descension has been pleased to take on HIMSELF a body and soul, thus as it were to treat with us, to draw us unto HIM, and unite us to HIMSELF, by a dispensation of sacramental and sensible tokens. "We have heard," St. John exclaims, "we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon, and our hands have handled the Word of life'." And as if it were not sufficient thus to allow us to behold HIM in the flesh, He has been pleased to keep up His communication with us by sensible signs. What must it have been to those who beheld HIM! What great support to the faith of weak believers, to have felt His Divine and healing hand upon them! What a thrill of awe must have passed through their frames, even to their very souls! It was a touch, indeed, that well might raise the dead. Or again, for the hungry to have ate of that miraculous bread, and been strengthened thereby and been satisfied. One would have thought, that after such a sensible token, so condescending to their weakness, it would have been impossible to have distrusted HIм any more.

And when He had departed this world and was seen no more by bodily eyes, still did HE keep up the same merciful language with us of joining His spiritual benedictions to external visible signs. When He sent down the HOLY SPIRIT from the FATHER, there was a sensible symbol going with it. "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind," while their hearts were all moved within them, changed and "filled with the HOLY GHOST;" it was accompanied with that wind which spoke of His secret operations, which our LORD had before likened to the wind 2. Nor was this all, for they had the supernatural gift of tongues to speak all languages of the world; and this also was shown by an outward visible sign of cloven tongues-"like as of fire," as denoting the unseen light and Divine fire which filled their souls. It was an outward sign of the inward grace; it was a means whereby they received the same, and a pledge that assured them of the gift.

And here we may observe the remarkable difference between these signs and those which had been before under the law: in the symbols and signs of Mount Sinai, and in all those that formed the religious worship of the Jews, there was no spiritual

11 John i. 1.

2 John iii. 8.

3 Acts iì. 3, 4.

grace conferred, but when CHRIST came all was changed. By His taking on HIMSELF our flesh, the creature was sanctified, and made by His Word and ordinance full of blessing; and the signs of Pentecost, together with the outward emblem carried into the soul within the Divine gifts which they signified. This was the new covenant of which the Prophet speaks, and which the Apostle to the Hebrews says, has been fulfilled in us; inasmuch as with the outward sign it reaches the heart.

Now one would have thought that Christians would have rejoiced in these their marvellous privileges, would have embraced them heartily and with much affection; but the fact is, they are very unwilling to receive such doctrine, because it brings God so near to them ;-as unwilling as the Jews of old were to receive CHRIST, though nothing but mercy and blessing went forth from HIM. For if these things are true, then we, who have been accustomed to Church Ordinances and Sacraments, have nothing to say in our excuse for not being very much better, for not duly preparing our souls for receiving mercies so great. And those who neglect them, are shutting themselves out from the Kingdom of Heaven, while it has been at their very docrs. On this account many fall back into a Jewish state, and are desirous to look on the outward ordinances of the Christian Church as no better than dead legal forms; knowing full well that if to those who reverence and cherish them they are a savour unto life, to those that neglect them they must be a savour unto death".

In the meanwhile we are all, one after another, rapidly passing into a state in which there are no more Sacraments, no more outward signs and means of grace, no healing interventions any more, but GOD is HIMSELF revealed.

Heb. viii. 10. 13; x. 16. Jer. xxxi. 31.

52 Cor. ii. 16.

SERMON XV.

THE INWARD SPIRITUAL GRACE.

2 COR. iii. 7, 8.

"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses fo the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?"

WHEN Moses had the two tables of stone in his hands, and when he spake to the children of Israel of the Sabbath, and the tabernacle, and their ceremonial religion, there was such a glory on his countenance from his conversing with GOD, that he was obliged to cover it with a veil. This signified that there lay something behind the law more gracious and good than the Jews could understand; for the glory of the Gospel was mysteriously hidden under its types and shadows. How much greater, argues St. Paul, must be the glory of the Christian Church, which he calls "" the ministration of the Spirit ;" which is not like that of the Jews, to be done away, but is of things spiritual, heavenly, and eternal! This I endeavoured to show you on Sunday last, how the older dispensation was full of God's own language of outward signs, which contained within spiritual meanings, which is here represented by the glory behind the veil; but in the dispensation of the Spirit since our LORD's Baptism, and the descent of the HOLY GHOST on the day of Pentecost, we have a sacramental religion, wherein outward signs are made channels of Divine grace. The old veil is taken away: we understand the spiritual meaning of the symbol. But this is not all. We not only behold, as in a glass, but in beholding we are changed, says

St. Paul," from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD." That is, through this ministration the Spirit of enlightening is given; we not only, in the sacramental ministration of the Church, behold the goodness and love of CHRIST crucified, but are thereby to be transformed into the same image.

St. Paul speaks of it as a ministration :—it is like the Church of Israel of old, a ministration, an outward visible dispensation, but differing from that of old in that it is a "ministration of the Spirit." The Apostle had been saying that he was made a minister of this new covenant-not of the letter, for the letter alone killeth, but of the Spirit, which giveth life. And then he afterwards adds, Seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not1." St. John speaks of the same when he says, "" Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them 2. It is a tabernacle which we can behold; but in it GOD, Whom none can see, dwells with men. In all these descriptions of the Christian Church there is something visible, and something invisible; and both together containing the wonderful mysteries of Divine gifts. St. Paul speaks of it as a ministry so glorious, that thereby obtaining mercy we faint not; a treasure, he says, in earthen vessels, but with the excellency of the power of GOD. St. John, that thereby GOD HIMSELF is with us. Now such is the very nature of a Sacrament, as our Catechism proceeds to describe it. There are in a Sacrament two parts," the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace;" something appearing to the senses of men, and something else apprehended by faith; viz. the covenant of God conveyed and testified by this His seal.

It is remarkable that a very early Bishop, St. Irenæus, who lived about 160 years after CHRIST, uses language very like this of the Catechism. He says of the Eucharist, that "it consists of two parts, the one earthly and the other heavenly"." St. Augustine often speaks in like manner of the invisible Spirit operating by visible Sacraments, and the like. "The Word," he says, speaking of Baptism, " is added to the element, and it becomes a Sacrament, which is of itself like the Word made visible *." Indeed, this is so evident, that if you take away

1 2 Cor. iv. I.

3 Adv. Hær. iv. 34.

2 Rev. xxi. 3.

4 In Joan. Tr. lxxx. 3.

either the outward sign or the inward grace; if you explain either of them away, or if you in any way separate them from each other, it ceases to be a Sacrament. We are ourselves made of body and soul, one visible, the other invisible; but if these are parted the one from the other, the man dies. So it is with a Sacrament; if you part the visible token from the invisible grace it is a Sacrament no more. Nor is this all; for where there are no Sacraments there can be no Church; and where there is no Church there can assuredly be no salvation. The candlestick is removed, to use our LORD's own words, and taken away. And HE that walketh in the midst of the candlesticks has removed His saving presence. What St. Paul calls "the ministration of the Spirit;" what St. John speaks of as the tabernacle of God," is no more in that place where the Sacraments are

not.

Now of this we may be certain, that if we have reason to be thankful for the light of the sun, and to accept it as a token of GOD's care and goodness, we have much more reason to be thankful, we have a greater proof of His goodness, in having vouchsafed to us His Church with its two Sacraments. It does not seem much to say this, because every one would at once allow that life eternal is of more importance than temporal life. Yet so weak is our faith, that it appears strange if any one acts up to this truth, as if he believed it. If the light of the sun should be obscured and hid from us for some time by cold and gloomy weather, we should be cast down; we should watch anxiously for a change, and hail it with great joy and comfort. But a heavy cloud may come over our Church, and even threaten to extinguish its light; and men in general are surprised that there should be any to take it to heart.

On this subject of the Sacraments, and the combining thereby the outward sign together with the inward grace, our Church is now as it has been from the beginning. It is in this that she is the witness and the keeper of Divine truth-has the ministry of God's Word and stewardship of His mysteries. But the attempt of the great enemy throughout all time has been to put asunder what God has joined together; to separate the sign

5 Rev. ii. 5.