# ^ ■1 # 1 1 '^ o ^ ■ 1 ^ ^^i?^ ■ 1 -H >. ^ ^ ^ f^ >^ o ^ ^ §5 ^ •^ (DO) ■^ x: X! ^ O CO s ^ ^ ^ c: ^ o o • •^o> u o o we provoke the Lord to jealousy ?'* . . 114 Contents, LEOTUEE VI. OF THE mTEEOESSION EST THE PEATER FOE THE OnUEOH MILITANT. 1 Tim. i. 1, 2. PAGE *^ lexJiort tlierefore, tJiat, first of all, supplications, prayers, inter- cessions, and giving of tkanlcs, be made for all men / ** For Icings, and for all tliat are in autliority ; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and Jionesty,^^ . , 128 LECTURE YII. OF THE COlSEMEMOEATIOISr OF THE DEAD IN THE OFFICE OF THE HOLT CQjyiMUNlOIsr. Heb. xii. 22, 23. ^^ But ye are come .... to tJie spirits of just men made perfect,'* . 143 PAET III. LEOTUEE I. OF THE EXHOETATION AT THE TIME OF THE COMMUNION. Matt. yii. 6, " Give not tTiat wliich is lioly unto tTie dogs, Neither cast ye your pearls before swine,'* . . 159 LEOTUEE 11. OF THE INVITATION. Luke xiv. 17. " Ee sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come ; for all things are now ready,'* .... 171 Contents, xi LECTURE III. OF THE COXFESSIOX. 1 JOHK i. 9. PAGE " If we confess ovr sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrigMeousness,' . . 183 LECTUEE IV. OF MESnSTEEIAIi ABSOLIJTIOX. John xx. 21-23. " Then said Jesus to them again, Peace le unto you / as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He treathed on them, and saith unto them, Beceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them / and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained,^^ . . 193 LECTURE V. OF THE FOEMS IN "WTUCH THE PE0TESTA2TT EPISCOPAL CHUECH IN AMEEIOA DISPENSES ABSOLUTION. John xx. 22, 23. " When He had said this, He treathed on them, and saith unto them, Beceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them / and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained/* . . ,•.... 20G LECTURE YI. OF THE FOUE COilFOETAELE "W^OEDS, Hebrews x., part of ver. 22. ^'' Let us draw near . . . . in full assurance cf faith," . .218 xii Contents. # PAET lY. LEOTUEE I. OF THE PEEFAOE OF THADSTKSGIVriNrG, AND OF ITS EELATION TO THE TEESANOTUS. Hebeews xiii. 15. PAGE ** By Him therefore let us offer ihe sacrifice of praise to God con- tinually , tliat is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name,^^ ........ 231 LECTURE II. OF OTTE COMMUNION WITH THE ANGELS, AND OF THE TEESANOTUS. YipoatkrfkvQarz [wpLactv ayykX(jiv. — Heb. xii. 22 (part). " Ye are come . . . .to an innumerable company of Angels,^' , 241 LECTURE IIL OF THE PEATEE OF ACCESS. Luke ix. 34. 1 ** They feared as they entered into the clotid," , . , 252 LECTURE IV. OF THE FIEST PAET OF THE PEATEE OF CONSEOEATION. Luke xxii. 19. ** This do in remembrance of Me," ..... 264 Contents, xiii LEOTUEE V. OF THE CONSECEATION OF THE ELEMENTS, AND THE OBLATION. 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5. PAGE ^^ For every creature of God is good, and notMng to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving : for it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer,^ ...... 276 LEOTUEE yi. _ THE DOCTEDvE OF THE BTJCHAEIST. 1 Cor X. 16. " The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not thecomrhu/nion of the Blood of Christ ? The bread which we breah, is it not the com- munion of the Blood of Christ ^ " . .... 286 LEOTUEE yn. THE BLESSING OF THE EUCHAEI3T, "SVITH A FtFETHEE ELLUSTEATION OF ITS DOCTEINE. 1 CoE. vi. 17. " He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit,^* , , . 800 LEOTUEE Vm. * OF THE SENTENCES OF ADMINISTEATION. John vi. 57. " He that eaieth Me, even he shall live by J/e," . . . 310 xiv Contents. LECTURE IX. OF THE POST-COMMUNION. John xvii. 1. Matt. xxvi. 80. PAOB " These rvords sj)ake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to Heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come .... And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Moimt of Olives,^' . . 322 LECTURE X. OF THE BENEDICTION. ♦John xiv. 27. , " Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto you/^ ..... 331 APPENDIX. A SEEMON DIRECTED AGAINST TEANSTJBSTANTIATION AND KINDEED EEEOES. John ir. 49, 50. Matt. viii. 8-10. " TJie nolleman saith unto him. Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him. Go thy way : thy son liveth. ** The centurion answered and said. Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof : hut speah the word only, and my servant shall he healed. ** For lam a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man. Go, and he goeth ; and to another. Come, and he Cometh / and to m,y servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it He m^arvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,'* . . . . . . . . ZiZ INTRO DUG TORT. I 'EC. FEB 188; THSGLOGICAL LECTUEE I. THE HISTOEICAL OEIGIN OF THE HOE§^. COMMITNION. " 2r!)S memorial, © SovH, ctttrurct]^ tfirouflfjout all flena^atiott:?/*— Psalm cxxxv. 13. Before entering on the consideration of the EngKsh Office of the Holy Communion, it will be proper, by way of Preface, to give a slight sketch of the history and origin of the Ordinance. Those who desire to understand Christianity thor- oughly, whether in its doctrines or in its institutions, should always bear in mind that Judaism was the cradle of it. In fact, Christianity was not so much a new re- ligion as the extraordinary development of a religion which had long existed. Judaism, indeed, was a nar- row dull-coloured chrysalis ; and Christianity in com- parison of it is like the painted butterfly, free and ethe- real, which disports itself in sunlight and air ; still as the butterfly was once confined in the chrysalis, so the germ of Cliristianity lay hid in Judaism. " The salva- tion " (said our Lord to the woman of Samaria) " is of the Jews." The Saviour Himself was a Jew, pointed at by the silent (yet eloquent) finger of a thoHsand ora- cles, given by God's holy Prophets, " which had been 4 The Historical Origin [inteo- since the world began." His Apostles, the great instru- ments of propagating His religion, were all Jews, reared in Jewish habits of thought, surrounded by JeAvish asso- ciations, devout men according to the Law. Many of the doctrines which they proclaimed on the housetop (such as the Resurrection, the Atonement, and to a cer- tain extent the Trinity) had been whispered in the ear under the Law, spoken of under the voice mysteriously as subjects reserved for the initiated, and on which fuller revelations were ^ store for God*s people. The highest and most comprehensive precept which they had to give, — " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," — had been given ages before by the great Jewish Legisla- tor. The petitions of the Model Prayer^ which they were to put into the mouth of disciples, did not (for the most part) originate with their Divine Master ; they had been floating about previously in the devotional literature of the Jews ; and Christ's part in them was chiefly that of compilation and arrangement. Baptism, the initia- tory rite of Christianity, was perfectly familiar to the Jews of the time of Christ. It had been practised for long centuries at the admission of Proselytes ; and the authority for it was supposed to be derived ^ from the ^ "They" (the Jewish writers) " take notice that Moses (Numb. XV. 15) orders thus, One ordinance shall he both for you of the con- gregation, and also for the stranger (or proselyte) that sojourneth with ■you. Now they reckon that the Israelites themselves were at their entering into Covenant with God at the time of their receiving the Law in Mount Sinai, all of them washed or baptized. So they under- stand those words (Exod. xix. 10), And the Lord said tmto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day^ — Wall's History of Infant Baptism. Introduction, § 2. DUCTOKY.] of the Holy Communion. 5 direction for a ceremonial washing, wliicli Moses gave the people before they were formallj admitted into cov- enant with God at Mount Sinai. And what shall we say of the Lord's Supper? That it grew entirely out of the Jewish Paschal Festival, which it was destined to super- sede ; that'^the elements of wine and unleavened bread had been used for long centuries in the Paschal feast, and a blessing or consecration pronounced over them, long before our Lokd by Sis Blessing converted them into a Sacrament of His Religion. Let us, as it were, visit the Lord's Supper in this its cradle, by recounting some particulars of the Paschal Festival, as they are given by Jewish writers. All Jewish feasts were preluded with a ceremonial washing, which, in the case of the Passover, was re- peated in the course of it. The washing of the disciples' feet, when the supper was served,'^ was a usual ceremo- ny, the only novel circumstance being that on this occa- sion the Master of the Feast Himself officiated in this humiliating way. After the first washing, the Master, ^ Our Authorized Yersion tells ^s that, " supper being ended^'' the washing of the Disciples' feet took place (John xiii. 2). This is a mistranslation. If the usual readhig delnvov -yevo/iivov be retained, the sense will be, " supper being served," or, " when supper had be- gun" (compare such expressions as 'jy^utpcf yn'OfihTjc, "when it was day," " when day had begun," Trputag yevofievTjg^ " when the morn- ing was come"). Tischendorf accepts the reading yivofzivov, which would mean, " when supper was beginning," " when they were on the point of sitting down." But, independently of particular ex- pressions, it is abundantly clear from the Sacred N"arrative that sup- per could-not have been " ended''^ when the washing took place; for it is represented as in progress afterwards (ver. 26), where we read, " Wh'Cn He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon." 6 Tli& Historical Origin [inteo- taking a cup of wine in his hand, said, " Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, the King of the Universe, who hast created the fruit of the vine." The cup was then passed from hand to hand, and each guest tasted it. Our Lord's conipliance with this early part of the cere- mony is mentioned by St. Luke alone, who makes it ex- tremely clear that this was not the Sacramental Cup, by referring shortly afterwards to that as " the Cup after Supper," whereas this Cup, and the participation of it, opened the proceedings. A table was then brought in, spread with bitter herbs, unleavened bread, and a thick sauce * made to resemble clay, and intended to remind the pious Israelite of his forefathers having made bricks in Egypt. Crowning all these viands, was the roasted body of the Passover Lamb. Then the Master blessed God, who created the fruit of the earth ; and dipping some of the herbs in the sauce, ate them, and was fol- lowed in this action by the whole company. (We are at once reminded that the dipping of a sop and the hand- ing it to Judas was the way in which our Blessed Lord indicated the traitor to his colleagues.) Then followed a formal declaration of thg grounds of the Paschal Insti- tution, which was done in this manner. A child, or some one assuming the character of a stranger, asked, " What meaneth this service ? " The answer was, " How diiferent is this night from all other nights ! for all other nights we wash but once, in this twice ; in all other nights we eat either leavened or unleavened bread, in this unleavened only ; in other nights, we eat any sort of herbs, in this night, bitter herbs ; in all other nights we eat and drink either sitting or lying, but in this we ^ It was called Charosdh^ and made of raisins, figs, dates, &c., pressed or stamped together. BucTOEY.] of the Holy Communion. 7 lie (or recline) only." (Remember that the disciple, "whom Jesus loved, was lyin(j on His iDOSom at supper.) Then followed a recital to this effect, — that the Passover was instituted to commemorate the Lord's passing over the houses of their fathers, — that the bitter herbs were eaten, to remind them how the Egyptians had made the lives of those fathers bitter ; and, thirdly, that the un- leavened bread was to remind them how they had been cast out of Egypt in haste, before their dough had time to be leavened. This formal recital, declaration, or showing forth of the grounds of the Paschal Institution, corresponds to, and is represented by, that passage of our CommunioQ Office which begins, "And to the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dy- ing for us, and the innumerable benefits which by His precious blood-shedding He hath obtained to us ; He hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of His love, and for a continual remembrance of His death, to our great and endless comfort." And to it no doubt St. Paul refers, when he says of the Christian Or- dinance : "As often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do sliow forth (declare, recite the intention and significance of) the Lord's Death, till He come.'* The second cup of wine was then blessed and partaken of; after which followed the breaking and distribution (after a thanksgiving similar to that said over the wine) of one of the unleavened cakes, two of which were always pro- vided. Then the company partook of the lamb, enga- ging in conversation the while ; and it was during this period probably that the indication of Judas, as traitor, by giving him a piece of bread sopped or dipped in the clay-like sauce, and his subsequent exit took place. 8 Tlie Historical Origin [intro- Thongh he joined in the Pasclial supper, there are good grounds for doubt* whether he was present at the insti- tution of the Eucharist. There was no reason why he should witness what, as his wicked design was now ma- tured bj Satan's entering into him, he would never have to hand down or administer. The conversation which we may suppose had dropped into an ominous silence after his sullen withdrawal, was beginning to revive, when the great Master of the Feast with peculiar solem- nity took the second unleavened cake, and, breaking it with both His hands according to the usual form, substi- tuted for the ordinary Judaical blessing certain words of His own, which gracious words were for eleven centuries of the Church's existence (as indeed they are now) the comfort of faithful hearts and simple minds, but since that time have been the rallying-point of controversy for curious and carnally-minded disputants : " Take, eat, this is my Body, which is given for you : Do this in re- membrance of Me." Soon after, the third cup was mingled, which was usually called " the -cup of blessing." Over this cup it was usual to give thanks for the Covenant of Circumcis- * It is a moot point whether Judas partook of the Holy Com- munion. The generality of modern critics (Dean ElUcott among the number) think his exit from the supper-room to have taken place before the Institution of the Eucharist, the latter half of which at all events is expressly said to have occurred ij-eto, to decTrv^aac " afia* supper," Luke xxii. 20, Our Prayer Book represents the view of the earlier commentators, who regard Judas as the first instance of an impenitent and unworthy communicant : " Lest after the taking of this Holy Sacrament the devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas." Canon Wordsworth and Dean Alford subscribe to this view. The precise chronological arrangement of the events of the Last Supper is surrounded with great difficulties. DT7CT0EY.] of the JSoly Communion. 9 ion, and for the Law of Moses. But " tlie cup of bless- ing " was now to commemorate a better Covenant, and a new Law ; and accordingly our Lord, here again aban- doning the customary formula, pronounced, and in pro- nouncing prescribed to His Church, these new words of Consecration : " Drink ye all of this ; for this is My Blood of the New Covenant " (observe, the cup had been hitherto the cup of the Old Covenant, thanksgiving for the blessings of the Old Covenant having been made over it), which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins." A fourth cup followed, and sometimes a fifth : though there are no traces of our Lord's havini? observed these . parts of the ceremonial, which do not seem to have been by the Jews themselves considered essential. The sup- per was terminated by singing certain Psalms ("When they had sung an hymn, they went out unto the Mount of Olives ") ; and if these Psalms, with which the festi- val closed, were, as they are commonly represented to have been, the 116th, 117th, and 118th, most striking under the circumstances must have been the use of those words which occur towards the end of the last of these : " God is the Lord, who hath showed us light : bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the Altar." The Victim was there, Who was to be sacrificed in the course of the next morning, and the cords were prepar- ing with which to bind Him ; for Judas was just hatch- ing his infernal plot, and, after the interlude of the Ag- ony and the disciples' slumber, it was to result in the action described in those words : " Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and hound Eimr 10 The HistoriGoL Origin [inteo- "We trust that no one, to whose mind this historical origin of the Lord's Supper is unfamiliar, will be dis- posed to think that we derogate from the dignity of the Ordinance when we thus trace up both parts of it to a Jewish rite. That Jewish rite was itself in its main feat-" ures ordained by the Almighty ; and, moreover, although it is, as we have shown, a well-established fact that the elements of the Lord's Supper were employed at Jewish festivals, and received a kind of consecration, they never had the virtue, and therefore never had the dignity of a Sacrament, till Christ's institution of them to that end. To adduce a case somewhat parallel, which may illus- trate the matter in hand. It is clear that the rainbow must have existed, before God invested it with a relig- ious significance, and made it the sign of His Covenant. The phenomen6n is produced, as is well known, by the refraction of the rays of light, when striking upon the pendent drops of the shower ; and as there had been copious rain during the period of the flood (and doubt- less long before that period, — for " the mist that went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground," was the exclusive method of irrigation in Para- dise only) ; and as the agency of light had been in oper- ation from the Creation, it necessarily follows that the phenomenon, which is the combined result of the two, must have been witnessed by human eyes before God called Noah's attention to it. ' But never before God said, "I do set" (or appoint — the Hebrew word is quite capable of this translation, without any straining of its meaning) " My bow in the clouds," was the rainbow the sign of a Divine Covenant ; never before did it pos- sess that religious meaning, which ever since it has had for the world of men. So with the Eucharistic ele- DUCTOET.] of the Holy Coimmmion. 11 ments. They had been used before in Jewish festivals, and received (as all food was wont to be received by the Jews) with a grace and words of thanksgiving. But never before had they a peculiar meaning in connexion with the great Covenant of Redemption. Never before did they preach to the mind of man through the eye the great doctrine of the Atonement ; still less did the parti- cipation of them ever before convey to the soul of the faithful the Body and Blood of the Crucified Redeemer. And now to what practical account shall we turn these reflections on the historical origin of the Holy Communion ? We learn a lesson, first, respecting the gradual growth and expansion of Religious Truth among men ; and, secondly, respecting the possible co-existence of Unity with the utmost difference of Religious Forms. 1. Christianity was not strictly an original Religion, either in its doctrines, precepts, or institutions. It grew out of a preceding dispensation ; its holiest rite is literally a fragment, torn off' from an old Jewish festival, and placed by the Saviour in what I may call a sacramental shrine. And in like manner this preceding dispensation itself had gone on growing. The original promise respecting the Seed of the Woman formed the whole religion of Adam and Eve. This religion received gTeat accession from succeeding promises to Abraham and his descend- ants ; it made a great shoot at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, another important development, when the throne of David was established. It was enlarged, spii'- itualized, every way improved, — yet without any depart- ure from the old platform, — by the ministry of the Prophets ; until at length the Coming One came forth 12 The Historical Origin [inteo- from the bosom of this reh'gion, as it was waxing old and ready to vanish away, and swept aside the old rudi- ments, and pointed out to men the true teaching' which was underlying them. Yet He came not (if we may trust His own description of the object of His Mission) " to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them." Now, as there were developments of Judaism, as time went on, so doubtless there have been, and still will be, developments of Christianity. Wherever there is life there is growth ; and wherever the religion of Christ has a real living hold upon the minds of men, those minds, through many errors, contradictions, eccentrici- ties, heresies, will struggle on to a forward movement. It is a great mistake, whatever their temporary irregu- larities may be, to try to stifle these movements either by authority, civil or ecclesiastical, or, Avhich is the same thing (only in a much worse form), by a popular hue and cry. You cannot stifle them without stifling the life out of the Church. Controversies and theological movements are the conditions of life ; and the essential condition of a controversy is, that one of the combatants must be in the wrong ; and the essential condition of a theological movement is, that many persons who throw their weight into the move will be guilty of foolish and un scriptural, and even fanatical extravagances. It is of no use to make a bonfire of them at the stake, or, which is the modern fashion of persecution, to hang them up on the gibbet of public opinion. As well might you say of a very wild mischievous boy, who was once a quiet and docile child, " I shall set myself to stop that boy's growing, make him grow downwards, and put him back two or three years in life." You cannot make him stop DiJCTOEY.] of the Holy Communion. 13 growing without killing him. Take comfort, then, in the distracting movements of the Church of Christ, and remember that there is One presiding over those move- ments, who knows how to -disentangle Truth from error, to sweep away the rubbish of human fancies, and estab- lish the mind of man in what is sound and good. Never was better counsel given respecting novel and unfamiliar views of Eeligious Truth, than that of Gamaliel to the Sanhedrim : " Refrain from these men, and let them alone : for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot over- throw it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." Yea ; God, by means of contradictions and her- esies, will clear His Truth to the minds of men, will define it more sharply, will make it better understood and appreciated ; for until a truth is assaulted, and tested by assault, it can never be fully apprehended. But it will be said, " Since you admit that Religious Truth expands *in the minds of men, as Time goes on, so as to present itself in new" aspects, and to develop itself in new forms, — since Christianity itself is capable of further illustration than it has yet received, by in- creased learning, better knowledge of the language of the New Testament, new evidences, unearthed by Sci- ence, new discoveries (by means of the event) of the meaning of Prophecy, and so forth ; is there no crite rion by which we may distinguish between 'true and false views ? Are we bound to take up with any extrav- agance or fanaticism, which the movement of the relig- ious mind of our time may throw up to the surface ? '* Not so. There is in the Volume of Holy Scripture a perfect Canon of Religious Truth. " To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, 14: The Historical Origin [mTEO- it is because there is no light in them." ' Apply the Canon fairly and with prayer, discarding all prepossess- ions, and giving their due weight to counterbalancing truths, and whatever may be *the fancies of others, your own mind is perfectly safe. Where Scripture speaks unequivocally and copiously (as on the necessity of Re- pentance and Faith, the duty of Prayer, the virtue of Christ's Atonement) the point is of first-rate magnitude and primary importance. "Where Scripture makes state- ments on both sides, as on the question pending between Calvinists and Arminians, both statements, with all their logical consequences, must be accepted, and the exact theoretical adjustment of them deferred to the time, when we shall see fa-ce to face, and know as we are known. Where the Scriptural argument on one side is far stronger than on the other, though on the other too something may be said (as in the case of Episcopacy and Infant Baptism), we must side with the stronger argument, yet with charity to those who maintain the weaker. And where Scripture says nothing on a theological topic, we are at liberty to hold any pious opinion, as a private fancy, so as it does not contradict, either explicitly or by inference, what Scripture does say. But in speaking thus of Scripture as a criterion, which, if fairly applied, can never mislead, common sense points out that what is meant is, Scripture studied in its original languages, and with all the light tvhich learning, and especially the Tcnoiol- edge of primitive antiquity, can throiv upon it. He who can do no more than read the Bible in English may doubtless, under the teachiog of God's Spirit,-save his soul alive (which indeed he might do, eveq,if the Bible were torn away from him, by believing all the Articles of the Christian Faith) ; but surely it stands to reason DUCTOEY.] of the Holy Communion. 15 that such a man is in no position to settle a controversy or to determine a moot point. For example, in the con- troversjupon Infant Baptism, most persons would consider the question settled at once by the practice of the early Chui'ch when it was still under the eye of the Apostles. Did they, or did they not at that time baptize infants? The New Testament gives no answer, except by infer- ence. But the earliest Fathers give a very explicit an- swer. Justin says, for example (writing about forty years after the Apostles), that " certain Christians of sixty or seventy years of age, living in his days, were made disciples of Christ from their childhood." Justin was not inspired ; but what he says is fair historical evi- dence in favour of Infant Baptism, and evidence, it is clear, which cannot be appreciated by a person who has never heard of Justin. This, however, is only one out of numberless instances which might be adduced, to show how essential sound learning, and especially a knowledge of Primitive Christianity, is to a correct interpretation of Holy Scripture. Holding fast Scripture as thus illus- trated, we cannot ourselves make any great error in con- troversy. And amid the abounding errors and contra- dictions of the day we may comfort ourselves by think- ing that by means of them all, God is really showing to His Church some new aspect or aspects of the Truth. The Truth has a vitality in it still ; and many dry rudi- ments of it, which at present lie dull and uninteresting in our minds, are yet destined to expand and acquire a new significance. ' Let the mind be frankly open to any and every Truth, however unfamiliar to us the first view of it, which may turn out to be in accordance with the teaching of the Apostles. 2. But a moment remains to follow out the thouirht 16 Tlie Historical Origin^ <&g. [inteo- of the possible co-existence of real Unity with total dif- ference of form. There has been a Church of God, ever since there was a promise for Faith to lay hold of; but .how differ- ent the forms which the Church has taken at different stages of her career ! How different the I.^aw from the Patriarchal Religion, the Prophets from the Law, and Christianity from the Prophets ! How different the mod- ern forms of Christianity from its ancient form ! Look- ing to mere outward circumstances (which do not the least affect the essentials of the Rite), how different our present mode of celebrating the Lord's Supper, both from the primitive Institution, and from the early Chris- tians' practice, according to which it Avas connected with a love-feast ! Yet our hope and our faith is the same as that of Apostles and Apostolic men, and our Sacraments are essentially one with theirs. Unity is not uniformity. Unity is harmony ; uniformity is monotony. Po not stickle for uniformity, as long as unity is secured. The having the same order of Worship, the same liturgical observances, the same hymns and the same prayers in the same method of arrangement, — friends, the Unity of the Church of Christ does not consist in this. Nay, but in the spiritual worship of one Lord, in the common con- fession of one Faith, in the filial acknowledgment of one God and Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all, we find the living, growing principles which knit together the different members of the Body of Christ, Jew and Greek, male and female, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, and free, — which cement the structure of the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the Jerusalem built as a city that is at Unity in itself. DUCTOET.] Howit fared with the Eucharist^ &c. 17 LECTUEE II. now IT FAEED WITH THE EUCHAEIST WHILE THE IXSTITUTIOX WAS STILL UXDER THE EYE OF THE APOSTLES. " ZE]itXi vt come toflctljcr ti)crcforc into one :pL-trc, X\)\h is not to eat tiie S-ovU's supper. jFov in entins, cbcvD one tafeetl; i)c== fore otijer Us oton supper : anH one fs Ijunsr)?, anlr anottjer fs Urunlten. 2!BI)at» tjabe \}z not Ijouses to eat anU to Urinft m? or trespise ^e tje CfjureJ) of (S^oD ? "—1 Cor. xi. 20—22. Iisr our last lecture we took a view of tlie Holy Eu- charist in its cradle, wrapped, as it were, in its Paschal swaddling-clothes. We now open the second chapter of its history. This second chapter is drawn from the no- tice of it by the Apostle Paul, as celebrated in the Co- rinthian Church. First, it is important to observe that, on St. Paul's becoming an Apostle, the Institution was revealed to him by our Blessed Lord. Of it, as of other matters more purely doctrinal, he could say with truth, " I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." St. Paul was to hand down or deliver to all the Churches of his planting, together with the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, this Gospel Institution. And accordingly some means must be taken of putting him in this respect on an exact level with the original Apostles. He must hear from the Lord Himself a recital of what took place at the last Supper, and must receive from the Lord's own lips the Commission which gives virtue and validity to the Sacra- ment. A transaction so important is not to be transmit- ted to him through the medium of any man's memory ;, 18 Hoio it fared with the JEucharist while [inteo- it is to come to him pure and limpid from tlie fountain- head of Truth . And accordingly we read in the twenty- third verse of the chapter before us : " For I have re- ceived of the Lord" — not of Peter, or John, or Matthew, not even through their instrumentality, but of the Lord — " that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread," — and then follows an account of the Institution, somewhat more exact than that given by the two first Evangelists, and having certain original touches in it, as where the Lord is made to speak of His Body being " hrohen " for us, and where the cup is called " the New Testament in His Blood." St. Luke, the companion of St. Paul, who was not present at the original institution, has evidently drawn his account from the Pauline reve- lation, not from the memory of the eleven. The coinci- dence of his narrative with St. Paul's account is a most interesting trace of the association of the two friends, so often incidentally noticed in the Acts of the Apostles. My hearers, what shall I say of those Institutes of the Christian Religion, to which a glorified Christ refers in a glorified state — institutes upon which Pie holds a colloquy from heaven with his newly-admitted Apostle, in the solemn stillness, perhaps, of the wilds of Arabia? Shall I say of such Institutes that they are of more im- portance than the points of faith and practice, which He dwelt upon while on earth ? Nay ; without going thus far, we may surely say that any matter which the Lord Jesus, not content with adverting to it in the course of His Ministry, has reiterated from heaven,- must be a matter of the utmost moment to the well-being of His Church. And if there -be any among my hearers who either neglects the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or DiJCTOET.] the Institution icas under the Apostles. 19 thinks meanly of it, — any who has taken up with that false notion of the popular religionism, that in Chris- tianity faith is every thing, and Ordinance nothing, — I charge upon him to observe that the voice prescribing the Eucharist Rite is a voice which issues forth not merely from the Passover-chamber, but also from the many mansions of the Father's House, and that the form which gives utterance to this voice is not that of a mian of " marred visage," but that of Him whose " counte- nance is as the sun shineth in his strength," and before whose Resurrection-Glory Apostles fell to the earth con- founded. But to proceed with our history of the Eucharistic Rite. In the account of the Natural Creation contained in the book of Genesis, we find the various elements. Light and Darkness, Vapours and Water, Earth and Sea, in a state of confusion at first. Afterwards God divides the light from the darkness, the clouds from the waters, the earth from the sea, disentangling and giving them dis- tinct spheres. Something very analogous to this we find in the history of* the Primitive Church. It presents to us the appearance of a confused state of things, out of which order and method of arrangement is to dawn gradually. The Apostles at first have charge of the temporal as well as the spiritual concerns of the Church ; but afterwards it is thought better that the administra- tion of Church alms should be made over to special ofli- cers called deacons, and the Apostles be left at liberty to attend wholly to spiritual duties. Inspiration and the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost seem to have been at first poured indiscriminately m^er all the members of the Apostolic Church. " Sons and daughters," " young 20 How it fared with the Eucharist while [inteo- men and old," " servants and handmaidens" (i. e., male and female slaves) prophesied in those days and spake with tongnes. And accordingly the distinction between ministers and people was not then by any means so clearly defined as it is now. Acts which we should reckon ministerial were not absolutely restricted to per- sons holding the ministerial office. The four daughters of St. Philip prophesied ; Priscilla, as well as Aquila, expounded to Apollos the way of God -more perfectly. Now-a-days Inspiration speaks exclusively through the Bible, which is its sole acknowledged repository, and the office of Christian teaching is considered the exclu- sive prerogative of those who are set apart for it by lay- ing on of hands. Let me give another point, looking in the same direction. The Mother-Church of all Churches — that of Jerusalemi — began its career with a community of goods. " JSTeither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own ; but they had all things common." It was a beautiful theory. It was the realized ideal of what Christianity would make so- ciety, if its principles had free scope, and bore undis- puted sway in every heart. But it was not an ideal which could be realized ujDon Earth for more than one halcyon moment of the Church's existence, when, in the earliest morning prime of spiritual life, heart bounded to meet heart in Christian love and joy. The case of Ananias and Sapphira soon showed that this arrange- ment of community of goods could be taken advantage of by covetous people within the fold of Christ. The offenders were made examples of; and after that time we read no more of any attempt at community of goods in any Church ; probably even in the Church of Jerusa- lem, property found its way again into the original DucTOEY.] the Institution was under the Apostles. 21 hands, and the poor and rich became once more distinct classes. The principle of brotherhood in Christ exclud- ing all social distinctions was indeed heavenly and divine ; but it could not be fully carried out in the actual life of a wicked world, nay, nor in the actual life of an Apos- tolic Church, in which (although Apostolic) there were tares growing side by side with the wheat. Now there was another point, besides that of prop- erty, in which the early Christians at first had mutual fellowship. Rich and poor supped together ; ate their daily food at a common board. The plan seems to have been that each one should bring with him, in proportion to his means, a contribution of food, which was to be placed upon the table in the ujDper room, where their assemblies were held, and partaken of in common. It was natural — nay, it was an almost certain consequence from the circumstances of the original Institution — that the Lord's Supper should form part of, and be celebrated in the course of, this common meal. It had grown out of the half-social, half-religious entertainment of the Passover ; and to an entertainment of a social character it was naturally annexed still. AccQrdingly it is inti- mated in the Acts of the Apostles that there was a daily celebration of the Eucharist in the Church of Jerusalem ; daily of course it would be, because the supper, or chief meal, must recur daily, and whenever it recurred, being the common meal of Christians, at which they met one another as Christians, it would surely be sanctified by the appointed Commemoration of the Saviour's dying Love. So we read : " They continuing daily with one accord in the Temple" (this was their devotion as pious Jews), " and breaking bread from house to house" (this was their devotion as pious Christians), '' did eat their 22 How it fared with the Eucharist while [mxEo- meat" (partook of food) " with gladness and singleness of heart." There was a simple domestic joy about those early Eucharistic meals, which, alas ! was soon to be dis- sipated. For just as the crime and punishment of Ananias and Sapphira seem to have exploded the community of 'property in the Church of Jerusalem, so certain excesses in the Corinthian Church, in connexion with the common Eucharistic meal, — excesses punished by God's temporal judgment, and severely rebuked by His Apostle, — grad- ually exploded and put an end to the practice of combin- ing the Sacrament with a meal at all. The richer Chris- tians, opening their basket of provisions, and not waiting (it appears) till the whole Christian brotherhood had as- sembled, and the formal thanksgiving at the opening of the meal had been said, ate and drank to excess, while the poor (more especially if belated) found a most insuf- ficient supper. We open our eyes wide with wonder at a desecration so totally unfamiliar to ourselves, so impos- sible under the circumstances of the Modern Church ; but the fact stands on record in language altogether plain and incapable of being mistaken : " When ye come to- gether therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper : and one is hungry, and another is drunken." The fact was, that the community of meals among the Christians, and the association of the Eucharist wit! a hand fide meal, was like the community of property,— a beautiful theory, — aye, and the true and high ideal of Christian Life ; but a theory which could not be worked out, and an ideal which it was impossible to realize in an actual Church, having tares in it — that is, having un- DUCTOET.] the Institution was under the Ajpostles. 23 sound Christians iu its bosom. So experience had shown St. Paul. And, accordingly, he, writing under the in- spiration of God, and in the exercise of the Apostolic authority given him by Christ, cuts the knot Avhich had hitherto bound together the meal and the Eucharist, and disentangles for ever the religious from the social element of the rite. " What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? " " If any man hunger, let him eat at home." Now, as a meal has no use or significance except when one is hungiy, this is as much as saying that the Lord's Supper was no more to form part and parcel of a meal. — With which word of Apostolic authority, the religious element of the Lord's Supper disentangled itself and be- came a separate thing, just as when God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," the light vapours rose from the aqueous mass, and hung suspended in the sky under the name of clouds. There was a time, then, as we have seen, — the time of the Church's infancy, — when the supper or chief daily meal of Christians was a Sacrament. Those were days of great spirituality, intense unction, fervent zeal, warm love, when the Brotherhood of Christians was as yet white as snow in Salmon. And it is curious to observe how, in any peculiarly strong glow of spiritual feeling, the strangeness of this original mixture between the ideal *and actual life of Christians, between the religious and the social, between the meal and the Sacrament, vanishes. There is an interestino; anecdote to this efiect in the life of Fletcher, the Vicar of Madeley,^ a man who always ^ The anecdote is given from memory. I have not the book by me to verify the details. 24 How it fared with the Eucharist while [inteo- breathed an atmospliere of faith and love, and panted after communion witli God as the hart after the water- brooks. Towards the end of his life, when his soul was filled and his countenance radiant with love and joy, two friends (onie of whom was the narrator) came to Madeley from a distance to visit him. Hearing of their arrival, and knowing the ride was a long one, he ordered the servant to bring them some refreshment, and hastened out into the yard to greet them as they were dismounting. Both were men of devout minds, to whom he might say the things of which his heart was full, and while they were engaged in putting up their horses, the good Vicar spoke to them of spiritual topics, and particularly of the Love of Clii'ist, and of the necessity of our being conformed to His image. He spoke out of* the abundance of his h^art, with an eye kindling and a face flushing, as he pursued those great themes ; and his tw^o guests, knowing him to be doomed by his disease to death, and to be then hastening to a speedy vision of his Lord, on whose praises he was so eloquent, caught the spiritual conta- gion, and were lifted up for the time being into a higher mioral atmosphere. At this juncture the servant entered with refreshments, which happened to be bread and wine. Fletcher catching sight of them, seemed seized by an uncontrollable impulse, and breaking the bread and pouring out the wine, delivered it to them with the cus- tomary Eucharistic formulary : " The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee ; the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee." The narrator adds w^ords to this effect, that, so far from being revolting or having the appearance of desecra- tion, it was the most solemn and impressive Sacrament he -had ever received. We can well understand it. The DUCTORT.] the Instihition was under the Ajjostles. 25 action must not of course be drawn into a precedent by- men like ourselves, who live on a very low level of spir- itual attainment. But in Fletcher and his friends it was neither h}^ocritical nor irreverent. When men are in a high state of spiritual feeling, amounting almost to ecstasy, the exuberant devotion of their hearts will sometimes break through the usual forms of reUgious observance, and mix itself up with their daily life and common inter- course. In such a mood they take no heed of circum- stantials : every thing is sanctified in their eyes ; a stable becomes to them (was not Jesus born in a stable?) a Church, and a refreshment becomes a Eucharist. After all, it is only a momentary return to the quite primitive state of things, before the Sacrament was disconnected from the meal, the state of things depicted in the verse already quoted : " And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." So many useful and interesting reflections arise from what has been said, that it is hard to find room for them all. We must select two or three from the mass. 1. Observe that St. Paul, while he forbids the Eu- charist to be partaken of as a meal, and for the satisfac- tion of hunger, still stoutly maintains its social character, and indicates how appropriately this social character of the Ordinance is emblematized by the holy ^ loaf. One ^ This expression is not my own. It comes from the first Prayer Book of King Edward the Sixth, in which the fifth Rubric after the Communion runs thus : — "And forasmuch as the Pastors and Curates within this realm shall contmually find at their costs and charges in their cures suf- 2 26 How it fared with the Eucharist while [intro- Loaf is broken and distributed among many ; all partake of and assimilate it, and so become one Body, the Body of Christ, which is by all assimilated. Hence the Eucharist is a Sacrament of our Communion with one another, no less than of our Communion with Christ. " For we being many are one bread [one loaf], and one body ; for we ai'e all partakers of that one loaf." Hence our excel- lent Reformers, in purifying the old missal, have shown themselves extremely jealous of the social character of the rite. Even in the case of administration to a sick person, it is so prescribed that three, or two at the least, must communicate with him ; and in the public Office we find this rubric : " If there be not above twenty persons in the Parish of discretion to receive the Communion ; yet there shall be no Communion, except four (or three at the least) communicate with the Priest." Private masses, at which the Priest alone communicated, al- fieicnt bread and wine for the Holy Communion (as oft as their Parishioners shall be disposed for their spiritual comfort to receive the same), it is therefore ordered, that in recompense of such costs and charges, the Parishioners of every Parish shall offer every Sun- day, at the time of the Offertory, the just value and price of the holy loaf (with all such money and other things as were wont to be offered with the same), to the use of their Pastors and Curates, and that in such order and course as they were wont to find and pay the said lioly loafy The expression is a pleasing one. But it should be remembered that our word " loaf" does not give an exact idea of the form of the Passover Cakes. I take the word " loaf" (Germ. Leib) to mean ety- mologieally a lump or mass ; whereas the Passover Cakes were flat, round, and thin. Perhaps the form of the Eomish Wafer was originally suggested by that of the Passover Cakes, though the ac- count usually given of the form of the Wafer is, that it was intended to represent the Denarius (or Roman Penny), in reference to the pieces of silver for which our Lord was sold. DUCTOEY.] the Institution was under the Apostles. 27 together obscured this social feature of the rite, and so, as our Reformers rightly thought, imperilled its vitality. But no mere formal provision of the Ritual can secui^e that true union of heart and sympathy with our brother Christians, by which alone we can give to our Com- munions a really social character. Do we resort to them in a spirit of great kindliness to Others, " forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any ? " But even forbearance is only negative. Are we taking an active interest in the wants, trials, weaknesses, necessities of our fellow-Christians, not merely from the dictates of a natural compassion (which a heathen might be actuated by) , but from a dis- cerninof acknowledgment of their brotherhood with us in one Faith, one Hope, one Baptism, one Adoption, one Redemption? Do we pray for them ? And, specially in the celebration of the Holy Communion, do we refer their wants and wishes, no less than our own, to God, or coop ourselves up in the narrow range of our own con- cerns and sympathies ? I believe that a vast share of the Blessing of Public Ordinances of Religion gener- ally is altogether missed and forfeited, because men vnH. resort to them as Private Ordinances, thinking only of their own case, and not making an effort to throw them- selves with an expansive sympathy into the case of others. 2. A word may be appropriately . said upon the ordinary social meals of Christians. The Eucharist has now been torn away from them, and placed in a shrine of its own, removed from the possibility of desecration. But it were devoutly to be w^ished that we could see the stamp of the Eucharist, — its image and superscription, — ■ resting upon all our social receptions of food. Still the 28 How it fared with the Eucharist while [inteo- rule holds good that we are to sanctify our necessary and common, no less than our religious actions, that " whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God." The utmost mirthfuluess of heart and of conversation may thus be sanctified, so long as nothing is said which trespasses on the bounds of modesty, reverence, and charity ; for our Loed Himself was present at a Wedding Festival, — and a Festival at which it is clear from the narrative that conviviality had reached a considerable height. Do we sanctify our social entertainments by striving to realize His Presence at them, and thus by bidding Him to the Board? And last, but not least, how is grace said? Is it sometimes forgotten altogether ? oftener still mechanically and rapid- ly recited, without even a momentary uplifting of the heart? Are not the ordinary graces (I only throw this out for consideration) somewhat too short to take hold of the mind? Is it not the case often with well-disposed persons that the grace is over before the attention can rally? Beautiful at all events are those longer graces once in popular use, but which have now retreated into the devout seclusion of the Academy, in which according to the true old fashion the form is interspersed with responds, simply said on common days, and on certain high festivals of the Church sweetly sung ? 3. It is well by every means in om' power to strive to sanctify common life, and ordinary engagements. It is not only well, it is necessary. No man is really relig- ious at all who withdraws any' part of his ordinary life fi^m the influence and control of Keligion, and confines his Devotion to certain seasons and certain localities. And yet there is a wholesome warning for us all in the disentanglement of the Holy Communion from the social DrcTORT.] the Institution was under the Apostles. 29 meal witli which it had once been associated ; and there is great truth and significance in the wise man's admoni- tion, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Among certain religionists, there may be observed a sort of interlacing of the secular with the spiritual ; a parade of religious topics where they are sure to be unfavourably received ; proposals for prayer where the occasion and circum- ^stantials are unsuitable, and the minds of the persons to whom it is proposed are not in tune for it ; an unreserved manner of throwing abroad Divine Truth in ordinary conversation ; all which in theory is right, and in an ideal state of things would find place, but in the actual state of the Church and the world is likely only to shock the one, and to incur the ridicule of the other. That these considerations should have weight with us, we are taught by those words of Him, who spake as never man spake : " Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." There is a great necessity for holy discrimination, and a greater still for a spirit of deeper religious reverence, if we pro- pose to introduce spiritual topics in general conversation. There is a feeling, innate in every human mind, of the distinctness between the sacred and the secular, which you will only do harm if you rudely violate. And it is a true and just feeling, under the present economy of things, which is necessarily imperfect. That the Lord's Day should be esteemed above ordinary days ; that the Church, or place of assembly for Christ's flock, should be esteemed above a common house (a sentiment, by the way, plainly in accordance with the mind of St. Paul in our text: " What? have ye not houses to eat and drink 30 How it fared with the Eucharist, <&€. in ? or despise ye the Church of God ? ") ; that one class of men should be regarded as set apart for sacred func- tions, upon which functions ordinary men* may not law- fully intrude, — all these feelings and habits of thought are the very safeguards of Religion in the minds of man- kind at large, and, as being so, must not be disregarded or dealt rudely with. Under the present Dispensation things sacred must of necessity be separate from common things ; and God's Ordinance has made them so. Be it. ours by faith and hope to anticipate, and by spiritual diligence to hasten on that happier period, when every day shall be a Sabbath of rest, spent in the sunshine of Christ's countenance ; when there shall be no more any temple, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of the Heavenly City ; Avhen all shall be priests alike, and offer continually the sacrifice of Praise ; when, finally, the Lord shall drink with us the new wine of spiritual joy at the marriage-supper of the Lamb ; and the sacramental memorial of Him shall be superseded by His visible Presence in glory. PAET I. THE CHURCH-YARD, LECTUEE I. OF THE lord's PRATER AND THE COLLECT FOR PURITY. ♦♦2Li)c 5cavt IS trrccitfiil tiljobe all tijingsf, anti ncsjpcvc-itclj) toidtctr: iril)o tnn fenoh) it ? £ tjc 3ioxXi scaixf) tljc Ijcait. £ tvi) tl)e reins.** — Jer. xvii. 9, 10. In the Cathedral, and often in the Parish Churcli of our country, there are several stages of approach to the immediate precinct, in which stands the Table of the Lord, the point of sight for all the worshippers. First, there is the Choir (or Chancel), which at its further end contains this precinct ; then there is the Transept ; and finally the Nave. But around the building itself often lies a consecrated Burial Ground, at the entrance of which the Minister in the Order for the Burial of the Dead is directed to meet the corpse. The Office of the Holy Communion, on the considera- tion of which we enter to-day, has similarly several stages of approach into its inmost sanctuary. The culminating act of the vrhole Ser\-ice is, of course, the consecration and participation of the Elements. But towards this act there are several advances. There is the " Ter- sanctus," or Seraphic Hymn of Praise, with the Pray- er of Access. There are the Comfortable Words, by which we lift ourselves up to Praise, — resembling ( 2- 34 Of the Lorcfs Prayer [part the steps by which we pass up into the choir. There is the Exhortation, Confession, and Absohition, — the more immediate preparation, which may correspond with the transept. Then comes that portion of the Ofhce, at Avhich non-communicants may be present, em- bracing the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, Creed, Sermon, Offertory, and Prayer for the Church Militant. What remains may be properly called the earlier preparation, corresponding to the church-yard which lies around the sacred edifice. It consists of the Ten Commandments, — the Law, which in its condemning power is to real Chris- tians dead and buried, and cannot harm them. And to this Burial-ground of the Decalogue, which solemnizes the mind by its grave and stern associations, we dre ad- mitted by a little gate or porch, consisting of two short Prayers. It is in this Porch that we shall place ourselves to-day, to survey its construction. — The above illustra- tion is, I readily grant, drawn from the fancy. Still it may be useful, if it serve to show the great care with which our Church seeks to prepare us for the highest ordinance of Religion, and the gradual approaches, by which she leads the mind towards the inner sanctuary of these holy mysteries. I-Ier<^ w«. have fence within fence, preparation within pr^aration. And the lesson is, of course, " If you desire to communicate w^orthily, see that you get your mind in order." These arrange- ments are the faithful echo made by our Church to that inspired warning : " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cap." The Lord's Prayer opens the office of the Communion. We shall not enter at all into tlie matter or substance of this Divine Prayer, as that would divert us at much too great length from our present purpose, but confine our- I.] and the Collect for Purity. 36 selves to a few remarks on the position wliieli it holds. The Lord's Prayer may be regarded in two distinct lights, as a summary of Prayer and as a model of Prayer. In the first of these lights it is the modern fashion to re- gard it, and under this view it is naturally introduced, not at th© beginning, but at the end of Prayer. We feel (and the feeling is most just) that our Prayers are im- perfect at best, and greatly need supplementing by some form in which there are no defects ; that we omit often- times through haste or ignorance, or superficiality of mind, to petition for some things which may be most de- sirable for us ; and so at the end of pur Private Prayers, or at the end of oar Family Prayers, we recite the Lord's Prayer, as summing up all that we can want or wish for in a few pregnant words. A curious instance, by the way, of the different line in which modern and ancient thought travel, even where both are equally correct. The Prayer Book never introduces the Lord's Prayer at the close of any Service ; it is always either at the open- ing, as is here, or at the opening of a separate section of the office (like the Post-communion). The Morning and Evening Prayer were formerly opened with the versicle and respond, "O Lord, open Thou my lips," ''And my mouth shall show forth Thy praise," which was immedi- ately followed by the Lord's Prayer ; and it was the Re- formers who thought it expedient to prefix a short intro- duction, consisting of the Sentences, Exhortation, Con- fession, and Absolution. If this introduction be reorarded as only proparatory, our Morning and Evening Office may be said still to open with the Lord's Prayer, as does the Communion Office. — Now this position of the Prayer shows that it is regarded as a model rather than as a summary. The painter who is copying a picture, the 36 Of the Lord's Prayer [rART sculptor who is copying a bust, in the first instance sets before him that which he designs to copy. This being done, he casts from time to time his eyes upon his model^ and guides his hand accordingly. Now this was the view which the Ancient Church (and our l^iturgy, gen- erally speaking, represents to us the views of the Ancient Church) took of the Lord's Prayer. It was a perfect model to be placed before the mind for imitation, and therefore to be recited in the first instance, or at each fresh section of the service, and to be reverted to men- tally throughout. This is not the only viev/ which may be taken of the Prayer, but it is a most true, and just, and Scriptural view. Let us imbibe it, if we have not yet done so, and embody it in our practice. Let us not rest content with the use of the Lord's Prayer as a form. Let us consider how Ave can bring our own private pray- ers into a closer conformity with the model. Let us bear in mind that the Lord's Prayer teaches us not only Avhat to pray for, but also, if I may so say, what should be the proportions of our prayers. From the order of the pe- titions we learn the blessings which we should most covet, and from the spu^ituality of the greater number of them we learn how sparing, modest, and reserved should be our prayers for earthly blessings. And let me recommend, as a method of counteracting our partial tendencies in Priayer, that we should, from time to time, in our private devotions enlarge up^n the Lord's Prayer by way of paraphrase. As in religious thought generally, so in Prayer particularly, we are sadly apt to run in our own groove ; and thus the frequent recurrence to and study of the Lord's Prayer is very desirable, as tending to give us a larger and more comprehensive range of sympathies. I.] and the Collect for Purity. 37 We now come to the opening Collect of the Com- munion, which, together with the Lord's Prayei', formed anciently the priest's private preparation for the Office, which he was to repeat secretly. By our present ar- rangementSiit is to be said openly and aloud, that all may participate in this preliminary act of devotion. It will be well in the first instance to lay before you the frame- work on which those wonderful compositions called Col- lects are constructed, that we may see how the parts of this Prayer are connected, and what is the one thought which knits together its various clauses in unity. The ground-plan, then, of a Collect is as follows. After the invocation, a foundation is laid for the petition by the recital of some doctrine, or of some fact of Gospel his- tory, which is to be commemorated. Upon this founda- tion so laid dowQ rises the petition or body of the Prayer. Then in a perfect specimen, like the Collect before us, the petition has the win^s of a holy aspiration given to it, whereupon it may soar to Heaven. Then follows the conclusion, which, in the case of Prayers not addressed to the Mediator, is always through the Mediator, and which sometimes involves a doxology or ascription of praise. — In the present Collect, the doctrine upon which the petition is based is that unto God " all hearts are open, and all desires known," and that from Him " no secrets are hid." The petition based ui:)on this doctrine is, that He would " cleanse the thoughts of our heart by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit." And finally the aspiration in which the mind contemplates the glorious result of the Prayer, — ^the aspiration which lends wings to the petition, and lifts it up to Heaven, is, — "that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily magnify Thy Holy Name." 38 Of the Lord^s Prayer [paet Now in considering these several parts of our Collect, we will take the aspiration first, and so work backwards. " That we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily mag- nify Thy Holy Name." The magnification of God's Holy Name, — that is, the telling forth how great He is, in concert with the Holy Angels, — is just what we are about to enter upon. The Holy Communion is (as we call it in one of the Post-communion prayers) " a sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving," and accordingly, when the office is mount- > iug to its climax, we join our voices with those of the Seraphim who stand around the throne, and cry one to another (setting forth the moral grandeur and the glory of our God), " lioly. Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty ; Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory : Glory be to Thee, Lord most High." And in the close of the Office is equally heard the key-note of high praise and magnification. For as after the first Institution of the Ordinance the Divine Master and His disciples sang an hymn, before tliey went out unto the Mount of Olives, so before the final blessing we join in the morning hymn^ of the early Christians, which begins with the Anthem of the Angels at the Nativity, " Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards men." One chief aspect then of the whole Service being Thanksgiving, — nay, the very word " Eucharist," which was in early times^ appropriated to this Ordinance, mean- ^ This hymn was used in the time of Athanasius (early part of the fourth century), as part of the Morning Sem'ice for every clay. ^ Ignatius (supposed to have been, "with Polycarp, a disciple of St. John) is probably the first uninspired writer who speaks of the Holy Communion as the Euchai-ist. See his epistle to the Smynicsans, eh. vi., where he says of certain heretics, against whom he is writing, '* They abstain from Eucharist and Prayer, because they confess not the I.] and the Collect for Purity. 39 ing " Thanl^sgiving Service," we reasonably place tliis aspect of it before ns at the outset, and offer a fervent aspiration to Almiglity God, that as we are about to magnify His Name, we may magnify it " wortbily." Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised from the dead." Again, to the Philadelphians, ch. iv., "Let it be your endeavour to partake of one (and the same) Eucharist ; for one is the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one the Cup for the Communion of His Blood." In the above passages it would seem as if the Elements them- selves were called the Eucharist. In the following passages the Service seems to be so called : — " Let that be accounted a vaUd Eucharist, which is under the Bishop, or him to whom the Bishop shall entrust the administration." Smyrn. viii. "Endeavour then more frequently to assemble for Eucharist of God " (the Thanksgiving Service to God), " and for His glory." Eph. xiii. " We have, however," says Mr. Palmer in his Origines Litm'gicce, " an earlier allusion to the Liturgy, under the title of Eucharist^ or Thanksgiving, in the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, where, in forbidding and reasoning against the practice of some per- sons, who used the miraculous gift of tongues in an improper man- ner, namely, by celebrating the Liturgy in an unknown language, he says, ' When thou shalt hless with the Spirit, how shall he that occu- picth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seemg he understandeth not what thou sayest ? ' The meaning of this passage is obvious : ' If thou shalt bless the Bread and Wine in an unknown language, which has been given to thee by the Holy Spirit, how shall the layman say Amen at the end of thy Thanks- givmg (Eucharist), seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest ? ' " The same view is taken of this passage of St. Paul by Professor Blunt and Canon Wordsworth. That the Apostle is alluding to the Holy Communion seems probable from Justin's description of its administration in the Primitive Church : — " Bread is brought to the president of the assembly, and a cup of water and wine, and having received it, he puts up praise and 40 Of the Lord's Prayer [paet But how shall this be ? We cannot worthily mag- nify God's Holy Natae, unless we love Him truly. All magnification of His Name which does not spring from true love, must necessarily be hollow-hearted, insincere, hypocritical, rotten at the core. And thus the latter part of our aspiration, " that we may worthily magnify Thy Holy -Name,'"' tlirows us back upon the former, " that we may perfectly'! (that is, sincerely, and with all our pow- ers) " love Thee." Then what is the true love of God, for which we here pray? The mind is in no frame for this magnification, unless it loves God truly. What moral qualifications in ourselves does the love of God involve ? It is easy to flatter ourselves we have it from our possessing a general religious sensibility, from an ac- cessibility to good impressions, and from a certain ten- derness of spirit which we discover in ourselves when the perfections of God, and specially His fatherly Love, are pathetically set forth. But the love of God, breth- ren, must be the love of God's will ; for to love God is to love His character, and there is nothing which ex- presses so much of a person's character as his will — his expressed mind. Do we then love God's will, or ex- pressed mind, under all circumstances, and whatever forms it may assume ? Do we love it, when it prescribes what is difficult, to flesh and blood — forbids what is nat- urally gratifying to us in a high degree ? Do we love it, and acquiesce in it lovingly, when it prescribes suflTering for us, as well as when it allows us an easy lot and few trials ? Do we at all events strive and pray to love it ? — To love God is to love His Name ; and His Name, be thanTcsgiving to the Father of all, through the name of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. . . . And when he has finished his prayer and thanlcs' giving " (Eucharist), " all the people, with an acclamation, snjAmen." I.] and the Collect for Purity. 41 it remembered, is Holiness as well as Love. Do \Ye love Holiness ? love the strictness of God's law ? or do we de- sire, on the contrary, that its stringency as regards our- selves should be somewhat relaxed, that so high a standard of duty should not be insisted upon ? — Do we honestly de- sire to be drawn into a still closer and closer intercourse with God (for that surely is a property of Love) ; or do we rather shrink from that closer ihtercourse, from the feel- ing that it might involve us in sacrifices for which Ave are not prepared? — Among men, a mere groundless fancy may often go under the name of love ; but to all higher forms of love moral congeniality between the parties is essential. Is there then between us and God any moral congeniality ? Are we at all like God in His free and expansive sympathy with all creatures, irrational as well as 'rational? in His absolate detestation of sin? If not, what hinders ? What is there in us uncongenial to God ? Nothing at all, may be, in our lives. Nothing at aU which struggles into visible development, and challenges notice. We may hope that comparatively few commu- nicants live in the habit of violating God's law outwardly, or retain some jpractice which they know to be wrong. But are they therefore " worthy" communicants? Nay, this depends on the condition of the inner man of the heart. Are they there indulgent towards sin? Will they toy with it in their imagination, though they may not dare to practise it? Are they upright of heart? or do they try to reason away those passages of God's Word, which at first sight, and to a simple and unsophisticated mind, seem to prescribe something to which they feel an invin- cible repugnance? Do they manfully act up to their convictions of truth and right, or enter into a course of special pleading with them, by way of proving them 42 Of the LorcVs Prayer [paet wrong? Are tliey looking for an earfhly Paradise, and seeking to make their home here below? Are they lusting strongly after a position which they have not, while that which they have in the order of God's Provi- dence affords an abundant field for usefulness and honour- able service? All these are so many uncongenialities of the man's moral nature to God, so many divergences of the ever-oscillating n'eedle of the heart from the pole to which it should always point truly. And these uncon- genialities must be abolished, these divergences must be corrected, if the man is to love God perfectly. Love God perfectly he cannot, while contrary loves engage 'his heart. These contrary loves therefore must be expelled and renounced. And this can only be done by God's Spirit within being put forth to cleanse our hearts, and turn them from a cas-e of unclean birds into a Sane- tuary, meet for the service of Praise. And the petition that God would by His Spirit effect this result forms the body of this admirable Collect : " Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit." We desire that God would bring us into a right frame of mind for the magnification of His Holy Name ; and, as in order to this a purifying process is essential, we pray that the purifying process may take effect upon us. We fall back now upon the doctrine, which is the foundation on which the petition plants itself. And most instructive indeed is the connexion of thought between them, in virtue of which one rises out of the other. We pray God to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts. The prayer (like all prayers) is an expression of our depend- ence upon Him to do that for us, which we cannot pos- sibly do for ourselves. And why can we not do this particular thi«g for ourselves ? Why can we not comply I.] and the Collect for Purity, 43 ■with tLat exhortation of the Apostle James, ''Purify your hearts, ye double-minded?" It is not only that, apart from Grod's Grace, we have not the moral power requisite. That is one reason, and a sufficient one ; but there is another. "We do not know the extent of the evil to be remedied. " The heart is deceitful above all things," — above the smiling sea of the tropics, above the meteor of the m.arsh, above the mirage of the desert ; and because it is thus deceitful, the depths of its wicked- ness are unknown to itself. Now if we are unacquainted with our own depravities, if it is only long experience, under the discipline of the Spirit, which gives us even a glimpse into them, how shall we ever hope to cleanse them? The task is evidently as much above our wis- dom, as it is above our strength. In undertaking it by ourselves we should resemble a man, who should engage to purify a house, which had been tenanted by sufferers from infectious disease, by the ordinary modes of fumiga- tion and ventilation, being ignorant that an open drain ran underneath it, which sent up its noisome exhalations through the oround-floor into the chambers. If such an one were aware what labour and expense it would cost him to alter the direction of the drain, he perhaps might say, " It is beyond my resources altogether to put that house in a wholesome condition ; I must leave it to others better furnished for the enterprise." Well, there is a line of thought very analogous to this sentiment in the prayer before us. We pray God to cleanse the cor- ruptions of our hearts on the ground that He, and He alone, knows them thoroughly. Unto Him, we remind ourselves at the outset, " all hearts be open, all desires known," or (as it is in the original Latin of this Collect) " unto Him every movement of the will speaks and hath 44 Of the Lord) 8 Prayer [paut a voice" {cui omnis voluntas loquitur^. Striking expres- sion ! Yes ; every movement of the human will, every stimulant of a desire, every internal uneasiness which gives rise to appetite, hath an utterance — an utterance clear and articulate — for the ear of GrOD. " He knoweth our thoughts afar off;" — sees them, while they are yet rising, pushing their way upward,— sees them before they have yet germinated beneath the soil of the heart. We can only rectify, or strive to rectify them, as soon as we become conscious of them. But His eye can detect them, before they have unfolded themselves in our conscious- ness ; and His hand can reach them at that depth. And therefore under a sense of our utter helplessness to cleanse our hearts for ourselves, we pray Him to exert His knowledge and His power on our behalf, and as He searches the heart and tries the reins, to expel the evil which only His eye fully discerns. Now is not this first Porch to the Office of the Holy Communion very august and very appropriate? That we should be put into a right frame for the glorification of God, by the cleansing of our hearts from every sinful affection contrary to His Love, — a cleansing which can only be effected by Him, who is privy to our most secret thoughts, — what fitter preparative than this can be imagined for the Church's great Sacrifice of Thanksgiv- ing and Praise ? We have spoken of God's privity to the worst cor- ruptions of our hearts. Let us observe, in conclusion, that those who are under the lead of grace He will in- doctrinate more and more into a knowledge of them- selves. Do not faint, therefore, but rather thank God I.] Of the Decalogue and its Responds. 45 and take courage, because in tLe progress of your Christian course, more and more disclosures are made to you of evil in yourself, which you suspected not before. If when we are weak (i. e, in our own apprehensions) then we are strong, the Lord could not deal more graciously with any man than by beating him out of conceit with himself, and teaching him experimentally the plague of his own heart. On no other foundation can the fabric of trust in God be securely reared than upon that of absolute and entire self-distrust. Only pray that the disclosures made to you respecting Christ, and the sufficiency of His salvation, and His strength, may keep pace with those made to you on the subject of your own evil. For indeed the knowledge of ourselves without a corresponding knowledge of God, would only plunge us into a dark night of hideous despair ; and that saint prayed well and wisely, who prefaced his acts of Self-examination by these pregnant words : — " Show me myself, Lord, by Thy Holy Spmt ; But show me also Thyself." LECTUEE II. OF THE DECALOGUE AXD ITS RESPONDS ; AND OP THE PASSAGE OF THE NEW TESTAltfENT AND THE COLLECT APPENDED TO IT. " 33ut let a man cvaniiue f)imsclf, nnU so let Ijmt ent of t$at fircatr, nnU tivinlt cf tljat cup.'*— 1 Cor. si. 28. The introduction of tlix; Decalogue into the Office of the Holy Communion was the work of our Reformers. It has been strongly objected to by those who think it right 46 Of the Decalogue and its Itesjponds. [paet to cavil at every liturgical arraDgement which was orig- inated at the Reformation ; but we are persuaded, and we hope to show, that the objection is utterly groundless ; nay, that the Decalogue could not possibly occupy a more appropriate place in any Christian Service. Even if there were nothing to be said from primitive antiquity in favour of its insertion here, — surely the Liturgy of the Church is not to be regarded as something so fixed and ste- reotyped by primitive practice, that no modifications of it, no adaptations of it, to an altered state of society, or to a different phase of religious sentiment, can ever be admit- ted. At the Reformation there was a great burst of re- ligious thought, which had hitherto been frozen by the prohibition virtually laid upon the Scriptures, and dammed up by the icy barriers of tradition. It was impossible, under such circumstances, to keep all things as they were, just as in a flood it is impossible to maintain the less sta- ble of the old landmarks. It was desirable not only to purify the Service Book from all superstitious accretions which had gathered over it in the lapse of time, but also here and there, with wise and cautious hand, to introduce certain new and original features. God be praised, who, together with that great revolution of thought, gave us men who were abundantly qualified by learning and ability (as well as by piety) to guide it ; — men, on the one hand, not capable of being run away with by the mere impulse of novelty, and yet who knew how to ad- mit such alterations as were manifest improvements. While we fully appreciate the venerable prestige attach- ing to the Communion Ofiice, as having come down to us, in its main features, from a very early period, — in part from the time of the Apostles themselves, — we will consider carefully this novel element of it, entii^ely on I.] Of the Decalogue and its Besjponds. 47 its own merits, and judge for ourselves (according to the revealed mind of God in Holy Scripture), whether it has been unsuitably foisted into a place where it has no right. In the Collect for Purity, appended to the Lord's Prayer, with, which the Office opens, T^e supplicate God before entering upon the Service of Praise and Thanks- giving, wherein especially we magnify His Holy Name, to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, that we mag-nify it luorthily. And we recognize our dependence upon Him in this matter by reminding ourselves that He alone knows the heart ; whereas from ourselves (such is the implication) our corruptions are often hidden. But as it is in all parts of our sanctification, so it is here. While God only can effect it, we must lend Him the hearty co- operation of our wills. He alone can detect our hidden evil ; but at the same time He requires that we should endeavour, as far as in us lies, to detect it for ourselves. The same authority which informs us that " the heart is deceitful above all things," and that the Lord alone searches the heart, enjoins upon us that most difficult and naturally distasteful of all spirituar exercises, "Let a man^ examine himself, and so let him eat of that Bread, and drink of that Cup." Now by what rule shall we examine ourselves, so as to take the true gauge of our character and conduct? Shall it be by the fluctuating standard of public opinion? Shall it be by the average moral attainments of the soci- ety in w^hich we move? Since this will not be the cri- terion applied to us at the last day, it were worse than useless, in a religious point of view, — it might make us the victims of a miserable delusion, — to apply it now : 48 Of the Decalogue and its Responds, [paet "tlie word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Let it, then, be God's Law, which, enthroned in our own consciences, and appealed to by ourselves, sits in judgment on us even now. — Then here, for that pur- pose, is God's Law confronting us. Here are the ten fundamental precepts of all religion and morality, which broke upon the ears of the chosen people "amid thunder- ings, and lightnings, and voices, and the noise of the trumpet." And thus, as in the Collect for Purity the Church directs us to God as the purifier of the heart, and puts into our mouth the prayer that, as He only knows our evil He would correct it, — so here -she admonishes us by in- troducing the Decalogue, to do our own part in this mat- ter faithfully, and not to dispense ourselves from exam- ination of conscience, on the plea that without God we can do nothing in this or any other part of our sanctifi.- cation. That this is the true significance of the position which the Decalgue holds in the Communion Ofiice, I believe to be certain from the following passage of the Invitation : — " The way and means thereto " (to a worthy partici- pation of that Holy Table) "is, first, to examine your lives and conversations hy the rule of God's co7nmand- ments ; and whereinsoever ye shall perceive yourselves to have ofiended, either by will, word, or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life." Now it is a pregnant suggestion to this effect, that " the rule of God's commandments" stands in the fore- front of the Office. But it may be said, " Admitting that this is the sig- I.] Of the Decalogue and its Besponds. • 49 nificance of the Decalogue in its present position, and admitting, moreover, what cannot be denied, that it is a good and wholesome signi^ance, why select the Dec- alogue in preference to the preceptive parts of the New Testament ? The Decalogue is the Law given by Moses ; but we Christians have a law given by Christ ; and it is the word which He has spoken, not that which Moses has delivered, which will judge us at the last day. Why not rehearse the Beatitudes ratlierthan the Decalogue, as being more spiritual, more searching, more generally redolent of the mind of Christ?" — There is certainly an element of reason and truth in this suggestion. There can be no question that the Law of our Lawgiver, — the Evangelical Law, — reaches far beyond the outward ac- tions to the thoughts and intents of the heart. There can be no question that formal and outward restraint (and most of the Ten Commandments are, in their letter, for- mal and outward) is not of the character of this new Law ; — that its restraint is by rectification of the inward prin- ciple, rather than by placing a barrier on the outward conduct. There can be no question that, if we be led by the Spirit, we are not under the Law ; — that if we be- under the lead of Grace, the Law is dead to us, — dead in its comdemning power, having already fastened on our LoED as its Victim ; dead, too, in its literal aspect, as a mere husk or shell of outward rules, above which we have risen to the freedom of a spu'itual obedience. I say in its literal aspect ; for the law may be regarded in two ways, either as a series of literal restrictions, or as wrapping up implicity the whole of man's duty towards Goi> and his neighbour. It is in the latter aspect, let me remind you, as well as in the former, that the In- . spired Writers of the New Testament view the Law. "I 8 % 60 Of the Decalogue and its Resjponds. [pakt know," says St. Paul to the Romans, " that the Law is Spiritual." And again, " Love is the fulfilling of the Law." " For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet ; and if there he any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And our Lord, being asked which is the first and great commandment, reduces the whole moral code to a spir- itual summary thus : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the lav/ and the prophets." Let each precept be viewed as a law for the heart as well as for the conduct, — let us read alongside of each the spiritual exposition which the New Testament enables us to make of it, — alongside of the third and ninth com- mandment, " But I say unto you. Swear not at all," " Above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath ; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay ; lest ye fall into condemnation." But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment ; " — alongside of the sixth, " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ; " — along- side of the tenth, " Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth ; " — alongside of the fourth, " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day ;"— and then the Law, instead of ap- pearing any longer to be a dry framework or skeleton of out- ward rules, becomes filled in with the warm flesli and blood of an animated and spiritual obedience. And if the law, 1.] Of the Decalogue and its Besponds. 51 as we are solemnly assured by the Apostles and their Master, can only be fulfilled by Love, can the rehearsal of the Law be out of place at this moment, when we are about to celebrate the Feast of Love, — a feast com- memorative of the Love of Christ, — syuibolical also of the Love which ought to subsist between Christian brethren ; nay, a Feast which, when duly partaken of, is the or- dained instrumentality of cementing our union both with our crucified Head and all His members? And that the Decalogue in this place is to be regarded in its Christian and spiritual aspect, — as the Law of Love, and which can only be by Love fulfilled, — there is an indication, which must by no means be overlooked, in the responds with which it is interspersed. We will exhibit shortly the rationale of these responds, and then glance at their meaning. The responds then stand in exactly the same relation to the Ten Commandments as the " Gloria Patri " does to the Psalms. We make large use of the Psalms in Divine Service, saying or singing them through, from beginning to end, every month. Now the Psalms were originally Jewish Hymns, ^'ust as the Decalogue was originally a Jewish code ; and if interpreted in the bare letter, with- out any reference to Gospel blessings, might seem to be quite as inappropriate to 'a Christian Service as the Dec- alogue. What have we to do, it might be said, with the triumphs and distresses of David, with the history of the children of Israel, with the Babylonish captivity, or other Jewish interests, which form the subject of so many of the Psalms? And the answer is, that we have nothing to do with these things in their local and circumscribed refer- ence ; but that since David and his fortunes are typical of Christ and His fortunes, since thapilgi-image of Israel 52 Of the Decalogue and its Resj^onds. [paet is a foreshadowing of tlie Christian's Pilgrimage, and the Babylonish captivity a figure of the captiAdty under sin and Satan, from which our Redeemer releases us, the Psalms which treat of these things have for us an undercurrent of spiritual significance ; we, as Christians, having our vision purged by the holy Spirit, see in them prophecies of Christ and His Redemption, so that they become in our mouths new songs — old, it may be, in the letter, but sung by us, not '' in the oldness of the letter, but in the new- ness of the Spirit." And to indicate this, — to show that we attach to them, in reivine Truth, this, it may be supposed, would be as much secured by reading a work of piety (perhaps itself a Sermon) as by hearing a Ser- mon in the Church. Without questioning that a great bless- ing may rest (and often has rested) upon the reading of good books, we are unable to assent to the force of this reasoning. It is open to any author to publish a religious work ; and if an ordaiqed minister does so, he hardly stands upon his commission when he does it, but rather upon the general right, which he shares in common with others, to put forth whatever he thinks may edify and in- struct the public. He is no longer speaking ex catJiedrd ; and accordingly what he says becomes a mere expression of private opinion, without any official sanction. It is diffisrent surely with words spoken from the pulpit. They are spoken in the very theatre of the Ordinances of Relig- ion. He who speaks, although he speaks fallibly, yet speaks in virtue of his commission, and sits for the time being in the chair of One greater than Moses. It is strictly an official transaction ; and the office is no less than the ministry of souls. The address is preceded and followed by prayer, and forms, as we now see, an integral part of the highest Service of the Church. In a word, the Sermon here appears in the character which n.] Of the Sermon or Instruction. Ill some vv-ould refuse to it, but which we stoutly assert for it, — the character of an Ordinance of Religion, founded on Our Lord's commission to the Twelve, and on St. Paul's charge to the uninspired Timothy. Surely this is a very miuch more solemn delivery of God's message than any diffusion of it by means of the press, and one on which His especial Blessing may be expected to attend, whenever the hearts of preachers and people are set to the right key. And we cannot but think that, upon the whole, the experience of Christians affirms the difference between Truth announced under, and Truth announced independ- ently of, the Divine Commission. Do sermons, when read, usually make the same impression as the same sermons when preached ? Or do they seem to have lost something of their fire, and fervour, and special inter- est ? If so, what reason can be assigned for the differ- ence? Doubtless there are certain natural causes in operation to produce the effect. It cannot be disputed that oral deUvery, with all its accompaniments of gesture, look, intonation, gives an effect to words, and brings them into a relief, if I may so say, which they cannot have, while they lie flat and mute on the page. But this and other natural laws are probably made subordinate by God, in working out the efficacy of His Ordinance. Grace attends those Ordinances, whenever they are duly administered ; and Grace turns the mere circumstantials to account, and makes them minister to the general effect. It only remains to remark that but one Sermon is provided for by our Prayer Book ; and that this occurs as a part of, and is embraced within, the Communion Office, The circumstance is not without a very important lesson, 112 Of the Sermon or Instruction, [pakt which we shall do well to carry away. Our Prayer Book gives us tlie perfect theory of Divine Worship, as distinct from the disturbances and modifications which circumstances introduce into the theory ; and the theory is, that there shall be liiit one Sermon on each Sunday and Festival. The necessity of attaching a Sermon (as is usually done) to each Service, arises merely from the fact that a very large portion of our congregations, being unable to come to church in the morning, would never hear a sermon at all, unless one were delivered at the later Services. And the desirableness of multiplying these opportunities of illustrating and enforcing the Word of God, arises from a circumstance, which is no necessity at all, but the fault of our age, — the mental indolence of hearers. It is an age, alas ! of much ^hearing, and of much running to and fro in order to hear, but of lament- ably little thought. Men like to be stirred by impressive appeals — as many as you please, one dislodging the other incontinently from the mind, — but they do not like to carry those appeals home, to turn them over in their minds, to compare them with Holy Scripture, to extract spiritual nourishment from them by meditation, to found prayers upon them in the week. They will sit passive to receive emotions ; but they will not exert themselves to foster those emotions, to consider the grounds of them, to nurse them in the warm hotbed of the heart, till they burst into the green shoot of spiritual life. If Ave could find now-a-days a meditative hearer, who did not merely submit himself to be wrought upon, but co-operate with the preacher by an effort afterwards to recall, to retain, to pon- der, and to pray, we do not scruple to say that in his case one sermon would be more profitable— far more profit- able — than two ; nay, that the spiritual instincts of such n.] Of the Sermon or Instruction. 113 an one wonld lead liim, after the Eucharist of the morn- ]*Dg, to desire nothing more beyond the Evensong of the Church, fully, and decorously, and joyously performed. The real truth is, that a mind seriously occupied with one line of thought resents as an interference the intrusion of another, which is entirely different. But, alas ! we have to deal in general with minds too indolent, and too little interested in our great themes, to give them any after- thought, and we must deal with men as we find them, and as the discursive habits of thought now popular have made them ; and, without assuming that they will ponder what they hear, must fling abroad much seed of God's Word, to multiply the chances of some seed clinging to the soil. But it is a shallow habit of mind, that of dismissing the preacher's topic as soon as he has b,een heard out ; and so long as it continues in hearers, it is not to be won- dered dt that we see little fruit of preaching. God requires of us that we should be in His House something more than mere recipients of impressions. He requires spiritual diligence on our part, before He will bless what we hear to our real furtherance in knowledge and in grace. May we one and all of us lay it to heart ! To be hearers of His word is little ; nay, only entails upon us an ad- ditional responsibility. May He make us intelligent, in- quiring, thoughtful listeners, who in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit wdth patience ! 114 Of the Alms and Oblations / and of the [p^kt LECTUEE Y. OF THE ALMS AND OBLATIONS ; AND 01? TBE SACRIFI- CIAL CHAKACTEPt OF THE HOLY COMMUNION. " IJ spcaft as to iDi.^e men ; jutiae je iBlj^tt K sao. STfjc cup of bkssutn to|)ic5 toe fikss, is it not \\)Z communion of t!)c blooD of €:|)vist ? 2ri)c fttcati U)l)ic|) luc bvcaft, is it not t!)c communion of t1)?r ftott^) of €:l)vist? iFov toe feeing manij are one ircatJ^ anU one bo03 : for toe are all |)artafeers of t!)at one i)reaS3. 33r1)olli Israel after tt^e flesl) : are not tijen to])tc!) cat of tfje sacrifices ^jartakers of t|)e altar? S5^I)at saw £ t!)en? t|)at tije inol is an]) t|)in2, or tijat toijicl) is ofcrcti in sacrifice to lUoIs is anw ti)in3? 33ut £ san, tijat tlje tljinfis tol^ic!) tje Gentiles sacrifice, tlKi' sacrifi'ce to licbils, antf not to (fSoli : anti K tooiiln not tijat jje sljoulo f)alie fcIlotosi)ip toitl) Oebtls. Ye cannot UrinS; t|)e cu}) of t|)c SLortf, anO tfjc t\u) of licbils: jjc cannot be par= tatters of tl)e 2-orti\« gTable, anti of tl)e ta&le of Dcbils. I3o toe |]robolte tije S-orH to jealousy ? ♦♦— 1 Con. x. 15—22. The Sermon ended, an entirely new feature of the Office of the Holy Communion comes into view, which is thenceforth developed in several diiferent forms. This is the Sacrificial character of the Office, which we pro- pose to exhibit in the present Chapter. The Priest returns to the Lord's Table, and begins the Offertory, saying one or more sentences of Scripture (the majority of them advocate almsgiving in general ; four set forth the claim which the clergy have for main- tenance upon those whom they minister), during the reading of which his " Deacons, Churchwardens, or other fit persons, receive the Alms for the Poor, and other de- votions of the People, and reverently bring such alms to n.] Sacrificial Character of Holy Commimion. 115 the Priest, who himiLly presents and places them on the Lord's Table." Then the Priest is directed to " place upon the Table so much Bread and Wine as he shall think sufficient." Both these are X)fferings by act and deed. The verbal offering follows immediately ; for the first petition in the Prayer for the Church Militant runs thus : " "We humbly beseech Thee most mercifully accept our alms and ohlations.'^ The questions which arise on reading these Rubrics, and which require a brief answer here, arc, " What are the other devotions of the People, distinct from their alms ? ' and " What is meant by the oblations, as distinct from the alms, in the Prayer for the Church Militant?" These are moot points, upon which learned men have disagi'eed ; and I therefore offer my judgment upon them with great diffidence. Moreover, the investigation of these points in your hearing w^ould divert us too much from the great bearings of the subject ; and we must therefore ask you to accept our conclusion, without the grounds upon which . it has been formed. It appears to us, then, that the com- pilers of this and other Offices of the Eeformed Church have been anxious to keep as far as possible to the primi- tive model, without providing for any modifications of detail, which the altered circumstances of the Church mi^ht from time to time necessitate. In the primitive age of the Church there v/ere devotions of the people, made at the Holy Communion, which did not fall under the head of alms. Not very long ago tithes used to be paid amon"' ourselves in kind ; and in quite the old days corn, bread, wine, oil. Church ornaments, robes for the clergy, chalices, and other sacred vessels for the Altar, used to be offered at the Holy Communion, as well as money. This is a well-ascertained fact ; and side by side with it is 116 Of the Alms and Ohlations j and of the [part another fact, wliich will be found helpful in illustrating the subject. The Bread and Wine to be consecrated were not, as now, " provided by the Curate and Churchwardens at the charges of the Parish," but were taken by the officiating Priest out of the Bread and Wine brought as an offering (for the sustentation of the Clergy and the Poor) to the great Christian Festival. Let us bear in mind also the circumstance which has been brought before us in a previous Lecture, that in the Apostolic times the Eucha- rist was celebrated in the course of an actual meal, to Avhich all who could afford to do so contributed a small stock of provisions. These provisions would always partly consist of Bread and Wine, whatever else might be added ; and of this Bread and Wine a portion would be consecrated, for the purpose of the Ordinance ; while the rest would be consumed at the Love-Feast or Supper in connexion with it. Taking these facts into consideration, and v^^eighing what else has been said on either side of the subject, it seems to us that by the words, " oilier de- votions of the people ^^' as well as by the word " oblations,'' in the Prayer for the Church Militant, is meant first the Bread and Wine, Mdiich have just been placed upon the Holy Table, and which as they are (or ought to be) pro- vided at the charges of the Parish, are an oblation which comes from the people ; and, secondly, any offerings which maybe made at that time (whether in the form* of money, or in any other shape) for pious purposes, as distinct from the relief of the poor. Such offerings in these days might take the shape of a contribution (folded in paper, and the object specified) to some of our great Christian Societies, or of an addition to the endowment of a Church, or some aid in the main- n.] Sacrificial Character of Holy Communion. 117 tenance of the current expenses of Divine Worship. For note the direction of the fiaal Rubric in the English office as to the disposal of monies collected at the Offertery : "After the Divine Service ended, the money given at the Offertory shall be disposed of to such j9^o?4s OMd charitable uses as the Minister and Churchwardens shall think fit." Observe, — not charitable exclusively, but '^ pious and cJiariiahle." The money given specifically for charitable uses I, take to be the Alms. The money given specifically for pious uses I take to be part of the oblations. But as matters stand now, the principal oblation, and generally speaking the only one, is the Bread and Wine, vv^hich are to be placed upon God's Board, as we have seen, imme- diately after the Alms. When the words, " We beseech Thee mercifully to accept our alms and oblations," follow immediately after these arrangements, it is hard indeed to resist the conclusion that the Bread and Wine are re- garded as oblations. Now this word " oblations " (however we may choose to interpret it) leads us at once to the Sacrificial charac- ter of the Eucharist. An oblation is an oftering made to God. The first oblations we read of as made in the Christian Church arc thus described : " Neither was there any among them that lacked : for as many as were pos- sessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the Apostles' feet." And that the giving of money or property for pious and charitable uses has a true and real sacrificial char- acter, is shown by plain testimonies of Holy Scripture : " But to do good and to communicate forget not ; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." And it is some- what remarkable that St. Paul, who in the Epistle to 118 Of the Alms and Oblations ; and of the [part the Epliesians speaks of the Sacrifice of Christ (which surely must stand alone in all its glorious and unap- proachable Virtue) as "an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour," does not hesitate, in that to the Philippians, to speak in similar terms of the miserable and flawed offerings, which God condescends to accept from His people for the service of His Church and poor. " I have all, and abound," sa3^s the Apostle, acknowledg- ing the supplies which had reached him through Epapli- roditus ; "I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing' to God." We have no difficulty, then, in justifying from Holy Scripture the words, " We beseech Thee mercifully to accept our alms and oblations." But the great prayer passes on rapidly to the recognition of another sort of Sacrifice : '' And to receive tlie&e our prayers^ which we offer unto Thy Divine Majesty." All prayer, — intercessory prayer particularly, — is an oblation. Incense was a constant offering under the Old Dispensation ; and prayer is spiritual incense, an odour of pious affections and desires, kindled by the Holy Ghost upon the heart's altar, and ascending thence to Him who kindled it. And, accordingly, 'it is written, " Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense ; and the lifting np of my hands as the evening sacrifice." — For prayer in its sacrificial aspect see also the eighth chapter of the Revelation, — a most precious passage, as showing that angels are employed in sending our prayers aloft, and presenting them before God, and also that it is only in virtue of their union with the much iu- nf^Tifip. of Ciur Lord's Intercession that thev can nossiblv ii] Sacrifioial Character of Holy Communion. 119 bs accepted : " And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense^ that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." — Compare also the striking words of the angel to Cornelius : " Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Our prayers, then, in addition to our alms, are a sacrifice well pleasing to God, through Jesus Christ. But we pass on rapidly to the latter part of the Prayer of Consecration, where we find two more ideas in connex- ion with sacrifice developed. The first is, that the entire Office of the Communion, the Avhole act from beorinnino; to end, is '' a, sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." " We, Thy humble servants, entirely desire Thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgi\'ing." For the sacrificial character of praise compare Heb. xiii. 15 : " By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise of God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name." The second is, that inasmuch as we renew our vows to God at the Holy Table, and our vows resolve them- selves into self-surrender, there is in the Communion a presentation of ourselves as a living sacrifice, according to that v\'ord of the Apostle, " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." "•' Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee." The sum and substance of wliat has been said is, that 120 Of the Alms and Oblations ; and of the [part alms, prayer, praise, self-surrender, are all spoken of as sacrifices of the New Testament ; and inasmuch as these religious exercises all find a place in the Holy Commun- ion, and all culminate there, the Act which embraces all tliese in itself must be sacrificial. But is the Eucharist itself, apart from the devotional exercises Avith which it is connected, of a sacrificial char- acter? "We entirely believe so. We have already seen that the Bread and Wine (which are the riiaterials of the Sacrament) are spoken of, before their consecration, as " oblations," which God is besought mercifully to accept. In the American Office they are again offered to God, after the hand of the Priest has been laid upon them, in the following terms : " Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the institution of Thy dearly beloved Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, we. Thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before Thy Divine Majesty, with these Thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto Thee, the memorial Thy Son hath commanded us to make." There is a very precious lesson in this second offering of the Bread and Wine in a new character, which Ave could not willingly forfeit. When they are first present- ed, it is simply as offerings made out of our substance towards the Divine Service. But by the imposition of hands they are set apart to signify (and in the case of the faithful to communicate the virtue of) the Body and Blood of our Blessed Lord, and by presenting them to God as symbols of that Body and Blood, we plead with Him (by a significant action) the merits of Christ's Death. The Holy Eucharist, be it remembered, is a memorial of the Lord's Death, made not simply to man and for man's behoof, but made also before God's Divine Majesty, to remind Him (if I may so say) of all that n.] Sacrificial Cliaracter of Holy Communion. 1 21 His Son, in our nature, underwent and suffered for us. In prayer we often verbally allege to Him Christ's suf- ferings as a valid plea for mercy and grace. In the Eu- charist we allege the same thing in action. And in this second Oblation of the Elements the allegation is exphc- itly made : " We do celebrate and make here before Thy Divine Majesty, with these Thy boly gifts, which we now offer unto Thee, the memorial Thy Son hath commanded us to make ; having iu remembrance His blessed passion and precious death. His mighty resurrection and glorious ascension ; rendering unto Thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same." A certain Christian sect, the members of which appre- ciate fully the attractiveness of the Ritual, have felt so deeply the pathos and beauty of this solemn memorial- izing of God by the presentation of the Consecrated Ele- ments, that the presentation is always made by them in the course of Morning and Evening prayer, even when there is no Communion. A certain portion of the Bread and Wine is reserved for this purpose, and at a certain period of the Service, placed in silence upon the Holy Table. Our Church does not perform this action, except in connexion with, and as part of, the Communion Office. But it may be asked (and it will be anxiously asked by some), "• Is the sacrificial character of the Eucharist maintained or implied in Holy Scripture ? " We quite beb'eve so. We believe that a full recognition of this sacrificial character is virtually contained in the text ; that any candid pe'rson, studying the argument of this inspired passage, will not be able to resist the conclusion that the Communion is sacrificial. The Apostle is dis- suading the Corinthian Christians from participating in meats that had been offered to idols. He does this by 6 122 Of the Alms and Oblations / and of the [part reference to a principle well known and admitted among the Jews — that those who ate of a sacritice, part of which had been offered to God, wei;e sharers with the Altar. The part consumed upon the Altar was the Al- tar's share ; and the Altar represented God, who in sac- rifice was supposed to hold communion with the worship- per by a participation of common food with him. Apply this principle, then, to the idol-sacrifices, which are con- sumed by the heathen worshippers, after they have been presented to the idol. As heathendom is under the dominion of Satan, who is the ruler of the darkness of this world, it is to him and his angels — in short, to devils — that heathen sacrifices are really (albeit unconsciously) offered. The idol, the mere image of wood and stone, is in itself nothing ; but it represents the Devil, who is behind it, and is upholding the great system of idolatry in the world. By eating of an idol-sacrifice, then, a man becomes sharer of the Devil's board, and hath a fellowship with devils. Now, asks the Apostle, is there not a gross and grievous inconsistency, obvious to com- mon sense, in a man's seeking to share both the Lord's Table and the Table of devils ? In the Holy Commun- ion, the Christian shares with the Lord. In partaking of the meat offered to idols, he shares with the Devil. " Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy," by dividing our participation between Him and devils — sharing first of His Board in the Christian assembly, and then sharing of the Devil's Board at some heathen entertainment, a few hours afterwards ? Such is manifestly the tenour of the argument. — But does it not virtually imply that the Lord's Supper stands to Christians in the place which idol-sacrifices and Jewish sacrifices held respectively to heathen and Jewish worshippers? Deny this altogether ; n.] Sacrificial Character of Holy Communion. 123 maintain that there is no analoo^y between a Jewish sac- rifice and the Holy Communion, and that there is no such thing as sacrifice competent to worshippers under the Gospel ; and do you not cut away the ground from un- der the Apostle's argument? "Whereas admit (what indeed no one would think of denying, except from con- troversial prepossessions) that the Lord's Table is the Christian Altar, and that the act of Communion is a really sacrificial act, bringing us into communion with Christ, as the eating of idol-sacrifices brought men into communion with the Devil, and as the eating of Jewish sacrifices brought men into communion with the Cove- nant God of the Jews ; and the argument then becomes clear and consistent, and the practical deduction from it inevitable. The truth is, that the sacrificial character of the Eu- charist would be generally recognized by all thoughtful persons, who take the Scriptures as their guide, if it were not feared that the admission would be in favour of the Roman view of the Ordinance. It is a great mischief, uniformly attending upon perversions of the Truth in one direction, that they ensure perversions of it in the other. The Roman Church, 1200 years after Christ, invented the monstrous figment of Transubstan- tiation, in virtue of which it is pretended (to use the language of our thirty-first Article) that " the Priest " in the Communion doth " offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt." So hor- rible a blasphemy (for in truth it is nothing less) has very naturally made Protestants altogether suspicious of the application of the term " Sacrifice " to the Lord's Supper ; and it is commonly supposed among them that to invest the Ordinance with any such character would 124: Of the Ahns and Oblations ; and of the [part be to obscure the great Offering of Calvary — that " per- fect redenoption, propitiation, and satisfaction," Avhich was once made "for all the sins of the whole world," and which most assuredly can never be repeated. It is asserted also, and generally received as indisputable, without much reflection on the reasonableness of such a view, that the Old Dispensation had sacrifices continual- ly recurring, which were in truth propitiatory ; but that the New is distinguished froln the Old by the circum- stance that the performance of sacrifice by worshippers is abolished, and that the only sacrifice recognized by the Dispensation is that offered by the Eternal Priest. But there is here a large amount of fallacy and confu- sion of thought, which it will illustrate our subject to disentangle. There is none otlier satisfaction for sin, then, but the Sacrifice of Christ alone. You cannot make this assertion in terms stronger than the Scriptures warrant. There is no other transaction in Heaven or earth, which can wash away a single stain of sin, or relieve a single burdened conscience, or open a door in Heaven for grace and mercy to stream forth upon guilty man, but merely and exclusively the meritorious Death of Christ. I say, no otlier. No other transaction, whether under the Law or under the Gospel. The Lord's Supper is utterly powerless to produce these great effects. But neither could the legal offerings pro- duce them. Their incompetence is expressly stated by the Apostle : "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." And what is said of the blood of bulls and goats applies with equal force to any religious transaction whatever, the agents in which are human worshippers and human priests. Oh, that we could see this truth as God sees it ! The most II.] Sacrificial Character of Holy Communion. 125 dignified and solemn rite in the world, albeit of Divine Institution, cannot so much as put forth a finger to light- en the load of human guilt, or to arrest the course of God's justice upon the sinner; nor if all the beasts of Lebanon were slain for a burnt- offering, and all its ce- dar forests hewn down to form a pile, would the vast hecatomb be more efficacious. Why, then, it may be asked, were sacrifices continually offered under the Law, if they could not (as the Apostle assures us they could not) relieve the worshipper's conscience, nor in any way affect the relations betAveen liim and God? The answer to this is, first, that such sacrifices were divinely insti- tuted, and were therefore binding upon the ancient Church, whether they could or could not see the ground of them. Secondly, that, as being divinely instituted, they must have been in some degree means of grace. Thirdly, that they were representations, before the event, of the one Offering of the Death of Christ, and, as such, consoled the faithful with the thought that God would, in Plis own good time, provide a really eificacious Atonement. But now, is there no Ordinance under the New Testament, which exactly meets all these condi- tions, which is in the first place divinely instituted, in the next place a means of Grace, in the third place a representation (after the event) of the Death of Christ? Can it be denied that our own Church at least (whatever may be the case with the Protestant sects) fully and em- phatically recognizes all these attributes as attaching to the Supper of the Lord? Then what is the legitimate and necessary inference? That the Supper of the Lord (though in no sense expiatory) is the Sacrifice of the New Dispensation ; — that it is to Memory exactly what the Jewish Sacrifices were to Hope ; that here in short. 126 Of the Alms and Oblations ; and of the [pajjt M^e have Sacrifice, witli its external form altered (as having been brought out into the light of a better Econ- omy), but with its essential features (viz., Divine institu- tion, instrumentality of Grace, representation of the Lord's Death) remaining untouched. The Gospel is a Dispensation of Mercy, and therefore no blood flows in our Sacrifice, as in those of the Law, which worketh wrath. Our Sacrifice is a very simple rite ; for the whole character of the Gospel of Jesus Clirist is sim- plicity combined with depth. But it is nO less a com- memoration of the Death of Christ, after the fact, thaa the legal sacrifices were a foreshadowing of it, before it took place. The outpoured wine of the one is as signifi- cant as the shed blood of the other. " For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do show the Lord's Death, till He come." It should be added, by way of completing the argu- ment, that the idea of sacrifice being necessarily propitia- tory in its character is an entire misapprehension, founded on ignorance (too prevalent unhappily among those who pride themselves upon adherence to Scripture) of the Jev/ish Levitical Law. Expiation of sin is not the fun- damental idea of Sacrifice at all. Sin-offerings and trespass-offerings no doubt there were, in which there ivas a remembrance of sin, and into the idea of which, therefore, expiation did enter as one element of them. But these were only particular species of the genus Sac- rifice, which embraced besides burnt-offerings, meat- offerings, drink-offerings, peace-offerings, and freewill- offerings. The fundamental idea of all these varieties seems to be man rendering unto God something which pleases and satisfies Him, whether in the way of self- surrender, gratitude, voluntary acknowledgment, or ex- n.] Sacrificial Character of Holy Communion, 127 piation. Man can never expiate ; but it does not follow that, when forgiven and accepted, he cannot offer an acceptable homage. But one moment remains to give a practical turn to these reflections, by calling attention to that verse, with which the Apostle concludes his warning against par- ticipation of idol-sacrifices : " Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? " The literal idol-sacrifice has ceased. Yet are there innumerable idols, even in the nominally Chris- tian world, with ti'ains of worshippers who hold commun- ion with them, if not sacramentally, yet in heart and spirit. There is Mammon with his troop of idolaters, — all those who, whether miserly or not, secretly regard the comforts and resources of this world as the one great object of human existence. There is Ashtaroth, Aviih her impure and licentious orgies, drawing votaries to her altars with the lure of sensuJtlity. There is Moloch, to whom human victims are still offered, when children of tender age and young women are ground down by the oppressiveness of a cruel social system, and the employer will give no other terms than long hours and low wages. The sun shining in his strength, the moon walking in brightness, and other objects of natural beauty, have still the power to entice the heart and attract the salutes of many ; for there is a Pantheistic talk making itself heard among us, in circles calling themselves philosoph- ical and refined, to the effect that all things have some particle of Divinity, and rightfully challenge some spe- cies of worship. There is Reason, and her throng of worshippers, all following after the ignis fatuus of intel- lectual power, in whatever form it may display itself, and forsaking the old beaten paths of homely Scriptural Truth. These are all idols, with devils behind them, 128 Of the Intercession in the [paet maintaining; and abetting their worship. Present not yourself to hold communion with Christ, while you com- municate with these ; while you are drawn by their fas- cinations, and do homage at their shrine. Do you pro- voke the Lord to jealousy? Know that He will not share thy heart with any idol god ; and as often as you approach the Christian Altar, reflect that the condition of partaking of the Lord's Table to the soul's health is, that communion with the world, the flesh, and the devil be first sincerely renounce dr LECTURE VI. OF THE INTERCESSION IN THE PRATER FOR THE CHURCH MILITANT. "K nljort tj)crcforr, tljETt, first of all, supplications, ij^xnvtxs, intn'ccssions, anD ^M\x^ of tljnnfts, l)c nic-itie for all men ; ♦• JFor tttufls, nntr fov nil tj)?it are in autDoriti) ; tl)at toe ma^ leali a quiet anlr peacealile life in all flo^iliness anU 1)oncst»." 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. In the Prayer for the Church Militant there are three great features, the Oblation, the Intercessions, and the Commemoration of the Dead. Of the first of these we have spoken sufficiently. The Intercessions next claim our attention. They are directed to five objects : the general well- beinoj of the .Church ; a risrhteous executive in Christian States ; an effective ministration of God's Word and Sacraments ; a right reception of that Word by the people ; and, finally, the consolation and support of the II.] Prayer for the Church Militant. 129 afflicted. Thus the precept of the Apostle Paul seems to *be very narrowly followed. We intercede first '• for all men" (for all, at least, within the pale of the Church) ; then for " Christian rulers" (under whatever name they maybe know^n), "and for all that are in authority" (spiritual as well as temporal) ; and then for the people, that they may be virtuous and God-fearing, made so by the instrumentality, partly of a righteous Executive, partly of an efficient ministry ("that wre may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty)." "We cannot frame an Intercessory Prayer much more closely upon inspired instructions. 1. Our first subject of Intercession is the general wel- fare of the Church. Alas ! how urgent a need of our Prayers has the Universal Church ! How miserably far is she from realising the spiritual condition which her Divine Founder designed for her, and prayed that she might be led into and kept in ! If you will read with at- tention His great High-Priestly Prayer recorded in S. John xvii., you will see that there are two great features of this spiritual condition. Truth a nd perfect Unity. " Sanctify them through Thy Truth," says He, " Thy Word is Truth." And again : " Holy Father, keep through " (literally, in) " Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me " (keep them, that is, in the true acknowledgment of Thy Name), " that they maybe one, as we are." And again : " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word ; that they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may believe that Thou hastsent Me." But how awfully difierent is the actual state of Christen- dom from that which Christ contemplated for His Disci- 6* 130 Of the Intercession in the [part pies ! Beyond the most vital articles of the Faith, there is scarcely a single point on which the different commun-* ions are agreed. In the same Christendom there are the Reformed and Unreformed Churches, the latter anathematizing the former, the former too oftea con- founding license with liberty, and breaking loose from the ancient moorings of Apostolic Discipline and really primitive Tradition. Then there are Churches, properly so called, with the regular succession of the Ministry, and devout Sects without member, who have really formed themselves anew in modern times, and make it then* boast that they have shaken themselves loose from all the associations of the Mediseval Church. jSTor can we flatter ourselves that to any great extent the distinction is merely nominal, — a distinction without a difference. Long separation, and the cherishing with undue fondness one or two isolated doctrines, has produced a different cast of thought among Christians of different Commun- ions. The English Episcopalian and the Greek, the American Episcopalian and the Nestorian, look at re- ligious Truth from a totally different point of view. Nay, even in the bosom of the same Church, so far from the members being " perfectly joined together in the same " mind and in the same judgment," there are often found rival Schools of Theology, with party names and party badges, separated from, one another, not unfrequent- ly, by antipathies stronger than either of them entertain to persons of a professedly different Denomination. It is easy to acquiesce in such a state of things, and even to make an apology for it, under the conviction that it must be so, while the various Communions adhere faithfully to what they conceive to be God's Truth. But the answer is, that not merely acknowledgment of the Truth, but - II.] Prayer for the Church Militant. 131 union in acknoTvledgment of the Truth, is the healthy condition of the Church. Christians must not only con- fess the Truth ; they must agree in confessing it. And, on the other hand, it would be easy to bring about union by the compromise of some Scriptural doctrine, a por- tion, it may be, of the Faith once delivered to the saints. But the objection to this would be, that Christians are bound not only to speak in Love, but to speak the Truth in Love. The uuion of Truth with Love, in the Church of Christ, is the Church's high ideal state, and the ideal which, under present circumstances, it is so peculiarly hard to realise. Mutual acquaintance between members of rival Commimions will do something to soften animos- ities. The cultivation by all Christians of a Catholic Spii'it, which acknowledges and gladly hails personal goodness and devotion, wherever it is found, will do more. A clear understanding that the essential Articles of Faith are few, broad, and simple, and that subtleties and nice controversial questions are not among them — such an understanding gaining ground among the thought- ful and educated, will contribute much to the great re- sult. But, after all, " it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth." We shall make no way in remov- ing this gigantic difficulty, unless we apply to it the le\er of Prayer. It is God who fashioneth the hearts of all men, and understandeth all their thoughts ; and it is to Him we must make our appeal, if we would have their thoughts directed into Truth, and their hearts into Love. And accordingly, when about to partake of the Feast of Love, — the Feast in which the " one Bread," distributed among many " partakers," symbolises the Unity of Christ's mystical Body, the Church, — " We beseech His Divine Majesty to inspire continually the Universal 132 Of the Intercession in the [paet Cliurcli with the Spirit of Truth, Unity, and Concord " (Uuitj and Concord through Truth, as we praj on an- other occasion, " G-rant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit hy their doctrine "), and to "• grant that all those who do confess His Holy Name may " (not naerely agree, but) " agree in the Truth of His Holy Word, and live in unity and godly Love." How faithfully does the Church, praying in such language for herself, echo her Divine Master s Prayer for her : " Holy Father, keep in" [the confession of] " Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are." Nor let it be supposed that mankind at large are ex- cluded Ijfom the benefit of* the Church's Intercession, when she holds her Communion Festival. In supplicat- ing the agreement of all who confess God's Name iu the truth of His Holy Word, she asks for that v/hich is the ordained instrument of converting the world to the Faith. When, at length, all Christians agree in the Truth, the e\'idence of Christianity will become irresistible. Too long have the heathen found an argument for unbelief in the allegation that Protestant missionaries have taught a different Religion from the Romanists, and that Christian sectaries invite them to a different form of Faith and Worship from that inculcated by Christian Churches. But ia that day, whose coming we anticipate in Faith and Hope, when the Lord shall build up the spiritual Zion in Truth and Love, and the spectacle shall be pre- sented to the world of '•' Jerusalem built as a city that is at unity in itself," the prayer of the great High Priest shall be fully and finally answered : " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word ; that they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be n.] Prayer for the Church Militant. 133 one in us : that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Thus the agreement of the Church in the Truth being made, in the order of Divine Providence, the indispensable condition of the world's conversion, he who prays for the first explicitly, prays also implicitly for the second. 2. The second subject of Intercession in this Prayer is a righteous and effective administration off Justice by Christian Rulers. The order of Intercession indicated in the text, "For kings, and for all that are in authority," points out the Heads of the Body Politic, to whom all orders and degrees of men, ecclesiastical as well as civil, must be subject for conscience* sake, as the first objects of specific intercession. This priority is due partly to the origin of Civil Government, "the powers that be" (and therefore especially the Supreme Power in any State) being " ordained of God ; " and partly to its im- 'portance^ the welfare of the Commonwealth depending very mainly on the decisions and acts of its Rulers. And when the character of the authorities of that day is con- sidered, the precept seems to come to us, who live under Christian autliorities, in a doubly imperative and obliga- tory form. The master of the Roman world, at the time St. Paul wrote these words, was one whose name has passed into a proverb of tyranny and wickedness — the odious Nero. If the first Epistle to Timothy is rightly assigned to the year 65, it was in the previous year that the great conflagration had taken place, which laid in ashes three of the four quarters of Rome, and which the tyrannical Emperor (himself suspected of the crime) had made a pretext for the cruel persecution of the Chris- tians. It was with such specimens of authority as these before his eyes that St. Paul, directing a Christian Bishop 134: Of the Intercession in the [paet as to the celebration of Public Worship in the Church, enjoins in the first place, or as a matter of primary im- portance, that prayer in all its forms, — special entreaty, solemn address, urgent solicitation, thanksgiving for suc- cesses, — should, be made in behalf of all that are in authority. The object of these prayers was obvious — more obvious, perhaps, though not (we believe) more real, than is the object of such prayers now-a-days. Christians were then a harassed and a persecuted sect. The temporal authority in those days set its face against them, to root them out of the earth. It was a great point for them to have princes favourably disposed to them, who would allow them the exercise of their religion without molestation. Now the Lord could make any prince thus favourably disposed towards them ; for (as an inspired king informs us) " the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters ; He turneth it whither- soever He will." And if it were turned in favour of the Christians, as it might be by their prayers, then they would " lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty," or to express the same thought in the terse language of one of our collects, God's Church would joyfully serve Him in all godly quietness. There was every ground, then, for praying for the powers that be, that the blessings conferred upon them might redound to the Christians in outward peace and inward tranquillity. Like most of the ecclesiastical arrangements of Chris- tianity, this practice of offering public prayer for those in authority had its origin in the customs of the syna- gogue and the Temple. In the Book of Ezra we find a decree of Darius for the assistance of the Jews in re- building their Temple, which makes it obligatory upon his subjects in Palestine to furnish them, " according to n.] Prayer for the Chtirch Militant. 135 the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem," •with victims, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, " that they may- offer sacrifices of sweet savours unto the God of Heaven, and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons." This the Jews appear to have done most conscientiously ever after the Captivity ; and when they passed under the Roman yoke, the sacrifices and prayers were transferred to the account of their new governors. We find from Josephus that " they offered sacrifices twice every day for Ciesar and for the Roman people." And it is indeed a most observable fact, illustrative of the quietness and peace which may be expected from prayers for rulers, that this same historian Josephus traces up the beginning of the last war with the Romans to the omission, by ill counsel, of the usual sacrifice for Caesar. The passage is of sufficient interest to be quoted : " At the same time Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high priest, a very bold youth, who was at that time governor of the Temple, persuaded those that officiated in the divine service to receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans ; for they rejected the sacrifice of Caesar on this account ; and when many of the chief priests and principal men be- sought them not to omit the sacrifice, which it was cus- tomary for them to offer for their princes, they would not be prevailed upon." Hereupon, the historian goes on to say, a council was held by the chief priests and principal Pharisees, who besought the innovators to con- sider that it had been an immemorial custom to receive gifts for the Temple and sacrifices from foreigners, and that the rejection of sacrifices, when tendered by the emperor, would not only irritate the Romans, and bring on a war with them, but also " would introduce a novel 136 Of the Intercession in the [paet rule of Divine Worship." However, the bigots would not hearken, and the Avar which originated in their ab- juring prayers and sacrifices for C^sar, ended in the demolition of their Temple bj Caesar, and the abolition of sacrifice altogether. We have seen that prayers even for heathen Sover- eigns were practised by the Jewish Church ; that the discontinuance of them — which was a breach of long custom — ^liad a most disastrous result ; and that the Christian Apostle St. Paul makes the same practice bind- ing upon Christian assemblies by a precept to which he attaches first-rate importance. Now see how closely our Prayer Book is formed on the Scriptural model. We are en2;a2:ed in oiferinsr the Christian Sacrifice, — in performing the great Rite, which under the Gospel corresponds to the Sacrifices under the Law, and in the course of which are made oblations of alms, of prayer, and praise, of our souls and bodies. And with these sacrifices of sweet savour, we mingle prayers, as the Jews did of old, " for the kiag and for his sons," — nay, and for the whole Church which Christ redeemed with His most precious Blood. Independently of the Apostolic precept, and of the practice of the Church of God in all time, is not this arrangement intrinsically suitable to the occasion ? We are about to celebrate the Feast of Love, and we inaugurate it by a prayer of love for all men, — by an expression of sympathy with those who are sad- dled with a heavy responsibility, — with those who have charge of others, — with all who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversi- ty, — ^yea, an expression of sympathy with, and thankful- ness for, those who have departed this life in God's faith and fear. n.] Prayer for the Gkiirch Militant. 137 If our hearts be in such a state that they cannot yield sympathy to our brethren, and so canno-t sincerely offer prayer for those of them who still live, or thanksgiving for the departed, can they be in a state fit to avail them- selves of the holy Festival? 3. After Intercessions for Rulers, on whom is de- volved the government of all orders and degrees of men, follows Intercession for the Clergy, whether Bishops or Inferior Ministers, who act as delegates of the Bishop in certain lower parts of his functions. The petition is very terse, but very comprehensive. There are two great functions attaching to the' Christian Ministry, the setting fol'th of God's Word, and the administration of His Sacraments, and any view of it is incomplete, which does not embrace both these aspects of it. The Minister of Christ is not exclusively a religious teacher, uor ex- clusively a performer of sacred functions ; the mysteries of God, of wdiich he is the steward, are not only the opened mysteries of Divine Truth, but the consecrated symbols also, under which Divine Grace is ifi a mystery conveyed ; the portion of meat which he dispenses to the Household is not only the Bread of God's Word, but the Bread of the Eucharist. And there are two modes of recommending his ministry and making it efh- cient. Some INIinisters, it has been said, preach forcibly by their example, weakly by their doctrine ; others forcibly by their doctrine, weakly by their example ; few with equal force by both. We pray, therefore, that a holy example in our Ministers may win the way for th'e entrance of theij doctrine into the hearts of the people ; that " both by their life and doctrine " (by their life in the first instance, by their doctrine next, according to 138 Of the Intercession in the [paet those noble lines of Chaucer, in which the " poure per- sone of a toun" is thus described : " This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf, That first he wrought and afterward he taught"), " they may set forth Thy true and lively Word, and right- ly and duly administer Thy Holy Sacranoents." The word " duly" is not pleonastic. The Litorgy is framed on the model of the Lord's Prayer, and rarely (if ever) has superfluous words. A due administration of the Sacraments is such a performance of the sacred function as omits nothing essential, the performance of them in every particular according to a Scriptural, primitive, and Catholic Ritual. The " right " administration of them refers rather to the heart of the Minister, which should be penetrated, while he executes his great functions, with humility, reverence, and devotion. Hezekiah prayed for those communicants who had not undergone the usual legal purification before eating of his passover. " The good Lord, pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctu- ary." Before eating our Passover, we pray that those who celebrate it may do so " duly," with every ritual circumstance enjoined by Christ, and sanctioned by His Church in the earliest and purest age, and, above all things (as the inward is of far greater importance than the outward), with " a heart prepared to seek the Lord." 4. Then follows the Intercession for Christian Peo- ple, that they may rightly receive the Ministry of God's Word, and duly profit thereby. The right reception of it is " with meek heart and due reverence — the reverence that is, which is due to it," and which the Thessalonians n.] Prayer for the Church Militant, 139 accorded, who, *' when they received the Word of God, which they heard of" (St. Paul), " received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which efFectaally worketh also in them that believe." But how utterly different is this meekness and reverence from the captious and criticising spirit with wliich God's Word is too often listened to among us, the spirit which seeks to be interested or amused rather than edified by the Sermon, which looks to the preacher for something which may rather stir thought out of its usual dulness, than the will out of its usual lethargy. It may be a question whether the torpid acquiescence y\dth which some sit beneath a dull preacher, or the curious and critical spirit in which others listen to a lively one, is more remote from the frame of mind in which alone any benefit can be derived from Sermons. Both are probably at an equal distance from " the honest and good heart " of those who hear the Word, and " keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." Fruit I Yes, fruit is the great criterion of a wholesome reception of God's Word. Why is seed sown, but that harvest may be in- gathered ? Why is God's Word thrown forth upon the soil of the heart, but that the soil in due season may yield all the fruits of the spirit, — that the man may " truly serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of his life " ? God's Word is not a mere piece of literature, which has done its whole work upon the mind when it has been perused (or the recital of it listened to) with taste for its beauties and an admiring appre- ciation of its excellences. Its great object is to quicken and guide the conscience, to move the affections, to set in action the will ; in short, to touch the springs of char- acter and conduct ; and unless these springs be touched 140 Of the Intercession in the Ppaet in the hearers of it, the ministry of it, whatever sensa- tions it may have created, has produced no solid or sub- stantial results. 5. But excellent and exhaustive as the Intercessions of our Liturgy are, it is sometimes felt that they do not attract our sympathy or interest us in the same degree with other prayers. It may be ricjht to intercede for our Rulers in Church and State, and to seek God's Blessing upon the Universal Church throughout the world ; but, alas ! the narrowness of our views and sympathies too often invest such Intercession with a chilly ceremonious- ness, and deprives it of all warmth and unction. If, then, we desire a softening element in prayers of this description ; if we desire to be brought out of the atmos- phere of what may be called official life, into that of our common humanity, — nowhere is this done for us with such simple and touching pathos as in the latter part of the Prayer for the Church Militant. For there the dif- ferent forms of human sorrow, — that sorrow which makes all mankind of one kin, and puts the Sovereign on a level with the serf, — are brought before the mind ; and we implore the Great Healer " of His goodness to comfort and succour all them, who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other ad- versity." Here is calamity, here is mourning, here is poverty, here is broken health, and if there be any other form of human woe, all presented to the eye of the Divine Compassion in five simple words of intense supplication. To Him who lives environed by the glories of Heaven, and the Hallelujahs of Seraphim, what a lazar-house of miseries must the Earth be ! How like a pool of Be- thesda, with its great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, and withered, — with its restless pining and n.] Prayer for the Church Militant. 141 moaning, and its cruelly disappointed hopes ! Can we think of* this multitude of sorrows without sympathy, without at least a fervent desire to recommend it to God ? And if Ave can think of it so, are we prepared to partake of the Feast of Love ? Have we in that case any thing of His mind, who, upon the sight of the deaf and dumb, sighed, as He looked up to Heaven ; who wept, as He stood between sorrowing sisters at Lazarus' grave ? And if we have nothing of His mind, shall we present our- selves to hold Communion with Him at His Table ? But there is a yet more touching suggestion in this prayer, which can hardly fail to reach the heart. There are those Christians (and some of them possibly among our own nearest and dearest) whose troubles, sorrows, and labours have reached their climax, and who have now passed beyond our sight into that realm beyond the grave, "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." If to follow them with prayer were presumptuous, as being beyond the warrant of God's Word, we may at least follow them with thanksgiving. The angels strike their golden harps as fresh souls are won to God in this world. Shall we not suppose that tliey strike them when those souls are taken home to Him, — released from the body of Sin and Death? And may we not join our poor voices w^ith that angelic sym- phony? And may we not also implore grace for our- selves to follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ? Yes, surely ! it is an unloving spirit, and one totally uncongenial with the mind of Christ and His Church, which would cut us off from this solemn com- memoration before God of those who have departed this life in His faith and fear. This is the one exercise .of 14:2 Of the Intercession in the Prayer^ dac, [paet Devotion by wliicli the communioTi of living Christians with departed saints, — their fellowship with us of inter- ests, of hopes, of thankfulness, of adoration, — is recog- nized. As such we believe the Liturgy would be im- perfect and mutilated without it. We believe that without this clause^ in the Prayer for the Church Militant, the heart would crave something which it would not find in the highest Office of the Church. For those who have lost Christian friends, who once walked side by side with them in this troublesome world, cannot banish the thought of such friends in their approaches to God. The de- parted ones seem to stand on the other side of the river ^ In the first Protestant Prayer Book (1549) the sentence bidding this Prayer ran merely, " Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church." And a, prayer for the departed was inserted to this effect : — " We commend unto Thy mercy, Lord, all other Thy servants, which are departed hence from us with the sign of faith, and now do rest in the sleep of peace ; Grant unto them, we beseech Thee, Thy mercy and everlasting peace, and that, at the day of the general Res- urrection we and all they which be of the mystical body of Thy Son may all together be set on His right hand, and hear that His most joyful voice : Come unto me, ye that be blessed of my Father, and possess the Kingdom," &c. In the Prayer Book of 1552 all mention of the dead was omitted, and to the heading of it were added the words, "militant here in earth," This alteration was made in compliance with Bucer's strictures, one of which seems somewhat fantastic : — " I should be unwilling in that word — sleep of peace — to give occasion of gratifying those who affirm that the departed in the Lord sleep (even as to their souls) unto the last day." In 1661, after the Savoy Conference, when the doctrine of Pur- gatory had been extirpated, the present clause giving tha7iks for all those who have departed this life in God's faith and fear, and praying for grace to follow their example, was inserted, and is surely a most valuable feature of the Prayer. n.] Of the Commemoration of the Dead, (&g. 143 of Death, and beckon us to cross, as they have crossed, under the sheltering wing of the Redeemer. And most precious is the thought that, as they are with Him, wrapt in a communion closer than any which can be en- joyed on Earth, whenever we truly seek Him, W'C draw nigh (though unconsciously and invisibly) to their spirits. For the nearer the rays of a circle approach to their common centre, so much the nearer of necessity they draw to one another. Christ is the one meeting-point of the faith of the living, and of the sight of the dead ; and thus in Him our faitli hath communion with their si<2:ht. " For we are come " (not are to come, but are come)' " unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are Written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made per- fect." LECTURE VII. OF THE COMMEMORATION OF THE DEAD IN THE OFFICE OF THE HOLY COMMUNION. ** 33ut sc are come . . . . to tt)e spirits of just men maDe pei-tect.** Heb. xii. 22, 23. In the Prayer for the Church Militant there are three great features, the Oblation, the Intercessions, and the Comn^emoration of the Dead. Of the first two of these we have spoken sufficiently. The last is a feature which 144 Of the Commemoration of the Dead [paet requires further development than the passing notice which we took of it in the foregoing Lecture. The conckiding clause of the Prayer, to which we refer, " And we also bless Thy Holy Name for all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear : be- seeching Thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of Thy heavenly kingdom," was added at the last Review of the Office, all mention of the dead having been in abeyance from the time of the Second Book of Edward VI., from which intercession- for the spirits of the departed right- eous (such as had found place in the First Book) was carefully expunged, until the year 1662, when the Eng- lish Liturgy received its finishing touches. It shall first be pointed out how the addition is justified by Holy Scripture. • In the context of the passage, which stands at the head of this Lecture, the Apostle is warning Christians to beware lest they despise their privileges, and by apos- tatizing for the sake of worldly comfort or advantage, recklessly throw them away. This would be to imitate the conduct and fate of profane Esau, who for one mor- sel of meat sold his birthright. For, says he (this seems to be the connexion of thought), your privileges as Christians are high and great, — far greater than those of the Church under the Law. And then he proceeds to enumerate them. They (the Hebrew Christians) had not come to a literal mountain, which might be touched ; but to a spiritual eminence, in whose high and celestial atmosphere they had communion with God, with Christ, with angels, with the entire Church of God, whether noAV in warfare, or at rest, and specifically with the spirits of just men made perfect. Such is the general scope of the n.] in the Office of the Holy Communion. 145 argument. We will now fasten our attention on this particular part of it, which makes for our present pur- pose, " Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect." Observe first the difference of this representation of Christian privileges from those which are commonly cur- rent. Our usual religious parlance places our privileges in the future. Holy Scripture places them in the present. It is the popular phraseology to say, '•' Good Christians shall come to Heaven hereafter." Scripture rather says, " Good Christians are come to Heaven already." The word is (and the translation is here strictly accurate), "Ye are come" (or "Ye have come") "unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels ; " not " Ye shall come." They had already come, the Apostle says, to a Society, to ■ a Community ; and he shows very plainly to every thoughtful reader what are the characteristics of the Society. It is an unseen, invis- ible, spiritual Society, — one which cannot be reached or apprehended by the senses. But it may be said : " The Church is the Society in question ; and is not the CImrch visible ? can it not be seen ? When a Christian CongTega- tion meets for worship, is not the Church then visible ? '* Doubtless there are members of the Church who are still in the flesh ; and these we may of course see, and effect a meeting with them in the body. But the bodily meet- ing, the being assembled in one place, is not the ground of our union even with these. The ground of our union lies much deeper. It consists in our having " One Lord, •one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all," in our all 7 146 Of the Commemoration of the Dead [paut belonging to the Body of Christ, in our all being made partakers of one Spirit, and having all one hope of our calling. But the recognition of Christ, faith, hope, ac- knowledgment of God as Father, membership in the Lord's Body, these things are all spiritual, internal, hid- den ; and though Christians meet together on earth for Divine Worship, it is not as men in flesh that they meet together, but as having an union of mind, heart, and hope, and being under the influence of the one Spirit of God. The Society therefore of Christ's Church is essentially spiritual, although certain members of it may accidentally have a local connexion, and be clustered together bodily in one and the same spot. But then this introduces a new thought. Invisible beings may have a true communion v\^ith us in the Church of Christ. Why not, if the Church is spiritual and in no sense bodily, if it recognize merely our eternal and not our temporal relations? If angels adore the same Lord, and are earnestly w^aiting for tlie same final manifestation of Him as we, if angels by His appointment succour and defend us upon earth, are they not in some sufficient sense members of the same Community, although we see them not ? And what of the spirits of the departed right- eous? Is it not easily concluded, from the premises al- ready laid down, that our communion with them must be far closer than it was before they were delivered from the burden of the flesh? For then certainly much of sinful infirmity hung about them, which intercepted their view of Christ, and impeded grievously their communion with Him. Now they are w^ith Him in Paradise. Now they see Him no more in a glass darkly, but face to face. Now they drink in joy from the consciousness of Hi* Presence and favour, and are full, as they never were II.] in the office of the Holy Communion, 147 before, of love and praise. So far from separating them from Him, Death has just eliminated from their nature the one element which did separate them, — which was sin. And accordingly their sympathy with us in our hope of glory, their desire for our salvation, the spiritual concern which they feel in us, must be stronger far and more fervent than ever. And we must be nearer than ever to them, when we perform spiritual actions. For in the performance of those actions we di'aAV nigh to Christ, with whom they are. In prayer we seek His face, and converse wdth Him. In reading or hearing His holy Word, He com- munes with us. In public worship, when we are gath- ered together in His Name, we place ourselves in His immediate Presence. But the closest intercourse of all which can be enjoyed with Him upon Earth, is that which is vouchsafed to penitent and believing souls in the Holy Communion. — When, therefore, the spirit of the living Christian, by any of these means of access, draws nigh to the Throne of Grace, there is then be- tween him and the spirits of just men made perfect a real nearness, the thought of which should be most con- solatory to those whose friends have fallen asleep in Je- sus. They are then breathing the same atmosphere of communion with Christ, which those breathe, w^ho are with Him in Paradise. The radii of a circle, in ap- proaching the centre, cannot but, in the nature of things, draw near to one another ; and two hearts, though sepa- rated by oceans and mountains— ;-yea, though separated by that greater gulf, which divides the seen from the unseen world, — if both approach that great centre of attraction in the spiritual world, " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," cannot but really and truly 148 Of the Commemoration of the Dead [paet draw near to one another, thougli there may be no out- ward visible token of such nearness. Such, then, is the doctrine of Holy Scripture on the subject of our communion with the spirits of just men made perfect. Now every doctrine of Scripture meets, while it regulates, some instinct of the human heart. It is, for example, an instinct of the heart to long for some true sympathy with us from Him, who is the ob- ject of our worship. The assurance of this sympathy we find in the doctrine of the Incarnation ; and here the instinct in question has its legitimate satisfaction. But it is regulated., as well as satisfied. Like all our instincts it is apt, through the perversion of our nature, to mislead us ; and from indtdging it too freely, and without re- straint from the Word of God, has come Mariolatry and similar corrupt practices of the Church of Rome. — Again, it is an instinct of our nature to long for some outward visible sign of spiritual truths, for some appeal to the senses by the Religion which we adopt. When this in- stinct goes astray, and is under no regulation from the Word of God, it leads to idolatry. But the Word of God provides for the satisfaction of this instinct, and for its regulation at the same time, by the appointment of the two Sacraments. Here God admits an appeal to the senses, and indicates how far such an appeal may prop- erly go. — Now there is in our nature a craving, which has manifested itself in various forms at various times, for some intercourse with the spirits of the departed, some tokens from them, some assurance of their reality, — with the departed generally, apart from any special relation in which they may have stood to ourselves. In all ages and in all countries tales have been current of apparitions of the dead, — pure inventions most of them, n.] in the Office of the Holy Communion, 149 but showing by their popularity, and by the ready cre- dence lent to them, the strong hold which this instinct has upon the human mind. But may it not be said that it has lost its hold, at all events upon educated minds, in the enlightened age in which we live, when knowledge is so widely difRised, and superstition, one ayouM hope, had taken fairly to flight ? Assuredly not. What is the so- called spiritualism of the present day (rightly called Spiritualism, forsooth, to distinguish it from that, of which it is a perverse and monstrous caricature, — spirituality) but an attempt to break a passage between this world and the realm of departed spirits, and to call them back to familiar converse with flesh and blood? It is not to our present purpose to inquire whether the phenomena alleged to be exhibited are the result of clever imposture or of real witchcraft (whichever alternative be chosen by those who profess the powers in question, it is almost equally discreditable to themselves) ; suffice it that the appearance of such phenomena in the full noontide blaze of scientific knowledge clearly proves how deeply rooted in the human heart is the yearning for communion with the dead. Unregulated, not bridled in with the rein of Reason and of Scripture, this instinct runs away with the mind, and carries it doAvn the dark precipice of a real or pretended necromancy ! But the Word of God and the Liturgy of the Church satisfy the instinct, while they control it. The Word of God tells us certain, sober, and most reliable truths concerning the departed right- eous, — that they are with Christ in Paradise ; and that, therefore, we, by seeking Christ diligently, and cultivat- ing a larger measure of intercourse with Him, may cer- tainly come into their immediate neighbourhood. We are one with them, when we hold true communion with 150 Of the Commemoration of the Dead [paet Our Lord ; for " we are come unto the spirits of just men made perfect." And in the Ordinance, which is the chief instrument of this Communion, our Liturgy, ad- vancing up to, while she does not presume to exceed, the limits laid down in the Word of God, teaches us to think of all those who have departed this life in God's faith and fear, to commemorate them solemnly before God, to seek grace to follow their example, to aspire to that crown of righteousness, which by faith and patience they have' won. But, alas ! these truths, this devout practice founded upon them, are too homely, too familiar for us ; they savour too much of the Catechism and the Sunday School. We go in preference, after signs and wonders, which may excite us with a pleasing tre^^idation ; and instead of thinking of the dead as communing with Christ in Paradise, picture them to ourselves as busy among tlie furniture of our houses, making noises audi- ble to the outward ear, sweeping their hand over our musical instruments, or spelling out (with many a blun- der) secrets, the sublimest of which is not above the ran^e of fortune-tellino-. Even so the huno^erinoj Israel- ites turned away with disgust from the manna, the angels' food which fell from heaven, and lusted for the fish and fleshpots of Egypt, which made more of a riot in their blood. But the natural craving for some intercourse with the dead is of course swollen to much larger dimensions, in case the dead have stood in any special relation towards ourselves. Here comes in the strong instinct of natural affection, — one of the purest and best feelings which has survived the Fall. What a painful bleeding of the heart succeeds the loss of those w^ho have walked side by side with us in the thorny paths of this life, even though we n.] in the Office of the Holy Communion. 151 have good ground for believing that they have been taken to their rest ! What a mystery is their removal from us — this moment by our side, full of kindly sympa- thies with us, and interests for us, and frequent and fer- vent in the expression of those interests ; and now, not ceasing indeed to be animated with the same sentiments, but having no means of communicating them to us ! Will no one bring them what the Apostle calls " our ear- nest desire, our mourning, our fervent minds towards them," our assurance that tjiey live still in our memory? Oh that in their case it might be permitted to us to rend the veil which hangs before the unseen world, and come at speech of them again ! As the being close under a mountain's brow incapacitates us for judging of its height, so while we are closely mixed up with our friends in the journey of life, we hardly do them justice in our esti- mate of them. It is not until they stand clear of the collisions and commonplace of daily life, that we seem to catch the real spii'it and significance of their charac- ter. We see them now with a halo round theu' brow ; taken out of the action of Life, they are idealized ; the very thought of them now is softening to us ; and we find it impossible to resist any appeal founded on their mem- ory and example. Such are the feelings and instincts of nature towards our departed friends. Like all our iostincts, they may lead us astray. Very early in the history of the Church they began to lead Christians astray. Very early pure Religion began to be flawed and marred by too strong an ingredient of the sentimental. Prayers for the dead crept into the early Liturgies, — not indeed forbidden by God's Word, but nowhere commanded, and because not commanded, therefore, surely at best questionable. But 152 Of the Commemoration of the Dead [paet ■worse was still behind, for which this beginning paved the way. Np sooner does Prayer for the dead pass from the expression of a mere pious wish (such as St. Paul ui>- ters for Onesipliorus in his second Epistle to Timothy, chap. i. 18) into a regular and systematized practice, than the thought intrudes itself that their state is capable of im- provement ; for else of what avail is Prayer ? This thought worked like leaven in the mind of the Church, and developed itself at length in the monstrous doctrine of Purgatory ; an imaginary penal fire, which should burn out from the souls of the righteous the relics of sin- ful infirmity, and wdiose continuance might be abridged by the faithful intercessions of living friends. Our Re- formers, when they addressed themselves to the task of purifying the Liturgy, found this most unscriptural and dangerous doctrine in full blow in the minds of the peo- ple. There was no possibility of thoroughly eradicating it but by cutting aw'ay root and branch those prayers for the dead, which it must be confessed are found in the earliest Liturgies, but which were inextricably associated "with the doctrine of Purgatory in the minds of the peo- ple. The eye of these Reformers knew not how to pity or to spare error ; so with a wise austerity they took the axe in hand, and all prayers for the dead fell beneath its stroke from the Reformed Office of the Holy Communion. Thanksgiving, however, for the righteous dead, and prayer for grace to follow their example, is a thing wholly different in kind from intercession for them ; and as soon as the Reformation was firmly established, it was thought not only safe, but desirable, to add to the Prayer for the Church Militant the clause which com- memorates the departed righteous. And surely it is a precious clause, and one which we n.] in the Office of the Holy Communion. 153 cannot afford to lose. Surely without it the Office would lack its present beauty and perfection. This clause just meets, while it controls, the instinct which leads us to desire a re-opening of intercourse with our departed friends. • It just administers to us the real Scriptural comfort concerning them, and there stops short. For what is the Scriptural comfort? " But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring mth Him." But that this may be a consolation to us, we need to be assured not only that our departed friends • are in the Bosom of Christ's Love, but that we ourselves shall ultimately be gathered into that bosom. The first is a subject of devout thankfulness. The second is a contingency, quite within the reach of faithful prayer. Accordingly we give thanks for the repose of our friends ; and then by imploring grace to be followers of them, even as they were of Christ, we aspire to the happy ha- ven, where now those beatified souls, after the storms of the w^orld, ride quietly and triumphantly at anchor. Are they conscious of what we are doing, — sensible that we are bearing them on our hearts, and aspiring to be with them, while we present our homage at the Altar of God? It may be so. But this at all events is certain, that they are now most closely united with Christ ; and that whether they are conscious of it or not, we are in their immediate neighbourhood, w^hen we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink His Blood, when we dwell in Christ and Christ in us, when we are one with Christ and Christ with us. And I cannot but think, although it be only a private opinion, that they are more or less 154: Of the Commemoration of the Dead [paet conscious of our nearness. If two harps are set to the same key, and the strings of one be struck, the other vi- brates. And if two hearts, having an original sympathy with one another, be drawn towards the same Saviour, probably there may be in both an instinct leading them to recognize their mutual nearness. And the dead, sure- ly, must be more susceptible of spiritual instincts than those who are in the body. But, looking beyond the small circle of our departed friends, what a grand view of the Communion of Saints does this clause open to us ! " For ci!?Z those who have departed this life in His faith and fear," do we bless God's Holy Name. Ml^ — under the Old Dispensation as well as the New. This clause sets us in imagination in the midst of a great multitude, which no man can number, " of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," comprising infinite varieties of human charac- ter, yet all of them agreeing in this, that they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb, and hold now in their hands the palm- branch of victory, won by grace over sin and Satan. Venerable patriarchs, the glorious comjDany of the Apos- tles, the goodly fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of martyrs, Abel, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Samuel, and Isaiah, and Hezekiah, and St. John, and St. Paul, and St. Peter, and St. Stephen — the same principles of the faith and fear of God animated them all in life, and supported them all in death, although not to all of theni was the great Object of faith revealed with equal clearness. What an august company is now with Christ in Paradise, waiting till the elect are num- bered, and the grave call Him to come and save ! Let us cherish, in our nearest approaches to the n.] in the Office of the Holy Communion. 155 Throne of Grace the thoughts of joining them at tKat Day. Let us fortify ourselves by their example ; and thinking of them as spectators of the course which we are ourselves running, let us scorn to do any thing un- worthy of the good confession which they witnessed in their day, and the record of 'which is left for our encour- agement. Bat, above all, let us fix our eye steadily upon the great Central Object of Faith, — the Glorified Form, who stands at the end of the course with the garland of victory in His Hand ; for it is only by not allowing it to wander from Him, that we too shall prove in the end more than conquerors : " Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith." PAUT III. THE TRANSEPT LECTURE I. OP THE EXHORTATION AT THE TIJIE OF THE COMMUNION. ** €Jibc net ti)at toijid) is tolj unto tbe 6033, Neitljer cast je jour pearls before stoine." Matt. vii. 6, The Exhortations, — botli that in the Morning and Even- ing Prayer, and those in the Office of the Communion, — are features of the Reformed Prayer-Book. But aUhough not ancient, they are valuable, not only from the Scrip- tural doctrines which they set forth and enforce, but from their rationale, which we will now briefly explain. The Apostle, speaking of Prayer and Psalmody as parts of Public Worship, says, *' I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." The words are applicable to every part of Worship, and particularly to the Office now before us, which is the highest part. Those who join in it should strive to combine fervour with intelligence. Not unfrequently in our Churches we see the two things separated. Who has not occasionally remarked among the aged poor an exhibition of unfeign- ed, heartfelt devotion, leading them to join audibly not only in the responses, but also in those parts of the Ser- vice which are specially appropriated to the Priest? Here is fervour without intelligence, — the spirit without the understanding. Educated congregations err for the 160 Of the Exhortation [paet most part in the opposite, and worse, extreme. Their education may qualify them to understand the theory of the Service ; but instead of throwing heart and soul into it, they are too often kept by a mistaken feeling of pro- priety, or by an awkward bashfulness, or sometimes by mere indijOference to the blessings sought for, from making any response, and the result is an utter deadness in the whole proceeding, a want of fervour and unction, which, when contrasted with the sublime earnestness of the sup- plications, is painful and distressing in the extreme. Here is intelligence without fervour. — Now at the period of the Reformation, one great want of the Church seemed to be a want of understanding of her own Liturgical forms. The prayers had hitherto been offered, the Com- munion had hitherto been celebrated, in a " tongue not understanded of the people." Almost all persons needed instruction as to the significance and the contents of the Liturgy, which had degenerated into an unreasonable service. To correct this general ignorance, Exhortations were introduced, the scope of which was to lead the wor- shippers to prepare their hearts, and which summed up briefly the object and design of the Service. Nor have these exhortations lost their use in modern times, when rebgious knowledge is more widely spread. The impa- tience of them, which some persons manifest, when they call them Sermons introduced into the prayers, and im- ply that they might well be dispensed with, is surely very unwise, as well as very disrespectful to those excellent divines, to whom we are indebted for the reformation of the Liturgy. Does the mind need no preparation, before it enters directly upon the solemn Offices of Religion ? And if it be admitted that " Before thy prayers prepare thyself" is a maxim not only of common reverence but m.] at the time of the Communion. 161 of sound policy, inasmucli as preparation facilitates prayer, can it be denied that the Exhortations in our Prayer Book are admirable preparatives for the Offices to which they introduce us, and that they sum up very succinctly and very scrip turally the purport of what is to succeed ?• The truth is, that if they were listened to, — if the mind were allowed a simple passage over the ideas contained in them, they would not be quarrelled with. But people being in the habit of regarding them as not part of the Prayers (which of course they are not), and as works of supererogation in Divine Worship, no attention is given to them ; and since the mind creates for itself its own interests, and is indisposed to create one in reference to this part of the Service, the Exhortations are account- ed wearisome. But let the attention be honestly applied to them, and the wearisomeness would vanish. The Exhortation in the Communion precedes not in- deed the whole of the Office, as in the Morning and Evening Prayer, but the more solemn part of it. At the end of the Prayer for the Church Militant there is an obvious break, which is (or ought to be by the directions of the Book) signalized by the retirement of the non- communicants. To recur to an image, which we employ- ed at the beginning of this course of Lectures, we have advanced up the Nave, and now pass into the Transept of the Communion Office, wdiere we gain a full view of the Sanctuary, and place ourselves in front of the steps ("the Comfortable Words") which lead up into it. Here then is an appropriate opportunity of once more Avarning away those Avho would be unworthy recipients, and of declaring in what state of heart and mind worthi- ness consists. Thus for the second time " Begone, ye profane," is sounded in the ears of those who approach 162 ^f the Exhortation [paet the Holy Mysteries, — a prohibition which had already been less explicitly issued by the stern precepts of the Law, re-echoed by the prayers of the people for mercy and grace. Taking this warning away of the unworthy to be the salient point of the Exhortation (although ind^d it has many points of great iDterest and importance), we shall make it, and the Scriptural foundation of it, the subject of our remarks in this Lecture. " Give not that which is holy," said Our Lord, " to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine." The term " that which is holy," is applied in the Book of Leviticus to the meat offered in sacrifice, which no per- son, who had contracted ceremonial defilement, was per- mitted to eat. " The soul," it is said, " which hath touched any such [any unclean thing], shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his fiesh with water." The same term " holy things " was very early applied in the Christian Litur- gies to the consecrated elements of the Holy Communion. These consecrated elements; the holy things of the Church, and her pearls of great price, she will not throw before the dogs and swine ; and therefore, acting on her Mas- ter's counsel, she warns those, who are not cleansed by penitence, faith, and love, to* abstain from approach to the Holy Table. Thus the general principle of this warning is laid down by the Lord of the Church Himself. But the par- ticular application of it to the case of the Holy Commun- ion comes to us from the pen of St. Paul, in words which are cited in the Exhortation. The words run thus : " Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood m.] at the time of the Communion. 163 of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's Body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." The excesses of the Corinthians, in connexion with the Supper of the Lord, have been already in a previous Lecture explained. Their sin consisted in treating it as an ordinary meal, "not discerning" (as the Apostle says), i. e., not distinguishing " the Lord's Bqdy" (the Sacrament of the Lord's Body) from common food. To such lengths did their profanation go, that intemperance was sometimes witnessed at the Table, where the Chris- tian Mysteries were partaken of. The sin had its occa- sion^ as we have before pointed oat, in the original social character of the Paschal Supper, with which the Eucha- rist was connected ; iU root was to be found in the divis- ions between the rich and poor of the Corinthian Clmrch, which made the former inconsiderate of the great truth that they were members of the same Body with the lat- ter, and led them to snatch and engross to themselves the whole of the viands, which they had brought with them, and to leave none for those who could not afford to bring to the meeting any of their own. The punish- ment was severe, though not more so than the sin called for. The Corinthians, so celebrating the holiest Ordi- nance of Christianity, ate and drank — not " damnation" — (that word conveys a wholly erroneous notion of the original), but " a judgment" to themselves from this un- hallowed confusion between things sacred and profane. Some of them were visited with failing health in conse- quence ; others were even stricken by death. Respect- 164 Of the Exhortation [part iug the eternal state of such persons, as nothing is said, we have no means of forming an opinion. All we are told is that they fell ill, or died, by a judgment which their profaneness had incurred. Now the question arises, " Can this sin be repeated in modern times, and under the altered circumstances of the Church ? " To the answer v/e shall now address our- selves. I. In its outward form the sin cannot be repeated. The precautions now taken render it an impossibility. Far too little of the consecrated elements is now given to satisfy hunger, or to afford the opportunity of intemper- ance and excess. The prescriptions of the Liturgy bar all disorderly conduct, while the congregation celebrates this holiest rite. Nor, if persons are now-a-days guilty of unworthy reception, do such results ever follow as the judicial infliction of sickness and death. la short, the outward form both of the sin, and of its visitation, was peculiar to the circumstances of the Apostolic Church, and has passed away never to return. II. It should be considered, however, that it is God's plan in Holy Scripture, on the first appearance of great ofience, to make an example of the offenders, which ex- ample is not to be repeated, but to stand (as it were) upon the world's highway, a beacon of wrath for the warning of mankind. When Uzzah the Levite presumed to touch the Ark of God, which none but the priests might touch, and which the . Levites might not even ap- proach before it had been covered up, " God smote him there for his rashness, and he died by the ark of God." When Korah and his company arrogated to themselves the ofHce of the priesthood, to which they had not been called, the earth swallowed them up, and all m.] at the time of the Communion. 165 that appertained to them. When, after the promulgation of the Sabbath-Law to the Israelites, and the distinct direction issued to Moses, " Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day," a man was found flying in the face of the precept, and gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day, " the liord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death : all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp." Thus under the old Economy did God vindicate by a solemn judgment once for all, and leave upon record His vindication of, the sanctity of holy things, holy per- sons, and holy seasons. And tliough it is most true that the new Economy is one of mercy, and not of judgment, similar instances must be given under the New Testa- ment, by way of guarding its greater gifts and nobler institutions against irreverence. One of these is the judgment upon Ananias and Sapphira, who were struck with sudden death for a false pretence, made solemnly in the presence of the Apostle Peter. Another is the severe sentence, almost worse tlian a temporal judgment, pro- nounced by the same Apostle upon him, who offered money for the power of conferring the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Another is the judgment upon Elymas the sor- cerer, who was struck blind for resisting the influence of the Gospel in the heart of Sergius Paulus. A fourth is the judgment, sometimes in the form of illness, some- times in that of death, which took effect upon the Corin- thians, who profaned by excesses and disorders the Holy Supper of the Lord. Now be it observed that in all these cases, the form and circumstances of the sin are more or less obsolete. In the modern Church there is neither community of goods, nor miraculous gifts, nor sorcery, nor the practice 166 Of the Exhortation [paet of combininoj the Lord's Supper with a social entertain- ment. Yet it surely does not follow that the passages, which record these several judgments, are without warn- ing for us now-a-davs. Is there no warning in the tale of Ananias and Sapphira for persons who now-a-days make an insincere profession before the Church, and the rulers of the Church, like those candidates for Confirma- tion, who, Avhile they profess to be surrendering their whole heart to Christ, and laying it down at the feet of His minister, are really keeping back a part for the world and for self? Is there no warning in the tale of Simon Magus for those who place the Ministry of the Church, and the gift of Holy Orders, on a level with a secular profession, — who virtually trade with those holy things, by thrusting themselves in with a view to gaining a livelihood? Is no such petition heard in the Modern Church as, " Put me, I pray thee, into one. of the Priest's offices," — not that I may exert my abilities in converting and saving souls, but — "that I may eat a piece of bread ? " Is there no warning in the history of Elymas for those who obstruct serious impressions, when just be- ginning to be made upon the heart of another, by levity, by ridicule, by the insinuation of worldly sentiments and maxims, as the standard to which we ought to conform ? In all these cases we must divest the sin of its outward form and look at its principle. And so in the case of the judgment upon the profane and disorderly Corinthians. We cannot, indeed, sin in the same form as they, against the Supper of the Lord. But our sin in respect of that holy Ordinance may embody and express the same prin- ciples in another form. Whenever we lightly regard, or allow ourselves to trifle with, this or any other Ordinance of the Lord, we are incurring in greater or less measure, ni.] at the time of the Communion. 167 according to the amount of our levity and inconsiderate- ness, the guilt of these Corinthians. The extreme form of the sin now-a-days — the form which we may hope it seldom takes — would be the approaching the Lord's Ta- ble out of mere deference to custom, or because perhaps the office we hold, or the position we are in, requires it of us — the going through it as a sort of ceremony appro- priate to state occasions, with a heart not in the least de- sirous of the Grace of the Sacrament, and a spirit in no- wise attuned to the beautiful devotion of the Office. Are we wrong in thinking that such a participation is now-a- days very rare ? We trust not. — But, next, there may be a participation not upon the whole indevout, — certainly aiming at devoutness, — without such previous prepara- tion, as the dignity and sacredness of the Ordinance re- quires. This is to be avoided ; for, as the Exhortation before us well remarks, we " ought to consider how St. Paul exliorteth all persons diligently to try and examine themselves before they presume to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup." We are never to forget that there is an inspired precept for preparation, w^hich runs thus : " Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that Bread, and drink of that Cup." This precept makes it wrong for us to approach without examination in some form or another^ — without communing with our hearts on our own faults of character, and an earnest effort and resolve to amend them. But then this examination and Belf-communing may be w^ith some people habitual. Surely h will be so with those, who are honestly aiming at spirituality, and seeking to live up to the highest stand- ard. It may fairly be presumed that such persons will not usually retire to rest, without throwing back their eye over the past day, and asking a specitic pardon for 168 Of the Exhortation [paet what may have been amiss in their character and con- duct, and a specific grace to correct it in future. Can such persons need a special Examination before the Holy Communion with the same urgency as those need it, who never examine themselves at other times? — Nor ought we to understand by Self-Examination the mere habit of asking ourselves at stated intervals a string of questions, which reduces the great exercise to a formality. If we watch for, and make ourselves acquainted with, the weak points of our own character, and struggle against them in secret prayer ; if we apply the Holy Scriptures to our own conscience habitually, comparing or contrasting our frame of mind, and the tenour of our life, with that frame and tenour which they commend to us by precept and example ; if, when we read David's Psalms, we ask ourselves how far we sympathize with his love of God's Law, and with his taste for devotion, and when we read any remarkable illustrations of faith and repentance, we seriously inquire how far we are under the operation of the same principles, and found confession, or prayer, or thanksgiving upon the answer, — surely we are not then living without self-examination (for what but this is the intent and purpose of the exercise ?) and surely our state is in that case one of habitual preparedness for the Sup- per of the Lord. It is, of course, a very different thing, if our daily private prayers be the mere repetition of a form ; if we seldom read Holy Scripture, and seldom ap- ply it to our consciences ; if Ave acquiesce in our faults of character and temper, as something which must neces- sarily accompany us to our grave, and do not strive to correct them ; if (in a word) we do not, in our daily life, seek to walk closely with God. The Supper is, no doubt, then profaned, if we approach it without a special pe- in] at the time of the Communion. 169 riod of devout preparation, — if we do not at least do at stated intervals what we ought to be doing continually. — And to all we may say, on the ground of St. Paul's warn- ing to the Corinthians, " Cultivate in your minds a high and holy estimate of this blessed Sacrament ; and allow nothing to lower tliis estimate." If you honestly find that frequency of repetition detracts from the sacredness of the Ordinance in your own mind ; and if you are quite sure that you are not confounding liveliness of impression with that strengthening of Christian Principle, which is the great object of the Ordinance, then make your Com- munions less frequent. Nothing is expressly ruled in Scripture respecting the frequency of the Ordinance ; — and accordingly the Christian is left on this point to his own spiritual instincts, which will however surely be formed on such passages as these : " My Flesh is meat indeed, and my Blood is drink indeed ; " " The Cup which we bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ? The Bread which we break, is it not the Com- munion of the Body of Christ ? " and on the illustration which such passages derive from the practice of the Early Church. Every man in this matter must direct himself, after having the elements which enter into a riffht decision laid before him. The fact of there bein^: in many Churches (as among om'selves) a celebration of the Communion otj every Sunday and Festival, i.^> not to be construed as implying that it is expedient for all per- sons indiscriminately to communicate so often. My feel- ing in our own case is that, where there are many Clergy (as through the great kindness of a friend there arc in this Parish) the people have a right to demand that the perfect Theory of their Church shall be carried out ; and being convinced that this perfect Theory is daily Morn- 170 Of the Exhortation^ c&c. [paet ing and Evening Prayer, for which there are daily Psalms and Lessons, and Holy Communion on Sundays and Festivals, for which there is always a new Epistle and Gospel, we arrange it so that no devout person shall be able to complain with justice that opportunities are wanting, while in reference to those who cannot at pres- ent feel it profitable to communicate so often, we abstain from all judgment of the conclusion at which they have ' arrived, and comply with the Apostle's direction, which may be very fitly appropriated to this matter ; " Let not him that eateth judge him that eateth not ; for " (may be) " God hath received him." In this, at least, the ad- vocates both of frequent and rare Communion will be found to agree, that the holy things are not to be given to the dogs, — that the Holy Supper is unsuitable for the profane. Yet, be it observed, lest those guests who are most worthy should be discouraged from approaching the Holy Table, that a sense of the defilement of sin is one of the chief qualifications for a right reception. Dogs may not draw nigh ; nor may swine have the pearls of Christ's Body and Blood thrown before them ; but those are not dogs, in the estimate of the Lord of the Church, who confess themselves to be so ; nor those swine, who stir themselves out of the mire of their corruptions, and cry mightily for deliverance from them. She who accepted the title of dog, and with the ingenuity of faith rested upon that title her claim to a crumb of mercy, at length obtained the bread of the children, while confessing her- self unworthy of it. And he who lies lowest in his own eyes, he who is accounted vile in his own sight, yet hangs on to Christ from the conviction that " whosoever cometh to Him, He will in no wise cast out " or spurn away, in.] Of the Invitation. 171 shall not plead in vain for a crumb of the Bread of Life, but, having come with hunger of heart to the Heavenly Banquet, shall go away with the Vii'gin's experience upon his lips : — " He filleth the hungry with good things." LECTURE II. OF THE IlSrVITATION. "liljesent |)is Sn-bant at supper Uxm to sa^ to tijem ti)at toere fiiUDen, €:ome ; for all tjiiifls are noto rcali^.*' — Luke xiv. lY. It is certainly an argument against the Revision of the Liturgy that, the longer and closer we study it, the more we become convinced that an immense amount of care, and thought, and prayer has been spent upon its construction, and that a Scriptural and theological eru- dition underlies the whole of it. We are apt to think that we can well afford to lose some of its minuter feat- ures ; but a more careful consideration of the subject shows us that to strike out one of those features would be to forfeit a Scriptural idea, and might put a whole Service out of joint. Who would not say at first sight that we might spare from the Communion Office the in- vitation which precedes the Confession : " Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you cf your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in His holy ways ; Draw near 1Y2 Of the Inmtation. [part with faith, and take this holy Sacrament to your com- fort " ? It is but a single sentence, we might say ; and the qualifications of communicants, which it briefly sums up, have been given us more at large in the longer Ex- hortation which precedes ; — why repeat them ? Yet, on second thoughts, would the Service be as consistent with Scripture and Primitive Antiquity, if this short sentence were away? Would it be in the first place as consistent with Scrip- ture? Let it be considered that the Lord's Supper is a miniature Gospel, a perfect little model of the New Dis- pensation in all its essential features. This New Dispen- sation — its happiness and privileges — the festive satisfac- tion which the soul finds in its blessings — -.are twice set forth by Our Lord under the image of a supper — " a great supper" — "a wedding festival." The certain man, who ^ makes the great supper, sends his servants at supper time to say to them that are bidden, " Come ; for all things are now ready." The king, who made a marriage for his son, sends three detachments of his ser- vants for the same purpose. By the agency of these ser- vants guests are at length collected (in both parables) from the highways and hedges. In the last of them, when the king comes in to inspect the guests, he sees there a man who has not on a wedding garment, and expels him as an intruder. Every one knows the outline of the interpretation of these parables ; that the blessings of the Gospel were first proposed by Our Lord and His Apostles to the Jews ; that, when the higher and more educated Jews with Pharisaic scorn rejected it, the Pub- licans and harlots pressed into the opened kingdom ; that ere long, since there still was room, the poor despised Gentiles thronged in from the highways and hedges of ni.] Of the Invitation. 1Y3 the world ; but yet that it is by no means every nominal adherent to the Church of Christ, who will be found at the last great day of inspection to have the internal qual- ifications for acceptance, which are set forth by the wed- dino- o;arment. Now who does not see that this whole procedure is represented in brief in the Lord's Supper? First there is an actual Supper — a feast upon the sym- bols, which both represent and convey the Body and Blood of Christ, the true " Lamb slaia from the founda- tion of the world." Then those are bidden to partake of this Supper, who in contrition of heart feel deeply their need of a Saviour, and rejoice in the assurance of His dying Love, which the Sacrament conveys. Yet, though it be no merit of their own, but rather an ac- knowledgment of their utter demerit, which procures their acceptance as guests, they must not lack the internal qualifications of Repentance, Faith, and Love, which alone can make the banquet available to the strengthen- ing and refreshing of their soiils. Thousands of those who communicate outwardly lack these qualifications, and will be shown at the last day to have been " in no wise partakers of Christ" — to have neither part nor lot in the matter of Grace and Redemption. But in order to make the analogy complete, must not a formal invita- tion be issued, and must there not be an official convey- ance of the invitation? Now, who is the person whose part it is officially to convey it? Surely he who is tlie minister of Christ, and steward of the mysteries of God. The Sacraments constitute part of that Divine provision for the wants of the Church, of which the minister is a steward, and which he is set to dispense to the household. He, therefore, is the servant who is to say officially, *' Come ; for all things are now ready." And this he is 174 Of the Irwitation. [part directed to say by the words of tlie Rubric which pre- cedes the Invitation : " Then shall the Priest say to them that come to receive the Holy Communion, Ye that do truly and earnestly," &c., &c. But the Supper of the Lord is not only the miniature of a dispensation present, but the foreshadowing of a dis- pensation to come. It is designed and adapted to lead forward our thoughts to that Marriage Supper of the Lamb which shall be celebrated, when the Heavenly Bridegroom shall return to lead His bride home, escorted by those who have been patiently waiting for His appear- ance. That Supper shall be, as no Sacrament here can be, exclusive of all those, the light of whose profession has not been fed by the oil of personal piety, continually preserved in the oil-vessel of the heart. It shall be ex- clusive of all those who have not on the wedding gar- ment. And it is meet surely that a warning to this effect should be made in the very conveyance of the Invitation to the earthly Supper. An admonition is surely much in place, that those only are invited, the filthy rags of whose natural condition as sinners are covered (by a real faith) with the fine line, white and clean, of Christ's righteous- ness. In issuing the invitation, therefore, the Priest is virtually directed to bid those only who have on the wed- ding garment, — those who " truly and earnestly repent them of their sins, and are in love and charity with their neighbours, and intend to lead a new life," and moreover, and above all, who " draw nigh with faith." Thus it is clear that, were we to strike out this Invi- tation, we should lose a Scriptural and valuable feature of the Service, — a feature, moreover, which is essential to the completeness of the idea of the Ordinance ; for m.] Of the Invitation. 1Y5 never yet was there an entertainment, without a sum- moning of guests 'by formal invitation. And Ave should lose a. primitive feature also. In the Liturgy of the Church of Jerusalem, the deacon address- ed the people thus before Communion: "Draw near with the fear of God, with faith and charity " — a briefer form, of which ours is an expansion. And in the Apos- tolic Constitutions, and the writings of the early Fathers, similar invitations are either directly mentioned, or it is implied that they were made. It will be observed, in studying this short Invitation, that the qualifications specified are not all put on the same footing. To one of them, which is faith, a promi- nence is assigned : " Ye who have repentance, charity, holy intentions, draw near with faiths This is very significant ; for faith is the principle by which alone we can draw near, rather than a mere qualification. The approach must be made in faith, with faith, by faith, if it is to be a real approach at all. I. The first qualification stated is repentance ; and its necessary characteristics are that it shall be true (or sin- cere) and earnest. Better words could not have been chosen. Our concern for the sins, which Self-examina- tion has brought to light, must be a real concern. It is not said that it shall be passionate, or vehemently excite the feelings (for this passionateuess of grief is not com- petent to all characters, and indeed is sometimes found in characters of the least depth), but that it shall be true. And its truth, of course, will be most satisfactorily evinced by the abandonment of the sin, for which the concern is felt. Yet let me remark that there should be a tenderness in the Christian's sorrow for sin, which no 176 • Of the Invitation. [pakt review of the sin itself, no mere moral considerations of its evil and danger will ever produce. 'The only specific for throwing this element of tenderness into our repent- ance is a devout contemplation of the Cross of Christ, and of the Love displayed therein, with the prayer that we may be enabled to mourn for Him whom our sins have pierced. And since this Ordinance commemorates and represents the Cross of Christ, a repentance of this sort is peculiarly appropriate in the communicant. IT. The next qualification is Love, or Charity with our neighbours, according to the wide acceptation, which our Lord has given to the word ' neighbour,' in His Par- able of the good Samaritan, — every one, however estrang- ed from us by prejudices and difference of associations, across whose path we are thrown by Divine Providence. It is observable, that Love is a special requirement of them who come to the Lord's Supper, over and above those requirements, which are made of persons to be baptized. By the first Sacrament we are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Church, before which admission we could know nothing of Brotherly Love or the Com- munion of Saints. But after that • admission, and as a preparative for the higher Sacrament, we must exercise the graces which are involved in Christian fellowship. It should be remembered that the Lord's Supper is a Festival, not only commemorative of the Love of Christ, but significant also of the Love which Christians should entertain towards one another. " For we being many," says St. Paul in reference to this Sacrament, " are one Bread" (one loaf) " and one Body ; for we are all par- takers of that one Bread ; " that is. By partaking all of us of one and the same Eucharist Loaf (the representa- tive and the vehicle of the Body of Christ) we become one m.] Of the Invitation. 1T7 Body. Surely it were profanation, it were to come in a spirit discordant with the whole tenour of the Ordinance, — if we were to nourish ill-will or enmity in our hearts, while we approach the Lord's Table. Has not Our Lord, though he may not be speaking in the first instance of the Christian Altar, implicitly and in principle forbidden all such approach, when He lays down as a law for His fol- lowers in the Sermon on the Mount : "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; iirst be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift " ? We shall find it a great security for the fulfilment of this precept, if, before communicating, we make it a practice to intercede ear- nestly for any who may have offended, or Avounded, or thwarted us, and, placing ourselves by an effort of mind in their position, to regard their conduct from their point of view instead of from our own. in. The next qualification specified is a pure and guileless intention, — a readiness in the will to part with all that is wrong, to adopt whatever a conscience enlight- ened by God's Word may point out to be right. There must be no reserves from God, — no secret refusal in any corner of the heart to go the full length of His claims. The former requirements were that the affections should be in a right state, first towards our Crucified Redeemer, then towards man ; the present is that the ivill should be in a right state before the heart-searching God. While, on the one hand, we must say that the intention to lead a new life is by no means equivalent to a promise never to sin again (which would be rash in the extreme, for we may be surprised into any sin), on the other, there is no doubt that a serious intention to keep the Commandments 8* 178 Of the Invitation, [part of God will, in proportion to its seriousness, secure the better keeping of them. We have very instructive prov- erbs, which we may apply to this subject, both on the general failure of good intentions (a failure arising from their indeterminateness, want of point, want of earnest- ness, in a word, from their never being good intentions at all, but merely good ivishes), and also to the effect that, where there is a real honest and earnest intention, such as we call a will, there some way is always found of carrying it into effect. The above, then, are the dispositions of mind and heart, which are suitable to, and of a piece with, the great Sol^xinity which we are about to observe. They constitute therefore the wedding garment ; for what is a wedding garment, but a garment in keeping with the oc- casion of a wedding, — a garment whose colour and beau- ty matches with the festivity? In this garment we must come arrayed, the Invitation tells us, if we would be re- ceived as Avelcome guests. But then it passes on to the principle, under the oper- ation of which alone we can draw nigh. " Draw near with faith." Without faith there is no possibility of drawing near in such a manner as to partake of Christ, or derive His virtue into our souls. If it be asked, what is the object of this faith? we may reply, in the words of our Church, " a lively faith in God's mercy, through Christ," " a full trust in God's mercy," such as may en- gender • a quiet conscience. We must believe in that mercy as applicable and extended to ourselves, and to the particular sins of which our own conscience accuses us. And the belief must be in a present forgiveness now bestowed, and must not sink down into a mere nerveless m.] Of the Invitation. 179 hope of future acceptance. And, again, we must exer- cise faith in respect of the especial blessings of the Ordi- nance, — union with Christ, and participation of His Body and Blood. Our faith must see him underlying the Ele- ments, and offering Himself to us in all the precious vir- tues of His Mediatorial Work. We must believe that through the Ordinance we ourselves become as closely united with Him in spirit, as the Bread and Wine become united with, and indistinguishable from, the substance of our bodies ; and that thus we ourselves become living and breathing Sacraments of Christ, bearing Him about within us, and under the obligation of expressing and representing Him in our lives. Without at all events some amount of this faith, there is no possibility of an inward and spiritual Communion with Him. There may be a corporeal, but there is no spiritual, access. We may resemble the multitudes, who thronged Him and pressed Him by an outward contact, not the poor woman who, through the simple touch of His raiment, drew into her afflicted frame the healing virtue of which she stood in need. And when at the last day we plead before Him, " We have eaten and drunk in thy Presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets," He will not recognize us as ever having had with Him any real intercourse ; He will turn upon us, as strangers and aliens, with the words, " I tell you, I never knew you ; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.^ The Invitation which we have now considered, and the Exhortation which precedes it, are most integral parts of the Office, inasmuch as they bring out into such sharp relief the internal qualifications required in Com- municants. Here, as in most other departments of The- 180 Of the Invitation, [part ology, there are two opposite errors, equally avoided by our Church ; of which, in concluding this Lecture, we may say a word. There are those then, — and they are a numerous class of religionists, — who see God in noth- ing external to their own minds. If such persons would speak out their meaning bravely, and carry out their principles to their logical results, they would say that sacredness and sanctity there is none, except in the heart ; — 'that an Ordinance has no sacredness, except so far as man is conscious of receiving from it a sensible spiritual benefit. Thus, in Public Worship, such persons would say, there is no Presence of Christ, unless we real- ize it. He has said, indeed, that " where two or three are gathered together in His Name, there is He in the midst of them ; " but h^ this can be meant nothing more than that He is present to our apprehensions ; it is the action of our minds, not the celebration of the Ordinance, which draws Him down into the midst of us. On the same principles, such persons would say, " There is no sacredness in the consecrated elements in themselves ; apart from the receivers they are nothing ; our faith it is which makes them the Body and Blood of Christ to us, and not any- act external to our minds which passes upon them." But what saith the Scripture? "• The Cup of Bless- ing which we hless^ is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ? The Bread which we break, is it not the (Communion of the Body of Christ?" And what saith the Liturgy? '■'■ SsLUCtlfy this tuater to the mystical washing away of sin." " If the conse- crated Bread and Wine be all spent, before all have com- municated, the Priest is to consecrate more, according to the form before prescribed." Why to consecrate more ? in.] Of the Inmtation, 181 — ^whj to consecrate any, if Consecration does nothing ; if the faitli of the recipient would make unconsecrated Bread and Wine equally available and effective? The tendency of this error is to place the whole of religion in tG^e shifting frames and feelings of the soul ; to turn the eye exclusively inward, and to foster a wretched introspection ; to hinder man from walking abroad freely in the sunlight of Christian Privilege, and a^jiong the great objective realities of the Kingdom of God. But there is another, and at least equally fatal, error on the other side. In contemplating God's Ordinances, we may look wholly at the Institution, at the external observance, and dwell upon it until we allow it to engross the whole field of view, and put out of sight altogether the state of mind in which it is to be approached. The Ordinance, according to this view (and it is the view of all Romanizing Theology), becomes a spell or charm, which acts upon us independently of our giving our mind to it ; and a sort of system of magic is set up in the Church of Christ, which quite deprives the Institution of the character of a reasonable Service. The mon- strous 'absurdity of such a view is shown in the strongest light by some of those frivolous questions which Roman- ist Theologians, pursuing their theory to its just conclu- sions, ask in their books of Casuistry : for example, " Would an animal, partaking by an accident of the Host or Consecrated Wafer, become partaker of the Body of Christ ? " The very fact of such a question being raised shows surely to common sense and common reverence, that they who raise it must be altogether on the wrong scent. To come across such a difficulty at all, they must have erred from sound Reason and Scriptural Truth. An animal has not that immortal spirit, by which alone* 182 Of the Invitation, [part man is enabled to hold communion with his Creator. To apprehend God, there must be Reason ; and accord- ingly none of the lower creatures, being devoid of Rea- son, can apprehend God. This is of course an extreme form of error ; but it is clear that any approach to "such a conclusion must be wrong. Suppose a man imbruted by sensuality, — one who had reduced himself by indul- gence of the animal appetites to the level of the beasts that perish, — such an one, it is clear, could not appre- hend Christ, nor become partaker of His Body. There may be in him the spiritual faculty ; but it is latent, undeveloped, almost extinct. Then the question arises, '^ What kind and amount of development must there be in the spiritual faculty, to ensure the blessing of the Or- dinance to the recipient?" And the only answer to be given to this is that which our Church has given. There must be penitence, real and gemiine, if not passionate. To celebrate Christ crucified with a heart of stone, what a profanation must it be ! — There must be love. To celebrate the feast of love with any portion of rancorous feeling, what an awful discordance between the outward and the inward ! — There must be holy intentions. To profess self-surrender to a crucified Saviour without in- tegrity, what a frightful hypocrisy ! — And, finally, there must be the faculty which realizes things unseen. To regard the elements as so much natural food, and not to discern by faith the Lord's Body lying beneath them, would evidently be to frustrate the Ordinance altogether ! We have indeed no warrant for prescribing the amount of these inward qualifications. We doubt not that where they really exist, there the Blessing of the Ordinance is in a degree realized, even though a far greater measure of them might be desirable. And we cannot doubt also m.] Of the Confession. 183 that, the more we grow in these dispositions, the more fruit shall we gather from this Holy Ordinance, and the more shall we experience the blessedness of it. A life- less body has no power of assimilating food. A feeble living body can only assimilate a little, administered by degrees ; but a body, with the pulses of life beating strong and quick within it, a hungry and a craving body, can assimilate it thoroughly and easily, and grow there- by. And the soul resembles the body. With a feeble spiritual pulse we can apprehend Christ but feebly in the Holy Communion : but if there be a strong hunger and thirst after righteousness, a strong craving for the Bread of Life, a strong sense of spiritual poverty and indigence, a strong resolve formed in reliance on God's Grace, a strong faith which pierces the veil of things sensible and material, great will then be the comfort received from this Holy Communion, and in the strength of that meat we shall go forward, like Elijah of old, to the Mount of God, the end and goal of our pilgrimage. LECTURE III. OF THE CONFESSION. " Kf toe confess our sins, 2l?e '\% f nitljf ul nnti fust to f orfiibc us out sins, nuH to cleanse usfromallunnflijtcousness/'— 1 Joiixi. 9. Man was made, we are told, originally in the image of God ; and, although man be fallen, there are still certain echoes in his nature, and in his dealings with his fellow-man, of the Divine perfections. These echoes 184: Of the Confession. [pakt are recognized in some of our Lord's Parables, and are indeed the basis of the similitude. What other founda- tion have the Parables of the Friend at Midnight, the Unjust Judge, the Unmerciful Servant, the Prodigal Son, but the truth that God will deal with us much as we deal with one another ; being won by our importunity, roused to anger by our harsh dealing -with others, and moved to welcome us back to His arms on the first movement of a true repentance ? Now among the features of a better mind in man, which have survived the great moral wreck of the Fall, is this, that we are always disposed to relent towards an offender who ingenuously confesses his fault, and takes upon himself the whole shame and blame of it. That man's heart is unnaturally and exceptionally hard, who, when another says to him, " I have injured you deeply, and I have nothing to say in my own defence ; I throw myself upon your goodness and forbearance ; forgive this great wrong," — can spurn away the suppliant, and refuse to look indulgently upon hira. Now this feature of the human character is a dim reflection of the infinite com- passionateness towards penitent sinners which there is in the heart of God, in virtue of which, " if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." But then it must be remembered that God, inasmuch as He is a searcher of the thoughts and intents of the heart, does not accept as confession, as we are obliged to do, the mere acknowledgment of the mouth. And con- fession of sin with the heart is by no means so easy a thing as we are apt to imagine. The mere telling forth our faults presents little or no difficulty. What is so dif- ficult — so impossible, except by Divine Grace — is the honestly taking to ourselves the full blame and shame of ni.] Of the Confession. ' 186 them. In tlie moment of the Fall, the principle of self- love acquired in the human mind the most exaggerated dimensions ; it ceased to be a just and proper self-love, and became self-partiality of the grossest kind. And to stand clear of this self-partiality in estimating our faults is, in fact, the hardest moral task which any one can set us. Our present mental constitution resembles in this respect our physical. Persons aiSicted with cancer, or similar complaints, are not themselves sensible of the loathsomeness and offensiveness of the disease ; it is to them endurable, 'though it is eating into their vitals ; whereas others can hardly be in their neighbourhood without a sensation of nausea. And bosom sins have a similar property of inofFensiveness to their possessor, — to the very person in whose nature they are a great gan- grene. The man cannot, except by special Grace, stand apart from himself, and judge his bosom sin as he would judge it in another. We see accordingly that the first indication of the Fall of man was his making excuses for what he had done, — the exceeding reluctance to ac- knowledge the freedom of his own will, and therefore the fulness of his own fault, in the eating of the forbid- den fruit. Adam, when expostulated with, shifts the blame to his partner ;• while at the same time he does not hesitate to bring in God Himself as partly guilty : " The woman, whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." The woman, when she is referred to, traces the guilt up to the serpent : " The ser- pent beguiled me, and I did eat." Marvellously lifelike representation of the way in which their descendants have always cloaked their faults, when God has expostu- lated with them in the inner man. Do we not all make for ourselves excuses precisely similar? Sometimes we 186 Of the Confession. [paet secretly whisper to our own conscience : " The passions are so much stronger in me than in my neiglibour." Sometimes (forgetting that different positions liave dif- ferent temptations of their own): "My circumstances are so peculiarly trying." Sometimes : "It was society which drew me into this sin." While we sometimes quarrel with (or at least murmur against) our Creator in the true spirit of Adam : " Why has He surrounded me with such an atmosphere of Temptation? Why has He so strictly prescribed virtue, and yet made the attain- ment of it so difficult? If I throw temptation in the way of others, I am blameworthy, and consider myself so. Why does God put me providentially in harm's way, and then find fault?" And aU this time, while we are thus reasoning, we fancy ourselves conscious of great rectitude of intention, even in the face of all facts. That is a profound saying of the wise man's : " All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes." Not that sinners can sin without many checks and hindrances from an accusing conscience. But these checks and hindrances do not interfere with their favourable estimate of their own character. Even when their conduct is admitted to be faulty, they are still on good terms with themselves. The man, who has committed the most atrocious crimes, never thinks himself a demon, though all the world may so esteem him. The truth is, that the human will never can accept evil as evil, w^ithout first tricking it out in the colours of good. And having accepted it, it still clings to these colours, and makes the most of them. There is one certain indication of the exceeding dif- ficulty of lying low in our own eyes, which I cannot re- frain from adverting to. It is our wonderful reluctance to lie low in the eyes of others. If we really thought m.] Of the Confession. 187 ill of ourselves, we should be quite willing that others should think ill of us ; for consider that it is not in our nature to be angiy with persons for agreeing with our own sentiments. On the contrary, we are apt to be favourably disposed towards those who view matters in the same light as ourselves. If, therefore, we should find ourselves inwardly displeased with persons who take a very low moral estimate of our character and conduct, this shows very conclusively that we ourselves, hov/ever humble our language may be, do not really take the same estimate. If self-esteem were really killed within us by the perception of our sins, we should not be unjust enough to feel irritation towards those who withhold from us their esteem. But when will self-esteem be dead in any of us? Test its amount of deaduess in yourself by considering how you would feel if called upon to con- fess to a fellow-creature the worst action of your life ; or merely the worst omission of duty, with- all its aggrava- tions, its meanness, pettiness, and all the details of the sin. What contrivances would there be, as the revela- tion startled him to whom it was made, to regain the esteem which you perceive is drawing off from you like a receding tide ! How would you try to escape, by every means in your power, from lying before him in the nakedness of your shame ! How would you weave into the confession certain good deeds as a set-off, and feel bound in candour (so you would put it to yourself) to mention all extenuating circumstances ! Even while making known your guilt, how would you be plotting and planning for reinstatement in his good opinion, and nom'ishing the secret hope that your confession might give you in his eyes a character for humility ! Why is this, but because in your heart of hearts you really do 188 Of the Confession. [paet not think ill of yourself — because your sin, however grievous it may be in the abstract view of it, has not at all destroyed your self-complacency ? Now a confession, in which there is no mortification of self-complacency — in which the sinner does not lie low in'^his own eyes, though he may express himself to that effect, is no confession in the eyes of God. But on the other hand., however there is a real self-abasement in the inner man, a real willingness to take upon ourself the blame and shame of sin, a readiness to consent to its ex- posure before all the world, if God's Love and Grace could be magnified ttiereby, — there God deals with us, in consideration of Christ's finished work, much on the same principle (though of course on a much larger scale of compassionateness) as we should deal with an offending brother, who, throwing himself on his knees before us, should confess an injury, and implore our forgiveness. Into these reflections we are led by the history and the contents of the Confession in the Communion Service. It is by no means a new^ feature of the Service, — confes- sion (sometimes reciprocal, of the priest to the people, and of the people to the priest) having formed a part of several early Liturgies ; but our own form of Confession is derived from a contemporary work consulted by our Reformers, called " The Simple and Religious Consul- tation of Hermann, Archbishop of Cologne." In mod- ifying this form, which they substituted for the meagre confession common in the media3val Church (borrowing however from this last the threefold division of sins into " thought, word, and deed "), they have shown great skill and judgment. A passage in which the corruption of m.] Of the Confession, 189 our nature was confessed in strong terms : " We ac- knovv ledge and we lament that we were conceived and born in sins (and that therefore we be prone to all evils, and abhor from all good things)," they have altogether omit- ted. And this is the more remarkable, because at the final Revision of the Liturgy in 1661, it w^as a point objected to the Confessions by the Presbyterian divines, that they were " too general, and did not contain suffir cient reference to original sin" The history of this Con- fession shows that this omission (or we should rather say, this subdued allusion to original sin) was more or less by design. And for this design two reasons may be alleged, both which probably had a measure of weight Avith the compilers. First ; it has been the constant doctrine of the Church that the guilt of Original Sin is washed away (not its power removed) by the Sacrament of Baptism. " The fault and corruption of our nature which doth remain, even in them that are regenerated," as well as the actual sins of a penitent and believing adult, are forgiven in the One Baptism, which is for the remission of sins. Now our Confessions are of course designed only for the use of the baptized ; and on that ground' the reference in them to a guilt already oblit- erated is less marked than might have been expected. The Bishops, in their defence of these Confessions, and in reply to the Presbyterians, expressly say : " It is an evil custom, springing from false doctrine, to use expres- sions which may lead people to think that original sin is not forgiven in holy Baptism : yet original Sin is clearly acknowledged in confessing that the desii'es of our own hearts render us miserable by following them," &c. — But, secondly, our excellent Reformers designed these prayers to be a personal confession of the sins, of which each 190 Of the Confession. ' [paet member of tlie congregation felt him?elf guilty. To al- lege the depravity of our nature before God (however true) might seem to offer some excuse for our actual sins. Such an excuse is one out of the many, by which man in the court of conscience cloaks his sin to himself. " I was born with this strong bias to evil," is just one of the pleas by which the guilt of sin is continually evaded. Our Reformers did not wish to suggest any such plea to the penitent. He was to be taught to take upon himself the full responsibility of his own actions. Notwithstanding all the bias of evil inclinations, his will has been perfectly free throughout his whole career of evil. His own con- sciousness furnishes the best proof of this. Am I not conscious that, if I please, I can arouse my will, when temptation is offered, to resist it ? that I can bring before my mind the arguments, and apply to my own will the motives, whi-ch persuade to and prompt resistance ? And this being the case, is there any real excuse to be found for me in the strength of evil inclinations, more especially when to me, a Christian, God has all along proffered the assistances of His Grace? So that the more I look at my own personal identification of myself with the sin of Adam, and the less at my inbred depravity, the more likely is my humiliation to be real. As regards the contents of this Confession, it is in- structive to compare them with those of the Form in the daily Morning and Evening Prayer. They who do so will not fail to perceive how much deeper is the tone of humiliation in the Prayer before us. To specify some particulars. God is here addressed as " the Judge of all men," a feature of the Divine character, which is not brought out in the ordinary Confession. The sins con- fessed are designated by the strong term " wickedness." III.] Of the Confession, 191 Not content with the simple setting them forth, we hint at their aggravation in the words, '■' which we from time to time most grievously have committed." They are al- le":ed to have been " in thought," as well as in word and deed. Thej are said " most justly to provoke God's wrath and indignation against us." We profess the very memory of them to be " grievous unto us, the bur- den of them to be intolerable." And, finally, we empha- size the cry for mercy by twice repeating it: '"Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father." There can be no question that the daily Con- fession implies much less of a lively concern for sin, much less profound abasement. And there is a great lesson here, which we shall do well not to overlook. Our Blessed Lord, in His solemn words to St. Peter, rec- ognizes two sorts of spiritual cleansing ; one total, and of the entire person, the other partial, and needing to be daily renewed : " He that is washed " (it should be, "that is bathed," — whose whole person is washed), " needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." We may apply this passage to illustrate the dis- tinction in tone between these two Confessions. There are sins of infirmity, — dust which we collect upon our feet during our walk through the world, and which needs to be daily wiped ofi" by confession, and by seeking fresh pardon through Christ's Blood. The daily Confession, then, is for the Avashing of this dust from the feet. But more solemn periods of humiliation are desirable, when we may review with stricter scrutiny a larger period of our career, and marking how stained with sin the whole of it is, and how even " our righteousnesses have been as filthy rags," — how " our repentance needs to be repented of, and the tears which we shed for sin to be washed over 192 Of the Confession, [paet again in the Blood of Christ," — may abase ourselves more deeply in God's sight. And when shall these periods rather be, than before we draw near to the Holy Table, to communicate with our Lord's Passion, and to partake of remission of sins, and all the other fruits of it? Approaches to God, which merely bring us into His Presence, without uniting us to Him, need not so deep a humiliation. But in proportion to the nearness of the approach Cand in the Lord's Supper we have the nearest approach, which it is possible to have on earth) must be the depth of our abasement. Were we to see Christ without a veil, as the holiest saints have sometimes been privileged to see Him, and as we shall all see Him in the future state, we should fall at His feet as dead, as did the beloved Apostle in Patmos ; we should exclaim, with the Prophet Isaiah, when we saw His glory, " Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; " we should answer, with Thomas, when convicted by the sight of the sacred wounds, " My L'ord and my God." And when Ave are about to see Christ under a veil, as the Lamb which has been slain, but w'ho is now alive again, and ready to communicate Himself to, and to identify Himself with, every penitent and believing soul, should not this wonderful condescen- sion work in us a feeling akin to that expressed by Job : " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." The Confession at the Communion gives utterance to such a 'feeling. Perhaps no Communicants realize its terms to their full extent. But this is certain, that the more we realize them, the more deeply we sympathize in.] Of Ministerial Absolution. 193 with the thoughts which that hinguage conveys, the larger will be the blessing which we derive from the Or- dinance. For what is it which prevents our minds from being filled with God? Is it not the amount of space, which self occupies in them? If, then, by Grace be- stowed in answer to earnest Prayer, the mind be emptied of self; — if self-complacency be turned into self-abhor- rence, and self-confidence give place to self-distrust, — then the way of Christ is prepared in the soul, and He will enter in, and dAvell there, and fulfil to us that most gracious promise, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." LECTURE IV. OF MIXISTERIAI, ABSOLUTION. **^t)eii sailr %t%\xs to tijcnt aflain, 3,3cacc fii unto jjou: as i^w iFatfjcr f)nt1) sent i^c, cbcn so szxCa £ i'o«. ^nn bjljcn 7i}e !)aD salt) tljts, "^z bi-eatftcti on tljcm, antr saitt) unto tijem, aac= ccibc jc tl)c ?t)jl)) CSljost: toljosc socbci* sins re remit, tijei) are remittctj unto tljem ; anti lD!)ose soeber sins £e retain, tjes are retaineti.*' — Jonx xx. 21 — 23. In these words Our Blessed Lord, at His first inter- view with them aftar His Resurrection, conveyed to His Apostles the power of remitting and retaining sins. The risen Saviour brings this power with Him as the first- fruits of His Death and Passion. That Death had pur- 9 194 Of Ministerial Absolution. [paet chased forgiveness ; His Blood was " slied for many /or tlie remission of sinsJ' And, accordingly, the Blood having been shed, the power of remission is lodged at once, on the very Resurrection Day, in the hands of the Apostles. It is observable that the bestowal of this power is not delayed till Pentecost, when the Eleven were fully qualified for their mission. And the circum- stance may perhaps be designed to teacli us that there is a distinction (which has been always recognized by the Reformed Churches) between justification (or the acquit- tal of a sinner) and sanctification (or his being made holy) ; that the one pi^cedes the other in point of time ; that not until a sinner has been forgiven, can his sanc- tification commence. We have now arrived in our course of Lectures at the Precatory Absolution, which succeeds the Confession in our Communion Office. But we cannot treat this Prayer satisfactorily, unless we go to the root of the matter, and consider the power of Absolution generally, both in its Scriptural grounds, and in the forms which it takes in our own Communion. And this will necessarily occupy more than one Lecture. We will first, then, seek to understand this power, as lodged in the hands of, and exercised by, the Apostles. Many things said by Our Lord to His Apostles were addressed to them as private Christians, having no offi- cial character or peculiar prerogative. Examples of such words, which we may all take to ourselves, are, — " If two df you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father v/hich is in heaven." " Ye are the light of the world. . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in.] Of Ministerial Absolution, 195 which is in heaven." " Watch ; for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh." Other things were said to them, as men who occupied a peculiar position, which no other men did, and none other can, occupy, — words which are obviously for them, and for them alone. Instances are : " Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath ap- pointed unto Me ; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." "The Holy Ghost shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unt<^ you." " Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, bo-th in Jerusa- lem, and in all Jud^a, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Finally, some things which are said to them, are ad- dressed to them in their official capacity, as representa- tives of the Christian Ministry to the end of Time. I will quote one such word : " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, / am with you alway, even unto the end of the loorld." The Apostles, however, did not live (and Our Lord must have known that they would not live) to the end of the world, which shows us that He w^s speaking to them not as individuals, but as representatives of those, who to the end of the world should hold His com- mission to baptize, and to give Christian instruction. And it will not be denied that this commission is held by Christian Ministers only, and not by the Laity. The first point necessary for the understanding of Our 196 Of Ministerial Absolution. [part , Lord's words in the passage before us is to inquire under what capacity it is that He is addressing His Apostles. For if it is in the second capacity, as those who had been associated with Him in His temptations, — as those who had companied with him during the period of His earthly pilgrimage, and thus were competent witnesses to the world of His Resurrection, in that case we have no prac- tical concern at all with the power of Absolution, how- ever reasonably we may feel an interest of curiosity in it. If the power expired with the Apostles, it would not con- duce any more to our spiritual welfare to know what it 4vas, or what it did for mankind, than it would to under- stand the nature of the gift of tongues. Now that Our Lord did not speak these solemn words to the Eleven, as representing private Christians, may be gathered first from the context, which points very clearly to their true application : " Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you : as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this. He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." It is clear that the power of remit- ting and retaining sins is conferred on the persons who had received the mission ; that the power and this mis- sion are not to be disjoined. And what then is the mis- sion ? It cannot be doubted that it is the same as that recorded by (and which we have already had occasion to quote from) St. Matthew, a mission to go into all the world, and make disciples by baptism and Christian teaching. Our Lord Himself had come on this mission, having been sent by the Father. He had preached in every synagogue, in the Temple, and under the canopy in.] Of Ministerial Absolution. 19Y of the sky, the Kingdom of God. By this preaching He had made and baptized (though not with His own hands) " more disciples than John." And now He sends His delegates on the same mission, — a mission not confined (as formerly) to Judrea, but extending to the whole world. Bat if this be the mission, it is not one which has descended to private Christians. Therefore neither has the power of remitting and retaining sins which is associated with it. Again ; that these words were not addressed to the Apoj^es exclusively, and as persons occupying a pecu- liar position, which can be held by none other, may be gathered from the nature of the power conferred. It is not a miraculous gift, which is here bestowed, in which case we should of course think it an endowment limited to the Apostolic age. It is not a power, the necessity of which has ceased, or ever will cease, until sin is exter- minated. It is the power of remitting sins ; as much called for surely in one age as in another. Surely this power is as essential to the health and well-being of souls, in whatever age they are brought out into existence, as the power to preach, and teach, and administer the Sacraments ; and being so, it must continue with the Church, as the Saviour's Presence does, " even to the end of the world." For it is absurd to suppose that the death of the Apostles should cut off the entail of an in- heritance, purchased by the Lord's Death not for them alone, but for all those who should believe on Him through their word. No ! assuredly these keys of the Kingdom of Heaven have passed down from the Apos- tles into the custody of those who have truly inherited the Apostles' Ministry in its ordinary powers. And that such is the view taken by our Church is clear from the 198 Of Ministerial Absolution. [part fact that Our Lord's words in the text are repeated at the Ordination of every Priest, the formula of which runs thus : " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained.^^ But unless the power of Absolution still abide substantially with the Christian Ministry, such use of these words must surely be pre- sumptuous in a high degree, even to the verge of blas- phemy. ^ Now there is but one qualification of what has been said, which requires to be taken into account. It is this : Though the power of Absolution did not attach exclu- sively to the Ministers of the Primitive, as distinct from those of the Modern, Church, — there was in the Apos- tolic Church a miraculous power, which greatly helped the Minister in the right exercise of Absolution. This power was called '' the discerning of spirits ; " and in virtue of it, the Holy Apostles, and some o.f those on whom they laid hands,,, were enabled on occasions to read the heart and discern the true character of the persons with whom they had to deal. They were not dependent on a man's profession of penitence and faith for a knowledge of his state of mind ; but they read penitence and faith, impen- itence and unbelief, by a miraculous intuition. Now it is evident that, in the whole administration of their ab- solving power, this discernment of spirits must have greatly helped them, specially where it was to be ex- ercised towards individuals. For if a man has not re- pentance and faith, he has no receptivity for, no capacity of profiting by. Absolution or Baptism, or the Lord's Supper, or the Benediction of the Church, and should nr.] Of Ministerial Absolution, 199 accordingly be excluded from tliem. And, accordingly, the power of seeing infallibly whether men had these graces or had them not, must have been an assistance to the Apostles in enabling them to absolve or retain sins aright, and according to the mind of God. They could not make a mistake as to the characters which were re- ceptive of, and prepared for, Absolution. And this may make, and justly does make, a difference between them and modern ministers : — the amount of which is this, that modern ministers must exercise the great function (at all events towards individuals) with a caution, and a reserve, and a deliberateness, very much greater* than was required in the Apostles. The power may be ex- actly the same ; but there is not now the same discretion to regulate its use. Let me give an illustration, which may simplify the idea to some minds. A rich man leaves a large sum of money in the hands of trustees, directing that they shall use it for the relief of distress, and giving them powers to fill up vacancies in their body, when such arise. The original trustees are men thor- oughly conversant with charities, who know that every petitioner for relief is not really a deserving object of it, and to whom long experience among the poor has given a sagacity which seldom errs or fails. By and by, how- ever, the trustees are replaced by others, who have no knowledge of the world and its ways, and are apt to be imposed upon by the first tale of distress. Now to these latter trustees it would be right and necessary to say : " You must be exceedingly cautious in the administra- tion of this bequest, lest you should do more harm than good, contravene the testator's intention, and, instead of relieving distress, encourage indolence and dependence, and so multiply pauperism. Indeed, might it not be 200 Of Ministerial Absolution. [paet well for you scarcely ever to give to individuals, but rather to administer the relief indirectly, yet not less elHcieutly, tlirougli the medium of Hospitals, Dispen- saries, or Mendicity Societies? At all events, let the direct application of your funds to the individual be the exception, not the rule." — Now this is the very way (as far as it can be exhibited in a figure) in which the Church of England directs her Clergy to administer the treasure of Absolution, which she believes to have come down to them, as the purchase of the Master's Blood. The power is fully and emphatically recognized in the Ordination Service, in the Morning and Evening Prayer, and in the Communion Service. But the usual forms, in which it is exercised, are public ; because here the ex- ercise is safe and guarded. The absolution is declared to be for those only who repent and believe, and with this proviso is flung abroad on the Congregation at large, to find those whom it ought to find. As for private and individual Absolutions, without saying they are never to be pronounced, the English Church is ju- diciously chary of them. The circumstances under which they may be sought are indicated as exceptional, not normal. If any man cannot quiet his own conscience before coming to the Holy Communion, he is directed to come to some " discreet and learned Minister of God's Word, and open his grief ; that by the ministry of God's holy Word he may receive the benefit of Absolution." And, again, if a dying man (a man placed in front of eternity cannot well be insincere in his professions) feel his conscience ti'oubled with afiy weighty matter, the English Prayer Book prescribes that he shall be moved to make a special Confession of his sins, " after Avhich Confession the Priest shall absolve him, if he humbly III.] Of Ministerial Absohition. 201 and heartily desire it." And even these cautious ad- missions of Private Absolution the compilers of our own Book of Common Prayer have thought it wiser to ex- punge ; not that they made any doubt of the existence of the Power of Absolution ; but that they desired to guard it jealously from abuse, as knowing that there is not always the discretion necessary for its right exercise. But in order fully to understand this power of remit- ting and retaining sins, as it was conferred upon the Apostles, we must look at it in its exercise as w^ell as in its bestowal. St. Peter, then, retained the sins of Ana- nias and Sapphira, when he denounced their hypocrisy, and predicted their punishment. In this earliest exer- cise of the power, we see the miraculous gift of discern- ing spirits assisting the Apostle in the administration of it. The gift is no more ; and temporal judgments no longer ratify the sentences of the Church ; but this does not affect her possession of the power. Suppose a Christian Minister coming in a natural way to the knowl- edge of some grievous sin in some member of his flock, and representing to him faithfully its heinousness, and the impossibility of pardon without repentance ; suppose, to take a definite case, that " perceiving malice and hatred to reign" between two members of the Church, he should remonstrate with them on that state of mind, and, as our Communion Office bids him, should debar such persons from the Lord's Table until he know them to be reconciled, — this would be the retention of sins in its modern and unmiraculous form, and there can be no doubt that the judgment so passed (I am assuming it to be in all respects equitable) would be ratified from on high. The dealing of St. Peter with Simon Magus is 9* 202 Of Ministerial Absolution. [paet another instance of the retention of sins. The iniquity of the sinner's heart was in this case manifest from the iniquity of his proposal ; and St. Peter meets it by a sharp rebuke, holding out to him, however, the hope of God's forgiveness on condition of repentance. Simon, overwhelmed by the force of the reproof, requests the prayers of the Apostles that " none of these things which ye have spoken may come upon me." There was an evident and just fear in his mind that God might ratify this seatence supernaturally, as He had done that upon Ananias and Sapphira, and also a persuasion that the prayers of the Apostles might avail to avert the con- sequences. Pastoral rebuke, then, of evident and ob- vious sins, is an exercise of the keys, and of the power of retention ; — and it is an exercise which this age needs ; for there caa- be no doubt that, what with the wish to retain our congregations at all hazards, the fear of giv- ing offence and of driving some into schism, and the desire to be personally well spoken of, ministerial faith- fulness is at a low ebb amongst us, and it seems as if those words had been erased from our Commission : " Beprove^ rehuhe, exhort with all long-suffering and doc- trine." St. Paul's vehement denunciation of Elymas the sor- cerer, and the consequent infliction of blindness upon him, so much resembles the transactions of St. Peter already commented upon, that we need not make it a distinct subject of remark. Then we come to St. Paul's excommunication of the incestuous Corintliian, the delivery of him unto Satj^n for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord, and the retractation of that cen- sure, when it had done its work upon the offender, and m.] Of Ministerial Absohition. 203 had brought him to a sincere penitence. The passage has such an important bearing on our present subject, being in short the great Scriptural instance of the be- stowal of Absolution, that it must be quoted at length ; — "• Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sor- row. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love towards him To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also : for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the per- son of Christ ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us ; for we are not ignorant of his devices." Lastly, we have the counsel of -St. James as to the course of conduct which the sick member of Christ's flock siiould pursue. " Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders (presbyters) of the Church ; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord : and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have commit- ted siiis^ they shall he forgiven him J' Here again the miraculous part of the transaction is of course peculiar to the Apostolic age : the oil has been dropped, as being the sign of an extraordinary cure now no longer vouch- safed ; but the prayer of faith offered by the bedside of the sick forms still a part of our Ministry [see the Order for the Visitation of the Sick] ; and who shall say it is ineffective for spiritual healing in the face of those words, " If he have committed sins, they shall be for- given him ; " in the face of those still more solemn words of the text, which confer the power of Absolution, " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 204 Of Ministerial Absolution, [paet them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re- tained?" The whole Ministry of the Apostles was interwoven with miracles, and so far exceptional ; yet no one will maintain that the Ministry of the Apostles died with them, though its temporary attributes may have done so. The power of Absolution then, which emanates from the Ministry, cannot so have died, the exercise of it being fully as much needed now as it was in the primitive days. Yet it must be observed that, in the exercise by the Apostles of the power of remitting and retaining sins, there is no trace whatsoever of the form which the Roman Church has given to Absolution. There is not the smallest vestige of a practice of habitual confession to the Apostles by the members of their Churches, or of a formal absolution by them. There is not the slightest attempt on tlieir part to usurp any judicial power over the human conscience ; so far from it, that St. Peter's coun- sel to Simon Magus is (not, "Come to me for absolu- tion," but) " Repent of this thy wickedness, and ijray God^ if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be for- given thee." The elders, says St. James, are to pray over the sick man, that his sins may be forgiven. Why to pray, un- less in acknowledgment that the forgiveness merely passed through them as channels, did not (and could not) originate with them, — that, in the absolute and judicial sense, " none can forgive sins but God only?" That men can act otherwise than ministerially in remitting gins is a doctrine as contrary to Holy Scripture as it is to Reason and the teaching of the early Fathers. And to m.] Of Ilinisterial Absolution. 205 attribute to the Christian Minister the power of Absolu- tion (when thus understood) is not more arrogant than to attribute other spiritual cifeets to his Ministry. No one denies the spiritual effect of God's preached Word upon the conscience, nor the spiritual effect of Sacra- ments, where duly administered and duly received, in strengthening and refreshing the soul. Yet these spirit- ual effects are in no wise due to the Minister, except as a medium : he cannot, except as an instrument in the hands of God's Spirit, touch a single conscience or com- fort a siugle soul. The utmost that can be said of him is that ordinarily (not that God is bound to any means, or that He does not frequently show Himself to be in- dependent of all means) God administers through His ordained servants the stores of His treasury of Grace. Why not also the stores of His treasury of Forgiveness ? God often converts souls, and edifies them, without any human instrumentality at all. Some dealing of His Providence, some passage of His Word, arrests the con- science of the sinner and awakens it to righteousness and repentance. The Holy Ghost is free as the wind, which is His great emblem in nature, and bloweth where He listeth, apart from the instrumentality which He Himself hath ordained. And similarly God can (and doubtless does) forgive sinners independently of His Church, speak- ing peace to many a conscience on the moment of its coming to Christ. Yet it appears to be no less true that God has ordained an instrumentality in the earth, wliich He dehghts to bless and honour ; and that this instru- mentality is the ordinary vehicle, through which mercy and other spiritual blessings reach us. O let us seek at His hand that sound judgment which fairly balances, and gives its due weight to, every testimony of His Word, and '2i0^ Forms in which the Protestant Ej)iccojpal [paet ' that simplicity and honesty of mind which seeks not the establishment of preconceived views, but Truth, and Truth only. LECTURE V. OF THE FORMS IN TTHICH THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA DISPENSES ABSOLUTION. " W\)m '^t !jnU saiti t!)is, %}t l)rcnt|)ctr on tfjcm, antr saitf) unto tl)0nr, J^ectibc $e t\)t ?!1}oIm CSijost : tofjose sotbev sins £e i*emit, tt^es are remittctr unto tijcni; antj toljose soebcr ^ins^t retain, tt)tg a);e retaineu*** — John xx. 22, 23. The question whether the power of Absolution still resides in the Ministry of the Church will be found very much to resolve itself into the prior question, Whether there is an ordained Ministry of the Church at all ? If a man chooses to deny that God hath committed to human Ministers the w^ord of reconciliation ; if, while he believes in Christianity, he disbelieves, as many do, in the Chris- tian Society or Church, and resents altogether human intervention between God and the individual conscience, he may be easily confuted from Holy Scripture ; but the confutation of him is not our present business. But if a man admits (as it is presumed all of us are disposed to admit) that there is an ordained Ministry, and that this Ministry is the usual, though not the exclusive, channel through which God conveys spiritual blessings, then he grants implicitly the power of Absolution as inherent in that Ministry. No one (at least no member of the Re- formed Churches) imagines that any man, whatever his ecclesiastical position, can forgive sins absolutely, and as m.] Church in America Dispenses Absolution. 207 a matter of his own arbitrament. Even the Apostles themselves never claimed to do this. He only can for- give in this manner, against whom the offence is com- mitted ; and as God is the Person who in all sin (even in that against our neighbour) is aggrieved, none but He caQ forgive in the absolute and judicial sense of the word. But if God dispenses forgiveness through certain human instruments, those instruments have derivatively the power of Absolution. And can this method of dis- pensing forgiveness be denied? If a person burdened with a sense of guilt, and in a state of mental depression, should stray into a Church, and there hear the message of free forgiveness and grace through Christ fully and faithfully set forth from the pulpit ; if it should there be pointed out to him that what the heavy-laden conscience has to do is not to qualify itself for acceptance with God, but simply come to Christ, and embrace that acceptance which is already purchased by His Blood and Merit ; and if pn hearing this glad tidings, he goes away light- ened and relieved, having found that joy and peace in believing, which are among the first-fruits of the Spirit, — what is this but God's dispensation of forgiveness to that man by the mouth of the Minister? It may not be tech- nically called Absolution ; but surely it is Absolution to all intents and purposes ; it is as if the Minister, in the Name and by the authority of His Master, had said to that soul, " Thy sins be forgiven thee ;" " The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die." — Suppose ianother hearer, conscious of still cleaving in his intention to some course which both Scripture and the moral sense con- demn, to receive from the pulpit the equally true mcs-" sage that, whatever flatteries the deceitful heart may practise upon us, there is no salvation for sinners ob-j 208 Forms in which the Protestant JEpiscopal [pakt stiuately holding by their sins ; and after receiving it, to go down to his house heavy and displeased, unable any longer to lay to his soul the flattering unction that his good impressions or his religious ordinances make him safe ; what is this but the binding of his sins on the man's conscience, the retention of his sins so far as man can retain them, that is, the declaration that they are retained upon a certain moral condition? Again : Baptism is said expressly to be for the re- mission of sins : " Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, fo7' the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." It is an ordained vehicle of remission ; and the administration of it (like that of the other Sacrament) is lodged in the hands of those who inherit the charge given to the Apostles : " Go ye there- fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." If, then, a Christian Mis- sionary, after long instruction and probation of a Catechu- men, has satisfied himself of that person's fitness for Bap- tism, and administers to him this holy Sacrament, is not this a virtual absolution of the person who receives the Rite, — an absolution which is conveyed under the ex- press commission and authority of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls ? And if, on the other hand, such a missionary should with good reason pronounce the Catechumen at present unfit for the Sacrament, should discover in him conduct which impeaches the sincerity of his motive in seeking for Baptism, or should think ni.] Church in America Disjoenses Absolution, 209 him too ismorant of fundamental truths to be thus in- itiated into the School of Christ, and under this impres- sion should say, •' I suspend your Baptism for the present;^' — few persons, I apprehend, would question his right and authority to act thus, while many, perhaps, would fail to see what is involved in the action. Surely such a suspension amounts to a retention of sins. For if St. Paul's sins, even after his conversion, could not be washed away, as he was informed, but by Baptism, how much less can we think that the sins of ordinary persons, whose religious impressions are much weaker than St. Paul's, can be otherwise washed away? To withhold Baptism, then, is to withhold the ordained vehicle of re- mission, and so virtually to retain sins. — Yet, in the exercise of the above functions, no one regards the min- ister as being more than a minister. The Grace of Sacraments, and the Grace which makes the Word of God effective for the relief of the conscience, is from God, and from God alone. The minister can do no more than negotiate the outward part ; that is, preach the word faithfully to the ear, or administer rightly and duly the Sacrament. The Holy Ghost alone can com- municate with the conscience and inner man ; the min- ister, as in the Word, so in the Sacraments, is but the Holy Ghost's instrument for reaching the inner man. The sum of what has been said is, that, if there is an ordained Ministry at all, the remission of sins must transpire, like a fragrant odour, from the exercise of every part of it ; must transpire even when not formally an- nounced, from the preaching of the Word, and the min- istration of the Sacraments ; and from simply not exercis- ing the Ministry, retention of sins must follow. 210 Forms in which the Protestant Episcopal [paet But it may be asked, " May not the power of Ab- solution be exercised alone, independently of any other Ordinance of the Church ? " No doubt it may. Pro- vision is made in our Church for such an independent exercise of the power. And it is exercised in two forms, by way of authoritative declaration, and by way of in- tercession, — the latter of which is now more immediately before us, but of both of which v/e will now say a word. I. First, in the Daily Service, the General Confes- sion is immediately succeeded by " the Declaration of Absolution or Remission of sins, to be made by the Priest alone, standing ; the people still kneeling." The analysis of this formulary may be given in very few words. First, the Divine warrant, which the Min- ister has for making this solemn declaration, is exhibited to the people, as the ground of what is to follow : " Al- mighty God hath given power and commandment to Ilis Ministers, to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins." The otiicial proclamation is then made that God forgives all who are penitent and believing : " Pie par- doneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and un- feignedly believe His Holy Gospel." The Congregation there present are then exhorted to pray that they them- selves may come under the terms of the Divine Pardon, so that the Service now in performance may be accept- able, the life which shall succeed it pure and holy, and the end of all, the joy of Our Lord : " Wherefore let us beseech Him to grant us true repentance, that those things may please Him, which we do at this present ; and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy ; so that at the last we may come to His eternal joy." m.] Church in America Dispenses Ahsolxdion, 211 It may be said this is merely a declaration that God pardons us, on condition of our being rcpent&nt and be- lieving, and a declaration which aay one is at liberty to make. And of course it cannot be disputed either that truth is truth, whoever speaks it, or that, in the inter- course of private life, any true disciple of Christ, without being an ordained Minister, might raise the drooping spirit of another, by pointing Him to those evangelical pronaises, wiiich assure pardon to the penitent and be- lieving, and which the faithfulness of God stands en- gaged to fulfil. But if to the ordained Minister, and to him alone, is committed the word of Reconciliation, the Minister alone can proclaim with autliority the message of Reconciliation. (Others may tell it ; may point it out in the Scriptures ; he alone can declare it under the war- rant and seal of the Most High.) It is one thing that the news of an amnesty, granted by a Sovereign to a rebellious but subdued province, should be blazed abroad among the people, find its way into public journals, and become the subject of general conversation, and mutual congratulation, — and quite another that the ambassador should come into the market-place in his robes of state, and there, producing his credentials with the royal seal affixed, should read the terms of the amnesty. The message may have reached the citizens through other channels ; but the ambassador's appearance is a comfort- able assurance of its reality. Now the Christian Min- ister is the ambassador of Christ, according to those words of St. Paul : " Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us." In the face of the assembled Church, in the theatre of Christian ministrations, he appears publicly as His ambassador. His announcement under those cirqumstances of God's 212 Forms m which the Protestant Episcopal [paet message of forgiveness is no ordinary one, although long habit and familiarity with the words in which it is couch- ed, may have blinded us to the dignity of the transaction. He is for the time being the King's Representative, and publishes the amnesty in his official character. And if any should think lightly of a mere declaration of God's forgiveness, as if this were to assign too poor and tame a meaning to the high-sounding words, " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them," let him reflect that the Absolutions, which Our Lord admin- istered while upon earth, were nothing but declarations of God's pardon, though founded (in His case) on His infallible knowledge of the state of the individual. Christ Himself (though of course He might have done so, had He chosen to stand upon the prerogative of His Divine Nature) never at any time said, " I absolve thee." '' When He saw their faith. He said unto the sick of the palsy. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee " (" have been, and are, forgiven thee," would be the exact rendering of the tense in our modern English ; it is a past transaction, continuing in its results, which is announced). And ob- serve that the power thus exercised by the Son of Man, although exercised iu the form of a declaration, is de- scribed by Himself in the immediately succeeding con- text as being '' power on earth to forgive sins." — Again, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for" (the token and evidence of which is that) " she loved much ; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Now I suppose there is not one of us, whose heart would not leap for joy to hear such a declaration, though nothing more than a declaration, made respecting our- selves by Christ Our Lord. And why? Because of the infinite dignity of His Person ; — ^because we know and in.] CJmrch in America Dispenses Absolution, 213 feel that to Him all authority is given in heaven and earth, and that His every word must stand. Now let us ifPio the reflection, that of this authority to declare God's pardon of the penitent. He hath condescended to impart a certain share to His ministering servants ; and that though He does not ndw give them, as He once did, the miraculous power of intuition into moral character, and by withholding this power signifies His will (as was pointed out in the last Lecture) that they should be very cautious in administering Absolution to individuals, and for the most part abstain from doing so altogether ; yet the authority to declare forgiveness under the Divine warrant is still theirs ; the declaration beins; now general to all who come under the terms, without any pretence to an insight as to who these may be. And now one word as to the practical value which, this declaratory Absolution of the Morning and Evening Service may have, and ought to have. In various ways, different schools of religionists seek for, and profess to find, an assurance of their forgiveness and acceptance with God. Some represent assurance as being involved in all genuine or saving faith, so that without assurance we have no hold whatever upon God's mercy through Christ. Others, of sounder judgment, think it a privi- lege extended by God to a few, and the recompense per- haps of their faithfulness. All would gladly welcome it, if they felt they could have it in God's way, without false confidence or presumption. Some profess to have found assurance in certain passages of Scripture, borne in upon their mind when in a state of religious suscep- tibility. Some have made a Scripture to themselves out of their own sanguine and presumptuous temperament, and have found in ecstasies and raptures of feeling God's 214 Forms in which the Protestcmt Ejpiscojpal [part token upon them for good. But it will be safe at all events, and to humble souls it may be no less consolatory than safe, to seek our assurance in some token of Divine appointment. As to the simpler operations of our own minds on religious subjects — whether we with all earnestness cast sin behind our back, and rely simply on Christ for the expiation of it — we cannot be much at fault, if the mind is in a healthy state. Then, without any self-tormenting analysis of our motives, let us draw near to the House of God, where morning and evening the golden keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are exhibited for the consolation of penitent sinners. Let us listen in- tently to the message of God's pardon, pronounced by the lips of His commissioned ambassador. Let us take it to ourselves ; if we be penitent and believing, it is ours. It is sent to us in the way of God's Ordinances, — a token upon us for good, surer than frames and feel- ings, which fluctuate, and better authorized by far than fanciful applications of Scripture to our own case. I doubt whether any assurance, which it is possible to ob- tain upon earth, will rest upon a much better foundation than that obtained in this way. H. But it may be asked whether Absolution is simply declarative ; whether it does nothing more than assure us, under God's commission, of a forgiveness which has been already granted by Him. Does it, it may be asked, effect nothing, but simply indicate what has been ef- fected? The answer is given by the higher form of Ab- solution, which is now before us in the Communion Office, '' and an option of using which is given in the Morning and Evening Prayer." This- higher form, it will be observed, is a Prayer by the Priest on behalf of the people. His office, like the statue of Janus, has two m.] Church in America Dispenses Absolution. 215 faces,' and looks in two directions. When announcing God's Will (and tlie terms of forgiveness and acceptance are tlie most important part of His Will) he looks tow- ards the people. But he is also set to be an interces- sor, — to sum up and present their wants before the Throne of Grace. And in this higher character ex- clusively we see him in the Communion Office, his face turned ^ towards the Lord, supplicating pardon, and all the glorious blessings which follow in the train of par- don, for his flock. Now nothing can be more certain than this, that prayer is effective, — that in some mysterious manner, which we are totally incapable of understanding, it influences the Will of God. '' The eflectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Moreover, we find intercessory prayer, offered by the chosen ser- vants and messengers of the Most High, recognized, both in the Old and New Testament, as efficacious for those in whose behalf it is offered. Says God to Abimelech respecting Abraham : " He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live." And again to Job's friends, respecting Job ; " Go to My servant Job ; and My servant Job shall pray for you ; for him will I ac- cept." And again we find Samuel recognizing it as part of his bounden duty to pray for the people : " Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." Again, we have the notable instance of Elijah's intercession, which, as St. James in- forms us, availed first to close, and then to open, the windoAvs of heaven. And again in the New Testament : ^ I mean, menially. The Rubric before this Prayer of Absolution directs that {as to bodily posture) the Priest shall turn to the People^ when he says it. But in all Pl-ayer God is addressed ; and the peti- tioner looks to Him mentally. 216 Forms in which tJie Protestant Ej^isco^al [paet "Is any sick among yon? Let him call for the -felders of the Church ; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord : and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him np ; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and fray one for anotlier^that ye may he Jiealed." And in how very large a majority of his Epistles does St. Paul assure his converts of his prayers for them, in the most forcible and emphatic mann^ ! — Their names are written on his heart, he intimates, as were the names of the literal Israel on the high priest's breastplate, and he is contin- ually joresenting them before God. Now the intercessory part of the ministerial office, whereby the faithful pastor procures for his flock mercy and other spiritual blessings, is brought out in this pre- catory Absolution of the Communion Office. And you will observe how perfect the form is, and how much of wholesome doctrine underlies its simple phraseology ; how it recognizes forgiveness and acceptance as being not the ultimate achievement of holiness, but the very first steps towards it ; how it represents sanctification as being progressive, and grace as eventually merging into glory: "Almighty God, our heavenly Father, have mercy upon you, and pardon you" (this must be done, first, before sin's power can be broken; broken however it must be, for the prayer proceeds), " pardon and deliver you from all your sins ; confirm and strength- en you in all goodness " (not suffer you to rest in weak beginnings, or to count yourself to have apprehended, Avhen your race is only just begun), " and bring you to everlasting life " (that is, finislvthe good work which He has begun in you), " through Jesus Christ Our Lord." m , ] Ch urch in Am er ica Disjpcn ses A hsohi tion . 217 The AbsolutioDS found in the Primitive Liturgies run always in the form of Prayer or Benediction ; and in some of them there was a reciprocal prayer for the priest by the people and for the people by the priest, which formed a most interesting feature of the Service, and "which is nowhere represented in our Liturgy except by the mutual salutation, " The Lord be with you," " And with thy Spirit." "While we are convinced, not only of the sufficiency, but of the excellence, of our Offices as they stand, we rather regret the loss of this expression of sympathy and mutual interest between the Pastor and his flock. It is, however, a loss w^hich can easily be re- paired in private. Let not the minister limit his inter- cessions for his flock to the utterance of the prescribed form (though this will be the flower and crown of them), but let him carry those intercessions with him into his closet, and urge them there wiih that fervour and per- severance which takes no refusal at God's hand ; and let h's flock do the same for him, and seek to help him at the Throne of Grace in bearing the bSrden of liis trials, and discharging himself of his responsibilities ; and then the spirit of the old reciprocal Absolutions would be pre- served, even while the letter of them is dropped ; and we should soon see a more efficient discharge of the ministry, arising from an increased desire on the part of the laity to co-operate with their ministers in Christian objects, and a more primitive zeal for the conversion of souls in those Avho wait at the Altar. And when we speak of intercession as available in behalf of one another — whetlier it be the personal inter- cession of friends for friends, or the official intercession of the pastor for his flock — let us never forget that, in- dependently of and apart from the prayer of the great 10 218 Of the Four Comfortable Words, [paut High Priest for us all, no prayer of man can have any efficacy whatsoever. It is only as united with His Inter- cession, it is only as taking its stand upon His finished and meritorious Avork, that any prayer, whether for our- selves or others, can receive an answer, or even gain a hearing. And the intercessory Absolution of which we have been speaking is only an earthly and dim echo of that prayer for His people, which Christ is offering in Heaven, and which, according to the laws of the Econ- omy of Grace, takes up and absorbs into itself, and com- municates its own virtue to, the supplications, prayers, intercessions, which His Church below makes for all men. LECTURE VI. OF THE^OUR COMFORTABLE WORDS. " %tX US litato iteari: .... in full assurance of faitl)/* — Hebrews x., part of ver. 22. The fifteen Psalms which immediately succeed the 119th, are called Songs of Degrees, or Songs of the Steps. One explanation given of the term is that these Psalms were sung by theLevites, one upon each of the fifteen steps which led from the court of the women to that of the men in the Jewish Temple. We have compared the Communion Office to a venerable Cathedral, having its outer precinct, by which it is approached, in the Lord's Prayer, Collect for Purity, and Decalogue (which introductory parts of the Office speak of preparation and self-examination), ra.] Of the Four Comfortahle Words. 219 and its Sanctuary or Choir in that more solemn period of the Service which begins with the Tersanctus, and upon which we hope to enter in our next Lecture. The *' Comfortable Words " from the mouth of our Saviour Christ, of St. Paul, and of St. John, are our Christian songs of the steps, which we sing as we pass from the Transept into the Choir, to join in the full burst of ado- ration which awaits us there. Yes ; we are about to join with Angels and Arch- angels, and all the company of Heaven, in singing the high praise of God. But this it is impossible we should do with a heart full of doubts and misgivings. An un- easy conscience, and a mind that wavers as to its own acceptance, is not in tune for praise. " It is requisite," says the Invitation, " that no man should come to the Holy Communion, but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience." To impart this full trust, and to assure and render quiet the conscience, is the great object of the Absolution, and of the Comfortable Words which follow it. Of the Absolution first. We pointed out in our last Lecture that one main object of Absolution, the great practical value of it, is the assur- ance of the penitent and believing sinner. We saw that Absolution was ministered by our Blessed Lord Himself in the form of an assurance : " Thy sins be " (or are) " forgiven thee." Our minds naturally crave after this assurance, and seek it sometimes in frames and feelings, which are conceived to be the inward witness of the Spirit of God, while really they are the signs of nothing more than a sanguine temperament, sometimes in certain texts of Scripture, twisted from their original connexion into a fanciful applicability to our own circumstances. Now as against these false methods of obtaining it, the 220 Of the Four Comfortable Words. [paet CliLircli gives iis good and solid grounds of assurance. God has commissioned His ministers officially to inter- cede for, and authoritatively to declare, forgiveness of sins to the penitent and believing. This ministerial com- missioQ then is the first ground of assurance which the Church here advances : the exercise of it is the first means by which she seeks to quiet the burdened and heavy-laden conscience. And the thread of sentiment which connects the Absolution with that which imme- diately fellows it, is very apparent, at least to one w^ho will not allow his familiarity with our services to deaden his mind to the significance of their various parts. It is as if the Church said to us : " You have heard the prayer offered in your behalf by God's accredited mes- senger of reconciliation, standing upon his commission, and acting in the Name of his Master ; now then, lest any disquieting doubts should still remain upon your conscience, you shall hear what is better still, the words of Our Saviour Christ, and of those Apostleg who spoke infallibly by the inspiration of His Spirit. Christ shall assure you, Paul shall assure you, John shall assure you. Every human minister has the treasure of the Gospel message in an earthen vessel. He is as full of infirmity, sin, and error, as you are yourself. And though this infirmity and unworthiness does not in the least detract from the efficacy of his ministrations, which ' be effect- ual, because of Christ's institution and promise,' yet the miessage of mercy and peace conveyed through a purer medium, may haply be more satisfactory to thy mind. It shall come to thee then through the purest of all media, the holy and infallible Word of God, the Word which was spoken or written with a full foresight of thy difficulties, trials, and sins, not indeed by the human ni.] Of iha Four ComfortaUe Woixls. 221 writer, but bj the Spirit who inspired him. In virtue of tliis perfect foresight, thou mayest reasonably expect to find some word in Holy Scripture specially meeting thy need, some word of which thou mayest without pre- sumption or fanaticism conclude that it was designed for thee, and that thou mayest take it to thyself." Now observe what words are chosen from Holy Scripture for this purpose. They are the broadest and freest evangelical declarations which it is possible to find in the whole volume, those which combine the largest amount of grace with the least amount of qualification in the persons to whom they are addressed. To use the language of the Seventeenth Article, they are " the promises of God as they are generally set forth in Holy Scripture," as distinct from " the counsel of God, secret to us," the consideration of which would only tend to baffle and disturb weak consciences. Let us look some- what into the particulars of them. 1. First comes Our Lord's own famous invitation, embracing all who labour and are heavy laden ; all, that is, who in any measure feel their sin to be a burden, and sincerely desire deliverance from it. If we have felt the galling of a wounded conscience, the galling of a corrupt nature ; nay, if we have been only pressed hard with care and sorrow, and under this pressure truly turn to Christ as the only quarter in which peace and satisfaction is to be had, we come under the terms of this promise, and are at liberty at once to accept it. This is the beautiful song of the first step ; and you will observe (for this observation will show the excellent method in which these sentences are arranged) that this first sen- tence carries us no further back than to Our Lord Him- self: "Come unto Me . . . and I will give." To use 222 Of the Four Comfortable Words. \vkrt His own image, this is the call of the mother bird to the stray chickens, whereby she invites them to gather them- selves under her wings, to be shielded by her from dan- ger, and to be cherished with the vital heat which resides in her body. Not the children of Jerusalem only, but sheep, which are not of that fold, shall assuredly feel the glow and warmth of consolation, if at the sound of His Voice they will but betake themselves to that refuge. 2. Our Lord, however, never allowed His disciples to rest in Himself. To Himself He attracted them in- deed, but it was to lead them on beyond Himself to the Father. He represented Himself as the Way, the Door (marvellous condescension ! a way and a door being nothing in themselves, but in reference to the city or the chamber to which they lead), by which and through which alone access to the Father is to be had. And on one occasion He altogether put out of sight His own in- tervention in behalf of His disciples (though that of course we know to have been essential for them), and referred them to the Father's Love as an independent source of the blessings which visited them : " At that day ye shall ask in My Name : and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father him- self loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have be- lieved that I came out from God." So in the second of these admirably chosen sentences, Christ takes us back beyond Christ to God, and points out to us the Father's boundless Love as the origin of ^an's Redemption : '' God so lov^ed the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, to the end that all that be- lieve in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It would seem as if Grace itself could not go beyond m.] Of the Four Comfortable Words. 223 this in its freedom, in its comprehensiveness, in the sim- plicity of its requirements. In the first place, " the world" (i. e. all mankind, and not any narrow section of it) is represented as being the object of God's Love. The conscience of the sinner, ingenious often, when in a state of awakened susceptibility, to invent pleas against itself, cannot possibly say, " This word of comfort is not designed for me." K thou art but a man or a woman, it i.3 thine ; for, to use the phrase of St. Paul to Titus, it is God's " philanthropy " (or love of the human race) which is here announced by the Saviour. And to any thoughtful reader of His words it will at once suggest it- self as a grand additional topic of consolation, that at the time when God evidenced His Love for the world by the gift of His Son, the world was in a state of rebellion. It was alienated, and an enemy in its mind by wicked works. It lay in wickedness ; it was not seeking mercy at God's hand ; it was not prostrate before Him in pen- itence and humiliation ; it was defying Him. And no sooner did His Son appear and manifest God's perfec- tions, than the world rose in arms against Him, and did what in it lay to root out the name and the memory of Him from the earth. Yet despite this malignant hostil- ity on the part of the world, God's aspect towards it was one of Love, — " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Observe again (for this is another topic of rich con- solation) that what God gave in evidence of His Love, was the only thing which could be a sacrifice to Him. If it had been possible that the human soul should have been redeemed by corruptible things, such as silver and gold, that it should have been redeemed by the gift of any creature, or of any aggregate of creatures, 224 Of the Four Comfortccble Words. [paet God would have been none the poorer for the loss ; for in another instant He Could have created by the v/ord of His power other worlds, brighter and more beautiful than this. But His Son was a Person in the Divine Nature, whom in His exceeding Love to the world He rent from His Bosom, and parted with for a while, send- ing Him down into the pit of our ruin, to gather up and uew-create into a vessel of honour, the fragments of our shattered humanity. And finally, observe that all we have to do in order to avail ourselves of this gift is summed up in a single word, "Believe," — " that whosoever believeth in Him," &c. The commandment is not far off, nor in heaven, nor in the deep, nor beyond the sea, but very nigh unto us, in our mouih and in our heart, that we may do it. A sincere turning away from sin, and a casting of all the burdens of the conscience on Christ, — this is belief; and " whosoever believeth," so runs the Comfortable Word, such is the song of the second step, " shall not perish, but have everlastino- life." 3. But a2:ainst all declarations and evidences of God's Love whatsoever, a wounded conscience will insist, with much pertinacity, that never yet was sin so great and grievous as its own. An instance therefore will be con- solatory, of one who was the chief of sinners having been forgiven. The song therefore of the next step is, " Hear also what St. Paul saith : This is a true saying and wor- thy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Observe now what manner of sins St. Paul's had been. They had been sins, by which the progress of the Gosjiel had been obstructed in the minds of others. Those that were entering into the Kingdom of Heaven, ni.] Of the Four Comfortable Words. 225 Saul of Tarsus grievously liindered. He set himself in an attitude of deliant hostility to the Truth which alone can regenerate, sanctify, and save the soul. His hands reeked with the blood of Stephen, and indeed of other martyrs ; for he speaks of the murders to which he had been an accessary in the plural number : " 3Iany of the saints did I shut up in prison," . . . . " and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them." It may be, alas ! that our influence hitherto has been morally unwholesome to those, with whom we have come in contact. It may even be that we have thrown temp- tation into the way of others, and seduced them into grievous sin. But can we seriously think that the hin- drance offered by us to the Truth and Grace of God has been greater than that offered by St. Paul? Have we wrought more mischief iti the spiritual world than he ? Take into account, too, not merely the insult offered to Our Lord by Saul's high-handed opposition to His Truth, but the wounds and sufferings inflicted upon Him through His members : " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? " Saul could Eot have inflicted more suffering upon the Lord, had his been the ruthless hands, which drove the nails into the extremities of His Sacred Per- son, or made long furrows with the scourge upon His back. Now independently of St. Paul's own personal salvation, the Lord had an object, we are told, in forgiv- ing him, Avhich had reference to the future of His Church : " that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." Avail thyself of the pattern, then. Why, in the infinite fore- sight of God, may not the long-suffering which He ex- hibited towards St. Paul, have been designed for thy 226 Of the Four Comfortahle Words. [paet comfort and en courage meiit? Thou art a sinner of the deepest dye. Well ; the more urgent is thy need of the good Physician ; and the more glorious in thy case will be the exercise of His skill. " He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 4. But the consolation of these sentences would be imperfect if one of them did not refer distinctly to the channel, through which pardoning Love reaches us. You have told me of God's Love, the burdened con- science might say ; you have told me of Christ's Love and willingness to save ; but must not God's claim upon me be satisfied? Must He not be just, as well as the justifier of him that believeth? The song of the last step answers this question gloriously: "Hear also what St. John saith ; If any man^^in, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the Propitiation for our sins." " He is the propitiation for our sins ; " that is, we sinners being represented in Him, He, when He suffered, paid our debt in full. Does God demand of us a per- fectly holy life? Our Surety, the representative Man, the Second Adam, yielded to the law a perfect obedience. Does God's outraged justice demand that the transgress- or should suffer the penalty of transgression ? You and I have in Christ undergone this penalty ; and Justice herself has nothing more to allege against us. Yet even this is but half of our comfort. Devout members of the Church have sometimes erred in occupying their atten- tion too exclusively with the Death of Christ, in thinking too much of the past Atonement, or rather, in thinking too little of the present Intercession. The Apostle John in this precious verse presents the Saviour under both aspects. In His Cross, and Passion, and Precious Death, He is a Propitiation. In His glorified life, He is m.] Of the Foii/p Comfortable Words, 227 an Advocate. He is there in Heaven to perpetuate the work, which on earth He but initiated. Not as though He offers Himself often, or that His Sacrifice can ever be repeated ; but that by His personal Advocacy it can be made continuous, and perpetuated in its results unto the end of Time. " If when we were enemies we were rec- onciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." If then it be asked how we are saved, the answer is ready : " Through the satisfaction of Christ for us, while on earth, and through His present vigilant guardianship of our interests. We have a Propitiation, in answer to the demands of Justice. We have an Advocate in the court of Heaven, to plead the Propitiation." And so, fortified by these Scriptures, the devout wor- shipper passes into the Sanctuary of the Communion Office, Avhich is jubilant with Praise. As the sound of the Seraphic Hymn breaks upon his ear from within, he (like the prophet Isaiah, who first heard that Hymn) is deeply abased at the thought of his own utter unworthi- ness to join in such praise : " Wo is me," cries he, " for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." But Our Lord meets him on the threshold, and lifts hmi up with the invitation, " Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest," and then reminds him of the infinite Love of God. And St. Paul, a man of like pas- sions with himself, reminds him by his own example that there is salvation even for the chief of sinners ; and St. John, the Apostle of Love, whispers a soothing word of satisfaction once made, and advocacy still continuing ; and so he is encouraged to " draw nigh in full assurance of faith." 228 Of the Four Comfortahle Words. [paet And now we may confidently ask our readers whether the selection and position'of these sentences is not ad- mirable? Is it not clear that the more closely we look into the Liturgy, the more we shall discover a mine of study, of thought, of prayer, of theology, underlying the whole of it? Alas! that ordinarily preachers give it so little exposition, and worshippers so little thought ! "It is the part of Art," says the proverb, " to conceal Art ; " and the plain, nervous, chaste language of " the Book of Common Prayer," has this defect, that it does conceal from all but those, who will be at the pains to look below the surface, an amount of art, of care, of erudition, which probably is to be found in no other un- inspired Book. Let us, then, be thankful for this glorious heritage of our forefathers, " The Book of Common Prayer." And let us show our thankfulness by pondering the meaning of those words, which Sunday after Sunday slip so glibly over our tongues in worship, that they leave little or no impression upon our hearts. It was the petition of the disciples that Christ would teach them to pray (would give them, that is, an author- ized Form of Prayer), "as John also taught his dis- ciples." It is a petition which for ourselves is already answered. The Providence and Goodness of God has given us a Liturgy, which is a faithful echo and expan- sion of Our Lord's own model Prayer. But as it is with tlie model itself, so it is with this faithful echo of it. The sound of both is in the ear, while the sense of neither is in the mind. Pray we then : " Lord, as Thou hast graciously taught us to pray, teach us to understand our prayers, so that, when we recite them, we may pray with the spirit, and with the understanding also ! " PART lY, THE CHOIR. LECTURE I. OF THE PREFACE OR THANKSGIVING, AND OF ITS RE- LATION TO THE TERSANCTUS. ** 33jj ^im therefore let us offer ttje sacrifice of pvcList to (Soli con* tinualla?, tjat is, tibe fruit of our lips, flibiufl tt)anfe3 to J&.iB !Nanie." — Hebrews xiii. 15. The section of the Cammunion Service on wliicli "we now enter is perhaps of greater antiquity than any other. It can be traced back upwards of fifteen hundred years, and may possibly date from the Apostolic age itself. And accordingly it has a peculiar interest for the devout mind. There is something very solemn in the associa- tions of an old Parish Church, in which generation after generation has worshipped God. It links us in thought to our forefathers in the faith of Christ, who in their days were the subjects of the same struggles, the same temp- tations as ourselves, and who found their refuge and strength in the mercy and faithfulness of the same Saviour. And a similar interest, only intensified in de- gree, attaches to a venerable form of Prayer, which has been consecrated by the use of many centuries. These simple and sublime words are the wings, on which many devout souls have been borne up in their flight heaven- ward, — thousands and millions of the faithful have found 232 Of the Preface or Thanlisgimng^ [paet no juster expression of tlie desire, the hope, the gratitude, the love, of which their hearts were full. While a form of Prayer is quite new and untried, we are unable to form a judgment as to its value. An experiment must be made of it before its excellences and defects can be recognized, — ^before we can see the fulness and depth of it, if it have those merits, or discover (what is soon dis- covered in most modern prayers) its shallowness of thought and feeling. What a precious heirloom, then, must those pieces of devotion be, of which the faithful from the earliest ages have made experiment, without finding in them any defect ; with which successive genera- tions have been perfectly satisfied as a vehicle of devout sentiment ! And it is upon the consideration of a piece of this kind that we now enter. This section reaches from the end of the Comfortable Words to the end of the Tersanctus, and is introduced by the following admonition and respond : " Lift up your hearts ; " " We lift them up unto the Lord." Observe the connexion of these words with what has preceded them. The heart cannot be lifted up, to join the heaven- ly choir in praise, unless it have first been relieved of its burden of guilt. This burden shoald be lifted off from it by the Absolution, which Christ's ambassador has just pronounced in His Name, and by the comfortable sen- tences of Holy Scripture, which are so admirably cal- culated to undo any shackles which still hold it down to the earth. Thus released, the heart, like some balloon whose last detaining cord has been cut, is prepared to rise ; and at the Avord of exhortation, " Lift up your hearts," if it have hitherto followed the Service with the spirit and with the understanding also, it does rise. An exhortation then follows to give thanks unto our rv.] and of its Relation to the Tersanetxis, 233 Lord God, and, the people assenting to this also, Thanks- giving and Praise immediately commence, Thanksgiving in the Preface (whether it be only the General Pre* ace, or whether a special insertion, suitable to the season, has to be made in it), Praise in the " Tersanctus," or Hymn of tlie Seraphim, which at a very early period was en- grafted into the Liturgy from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. 1. Thanhsgiving and Praise. Let us observe this indication, that we have now arrived at the highest part of the Service. For Thanksgiving and Praise are the devotional exercises of Heaven, and as such will endure for ever. They are analogous to Gratitude and Love among the Christian Graces. The necessity for Faith and Hope will have passed away, when things eternal become objects of sight, and the Christian is in the full enjoyment of the crown of righteousness. And in like manner prayer and meditation, th*e religious exercises corresponding to Faith and Hope, will find no place in a world where there is no want to be supplied, and no void in the heart which remains unfilled. But Gratitude and Love must endure throughout Eternity, and all other graces must merge into them, and lose themselves in them, as streams in the ocean. And similarly Thanks- giving, which is the utterance of Gratitude, and Praise, which is the utterance of Love, must for ever resound in the Heavenly Courts ; and in these all other exercises of Devotion must be swallowed up. 2. Thanksgiving and Praise, then, are in certain re- spects kindred to one another, and have a general char- acter in common. Yet they are carefully to be distin- guished^ and the present section of the Communion Ofiice helps us very beautifully to the distinction. We 234: Of the Preface or ThanTcsgiving^ [pakt thank God for wliat He is to us, — for what He has done for us. We praise Him for what He is in Himself, — fbr the intrinsic beauty, goodness, and excellence of His character, apart from any benefits which we derive from it. We thank Him in the Preface. We praise Him in the Tersanctus. We thank Him for sending His Son in the flesh, yet " without spot oF sin, to make us clean from all sin;" for "destroying sin by the death of Christ, and restoring to us everlasting life by His Resur- rection;" for allowing and causing a place to be pre- pared for us in heaven by our great Forerunner ; for " bringing us, by the preaching of His Gospel, out of darkness and error into the clear light and true knowl- edge of Him, and of His Son Jesus Christ ; " and for " giving us grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity." We praise God, on the other hand, for His moral and natural beauty ; for His Holiness, w^hich is in itself a lovely attribute, however terrible to sinners, and for that Glory, whereof not Heaven only, but Earth also, is full ; the Glory which struggles forth into expression in all the stars of the firmament, and in all the flowers of the earth, those " stars which in Earth's firmament do shine." 3. It will be seen, I think, from what has been said, that Praise is the higher exercise of the two. While, on the one hand, Ave must beware of the error maintained by Fenclon, Jonathan Edwards, and others, who stig- matized Gratitude as a sordid afifection, and went so far as to say that no love of God is really the offspring of Grace, unless it be entirely disinterested, and free from all consideration of our personal advantage ; on the other IV.] and of its Relation to the Tersanctus, 235 hand we cannot, consistently with truth, deny that the Love of God for Himself, is a higher state of mind, and praise of Him a higher exercise, than gratitude and thanksgiving for His benefits. Nor can there be any doubt that, as the Christian grows in grace, he will grow also in disinterested love ; that he will be able to appre- ciate more fully, not only the mercy and goodness of God to himself, but the excellence of the Divine Charac- ter ; and that our advance or backwardness in this re- spect may serve as a useful criterion of our spiritual state. Not however that it is expedient or judicious to ana- lyze too minutely our motives in this respect, or to tease ourselves because we cannot discover in our own minds sentiments towards God, which we judge to be purely disinterested. A generous gratitude to God, — the grat- itude which does not make any mercenary computation of the number of His blessings, but thrills with an affec- tionate sense of His Goodness, and with a desire to please Him (and no other is genuine), easily passes into love, if indeed it be not love already; and Thanksgiv- ing, when sincere, has a natural tendency to pass into Praise. The Thaukssfiving; of the Church, drawn from the consideration of the Saviour's Mission, the Comfort- er's Mission, and the Revelation to her of the Truth, mounts nimbly up the ladder, on which Angels and Archangels, and all the company of Heaven, are prais- ing God for His Holiness and Glory. 4. AYe must offer one or two remarks in this pla-ce on one of the names of the Holy Communion, which has not yet come before us, but which now naturally pre- sents itself for consideration. This service then has been called from very early times the Eucharist or Thanksgiving Service. Many able commentators sup- 236 Of the Preface or ThanTtsgimng^ [pakt pose that the word has the sanction of Inspiration ; and that when St. Paul Y\^rites in 1 Cor. xiv. 16, "• When thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occu- pieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou say- est ? " he is alluding to the great Thanksgiving Prayer which the Minister was in the habit of reciting at the Condmunion, when blessing the Bread and Wine, and to which the laity responded by a hearty and devout Amen. But whether or not this allusion can be satisfactorily made out, certain it is that the word " Eucharist" has been very long in use to express this rite ; and that it gives us one main aspect of the Ordinance, aud an as- pect under which the early Church delighted to look at it. Our own Church adopts exactly the same view of the Ordinance, when she employs these words : " We entirely desire Thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this OUT Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.'" It is rather singular, not indeed that Thanksgiving and Praise should have been largely introduced into the Service of the Communion, but that they should have been consid- ered so to form the core and nucleus of the whole, that the current name for the Ordinance should be the Tlianks- giving Service. In this name you observe the elements are ignored ; there is nothing to remind us of the Bread and Wine, or of the participation in them by the Com- municants. Perhaps the early Christians saw so clearly the permanent element of the Ordinance, that the thought of this loosened the hold of their minds on that which is temporary. The participation of the Supper has a pre- scribed term, after which it must pass away. It is or- dained to endure till, and only till, "the Lord come." But so^far as the Service is one of Thanksgiving and TV.'] and of its Relation to the Tersanctus. 237 Praise ; so far as in it we join our voices with those of Cherubim and Seraphim, Angels and Archangels, and all the company of Heaven, so far it can never pass away. It is probable that in some part of the Christian world the Eucharist will be actually in celebration, when the hour for the Second Advent arrives. If it be so, while the earthly elements of the rite will of course be superseded by the Lord's appearance, and while there will be no longer any need of remembrancers of a Sav- iour who is present, yet the Thanksgiving Service will undergo no interruption, but will be taken ufT into the harmonies of Heaven ; and suddenly with those poor waiting (and perhaps persecuted) Christians, who are celebrating the Death of their Master, there will be a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory : Glory be to Thee, Lord most High." And as at the marriage of Cana the weak element of water was transmuted in the Lord's Presence into a rich and genial wine, so the poor accents of these worshipping saints shall be turned into heavenly adora- tion by the sudden influx into them of joy and praise ; and the song, which the Seraphim have been singing from the beginning of the Creation, and which the Church of Christ has from the earliest times engrafted into her Liturgy, shall seem to them " a new song," when that Church, from being militant, has become triumphant. Reader, if Thanksgiving and Praise are to be the ceaseless Service of the true Church of God throughout Eternity, are we qualifying ourselves for joining in them? If Thanksgiving and Praise are the very atmosphere of glory, are we becoming, by the daily cultivation of a spirit of thankfulness — a sanguine, buoyant, elastic spirit — ac- 238 Of the Preface or Thanksgiving^ [paet climatized to Glory ? God will not place His people in Heaven by an arbitrary act of His will ; there must be in every one who is to be transplanted thither a con- geniality with the climate — a " meetncss for the inher- itance of the saints in light." Are our hearts then in tune for Thankso;ivins: and Praise? And if, throuo;h natural infirmity, not always so ; if very often, through fatigue, or outbreaks of temper, or indolence, or the in- roads of worldly carefulness it is otherwise, and the heart, instead of " singing and making melody to the Lord," makes a jarring discord to His ear, do we (as soon as may be) take it down and tune it again by prayer, and study of God's Word, and thought of His mercies ? Are we careful to ^eep it in tune by a thank- ful remembrance of Christ's Death in the way of His appointment? And do we bear in mind that thank- fulness is not only cultivated by the Holy Communion, but also is (in a measure) a qualification for it? Do we reflect that if the Communion be the Church's great Thanksgiving Service, our correspondence with, it and fitness for it must stand to a great extent in genuine thankfulness of heart? That- therefore any thing like murmuring at our lot, discouragement at our trials and failures, limitation in our own minds of Christ's mercy, wisdom, and power, corroding cares, acrimonious feel- ings to others, must throw us out of harmony with the Ordinance, and act as direct disqualifications for it? For all these things are drawbacks and hindrances to the fulfilment of the precept, " Rejoice in the Lord alway ; and again I say. Rejoice ;" and it is only by the fulfil- ment of this precept in the general tone of our minds that we can live in a state of habitual preparedness for the Supper of the Lord. IV.] and of its Relation to the Tersanctus. 239 We have spoken of the duty and importance, both in relation to our hereafter, and to preparedness for the Holy Communion, of cultivating the grace of thankful- ness. And in this Avork there is one danger against which we should be on our guard. In mounting the lad- der of Praise, we must not think scorn of the lower steps, or aim at the highest jflights before we have achieved the more ordinary ones. Christ's Death is indeed the su- preme subject of thankfulness, because it is the procuring cause of our Redemption ; but even the smallest tem- poral mercies may prove real incentives to gratitude, without in the least drawing off the mind from the thousrht of the Saviour. The glow of health and animal spirits, the happiness and comfort of home, the pleasures of the intellect, the amusement from which the mind gains a temporary relief, and all the manifold small con- tentments of daUy life, may be looked at in the light of the Atonement, considered as the purchase of Christ's Blood, and as won for us by His Intercession. Thus every little blessing and comfort may become a separate string giving a sound of its own, in the great harp of Praise. And that it may be so, it may be Avell each night to reviev/, not our own conduct only, but the mer- cies with which God during that day has visited us ; and spreading them out before the eyes of our minds in detail, to consider that it was for these small mercies, as well as for the "greater blessings of Redemption and Sanctification, that Our Lord agonized and bled, and that these therefore ought to contribute their quota of impulse towards a generous and loving service of Him. Finally ; from the interesting variety in the Com- munion Service which is made by the Proper Preface at the five great Festivals, a practical lesson may be de- 24:0 Of the Preface or Thanlcsgiving^ (&c. [paet rived. The Liturgy of the Church may usefully serve for a model in our private devotions, as well as for a guide in our public. And, when studied as a model, it teaches us this, that it is useful to have a general frame- work of prayer, and occasionally to vary that general framework by insertions suitable to the occasion. Self- examination will usually furnish topics for these in- sertions. Have I committed special sins this day? I wdll confess them. Have I received special answers to prayer? I will acknowledge them. But there are cer- tain seasons in the Christian's life, with which peculiar associations connect themselves, and which should be al- lowed to give rise to special expressions of devout senti- ment. Such are a Birthday, a New Year's Day, a Wedding Day, the day of the Baptism or Confirmation of a child, the anniversary of a friend's death, or of the day (if it have been a marked one) when we were first brought "under the influence of Religion. Let some allu- sion to the event in the way of humiliation, or petition, or thanksgiving, be woven into our daily prayer ; and thus let the transaction be taken up into, and become part of the aliment of, our spiritual life. For not only the Church in general, but each individual soul, has its own seasons of special humiliation and special joy. And to avail ourselves of these seasons, as incentives either to a deeper penitence or a livelier thankfulness, is a point of holy policy, which will be found to contribute greatly to the liveliness and reality of our devotion. For the besetting snare of all stated prayers offered at set times is formalism ; and this snare is best avoided by a certain amount of variety, while the general plat- form of our prayer is the same. Our minds at different periods are in a different key. When we tune them for rv.] Of our Communion with the Angels, <&g, 2il devotion, let us manage them adroitly in reference to that key, and try to bring out its peculiar character, so that all their moods may be made (under Grace) to min- ister to God'rf glory. Thus shall we conduct our private devotions in the spirit of the Proper Preface, which gives to the Church's Thanksgiving Service a different com- plexion at different seasons, celebrating at one time the Incarnation, at another the Resurrection, at another the Ascension of our Lord, now the descent of the Holy Ghost, and now the Revelation of the full mystery of the Godhead. LECTURE II. ' OF OUR COMMUNION WITH THE ANGELS, AND OF THE TERSANCTUS. " X'c arc come . . . to nn innumcvablc compann of Slitflcls." Tl poaE7.r]71'Qare /xvpiaacv ayy€?MV, — Heb. xii. 22 (part). The Holy Communion, as its name denotes, is that Ordinance of the Church, in which we have the most in- timate communion with Our Lord, which it is possible to have upon earth. The assimilation of the elements to the body, their absorption into the system in the ordinary process of nutrition, is a sign of the closeness of our union with Christ, which is by this Sacrament cemented. Now communion with Christ involves communion with all tliose who are at one with Him ; the Communion of Saints is wrapped up in it. Communion, Jirsf^ icith dis- tant saints, separated from us, it mtiy be, by mountain range and ocean, by many a weary tract of land and sea. 11 242 Of OUT Communion with the Angels^ [paet One great feature, therefore, of the Communion Service, is a grand intercession with the " God who has taught us to make prayers and supplications, and to give thanks, for all men," "for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here on earth." Communion^ next^ ivith departed saints. Their place upon earth knows them no more ; their relations with those who are left behind seem to be altogether suspended ; they have ceased to be, what they once were, living influences, shaping the character of those among whom they sojourned; even their memory becomes less and less vivid with time, and fades in the mind of those once intimate with them, till it approx- imates to a name ; but they are with Christ, and we, too, being with Him in the Holy Communion, if we re- ceive this Ordinance faithfully, they are certainly (al- though invisibly) with us in the union of His Mystical Body. We definitely call them to mind, therefore, in the celebration of the Rite, " blessing and praising God's holy Name, for all His servants departed this life in His faith .and fear, and beseeching Him to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of His heavenly kingdom." • . But finally, in Comm.union with Christ, Communion with the Angels is involved. And accordingly this Office contains two Angelic Hymns, one of which precedes, and the other follows, the administration, the first being the Hymn which the Prophet Isaiah heard the Seraphim chanting in the Temple, the other the jubilant Song of the Angels, who appeared to the shepherds on the night of the Nativity. Of the Communion of the Church of Christ with Angels, a doctrine *vvhich is brought out by this feature of the Service, the secret and history is as follows. It rv.] (Mid of the Tersanctus. ^ 243 is true indeed that, before the Incarnation, angels were occasionally sent on errands to God's faithful servants for their warning, encouragement, or succour. But at that time the union between Heaven and Earth, which was to be made by the Incarnation of the Son of God, lay only in the Divine Counsels, — had not yet been ef- fectuated ; and therefore the participation of the Church in the worship of the Heavenly Host could not be as yet declared, — man could not as yet be formally admitted to join in the services of Heaven. A glimpse of what those services were, had indeed been afforded to the Prophet Isaiah. " In the year that King Uzziah died," he saw the Seraphim surrounding the throne of the Lord, and crying one to another, " Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts: the whole Earth is full of His Glory." The Evangelist St. John, in referring to this striking scene, informs us that his Master was the Person in the Divine Nature, whom Isaiah on that occasion saw : " These things," says he, after quoting some of the words of the sixth chapter, in which the vision is recorded, " said Esaias, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him." The information is most interesting ; for it not only es- tablishes most clearly the Divinity of Christ, but also furnishes a connecting link with what follows in the his- tory of man's participation in the worship of Angels. From all eternity, " before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made," Christ, the Representative to creatures of the Invisible God, had been adored in these strains by the Seraphim. Now when He came down from heaven to undertake the work of our Redemption, these worshipping Seraphim must of necessity attend Him hither as His heavenly es- cort. One of them goes before, and announces His 24:4 Of OUT Communion with the Angels^ [paet Nativity to the Virgin. And as soon as that Nativity actually occurs, the full choir is heard hymning the great event, — not in the Temple (which represented Heaven), but in the outlying fields of a small town in Judtea. Now observe how their language is modified by their circumstances. In the hymn which they chanted in Heaven they had indeed made mention of the Earth, but merely as the theatre of the glory of God, the stage on which all that is proceeding, even the disturbing agencies of the human will, work together for the accomplishment of His purposes and the triumph of His cause. But while there is a glorification of God in the heavenly hymn, tliQre is no indication of any 7nmd of love or hind- ness towards man. The interests of Humanity do not there come into view ; for even the condemned will glo- rify God in His Justice. But in the Hymn of these same angels, when drawn down to earth in the train of the Re- deemer^ while still the glorification of God occupies the chief place, mercy towards erring man is proclaimed in no indistinct tones : " Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth j^eace, goodwill towards men.'' The change of tone is very striking. The Angels seem to imply, even if they do not say, " Since God is now at peace with you through His union with your nature, we, the Angels, God's heavenly worshippers, joyfully salute you, and admit you into the fellowship of our worship, and bid you join your voices with ours." But not only at the Nativity do the Angels appear in attendance upon their Master, but, as you well remem- ber, at all the more critical periods of His career. Angels ministered unto Him after the Temptation ; they strengthened Him in His Passion ; they waited at His sepulchre, to assist and announce the great trans- lY.] cmd of the Tersanctus. 245 action ; they appeared at the Ascension, and doubt- less in that hour formed His escort and joined His tri- umph, crying, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in." Thus He was the true Jacob's ladder, set up upon Earth in His Humanity, and reaching to Heaven in His Divinity, upon which Angels were con- tinually ascending and descending ; the true and God- built tower of Babel, by w^hich the Almighty gives to sinful man access unto Himself, and on whose w' inding stair the shining hosts of Heaven pass to and fro continu- ally, bearing upwards the tribute of human prayer and praise, and downwards the messages of Grace and Peace. But we must not regard our Blessed Lord's humanity as isolated from that of His redeewned people. We can- not separate from Him His Mystical Body the Church, with which He is indissolubly one. There is a Jacob lying beneath the ladder, to whom the Angels appear in a comfortable vision. There is a city clustering at the base of the tower, into which the heavenly messengers pass along the winding stair. The passage being fully opened by the finished work of Christ, which re-estab- lished the old highway of communication (formerly blocked up) between God and man, the Angels are now in constant intercourse with the heirs of salvation, succour and defend us upon earth, on occasions when we little dream of their presence, and yield us a true sympathy in all our trials. And accordingly the Apostle says, " Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels." He is describing the Christian Church in its present, not in its future state ; and pointing out the grand sweep which it takes into the invisible world, a sweep embracing not 246 Of OUT Communion with the Angels^ [paet only " tlie spirits of just men made perfect," but also principalities and powers in heavenly places. And that Our Lord would not have us forget these last, or put tliem out of sight, is clear from the fact that in that per- fect Prayer which He has put into our mouths, — a Prayer so extremely concise, that we cannot conceive any thing impertinent or superfluous to have been introduced into it, — He directs our eyes toward the services done by Angels to Almighty God, as the model of the services we ourselves should render Him. " Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven." This is the Prayer which He brought with Him to domesticate it upon earth, the Prayer which savours of Heaven in every part ; for the first and principal clause of it, consisting of the three first petitions, is for the glorification of God, " the hallowing of His Name, the coming of His kingdom, and the doing of His will upon earth ; " and the needs of man do not even come into view till the subsequent part of it. And this " Tersanctus " which v/e have in the Communion Service, may be said to be a fragment of the praise of Heaven, which our Lord drew down with Him, when He came to help and raise poor fallen man, — ^a few notes from the music of seraphic harps, to be taken up by our faltering voices as best' we may. There is indeed an awfulness about the strain, which might well discompose and discourage the minds of sinners. The Angels wlio never fell, speak of God to one another as holy ; they make mention of His glory as filling the whole earth. The prophet who first saw the vision and heard the words, could not endure either the sight or the song. He felt painfully the w^ant of harmony between such worship and his own sinfulness, the unsuitability of the anthems of heaven to the defiled lips of grovelling man. IV.] and of the Tersanctus. 24Y " Woe is me ! " cried he, " for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips : for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." He is strengthened, however, by one of the Seraphim s, who takes a live coal from off the altar, and laying it upon his lips, says to him : " Lo, this hath touched thy lips ; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." And we are to be strengthened to sing this Hymn of the Seraphim, all sinful and defiled though we be, by the thought of the Atoning Death of Christ, which we commemorate in the Lord's Supper, by faith in His broken Body and spilled Blood, which the Ordinance both represents to us and conveys. In this Sacrament Christ is evidently set forth before our eyes crucified amongst us. And in the confidence which that spectacle gives us, we need not fear to open our lips, and praise God in the same accents as those employed by " Angels and Archangels and all the company of Heaven." ' We have seen, then, how it is that the Church of God is admitted to participate in the worship of Angels. Christ brought that worship with him down to our plan- et, and, having by His work of Atonement and Media- tion restored the relations between Heaven and Earth, which the Fall had interrupted, embraced in one com- munity men and angels, and bequeathed to His redeemed Church the anthems of glorified spirits. But it is given us to know not merely that we are privileged to be fel- low-worshippers with the Angels ; but that they feel an interest in us, which makes this communion a reality on their part. Not only are they joined with us in Christ in a common bond ; but they love us and care for us. Their Lord and ours has assured us that there is joy in 24:8 Of OUT Communion with the Angels^ [paet the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ; that each sincere conversion makes the harps of Heaven vibrate with a new anthem of praise ; and that the heavenly host are so far from looking down upon human infirmity, of which one would suppose that the perfection of their nature might lead them to think scorn, that the highest of them, — those who do always behold the face of our Father which is in Heaven, — ex- ercise a special guardianshij) over little children, the fee- blest members of the human family. And now let us consider what conclusions of practical value our subject may have suggested. There is no doubt, then, that we should be much more strong, much naore confident, and much more fer- vent in our worship of God, if we did not feel alone in it. We struggle against our sins upon our knees ; and we do so oftentimes very feebly, and with intermittent energy, because we secretly think that no one but our- selves is interested in the struggle, or has the smallest concern in our victory. All of us remember the old fable of our childhood about the bundle of sticks, each of which might easily be snapped in sunder by itself, but which, bound together, defied the efforts of a strong man to break them. The moral is most instructive. It is a well-known phenomenon of our nature that the mere consciousness of sympathy and united effort will give to the will a strength almost invincible. This was the great secret of success in the Temperance movement. The detestable vice proved too strong for a man, so long as he struggled against it as an individual, and found his only resources in the approbation of his own conscience. But no sooner did he league with others under a com- IV.'] and of the Tersanctus, 249 mon banner against this moral enemy, — no sooner did lie thus gain the assurance that others were fighting all around him at his side, — than he prevailed against the strong temptation and eventually became master of his own will. It was a great lesson to this effect, that with- out the assurance of hearty sympathy and co-operation we can never achieve any signal success against our spiritual foee. — But then must not God have known the constitution of our nature in this respect ; and in the Gospel, which is so wonderfully framed to meet all the wants of that nature, must He not have made some pro- vision, by which this principle shall be enlisted on the side of Truth and Godliness ? We entirely believe that He has done so. In that Creed, which reduces the whole of Christian Doctrine to the fewest and most es- sential Articles, we avow our belief in " the Holy Cath- olic Church, (which is) the Communion of saints." Rightly understood, this Article nerves us for righteous- ness almost as much as some of the foregoina; and more fundamental. We avow our belief that in our struggles against sin, the world, and the devil, we are leagued together under a common banner with all the living ser- vants of God, with those who departed this life in His faith and fear, and with holy Angels. But do we re- alize the belief, or is it merely speculative? While Ave pray, for example, do we feel the power of the thought that thousands are lifting up their hearts at the same time, — many of them more faithful than ourselves, — and that of these thousands some are actually supporting us in their prayers, supplicating God to " strengthen such as do stand; to comfort and help the weak-hearted ; to raise up them that fall ; and finally to beat down Satan under His people's feet?" Have we ever reflected that 11* 250 Of OUT Communion with the Angels^ [paet there is probably no instant of time, at which some members of the Christian Church are not approaching the One Father, through the One Mediator, under the influence of the One Spirit, and virtually advancing by faithful prayer the coming of the kingdom in the hearts of all ? Beautiful is that comment of Bishop Andrewes upon the words of St. Paul, " The Spirit maketh inter- cession for us with groaniugs which cannot fee uttered " : " But is thy spirit and mine unutterable, which ofteiD is no spirit at all, and often a cold one? Surely this can hardly be said of the individual Christian. But then there is no day, and no moment, in which God is not supplicated by the faithful, by one more fervently, by another more -tepidly ; and because all the faithful to- gether make up one dove, from this dove proceed the unutterable groans, that is to say from the groans of all for the common behoof, which groans, as they are united together in the Body of the Church, benefit all." But there are others interested in our worship of God, and in our struggles against sin, besides those who still sojourn upon earth. There is an innumerable company of angels, watching our conflict, sorrowing Avith a pure and beautiful sorrow at our unfaithfulness, rejoicing on our return to God and mingling their accents with our praises. If it pleased God to make transparent for a moment the veil of gross matter, these Angels would be seen thronging the earth on their errands of love, fre- quenting the assemblies of Christians at all times, and specially whenever the Master's Dying Love is com- memorated, and His Flesh and Blood are in a mystery partaken of by the faithful. Christians, not only '• greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world ; " but also " they that be with us are more than they that he with IV.] and of the Tersanctus. 251 them." The fallen, tlie condemned, the accursed, rep- resent after all only a small section of God's creatures. There is an innumerable company of the Heavenly Host leagued tagether under Christ against the rulers of the darkness of this world. You never strive alone. Not only is there an outflowing of naost tender compassion towards you from the bosom of the Divine Master ; but every pure and good intelligence in the Universe is on your side, Avhether all be conscious of it or not. There are thousands upon Earth who are at present being vis- ited with temptations which are the exact counterpart of yours. They are triumphing over them in the might of Christ ; why should not you ? The dead are waiting and watching in Paradise for the hour, when God shall " accomplish the number of His elect, and hasten His Kingdom." And as in a starlight night a thousand eyes of fire look down from Heaven upon the benighted travel- ler, so in your dark pilgrimage through this world your course is run under the eyes of principalities and powers bent down uj^on you from another sphere. Nor do you ever worship God alone. That infirm and feeble prayer of thine, of whose impotence you are so painfully con- scious, is attracted into the strong current, first, of Our Lord's perfect Intercession, and, secondly, of the unut^ terable groans of the Holy Spirit in the Church. And when thou givest praise, thou strikest a note which vi- brates through the whole Creation. Praise is an im- pulse in the spiritual world which radiates far and wide from the centre which sent it forth. It is taken up and echoed back by all creatures in Heaven and Earth. The low, faltering, and discordant notes, which it may have had originally, are overborne by, and drowned in, the loftier melodies which absorb it. And these melodies 252 Of the Prayer of Access. [paet are from the harps of Cherubim and Seraphim, who unto God continually do cry, recognizing in their anthems the grand multiplicity of the Divine Praise, " Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of Thy Glory." Thoughts like these, however, must be used not as an excuse for wilful languor in worship, but as an en- couragement under infirmities of the flesh, when the spirit is willing to worship God. And indeed they have a warning for us as well as an encouragement. For if Praise be so august an exercise, and if in it we join our voices with those of the hierarchy of Heaven, we must see to it that we do our utmost to get our hearts in tune before engaging in it. Words of angelic praise upon the lips, without any spark of angelic love and zeal in the heart, what a profaneness must they be, and w^hat a mockery ! Let us ask God, lest we should entangle our- selves in such impiety, that He would touch our lips, like those of His Prophet, with a live coal from off the altar, kindling our affections of hope, and zeal,^and love, and making us more warmly aspire to those joys which are at His Right Hand. LECTUEE III. OF THE PRAYER OF ACCESS. ** S!)C2 teavcD as tijej? cnterctt into t!)C clouti.'' — Luke ix. 34. The true temper of devotion is fervour mingled Avith humiliation. On the one hand any thing like coldness in the worship of God is unworthy of the Love which He has shown us ; unworthy of the position into which IV.] Of the Prayer of Access. 253 our Redemption and Regeneration have brought us. To stand at a distance from the Throne of God with chilled hearts and tied tongues, is virtually to regard it as a Throne of Judgment, and forget that it is a Throne of Grace. But, on the other hand, while we ought to sun ourselves in the glorious privilege of access to God through Christ, we should never lose sight of reverence and godlj fear in our worship. Our position merely as creatures demands this. Angels when they worship, though sinless, cover their faces and their feet with their wings. Our momentary dependence upon God for all things, if that stood alone, should make us profoundlyreverential in our approaches to Him. But it does not stand alone. Our nature is not merely dependent, but deeply tainted with sin. We are not only dust and ashes, but sinful dust and ashes, taking upon ourselves to speak to the Lord. The three disciples on the holy mountain were privileged to see the glory of their Master, to hear the Father's own voice drop from the vault of Heaven, and to enter into the bright cloud which was there (as in the Tabernacle and former Temple)', the* symbol of the Divine Presence. But favoured and privileged as they were, it is signifi- cantly said that they " feared as they entered into the cloud." Now the circumstances of the devout communicant at this period of the rite may admit of a comparison with theirs. We are about to enter into the closest communion with God which it is possible to have upon earth. We are approaching God's Table to be fed " with the spirit- ual food of the most precious Body and Blood of His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ." We have just been admitted to the .worship of Heaven, and have joined with Angels and Ai'changels, and all the company of Heaven, in the 264 Of the Prayer of Access, [paet adoration and glorification of the Holy Trinity. Our glorified Saviour, who is invisibly present in the midst of the two or three gathered together to celebrate His Death, waits to receive us. And as on the Mount of Transfiguration two saints stood by and assisted at the great solemnity, and spoke of the decease of Christ, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, so we have heard in the Comfortable Words the voices of two New Testament saints, St. Paul and St. John, witnessing to us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save even the chief of sinners, and that we have in Him a Propitia- tion and a living Advocate. Here, then, are the Saints bearing testimony to the Lord. Here are the Angels, wdth whose voices we presume to join ours. Here is the Lord Himself, going to make Himself over to us, not by a carnal communication, but in a mystery which tran- scends our comprehension and our power of expression. What wonder if we fear, and once again prostrate our- selves, as we enter into this bright cloud ? What wonder if, after joining in the Hymn of the Angels, we shrink once again under a sense of our unworthiness to partake of these holy mysteries, and, falling upon our knees before yet the celebration of the rite mounts to its climax, humbly say, " We do not presume to come to this Thy Table, Lord', trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies? " We may here take the opportunity of observing that the same mixture of fervour and humiliation characterizes our whole Book of Common Prayer. Special instances of it are to be found in the Litany, in the Visitation of the Sick, and in the Burial Service. But there is no instance which in depth and pathos of devotional feeling exceeds that before us. The sinking from the light and lY.] Of the Prayer of Access. 255 music of the Seraphic Hymn into the abject self-abase- ment of the Prayer of Access, is one of the most striking of the many striking features of this Service. It is hke the sudden descent of some aeronaut from the brightness and glow of a noontide sky into a dark glen, where great trees interlace their branches, and leave only patches of light on the greensward below. If the principles on which our Liturgy is constructed may serve as a guide to us in private devotion, we may learn an important practical lesson from what has been said. The mixture in due proportion of reverence and warmth is the perfection of worship, which must be aimed at in the closet as well as in the Church. How is it to be obtained? By keeping the principle before our minds in the first place. — Then, as to details, it will give free- dom and life to prayer and praise, if we do not entirely confine ourselves to set forms ; if we vary and enlarge upon our set prayer whenever and at whatever point the mind feels disposed to do so ; if we meditate much before- hand on God's infinite willingness (as overwhelmingly evidenced by the gift of His Son) to give us all things neces- sary for our soul's health, and to cover, by a fresh outflow- ing of parental love, all past sins. At the same time, let all tendency to diiFusencss and overfluency in prayer be kept in check by still holding (if I may speak figuratively) the bridle of the form. Prayers purely extemporaneous run the risk of ii-reverence, just as prayers purely recited run the risk of formalism. And let there always be a pause before the commencement of stated prayer, to call to mind the awfulness of the Divine Majesty, and the greatness of His condescension in allowing us through His Son to address Him. The Prayer now before us divides itself into three 256 Of the Prayer of Access. [pakt parts. There is, first, the humiliation of the earlier part. There is, secondly, the petition of the latter part. And from the first of these we pass to the second by the brido-e of the following; sentiment : " But Thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy." From the consideration of this property in Him with whom we have to do, we encourage ourselves to prefer our petition to Him, vile though we be. We need not do m.ore than exhibit shortly the salient features of the two chief branches of the prayer. 1. Our self-abasement express'es itself here in the language of Holy Scripture. We take up and echo back the sentiment of one, who in her day was a successful petitioner for Christ's mercy, and we say, " We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy Table." Now consider the position into which we throig^ ourselves by the use of these words. The communicant's many and grievous sins fly in his face, as he is about to present himself at God's Board ; God seems to discourage him, as Christ discouraged the Syrophoenician, by alleging that this high privilege is for those who have lived as reconciled children, not for those who, by reason of their wilful defilement and their fre- quent relapses into unclean living, are rather to be termed dogs. And the sinner pleads guilty to God's charge. He is a dog. Nay, he is worse far than that Gentile, who first assumed the term as expressive of her own position. She never had his privileges. She never stood in his relation to XlJhrist. She never was an adopted child. And so he will not even stand upon his claim to be treated as she was treated. Not only is he unworthy of the acceptance which she found, bat of that which she sued for. He takes rank below her. He has i^*] Of the Prayer of Access, 257 forfeited even the crumbs. ""We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy Table." Now is not this language calculated to awaken in the mind a whole train of humbling (and yet most con- solatory) reflections, and to stir in the heart a profound self-abasement, admirably suited to the occasion ? It is as if the Liturgy invited us to throw in our lot with those who, in the days of His flesh, sought Christ under some distress, and, by perseverance in their applications to Him amid discouragements, obtained relief. We are reminded by this slight allusion how no petitioner who so applied was ever sent away empty ; how the treasure- house of His bounty was always thrown open to them eventually, if only they persevered in their petition. This train of associations once summoned up, the thought rushes into the mind with consolatory force : " Why should not I be as they? Why should not my persist- ence, my urgent entreaty, in spite of all the grave charges which my conscience (nay, which Christ in my conscience) seems to urge against me, be as greatly honoured as theirs was?" And what an answer, moreover, is here to the scruples of those sincere Christians, who allege the consciousness of their own unAvorthiness as a reason for absenting themselves from the Table of the Lord : " We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy Table ! " You could not use these woi^s sincerely, if you imagined that you were worthy. The very imagina- tion would of itself render you unworthy. In order to justify this language, there cannot be too deep a feeling of our own corruption, of the poverty and inadequacy of our repentance, our faith, our love. Surely we ought to realize the words which we use on this most solemn 258 Of the Prayer of Access. [paet occasion. And how can we realize onr un worthiness to gather up even the crumbs, if there be remaining in the heart a particle of self-complacencj ; if we are well satis- fied with om- religious attainments, and know not experi- mentally that we are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ? From this beautiful and appropriate reference to the Gospel narrative in the Prayer of Access we may learn the wisdom of enriching our devotions by similar allu- sions. Most of Our Blessed Lord's miracles suggest words and topics which we may use in this manner. Thus, for example, thinking of ourselves as defiled with the leprosy of sin, we may say to Him, when we kneel before Him, as the leper of old said, " Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean." Regarding ourselves as utterly helpless, we may address to Him the touching appeal of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, " Lord, I have no man to help me." When by the changes and chances of this mortal life, we seem to be tossed on the waves of this troublesome world, we may cry to Him as Peter cried, when his faith failed him on the literal wave, "Lord, save me ;" or, as the disciples cried in the tem- pest, " Carest Thou not that we perish?" We may en- treat Him, when we feel how deaf we are by nature to His word, and how dumb in His praises, to say unto us, " Ephphatha," and to open, and keep open, the avenues of communication between our souls and the spiritual world. Or laying ourselves simply before Him, in all the helplessness of our natural infirmity, as the paralytic was laid by his friends, we may look up wistfully into JHis face for the inspiriting word of Absolution, " Son, be of good cheer : thy sins be forgiven thee." It is aston- ishing how much life and warmth may thus be given to rv.] Of the Prayer of Access, 259 our prayers. There is in many of tliose stories of the Gospel- cures a peculiar pathos ; and there is no surer way. of appreciating that pathos than by identifying our- selves with the suiFerer, and finding our own case rep- resented in his. Thus, moreover, our devotions will savour, as all devotions should savour, of the Word of God ; and we shall cultivate a unity of e:s.perience with those early believers, who lived in an age far less arti- ficial than our own, when Divine Truth came into con- tact with the heart of man freshly and strongly, and not through the diluting medium of conventional religious phraseologies. This it is which constitutes the real charm of the prayers of Bishop Andre wes. They are almost entirely Scriptural. And as the Scriptural lan- guage of devotion, being the utterance of the Holy Spirit in man, comes home to the heart with a power peculiarly its own (witness the Psalms of David, which have been ever the great Prayer Book of the Church), these Devo- tions, tliough not particularly attractive at first, yet when used and tested by experience (the only way of ascer- taining the real value of Forms of Prayer) , have been so much approved, that the compilation ranks, perhaps, as the first devotional work of the English Church, and it has been said, and re-echoed by many a devout soul : " Pray with Bishop Andrewes for one week ; and he will be pleasant in thy life ; and at the hour of death he will not forsake thee." Not that these devotions are the eff^usions of the Bishop's own mind. There is scarcely an original page in the whole volume. What is so at- tractive is his marvellous power of manipulating Scrip- tural phrases and incidents, — a power analogous to that, whicli the expert musician wields over the notes of an in- strument, — the gift of bringing out the full force and 260 Of the Prayer of Access, [paet power of Scriptural narratives, Scriptural pleadings, Scriptural expostulations, Script;|.iral promises on- God's part, and Scriptural utterances of tLe deepest things which there are in the human heart. The Word in his hands is like a great harpsichord ; and by his masterly and flexible management of its notes, he brings out the whole compass of its devotional sentiments. But it is one of those books which cannot possibly be appreciated otherwise than by an experimental acquaintance with it. 2. The petition, which forms the latter part of this beautiful prayer, is for such a participation of the Ordi- nance, as may ensure to us its high and mysterious bless- ings ; " Grant us so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His Blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean 1^ His Body, and our souls washed by His most precious Blood." The salient feat- ure of this part, — that which challenges observation as being a departure, not only from ordinary religious phraseology, but from modern ideas, — is the distinct ref- erence to the body as partaking in the blessings of Re- demption. Certainly this clause is not conceived in the strain of popular theology. There is in the minds of many religionists a floating notion, entirely in accord- ance with the heresy of the ancient Gnostic, that the body is the root of all evil, and that the liberation of the soul from matter is necessary to ensure its perfection. But even where such a view as this would be explicitly disavowed in terms, there often exists an idea that Chris- tianity is thoroughly and exclusively spiritual, that it has nothing at all to do with the material part of man. The Scripture, however, expressly says, not only that the body is destined to be hereafter the subject of glorifica- tion ("if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from rv.] Of the Prayer of Acce^, 261 the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies hj His Spirit that dwelleth in you"), but that it is destined to be at present the subject of sanctification : " Now the very God €if peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and hody be preserved blameless unto the comino; of our Lord Jesus Christ." It tells us that Christ took, and has carried with Him into Heaven a human body, " with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature," — a fact from which it is easily concluded that matter, as matter, cannot have in it any inherent evil. And it ex- horts us, finally, to convert the members of our bodies into the materials of a sacrifice, which bodies therefore must be capable of a real consecration : "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Now the two Sacraments (among other aspects of them) are God's great protest to this effect, — that the religion adapted to man is not exclusively spiritual. God in these Sacraments uses the things of sense as a vehicle of spiritual blessings, by way of teaching this among other lessons, that the matter of which we are compounded is to be embraced, as well as the spiritual element of our nature, in the great Scheme of Redemp- tion. And as regards the second Sacrament in particu- lar. Our Blessed Lord has used words, which seem in some mysterious way to connect the faithful reception of it Avith the Resurrection of the Body unto Life : '' Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." A Communion Service, therefore, would, I appre- 262 Of the Prayer of Access. [paet liencl, be imperfect, if there were no recognition in it of the consecration and sanctification of the Body, of its receiving in this Ordinance the stamp and the pledge of its eventual glorification. According to this view of the subject, the clause before us (" that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His Body ") is an integral feature of the Commimion Office, — one which brings out a distinct and separate aspect of Christ's sacrificial work, which we are now commemorating. The sin of the soul has penetrated into and defiled the soul's tenement, the body. Hence comes our liability to disease, and the sad enfee- bling of our mental powers by the defectiveness or im- paired action of some one bodily organ in each one of us. When the soul is sanctified, when the will receives a new direction, and the afiTections a new tendency, — the im- pulse flows on towards, and reaches the body, the mem- bers of which are henceforth yielded as instruments of righteousness unto God. It is true, indeed, that the body is "sinful," and therefore intrinsically unworthy of this glorious consecration. But through our um'on with Christ (the union which by a faithful reception of this Sacrament is cemented) the sinful body is made clean by Christ's Body (the Body in which He bore our sins upon the Tree), even as the sinful soul is washed, through the spilling of the Blood of Christ in expiation of sin. Pu- rified through this union, the body becomes fit to be a sacrifice, and accordingly is yielded unto God in the words of tio3 Post-Communion Prayer : " Here we offer, and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee." Such is the doctrinal significance of the clause before us. God grant it may not be to us a barren dogma, but that we may carry it out to its legitimate practical tfvj Of the Prayer of Access. 263 results ! Surely if the body shares in the blessings of Redemption, and receives the dignity of a consecration to God, it should be hallowed by temperance, soberness, and chastity. And more than this. It is not only to be the subject of restraint, but to be made to minister actively in the Service of God, Does it do this in each one of us ? Do the feet carry us on errands of mercy, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction? Do the hands engage willingly in profitable labour, and hav- ing by that labour gained more than suffices for our own wants, are they opened freely in the relief of distress? Are the eyes sanctified by being fixed on the glorious works of God, while the mind takes occasion to glorify the Creator? Or, if we are far from landscape and scenery, are they employed in reading the- Law of the Lord, and in scanning with thoughtful prayer His wonderful testimonies? Are the ears opened to the glorious harmony of praise, which Nature in her every district is sending up to the Throne of God, — opened to holy aad wise counsels, closed against flattery and sinful enticement ? Do we invoke God's w.'itch over our mouth, and His custody of the door of our lips, and do we also watch that whatsoever passes out of that door may be pure and sincere at all events, and (as much as possible) useful and edifying? Lord, whose feet carried Thee swiftly to the house of mourning, whose hands gave health to the infirm, and blessing to the little children, whose eyes, as Thou stood- est at the sepulchre, were suffused with tears, whose ears were pierced with revilings for our sakes, in whose mouth was no guile, and whose lips were full of grace ; let us not be backward to yield to Thee the service of all our members, and do Thou preserve them blameless 264 Of the First Part [pa:e» unto that day, when Thou shalt change our vile bodies, that they mny be fashioned like unto Thy glorious Body, according to the working whereby Thou art able to sub- due all things unto Thyself. LECTURE IV. OF THE FIRST PART OF THE PRAYER OF CONSECRATION. ** 2r|)is tro in trememftrance oC |^c.** — Luke xxii. 19. We have now reached the culminating point of the whole Rite. The Consecration and Administration of the Elements may be called the nucleus of the Ordinance, round which grow up and gather the various forms of Devotion through which w^e have passed, and are to pass. And as the seed contains the germ of the whole plant, so this central part of the Office is a little miniature, or short draught of the whole. All that is to be known about the Lord's Supper is given us here in brief and abridgment. Before making the actual celebration of the Death of Christ, the minister produces his warrant for making it. This is done in the first part of the Prayer of Consecra- tion, upon which alone we shall at present have time to comment: "All glory be to Thee, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, for that Thou of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to sufi'er death upon the cross for our Redemption ; Who made there (by His one oblation of Himself once ofiered) a full, perfect, and sufiicient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction. \ IV.] of the Prayer of Consecration, 265 for tlie sius of the whole world ; and did institute, and iu HivS holy Gospel command ns to continue, a perpetual memory of that His precious Death, until His coming again." In the second chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians St. Paul speaks slightingly of will-worship. By will- worship is meant the paying homage to Almighty God after a fashion devised by ourselves, and not dictated by His Word. It is the worshipping Him according to the leanings of our own will, not according to the intimations which He has been pleased to make to us of His. Because will-worship is so offensive to God, and because we may not presume without sin to devise other methods for His service than He has Himself appointed, therefore we are careful, in all our solemn acts of Religion, to quote (if I may say so) the authority on which we proceed. Hence in the Absolution of the daily Morning and Evening Prayer, the function is not fulfilled without first reciting the authority on which it is exercised, and its conformity with the revealed mind of God : " Almighty God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, Avho hath given power, and command- ment to His Ministers, to declare and pronounce to His people, being penitent," &c., &c. And in the Ministra- tion of Baptism, you wiU find the Prayer for the sanctifi- cation of the water entirely analogous to that before us. For first there is recited the act, and then the command of Christ, by which the minister's function is warranted. " Almighty, everliving God, whose most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, did shed out of His most precious side both water and blood ; and gave conimandment to his disciples that they should go teach all nations and bajHize them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." — On a 12 266 Of the First Part [part principle precisely similar, when we are about to celebrate the higher Sacrament, we recite the Act of Christ on which it is founded, and the Precept of Christ by which it is warranted. The act is this, that " Christ made upon the cross a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." The Precept is this, that " Christ did institute, and in His Holy Gospel command us to continue a per- petual memory of that His Precious Death." — Great must have been the satisfaction of the pious Israelite in thinking that the worship of the Tabernacle had been expressly prescribed by God, and that a model of all its furniture had been shown to Moses in the Mount. And our satisfaction may reasonably be great in reflecting that this holy ordinance is a memorial designed, not by man, but by the Lord Himself; by one who knows our nature and our wants better than we ourselves know them ; and who took care, before He left us, to furnish us richly with all those means of Grace, which we should need as channels of communication with Him during the time of His absence. It would not have been otherwise than pious and devout, if the Lord had left behind no memorial of His Death, to appoint and ob- serve some season for calling it specially to mind, and reviving our impressions in connexion with it. But upon such an observance we could not have hoped for any special Blessing, although the state of mind from which it took its rise would doubtless have been accept- able to God. As matters stand now, may we not most surely expect that the special Grace and Presence of Our Lord will accompany our observance of His own Institu- tion, if only our state of mind be in keeping with the occasion? — And again, if will- worship be offensive to IV.] of the Prayer of Consecration. 267 God, how must He resent any interference even Tvilh the details of the Ordinances, which He has prescribed for our edification ! If Christ has said, " Drink ye all of this," how offensive, what an insult to His authority must it be to say that none but the officiating Priest shall drink of it, under the sorry pretext that desecra- tion is thereby hazarded by spilling some particle of the wine ! One form of will-worship is, no doubt, to invent something wh'ere God has prescribed nothing. But surely it is another and more culpable form to alter and abrogate, where God has expressly prescribed. Our Liturgy is very exhaustive (though very brief) in its treatment of subjects ; and therefore the warrant for the celebration of the Holy Supper is not barely stated in the passage befor^ us ; on the contrary, the Ordinance is carried up to its source, and down to the term prescribed for it. As a warrant for thus com- memorating the Lord's Death, Ave have His own institu- tion and command. What is the nature of the Death thus commemorated? What is the source and origin of it ? For how long is the commemoration appointed to last? All these questions are summarily, but com- pletely, answered in the section of the Prayer now before us. The Death of Christ is a '' full, perfect, and suffi.- cient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." It had its origin in the " tender mercy " of God, who gave His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. It is to be commemorated in this manner, until the second Advent of the Saviour supersedes the neces- sity for it, — '• till He come." 1. The Death of Christ is declared to be a suflleient sacrifice for sinners ; a perfect oblation on His part (an oblation in which was no flaw nor blemish) ; and a fuU 268 Of the First Part [paet satisfaction to God. The sinner requires something, — a sacrifice. Christ presents something, — an oblation. God demands something, — a satisfaction. See how exact the language is, and how it appears to have been written for the purpose of rebutting, and putting out of court the evasions of modern Rationalism. Observe that the aspect of Our Lord's Death as an example, because i>t was not the leading or main feature of it, is dropped altogether, does not present itself at all upon the field of view. Most true it is (and most precious truth) that Our Blessed Lord was an example in His death, as well as in His life ; most true also (conversely) that all His sufferings, and all His obedience, and not his death only, were atoning ; but still the great glory, and virtue, and efficacy of His Death, the distinctive feature of it, that which no other death of human being ever had in com- mon with it, is its sacrificial and propitiatory character. It is not as an example that we now commemorate His death, but as the ransom of our souls. Again, observe how the language is so constructed as not to allow any evasion of the doctrine, that the Holi- ness, Justice, and Truth of God demanded this Death. It was not only a sacrifice, intrinsically noble and generotis in the highest degree ; it was not only a pure and acceptable oblation ; but a satisfaction also. If so, there must be a party to be satisfied ; and this party can be none other than God : there must be something analo- gous to a debt on our part, the creditor being God, and the Person who has made full payment or satisfaction Christ. This is the primitive, old, and ordinary view of the Atonement; and although, no doubt, there are many deep mysteries in the transaction which the human reason can never solve, I cannot but think that the IV.] of the Prayer of Consecration. 2G9 gTonnds usually assigned for the necessity of Our Lord's Death were very well established, till a perverse ingenu- ity, and a culpable inquisitiveness, which w^ill acquiesce ia no mystery, came and disturbed them, and threw them all into confusion. If God is the moral Governor and Judge of the World (as who can doubt that He is?) surely He is bound to make His Law respected. And this obligation creates a real difficulty as to the pardon of a transgressor, however strongly the tender mercy of God might urge Him to such pardon. Persons entrusted with the administration of jastice in an earthly commu- nity know what it is to long to spare a criminal, but to be effectually checked by the question rising up before them and hauating them, " Can I spare, consistently, not only with the good of the community, but with justice and right?" Conceive the Lawgiver and the Law both per- fect (as in God's case they are), and the hindrance to the showing mercy is immensely aggravated. Now that a duly-constituted Representative of our Race (being also a Divine Person) should have suc- ceeded in removing this hindrance, by substituting Him- self iu the place of sinners, and receiving the pains and penalties of sin upon His own head, in such a manner as that all who are truly joined to Him have undergone the penalty, and paid the debt, in His sufferings, — this is indeed far above Reason ; but surely there is nothing Avhatsoever in it contrary to, or out of conformity with, Reason. The doctrine runs parallel with Reason so far as our faculties enable us to pursue the subject ; but like all the doctrines of Revelation it is found, when followed out, to abut upon mystery ; and he who is determined, not merely to get a glimpse into its reasonableness, but to reduce it, in all its parts, within the compass of his 270 Of the First Fart [paet understanding, resembles a man who should undertake to trace a telegraphic wire along its whole course : for a while it runs parallel to the earth, and he has no diili- cultj in reaching it ; but ere long it takes a dip into the ocean, or stretches across a ravine, where he can neither follow it, nor say at what point it issues. Observe, also, how carefully the Roman doctrine of the repetition of the Sacrifice of the Cross is fenced off by the allusion made in the words, " His Oyie oblation of Himself once offered," to St. Paul's assertion in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " This man, after He had offer- ed one yacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God." " By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." To offer another Sacrifice for sin, or to offer this a second time, is impos- sible ; the words of Inspiration exclude for ever the im- pious pretensions of the Roman Priesthood. " There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." All that the Church on earth can do is to prolong through all time in the ears of God and man, the echoes of the One Sacrifice once offered on Calvary. The image, I believe, is an accurate one, and conveys the truth on this great subject as far as figurative language can do so. A sound is not really repeated, it is not made a second time, when the echoes of it are caught up by neighbouring rocks and hill, and it is reverberated from peak to peak. Rever- beration is not repetition, though it may be called so in a loose and popular way. And the perpetual memory of the Sacrifice of Calvary in the Sacrament of the Eu- charist is indeed a reverberation, but in no sense a rep- etition, of the Sacrifice of the Cross. The Sacrifice was fully accomplished, when Our Lord cried with His latest breath, " It is finished." All that remains is that Christ rv.] of the Prayer of Consecration. 271 should plead it for us in Heaven above, that the Church (which is His Body) should plead it on earth below. This pleading takes place most emphatically, and under the especial sanction of a Divine Ordinance, in the Lord's Supper, when Jesus Christ is evidently set forth before our eyes crucified amongst us 2. But again. This introduction of the Prayer of Consecration carries us up to the source of the Sacrifice of Christ, and so rebuts another serious error, which (as is always found to be the case) has given rise to error in another direction. The heresies of Rationalism on the subject of the Atonement are due in great part, if not entirely, to the frightful and repulsive picture of God the Father, which used to be drawn by those who professed to represent the true Evangelical scheme. It was too often insinuated in the works and sermons of these di- vines, that the First Person of the Blessed Trinity wore always a frown towards mankind ; was, in fact, a stern tyrant, with no other aspect towards transgressors than that of unmitigated severity. It was the fashion, and it became (strange to say) the orthodox Shibboleth, to con- nect the thought of grace, mercy, and peace, exclusively with the Second Person, and to see in the character of the First nothing but judgment and vengeance. No heresy can \yell be more unscriptural in its theory, or more mischievous in its practical effects. The Love of God is the source of all virtue ; and what soul can be persuaded to love God, and to render to Him the homage of affectionate obedience, so long as it sees in Him no fatherly yearning over the fallen, no bowels of mercies ; — nothing but a stern insisting upon duty, and a prompt readiness to avenge all disobedience? The Scriptures represent the- Sacrifice of Christ not only as essential to 272 Of the First Part [paet satisfy God's demands, but as itself flowing from the tender mercy and love of God. Delightful and most consolatory thought ! The Sacrifice is as valuable for what it proves, as for what it eifects. It shows clearly that there exists in God's boundless Love, which scrupled not at the only gift which could be a sacrifice on God's part, the gift of His Son. " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlast- ing life." It wrings God's fatherly heart with pain, when a sinner perishes. Rather than that such a thing should be, He gives, He has given. His Son, parted with Him for a time in some mysterious manner, that He might bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. Can there be by possibility a greater encouragement to prayer, to penitence, to faith, to affection, to every gracious temper, and every spiritual exeTcise ? If it had not been for God's Love, there would have been no sacrifice for sin. The Love of God is the source, the sacrifice is the stream. The Love of God is the root, the sacrifice is the tree. The Love of God is the foun- dation, the sacrifice is the superstructure. Our Church, therefore, in setting forth the Sacrifice, thinks that it can- not be fully and fairly represented except in this aspect, as evidencing the boundless compassion for man, which finds place in God's fatherly heart. So when the Sac- rifice is to be celebrated, and the memorial of it solemnly made (according to the Lord's appointment) with bread and wine, the first thing to be done is to travel up to the source of this inestimable benefit, and to rehearse and commemorate the tender love, which so longed for our recovery as not to keep back from us the most precious thing it had ; and the rehearsal is made after this man- IV.] of the Prayer of Consecration. 273 ner : " Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who of Thy tender mercy didst give Thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption." Is it not marvellous how our formularies, if exam- ined and weighed, are found to fence off error at every point of the charmed circle of Truth, at which error can possibly insinuate itself ? 3. But, again ; as this introductory clause of the Prayer carries us up to the source of the Sacrilice of Christ, so it carries us down to the period when that Sacrifice shall no longer need to be pleaded, because the Mediatorial Kingdom will then have ceased, and the sin which still remains in the universe will not admit of ex- piation and atonement. The reverberation of the Sac- rifice of Calvary is to sound along the whole course of time, to be made in the ears of generations yet unborn, and to carry down to a distant posterity the accents of the Love of God and the Grace of Christ. But there must be, at the time decreed in the divine counsels, a last generation. Time itself must have an end ; its great clock must strike the Avorld's last hour, and then run down. And this will be at the second coming of Our Lord to this planet, which the Church should live in con- stant expectation of and preparation for. On His ar- rival, all showing forth of His death shall cease, as it is written : " Ye do show forth the Lord's death till He come." And the rationale of this cessation it is not difiicult to trace. In the first place, the memorial of an absent friend is naturally superseded upon his return. "We do not need pictures, or rings, or tokens of affection, to remind us of those who are constantly by our sides in the daily intercourse of life ; we say naturally enough, "I possess himself; I do not need his picture." Now 12* 274 Of the First Part [past so far as the Lord's Supper is a memorial, designed to affect our minds Avith a lively remembrance of all He did and suffered for us, the necessity for it must of course be superseded by His return. When we have the Bride- groom of our souls amongst us again, we shall not need any longer the picture, the token which Pie left behind. When we look ivith our own eyes upon the marks of the nails in His hands and feet, and on the spear-wound in His side, what need of the broken bread and outpoured wine to remind us of those precious stigmata? But we have already intimated more than once, that the Eucharist has several higher aspects than that of a memorial, that it is far more than merely a means of affecting our own minds by a sensible representation of Christ's death. Just as prayer is not only valuable for its efficacy in calming the spirit, and soothing the troubled heart, not only valuable as a conduit whereby the grace of God is conveyed into our souls, but also is to be regarded as an act of homage, and thus has an as- pect altogether independent of human wants and human infirmities ; so tiie Holy Communion is not only valuable for its effects upon our mind, but has also a mysterious aspect towards God, and sounds in His ears as in the ears of man, the echo of His Son's One Sacrifice. And in this aspect of it also it will cease, when the Lord comes. For sin will then be abolished out of the heart of God's people ; so that they will need no longer the pleading of any sacrifice in expiation of it. And as regards the sin of the impenitent, it will be (as I have said) stereotyped in the transgressor ; and the benefits of the Sacrifice having been by them deliberately refused, there will no longer remain for them any prospect of reconciliation. The Eucharist . is bound up in the system of mediation IV.] of the Prayer of Consecration, 275 between God and man, which is negotiated by the Sac- rifice of Christ ; and when that system falls to the ground, the Eucharist must of necessity fall with it. In the clause which we have now considered, our Liturgy seems to place us at a point of view high above the course of Time, at which we may contemplate hu- man history at its beginning and its close, and see the origin and the issue of the great scheme of Salvation. In the centre of human history is planted the Cross, the alone meritorious cause of every blessing which has reached our race. But this Cross we see to have been first devised in the counsels of Eternity, — devised, long ages before it was erected, by the tender mercy of Our Heavenly Father. This accursed (and yet blessed) Tree is seen bearing its beautiful fruits in the experience of man along the course of ages, until the number of the elect is accomplished, and the last saved soul is gathered into the garner of God. Meanwhile Hope and Memory, both of them under the sanction of Divine Ordinances, lead up to this central point, the Cross, and find life and vigour there. Hope is nourished by the sacrifices of the Jewish ritual, ordained of God to foreshadow the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction which Christ made upon the Tree. Memory is nour- ished- by the Sacraments of the Gospel, ordained to rep- resent after the fact the very event, which the sacrifices had before represented more obscurely. Reader, is this Death our one point of sight, as it is God's ? Do we live in it in any true sense ; derive from it strength against temptation, energy for renewed ef- forts, hope in difficulties, comfort in troubles? Is it a real spring of moral action within us, the strongest in- 276 Of the Consecration of the Elements^ [pakt cenlive to holiness, the most effectual dissuasive from sin? O God, make us to know the fellowship of Thy Son's sufferings, to feel the power of His death, mortify- ing in us all our evil and corrupt affections, and crucify- ing us to the world and to sin ; so that, when He shall appear, we, who have been already planted together w^ith Him in the likeness of His death, may be also in the likeness of His resurrection. LECTURE V. OF THE CONSECRATION OF THE ELEMENTS, AND THE OBLATION. ** jFor ebcri) creature of