interests of Christianity in many ways,-false to the hopes of Christianity as a progressive scheme, ungrateful to the divine Spirit, "who helpeth our infirmities," whether as individuals or as bodies, carrying the Church forward towards perfection, even after deep declension: and likely, moreover, to discredit the outward beauty of holiness, by taking from it the attribute of growth, which is its proper and authenticating character; as if the temple of Ezekiel had been built up visibly upon the earth, by the cubit and the hand-breath, all at once, by unseen workmen, and at an unknown time. Not to mention the danger that accrues to the citadel of our holy faith, when it is surrounded by a wall of stubble for the puny hand of levity and the withered arm of malice to set fire to as they list. It will, as I have attempted to show, reveal the scriptural idea of Christianity in union with those forms, in which it has pleased the great Disposer to make it effectual to our salvation; but it will, at the same time, exhibit the Son of God, engaging in His reasonable service the whole being of the intellectual man, while it goes on to manifest that which the written divinations of heaven have ever led the world to expect, the mystic embrace and union of the human soul, and the redeeming Word. To connect this most imperfect dissertation with the general object of a work, professing to treat on the scriptural character of the English Church, at a time when that Church is again menaced by those enemies from whom she formerly wrung so signal a victory, it will be sufficient to add the words of that reforming prelate, whose language I have more than once adopted:— "Quod si docemus sacrosanctum Dei Evangelium, et veteres episcopos, atque ecclesiam primitivam nobiscum facere; nosque non sine justa causa et ab istis discessisse, et ad apostolos, veteresque Catholicos patres rediisse; idque non obscure, aut vafre, sed bona fide coram Deo, vere, ingenue, dilucide, et perspicue facimus: si illi ipsi qui nostram doctrinam fugiunt, et sese Catholicos dici volunt, aperte videbunt omnes illos titulos antiquitatis, de quibus tantopere gloriantur, sibi excuti de manibus, et in nostra causa plus nervorum fuisse quam putarint; speramus, neminem illorum ita negligentem fore salutis suæ, quin ut velit aliquando cogitationem suscipere, ad utros potius se adjungat'." 1 1 JUELL. Apol. p. 13. "Now if pride themselves in the name of we make it appear, and that not catholics, shall apparently see that obscurely and craftily, but before all those pretences of antiquity, of God, truly, ingenuously, clearly, which they so immoderately glory, and perspicuously, that we teach belong not to them, and that there the most holy Gospel of God; and is more strength in our cause than that the ancient fathers and the they thought there was, then we whole primitive Church are on our hope that none of them will be so side, and that we have not without careless of his salvation, but he will just cause left them, and returned at some time or other bethink himto the apostles, and the ancient self which side he ought to join catholic fathers: and if they, who with."-JEWELL'S Apology. so much detest our doctrine, and Lady Bacon's Translation. The 419 SERMON XVIII. ON THE SACRAMENTS. PART VI.-PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. 1 Cor. x. 15, 16, 17. Į speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, 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? For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread. THESE words require no further comment. They exhibit to us the Lord's supper, not more as an important part of divine worship, than as the consummation and compenIdium of the whole. Even this does not intimate the life and potency attributed to the great symbol of communion, by the philosophic apostle. Viewed in relation to the world of grace, it is a true microcosm, containing within itself the seminative principle of godliness, while it displays the finished result. The acorn is at once the germ of the tree, and its last production; though when seen by the casual observer, as it hangs in bountiful profusion from its native bough, it may appear rather as a graceful appendage, than as the life-power of the whole. What, if on closer inspection, it should reveal to us, beneath its natural casings, the oak of the forest visibly depicted, fruit, leaves, and branches, disclosed within that narrow confine, in all the majestic beauty of their ultimate developement, and possible growth! Such is the Eucha rist, nay, more than this. We are taught to recognise in this, the most solemn exercise and office of our religion, not merely the plastic idea and regulative law of that holiness which it adumbrates and suggests,-the shaping prophecy and expansive model of that perfection which may, and if the dew of heaven, watering a happy soil, shall bless the labours of the cultivator, really will be progressively manifested; but the eternal, living reason, who is not only in and through, but above, and independent of all, the divine Person, Who "is before all things, and by Whom all things consist1." Who, being the bright reflection of His Father's glory, and the express image of His subsistence, yea, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself effected the purification of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. For even, as in baptism, we distinguish the existence of each person in the triune Godhead, so in sacramental communion, partaking in "the true bread which came down from heaven," we acknowledge in the same act, the Father who gave, and the spirit who enlivens the gift. "For it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing"." 66 Thus to the eye of faith, this holy symbol is, as it were, a mirror, bright and spotless, when looked at, with something of a dazzling lustre cast upon it from the sun of glory, but when looked into a clear transparency, reflecting within its sacred cope, a pure ethereal region, peopled with angelic forms, and, lo! in the far depth the vision of Stephen, when "being full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." 1 Col. i. 17. John vi. 63. 2 Heb. i. 3. Grant, blessed Lord, that we all with face unveiled, beholding in this glass, thy pure, essential glory, may, by the ministrations of thy Spirit, be transferred progressively into thine own likeness, the image which we there discern. If, however, the Saviour be thus sensibly imaged in the symbolic rite which He has appointed, then whatever terms are employed in Scripture to enunciate His attributes and offices, with a view to personal conviction, and practical duty, whatever figures or analogies the Spirit of revelation has been pleased to adopt in communicating with mortal infirmity, mild, and we may perhaps say, partial, yet divine reflections, from the central light of this heavenly system, itself a blinding vision, indiscernible by mortal eye, these terms, these figures and analogies, thus graciously accommodated to the actual wants and faculties of man, may, with a like condescending reference, and with a like implied restriction, be properly translated to that holy sacrament, which to the faithful, is His body. It belongs, I say, to the propriety of this, the greater of the two representative rites of Christianity, to sail down the stream of time so freighted with Scriptural imagery, that the religion of the Word, as it appears in writing, and the religion of the Church, as it is carried on in service, may exhibit a constant and a visible correspondence. Can we contemplate the Saviour-can we look with faith upon His own appointed symbol-and fail to recognise both the mediating priest, and the atoning victim? Shall the heavenly truths, seen through these veiling figures, (as we dim the glass through which we view the sun,) shall this particular aspect of the truth be seen through any other medium, so surely, so affectingly, in a word, so well? And then, if the cup of |