Christ.^ Elkanah and his two wives are said, by Venerable Bede, to typify our Lord, the synagogue, and the church."^ Samson marrying a Avoman out of another people, and at his death overpowering his enemies, is regarded as an evident type of Christ adopting the church of the Gentiles, and by his death destroying his foes/ Several of these, and other similar instances, have, it is true, the sanction of venerable names ; but to state them is almost sufficient to make us discard them. In short, the examples of this class of types, in which a sober judgment can safely acquiesce, are very few indeed, such as, some parts, perhaps, in ^ Exod. xvii. 9—12. ^ 2 Sam. xviii. 9. ^ In the Epistle ascribed to Barnabas, § vi, p. IS. Ed. Cotelerii. (Exod. xxxiii. 1 — 3 ; Lev. xx. 24.) One of tbe inter- pretations ascribed in this Epistle to superior knowledge, yvQaiQ. See also § xii. p. 39, concerning the hands of Moses supported by Aaron and Hur, where addition is made to the history, that the fancy may be the better indulged. And § ix. where the number of Abraham's servants, 318, is translated into Greek numerals, i, r], T ; and the two former are made to represent the name of Christ, and the latter his cross. * See J. J. Conybeare, Bampt. Lect. v. p. 192, note. And, for many of the other instances, Glassius, Philologia Sacra, lib. ii. part. i. tract, ii. § iv. pp. 326, 327. Ed. 1G84. Judges xiv. 1 — 3 ; xvi. 30. Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 45 the histories of Joseph and Joshua; the emissary goat; the ordinance of the cities of refuge, and the hberation of the offender by the death of the high priest. The clearest and most important example of all, is, perhaps, the offering up of Isaac, the Patriarch's only-begotten son, upon Mount Moriah, the mount on which " the Lord would provide." To adopt the words of the writer before alluded to : "The commanded sacrifice of Isaac, 'the beloved son' of Abraham, is justly to be con- sidered as a type of the sacrifice, as his restora- tion is of the resurrection, of Christ." — " Of all the prophetic types," he adds, " this appears to be among the most significant. It stands at the head of the dispensation of revealed religion, as reduced into covenant with the people of God in the person of their Founder and Progenitor. Being thus displayed, as it is, in the history of the father of ilie faithful, it seems to be wrought into the foundations of faith. In the surrender to sacrifice of a beloved son, the patriarchal church begins with an adumbration of the Christian reality." The passage is borrowed from a work remark- able for the severity of its criticism, and a caution bordering upon excess.^ 1 Davison on " Primitive Sacrifice," Remains, pp. 150 — 152. Bishop Warburton, indeed, who devotes an entire section of his great work to the sacrifice of Isaac, regards it ^f^ 40 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Seum II. III. But the text may suggest to us another caution, or one which, though not another, may yet, for a practical reason, deserve to be treated separately. For there is a practical difference between supposed types of Christ, and of Christian INSTITUTIONS. Christ is the Rock on which every- thing is founded. If without good warrant we not as a type, but as an information hy action, of the metliod of redemption, afforded to Abraham, at his earnest request. Hence the history, he contends, would be made intentionally dark to others, yet it was recorded that, in the fulness of time, it might become clear to us, might evince the harmony of the Old and New Dispensations, and refute the unbeliever. (See his "Divine Legation," book vi. sect. v. vol. vi. pp. 1 — 46; and on types generally, ibid. § vi. vol. vi. pp. 46 — 144.) The passage cited from Mr. Davison occurs after some strong and forcible objections which he had put to Bishop War- burton's view of the sacrifice of Isaac. The Church of England appears to recognise the typical import of the history by her selecting it for her service on Good Friday; and so have very many interpreters from very early times, at least as early as the Epistle ascribed to Barnabas. By some, indeed, it is regarded not, as above, as an inferred type, but as one to which we are directed not indeed expressly, but implicitly in the New Testament. John viii. o&; Heb. xi. 19; ix. 9. So Glassius, Philologia Sacra, lib. ii. part. i. tract, ii. § iv. art. i. p. 316. (Ed. 1684 ;) and art. v. pp. 225, 226. But there does not seem to be any certain reference in the New Testa- ment to this remarkable event as a type. Compare Gen. xxii. with 1 Cor. X. 13j Heb. xi. 17—19; ix. 9; 1 Pet. i. 7; John viii. oQ ; xix. 17; James ii. 21, 22 ; Luke i. 73; Heb- vi. 13, 14; Acts iii. 25; Gal. iii. 8, 9, 16, 18; 2 Sara, xxiv. 25; 1 Chron. xxi. 26, 28; xxii. 1 ; 2 Chron. iii. 1. Sekm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 47 imagine a type of the Saviour, we shall offend, indeed, against sound criticism, and incur the danger consequent upon all unsound interpreta- tion, of thro\ving ridicule or suspicion upon the truth ; but we shall not offend against sound doctrine, or the analogy of faith. We cannot exaggerate the importance of the office and sacri- fice of the Redeemer. But when we pass to the Christian rites and institutions, there the human element comes in. Man bears his part in these institutions ; and a sad experience proves that we may very easily exaggerate the importance of the instrumentality of man in the economy of grace. Not, of course, that this is any reason against our admitting scriptural types of the Christian ministry or sacraments, if they are really to he found in Holy Scri2oture. Certainly not ; it is only an additional practical reason for caution and jealousy in examining their claims. 1. Nor, again, would I be understood to dispute the existence of any typical adumbrations of the Christian church under the older dispensation. The Shechinah, for example, the visible presence of the glory of the Lord in the Mosaic tabernacle and temple, certainly illustrates, and may have typified, the indwelling of the Divine Spirit in the Church of Christ.' ^ This is not, it need scarcely be said, the only use made of the Shechinah in the New Testament. It is alluded to 48 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. So, again, there could not but be some analogy between the history of the Jewish and the Christian Churches. And when we observe some of the points in the analogy, such as the children of Israel being a chosen and elect people, redeemed from bondage, appointed to enter a land of promise, that land a gift, to which they could lay 710 claim, which they in no sense merited, which they could not win hy their oiun strength, yet which without their exertions loas not to be toon ; — when we observe such points as these, and con- sider not only their correspondence with Christian doctrines, but the prominence assigned to them in the Scriptures, and the way in which they are made under the Law to be the basis of religious obedience and religious sentiments, as we may cer- tainly employ them in illustrating and enforcing the corresponding facts and doctrines of the Gospel, so, probably, we may attribute to them somewhat of a typical character .* that is to say, we may believe that it was within the intention of the Divine mind to invest the ancient facts with some- what of a prophetic import. with a threefold application ; first by our " Immanuel" with an application to " the temple of his body," and afterwards by the apostles with reference to the indwelling of the Spirit both in Christians individually, and in the church at large in which we are all " builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Compare Is. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23; xxvi. 61; xxvii. 40; John ii. 18—22; 1 Cor. vi. 19; iii. 17; 2 Cor. vi. 1 G ; Eev. xxi. 22. Skrm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 49 Still, let us beware how we extend the parallel. When in the rebellion of Israel against Judah, Bellarmin finds a type of the heresy of the Re- formers, or the Lutheranis retort that Jeroboam was a type of the Pope, and the secession of Israel typified the defection of the Church of Rome from primitive Christianity ; or some of our own Church imagine in the sin of Samaria a type of Dissent in England, or of the Presbyterian church in Scotland, is not the observation of an acute critic but too well justified, that "the discovery of types and antitypes is often determined by the religious party ^ or the peculiar sentiments of the interpreter?" And if we do not indulge party feelings, we may give too free a licence to mere fancy, whilst we imagine intended types of the Christian Church in every place of happiness or refuge, or record of deliverances \ the garden of Eden, the ark of Noah, the call of Abraham, the Tabernacle in the desert, the house of Rahab, the city Jerusalem.' 2. But what of adumbrations of the Christian ministrt/ ? The Levitical priesthood appears to some minds so obvious a type of the Christian ministry, that ' See Bishop Marsh, Lectures on Interpretation, &c., vi. p. 378. (Ed. 1828.) Bellarmin, lib. iii. ; De Laicis, c. iv. § ult. Glassius, Philol. Sacra, lib. ii. part. i. tract, ii. § iv. E 50 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. the very few remarks to vvliicli I must restrict myself may appear harsh and presmiiptuoiis. St. Clement, indeed, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (§ xxxii.) is* supposed to have counte- nanced this opinion. He has nothing of the kind, I believe, in view. The very shnilarity is not striking between the High Priest, Priests, and Levites of the Law, and the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons of the Gospel. Some, assuming the type, have even sought to improve the resemblance by adopting the Pope and Papal hierarchy instead of the Apostolic constitution. Others have judged that the High Priest was a type of the Saviour, and only the inferior Priests and Levites, types of the Apostles and other Christian ministers.^ But the language of the New Testament is even oi^posed to the Levitical priesthood being typical of any other antitype than our only Priest and Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. That the Levitical priests, (the Higli Priests, of course, especially, but not exclusively,) were intended types of Christ himself, we have con- sidered at large on a former occasion. That the language of the New Testament is, as I have ventured to express it, ojt^^osed to our making them also types of Christian ministers, may appear from the remarkable fact, tliat amidst the variety of titles by wdiich the ministers of the Gospel ' See Glassius as above. Serm. II.] LI3IITATI0NS. 51 are distinguished in the Christian Scriptiu'es, as bishops, elders, deacons, apostles, pastors, evan- gelists, the term priest ilepevs) is never once applied to them. All Christians indeed, ministers and people alike, are styled a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, a royal priesthood, leparev/xa aytov — ^acriXeiov leparevixa} These and other epithets are heaped together by St. Peter vrith a manifest allusion to the first chosen people, also styled ^collectively " a kingdom of priests." But the pointed application of the words, "priest" and ''high priest" to Messiah, and the total absence of such an appUcation of these terms, throughout the whole volume of the New Cove- nant, to Christian ministers as such, appears abso- lutely to discountenance our seeking t}^es of the Christian ministry in the Levitical priesthood. And this conclusion is at least consistent with the doctrinal conclusion of the reformers, adopted by our own Church in one of her Homilies, that Christ is the only priest, properly so called, under the Gospel.^ ' 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9 ; cf. Exod. xix. 5, 6 : Isa. Ixi, 6 ; Ixvi. 21 ; Rev. i. 6 j V. 10. ^ Second part of Homily on Repentance. " And when that they do allege this saying of our Saviour Jesus Christ unto the leper, to prove auricular confession to stand on God's word, Go thy way o/ad show thyself unto the priest; do they not see that the leper was cleansed from his leprosy, afore he was by Christ sent unto the priest, for to show himself unto E 2 52 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Sfrm. 11. 3. And now a few words, lastly, concerning tlie supposed types of the Christian sacraments. Thus, according to a commentator on the text, usually of much merit — " All was type : their re- demption from Egypt, of that from sin; Wilderness, of the afflictions of this life; Moses, their Captain, of Christ ; Canaan, of heaven ; Red Sea, of baptism ; manna from heaven, water out of the smitten rock, of the communion of the body and blood of our suffering Saviour."^ A very early commentator,^ him? By tlie same reason we must be cleansed from our spiritual leprosy, I mean our sins must be forgiven us, afore that we come to confession. What need we then to tell forth our sins into the ear of the priest, sith that they be already taken away? Therefore holy Ambrose, in his second sermon upon the 119th Psalm, doth say full well, Go show thyself utito the priest. Who is the true priest, but he which is the priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedeck? Whereby tliis holy Father doth understand, that, both the priesthood and the law being changed, we ought to acknowledge none other priest for deliverance from sins, but our Saviour Jesus Christ, •who being our sovereign bishop, doth with the sacri- fice of his body and blood, offered once for ever upon the altar of the cross, most effectually cleanse the spiritual leprosy, and wash away the sins of all those that with true confession of the same do flee unto him ;" (p. 497, Ed. 1822 ;) see also Sermon I. and Note, p. 21. 1 Bishop Fell, or at least the Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, to which his name is given, on 1 Cor. x. 2. ^ Theodoret in loc. Tw'ttoc, (^riaiv, EKelva rwr i^furepcov 7/ ddXaaaa yap ifiifielTo Trjy KoXviJl3ij6par, k. t. \. His Master, Chrysostom, avoids these details, although he also treats the passage as typical of Baptism, and the Holy Table ; the passage of the Red Sea being a type of Christian Baptism, Sekm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 53 expanding the hints in TertuUian, finds a type of every part of the sacrament and service of Baptism. The sea is the laver ; Moses, the priest ; his rod, the cross ; the cloud, the grace of the Spirit ; the Israehtes, the baptized ; the Egyptians, our defeated spiritual foes; Pharaoh, Satan. No exuberance of imagination can discover so many pictures of the other sacrament ; the spiritual water typifies the wine, and the manna the bread. But then, according to others, these are not the proper images intended. As the rock is Christ, the water is the blood which flowed from his the manna of our Lord's body, the water from the rock of His blood ; Hom. xxiii. on 1 Cor. But these writers scarcely speak of types in the modern technical sense. Type, image, figure, symbol, are used as synonymous in these passages. After the same manner, Macknight uses typical and spiritual as synonymous, comparing the text with Rev. xi. 8. Hence he speaks of " the spiritual blessings which the manna typified being the same with those typified by the bread in the Lord's Supper ; " says that " the feeding of the Israel- ites with manna had a typical meaning, and signified true docti'ine in particular ;" and presently afterwards, that it was " a type of Christ and of his ^es/i,"^ John vi. 51 ; whilst "the waters which issued from the rock, were a type of the revela- tions to be made to the world by Christ and his Apostles." (Notes on 1 Cor. x. 3, 4.) And so Locke speaks of these things as " typical representations of Christ, as well as the bread and wine in the Lords supper are typical representations of him," which excludes the technical sense of the word " typical." (Paraphrase on 1 Cor. x. 3, 4.) Whitby's comment is to the same purpose. See also a variety of figures of Baptism in TertuUian de Baptismo, 9. 54 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Seem. II. wounded side ; or again, it is his doctrine ; or it is the grace of his Holy Spirit. Does not the very variety of interpretations suggest the probabihty of error ? But it would be unprofitable, and unsuited to this occasion, to attempt a review of the various explanations proposed in early or in later times of this remarkable and difficult passage. It is suffi- cient for our present purpose to ask you to examine the whole passage and consider its scojye. We must not, indeed, attend only to the text itself, nor yet to the chapter of which it forms the commence- ment. The subject commences earlier. In the preceding chapter, the Apostle presses upon the Corinthians the imperative necessity of not relying proudly upon their privileges, but bringing forth the intended fruits, so running that they may obtain their incorruptible crown. He refers them to the games with which they were so famihar, where " they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize."' He tells them of his own earnest striving for the prize of his high calling, " lest, that by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should be a castaway."^ From these memorable, nay, these fearful words, he passes to the admonition in the text and follow- ing verses, — " Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant," — ignorant of what ? ' 1 Cor. ix. 24. ^ 1 Cor. ix. 23—27. Sehm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 55 — of certain typical meanings of Jewish histories ? — nothing surely of the kind, but, *' that all our fathers " — it is upon the word all that the stress of the passage lies, and it is even more striking, per- haps, in the original than in our translation — all our fathers had the same privileges, all under the shadoAv and the guidance of the cloud of glory, all passing by miracle through the sea, all, that is, all ahkc, baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all equally eating the same spiritual meat, and drinking the same spiritual drink ; but what then ? Notwithstanding that they all enjoyed the same pri- vileges, " yet with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness; " all had the same privileges, but maiiy fell ; some idolaters, some murmuring, some tempting Christ — many of them, therefore, the greater part of them in the original as in the history, (ot ifKeloves avTwv,) " were overthrown in the wilderness." ' " Now, these things," says the Apostle, " were our ensamples," our types in the original, yet evidently ' So Zegerus presses the moral of the passage ; and Locke in his paraphrase on the passage and in the Note, dwelling on the emphatic repetition of the word TzdvTtg, and on the ex- pressions TO avTo (ipQfxa, to avTo nofxa, " Though the Israelites all to a man ate the very same spiritual food, and all to a man drank the very same spiritual drink, yet they were not all to a man preserved ; but many of them sinned and fell under the avenging hand of God." See also Grotius, on vv. 1, 3, 4. ap. Grit. Sacr. 56 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. not in the modern technical sense of the word, but, as it is rightly rendered, our " ensamples." They were ensamples for our warning; and he instances in cases of special temptations besetting the Corinthians at that time, on which we need not now particularly dwell. The general moral is suffi- cient. '' All these things happened unto them for ensamples ; and they are written for our admoni- tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore," he emphatically adds, (and this is the pointed moral of the whole,) " let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."' It has been urged, indeed, that to enforce this moral, it was necessary that the privileges of the Jews should be eqtcal to those of the Corinthians ; the words, " they all ate the same spiritual meat, and all drank the same spiritual drink," are inter- preted of the same loith ours? But it surely con- tradicts the whole analogy of faith to make Jewish privileges equal to those of Christians. Then, if not exactly the same with ours, they are to be the same because typical of ours. But this is to give ' 1 Cor. X. 1—12. ^ So Pulke, Whitby, and Macknight, on 1 Cor x. 3, 5, after St. Austin, and several of the schoolmen. See many examples cited in the note of Jac. Cappellus on 1 Cor. x. 3, ap. Crit. Sacr. Estius and the Rhemish annotators in this instance adopt a more just interpretation. Compare a curious passage on the text in ^Ifric's Epistle to Wulfstan. Routh, Opusc. vol. ii. pp. 525 — 527. Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 57 up the argument ; for the distance may be immense between a Type and an Anti-type. I submit, as before, that the Apostle's admonition requires no sameness between their privileges and our own ; the stress being on the fact, that although all the Israelites enjoyed the same privileges, the same to all, yet many abused their privileges and fell. And throughout the passage the Apostle applies not Jewish terms to Christian rites, but rather Christian terms to facts of Jewish history — " baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," " spiritual meat," "spiritual drink," "tempt- ing Christ," "their rock was Christ," — and this, not to teach us anything of Jewish Types, but to impress his awful moral the more forcibly upon Christian minds. 4. But if you should be satisfied upon examina- tion, that this and other passages often understood of Types, properly so called, are somewhat strained to such an interpretation, it is not, of course, intended that we may find no reserablances, ajpt images, " like figures'' where there is yet nothing strictly typical. Doubtless, we may make this pious use of ancient facts or institutions. Our Church has made it. The Scriptures make it. Thus, St. Peter, in a remarkable passage, com- pares the water of Baptism with the water of the flood, — ." When once the long-sufieiing of God 58 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Sekm. 11. waited in the days of Noe, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto" — {dvTCTVTTov, in the original, rightly rendered "like figure," for the word had not then acquired the modern technical sense of " antitype ;"0 ''the like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us."^ So the Apostle points to the obvious likeness between our being saved by Baptism, and the sal- vation of the remnant of the old world borne on the waters of the flood. And yet, even here, we may observe by the way, lest the comparison should be supposed to attribute too great an efficacy to the mere outward element, the Apostle immediately subjoins : " Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God." The Church of England, in like manner, in a highly figurative passage, speaks of the " ark of Christ's Church," of our " so passing the waves of this troublesome world, that finally we may come to the land of everlasting life ;" and of God 1 It occurs but twice in the New Testament. In the other place, Heb. ix. 24, the sense is even the reverse of the modern signification of antitype. See a learned note, by Gualtperius on the senses of rinrog and to cIvtitv-kov, ap. Grit. Sacr. 1 Cor. X. 6; and compare Macknight on 1 Pet. iii. 21, who argues on the other side, and pursues the comparison between Baptism and the Deluge far too much into detail. '' 1 Pet. iii. 20—23. Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 59 in his great mercy " saving Noah and his family in the ark," and " safely leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea — -figuring therehy his holy Baptism." It may be even thought that the Church, by these expressions, intends more than " hke figures," and admits the histories to be proper types. Yet, since she is neither inter- preting Scripture critically, nor defining dog- matically, her sentiments would not even thus be conclusive. Strong, however, as we may justly deem the probability to be of the Typical system in general, what can be more improbable than that great historical facts, the passage of the Red Sea, the preservation of Noah and his family from the judgment of the flood, should have been de- signed as prophetic anticipations of a Christian rite ? A spiritual application of either passage is a difierent thing. For this, a mere resemblance is sufficient; for a Type, nothing less than a reason- able proof of a designed prophetic correspondence. The rite of circumcision, for example, cannot but resemble Christian baptism, in that both are initia- tory rites, and both have a moral and spiritual import ; although the effect of baptism is incom- parably higher, and there is no proof that it was designed to be actually typified by the earher, and, in other respects, very different institution.' ' The correspondence between the two rites may sufficiently account for St. Paul's reference to circumcision, in Col. ii. 11, 60 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. I. Nay, we shall only do justice to some of the writers on these subjects if we admit that they mean no more than mere resemblances, although they speak of types of the Supper of our Lord in the Tree of Life in paradise j ' the bread and wine brought to Abraham by Melchizedek ; ^ the shew- bread ; ^ the burning coal wherewith the lips of Isaiah were touched and his iniquity taken away.* And this also is obvious, that wheresoever there are in the Old Scriptures actual types of our Lord, His Death, His Sacrifice ; — as the Paschal Lamb ; ^ and other passages, where the thought of baptism would readily present itself, without his intending to speak of cir- cumcision as an actual type of the Christian rite. So able a writer, indeed, as Bishop Bethell (on Regeneration, ch. iv. pp. 48 — 53, 2d ed.) speaks of circumcision as the " typical cere- mony;" but this particular question was not his immediate subject. ' Gen. vi. 9, cf. Rev. xxii. 14 ; John vi. 53, 54. 2 Gen. xiv. 18, 19. ^ Exod. xxv. 30. * Isa. vi. 6. Glassius himself speaks of some of these examples as allegorical rather than typical. And so we should explain many of the ancient writers' instances; a,se.cf. such a commen- tary as the following on Heb. ix. 18, et seq. ( " Moses took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop," &c.) " The water was a type of baptism ; the blood of brute beasts, of the blood of salvation ; the warmth of the hyssop, of the grace of the Divine Spirit ; the scarlet wool, of the new clothing ; the cedar wood, of the impassibility of the Divinity ; but the ashes of the heifer, of the passion of the humanity." Theodoret in loc. And see note at the end of this Sermon. * Exod. xii. 27, cf. 1 Cor. v. 7 ; xi. 26. Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 61 the manna from heaven ; ' the blood of the Cove- nant ; ^ — they cannot but have some resemblance to that holy rite which is both commemorative, and significant of, the death and sacrifice of the same Redeemer. But are we therefore to carry on the type from the Divine Saviour himself to his Institution? I humbly apprehend that we are not. And if we are critically wrong in doing so, we are practically wrong for the reason already sug- gested. We disturb the analogy of the faith ; we introduce ourselves and our ministrations, when we should look only to the Head, which is Christ. And this is no imaginary, nor is it merely a modern, danger. Long before the visible com- mencement of the Romish corruptions, you may detect their germ in an extravagant and unscrip- tural estimate of the sacraments, and of the sacer- dotal functions of Christian ministers.^ When there was a reaction in this country in favour of Rome, after the excesses of Puritanism during the Great Rebellion, a false sacramental theory accom- panied the downward tendency. And so it has ' Esod. xvi, 15 ; cf. John vi. ' Exod. xxiv. 3, 7, 8 ; cf. Heb. ix. 20. ^ See some examples in Bingham's Antiq. b. vi. ch. ii. § 1 ; and several others collected in " Sermon on the Ministry of Men in the Economy of Grace, and the Danger of overvaluing it," pp. 15 — 25, and the Note, p. 35. 62 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. been again in the recent unhappy movement in the same direction.' We must be on our guard against whatever tends towards the antichristian corruptions of Rome. For though we should deal mildly with erring brethren, and not even speak of them harshly, for they are still our brethren, yet we must speak plainly. And, in plain truth, Romanism is as near an approach to Heathenism, as is possible in a Church which has not altogether discarded the essential truths of the Gospel. Let us all hold, devoutly and thankfully hold, to the Head, even Christ.^ But to draw these observations to a close. 1. If there should be any here who doubt the existence of that practical danger to which I have adverted, or who, after full examination of the text, and corresponding passages of Scripture, dissent from the critical suggestions which have been offered to your consideration, and entertain no doubt of there having been proper types in the Old Testament of the Christian Sacraments, yet let them, at least, considerately weigh the general cautions which have been suggested. ' See the Primary Charge of the Bishop of Hereford, (1850,) p. 25 €t seq. and p. 57. - Col. ii. 18, 19 ; Eph. iv. 14, 15. Sehm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 63 Tn tlie great controversy which appears to threaten us, between those w^ho beheve in the Scriptures as the Word of God, and those who beUeve them not, we shall have to aim at two things more especially. As we must neither, on the one hand, surrender one jot or one tittle of the great deposit with which God has entrusted us, so must we not, on the other, ascribe aught to the Divine Spirit which does not proceed from Him. The principle of course applies no less to the interpretation of the canonical Scrip- tures, than to the formation of the canon itself. In this and a former discourse, I have only endeavoured to consider in this spirit, the particular subject of Scriptm*al Types — anxious, first, to esta- blish the jn-oof of their real existence, and, next, to inculcate caution and restrain the indiscriminate admission of fancied Types, which may not have been at all intended by the Spirit of God. As to particular instances, it cannot be expected that all interpreters will be agreed. But let us be agreed in this; that the more firmly we are con- vinced of the general truth of the Tj-pical System, and of its importance to the full acceptance of the Christian evidences, and the full understanding of the sense and harmony of both Testaments, and of the Divine Dispensations, Patriarchal, Mosaic and Christian ; so much the more cautious we should be not to imagine Types without due warrant, or extend acknowledged Types, without due warrant, G4 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. into minute details. As we value truth, so let us be anxious not to exaggerate or caricature it, or obstruct its acceptance, and cause our brother to offend. 2. But let our conclusions upon questions of criticism or interpretation be what they may, the great moral of the Apostle in the text must at least arrest the attention of every considerate Christian. If " all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and yet with many of them God was not well pleased," may it not be so with ourselves ? If even St. Paul, "when he had preached to others, might himself become a cast-away," how much more may we ? " Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." There is not a spot in all Christendom blessed with higher privileges, than that in which the providence of God has placed us. Is there any in which some more completely abuse their privileges ? But they do not hear my words. They are not here. Baptized, confirmed, educated as Christians, they scarcely enter a Christian Church except by compulsion. Sottish and sensual, they for a time, at least, (oh, may it be only for a time ! ) degrade themselves to the level of " the beasts that perish." But let us beware, all of us, young and old, who are not living unchristian lives, or absolutely neglecting our privileges, let us beware of some- Serm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 65 thing too like an easy indifference, or a contented carelessness, which does not watch our motives as well as our words, and actions, and thoughts, which does not aim at continual improvement and growth in grace, and " perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." The lessons of the day correspond with the warnino; in the text. " In Christ Jesus," savs one of them, " neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a ne?o creature."^ We are earnestly enjoined by another, " to take unto us the whole armour of God, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand."^ We must not be formal, easy, contented ; but earnest, watchful, dihgent, ceaseless in prayer, frequent in communion, constant in the study of the Sacred Scriptures, watching with all persever- ance, girt and armed at every point with "truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Keep, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy ; and because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ' Gal. vi. 15. ' Eph. vi. 10—18. UG TYPICAL SYSTEM. Sesm. li- NOTE -p. 60. Should the distinction between Types properly so called, and " like Figures," or apt images, or spiritual applications, appear too refined, it may be illustrated by a parallel case. The bush which " burned with fire and was not consumed," (Exod. iii. 2,) has been expounded (after Jones of Nayland, on Figurative Language, Lect. ix.) as meaning the Israelites in Egypt exposed to grievous wrongs but not destroyed ; the Church tried by persecutions but surviving ; and individual Christians purified by sufferings and enduring to the end. Now, were any or all of these instances merely illustrated by a poetical reference to the flaming bush, the allusion might be just or even striking; but to speak of these historical facts as the very meaning of the passage, is surely anything rather than interpretation of Scripture. And there can be no distinct interpretation of Scripture at all, if it be maintained that because any sense which may be assigned to any passage has been foreseen by its Divine author, it is therefore an intended meaning. Just so of supposed types, and it may be added of supposed prophecies, of the two Sacraments. The mention of water, or of corn and wine, however it may justify an allusion or a spiritual application, is no proof of an intended type or pro- phecy ; but the Divine intention to foretell or foreshadow is essential to the idea of a Scriptural prediction or type. Take e. g. the many images of Christian Baptism, or of the service of Baptism with its accompaniments as then performed, heaped together by Tertullian, (De Baptismo, 3 — 9,) from the Spirit moving upon the primeval waters, to the water flowing from the side of the Redeemer ; the waters of the deluge, and of the Red Sea, the dove returning to the ark, the waters of Marah made sweet, the anointing of Aaron, the baptism of John and of our Lord, the descent of the Spirit like a dove Serm. ii.] limitatio>-s. 67 upon the Saviour, the stirring of the waters of Bethesda, the miracle of the water at Cana, the well of Jacob, our Lord walking on the sea, nay, even the water on the hands of Pilate — of which, whatever spiritual uses may be made of them, according to the judgment, or imagination, and piety of the interpreter, may it not be said that they do not amount to actual types of that sacred ordinance 1 And I venture to express the same opinion respecting num- berless incidents and expressions collected in a recent publi- cation (Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of London,) after many of the Fathers, as typical or prophetical of the elements in the Eucharist : — " The very frequency of the bread and wine as the chief gifts of God for 'gladdening man's heart,' either by them- selves, or together with that other symbolic gift, oil, prepares us to look for some meaning beyond our earthly nourish- ment." — (P. 199.) ... "So when wisdom inviteth to her feast, ' Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled,' it is in anticipation of the parable of the Marriage- Feast, to which He, who is the wisdom of God, inviteth, not merely to the blessings of the Gospel generally, but to his bread, the bread which He giveth, ' What more excellent than Christ, who in the feast of the Church both ministers and is ministered V (S. Ambr.) No other is the ' corn and wine ' wherewith Isaac ' sustained' Jacob, and gave him therewith the blessing of Abraham. No other is 'the corn, wine, and oil ' promised, when God should have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy ; (Hos. ii. Joel ii. j) or ' the corn and new wine,' whereby, when the king of the daughter of Zion should come, her ' young men and her maidens' should grow (Zech. ix.) ; no other the bread of which the Psalm which delineates to us His Passion, and opens with His cry on the cross, and foretells that He should draw all men unto Him, tells us ' the poor shall eat and be satisfied,' with which God shall ' satisfy the poor ' of the church, yea, ' rich and poor together.' (P. 202.) No other is the ' fat of the wheat ' wherewith he feeds his people ; no other ' the 68 TYPICAL SYSTEM. |.Sehm. If. wine,' which 'every one who thirsteth' is bid to buy and eat." (P. 203.) " And through this feeling of the reality of these emblems, the Ancient Church seems to have been guided by a sort of spiritual tact, or discernment, to recognise the blessings of the Sacrament wherever mention is made of the elements therein consecrated, and where men are now wont to think of the mere element without the gift, or of a spiritual gift with- out the element, to see both. And not only so, but receiving that gift daily, their thoughts the more centred in what was their ' daily bread.' Soul and body were daily nourished together ; and so every expression which designates ' provi- sion,' ' longing,' need, fulness, spoke to them of that gift which they received daily in figure and in substance. And herein we must feel that there is reality and the most literal truth ; for since the visible substances are indeed there, an interpretation which refers to the actual mystical table is more exact and full than one which sees only spiritual gifts generally, not to speak of that grovelling exposition which cannot rise above temporal gifts." (P. 205.) .... " The words, ' My soul is athirst for God,' express not only a pining longing, whereby the soul is dried up for God's presence, but the way in which He gives Himself; to 'hunger and thirst after righteousness,' is further to desire His Body and Blood who is ' our Righteousness.' The Lord ' hath prepared a table for me, against them that trouble me,' is ' that Table which repelleth the snares of the enemy.'" (P. 206.) .... "And this too is, doubtless, a spiritual meaning of the vineyard which ' Noah planted, and whereof he drank.' After a type of Holy Baptism there followed a type of the Holy Eucharist ; as, first ' the feet of Joseph's brethren were washed, and then they were satisfied with the bread and wine.' " (P. 210.) The whole passage is much too long to cite (pp. 195 — 217), but these few extracts may suffice to show the character of the criticism, with the reasons alleged in its behalf; some of the parts omitted being ill calculated, I think, to conciliate greater regard to the conclusions of the writer ; whilst the Skkm. II.] LIMITATIONS. 69 prophetical and spiritual ajiplicatious here cited support the alleged types as they best may. Will then a sober criticism find any probable proof of intended types, either of Baptism, in the washing of the feet of Joseph's brethren, or of the Eucharist, in the bread and wine with which they were satis- fied ; or in the vineyard which Noah planted, and whereof he drank ? Surely there is nothing more than mere resemblance, if there is even not something less. So much need, however, is there of caution in these matters, that even the acute Bishop Marsh deserts his own repeatedly- asserted principles, in the only instance which he alleges as a type of the Eucharist. After showing very justly from Scrip- ture that the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb was a type of the death and sacrifice of Christ, he merely adds, " And since the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ him- self, in remembrance of his death and passion, the ceremony which was a type of the one, may be considered as a type also of the other." (Lectures on Interpretation, &c. vii. p. 383, ed. 1828.) What is this but to make mere similarity a proof of a type ? a similarity which, from the nature of the case, (as has been observed before,) there could not but be between two rites, of which one prefigured, and the other commemo- rates, and is significant of, the same great sacrifice. I should have been glad if, in addition to general cautions, I could have referred the student to some clear, and well- founded canons of typical interpretation. But I know of none which can be considered altogether satisfactory. Few of the writers indeed to whom references have been given above — Warburton, Marsh, Van Mildert, Macknight, Cony- beare — attempt to give any. The most exact and full with which I am acquainted, are the Canons of Glassius (Philol. Sacr. lib. ii. pars i. tract, ii. sect. iv. art. vii.) Several of them are useful, although they scarcely deserve the praise bestowed upon them by Bishop Van Mildert, (Bampt. Lect. vii. note, p. 350 ;) and are more correctly described by Waterland, in his able Preface to " Scripture Vindicated," as " the best he 70 TYPICAL SYSTEM. [Serm. II. knows of, thougli not so full or perfect as tliey might be, but capable of several improvements." (P. 20.) But the pious reader may be requested to treat the subject of Scriptural Types cautiously and reverently, even as he values the importance of the system itself, and indeed the general truth of Revelation. And now let us proceed to apply similar principles to ques- tions of deeper interest. SERMON III. PERSON AND OFFICES OF THE REDEEMER. Heb. ii. 16 — 18. "For veeily he took not on (him the NATURE of) angels ; BUT HE TOOK ON (hIM) THE SEED OF Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him TO BE made like UNTO (his) BRETHREN, THAT HE MIGHT BE ■ A MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST IN THINGS (PER- TAINING) TO God, to make reconciliation for the sins of THE people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." A WORLD lost, and a world redeemed; evil intro- duced into the world, evil existing, yet our reconci- liation effected, and the overthrow of evil begun by our great Redeemer and High Priest, at once Son of man, and Son of God ; these elementary but momentous truths are, doubtless, brought before our minds by the services of every Lord's day, or of almost every day in the Christian year. But to those who believe in the Scriptures both of the Old Covenant and of the New, the Psalms and Lessons peculiar to this day suggest these and the 72 PERSON AND OFFICES [Serm. III. kindred truths with more than usual profusion and streno^th.^ The innocence of man undermined, his tempta- tion, and fall, and punishment ; the sentence upon the Tempter, and the tempted ; yet hope imparted to man in immediate connexion with his punish- ment, that hope without which the religion of man fallen could scarcely have been sustained, the hope of a restoration and a Restorer •} and again, ^nthin too brief a period, the extreme depravity of the descendants of that fallen pair, and the terrible judgment of the Flood, with yet another merciful promise of preservation to the chosen few within the Ark;^ and then, in the Psalms, the Divine nature' of the future Saviour ; the " Priest for ever after the order of Melchidezek ;" ^ and, yet again, in the volume of the New Covenant, the advent of the Redeemer, His miracles, His calling of His apostles. His own heavenly teaching ; ^ the preaching of the Cross, moreover, by the great apostle of the Gen- tiles;^ his labours and sufferings in his Master's cause, attesting the reluctance with which too many received the tidings of salvation ; " with that brief but most comprehensive parable of " the Sower ;" quite as true at this day as at the first, setting forth the various obstructions to the reception of the ^ Sexagesima Sunday, Feb. 23, 1851. * Gen. lii. ' Gen. vi. * Psalm ex. * Luke vi. * Gal. vii. " 2 Cor. xi. 19, et seq. Serm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 73 word of life, from carelessness or carefulness, from the devil, the flesh, or the world ;^ — all these things, and more than these, does om* Scriptural Church bring before us in the services of this day. Let us lay them to heart. But what is the central tmth in the whole circle of these revelations ? It is the doctrine of the text — that the Sou of God became Son of man, became in all things like unto us whom he condescends to call His brethren, that He might be om* Redeemer, or High Priest, reconcile us to his Father, and succour and sustain us to the end. And this doctrine divides itself into two great branches, as it relates to God and to man, to the Redeemer and to the redeemed ; in other words, I. First, it regards the Person and Offices of THE Saviour; • n. Secondly, it implies our dependence upon Him and our union with Him, in order to our ultimate attainment of Salvation. I. To the second branch of the subject we may be permitted to return on a future occasion. The first I would briefly recall to yom- recollection to- day ; suggesting also some practical cautions, as to the mode of stating and explaining the doctrine, ' Luke viii. 4, &c. 74 PERSON AND OFFICES [Sekm. III. without exceeding the liiiiits of the Scriptures and of the Church. 1 . AVhy should we not, indeed, be content to stale the Doctrine in the terms of the Church from which we have received it ? For what is Redemption but one of the three cardinal doctrines of all revealed, religion, at once impl}'ing Creation, and itself the basis of Sanctijication ? The person and offices of the Redeemer accordingly could not but be set forth even in the earliest creed, the creed of the universal Church almost from the very age of the apostles themselves. In the Apostles' Creed, nevertheless, we have rather the statement of facts than the enunciation of doctrines ; — if, at least, we may so distinguish facts from doctrines, when the facts themselves are objects of faith,-*and though the truth as well of the Divinity as of the Humanity of the Messiah is implied, attention is drawn less to His divine than to His human nature. As heresies multiplied, therefore, or varied, the Church adopted, and we have adopted, in the Nicene Creed a more emphatic declaration of the Scriptural doctrine of the Divine nature of the only- begotten Son of God, and of the gracious pm'pose of His incarnation, " who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven." And here, at length, if not before, it might have Sekm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 75 been hoped that the voice of controversy, and not of controversy alone, but of subtle disquisition, of curious speculation, of development, might have been hushed in reverent thankfulness and adora- tion. But it was not so. New councils were called, and new decrees were deemed necessary in order to guard the faith from novel theories ; and in opposition to the speculations of Eutyches and Nestorius the Church confesses her belief in the union of the two natures, the Divine and Human, in the one person of Messiah ; two perfect natures, the Divine not less than the Human, and the Human not less than the Divine. "Whilst ultimately, for these and similar reasons, the Western Church at an uncertain period and from an uncertain author adopted yet a third Creed ; and a Creed of no inconsiderable value, although its usefulness is greatly marred by its not simply stating the true faith, but embodying with it those condemning clauses which require qualification to make them true, yet which the Church could not discard from this Creed with the same facility with which the ancient Anathemas were cut away from the Creed of Nicaea. But in the statement of doctrine the Athanasian Creed is exact and full. And may we not thankfully acknowledge that, where exact doctrinal statement is required, we have it with all necessary precision, and all necessary fulness also, in these ancient summaries of the faith? Or 76 PERSON AND OFFICES [Serm. II f. will it be said that the Church of England herself added to these statements in her Articles of Reh- gion ? But it is scarcely so. Anxious, at that eventful period, when she was compelled to protest against the manifold errors of the corrupt Church upon which she had so long leaned, laudably anxious to clear herself from every suspicion of departure from the faith of Christ, she did not indeed con- tent herself with simply declaring her acceptance of the three earlier Creeds. She deemed it im- portant to prefix to her protest against error, a distinct enunciation of the objects of faith and worship, couched in her own language, though closely copied from the ancient professions of belief. And if some few points are stated, which those Creeds do not expressly set forth, they are at least not additions to the universal belief of the Church. To add that God is the " Preserver " as well as the " Maker " of all things, that He is " of infinite wisdom and goodness," as well as " of infinite power," cannot be regarded as additions to the faith. And as to the special subject before us, the person and offices of the Saviour, little is added even in terms ; rather, for the most part, the doctrine is more concisely stated than before.' ' Except in Article IV. where it may have been the object of the Church to guard against the idea of a corporal presence of our Lord upon earth after His ascension. Serm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 77 2. From the Church then we may well be con- tent to take our statements of doctrine, whensoever we have need to make them with precision ; ' but for the Proof of the doctrine, upon the principles of the Church of England, we have recourse solely and explicitly to the '* warrants of holy Scripture." ^ Not indeed that we may not derive presumptive arguments, and of no inconsiderable moment, from the very fact that the Church has in every age and country thus received and handed on the truth. That at such a stirring period, for example, as the era of the Reformation, when all the foundations of the faith were re-examined with the most scrupu- lous care, and the corruptions of centuries swept away, that at such a period all the various Churches, not always agreed in other doctrines, should have all agreed in the great mystery of the Incarnation, is itself a strong presumption of the truth of the doctrine. Many other presumptions might be stated ; and indeed I have adverted to them before,'^ and we need not consider them on the present occasion. Holy Scripture, nevertheless, and nothing but ' And only then : for at other times it is the very business of the Christian teacher to vary his expressions, and adapt them to the varying capacities of different minds. — See Bishop Gastrell, '-'Considerations on the Trinity," Enchiridion Theo- logicum, vol. i. p. 447. ' Articles VI. and VIII. ^ In the Bampton Lecture for 1840. Sermon iv. 78 PERSON AND OFPICES [Serm. III. holy Scripture, can supply the proper Proof of the doctrine. But partly for the reason already men- tioned, partly from the very copiousness of the proof, which defies the limits of a discourse, I do not attempt to state it here at length. In truth, the Scriptures are unintelligible without this doc- trine. It is one of the keys of Scripture. The union of the two natures in the person of ]\Iessiah can alone give to the Sacred Writings a consistent meaning. And nothing but their continuous study can exhibit the proof of this doctrine to the student of the Scriptures in all its copiousness and strength. As to His Human nature, indeed, had not history recorded the actual existence of heresies denying the proper humanity of Christ, it might have been thought incredible that any believer in the records of the Saviour's life on earth could have doubted this portion of the truth. But even His Divitie nature becomes almost equally demonstrable to the careful student of Holy Writ. Let us recall to our minds some of the elements of the proof. For the Prophets announce the doctrine. Our Lord himself, if He does not teach it explicitly, (which He almost does,) at the least makes ample and very remark- able preparation for it ; whilst His Apostles, after His exaltation, declare it emphatically. As we have heard this morning. He who was the Son of David, was also his " Lord ;" He who Serm. Ill] or THE REDEEMER. 79 uas " despised and, rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," " giving his sonl an offering for sin," was yet " our Emmanuel," " God with us." ^ It was " the Son of Man," who, according to that true confession of St. Peter, was also " Son of God." " Our Lord did not dechue, even during the period of His humiliation, so far to declare or to intimate at least his Higher nature as to excite against Himself reiterated accusations of blasphemy, making Himself " equal with God." ^ Sometimes He so represented Himself as almost to declare ex- pHcitly His twofold nature. " No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, (even) the Son of man, which is in heaven."* " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world ; again I leave the world, and go to the Father."^ But in truth He ever so spake of Himself as " the Son," as to imply that none besides was so related as He was to " the Father." ^ And that ^ Ps. ex. 1 ; Matt. xxii. 44, 4-5 ; Mark ii. ; Luke xx. ; Acts ii. 33—35 ; Heb. i. 13 ; Ps. xlv. G, 7 ; xciii. 2 ; Heb. i. 8; Is. liii. ; yii. 14; ix. 6, 7. ^ Matt. xvi. 1.3—20. =» John V. 17, 18 ; viii. 58, 59 ; x. 29—39. * John iii. 13. — 6 u>y eV-w ovpay^ is indeed omitted by the Vatican MS. and a few other authorities; but even without this clause the text would be to the present purpose. ^ John xvi. 28 j xiii. 3. ^ Matt. xi. 27 ; xxi. 37 ; Mark siii. 32 ; sii. G ; Luke X. 22 ; John iii. 16, 17; v. 19—23 ; vi. 40; viii. 35, 36 ; xiv. 13. 80 PERSON AND OFFICES [Serm. III. remarkable appellation of hiruself, as " the Son of Man," wliicli He continually employed, and which no one else applied to Him, itself implied that He was also " Son of God." ' His humiliation, in a word, implied His previous glory, even that glory which, as He said, He " had with the Father before the world was." ^ And the bold expression of a great divine is strictly true : " The title of the Son of Man belongs to Him as God the Son, the title of the Son of God belongs to Him as man." ^ But more explicit declarations were rather to be expected when the Son of Man had returned to the bosom of his Father, and had sent down the Holy Spirit from the Father, and led His apostles into all truth. And so it was. Yet even then the more common form is not so much explicit statement, as implication of the truth ; because the apostles wrote to Christians already conversant with the elements of Christian truth. The text, for example, even according to the in- terpretation of our Translators, (for their insertion of the word " nature" is in fact an interpretation) — " He took not on (him the nature of) angels, but He took on (him) the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto ' Matt. ix. 6 ; xii. 8 ; Mark viii. 38 ; Luke ix. 56 ; Johniii. 13 ; v. 27; vi. 62. ^ John xvii. 5 ; Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. ' See Bishop Horsley, Sermon xiii. Works, vol. i. p. 2G1. Compare Paley, Evidences, part ii. ch. iv. Ski:m. Til. OF THE REDEEMER. 81 his brethren;" — even thus, the text scarcely reads like a technical dogmatic statement in the Creeds or in the Second of our Articles of Religion. But in connexion with the context, it plainly implies the whole extent of the doctrine of the Incarnate Word. For the apostle had spoken before in magnificent terms of Jesus as " the Son of God, heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person;"^ — " the Lord -^ " — and He it was, " who was made a little lower than the angels," and " as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself like- wise took part of the same."^ Here then is the union of the two natures in Christ made manifest by the context. And with the context the sense ascribed to the text in the English version agrees very well. The translators, however, as usual in cases of doubt and difficulty, direct us in the margin to the original, tacitly suggesting to us to weigh the dif- ficulty for ourselves. " He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold." The Greek word in both places is eTrtXa/ji/SdveTai, and the meaning of this word depends so much upon those with which it may happen in any case to be connected, that it is difficult to determine it with any certainty in an elliptical expression of this kind. The old Greek commentators appear always to have supplied the ' Heb. i. 1—3. ' Heb. ii. 3. ' Heb. ii. 9—14. 82 - PEKSON AND OFriCES [Serm. III. word " nature." For the last 200 years the greater number of commentators of note, guided partly by the sense of the word, partly by the turn of the apostle's argument, have interpreted the verse of aid, assistance, salvation, extended not to angels, but to men, — " He taketh not hold of angels, but of men, to save them, to draw them back from perdition ;" — and the course of the argument runs more clearly upon this hypothesis.' But let it be so, and the self-same doctrine of the Incarnation, ' Chrysostom is cited by Hammond and Tboluck as if be differed from tbe otber ancient Greek commentators. His words, or those of bis reporter Constantino, are somewbat obscure, but be probably agreed witb tbe rest in interpreting tbe passage, of tbe Son assuming our nature ; but tben attempting to give a more exact sense to tbe word iTriXafjjjdysTat, be ran into tbe fanciful comment wbicb has been continually repeated after bini, and wbicb was more concisely expressed by CEcu- menius, j]p.tiQ e€vyojj.ei', oEe iiiioKs, Kal didotcwv etpdane, koI (pdcKTfic £7reXa73ero. Theodoret speaks of tbe assumption of our nature, not only in bis comment on tbis passage, but very frequently in otber places, particularly in bis "ArpETrroc. Most of tbe ancient Versions give the same sense. The use of the word tVtXaju/ja'j'Ojua*, in the Septuagint, varies with tbe context, and will not prove, as Dr. Owen and Wolfius would desire, tbe sense of assumption. Cameron was tbe first commentator, so far as I am aware, who contended for the sense opitulari (Ap., Crit. Sacros. in loc.) ; wbicb, however, had been previously introduced by Castalio in his version, and which, though much opposed by some, has been since allowed to be the better rendering by most commentators, Eomanist and Protestant. Tboluck has an interesting note upon the rather remarkable bistwy of tbe interpretation of the passage. Serm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 83 if not taught in the sixteenth verse, is taught in the fourteenth and the seventeenth. And He who thus became Son of man, and " like unto us in all things," sin only excepted, was, as we saw before, the " Son of God," " the brightness of His Father's glory, the express image of His person." Under the ancient interpretation, therefore, or the modern, either in the text itself, or in the con- text, we have proof of the same great doctrine. There are some three or four other verses in the New Testament which an exact criticism will require you to treat with similar caution, and by no means to press in controversy upon a reluctant opponent.' But the most scrupulous criticism, which has any pretension to learning, leaves several direct proofs of the doctrine above all question, whether as to genuineness or as to interpretation ; as, e.g. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, .... ' "In cases of private meditation, or common pastoral instruction, various readings may safely be overlooked ; but in contending with an adversary, no theologian will act wisely or justly who appeals to words so doubtful in their genuineness, as in Griesbach's judgment to deserve unqualified exclusion from the text." (Dr. Card well's Preface to his useful edition of the New Testament, p. xi.) " But there are very few cases of this description," he justly adds, " connected with any ques- tion of importance;" and Griesbach himself says succinctly, "Nulla emendatio a recentioribus editoribus tentata ullam Scripturse sacras doctrinam immutat aut evertit ; paucse sensum sententiarumafficiunt." Prolegomena, sect. i. p. xlv. Ed. 1809. G 2 84 PERSON AND OFFICES [Sekm. lil. and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory — the glory as of the only- begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth ;"* so St. John ; and of whom did St. Paul write to the Romans, but " concerning the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead;"^ and to the Corinthians, " The first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is from heaven, or, (the Lord) from heaven ;"^ and to the Philippians, " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men ;"* — if indeed we ought not rather to class some of these citations among those numerous passages of Holy Writ which are not so much direct declarations of the doctrine as implica- tions of it ; such implications of an elementary doctrine of the faith, as were the most appropriate, the most natural, in writings addressed to Chris- tians already instructed in the faith, and which are ' John i. 1—14, &c. ^ Rom. i. 3. ^ 1 Cor. XV. 47. The text is to the purpose even if the words Kvpioc, which are omitted in many ancient autho- rities (MSS. B.C.D.E.F.G.) should be supposed to have been inserted. * rhil. ii. 5—7, &c. Serm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 85 really better and stronger, for the purposes oi proof, even than the more distinct and formal enuncia- tions of doctrine. II. Let these brief notices suffice at present, both as to the statement and the proof of the doctrine. And now, having thus touched, however slightly and imperfectly, upon the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God, as it is stated in the Creeds of the Church, and proved by the testimony of the inspired writers, let me be permitted to offer a few words of CAUTION to the younger students of theology. Be content, I would venture to suggest, with the statements of the Church, and the proofs, I would almost say, with the very terms and expres- sions, of Holy Writ, Be slow to adopt the terms, the argumenh, the theories, of merely human origin, which modern theology appears strangely solicitous to revive or to invent. 1. Such a Term, for example, as that which com- bines in one word the names of God and of man, as a designation of the Mediator ; or that, still moi*e to be avoided, and to which I would not willingly give utterance, which passes as the English version of the Greek ^^otokos. True it is, as experience shows, that to some minds, such terms entirely approve themselves ; but at least let those who love 86 PERSON AND OFFICES [Sekm. 111. them recollect that to others, and to persons, let me add, who have no sympathy with the heresies of the fourth and fifth centuries, they appear little less than profane.' 2. Such Arguments, again, as would prove by de- ductions of human reason the Divinity of the Son ; as, ''An Infinite Being required an Infinite Sacrifice, and therefore the Saviour is Divine ;" to which the retort of the sceptic is equally just, " The sin of man fs finite, and therefore the sacrifice and He who ofiered it are also finite." In other w^ords, both arguments are equally fallacious. They are but a play upon words, and presuppose, what has no foundation, that man can comprehend the nature of the great Atonement.^ 3. Such Theories, again, let us decline to teach or receive, as are really based upon the same assumption, or, worse still, upon the implied capacity of man to comprehend the nature of the Most High. Such, for example, as the presumptu- ous speculations of some of the Fathers assigning reasons why it was more fitting that the Son should have become the Redeemer, than the Father or the Holy Spirit;^ or, in later times, such Theories ' See note A at the end of this sermon. * See note B at the end of this sermon. ^ See several instances collected in Suicer's Thesaurus, under Ytor, torn. ii. pp. 1371, 1372. Skrm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 87 of Explanation, if we may so term them, as that OLU' blessed Lord is the Mediator between God and man, not by any Divine appointment, but by the constitution of His twofold nature; that the two natures in Christ are " each influenced the one by the other;" that His Divine nature consecrates the Human for the office of the priest- hood, and gives to His sacrifice its inestimable value ; that His human nature is glorified, or deified, by its union with the Divine ; that being thus the second Adam, innumerable graces flow from His nature to that of His brethren, the members of His mystical body ; and that our human nature generally partakes in consequence of the divine, or is to be united, and especially by the sacraments, with His " glorified Humanity." Of these ideas, indeed, the last mentioned belong to the second part of the subject ; and we may return to them, under the Divine per- mission, on a future occasion, when I shall attempt to show that the theories alluded to rest upon no stable grounds. For the present let it be said, generally, that w^herever theories of this kind pass beyond the written word, treat as known truths, or as logical deductions from revealed truths, wdiat has never been revealed, and can only be known to us, properly speaking, by Revelation, there let us avoid them. Let us believe and adore with 88 PERSON AND OFFICES [Serm. III. humble and profound reverence, not explain, and expound, and discuss the ineffable nature of the Most High, or the profound mystery of the union of the two natures in Christ ; even if we should thus appear regardless of the anathemas of a Cyril ; nay, reluctant to follow even where the excellent Hooker may sometimes appear to lead the way/ HI. Is it to be said, then, that all is one vast mystery in the doctrines of the Incarnation and Mediation of our Lord? — that they are nakedly proposed to us in Holy Writ as trials of our faith because they are inexpHcable ; and that in nothing do they recommend themselves even to our reason? By no means. The Fact, or the Truth, must first be proved to be revealed, or it is not, or ought not to be, an object of religious faith at all. But, once revealed, it often commends itself even to our finite understandings ; and especially is this the case when we regard, not so much the Nature or Person of the Mediator, as the offices which He is graciously pleased to discharge in our behalf. 1. Thus we know from Holy Writ that our blessed Lord is our perfect example. So likewise, it is true, we are called upon to imitate even the ' See note C annexed to this sermon. Serm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 89 perfections of the Almighty. But we can, in some measure, understand that the example of a perfect Man is more within the compass of our imitation than the perfections of the unseen God. And the Son of God accordingly became Son of Man. We see the perfection of humanity in the docility and obedience of His childhood ; in His willing submis- sion to toil, and poverty, and deprivations, the lot, as it has been well observed, of the vast majority of His earthly brethren ; in His meek endurance of scorn, and contumely, and persecution ; in His piety and in His prayers ; in His unwearied labours in the cause of suffering humanity, ever going about doing good to the bodies and souls of men ; yes, even in His love to man,'^and in that lowliness and condescension, which indeed we cannot reach, yet must ever aim at. " As I have loved you," He said Himself, so should " ye also love one another."' " Christ also suflPered for us," says St. Peter, " leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps : who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth : who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when He suffered, He threatened not ; but committed (Himself) to Him that judgeth righteously. "^ And St. Paul beseeches us " by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,"^ and with manifest allusion to his Incar- nation, " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus ' John xiii. 34. '' 1 Pet. ii. 21—23. ' 2 Cor. x. 1. 90 PERSON AND OFFICES [Skrm. III. Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your salves he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich;"^ and, more openly, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God : but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of nien,"^ Not by any means that there is no mystery remaining. There is deep mystery still. We cannot comprehend even the virtue or holiness of the Man who is also God. I say only that we can in some measure understand the reason of the Son of God becoming Son of man even in order to His Prophetical office. His teaching. His perfect ex- ample ; whence also Clement of Alexandria, for instance, mentions this as one of the reasons for His Incarnation.^ 2. And still more perhaps may we see a reason for it in His obedience to the will of God, and His sacrifice. How it is, indeed, that the offering of " the just " should be accepted " for the unjust," we cannot understand. The mystery of the great Atonement is unfathomable. But, the Atonement 1 2 Cor. viii. 9. ' Phil. ii. 5—7. ' rauVj; (cat aapKa dydXijfty. Strom, lib. vii. Op. p. 735. Ed. 1641. Serm. III.] OF THE REDEEMER. 91 itself being admitted with all gratitude as a revealed fact, we can then in some measm'e comprehend that He must be "just" who should be accepted as a sacrifice at all ; that as a man it " became Him to fulfil all righteousness;" that He must be entirely " obedient," even if that obedience in- volved, as it did, " obedience unto death, even the death of the cross,"' And yet more easily may we comprehend that to offer Himself a sacrifice at all He must become mortal. He could only die as the Son of man. This is so obvious, apparently, to our reason, that divines, ancient and modern, assert it con- tinually. " On this account," says Athanasius, " the Word being God was made flesh, that having been put to death in the flesh He might make all live by His power." And Chrysostom : " That He might offer a sacrifice capable of cleansing us, for this cause was He made man."^ St. Paul himself, indeed, intimates the same truth. " We see Jesus who was made a httle lower than the angels .... that he by the grace of ^ Phil. ii. 8. Aiu TQVTO 0£oe (iv Aoyog yiyovt arap^, iVa davaT(i)deic (rapKt ^(t)07roif] (Tioi^onii'T] 7-w yivEL. And again, ocog ujcnrep kcu u'/jj^/; twi' elg rj/idg dyaQ^v yivofieyog. Sio ^q Kal (prjcrif' Eyw elfil rj oBog Ei T^g warrep irpog ij/jag r\ deia Kct-ajjejSrjKe j^^dpig, v\pov(Ta Kal ayia^ovaa Kal Zo^d^ovcra Kal QtonOLOvaa rrfv ^vglv ev Trpojru) Xptir-w- S. Cyril. Thesaurus, xx. Op. torn. v. p. 197. Ed. 1638. The passages in question from Jackson and Hooker are given above in note C. Serm. IV.] SANCTIFICATIOy. 129 be the source or the proof of doctrine. We know no proof of doctrine but the Scriptures. We turn then to the Scriptures ; and the words of the text may be alleged — " partakers of the Divine nature." For this is indeed one of the cardinal points of the system. " That process," it is said, " which has its beginning in the truth, ' The Word was made flesh,' has for its conclusion, ' that we might be partakers of the Divine nature.'" " That men ' might be partakers of the Divine nature' was the wonderful result," — " the result of the impulse which was bestowed in the Incarna- tion " of the Word.^ But is there really here any mysterious doctrine, beyond that general mystery of the Gospel, the fulfilment in this life of its " exceeding great and precious promises," the inestimable gift of the Spirit, the indwelling o;" God within us by His Holy Spirit ? Xo doubt. His presence within us is a mystery ; and holiness without His grace is impossible. But beyond this all is clear. — " Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect:" "Be ye holy, because I am holy :" " — that we might be partakers of His holiness." No one argues from texts like these to any literal participation by men of the Divine nature ; nor should we from the text if ' Wilberforce on the Incarnation, ch. xiii. pp. 419, 434, 435. 130 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Seem. IV. it were only rendered " partakers of a divine nature," that is, a godly nature, a divine character, having escaped from the corruptions of the world and the flesh through grace. ^ " Your life is hid with Christ in God."'~This is another expression of Holy Writ, over which poetical minds have thrown an air of mystery, altogether foreign from its real meaning. Here is the poetical comment : " When St. Paul says that our life is hid with Christ in God, we may suppose him to intimate, that our principle of exist- ence is no longer a mortal, earthly principle, such as Adam's after his fall ; but — the principle of our spiritual existence is Divine, is an ineffable presence of God ; we are baptized and hidden anew in God's glory, in that Shekinah of light and purity Avhich we lost when Adam fell ; we are new-created, * See the Primary Charge of the Bishop of Hereford, (1850,) note, p. 46. The words of the text, Qila^ koivljjoI (fyvatur, " should be translated simply, ' partakers of a divine nature,' as contrasted with 'a carnal nature.'" But though some few of the commentators, as Qilcumenius and Theophylact, have sought to refer them to some kind of participation of the Divine nature, (Christ, they say, having sanctified our nature by assuming it, and if the first-fruits be holy, then the lump is holy,) yet most of them have spoken of divine qualities or dispositions, purity, holiness, &c. ; and the passages above referred to establish this interpretation. Cf Heb. xii. 10, — • tig TO fJeraXaj^e'iv rijs dyiorr^TOQ avTOV. Matt. V. 48 j 1 Pet. i. 2, 14—16, 22 ; Lev. xi. 44 ; xix. 2 ; Rom. i, 5 ; vi. 16. ^ Col. iii. .3. Sbkm. IV.] SANCTIFICATION. 131 enriched, transformed, spritualized, glorified in the Divine nature ; through the participation of Christ, we receive, as through a channel, the true presence of God within and without us, imbuing us with sanctity and immortality." ^ But how far is this from the mind of St. Paul ! Consider the whole passage, and you will not doubt that he is speaking of no recondite subject, but in simple terms, though in exalted language, of our present and om* future life. For this is not our true Hfe ; our true life is not here, but hereafter ; not on earth, but in heaven. Therefore, as he says in another place, " Our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body:" or as St. John, " Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that, when he shall appear, v/e shall be like him ; " — and so here — " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Clu'ist sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, (who is) our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." There is much here of what the Apostle calls " the hope laid up for them in ' J. H. Newman on Justification. Lect. ix. p. 25 L 132 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Serm. IV. heaven/' nothing of their participation on earth of " the glorified humanity of Christ."^ But it is further said, He is the second Adam ; and as our corrupt nature is derived from the first, so must our regenerate and renovated nature flow from the second. Just so it is that uninspired w^-iters pass beyond the inspired. Twice the Apostle dwells on this comparison, and calls the first Adam *' the figure of him that was to come." " By the offence of the first, all are dead ; hy the obedience of the second, shall many reign in life." The first " was made a living soul," the last " a quickening spirit." " The fu'st man of the earth, earthy ; the second, the Lord from heaven." " And as we have borne the image of the earthv, we shall also bear the imaoe of the heavenly."' And so, in other places, is the pre- eminence of tiie Saviour described, in His new and spiritual kingdom. He is " the firstborn among many brethren ;" " the image of the in- visible God, the firstborn of every creature ;" " the Head of the body, the Church ; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead ; that in all things Pie might have the pre-eminence." But that is not a sound criticism which presses any figurative language beyond the sense which the • Cf. Col. i. 5 ; iii. 1—5, &c. ; Phil. iii. 17—21 ; 1 John iii. 2, 3; Rom. viii. 17, 18, 29 ; 1 Cor. xv. 49. " Rom. V. 12—21 ; 1 Cor. xv. 45—49. Seem. IV.l SAXCTIFICATION. 133 context assigns to it. And where is there, in all these passages, any intimation of anything like a physical connexion between the second Adam and His spii'itual offspring ? ' ' See Rom. v. 14 ; viii. 29 ; 1 Cor. xv. 45—49 ; Col. i. 15 — 18. Of these passages the most frequently cited, per- haps, in aid of these theories, is 1 Cor. xv. 45, " the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit ;" as, by Mr. Ne^vman on Justification, pp. 239 — 254, (from which some remarkable extracts have been given in Note C.) and ^[r. Wilberforce on the Incarnation. " The pattern form is perfectly developed." &c., " and all men who will, may by the new birth of regene- ration be united to Christ." Hence " the union of our inferior with that superior niture," tfcc. (Ch. iii. p. 78.) " That our Lord's body has some especial eifect in this work of regeneration, follows from the peculiar attribute of an innate life, with which itself is declared to have been invested." (Ch. iv. p. 92 : cf. pp. 295, 303.) And as of individuals, so of the Church : '•' The Church is one because it is the body of Christ, and because it is quickened by His Spiritual Presence. Through spiritual life does His body natural act upon mankind, and become germinant of that which is called His Body mystical from its relation to Himself. — Thus has God made Him ' the firstborn among many brethren.' Christ's Humanity, that stone cut out of the mine of man's na- ture without his co-operation, has swelled up into a mountain. Its cementing principle is that quickening influence of the second man, by which He lives in all His members. Thus do they trace to Christ's manhood their spiritual life, as to Adam their natural parentage." (Ch. xi. p. 317.) These writers interpret the passage, accordingly, of the influence of Christ upon His spiritual members on earth. The com- mentators, ancient and modern, with scarcely any exception, refer it to His influence upon our mortal bodies at the resur- rection ; which the context, and the pr^rallel passages, prove to be the correct interpretation. Cf. John v. 21 ; vi. 33, 39, 134 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Serm. iV. But then it is further said He rose, " He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." Yet, what does the Apostle more plainly intimate than that these are the gifts of the Spuit given after His ascension, according to His promise? No refined theories can be properly raised on this foundation.^ 40, 54, 57; xi. 25, 26; Rom. viii. 11; 2 Cor. ir. 14; Phil. iii. 20, 21 ; Col. iii. 4. ^ And this, notwithstanding any countenance which such theories may be supposed to derive from the Mediator's receivivg gifts, according to the Psalmist, and hestoioing them, according to St. Paul. Compare Eph. iv. 8— :-13 ; Psa. IxA'iii. 18 ; and see 1 Cor. xii. 1—12, 28—31 ; Acts i. 4 ; ii. 33 ; Luke xxiv. 49 ; John xiv. 16, 26; xvi. 7; — which will abundantly support the received interpretation of the Apostle's words. But a more refined theology supposes our Lord to have become the storehouse of all spiritual gifts, as it were, in His human nature, from whose fulness they flow over to all His spiritual family. There is a trace of this notion, perhaps, in Theodoret commenting upon Heb. ix. 14, and referring to John i. 16. But the passing thought of the old writer becomes the formal system of the modern commentator. " Were Christ one man beside and among many others, it were indeed inconceivable how His doing and suffering could nave any essential influence upon collective humanity; He could have worked only by doctrine and example ; but He is, besides His Divine nature, to be conceived of as the Man, that is, as realizing the absolute idea of mankind, and therefore potentially bearing mankind in Himself spiritually, just as Adam did corporeally. This character of the human nature of Christ is designated in dogmatism by the term imper- sonalitas, and Philo, anticipating the profound idea, described the Logos as tov kut dXiiOeiav uyQpwTTor, that is, as the idea Serm. IV.] SANCTiri CATION. 135 Yet, again, the intimate union betwixt Christ and His Church is set forth in Holy Writ by a variety of images. " He is the vine, we the of man, the human ideal. According to this His universal character, the Redeemer becomes in twofold respect vicarious; first, in that standing in the stead of sinful men, by His own suflfering He takes their suffering on Himself, as sacrifice for the sins of the world : then, in that He perfected in Himself absolute righteousness and holiness, so that the believer does not generate them afresh, but receives their seed in the Spirit of Christ. The former is the ohedientia passiva, the latter the ohedientia activa. — In both relations the power of Christ in its transition into mankind is to be compared with a move- ment proceeding from a centre, concentrically diffusing itself. Christ brings His death and resitrrection to every individual, the former for the old, the latter for the new man." " He was Himself the whole, in that He essentially included in Himself the totality of the life, which unfolded from Him, as the germ does the whole tree to be developed from it." " The Christian has only constantly to receive the stream of the influential powers of Christ's life upon him, and this receiving is faith itself. Just so the tree, when the development of its germ is begun, kc. And yet this utmost 23cissii>iti/ is at the same time the utmost activity, since Christ does not work out of the man, but in the very innermost depth of his most secret self, and then pours the stream of His whole active power through the will." (Olshausen on Romans v. 15, 19, 30, pp. 201, 259, 281, 301, in the English Translation, Edinb. 1849.) The reader will compare with some of the extracts in Note C this specimen of the combination of Scriptural truths with philosophical developments. Compare also the following pas- sages from the work above cited on the Incarnation : " That Sacred Manhood which was created for the service of the Mediator between God and Man, in Avhich were stored up ' the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' that from it 'grace and truth' might flow forth into the whole race 136 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Skrm. IV. branches ;" " He is the head of the body, of which we all are members;" "from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that of man, has a real medium of presence througbi the Deity which is joined to it : so that it can be in all places and with all persons — not figuratively, but in truth — not by material contact, but by the power of a spiritual presence." (Ch. X. p. 282.) " The consecration of His man's nature, made it the fountain from which grace should flow forth into His brethren. So soon as that exaltation of humanity, which it gained by His Incarnation, was perfected by His consequent obedience, He bestowed as Mediator that rencAving power which the Third Person in the Ever-blessed Trinity was the willing agent to convey. And this is why God the Holy Ghost can be spoken of as coining to men, who otherwise, like each Person of the Almighty Three, leaves no portion of space or duration of time unoccupied by His presence. Now this gift, as the Psalmist predicts, Christ as Mediator was to receive, that afterwards, according to the saying of the Apostle, He might bestow it upon men." (P. 283.) " The office of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel kingdom is that men may become the sons of God by grace — by their union with that man who is the Son of God by nature. For as we are men by natural alliance with that first Man, Adam, who by reason of His creation is called God's Son, so we are renewed men only if we are joined by svipernatural union to that second man, the new Adam, who is God's Son by nature." (P. 284.) " This blessed Spirit becomes the agent through which that sanctified humanity of the Son of God exerts its renewing influence upon the defiled humanity of His brethren. ' The Spirit testifies as of sin, so of righteousness, because it reveals how the Saviour, though departed in body, works unseen in the renewal of the inner life.' (Olshausen on John xvi. 10.) That it should be the office of the Holy Ghost to unite men in this manner to the humanity of Christ is the result there- fore of His co-operating in that mediatorial function, which Serm. IV.] SANCTIFICATION. 137 which every joint suppHeth, (according to the effec- tual working in the measure of every part,) niaketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself ni love." We are to "put on Christ," to be "in Christ," and "Christ in us." We are his "house," we are as " living stones built up a spiritual house;" "rooted and built up in Him ;" "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in ^Yhom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."^ "An habitation of God through the Spirit" — this last passage sufficiently explains the rest. And the very multiplicity of the images ought to prevent our dwelling exclusively upon any one of them ; nor ought any one of them to be extended beyond what the context requires. We are no more to argue for any kind of physical imion betwixt Christ and His Church, because the branches are physically nurtured from the vine, than to contend the Eternal Son became Incarnate to undertake." (P. 286.) Sentiments and phrases, these, in which the author often has the support, no doubt, of Dr. Jackson and Olshausen, but not that, I apprehend, of Holy Scripture. ' John XV. 1—6 ; Col. i. 18 ; Eph. i. 10, 22 ; iv. 1-5, 16 ; V. 23 ; 1 Cor. xii. 12—27 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; iii. 27 ; Rom. xiii. 14 ; 2 Cor. V. 17 ; 1 Cor. iii. 9, 11 ; ileb. iii. 6 ; Col. ii. 7 ; 1 Pet. ii. ; Eph. ii. 20—22. 138 UNJON WITH CHRIST, [Serm. IV. for the separation of the members of Christ, because the stones of a building are not physically one. It is an ungrateful task thus to examine critically, and reduce to literal meanings, the noble images of Scriptm'e. Would I were not constrained to do so ! 2. Lastly, the doctrine of ilte Sacraments is supposed to countenance the theories in question, or rather to be actually founded upon them. A few words, therefore, on this subject, before we conclude. For what say the Christian Scriptures ? What, indeed, have we heard this morning with reference to Christian BajJtism, but this, " Except a man be born again, horn of water and of the Sjnrit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."' This from our Lord himself, in passages justly interpreted of that Holy Sacrament which He afterwards appointed as the gate of admission into His Church. What this " Regeneration " is, cannot properly be known from any analysis of the mere term itself. The Fathers sometimes transfer the " Illumination" which should precede Christian Baptism to the Rite. The Scriptures > John iii. 3, 5: cf. i. 13; 1 Cor. xii. 13 ; Gal. vi. 15 ; Col. ii. 12; iii. 1 ; Tit. iii. o ; James i. IS ; 1 Pet. i. 23; 1 John iii. 9. See Bishop Bethell, on Regeneration in Baptism, cli. iii. p. 23 ; ch. iv. p. 27 ; and the citations from the Fathers in Suicer, nnder TraXiyyeveaia, drdaramr, th'ayci t ijaic, (pwrl^io, Serm. IV.] SANCTIFICATION. 139 connect it with far higher privileges. Sometimes they speak of our being "risen again " with Clnist in Baptism ; more frequently of our being " born again," "born of God;" "begotten of Him with the word of truth;" "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." And the import of these gracious terms appears from the " remission of sins," the " reconciliation to God," the incorporation into Christ's Church, " the adoption to be the sons of God," the becoming " new creatures," the union both with Christ and with all His members, which are spoken of as the fruit and effects of Christian Baptism. But although Christ is the root of all these benefits, the Holy Spirit is the immediate agent and donor, for we are born " of water and of the Spirit,'' and " bi/ one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." And where is there aught in Scripture of our being thus " united," as it is expressed, " to the man's nature of Christ," the "Humanity" of the second Adam? — unless, indeed, we impose some mystic meaning upon the terms of Holy Writ, or even argue, as has been attempted, from the fact of our being thus made members of the Body of Christ — that is. His Body figuratively so called. His mystical Body the Church — to our deriving a new nature from His actual Human body ; and so, as it has been expressed, " the body of the regene- 140 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Serm. IY. rate person becomes the flesli of the crucified "I one. ' But is it not in truth by a similar misuse of Scriptural metaphors that something like a physical union with Christ, or a physical change in our- selves, is also conceived to be the Scriptural doctrine of the effect of the Lord' s Suj)per? Let it not be supposed that I deny or doubt the real spiritual effect of either blessed Sacrament, or would insinuate that the figurative terms employed in Holy Writ have no real meaning. Quite the reverse. We cannot express Divine things at all, ' S. Leo, Serm. Ixiii. In Passioue Domini, xiv. c. 6, as cited and adopted by Archdeacon Wilberforce on the Incarna- tion, ch. xiii. p. 410. The words in the original are — " Dum enim renunciatur diabolo, et creditur Deo, dum in novitatem vetustate transitur, dum terreni hominis imago deponitur, et coelestis forma suscipitur : qucedam species mortis et qua^dam similitude resurrectionis intervenit, ut susceptus a Christo, et Christum suscipiens, non idem sit post lavacrum, qui ante baptismum fuit, sed corpus regenerati fiat caro crucifixi." And so "of the other Sacrament in c. 7, a similar expression occurs — " Dum fermento veteris malitite abjecto, nova creatura de ipso Domino inebriatur et pascitur. Non enim aliud agit participatio Corporis et Sanguinis Christi, quam ut in id quod sumimus transeamus ; et in quo com- mcrtui et consepulti, et conresuscitati sumus, ipsum per omnia et spiritu et carne gestemus, dicente Apostolo ; Mortui enim estis, (tc." (CoL iii. 3, 4.) Op. torn. i. p. 284. Ed. 1675. But the general strain of the Sermon is unlike these sentences. Why are such stray passages selected or imitated ? Skrm. IV.] SA>'CTIFI CATION. 141 except by analogical and figurative terras, wliicli all have a true and real meaning, tliougli not a literal sense, when so employed. But call to mind the well-knoAvn terms of Scripture respecting the Holy Eucharist, — whether of the sacred elements, " This is my body," " This is my blood of the new Testa- ment," " This cup is the new Testament iu my blood;" or of our participation, "The cup of blessing, the communion of the blood of Christ ; the bread which A\'e break, the communion of the body of Christ ;" or of our consequent union with one another, " For we being many are one bread and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one bread ;" or of our union with Christ himself, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you ; he that eateth me, even he shall live by me;"' — for even the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel may well be understood to have had not indeed an immediate, but yet a prospective, and secondary application to the Holy Supper, as one of the means by which we partake of Clirist. — Recollect all these terms, and what shall we say ? Either they are figurative, or they are not. If they are not, then indeed the Roman doctrine is not without Scriptural founda- tion — which no one here will allow ; but if they are figurative, — and I do not stay to prove what ' Matt. xxvi. 26 ; Mark xiv. 22 ; Luke xxii. 19 ; 1 Cor. xi. 23, &c.; X. 16—21 ; John vi. 53, &c. 142 UNION WTTH CHRIST. [Serm. !V. has been admirably argued again and again/ — if they are figurative, then let us ever remember that they are so, and not attempt to give them a jyar^zV//// literal signification. Doubtless to the faithful communicant there is vouchsafed a real, and effectual, that is to say, a spiritual participation of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. What is only true figuratively, may be true really, and in ?^far higher sense ; but it is not true literally. By none of these expressions can it be proved that we literally partake of the body and blood of Christ whether material or glorified. Why, then, this continual endeavour to convert Figures into Literal truths ? to convert the Eucharist as nearly as we can into an actual Sacrifice, or the sacred elements as nearly as we can, or as we dare, into the actual body and blood of our blessed Lord? 2 ^ See e.g. Bishop Turton on the Eucharist, part ii. § i. — iii. ^ For examples of the theories and expressions alluded to, see Note C. Add the following from the work already cited on the Incarnation, as to the Holy Communion being a sacrifice (after Irenjieus and Mede) — " as truly a sacrifice as any of those ancient rites to which that term was commonly applied, either in Scripture or by men." It is, indeed, added, " that its efficacy should be rested wholly upon that sacrifice of Christ upon the cross once for all, which forms the basis of His Mediation ;" and of this it is truly stated, that its value is infinite, and " to this sacrifice, therefore, no acts of ours can contribute anything." Nevertheless, of the Eucharist, as in an especial manner " the Christian sacrifice," it is said, Berm. IV.] SANCTinCATION. 143 And one word more. Por how easy is it, more- over, not only to misinterpret or misemploy a Scrip- tural metaphor, but to add to it ! and so to pass from Scripture to Poetry, from Poetry to Theory ! St. Paul, enforcing the duties of husband and wife, strikingly illustrates the intimate union be- tween Christ and His Church, by the institution of marriage. So intimate is this mysterious union between Christ and His members, that he can adopt and apply to them the words of Genesis, " of his flesh and of his bones." So far Holy Scrip- ture.' But the poetry of theology is not so content. There are other circumstances in the sacred history; and though St. Paul is silent, yet are they to be introduced. So one has said, " The Church is in Christ, as Eve was in xVdam. God made Eve of the rib of Adam. And His Church he frameth out of the very flesh, the very wounded and bleeding " Through this bread and this cup, that which is offered as a true sacrifice in heaven, is present as a real though im- material agent in the Church's ministrations. So that what is done by Christ's ministers below, is a constituent part of that general Avork which the one great High Priest per- forms in heaven : through the intervention of his heavenly Head, the earthly sacrificer truly exhibits to the Father that body of Christ, which is the one only sacrifice for sins ; each visible act has its efficacy through those invisible acts of which it is the earthly expression ; and things done on earth are one with those done in heaven." — Ch. xii. pp. 368, 369, 371, et mi. ' Geu. ii. 23, 24 ; Eph. v. 22, 23. 144 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Serm. IV. side of the Son of man. His body crucified and His blood shed for the life of the world are the true elements of that heavenly being which maketh us such as himself is, of whom we come. For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the words of Christ concerning His Church, ' flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones,' a true native extract out of mine own body." ^ But water and blood flowed also from that w^ounded side; St. John emphatically asserts the fact ; our Church alludes to it ; but the idea is carried further. From that wounded side there " gushed forth water to cleanse, and blood to redeem :" or, " These two sacraments flowed from our blessed Lord's pierced side, whereby we are united willi Him :" ^ or with others, we are thus 1 Hooker, E. P. b. v. ch. 56, § 7, cited by Mr. Wilberforce (p. 315) in support of a conclusion to which, notwithstanding these material images, Hooker surely would not have assented "that some real relation must bind together that body natural which Christ took by His Incarnation, and His body mystical, the Church, so that our union with the one must be a ground of union with the other." ^ Augustin has the same idea pursued at greater length : — " Ut enim in exordio generis humani de latere viri dormi- entis costa detracta foemina fieret, Christum et Ecclesiam tali facto jam tunc prophetari oportebat. Sopor quippe ille viri, mors erat Christi, cujus exanimis in cruce pendentis latus lancea perforatum est, atque inde sanguis et aqua profluxit; qure sacramenta esse novimus, quibus aedificatur Ecclesia. Nam hoc etiam verbo Scriptura usa est. ubi non legitur Sekm. IV.] SANCTIFICATION. 145 united to " His man's nature/' " His humanity ;" or with others, we become partakers, " not of that body and blood such as it was when shed upon the Cross, but in a higher, glorified and spiritual state," ' And thus we proceed from Poetry to Theory, and from Theory to the very confines of Rome. HI. But to di'aw these observations to a close. Wearisome as these discussions may have appeared to some of my hearers, to others who have learned to accept and admire the theories objected to, these brief notices will scarcely seem sufficient to sustain the objections. But let them pursue the hints which I have ventured to suggest, and rigidly apply the test of Scripture to these refined speculations. For first, if I do not err, these theories, whatever else they may be, are not Scriptural. Nay, they are not the doctrine either of the Church or of Scriptures. They are developments. But whatever doctrine is not revealed, is not doctrine. We may not reason from Scripture, upon subjects above the reach of finite understanding? ; much less must we ' Formavit' aut 'Finxit,' sed '^Edificavit earn in mulierem ;' unde et Apostolus Eedificationem dicit corporis Cliristi, quod est Ecclesia." — De Civ. Dei, 1. xxii. c. xvii. j the -nhole chapter presenting a notable specimen of Patristic commen- tary, such as we should not imitate. ' J. H. Newman on Justification, p. 236. J- 146 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Serm. IV. give the rein to fancy, and pursue fanciful specula- tions, concerning the being of Christ, His Incarna- tion, His Mediation, the mode of the efficacy of His Sacraments. Yet, to speak plainly, they are more than not Scriptural ; for if they are this, then also, however piously imagined, they cannot but savoiu' of pre- sumption and irreverence. I am sure, that nothing was further from the intention of the theorists. But the fault is inherent in the nature of the specu- lations themselves ; that is to say, in all human speculation upon subjects of that high and sacred character. Nay, further, they are fraught with many prac- tical dangers to others and to om'selves. We gaze upon the exalted humanity of the Saviour till we exalt ourselves with Him, and speak in complacent terms of " the dignity of man." Alas, that we should thus convert the greatest proof at once of the Divine mercy, and of human guilt and weakness, into an occasion of extolling " the dignity of man ! " ' " Chrjsostom has dropped a casual sentence to tliis effect, in his comment on Heb. ii. IG : kuI yap ovtwq /.li-ya icai Qavfiaarov kuI EKTrXij^ewg ysfior, rijv i^ r/juw*' (Tc'ipKci avo) KadijtTdai, Kai irpoaKwiAadai, k. t. X. (Hom. V.) Calvin says better, "Quod ergo nos angelis pra^tulit, nou factum est excellentije nostrte, sed miserite respectu. Quare non est, quod nos esse angelis superiores gloriemur, nisi quia ampliore misericordia, qua indigebamus, nos prosequutus est ccelestis Pater, ut tantam bonitatem in terras effusam angcli ipsi ex alto susciperent." Serm. IV.] SANCTinCATION. 147 But tliG dignity of the priesthood also, that is, of Christian ministers, is exaggerated by any exag- gerated or perverted view of the Sacraments which they minister. Whence also suspicions, not with- out some justice, amongst our hearers, of priestly ambition and of Roman doctrine. Even in our country parishes, simple people arc perplexed by novel phrases and novel views, and jealousy is mixed with their perplexity. The love and appre- ciation of the blessed Sacraments meanwhile are not advanced. Do not imagine that they are. Rather the reverse. Whatever exaggerates, undermines. And we also of this place are in part responsible for these things ; and the reproaches heaped upon us, not without justice, are augmented, if from us pro- ceeds a strain of speculative or sentimental teach- ing, tending evidently towards the corruptions of Rome, (it is idle to deny it,) and not in harmony with the analogy of faith ; whilst the great and gracious doctrine of Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ is, I do not say, superseded, but thrown into shade, by theories of something too like a physical union through the Sacraments with the divine or human nature of the great Mediator. And why this inclination to depart from the simplicity of Holy Scripture? In vain shall we seek to understand the mysteries of the Incarnation, of the two natures of Christ, of our union with 148 UNION WITH CHRIST. [Sekm. IV. Him, of the effects of His blessed Sacraments, of the in-dwelHiig of God in the regenerate by His HoJy Spirit. Understand them, on earth at least, we never shall. Apply them in practice we easily may, and, if we would win heaven, we must. No thought more mysterious than that God dwells in us by His Spirit, no thought nevertheless more directly and cogently practical. We have " exceed- ing great and precious promises." Our Lord " hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." It rests with us to use them according to His gracious purpose. " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Nothing can be more sui^e. Antinomianism, like Romanism, and unlike most other heresies, is directly opposed to hoili Testaments, the Old as well as the New ; nay to reason, as well as to revelation. And the means of holiness are no less clear ; and Christ will assuredly bless His own ordinances, even when He has not expressly promised His blessing.' Only let us aspire after holiness, and use the means of holiness, early, earnestly, habitually, perseveringly, from our tenderest years to the latest day of our brief span of trial. So shall we increase in grace more and more, escape and subdue more and more "the corruption that is in the world through lust," ' J. Taylor, Devout Communicant, cli. i, sect. i. "Works, vol. XV. pp. 404, 405. Sekm. IV.] SANCTiriCATlON. 149 become more and more " partakers of a divine nature," " builded together " even here " for an habitation of God through the Spirit," " conformed" even here " to the image of His Son," hereafter, " at the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," to " bear the image" of " the Lord from heaven," and " to be like Him when we shall see Him as He is." ' Almighty God, who hast given us Thy only- begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born of a pure Virgin ; grant that we being- regenerate, and made Thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit ; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen. 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