THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 $)ktor in (foitflitt. 
 
 SERMONS 
 
 PREACHED DURING 
 
 THE SEASON OF LENT, 1867, 
 
 IN 
 
 OXFORD. 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD. REV. M. F. SADLER, M.A. 
 
 REV. H. P. LIDDON, M.A. REV. DR. KAY. 
 
 THE DEAN OF CORK. REV. T. T. CARTER, M.A. 
 
 REV. CANON WOODFORD. REV. G. BULSTRODE, M.A. 
 
 REV. DR. PUSEY. REV. R. RANDALL, M.A. 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF MEATH. ARCHDEACON BICKERSTETH. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL, LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD. 
 
 xforti, 
 
 AND 377, STRAND, LONDON : 
 
 JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 
 1868.
 
 f\ 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ^HE Sermons preached at St. Mary's and 
 St. Giles' Churches in Oxford, on the Wed- 
 nesdays and Fridays in Lent, 1867, concluded 
 a series which had lasted through some preceding 
 years. The strife between good and evil had 
 been followed out, so far as revelation supplied 
 matter for the enquiry, from this world to the 
 world of spirits. It remained to examine the re- 
 cords of its close, and to exhibit to the eyes of 
 the faithful the Victor in that long conflict. It 
 was this which was attempted in the series of 
 1867. 
 
 In 1868, the subject which had been suggested 
 in the former course, and without which it was 
 incomplete, and yet which could not then be fol- 
 lowed without unduly disturbing the sequence of 
 those Sermons, the responsibility of man as a 
 creature to his Creator, with the ideas which 
 flow directly from it, was taken as the leading 
 subject of the course. No former course ap- 
 peared to create and maintain to the end such 
 a living interest amidst the large congregations 
 which filled both churches. 
 
 1236180
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 May God grant, by His great grace, that some 
 enduring results to the furtherance of His glory, 
 and the benefit of His holy Church, may flow 
 from the preaching and publication of these 
 Sermons. 
 
 S. OXON. 
 
 CUDDESDON PALACE, 
 Sept. 21, 1868.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON I, 
 
 ( P . i.) 
 The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. 
 
 REVELATIONS xiii. 8. 
 BY THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD. 
 
 SEBMON n, 
 
 (P. 13-) 
 2 he Victor, in tJie Times of Preparation. 
 
 ISAIAH xl. 3. 
 BY H. P. LIDDON, M.A. 
 
 SEBMON m, 
 
 (P-35-) 
 The Victor ; manifest in the Flesh. 
 
 ROMANS viii. 2. 
 BY THE DEAN OF CORK. 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 (P- 59-) 
 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. 
 
 DANIEL vii. 13. 
 BY J. R. WOODFORD, M.A.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 (p. 73.) 
 
 The Victor, on His Throne, the Object of Divine Worship. 
 
 REVELATIONS v. 11 13. 
 BY K. B. PL' SKY, D.D. 
 
 SERMON VI, 
 
 (p. 99.) 
 
 The I 'is far, flu His Throne, the Mediator between God and Man. 
 
 ILKIIRKWS vii. 2J. 
 
 Bv THE LORD BISHOP OF MEATH. 
 
 SERMON VH, 
 
 (p. i IS-) 
 The Victor, on His Throne, the Priest of His People. 
 
 HEHRF.WS vii. 26. 
 BY M. F. SADLER, M.A. 
 
 SERMON 
 
 (P- 1 33-) 
 The Victor, on His Throne, giving Gifts to Men. 
 
 El'HKSIANS iv. 7 12. 
 
 H v \V. K A V, D. D. 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 <p- 145-) 
 7/tc Victor, en His Throne, mystically I'nitcd to Jlis People. 
 
 ST. JOHN xvii. 10. 
 BY T. T. CARTER, M.A.
 
 CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 SEKMON X. 
 
 (p. 161.) 
 
 The Victor, on His Throne, absolving His People. 
 
 ST. MATTHEW vii. 29 ; ST. JOHN xx. 23. 
 
 BY G. BULSTRODE, M.A. 
 
 SEKMON XL 
 
 (P. 185.) 
 
 The Victor, on His Throne, holding the Keys of 
 Hell and of Death . 
 
 ACTS vii. 59. 
 BY R. RANDALL, M.A. 
 
 SEKMON XII. 
 
 (p. 201.) 
 
 The Victor, on His Throne, delivering up the Kingdom. 
 
 \ COR. xv. 28. 
 BY ARCHDEACON BICKERSTETH.
 
 ERRATUM. 
 p. 142, line 12, for Wilfred read Winfred.
 
 SERMON I. 
 Ftctor, in tfje Counsels of ISternttg, 
 
 REVELATIONS xiii. 8, 
 " The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 
 
 "T^HE Victor in the Counsels of Eternity." What 
 words, brethren, for us to utter ! What thoughts 
 for us to muse upon ! We creatures of a day crea- 
 tures not merely under the narrow circumscribing law 
 of time, which at its widest expansion and longest 
 duration is but a poor finite measure, incapable of shew- 
 ing even as a point beside eternity ; but yet more, 
 under that law of time in its most cramping measures : 
 creatures to whom time is dropped out by minutes ; 
 who are born but to die ; whose longest -life is "even as 
 a vapour, which appeareth for a little while, and then 
 vanisheth away," we can scarcely speak about the 
 counsels of eternity. Our speculating on them at all is 
 as if a creature, which by the law of its being was 
 chained to some living stalk, which had fixed itself in 
 the narrow chink of some riven rock whence it floated 
 idly in the lazy current of the half-stagnant tide, should 
 speculate upon the mighty currents of the neighbouring 
 ocean, as it surged by in its deep azure mystery. And 
 even this is an unworthy and incompetent analogy. 
 For nearer far in relative magnitude is the least of these 
 half-animated zoophytes to the mighty ocean with all 
 
 B
 
 The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. [SERM. 
 
 its trackless unmeasured depths, than is one drop of 
 Time to the illimitable sea of Eternity. 
 
 For what is eternity ? how can our minds even grasp 
 the very idea of what is so unlike anything around us 
 in this world, which is bound so fast beneath the bonds 
 of time and space, of extension and succession. For 
 eternity is not time prolonged ; no, not to the uttermost 
 prolongation through which, by heaping in thought 
 millions upon millions, we strain the weary imagina- 
 tion to get something like a calculation of its in- 
 finity. It is not this at all ; it is not time prolonged, 
 but time abolished ; it is not the lengthening out of 
 the narrow stream as it toils on between the banks, 
 broken into many a reach, marked out by many a 
 boundary, losing the past and hiding the future by 
 many a winding ; it is not this : it is the boundless, 
 shoreless, indivisible unity of the measureless ocean, 
 where past is not, nor future, nor fading, nor dark- 
 ness, but the all ever-present now. THE COUNSELS OF 
 ETERNITY ! They reach us as the echo on the shore 
 when the mighty storm breaks in its thunder upon the 
 tossed-up billows of the far-off ocean-tide. They come 
 from the trackless distances which lie beyond space 
 itself, and seem too great for thought. 
 
 But, further, between Whom are these counsels taken ? 
 Who arc those who framed them ? Who are these " in- 
 habitcrs of eternity ?" Between the Three Divine Persons 
 in the ever-blessed Godhead ; These are the counsels of 
 the unsearchable Trinity ; of the Father, and the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost. The counsels of Love, of Wisdom, 
 of Power, which are not qualities, but essences ; the 
 counsels of the Father, the fountain of Godhead ; the 
 counsels of the Son, begotten before all worlds, one in 
 the unbroken unity of the Godhead, co-equal, co-eternal
 
 I.] The Victor, in ttic Counsels of Eternity. 3 
 
 with the Father, but from the Father, as the Father is 
 not from Him ; Who is the Father's Word, the coming 
 forth to all created being of the Father's glory ; the 
 counsels of the Holy Ghost, one God with the Father 
 and with the Son ; from the Father and from the Son, 
 the Lord of love, of light, of life ; Their counsels ; Their 
 " Let us make man ;" Their secret, trackless, thought- 
 transcending plans ! Surely, as we gaze reverently, 
 through the mist which hangs over eternity, at the coun- 
 cil-chamber of the mysterious Three in One, we feel that 
 the majesty of the words we utter, even transcends our 
 thoughts, and we might turn away heart-struck from 
 these counsels of eternity. Yet this passage declares to 
 us most plainly their existence : " The Lamb slain from 
 the foundation of the world." The question which un- 
 doubtedly exists, whether in the true construction that 
 " from the foundation of the world" belongs directly 
 to " the Lamb slain," or to " the Lamb's book of life," 
 makes no difference here. Either interpretation equally 
 presupposes the counsel in that awful council chamber ; 
 the pre-ordaining plan ; the predetermined end. Nor 
 does the passage stand alone. Listen to the words of 
 Zechariah : " Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, 
 and against the Man that is My fellow, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts a ." How are the stirrings of His hid- 
 den will Who is "the mighty God, great in counsel, 
 mighty in work b ," set before us in this grand chant 
 of ancient prophecy ! How do we hear Him " de- 
 claring the end from the beginning, and from ancient 
 times the things that are not yet done, saying, My 
 counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure ." 
 For all this is indeed but the ushering into Time from 
 the circumambient Eternity of Him who is " the Ruler 
 
 Zech. xiii. 7. b Jer. xxxii. 18, 19. c Isa. xlvi. 10. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 Tlic Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. [sERM. 
 
 in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from 
 everlasting d ." 
 
 It is, then, plainly revealed to us that there were 
 these counsels of eternity. And this year we propose 
 to follow up, even into them, the subject which now for 
 the last two seasons has occupied these our Lenten lec- 
 tures. We would complete these two scries of sermons 
 in which we have seen the conflict of Christ through 
 His Church ; first, with the evil which is in this world ; 
 and next, with evil as it is impersonate in the Prince of 
 the powers of the air, and in the hosts of his vassals, by 
 now examining His own personal conflict with it ; by 
 tracing up the strife from His to Him, from the subject 
 to the Lord, from the visible earthly servant to Him the 
 unseen Lord, who gave His Saint the victory, standing 
 by Him and making Him more than conqueror. This 
 tracing, then, of the great Victor's path must, if it is to 
 be complete, lead us up to its very beginning ; and 
 it began here in the counsels of eternity. 
 
 Besides, moreover, the logical fitness of beginning 
 our enquiry here, there arc some most important practical 
 considerations into which we shall be led, and for the 
 sake of which, even if there were no other reason for 
 doing so, it would be well to trace back the strife and 
 the victory to this their marvellous beginning. 
 
 For, first, in such an enquiry, we shall be drawn out 
 of that miserable subjective mode of dealing with these 
 great truths of the Gospel which is so common in this 
 day ; and which is full of danger ; having, amongst its 
 other evils, such a tendency to develope, under the garb 
 of high devotional feeling, a most refined spiritual selfish- 
 ness. \Ve may trace the working of this evil in the way 
 in which the great doctrine of the atonement is often 
 
 d Micah v. 2.
 
 I.] The Victor, in the Counsels jof Eternity. 5 
 
 handled. Men speak of the necessity of our Lord be- 
 coming man that He might die for us, and the necessity 
 of His being God that an infinite value might be im- 
 parted to His sacrifice, so that He might atone for us. In 
 a certain sense, of course both these assertions are true ; 
 He did obey and suffer as man ; and as He who obeyed 
 and suffered was the eternal Son of the Father, He did 
 expiate as God ; but there is a too common mode of so 
 dwelling on these mysteries of the Divine love as to 
 exalt man into the very centre of all being. All is for 
 him. The Son of God becomes Man ; nay, men al- 
 most imply that He is God because it is necessary for 
 us that He should be. A strange perversion of the 
 highest truth, so as to turn it into deadly error ; making 
 God to be for the sake of man, instead of seeing that 
 man exists at all only because it pleased God that he 
 should be ; that he is but the mere breath of God's Will, 
 which is another name for His Love. If we would be 
 free from this wretched blinding self-exaltation, we 
 must approach these deep contemplations from the side 
 of God, not from the side of man. 
 
 Go, then, with me, brethren, for a few moments, 
 into these vast truths. See all creation, every being 
 and thing which is, IN God before it had any derived 
 existence, FOR God when it had been made to be. 
 See God as the cause of creation. Understand that 
 whilst out of God there is no necessity which can limit 
 or constrain His perfect being, His very perfection 
 makes Him to be a law to Himself: that His Love 
 could not be solitary and barren, but required from its 
 own essential perfection to be prolific ; to pour itself 
 out into a creation of derived beings, who should be 
 capable of blessedness in doing that which His Will 
 appointed as the perfecting of their own nature. So
 
 The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. [SERM. 
 
 gazing into the mystery of creation, we can in some 
 degree understand the Divine Perfection calling into 
 existence personal beings endowed with reason, pos- 
 sessed of a real will, having a true power of choice both 
 of good and of evil ; of that which His Will in its 
 perfcctness chose for them as their blessedness, or of 
 that which was contrary to His Will, and so to their 
 own true happiness ; even though this involved the 
 possible development of evil. For, so far as we can 
 see, that possibility was essential to the existence of 
 reasonable creatures, who should possess a true power 
 of choice, and therefore a real capacity for loving Him 
 and rejoicing in Him, by the free action of the wills 
 which He had created. For such a capacity would seem 
 to be essential to the existence of a real, separate, rea- 
 sonable personality, since, if it were not in these crea- 
 tures of His hand, they would be but repetitions of 
 Himself, and the universe would be peopled with no- 
 thing better than the painted and fantastic rays of the 
 Pantheist's dream. Such a creation could not have 
 satisfied that great Love which was the motive cause of 
 the existence of all derived being. Rather, as we have 
 seen, the law of its own perfectness required the exist- 
 ence of reasonable creatures with an independent will, 
 able, as the result of their own choice, to share the 
 blessedness of their Creator. 
 
 And yet further, we may see not only that this 
 coming in of sin, through the evil choice of true free 
 agents, may probably have been a necessary condition 
 of the creation of such beings ; but that in making re- 
 demption from sin possible, it made also possible higher 
 actings of the Divine love than mere creation could have 
 given room for ; and further still, that it provided for a 
 blessedness in the redeemed creation, of which it would
 
 I.] The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. 7 
 
 not otherwise have been capable. Therefore, it may be, 
 it was planned in the Counsels of Eternity. For we must 
 not deem of redemption, or of the wonder of the In- 
 carnation by which it was wrought out, as if they were 
 in any sense an after-thought ; the mending of a broken 
 plan ; the supplying by a new expedient that which 
 in the first design had failed. Far otherwise ; before 
 any derived being was, the entrance of evil into the 
 universe, and the fall of man was foreseen ; and, withal, the 
 opportunity it afforded for the acting of a love higher 
 than the love even of a Creator. For great as is the love 
 which we may trace in creation, surely we can see that 
 for Him who, for Himself, needed not any out of Him- 
 self, and who leaving the lost in their loss, by His mere 
 Word could have called into being hosts of other crea- 
 tures to fill up the places of the fallen, for Him to stoop 
 so low as to knit in the Divine person of the Eternal 
 Son the fallen nature to Himself, that He who was God 
 might, as man, obey, suffer, and die, surely we can see 
 in this a love more stupendous than the love which 
 made creation to be. This, then, the love of God re- 
 quired, that He might satisfy that pouring-out of love 
 which belonged to His eternal perfection. Into this 
 shoreless ocean, swelled, in the Counsels of Eternity, 
 the mighty tides of the foreknowing love of God. 
 
 Secondly, whilst these Counsels of Eternity thus 
 made provision for the acting of the Divine love, they 
 provided also for the greater blessedness of the rea- 
 sonable creation. 
 
 For the truest blessedness of every reasonable crea- 
 ture consists in knowing God. Out of God there is 
 to such a being weariness, wasting, and the never- 
 ending pangs of unsatisfied desire. For only in God 
 can one capable of comprehending God find enough
 
 The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. [sER M 
 
 to satisfy his need. And to the increase of this com- 
 prehension there can be no limit. Kver, through eter- 
 nity, may the finite, even when, according to his limited 
 nature, he is perfect, find more and more in the in- 
 finite, and yet never exhaust that infinity. Whatever, 
 therefore, displays more thoroughly the perfection of the 
 All-Perfect to His creatures, provides in that display for 
 their greater blessedness. Now, even our limited moral 
 powers can perceive that the moral greatness which 
 finds its perfection in love is a far nobler attribute of 
 being than mere power. So we measure such qualities 
 in one another : so, prolonging infinitely, with humble 
 adoration, the lines of thought, we may estimate the 
 attributes of God. In planning, then, redemption, and 
 the Victor's triumph over sin and evil in the Counsels 
 of Eternity, we may see that the All-wise provided for 
 the revelation of the wonders of His glory, and so, for 
 the blessedness of every blessed being, even as He never 
 could have done by a mere creation in which was not 
 the possbility of any fall. 
 
 Nor is all this merely a speculation, however lofty, 
 bare of direct practical results. Besides, first, helping 
 greatly, as I have said, to free men from the narrowing 
 influences of a mere subjective and human view of the 
 mystery of Redemption, it may, secondly, answer many 
 of the doubts which rise in the mind as it dwells upon 
 the littleness of man and the awful grandeur of the 
 doctrine of the Incarnation of the eternal Son. Who 
 has not, at times, been tried by such ? Who has 
 looked up into the heaven above him, and noted, as in 
 the frosty sky they sparkle over him, the innumerable 
 stars, and, taught by science, has learned to resolve the 
 blue light of the milky way into yet other galaxies of 
 more distant worlds of light who has so gazed in
 
 I.] The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. 9 
 
 wonder on the endless prodigality of creation, and 
 mused upon the problem whether all those worlds are 
 full, like this, of reasonable beings, without the question 
 rising on his thoughts, how it can be that the Son of 
 God should become incarnate for the dwellers on this 
 single globe ? It is such a drop in the expanse of 
 ocean ; such a grain in the universe ; such a speck in 
 the illimitable heavens : what could have given to its 
 inhabitants the priceless value which called down for 
 them, and clothed in their likeness, the eternal Son of 
 the everlasting Father ? How can it be, that whilst He 
 took not on Him the nature of angels, He should for 
 us and for our salvation stoop to be born of the Virgin, 
 and become man ? Now the answer to this seems to lie 
 in that view of redemption which we have reached 
 above. Not for man only was the marvel wrought. The 
 mighty current of the divine love needed those vast 
 banks through which to pour itself forth, and by their 
 sides were ranged the whole reasonable creation of 
 God. This speck of earth is the theatre of the uni- 
 verse. In the Counsels of Eternity it was fore-ordained 
 that, here on earth, the mighty Victor should accomplish 
 His conquests, and display to every creature the un- 
 known marvels of the love of God. Not to rouse from 
 man's heart only the song of thanksgiving, but to 
 heighten the joy, and exalt the praise of all the hea- 
 venly host, did God display here the wonders of re- 
 demption. Bending from their golden thrones to gaze 
 into the depth of the humiliation of their Lord, the 
 highest seraphs of the Presence sought, and learned to 
 know, in man's salvation, more of God's glory. " Which 
 things the angels desire to look into." 
 
 Thirdly, here is another most practical and mo- 
 mentous conclusion, from this aspect of redemption.
 
 io The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. [SERM. 
 
 If it be true of the race that it was thus redeemed, 
 not as some afterthought, but in the Counsels of Eter- 
 nity, it must be as really true of every separate soul. 
 For, to God, the foreknowledge must be not of the race 
 but of the individuals. It is a consequence of our in- 
 firmity that we lose the separate figures in the mass. 
 It cannot be so with the Almighty. Each soul which 
 He creates stands before Him in its singleness as if no 
 other existed. Each soul which, in time, He should 
 quicken, lay in idea as clear before Him in the back 
 eternity. This is what constitutes the priceless value of 
 a single soul, which makes it such an utter loss if a man 
 should gain the whole world and lose his own soul ; 
 that it was foreknown in the counsels of eternity ; that 
 over it brooded then the Love of the Almighty ; that 
 for it the eternal Son consented to die ; that it the 
 eternal Spirit waited to sanctify. 
 
 What a grandeur does it give to these lives of ours. 
 With what an awfulness docs it invest every detail of 
 our moral and spiritual struggle. The lines of the most 
 common life were laid in the Counsels of Eternity. See, 
 then, thou foreknown man, what is really passing around 
 and within thee, in the seeming commonness of thy 
 daily life. All was ordained for thee before the founda- 
 tions of the world were laid. The mystery of thy free- 
 will, that essential condition of thy moral trial, was held 
 for thee by the hand of the Almighty, uninterrupted, 
 uninfringed. Thou only, for thyself, couldst cause thy 
 everlasting loss. But all was planned for thee, planned 
 in love and wisdom infinite, to work out thy salvation. 
 And this extends to every minutest detail of thy life 
 of trial. To thy God there is neither great nor little : 
 these measuring lines of the finite reach not to the infinite. 
 Each detail of thy life lay in calm clearness before the
 
 I.] The Victor, in the Counsels of Eternity. u 
 
 gaze of the all-comprehending eye. The temptations of 
 thy daily life ; the rebellion of thy appetites ; the way- 
 wardness of thy temper ; the restlessness of thy intel- 
 lect ; the doubtfulness of thy spirit ; thy companions ; 
 the small incidents of every day ; this Lenten Service ; 
 the words thou art now hearing ; the stirring of thy spirit 
 under them ; the yearning of thy heart ; thy reluctance 
 to give up this small passing, perishing pleasure all 
 were seen ; as to each the love of God ordered all that 
 was needed for thy salvation. This is thy life : fleeting 
 as it is, it rises out of this abyss of the Divine Will, 
 it shall be prolonged into the mysterious vistas of the 
 coming eternity. Its lines were laid before the world 
 was ; its being shall endure when the world has passed 
 away. 
 
 Dare, then, to look calmly, deeply, into it. Be real. 
 See how entirely real is everything around thee. Thou 
 hast passed, for this thy life's span, out of the darkness 
 in which God had hid from eternity thy life, into the 
 light and sunshine, and now under His eye thou hast to 
 do thy part. Beside thee stands the mighty loving Victor 
 in the Counsels of Eternity ; in thee, by thee, with thee, 
 He would conquer. Wilt thou dishonour Him ? The sal- 
 vation of thy soul shall be His glory. O, then, be real ; 
 real in struggling with thy common temptations ; real 
 in thy prayers ; real in the self-denials, and self-watch- 
 ings of this Lent ; real in thy reaching after Him ; real 
 in thy finding Him in His Word ; in meditation ; above 
 all, in the communion given thee of His Body and His 
 Blood ; and in this conflict He will never forget, never 
 leave thee, and in the hour of death He shall reveal 
 Himself to thy astonished soul, as having been even in 
 thy passing life the mighty Victor in the Counsels of 
 Eternity.
 
 SERMON II. 
 Efje Uictor, in tije Etmes of Preparation, 
 
 ISAIAH xl. 3. 
 
 " The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the 
 way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for 
 our God." 
 
 A LL the four Evangelists refer these words to the 
 ministry of St. John the Baptist ; in St. John they 
 received their highest and complete fulfilment But 
 their first and historical reference is to the return of 
 the Jewish captives from Babylon. The Lord was the 
 King of the chosen people ; and in the vision of the Pro- 
 phet the promised return to home and freedom was to 
 be a triumphant procession across the desert, headed by 
 Israel's invisible Monarch. The cause of the holy people 
 was the cause of God ; their bondage and shame in 
 Babylon, although a heaven-sent punishment, had been 
 a humiliation for the majesty of Jehovah before the face 
 of the scoffing heathen ; their triumphant return would 
 be the work of God, it would also be the manifestation 
 of His glory. No obstacle should stop the path of His 
 resistless advance : " Every valley shall be exalted, and 
 every mountain and hill shall be made low : and the 
 crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
 plain : and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and
 
 14 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [sERM. 
 
 all flesh shall sec it together: for the mouth of the Lord 
 hath spoken it." 
 
 Clearly, my brethren, there is here a wider reach of 
 meaning than any which can be satisfied by the actual 
 prospect or history of the return from Babylon. Say 
 what you will about the highly poetical form into which 
 the Prophet has undoubtedly thrown his fervid thought, 
 still there is the thought beneath the form which clothes 
 it. If it would be a degrading mistake to resolve this 
 passage into a mere description of some vast engineer- 
 ing operations ; if valleys were not literally to be filled 
 up, and mountains were not literally to be levelled, 
 something, at any rate, was to take place in the moral, 
 social, or political world which should correspond to this 
 vigorous imagery. And that something was to interest, 
 not merely the Jewish race and their heathen neigh- 
 bours, but the whole human family : "All flesh shall see 
 it together." It is clear that the particular, local, tem- 
 poral deliverance melts before the eye of the Prophet 
 as, gazing on it, he describes it into a deliverance, gene- 
 ral and world-wide in its significance, extending in its 
 effects far beyond the limits of time. The Deliverance 
 of deliverances is before him. He sees the great escape 
 from bondage, of which all earlier efforts at freedom were 
 but shadows ; he sees it afar off, the pathway of mankind 
 across the desert of time from the city of chains and sor- 
 row, whereof Babylon was the earthly type, to the city of 
 freedom and glory imaged in Jerusalem. And thus it is 
 that the Evangelists so unhesitatingly apply the passage 
 to St. John the Baptist. St. John was, as we Christians 
 know, the immediate forerunner of the Deliverer of hu- 
 manity ; St. John, as a hermit of the desert and preacher 
 of repentance, supplied, by his life, the connecting link- 
 between the literal and spiritual senses of the prophecy ;
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 15 
 
 St. John, gathered up in himself, embodied and repre- 
 sented the ages of prediction and expectation ; he was 
 the mind of the Old Testament in a concrete form, lay- 
 ing down its office and proclaiming its work of prepara- 
 tion finished, when the Reality Which it foreshadowed 
 had come. 
 
 Now although, as we were reminded by our Bishop on 
 Ash-Wednesday, it is a fatal error to speak as if the pro- 
 vidences and the Being of God were a mere reflection of 
 the wants and thoughts of man ; although Redemption is 
 an objective fact, the primary motive of which we may 
 reverently but surely say was the setting forth before 
 the moral universe the glory of the divine Redeemer ; 
 yet still it is true that the Only-begotten Son of God, 
 " for us men and for our salvation, came down from 
 heaven." It was not that He modified His original 
 plan by adapting His Incarnation to the necessities 
 of a fallen race. These necessities were foreseen ; they 
 entered into, they determined the form of His advent, 
 which thus combined our dearest interests with His 
 highest honour. He came indeed that, even by His 
 deepest humiliations, He might set forth God's attri- 
 butes of righteousness and love. But He came also at 
 the voice and pleading of our deep necessity ; He came 
 to die for all, because, as His Apostle says, all were 
 dead ; He came for His own glory indeed, but also be- 
 cause if He had not come, we must have perished 
 irretrievably. 
 
 Accordingly, the preparation for His advent was rather 
 of a character required by our need than essential to His 
 glory or to His personal triumph. It has indeed been 
 said by a great military leader of modern days that the 
 first condition of success in a campaign is the possession 
 of accurate information as to the strength and move-
 
 1 6 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. 
 
 merits of the enemy. Certainly, the Captain of our salva- 
 tion was already furnished with all necessary informa- 
 tion ; He had measured from the depths of His eternity 
 the foe whom He would conquer, and the shame and 
 penalty to which He would submit. But, if man is to 
 share in His Victory, man must be prepared for His 
 advent, man must be educated for the blessing in store 
 for him. Unless man is to be redeemed as he was 
 created, without any consent or co-operation of his will ; 
 unless he is to be saved as if, instead of being a moral 
 agent, he were a tree or a stone, man must enter in 
 some measure into the designs of his Benefactor ; the 
 way of the Lord must be prepared, the highway of our 
 God must be laid down in the desert of man's moral 
 and intellectual wanderings. 
 
 I. It is plain, my Brethren, that our subject is too 
 wide to admit of any but a very partial treatment. Let 
 us then observe that the most necessary element of this 
 preparation for the Victor was to convince man that he 
 needed redemption by a heavenly friend and conqueror. 
 We know that in this country no political measure that 
 really touches the interests of the people can receive the 
 sanction and the force of law, unless the people them- 
 selves are convinced that the evils which the measure 
 purposes to remedy are substantial and not fancy evils. 
 No legislative genius on the part of the minister can 
 dispense with this condition of success. If the country is 
 not convinced that the measure is necessary, the minister 
 must take measures that will produce this conviction. He 
 must hold meetings ; he must make speeches ; he must 
 write dissertations ; he must deal in dry statistical de- 
 monstrations and in vehemently passionate appeals ; he 
 must set in motion all the complicated machinery of 
 political agitation and enterprise which may be at his
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 17 
 
 disposal. Supposing him to be himself satisfied of the 
 necessity of the measure in contemplation, this is nothing 
 more than his duty to his country : he would fail of that 
 duty if he could neglect to diffuse, according to the best 
 of his power, that amount of political information which 
 is necessary to his success. 
 
 You will not understand me to be saying that here we 
 have a strict and absolute analogy to the sacred matter 
 immediately before us ; because it is plain that the cor- 
 respondence fails in a most vital particular. We all 
 know that the enactment of a new law in a free country 
 is, in reality, the act not of the legislature but of the 
 people : the legislature is only the instrument of the 
 popular will. But the Redemption of the world is in 
 no wise the work of redeemed man : Christ is the One 
 Redeemer in Whose redemptive triumph man could 
 have no part save that of accepting and sharing its 
 blessings. Yet this deliberate acceptance of Christ's 
 Redemption by man is of vital necessity to man ; man 
 is not saved against or without his will to be saved ; 
 and it is therefore of the last importance that he should 
 understand his need of the salvation, which he must de- 
 sire and accept. 
 
 Now what was the evil which Christ was to conquer, 
 in man and for man ? It was sin. Sin is the one real 
 evil. It is certainly worse than pain ; since pain may 
 become a good. It is certainly worse than death ; since 
 death is only the effect of sin and may be the gate of 
 freedom. It is worse even than the devil ; since it 
 makes the devil to be what he is. The devil would 
 be powerless, and death would have no sting, and pain 
 would be unknown, if it were not for sin. But sin is 
 not a thing always palpable to and recognised by the 
 sinner. It is like the peculiar atmosphere in which 
 
 c
 
 1 8 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. 
 
 we pass the great part of our lives here in Oxford. 
 Looking down upon our homes from the top of Shot- 
 over, we see the thick damp fog burying this city and 
 valley beneath a shroud of unwholesome vapour ; but 
 here in the streets of Oxford we scarcely observe it 
 hanging in the sunlight, except when it becomes ex- 
 cessive in the depth of winter. Sin is just such a mist 
 as this : it is a fog, a blight, impalpable yet real, about 
 us, around us, within us. It bathes our moral life on 
 this side and that, and withal it blinds us to the fact 
 of its existence. If man would take a true measure of 
 sin, he must be lifted out of it ; he must ascend to some 
 moral eminence whence its real character will be made 
 plain to him, and where he may form strong resolutions 
 to close with any offer of deliverance and escape from 
 its importunity and thraldom. 
 
 Now such an eminence was supplied in early days 
 by the gift of a moral law ; and, first of all, let us, like 
 the Apostle, in some passages of his Kpistle to the 
 Romans, use that word in its large inclusive sense, for 
 any form of moral truth presented to the soul of man. 
 Of all moral law God is the Author. And moral law 
 was the chosen messenger whom He sent before the 
 face of His blessed Son, to reveal man to himself, and 
 to produce in man a conviction of the need of a Re- 
 demption. Of this gift of law there are plainly very 
 various measures. To the heathen He gave the natural 
 law, the law of conscience, the perception that there 
 exists a real distinction between right and wrong, often 
 going hand in hand with grave mistakes as to what was 
 right and what was wrong. And yet still in a true 
 sense, the Gentiles, although not having the Jewish law, 
 "were a law unto themselves, which shew the work of 
 the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 19 
 
 bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile ac- 
 cusing or else excusing one another 8 ." To the Jews 
 God gave the gift of law in a form far higher and 
 brighter. The Decalogue was, the Bible says, "written 
 by the finger of God on two tables of stone." It came 
 not from within the consciousness of Moses, it was pre- 
 sented to him from without ; although Moses at once 
 recognised, he could not but recognise, its truth. It 
 came from God, as an external, independent revela- 
 tion ; it did not gradually arise in one or in many 
 minds by any process of gentle, imperceptible growth ; 
 Scripture represents it as having been flashed forth from 
 heaven, suddenly, visibly, amid the rocks of Sinai. No 
 law which God had placed in the conscience of any 
 heathen people could compare with the revelation re- 
 ceived by Moses ; it shed an illumination upon human 
 life, it held up a standard of human action, it implied 
 an idea of the awful sanctity of its Author, with which 
 nothing in heathendom was correspondent. 
 
 Undoubtedly, my brethren, the primary purpose of 
 law is, that it should furnish a literal rule of conduct, 
 or, in other words, that it should be obeyed. But if 
 law is not obeyed, it may yet have a use which no 
 wise man will underrate. It may lift up the voice of 
 a perpetual protest against the society which falls short 
 of its requirements, or which violates it, or which is in 
 a fair way to forget it. In this case, instead of being 
 a standard which creates a sense of satisfaction, by 
 being fulfilled, it becomes an ideal, which stands in 
 humbling, because reproachful, contrast to the dull, 
 sluggish life which is so far below it, or which out- 
 rages its behests. Now this, according to St. Paul, 
 was a main function of moral law, both Jewish and 
 
 Rom. ii. 14, 15. 
 C 2
 
 2O The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SKRM. 
 
 Gentile, before the coming of Jesus Christ Even among 
 the heathen, the natural law, which came from the light 
 of conscience, prescribed a standard, which utterly con- 
 demned the actual life of the heathen. St. Paul enu- 
 merates a long catalogue of sins which the Pagan phi- 
 losophers knew to be evils, no less certainly than did 
 the Apostle of Christ, but which the Pagans never- 
 theless continued to practise on an organized system, 
 and in a very business-like way b . And although the 
 Jews " made their boast in the law," that is to say, were 
 not merely thankful for possessing so full a revelation 
 of God's will, but compared themselves, self-com- 
 placently, with other peoples to whom that revelation 
 had not been made, still, the question was, did they 
 obey it ? " Thou that preachest a man should not steal, 
 dost thou steal ? Thou that sayest a man should not 
 commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery ? Thou 
 that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? Thou 
 that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the 
 law dishonourest thou God c ?" To this question one 
 answer only was possible: the Jew 'rested' in a law 
 which he did not obey. The revealed Law was his ; it 
 was his, not to bless but to condemn him ; it was his 
 to convince him that if he had a brighter light to guide 
 him than the Gentile, he also incurred a proportionably 
 deeper guilt by neglecting it. Thus both Jew and Gen- 
 tile were concluded to be under sin ; and in different 
 degrees, it was true that by the law came the knowledge, 
 the blessed salutary knowledge, of such sin d . More than 
 this, the presence of the law irritated the activities of 
 that hidden mischief which it revealed. " I had not 
 known sin," says St. Paul, speaking in the name of 
 human nature, " but by the law : for I had not known 
 
 b Rom. i. 2432. c Ibid. ii. 2123. d I kid. iii. 2O.
 
 II.] The Victor^ in the Times of Preparation. 2 1 
 
 lust unless the law had said, ' Thou shalt not covet.' 
 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought 
 in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the 
 law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law 
 once ; but when the commandment came sin revived, 
 and I died. And the commandment which was or- 
 dained to life, I found to be unto death 6 ." We are 
 not to suppose that the moral law was really creative 
 of evil which did not exist before : since the law comes 
 from a Holy God, and is itself "holy, and just, and 
 good." But although the law did not add to the stock 
 of existing evil, it drew the unsuspected latent sin of 
 man forth into the daylight ; it irritated into intense 
 vigour the principle of opposition which, even when dor- 
 mant, is ever so strong in sinful human nature, and which 
 shews itself, under the irritation, in its true light as sin. 
 The law was like those remedies in medicine which rid 
 us of a disease by bringing it to the surface, or, as we 
 say, by precipitating it ; it forced man to see what he 
 really is, and to forget what he had fancied himself to 
 be. " By the law is the knowledge of sin." 
 
 This was the function of the law of nature in the Gen- 
 tile world, and of the law of Sinai, in a much higher 
 degree, in the Jewish world. It was like a light shining in 
 a dark cavern, and the forms of sin around were lighted 
 up by it with a lurid glare, which only did them justice. 
 The graceful wickedness of heathendom, the profound 
 hypocrisies of the Jew, when confronted with this hea- 
 venly light, fell into their place. The law tore off the 
 mask ; it penetrated beneath the skin ; it pierced even 
 to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the 
 joints and marrow. It ranged the great palpable sins 
 of the Jew and of the Pagan in their due order of ma- 
 
 e Rom. vii. 7 10.
 
 22 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. 
 
 lignity : but it did more than this, it put sin before 
 man in a light which made its burden, as we say in 
 the Communion Service, altogether intolerable. 
 
 For what is moral law, viewed in its essence ? It is 
 the proper Nature of God, the perfect Moral Being, un- 
 folded in language. This language shews the bearing 
 of God's Nature upon the life of man. The moral law 
 is not an arbitrary code which God might have made 
 otherwise, or might have left unmade altogether. God, 
 being such as He is, could not have made the law other- 
 wise. For God, I repeat, is the Moral Being : He is 
 Love, He is Truth, He is Justice, He is Sanctity. He 
 cannot legislate in contradiction to His nature : He can- 
 not but express His nature in His legislation. If He 
 had been a mere all-comprehending Intelligence, a mere 
 all-producing, all-controlling Force, He might have or- 
 dered what He has proscribed, and have forbidden what 
 He has commanded. As it is, God's freedom is bounded 
 on this side of His action. God might have made a na- 
 tural universe very different from that which we behold : 
 the heavenly bodies, this earth and its tenants, the rocks, 
 the plants, the animals around us arc what they are only 
 because He freely willed them to be so. He was under 
 no kind of constraint when He gifted you and me with 
 reason, and denied reason to the quadrupeds and the 
 birds: He might have reversed the order of His gifts ; He 
 might have withheld them. But having surrounded Him- 
 self with creatures capable of moral action, He could not 
 devise a law which should deny the truth of His own 
 necessary Nature ; He could not but legislate as He has. 
 Moral truth, like truths of pure mathematics, is co-eternal 
 with God : it must always have been true that " truth 
 is a virtue," as it must always have been true that 
 " things which are equal to the same are equal to one
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 23 
 
 another." And if moral or mathematical truth is thus 
 co-eternal with God, it cannot be something independent 
 of God, a second, self-existing truth alongside of, and 
 external to, the one original self-existing Being ; it must 
 have been, it must be, an integral part of God ; a law or 
 element of the Divine Nature. And therefore God could 
 never have said, " Thou mayest bear false witness against 
 thy neighbour ; thou mayest commit adultery ; thou 
 mayest steal ; dishonour thy father and thy mother,' 
 any more than He could have said, " Thou mayest have 
 other gods but Me." Given a created moral agent like 
 man, and God cannot but bid man obey the rays of 
 moral truth which stream from His own uncreated Es- 
 sence. Such rays are the law of an undivided love and 
 homage towards Himself in all its bearings of reverence 
 and worship, the law of honour due to 'parental autho- 
 rity, the law of reverence for the sanctity of life, the law 
 of responsibility in the transmission of the deposit of 
 life, the law of truth applied to property, and to lan- 
 guage, and to the hidden desires of the heart. God 
 would not be God if He could have reversed these com- 
 mands ; the Decalogue is God's nature veiled beneath 
 the language, and adapted to the facts of the life of man. 
 And therefore a violation of the moral law is not the 
 setting aside of a capricious order ; it is the violation 
 of a law which streams forth necessarily from God's 
 holy Nature, being such as It is ; it is a resistance to, 
 a negation of, God's Nature ; it is, without any ex- 
 aggeration, an act or state of will which, if produced 
 indefinitely, would annihilate God. 
 
 This may enable us to enter into the meaning of the 
 two words for sin which, both in the Hebrew and the 
 Greek languages, most perfectly unveil its fundamental 
 character. These words call it 'a missing the aim or
 
 24 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SKRM. 
 
 mark,' i.e. the mark or aim of the life of man. My 
 brethren, what is that aim ? In other words, why were 
 we sent into this world at all ? Now, if we sincerely 
 believe in a Creator to whom we owe simply and alto- 
 gether the gift of existence, must not each one of us 
 answer the question as follows ? ' I was sent into the 
 world to conform my will to the Will, that is, to the 
 holy Nature of my Maker, so far as I know it. I was 
 not sent here to please myself, but to please the Being 
 Who gave me life. Had I been the unaccountable pro- 
 duct of some stray chance, the upshot of some unin- 
 telligent force which in its capricious fertility happened 
 to throw off into existence such a singular and complex 
 result as are my body and my soul, although wholly 
 without the consciousness and purpose of doing so, then 
 I might have concluded that I owed nothing to any 
 being but myself, and I might have lived selfishly to 
 enjoy only the fleeting existence which belongs to me. 
 As it is, I believe in a God Who has created and Who 
 owns me : and being thus created and owned by God, 
 being His creature and His property, it is my business, 
 my first and truest business, to live for Him, to bring my 
 will into harmony with His. I am unlike the lower crea- 
 tures around me, unlike the beasts and the plants, unlike 
 the forces of nature, the heavenly bodies, the sun and 
 the stars, in that they must of necessity obey Him. But 
 that I might obey Him freely He has enabled and bidden 
 me to love Him. To make room for love there must 
 needs be liberty. The earth incessantly revolves around 
 the sun, but the earth does not love the sun. Why ? 
 because liberty is of the essence of love. The earth 
 cannot deviate from her orbit. That I might render to 
 my God the free service of love, He has given me the 
 power of refusing obedience. It is my duty, then, and
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 25 
 
 my happiness to obey a law which is not any arbitrary 
 product of His will, but which results from the essential 
 truth of His nature. Each deed, each word, each thought 
 which embodies such refusal misses the end for which I 
 exist ; it is that unutterable and radical misfortune which 
 I recognise as sin.' 
 
 Such is the language of a soul which believes in God, 
 and is withal illuminated by moral law. In this high 
 atmosphere of truth the glosses by which sin's true na- 
 ture is too often disguised slough off and fall away. 
 The soul is in the wilderness listening to the voice 
 which is preparing the way of the Lord before her. In 
 such bracing solitude, face to face with truth, men do 
 not conceive of sin as of a mere external fact, or series 
 of facts, of such and such quantity and bulk, which can 
 be witnessed by the human eye, or felt or measured : sin 
 is seen to be more than this, namely, a posture or warp 
 of the will. In the presence of divine law men do not 
 imagine that sin is limited to violations of human law : 
 since human law does not always enact what is abso- 
 lute right ; and it never pretends to enact all that is 
 right, or to prescribe all that is wrong. Human law 
 rarely enacts more than is necessary for the well-being 
 of society, it does not attempt to legislate for the well- 
 being of individual men. A false and misleading standard 
 in the things of the soul is human law ; it is one thing to 
 keep out of the police-court, it is another to be at peace 
 with God. Taught by the law of God, men do not sub- 
 stitute for the stern, unyielding rule of right and wrong, 
 the plastic, varying, untrustworthy standards of ' good 
 taste' and 'bad taste.' No doubt virtue is always really 
 in good taste, and vice is always in the worst taste 
 possible : but this judgment is formed according to an 
 absolute standard of taste which identifies it with moral
 
 26 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. 
 
 truth, and not according to that relative and local 
 standard which is 'good taste, 1 perhaps, with you and 
 me at this hour, and may be ' bad taste' with our suc- 
 cessors twenty or thirty years hence. As a matter of 
 fact, stern virtue is often voted by 'good taste' to be 
 awkward and graceless, while there are forms of polished 
 ungodliness which 'good taste' welcomes or at least con- 
 dones. When men understand that the law of God, in 
 its essence, is the Nature of God, they do not think lightly 
 of sin : they do not think of an act of sin as of an act 
 which has no consequences ; they do not think of it as of 
 a scar that heals in a few days, or as of a force which 
 spends itself, or as of a colour which fades. They sec 
 that wilful sin necessarily empties the soul of God, and 
 leaves it as the bed of the ocean might be without the 
 waters which can fill it. They see that sin introduces 
 a state which does not terminate until it be reversed by 
 an act as definite as the act which introduced it They 
 see that sin, as being the moral negation of God, is not 
 a fancy of the human mind, but a real fact in the uni- 
 verse, and that to have sinned wilfully is, until a man 
 repents, to be in a state of spiritual death. 
 
 Such was the discovery of his moral state to man 
 effected by the presence of moral law. But the moral 
 law did more even than this. It shewed man that there 
 was an original warp and deficiency in his nature which 
 made sin welcome, and conformity to moral truth difficult 
 to him. My brethren, we here touch upon a truth of reve- 
 lation which is especially repugnant to some forms of 
 modern thought, and which at first sight may appear to 
 be in conflict with our notions of natural justice. " It is 
 hard," say you, " that I should inherit a sinful nature be- 
 cause my ancestor sinned some six thousand years ago. 
 I will not believe the dogma which tells me this." Very
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 27 
 
 well, you reject the dogma : you make up your mind 
 that you are born holy. But now that you have parted 
 with revelation, hear what nature tells you. You had, 
 we will say, an intemperate great-grandfather, and he 
 has transmitted to you an enfeebled constitution. You 
 are scrofulous, or you are consumptive, or you have 
 a heart-disease, or you are rheumatic : and this comes 
 to you with the blood you inherit. You may say that 
 your body ought to have been created like your soul, 
 by a separate act of the Creator, which might have 
 detached you from this entail of misery and pain. Still, 
 my brethren, you cannot seriously revise the creation : 
 and it is not common sense to resist unalterable facts. 
 Here revelation is perfectly at one with nature. Physical 
 evil is transmitted from sire to son ; and a like trans- 
 mission of forfeiture of moral good is equally certain. 
 It is plain that God deals with us men, partly as indi- 
 viduals, but partly also as one great family, I had almost 
 said as one vast organism, with laws, wants, privileges, of 
 its own. Certainly the sin which Adam transmitted was 
 not anything positive, such as a poison, or bad blood. 
 When Adam sinned, he forfeited that original righteous- 
 ness, that robe of grace and beauty with which his Crea- 
 tor's mercy had endowed him in Paradise, and he simply 
 could not bequeath what he himself had lost. But as 
 the gift of righteousness which he had forfeited left his 
 natural passions in rebellion, and his faculties dislocated 
 and deranged, so he passed on to his children a nature 
 thus enfeebled and disordered, and open to the solicita- 
 tions of evil, and disinclined for goodness. It was in 
 mercy, not in judgment, that he was still permitted to 
 transmit the gift of natural life. God would not deny to 
 millions the gift of life because the sin of an ancestor 
 brought with it an inheritance of weakness and of shame.
 
 28 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. 
 
 From the first God gave a promise of coming salvation. 
 But still man felt his weakness, he felt his inherited 
 degradation, the ruins of his earlier greatness survived 
 in his intellect and in his heart to tell the tale ; and 
 when the moral law cast its clear, bright light upon 
 his conscience, a David exclaimed not merely, " I ac- 
 knowledge my own fault, and my sin is ever before 
 me," but also, " Behold I was shapen in wickedness, 
 and in sin hath my mother conceived me." 
 
 Thus it was that among the most gifted race of the 
 ancient world there was observable in poetry and gene- 
 rally in art a vein of deep melancholy, which faintly 
 confessed inward misery, and yearnings for a blessing 
 which had once been promised. Nature herself was in 
 sympathy with man ; death was an inexplicable mystery 
 in the world of the All-merciful ; the whole creation 
 groaned and travailed in pain together f . The great 
 mystery of pain, which is not solved in our chemical 
 laboratories and museums, hung heavily on the thought 
 of the ancient world. Paganism, too, had its sense of 
 violated right, and its wild attempts at expiatory sacri- 
 fice ; and, under a higher sanction, the courts of the 
 tabernacle and of the temple reeked with the blood of 
 victims, ever reminding the people of the covenant 
 that they bore an accumulating load of sin of which 
 they could not discharge themselves. Prophets reiter- 
 ated, expanded, enforced the teaching of the lawgiver ; 
 they gave it sharpness of point and particularity of 
 application, thus stimulating into keener consciousness 
 the national and individual sense of sin. Psalmists 
 poured forth strains of penitence which pierce the souls 
 of all who have felt the presence of moral evil within 
 them, even in Christendom, revealing as they do, the 
 ' Rum. viii. 22.
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 29 
 
 majesty and the searching convicting power of the divine 
 law. This was its function : " By the law is the know- 
 ledge of sin." But it discovered what it could not re- 
 lieve, it quickened anxieties which it could not allay, 
 it generated hopes and yearnings which it could not 
 satisfy. It taught men that there is a divine life, but 
 it did not give them strength to lead it ; it furnished 
 mankind with an ideal, but it left the ideal high out of 
 human reach. In the presence of law man knew what 
 he ought to be ; he knew that he was not what he ought 
 to be ; he yearned for a pardon which should free him 
 from guilt, and for a strength which should lead him 
 heavenward. The law, said St. Paul, is like a Greek slave 
 who leads his master's children down to the school of 
 the teacher who will instruct them, but the slave has 
 done his work when he has left them at the door. The 
 law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. 
 
 II. Therefore the discovery of man's deep need was 
 accompanied by another discovery, the revelation of 
 a Deliverance. The hopes of man are as ancient as his 
 despondency. At the gates of Eden was given the pro- 
 mise that the seed of the woman should bruise the 
 serpent's head. We interpret that promise, and rightly 
 enough, in the light of its fulfilment But when it 
 was given it might have seemed vague, and capable 
 of many interpretations ; nothing was certain from it 
 except that man's deliverance would in some way be 
 wrought out through humanity itself. Around this pro- 
 mise all the faith and hope of the earliest ages gathered, 
 and from this point prophecy gradually narrows and be- 
 comes definite as it proceeds to unfold its true interpre- 
 tation, until at length, when Isaiah and Zechariah had 
 spoken, the whole life and sufferings of Jesus Christ had 
 been written by anticipation. To Noah it was revealed
 
 3O The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. 
 
 that the promise would be realized among the posterity 
 of Shcrn ; it was then still further narrowed to the de- 
 scendants of Abraham. Here we encounter the selec- 
 tion of a peculiar people, who were to be privileged, not 
 for their own sakes, but for that of the human race at 
 large : " In thec shall all nations of the earth be blessed." 
 When Jacob foretells the coming Shiloh, it appears 
 plainly that the deliverance is to spring from a single . \ , 
 tribe, nay more, from a single person. When Balaam 
 speaks of the star of Jacob and of the sceptre rising out 
 of Israel, we see that the Object of his vision will have 
 the glory and power of a monarch. Moses himself pre- 
 dicts a Prophet to Whom Israel will hearken ; a coming . 
 Teacher, not an order of teachers, Who will reveal the 
 mind of God with a truth and fulness unknown before. 
 But it is in the age of David that these scattered rays V^ 
 of hope are brought into a" focus. There we meet first 
 of all with the limitation oPftie promise to David's 
 family ; next, with the sacred name Messiah, so preg- ^"\ 
 nant 'with meaning and with hope ; thirdly, with the 
 guarantee of an endless kingdom, such as no merely 
 human descendant of David could have been supposed 
 to inherit. In these prophecies the hopes of the world 
 are sometimes commingled with the more immediate 
 hopes of Israel ; a human king is in the foreground of 
 the prediction, and yet the prediction contains much 
 which would be applicable to no earthly monarch. Here 
 we encounter the two aspects of the life of Messiah, 
 His life of humiliation and suffering, and His life of 
 exaltation and glory. Each of these is described with 
 great particularity. One psalm is a picture of Christ ' 
 triumphing over the rebellious heathen, another of His y-, 
 victory over death, another of His sufferings upon the I/ 
 cross eventuating in the conversion of the world, another
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 31 
 
 of His mediatorial reign of glory. The Davidical out- 
 line, if it can with justice be called an outline, is filled 
 up by the later prophets. Isaiah describes Messiah's 
 supernatural birth, the features of His ministerial action, 
 the long line of titles, divine and human, which reveal 
 His Natures and His office, the details of His humiliation 
 and sufferings. Daniel determines the exact period of 
 His coming, and the character of His kingdom ; Zecha- 
 riah anticipates even minute incidents of the history of 
 the Passion ; Malachi closes the Jewish canon with a 
 prediction of His forerunner. 
 
 In so vast a field we must limit ourselves, and I would 
 press upon your attention this one observation as being 
 in harmony with the present course of sermons, and as 
 being altogether borne out by the facts of the pro- 
 phetical literature : the coming Christ of prophecy is 
 always a conqueror. So patent, indeed, is this note of 
 victory in the prophetic utterances respecting Him, that 
 the Jews materialized it in accordance with their poli- 
 tical hopes, and expected a military leader who would 
 defeat the armies and rival the empire of Rome. The 
 Jews were fatally wrong in this perversion of the pro- 
 mises which they had inherited ; their eyes were blinded 
 by their political passions, and accordingly they missed 
 the true Deliverer when He came. But they were right 
 in laying emphasis on the victoriousness of the Mes- 
 siah, though His victory was not to be won by mate- 
 rial force. In prophecy Christ is pre-eminently the vic- 
 tor ; He conquers ignorance as a teacher, or He con- 
 quers sin as an example, or as a victim ; He conquers 
 moral rebellion from a heavenly throne ; He conquers 
 death in the chambers of the dead. It is sin, sin in 
 itself, sin in its consequences, over which He triumphs ; 
 the iniquity of us all is laid upon Him, yet " He shall
 
 32 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation, [SERM. 
 
 see His seed and prolong His days." He is not more 
 victorious in the prophecy of Daniel, when He is brought 
 to the Ancient of Days and there is given to Him a 
 throne and dominion, and a kingdom, than He is in the 
 twenty-second Psalm or in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, 
 when He sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied, 
 and when all the kingdoms of the nations, converted by 
 His self-sacrificing love, worship the true God. Pro- 
 phecy, in short, is one long hymn in His honour, and it 
 salutes Him across the abyss of intervening centuries as 
 the Hope of humanity advancing to achieve its freedom. 
 " Thou art fairer than the children of men ; full of grace 
 are Thy lips, because God hath blessed Thee for ever. 
 Gird Thee with Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou 
 most mighty, according to Thy worship "and renown. 
 Good luck have Thou with Thine honour. Ride on, 
 because of the word of truth, of meekness, and right- 
 eousness ; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible 
 things K." 
 
 Brethren, have we, have you and I any true part, 
 at this moment, in that victory of the Conqueror, 
 which the moral law led man to yearn for, and which 
 is the theme of prophecy ? Surely here is a question 
 for Lent. Lent should be to us something more than 
 a name in the Calendar. Lent is no mere fancy- 
 observance of serious and old-fashioned Churchmen, 
 who live by their Prayer-book ; no mere relic of the 
 thought and feeling of a bygone age. It is rooted 
 in the moral needs of human nature ; it speaks to 
 every thinking man ; it recalls us to the consideration 
 of undying truths. It speaks of truths which, certainly, 
 we never should forget, but of which it is well that we 
 should be periodically and solemnly reminded. " Strip 
 
 Ps. xlv. 3-5.
 
 II.] The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. 33 
 
 off/' it says to each of us, "the disguise which hides thee 
 from thy real self; and dare to look thy God in the 
 face. One day thou wilt die ; thou wilt pass into an- 
 other world alone. Art thou now what thou wouldest be 
 then ? Dismiss fancy-standards of goodness, and look 
 higher and deeper for the measure of thy life. Cease to 
 move in a vicious circle of morals, even as thou wouldest 
 not knowingly reason in a vicious circle of argument. 
 Cease to judge thyself by a self-made measure : cease 
 to legislate when thou shouldest be standing at the bar 
 of judgment. Dare to meet the law of moral truth. Thou 
 art not a Pagan, that thou shouldest be judged by the 
 twilight of thy natural conscience : thou art not a Jew, 
 that thou shouldest read thy acquittal or thy condem- 
 nation in the two tables of stone. Thou art a Chris- 
 tian : Christ's Cross was traced once upon thy forehead : 
 Christ's Creed and Law have sounded in thine ears, and 
 been confessed by thy lips : nay, Christ's Nature has been 
 given thee, whether thou retainest, or hast lost, that gift 
 of gifts. Thou art a Christian : and as a Christian thou 
 must be judged, thou must judge thyself, by a standard 
 which Pagan and Jew knew not. The Sermon on the 
 Mount, the law of love and of sacrifice this, this only, is 
 thy positive standard. Thou art not by rights a slave, 
 grudgingly yielding the stinted meed of service which 
 just escapes punishment : thou art by inheritance a son, 
 upon whom a generous Spirit of freedom has descended, 
 that thou mayest obey the law, not of bondage but of 
 liberty. The fruits of that Spirit are love, joy, peace, 
 long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem- 
 perance : against such there is no law of reproach and 
 condemnation. Before thou canst bear these fruits, thy 
 lower nature must be trodden down and killed. They 
 that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affec- 
 
 I)
 
 34 The Victor, in the Times of Preparation. [SERM. II. 
 
 tions and lusts. This is the standard of the conqueror 
 of sin : is it thine ?" 
 
 Is it so, my brother, that thou hidcst thy face, and 
 wouldcst fain sink to the very dust for fear and shame ? 
 Is it so, that not in the New Testament merely, but in 
 the Decalogue, not in the Decalogue alone, but in the 
 light of thy natural conscience, thou traccst the sin of 
 Judah written with a " pen of iron and with the point 
 of a diamond ?" Dost thou hear the sentence which 
 Eternal Justice must needs utter against thyself? Canst 
 thou only tremblingly murmur : " The enemy hath per- 
 secuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the 
 ground ; he hath laid me in the darkness, as the men 
 that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit vexed 
 within me, and my heart within me is desolate." " Out 
 of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord : Lord, 
 hear my voice." Then take heart, for it is well with 
 thee : thou, too, art ready for the Advent, or rather for 
 the return of thy Lord as conqueror of thy spiritual 
 enemies. There would be but little hope for thee, if 
 thou wert still dreaming of thy personal excellence : as 
 it is, thou knowest that thou art " miserable, and poor, 
 and blind, and lame." Cease, then, from thy despond- 
 ency : He, thy Redeemer, calleth thee. If thou wilt, 
 He -is ready not merely to forgive the guilty past, but 
 to bid thee rise with Him to newness of life. Ask, and 
 it shall be given thee : seek, and thou shalt find. His 
 Cross and Wounds, His words of pardon, His robe of 
 righteousness, His sacraments of grace and power are 
 within thy grasp. He hath not given thee over unto 
 death ; thou shalt not die but live, and declare the 
 works of thy conquering Lord.
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Fictor, manifest in tije 
 
 KOMANS viii, 2. 
 
 " For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made 
 me free from the law of sin and death." 
 
 ' I ^HERE is a remarkable likeness in these words of 
 -*- St. Paul, to those with which St. John concludes 
 the preface to his gospel. When the Evangelist has 
 told us of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst 
 men, he goes on to tell us how the fulness of that 
 incarnate life passed, " grace for grace," into the life of 
 men. And he contrasts this " grace and truth," which 
 came by Jesus Christ, with the law which came by 
 Moses, and which, though itself a divine gift, brought 
 no such gift of life as that which God has bestowed 
 upon us in His only-begotten Son. 
 
 This idea of a life which saves us, thus contrasted 
 with the idea of a law which has no power to save, 
 is evidently the same with that which St. Paul sets 
 forth in our text, and which appears so frequently in 
 all his writings. 
 
 The " fulness" which St. John declares that he re- 
 ceived from the Incarnate Word, is the same with that 
 "spirit of life in Christ Jesus" which St. Paul declares has 
 made him " free from the law of sin and death." The 
 
 D 2
 
 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SERM. 
 
 "law" which St. John contrasts with "grace and truth," 
 is that same law which St. Paul pronounces too " weak 
 through the flesh" to effect his deliverance. Those 
 whom St. Paul describes as walking " not after the 
 flesh, but after the spirit," are those same "sons of 
 God" whom St. John describes as "born not of flesh, 
 nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
 
 One and the same idea, taught them by one and the 
 same revealing Spirit, is evidently present to the mind 
 of each Apostle. It is the new idea of the deliverance of 
 humanity, by the transforming power of a life, which 
 Christianity has added to the older one of deliverance 
 by the efficacy of an atoning death. 
 
 But though they teach thus the same truth, and 
 almost in the same words, they have arrived at it 
 by very different ways. 
 
 St. John begins with the contemplation of the Divine 
 nature which was made flesh. He tells us of " the Word 
 which was in the beginning with God, and was God ;" 
 how "by Him were all things made," and how in Him 
 was that life which is the only light of men ; and so 
 he comes down to the idea of that Word becoming flesh 
 and dwelling amongst men, and of their receiving from 
 Him grace and truth. St. Paul, on the other hand, 
 begins by contemplating that human nature which the 
 Word came to redeem. He studies it in its infirmities, 
 its sins, its struggles, its aspirations, and from these 
 he rises to thj conception of that new life which it 
 is to gain from the Incarnate Word. 
 
 St. John defines for us our Saviour ; St. Paul describes 
 the salvation that we need. St. John, as it were, as- 
 cends to heaven to bring Christ down to us ; but 
 St. Paul descends first into the very innermost parts 
 of his own being, and learns what manner of a Saviour
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in tlie Flesli. 37 
 
 he must be, who is to deliver him from the evil that 
 he finds there. The one, with his calm, deep, solemn 
 words, so full of mystery, and yet so full of love, seems 
 like some angel messenger just lighted upon earth, 
 strong and beautiful, the track of his path through the 
 heavens still bright with the light from the throne of 
 God. But the other, with his words of passionate agony, 
 his all but despairing cry for a deliverer, seems rather 
 like some traveller through a dark, trackless forest, 
 earth-stained, toil-worn, wounded by each entangling 
 thicket through which he fights his way ; but fighting it 
 still resolutely, desperately, through every difficulty, on 
 to the light and freedom that in his darkest hour he still 
 believes he yet shall reach ! 
 
 And we, brethren, who stand beneath the Cross where 
 these two ways meet we who hear the divine harmony 
 that these two widely-differing tones make as they blend 
 in their utterance of the Church's hymn to Christ as 
 God we feel how ill we could afford the loss of either. 
 We feel how inestimably precious to the Church is this 
 twofold aspect of this great central truth of all her 
 faith and all her life. 
 
 In the great theological definitions of St. John, we 
 possess a fixed standard of dogmatic truth, by which we 
 may test and correct our erroneous and imperfect con- 
 ceptions of it. We see how the Spirit of God has lifted 
 up in these for all time a sculptured likeness of our 
 Lord, that stands clearly and sharply defined, high 
 above the distorting mists and fogs of error and igno- 
 rance and doubt, that are ever rising in the lower region 
 of our fleshly nature. On the other hand, in this close, 
 searching analysis of that very nature by St. Paul, in 
 the clear light that he has thrown upon its essential 
 elements, in the profound perceptions he gives us of
 
 38 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SERM. 
 
 its needs and desires, we have another safeguard against 
 false and imperfect views of the Incarnation. For in 
 thus deepening our idea of the deliverance that we 
 need, he prepares us for deeper views of the deliverer 
 who is to accomplish it. As we think of the one, so 
 we may be sure will we always think of the other. 
 We cannot have shallow views of our own nature, and 
 deep and true views of the person and work of Christ. 
 All creeds and dogmas notwithstanding, each one of 
 us sees just that Christ, and no other, whom he be- 
 lieves himself to need. 
 
 He who believes that humanity requires or can re- 
 ceive no higher powers than its own, will see in Christ 
 no more than a man like himself. He who believes that 
 all it requires is knowledge of virtue, will see in Christ 
 a great moral Teacher and no more. He who believes 
 we need only a revelation of certain doctrines necessary 
 to salvation, will see in Christ an inspired Prophet and 
 no more. He who believes that we need a great ex- 
 ample, will see in Christ no more than an ideally perfect 
 Man. But he who feels that the deliverance he needs 
 is something far deeper than any one of these, or all of 
 them together ; he, at least, is so far prepared to 
 accept the idea of an incarnate Saviour, that he can see 
 that all those other Saviours men picture to themselves 
 are no Saviours for him. Those reeds shaken with the 
 wind ; those prophets merely ; nay, even those more 
 than prophets, which they are ever going out into the 
 wilderness of barren speculation to sec, have no attrac- 
 tion for him ; they fail, one and all, to satisfy the need 
 of his soul. 
 
 And on the other hand, he who docs rightly believe 
 the Incarnation of Christ, may gain fresh reasons for his 
 faith as he sees how the deepest parts of his nature
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in tJic Flesh. 39 
 
 answer to this deepest mystery of his creed ; as he sees 
 how the Incarnation which he believes can alone sup- 
 ply that salvation which he needs. 
 
 It is this aspect of the subject I ask you to consider 
 to-night. I ask you to approach it not as St. John 
 does, by the way of revealed dogma but as St. Paul 
 did, by the way of human experience. Let us forget 
 for a moment, as we are so often exhorted to do, the 
 definitions and dogmas of our religious books, and ques- 
 tion only the soul within us, which we are told we 
 theologians will not listen to, but which, if we would 
 only suffer it to speak, would give us a religion deeper 
 and truer than any of our creeds. 
 
 We take, then, this Word to-night, not as a revelation 
 of dogma, but as, what all admit it to be, a revelation, 
 the deepest and truest we possess, of human nature. 
 We turn to those who in this book have revealed for us 
 the needs, the sorrows, the struggles, the aspirations 
 of their souls. And of these we will question those and 
 those only who have not yet learned our dogma of the 
 Incarnation, those who, believing only in God the Father, 
 have not yet learned to believe in Jesus Christ His only 
 Son our Lord. 
 
 The Bible reveals for us the experience of three men, 
 who, above all others, seem to have been tried with the 
 question, of the deliverance of humanity from evil. The 
 first of these is Job. In him we see humanity contend- 
 ing with evil in its simplest and least terrible form, 
 in that of outward circumstance only. The troubles 
 of Job come to him altogether from without. They fall 
 on him as so many blows dealt him by another's hand ; 
 he has not caused them, he can neither resist nor escape
 
 r 
 40 The Victor, manifest in the Mesh. [SERM. 
 
 from them. They sweep over him, wave after wave, and 
 he drinks their salt bitterness, and dreads the death 
 they threaten ; but he has no more to do with their 
 coming or their going than the drowning man has 
 with the rise or the fall of the tide. Like that other 
 sufferer from a God's displeasure, who embodies for 
 us the highest conception that uninspired man ever 
 formed of this conflict of humanity with evil, conscious 
 of his utter helplessness, conscious too of his integrity, 
 he lies the victim of omnipotence, chained down to 
 suffer all that resistless power can will to inflict. 
 
 But for the Hebrew Prometheus there is both an agony 
 and a hope unknown to the Greek. Job cannot, like 
 the sufferer in the Grecian drama, take refuge from his 
 torment in defiance of his tormentor. He cannot conquer 
 his conqueror by the calm, resolute power of the indo- 
 mitable will that, mastering agony by endurance, lifts 
 the righteous suffering man above the unrighteous cruel 
 God. On the contrary, the very sharpest pang in all 
 Job's trial, is the temptation to think and feel thus to- 
 wards his God. For the God of Job is a good God, is 
 the Father of his spirit, whom he has loved and served 
 all his life, and he trembles at the thought that his 
 sorrows and his sufferings should cause him to lose 
 his faith in this God. At the thought of this a chasm 
 seems to open beneath his feet, an abyss of evil into 
 whose dark depths if he should once sink, he feels he 
 is lost for ever. For then the evil that before was all 
 external to him, would have become a part of him ; 
 his very inmost self would have become enmity against 
 God. Then would he have "cursed God and died" 
 died the eternal death of a spirit, that, separated from 
 the true centre of its life and light, wanders hope- 
 lessly away into the blackness of darkness and de-
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in tlie Flesh. 41 
 
 spair for ever ! Well might Job tremble and shudder 
 as he saw this form of evil approaching him. It was 
 the very shadow of his tempter ! 
 
 But as this temptation comes from without, deliver- 
 ance from it would seem to come most naturally and 
 easily by a change in those outward circumstances that 
 cause it. Let God only "take away His rod from him ;" 
 let Him " cease to terrify him ;" let him be no longer 
 driven to and fro by the blast of His displeasure, like 
 "a dried leaf driven by the wind," and all will be well. 
 This phantom of atheism that vexed and terrified his 
 soul, had its home in that dark dungeon of outward 
 circumstance in which he lay ; it will vanish in the broad 
 free light of open day. Give him back his old pros- 
 perity, his honoured, useful, happy life ; make him the 
 man he was in times past, when the eye that saw him 
 blessed him, and the ear that heard him witnessed to 
 him, and the old peace of his spirit will come back 
 again ; the world would be no longer in alliance with 
 his flesh to assault and hurt his soul. 
 
 The deliverance, then, that Job desires is a deliver- 
 ance from the evil that is in the world, a victory for 
 him, for his flesh, over the world. His Redeemer would 
 be a restorer, a healer of outward nature, one who would 
 stand for him and with him on this earth, and enable 
 him " in his flcsJi to see God," and to see Him as his 
 Father. This salvation from outward evil is that which 
 humanity, in the lower stages of spiritual development, 
 alone can conceive of. This is the salvation of the 
 heathen, -whose saviours were always heroes or gods 
 who did heroic deeds, slaying the monsters that assailed 
 men, destroying, that is, some one of the outward ills that 
 flesh is heir to. And this is the salvation of too many 
 Christians, whose only idea of a Saviour is of one who
 
 42 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SERM. 
 
 has saved them from some penalty attached to sin, 
 and who will some day make a great change for the 
 better in their outward condition, by translating them 
 to heaven. 
 
 And now we turn to question one who had in large 
 measure that very deliverance from evil that Job desired. 
 Wise, learned, rich, powerful, he tells us that he applied 
 all the treasures of his wisdom, and power, and wealth, 
 to fashioning for himself a paradise on earth. No 
 foreign war or domestic revolt broke the peaceful pros- 
 perity, or dimmed the glory of his reign. He tells 
 us too what came of it all, "vanity and vexation of 
 spirit." He tells us how he " hated all his labour," how 
 he hated his very life. Yes ! Solomon in his glory was 
 ready, as Job was in his misery, to curse the day that 
 he was born ! And with better cause. The evil which 
 Solomon endured was worse far than that which afflicted 
 Job. The torture of satiety, the loathing of all things that 
 comes on him who has enjoyed all and wearied of all, 
 is more intolerable far than that which the sharpest pain 
 or sorrow brings, for it is hopeless. For the sufferer from 
 this form of evil, no change of circumstance can bring 
 relief, there is for him no good, and he is, therefore, 
 in terrible danger of believing that there is no God. 
 The atheism of pleasure is far darker, far deadlier, 
 than that of pain. 
 
 Solomon's experience, then, of evil is more profound 
 than that of Job. He sees what Job did not see, that 
 this evil is not in the world, not in circumstances, but 
 in himself. It is because he has not "kept from all 
 liis eyes desired," because he " has not restrained his 
 heart" from all the joys it cared for, because he gave 
 himself too greedily to the enjoyment of the "good that
 
 HI.] The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. 43 
 
 God had given him under the sun," that he is thus 
 weary and jaded and wretched. If he had enjoyed 
 only in moderation, if he had observed the time and 
 the mean that God had appointed for all things, he 
 would have been happy. And accordingly, "the con- 
 clusion of the whole matter," the remedy for all the 
 evil he has known, is self-restraint, obedience to those 
 laws and ordinances of God which condition our enjoy- 
 ment of this world. " Fear God, and keep His com- 
 mandments, so shalt thou come forth from them all !" 
 
 Solomon's idea of deliverance from evil is Law 
 a system of checks and restraints upon the appetites 
 and passions of man, sanctioned indeed by the highest 
 motives, by those of religion. His ideal deliverer would 
 be a lawgiver, a prophet who should reveal to men new 
 precepts, and enforce them with powerful sanctions. 
 His heaven would be a paradise, but one in which 
 flaming swords turning every way should keep men from 
 all forbidden fruit. This is victory, not for the flesh but 
 over the flesh. This is the salvation of the heathen 
 moralist and the philosopher; it is the self-conquest they 
 are always speaking of, the conquest of the lower part 
 of our nature by its higher and better part, the triumph 
 of the man over the beast in us. This is the salvation 
 of the ascetic, whether heathen or Christian ; the man 
 who believing that the seat of all evil lies in the mate- 
 rial part of his nature, the flesh in its lowest and most 
 literal sense seeks his deliverance from it in the morti- 
 fication, the torture, the very death of that rebellious 
 flesh that opposes itself to his higher will. This is the 
 salvation, too, of a far lower school, that coldly moral 
 school of Christian teachers, who think of Christ as the 
 Son of God come down from heaven chiefly to give us 
 an " authoritative sanction" for natural religion, to prove
 
 44 77u' V T ictor t manifest in tlie Flesh, [SKRM. 
 
 His mission by miracles, and to reveal to us new 
 motives why we should restrain from evil, new reasons, 
 in His clearer revelation about heaven and hell, why we 
 should fear God and keep His commandments. 
 
 And now we pass to another ; to one who has tried 
 this remedy of Solomon's ; one who did indeed fear 
 God with all the reverence of a devout soul, and keep 
 all His commandments, as he believed, with all the 
 strictness of a resolute, self-denying will ; one who was 
 "as touching the law blameless." And what is his 
 experience as to the deliverance that law, even di- 
 vine law, can effect from evil ? He tells us how utterly 
 it failed to deliver him ; how it became to him rather 
 the deadliest and most terrible of evils ; how when 
 it "came" to him, when he really came to understand 
 what law was, the sin he once thought dead in him 
 revived in the presence of this restraining law, and 
 "slew him," so that the commandment ordained to life 
 he found to be unto death. 
 
 For this law, this external restraint, with all its awful 
 power, wakes in him another and a mightier law, " a 
 law in his members," a law of lawlessness, an intolerance 
 of all restraint, a force of resistance that no mechanical 
 power of repression can restrain. And this lawlessness, 
 this impossibility of subjection to law, is the very bent 
 of his nature. It is his very self, and yet it is not 
 himself. There is in him another and a better self that 
 delights in law, longs to obey it, and yet cannot enable 
 him, the whole man, to obey it. And so he finds within 
 him a terrible strife, a conflict between good and evil, 
 light and darkness, law and lawlessness, conscience and 
 will, that rends him in twain, and forces from him, in the 
 misery that it wakes in every fibre of his moral being,
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in tJie Flesh. 45 
 
 the exceeding great and bitter cry " Oh ! wretched 
 man that I am, who will deliver me !" 
 
 And yet this is not all ; within this deep there is 
 a deeper still. The fear of Job falls on the soul of 
 Paul with tenfold dread. He sees that this evil bent 
 of his nature, this lawless impatience of all law, is really 
 "enmity against God" who is the Author of law ; is the 
 expression, therefore, not only of the lawlessness but the 
 godlessness of human nature ; is in its essence atheism, 
 the refusal of the created will to own the will of the 
 Creator ; the miserable desire to be its own god and its 
 own law. True, he has not consciously yielded himself 
 to this godlessness of his nature. True, St. Paul in his 
 inner man still contends against this law in his members. 
 But what if it should prevail at last ? What if this 
 carnal enmity rise up higher and still higher from 
 his lower nature and invade, first his mind, then his 
 conscience and his soul ? What if the last utter victory 
 of flesh over spirit change this miserable dualism in him 
 into a yet more miserable unity, a unity of evil ? What 
 if the spirit within him, yielding itself to this double 
 assault of passion and of understanding should con- 
 sciously, wilfully, deliberately, rebel against the God 
 whose existence it can never cease to be conscious 
 of? What if the "enmity," that in the lower nature 
 shews itself only in the preference of the creature to 
 the Creator, should in the higher nature develope itself 
 into its completed and perfect form, the burning hatred 
 of spirit against spirit the fiend's choice Evil, be thou 
 my good ! This were death, the worst of deaths, a life 
 in death, a hideous consciousness of the dissolution 
 that comes after death, the wild anarchy of all the 
 elements of our nature when the life that held them 
 all in check is gone ! This was the death that Job
 
 46 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SERM. 
 
 saw afar off; but which Paul saw already begun within 
 him, and that seeing he shuddered, and groaned, and 
 cried out for a deliverer, a Saviour. 
 
 To such a cry what answer shall we make ? Shall 
 we tell this troubled soul that " humanity will be saved 
 from evil when it once understands the great laws of 
 its own being, and of nature ? " or shall we tell him that 
 there appeared in the world "a great Prophet who re- 
 vealed a sublime system of Ethics," and enforced it by 
 new and awful sanctions ? or that this Prophet was 
 "a sublime soul, an ideal man, a glorious example 
 of what humanity may attain to ?" Nay, shall we even 
 tell him that this man's death procured forgiveness of 
 his sins, and admission to heaven after death ? 
 
 With what a sad, bitter smile, would this sufferer 
 listen to such miserable comforters. You talk to me 
 of law, he would say, of understanding, obeying law. 
 I understand what law is far too well already. Law is 
 my curse, my misery ; it is law that is driving me to 
 despair and to madness. I need no miracles to con- 
 vince me of the authority of law, no prophet to tell 
 me to fear God and keep His commands. I do fear 
 Him, and I cannot keep His commandments, and my 
 dread is, lest I cease to fear Him, lest the law within 
 me drive me to outrage and defy Him. What is it to 
 me that your perfect Man has realized the idea of 
 humanity, unless He can make me to do so too ? \Vhat 
 is that pure, noble, perfect life to me, but an object of 
 hopeless envy ? And even your sacrifice for sin, your 
 forgiveness for the past, it is much, very much ; but it 
 is not all. It is forgiveness, but it is not deliverance. 
 It may save me from the hell hereafter, but I need 
 salvation from the hell in me now. I need deliverance 
 from myself, from that human nature in which I feel
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. 47 
 
 my misery lies. Not law, but the righteousness of the 
 law ; not restraint, but a nature that shall need no re- 
 straint ; not a healing of this or that evil symptom in 
 this or that part of my nature, but a cleansing of my 
 whole nature from that original taint of lawlessness in 
 its life-blood that fills its very veins with poison ; not 
 a victory over the flesh, but a victory in the flesh ; a new 
 law of life that shall free me from the law of sin and 
 death ; a new principle of unity in my nature by which, 
 instead of the spirit growing carnal, the flesh shall grow 
 spiritual ; this, and this alone, can save me. 
 
 And now that we have learned, from these cries of 
 the human soul in its conflict with evil, what is that 
 deliverance that alone can satisfy its needs ; let us 
 turn to those despised dogmas, those abstract theolo- 
 gical definitions which we are told have no relation to 
 our real life, and see what they have to tell us. Let 
 us hear again the answer of St. John to the question of 
 St. Paul ! " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
 us," "full of grace and truth." "And of His fulness 
 have we all received, and grace for grace." What is it 
 that these words tell us, as we read them in the light 
 of that human experience we have been studying ? 
 They tell us of "flesh," of a human nature, really, truly 
 human, dwelling amongst men, subject to all the con- 
 ditions of their human life, bone of their bone, flesh of 
 their flesh, but filled with " grace and truth." A humanity 
 in which there was no untruth, none therefore of that 
 unhappy falseness to its own ideal, that taint of evil 
 ever making it untrue, which we feel in our nature, 
 and yet which we feel is no part of our nature, is un- 
 natural, is fatal to it. They tell us that in this sinless
 
 48 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SERM. 
 
 flesh we see, not a perfect Man merely, isolated from 
 all other men by His very perfection, but human 
 nature, the manhood taken into God, and becoming, 
 by its union with the eternal all-creating all-sustaining 
 Word, a new source of life for all men, capable of im- 
 parting itself to all, so that of its fulness all men may 
 receive, and " grace for grace." They tell us how this 
 nature may become our nature, making us perfect with 
 its perfection, true with its truth. 
 
 Is not this the deliverance and the Deliverer that we 
 need ? Not a Prophet merely, not an example merely, 
 not an ideally perfect man ; but a new humanity, 
 a new life for men. Yes, the dry creed, the abstract 
 dogma comes down, like Him whom it defines, and 
 dwells amongst men, and we see that it too is full of 
 grace and truth, as it reveals to us the glory of the 
 salvation and the Saviour, that alone can satisfy the 
 soul of man ! 
 
 But is this idea of a triumphant humanity really 
 fulfilled in the life of Christ? Was His life really so 
 true, so perfectly sinless as we say ? The sinlessness 
 of Christ cannot be fully treated of in one, or in many 
 sermons ; I can but suggest one line of proof, and yet 
 one which seems to me very weighty. I ask, in the 
 first place, what was the aim and desire of the whole 
 life of Christ ? It was undoubtedly righteousness, 
 perfect, unswerving obedience to the will of His hea- 
 venly Father. From the first word of His, that de- 
 clared that He " must be about His Father's business," 
 to the last word, that proclaims His Father's work is 
 finished, one thought, and one only, seems to be the 
 ruling passion of His life "to fulfil all righteousness." 
 Those even who will not admit that He succeeded in 
 this, must admit that He ever aimed at this.
 
 III.] TJic Victor, manifest in the FlcsJi. 49 
 
 That law of righteousness, then, which St. Paul recog- 
 nised as the ideal of His being, was never absent from 
 the mind of Christ. How comes it, then, that in all 
 His life, there never once appears the slightest trace 
 of St. Paul's consciousness of failure to realize that ideal ? 
 In no one of all His utterances concerning Himself, in 
 none of the records of His temptations, His trials, His 
 fears, His hopes, His most secret and inmost thoughts 
 and prayers to God, do we ever find so much as a hint 
 of His own imperfection. Never once do we hear from 
 Him a prayer for forgiveness, a cry for deliverance 
 from sin. How is this ? Surely it is he who has the 
 highest ideal, who is ever most distressed at His own 
 failure to realize it. Surely we might have expected 
 that the soul, which in all human history has the highest 
 and loftiest ideal of holiness, will feel most keenly its 
 own failure to be holy. How is it, then, that we find 
 in Him only the most calm, serene, unbroken, self- 
 approval ? How is it that the spiritual perceptions of 
 Jesus seem at once so much higher, and yet so much 
 lower than those of all other men ? How can He be 
 at once so far beyond St. Paul in His ideal of per- 
 fection, so far below Job in the consciousness of His 
 own imperfection ? Is His love for holiness an hypo- 
 crisy, or His belief in His own holiness a miserable 
 delusion ? Is this life of Christ, that for eighteen 
 centuries has drawn to it the admiring gaze of friends 
 and foes, nothing after all but the strangest and sad- 
 dest of all moral monstrosities, the most inconceivable 
 mystery of united contradictions ? And if it be not 
 this, what else can it be, but just the realization of 
 that very ideal of humanity, the fulfilment of that 
 dream of righteousness that has haunted every righte- 
 ous soul that ever sighed, and sighed in vain, after per- 
 
 E
 
 5o Tlic Victor, manifest in tkc Flesh. [SERM. 
 
 fcction a human nature freed from all taint of evil, 
 all flaw of imperfection a victory and a victor mani- 
 fest in the flesh ? 
 
 But if this human nature of Christ were truly sinless, 
 was it exposed to trials such as ours ? Did this sinless 
 humanity really triumph over all those forms of evil 
 to which we are exposed ? Let us see. The tempta- 
 tions for our human nature from without, infinitely 
 varied as they are in outward circumstances, are all 
 of two kinds, the temptation of Job, and the temp- 
 tation of Solomon. The trial from want, or from en- 
 joyment, the creature desired, or the creature pos- 
 sessed, are the two forms under one or other of which 
 man is ever tempted to prefer it to the Creator. 
 
 Turn now to the life of Christ, and we shall see Him, 
 in the first place, through the whole of it exposed to 
 the temptation from the possession of the creature. 
 The whole world of nature was His absolutely. All 
 outward circumstances would chancre at His bidding 
 
 ^> o 
 
 It needed but a word from Him to form round Him 
 and His a charmed circle, within which, want and pain 
 and sorrow should be unknown. lie, "the preacher," 
 might indeed have been " King in Jerusalem" king of 
 an earthly paradise, of which Solomon in all his glory 
 never dreamed. And yet He never would do this. 
 Never once in all His life docs He use His miraculous 
 power to save or serve Himself; never for any other 
 purpose than the working out of His Father's will 
 and His own mission. His was a life-long self-denial ; 
 a life-long restraint upon desires of the flesh, in them- 
 selves pure and noble. Here is that submission to law, 
 that reverence for divine command, that subjection 
 even of the sinless will of the creature to the higher 
 will of the Creator, that breathes itself in His last
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in tJic Flesh. 5 1 
 
 prayer, and brings Him forth from His last trial, but 
 of which His whole life was but one long expression : 
 " Father, not My will, but Thine be done." This is 
 victory over tlieflesJi. 
 
 But on the other hand, the temptation of Job was 
 His likewise. The world was potentially His ; actually, 
 He had not where to lay His head. The King and 
 Lord of nature walked this world of His, a weak, 
 weary, troubled man, in perils oft, in sorrow always ; 
 for the sorrows of all others were His own, by that 
 intensity of sympathy which made Him truly one 
 with us. Bowed ever with the burden of others' woes, 
 the horror of others' sins ; weeping with those that 
 \vept, burning with those that were offended, righte- 
 ously indignant with all wrong, tenderly sympathizing 
 with all who suffered, and yet isolated, too, like Job, 
 by the intensity of His suffering, from those who, 
 even though they loved Him, could not understand 
 Him; He "the perfect and the upright man," whom 
 Job alike in his righteousness and his sufferings fore- 
 shadowed, He appears the true type of Humanity, 
 tried by suffering, and conquering by endurance. For 
 it is by endurance that He does conquer. He does not 
 escape from suffering, He submits to it, and in submit- 
 ting triumphs. His is the mastery, the only true mas- 
 tery over outward circumstances ; that which comes not 
 from the power to change, nor even merely to endure, 
 but from the power to subdue ; the power to make 
 that which is outwardly unfavourable minister to the 
 inner life. He conquers want by wanting, weariness 
 by wearying, pain by suffering, grief by grieving, death 
 by dying. All these outward ills are His ministering 
 servants ; out of all these His life gathers its growth, 
 its perfection. They minister the elements of His glory,
 
 52 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SKKM. 
 
 as the earth, and the sun, and sky, bring forth the 
 glory of the perfect flower from the life of the seed 
 submitted to their influences. This is the victory for 
 the Jlcsh, the only victory that really overcomes the 
 world. This is the victory that comes from that faith 
 which places man above and beyond the world, which 
 makes humanity the lord of nature and time and change 
 and chance, because it makes all these subservient to 
 that life, which has its source not in the creature, but 
 in the Creator, not in the world, but in God ! 
 
 Compared with this one great life-long victory for 
 humanity, this conquest over all outward circumstances, 
 those other occasional miraculous conquests of His, 
 those victories, not of endurance, but of change of cir- 
 cumstance, that strike us so much at first seem in- 
 finitely smaller conquests. We might conceive of our 
 being able to work all these works, and greater than 
 these, and yet gaining no real victory. What would 
 it avail us, though we could turn stones into bread, 
 and water into wine, if our gluttony and intemperance 
 made us slaves to the food and the wine we had mira- 
 culously produced ? What would it avail us, if we 
 could heal diseases with a touch, and recall the dead 
 with a word, if the health we regained, or the loved we 
 called back, were to us more than God, were sources to 
 us not of life, but of death ? 
 
 Is not this the mistake, the sad mistake, man is ever 
 making, when he imagines that his discoveries of the 
 powers of nature arc giving him power over nature. 
 The truth is, that they are all of them giving nature 
 increased power over him. These new forces in nature 
 which man discovers, as we apply them to the uses of 
 human life, What do they do for us ? They quicken 
 the pace at which we must all live. We must live now
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. 53 
 
 faster, harder far than our fathers did. Steam and 
 electricity are our masters, not we theirs. We are like 
 hands in some great factory, the faster the wheels re- 
 volve, the faster, the more unremitting is our work to 
 keep up with them. Do the wires of our telegraphs 
 flash happier tidings than we used to gain by slower 
 conveyance ? Do the swift trains on our railways bear 
 happier, nobler, truer men, than those we look on with 
 such pity for their want of our knowledge of the re- 
 sources of science ? If not, circumstance is our mas- 
 ter, and conditions our life as much as theirs. Which 
 do you think is most truly lord and master of out- 
 ward nature, he who could by one wonder-working 
 word bind the old world and the new with such a link 
 as binds them now, or he who could hear with patient 
 trusting heart, with calm unshaken faith, the message 
 those wires might send him, that all he loved, and all 
 he possessed in life were gone ? The world might be 
 the master of the one ; the other would be the master 
 of the world ! 
 
 It is this mastery that our Lord has won for us ; the 
 complete triumph of humanity over circumstance, by 
 its complete emancipation from the power of the crea- 
 ture. It is the reversal, point for point, of the victory 
 won through the creature by the enemy of man over 
 humanity. That was the subjugation of man to the 
 dominion of the creature, which tempting him through 
 the flesh, overthrew the lawful rule and supremacy of 
 the spirit. This is the subjugation of the creature to 
 the dominion of man, by the restoration of the lawful 
 supremacy of the spirit over the flesh. That was the 
 victory of the world, through the flesh, over the spirit. 
 This is the victory of the spirit, through the flesh, over 
 the world !
 
 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SKRM. 
 
 And it is this double victory of spirit over flesh, and 
 of spirit and flesh over the world, that constitutes the 
 claim, and proves the right, of His victorious hu- 
 manity, to that universal kingdom that He won by it. 
 He who would be king must first be priest. The con- 
 secration of self-sacrifice must precede the consecration 
 to rule and dominion. The humanity that is to rule 
 all things must first prove itself incapable of being 
 ruled by any. It is because He did so, because 
 in Him humanity has shewn itself proof against its 
 twofold trial from the creature, the trial of want and 
 of possession, freedom and enjoyment because He 
 the Second Adam has passed victoriously through 
 both the trials of the first, the trial of the garden 
 and of the wilderness the world under the curse, that 
 brings forth still the thorns of care and sorrow, and 
 that other world too, that might at His bidding have 
 brought forth for Him nothing but delight, for this it 
 is that God has highly exalted Him, has given Him His 
 Name above every name, has given Him the sceptre 
 that He has proved may safely be intrusted to His 
 hand, has raised Him to that throne which even He 
 could not ascend, unless He first descended to its 
 lowest steps on earth, and step by step, from suffer- 
 ing to suffering, from victory to victory rose to its 
 seat in heaven, to dwell there far above principalities 
 and powers and dominions, crowned, because victorious, 
 Man ! 
 
 And these victories arc all to be ours as well as His. 
 That nature in which He has conquered, that flesh 
 which has thus in Him won its twofold triumph, He 
 has told us, He has come to give to us. Given for us 
 first as our atoning Sacrifice, but given to us then as 
 our sustaining life, this is that bread of life that came
 
 in.] T lie Victor, manifest in the Flesh. 55 
 
 down from heaven, which he who eats of shall live 
 by for ever ! 
 
 He tells us how that flesh, that human nature shall 
 dwell in us, victorious in the law of the spirit of its life 
 over that law of our fallen flesh that lusteth still against 
 the spirit. He tells us how, by the power of that life, 
 because He lives, we shall live also, victorious over 
 our flesh, victorious over its lawlessness, crucifying it, 
 mortifying its deeds, bringing its high thoughts into 
 captivity, and learning still obedience by the things 
 that thus we suffer, growing still in our inner, our new 
 nature, more and more like to Him, as that holy thing 
 born in us of the will of God, and of the power of the 
 Holy Ghost, grows to the fulness of the stature of the 
 man Christ Jesus, until at last we too become victo- 
 rious in the flesh, until His last victory won for the 
 flesh is accomplished in us. This new humanity of 
 ours, proved like His in its double trial with the 
 creature, conquering, unlike Him, with many and many 
 a sad defeat intermingled with its victories, but con- 
 quering still by enduring to the end, shall win of His 
 infinite mercy the crown He won of right, the crown of 
 life, perfect and eternal ; shall pass with Him through 
 its last struggle, know its last pain, sigh its last sigh, 
 win its last victory by suffering, and then freed for 
 ever from its burden of the sin that He condemned, in 
 the likeness of sinful flesh, changed to the likeness of 
 His glorious body, by the working of that power where- 
 with He subdues all things to Himself, shall reign with 
 Him for ever ! 
 
 Yes, victory in the flesh, victory over the flesh, 
 victory for the flesh, we need all three, we need to 
 see all three united in one and the same Saviour. 
 There are times when our thoughts rise not beyond
 
 56 The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. [SKRM. 
 
 a victory for the flesh. Times when in the sharpness 
 of sonic sore trial, in the weary heart-sickness of some 
 life-long sorrow, we only desire to flee away and be at 
 rest ; we see through our blinding tears but the far-ofif 
 gleam of the walls of the golden city, and think how 
 blessed to be within their safe defence, where pain nor 
 grief can ever conic ! And, again, there are times 
 when, with all our treasures round us, in the full en- 
 joyment of all that this life can give, we feel that this 
 is not enough, that there is a higher, truer life than 
 this, and that if we cannot attain to it, we have lived 
 and loved in vain, and that without this, the joys of 
 heaven itself would pall upon us at the last, and we 
 should loathe the monotony of its rest, and the eternal 
 quiet of its peace. Then we rejoice to think of that 
 other, that higher victory won for us, the victory for the 
 spirit over the flesh, the victory by which the soul of 
 man can rise from the enjoyment and love of the 
 creature, to the enjoyment and the love of God, and 
 finds its true life in Him. And yet, again when we 
 have won this victory, when in the might of this love 
 we have accomplished some act of self-sacrifice for 
 Him we love; when the spirit of the crucified one has 
 triumphed over the flesh, has mortified, has crucified it 
 even we feel by the pain of crucifixion that this victory 
 is won only by a strife and an effort so exhausting, 
 that heaven itself were dearly purchased, if it were to 
 be held by such incessant warfare as this ; we feel that 
 its crowns of glory were but a mockery, if those who 
 wore them still bent beneath the cross. Then we re- 
 joice to see that other victory won, the victory not only 
 over the flesh, but in the flesh. The victory not of the 
 Cross and Passion, but of the Resurrection and Ascen- 
 sion. The victory, final and complete, of the law of life
 
 III.] The Victor, manifest in the Flesh. 57 
 
 in Christ Jesus, that even now as it works within us 
 gives us the seal of our inheritance of the saints in 
 light, but which then, fulfilling itself at last in all our 
 nature body, soul, and spirit shall give us all the 
 fulness of the gift of God, eternal life in His eternal 
 love ! 
 
 "Thanks be to God who giveth us this victory," 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ !
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 Efje Uictor, cxcaltcti to $te Efjronr, 
 
 DANIEL vii. 13, 
 
 "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of 
 Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient 
 of Days, and they brought him near before Him." 
 
 THIS is one of those passages which has been made 
 a ground of objection to the authenticity of the 
 book of Daniel, on account of the clearness with which 
 it seems to enunciate a great Gospel verity, and so 
 to anticipate the ideas and belief of a later period. It 
 occurs at the conclusion of the vision in which, under 
 the similitude of the four beasts, was represented to the 
 prophet the successive rise of four great monarchies. 
 The immediate object of the whole revelation was pro- 
 bably to encourage the Israelites in their captivity, and, 
 at the same time, to prevent them in their impatience 
 from expecting a speedy coming of the kingdom of the 
 Messiah ; monarchy after monarchy would arise, throne 
 after throne would cast its shadow over the nations. The 
 lion, and the leopard, and the bear, and the beast 
 diverse from and stronger than the rest, Chaldaean, 
 Persian, Greek, Roman, must each run their course, 
 bringing apparently no nearer the hope of Israel ; but 
 (" though it tarry wait for it, because it will surely come,
 
 6o The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SERM. 
 
 it will not tarry always"), suddenly a change passes 
 over the prophetic ecstacy. The field of vision is no 
 longer this earth. From the weary spectacle of human 
 power rising but to fall, gathering its strength only to 
 be broken, Daniel is transported to the sight of a sub- 
 limcr sovereignty : " I beheld till the thrones were cast 
 down and the Ancient of Days did sit ; whose garment 
 was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the 
 pure wool ; His throne was as the fiery flame, thousand 
 thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times 
 ten thousand stood before Him. I saw in the night 
 visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with 
 the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, 
 and they brought him near unto Him." The passage 
 was uniformly interpreted by the Jewish doctors of the 
 person and kingdom of Christ. And the language is 
 too plain to be otherwise expounded, hence the attempt 
 to get rid of its testimony as a great Messianic pro- 
 phecy by bringing forward the authorship of the chapter 
 to a later date. But, indeed, clearly and magnificently 
 as these verses speak of Christ upon His throne, they 
 do not stand alone in the Old Testament. This pro- 
 phecy of Daniel is by no means an isolated one. Blot 
 it out of the Sacred Volume, and the great truth of 
 Christ's exaltation to the right hand of power would 
 still remain written down unmistakeably in the pro- 
 phetic Scriptures. For example the iioth Psalm is no 
 less distinct : " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou 
 on My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy foot- 
 stool." Our blessed Saviour has Himself applied these 
 words to His own person and kingdom; and it is 
 obvious, if interpreted of Him, that they point to the 
 same event as those of Daniel, the bringing near of the 
 glorified humanity of the Redeemer into the presence
 
 IV.] The Victor, exalted to His Throne. 61 
 
 of the Father, the seating it upon the throne of heaven 
 thence to exercise a special dominion, until all things 
 shall be subdued under His feet. 
 
 Now it is this crowning and enthroning at the right 
 hand of the Father, of the Man Christ Jesus, which 
 is the subject proposed for our thoughts to-night. It 
 is told us historically in the words of St. Mark : " So, 
 then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was 
 received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand 
 of God." It is predicted, not in one but in many 
 passages of the Old Testament ; not exclusively, al- 
 though with a wonderful sublimity, in that which we 
 have read to you for the text : " I saw in the night 
 visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came 
 with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient 
 of Days, and they brought him near before Him." 
 
 Upon this exaltation of Christ we now go on to 
 speak. 
 
 I. And first as to the truth itself. 
 
 Now the peculiarity of both the prophecies alluded 
 to, that of the text and that in Psalm ex., consists in 
 this, that they represent the act of exaltation, as seen 
 within the veil. We are all familiar with this act, so 
 far as it was beheld from the earth : " He led them out 
 as far as to Bethany, and lifted up His hands and 
 blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed 
 them, He was parted from them, and a cloud received 
 Him out of their sight." The natural eye could see no 
 more of that great enthroning of humanity. The stead- 
 fast upward gaze could not penetrate the veil between 
 the two worlds. It is just here that the prophetic Scrip- 
 tures supply what is wanting ; that which the natural 
 eye could not see, the inner consciousness of the old 
 prophets in ecstacy had been privileged to behold.
 
 62 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SERM. 
 
 Daniel had gazed upon the scene within the everlasting 
 doors, to which all that passed upon the Mount of 
 Ascension was the introduction, the in-coming into 
 heaven of the Son of Man. David, in the spirit, had 
 caught the mystic words, the high welcome of the 
 eternal Father : " Sit Thou on My right hand." 
 
 Now when we turn to the doctrine involved in these 
 passages, we arc at once brought across that which has 
 in all ages formed the great trial of men's faith, " the 
 twofold nature of Christ." It has not passed away, that 
 old probation of the Church. In early ages, when the 
 remembrance of Christ Jesus upon the earth was com- 
 paratively fresh, when His gracious accents still lingered 
 as it were upon the air, the temptation was, in the vivid 
 perception of His perfect Manhood, to drop or hold 
 loosely the truth of His eternal Godhead. Hence the 
 multifarious heresies which vexed the primitive Church, 
 agreeing mostly in the attempt to find, as it were, some 
 place for the Redeemer which should satisfy in a measure 
 the great things spoken of Him and yet make Him less 
 than God. Resisted by Athanasius, condemned by the 
 Council of Nioea, that old Arian heresy has never 
 wholly died out, although it may have changed its form. 
 And one of the evils which it has produced has been 
 this, that in their very zeal to maintain the proper 
 Godhead of their Lord, true and devout souls have 
 sometimes lost sight comparatively of the equally great 
 truth, "that He is perfect man." This second error 
 finds place chiefly in regard to our blessed Lord's 
 present life in heaven. Let us examine it for a few 
 minutes to-night. 
 
 The grand question between the Church and the world, 
 philosophy and faith, is this "What is Christ now?" 
 To the world He is a great Benefactor of the past,
 
 IV.] The Victor, exalted to His Tlirone. 63 
 
 a mighty Teacher who fulfilled His mission and departed, 
 leaving His mark (by the wisdom of His precepts and 
 the purity of His example) upon all future times. To 
 the Church He is a living agent still, not by the in- 
 fluence of what He was, but by the force of what 
 He is. But now let us advance a step farther. Amongst 
 those who have a full belief in the present life and 
 action of Christ, there is often, nevertheless, a singular 
 vagueness of idea as to the nature of Him who sitteth 
 upon the throne. The tendency is the opposite of that 
 which sapped the faith of the early Church, for it is 
 to lose sight of the perfect Manhood of Christ Jesus in 
 His session at the right hand of the Father, in the 
 adoration of Him as one with the Father in majesty 
 and glory. As of old they were slow to recognise God 
 upon earth in the form of a servant ; so now are believ- 
 ing minds dull in appreciating the reality of " man 
 in heaven" amidst the ineffable glories of Almightiness. 
 The majesty of His estate has, to them, extinguished 
 the verity of His human nature a . Probe such men 
 closely, and you will find that whilst they repeat day 
 by day the sentence, " He ascended into heaven," they 
 do not give its full force to the truth that He who 
 ascended was Very Man, the same in form and sub- 
 stance as He had been upon the earth, that the Incar- 
 nation was not for a few years but for evermore ; so that 
 what is seen now in the depths of the light inaccessible, 
 as the object of adoration to angels and archangels, is the 
 body of man. Probe, I say, the popular belief closely, 
 and it w r ill be found that when people think of Christ 
 as He is now, they think of Him as possessing a sort of 
 compound nature, in which the power of God and the 
 
 * Hooker, bk. v. 55.
 
 64 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SERM. 
 
 tenderness of man arc commingled, not as preserving 
 still (in heaven as on earth) our human nature in all its 
 integrity. 
 
 Now it is observable how very careful Holy Scripture 
 has been to impress upon us this truth of the enthroning 
 of Christ's Manhood at the right hand of the Father. 
 How careful and minute, in this respect, is the narrative 
 of the Ascension. The walk to Bethany, the lifting up 
 of the hands, bring before us emphatically, at the last 
 moment before its withdrawal, the reality of Christ's 
 human body. Again, the words of the angels : " This 
 same Jesus, who is taken from you into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into 
 heaven." We seem to have here an accumulation of words 
 to emphasize the great verity of the preservation of the 
 Lord's human body, age after age, within the unseen 
 world to which He has gone, until the time comes when 
 in it unaltered He shall stand again upon the earth. 
 Accordingly, the vision of St. Stephen revealed Him 
 within the innermost glory in human form. In the 
 midst of the light which blinded him for awhile, and 
 which is no doubt rightly interpreted as being the 
 flashing out of the Shekinah of the Divine presence, 
 St. Paul is thrice distinctly said to have seen Jesus. 
 So with regard to that title in the text, " the Son of 
 Man ;" our Lord Himself, adopting it, perhaps, from 
 this very passage of Daniel, uses it no less than fifty- 
 five times, and always in reference to two opposite sub- 
 jects either His extreme humiliation, or His coming 
 upon the cloud ; as though to unite together in thought 
 the depth and the height, the manhood and the glory. 
 It docs not follow from all this that the human body 
 of our Blessed Lord has undergone no change. We 
 are told of a wondrous transformation to pass upon
 
 IV.] The Victor, exalted to His Throne. 65 
 
 our own bodies at the general resurrection. And so 
 the record of our Lord's sojourn upon earth during the 
 great forty days, gives intimations of His resurrection 
 body being endowed with powers which it had not 
 before. And it may be that in many ways beyond the 
 reach of our capacity, hath that body been further 
 glorified, since the heavens received it. Still the truth 
 remains as St. Augustine stated it " Make thou no 
 doubt but that the man Christ Jesus is now in that 
 very place from whence He shall come in the same 
 form and substance of flesh which He carried thither, 
 and it behoveth us to take great heed lest while we 
 go about to maintain His glorious Deity, we leave Him 
 not the true bodily substance of a man b ." 
 
 But this is not all. The perfection of Christ's Hu- 
 manity implies that He had a human soul as well as 
 a human body ; and so you find in the history of His 
 human life two distinct series of sensations attributed 
 to Him, those which belonged to the body hunger, 
 thirst, weariness ; and those appertaining to the human 
 soul wonder, sorrow, friendship, fear. It is not, as 
 again an ancient heresy suggested, that the Divinity 
 possessed and animated, instead of a soul, the sacred 
 Body of Christ His manhood was complete, consist- 
 ing both of human flesh and human soul. 
 
 And yet more, even as the spear and the nails 
 left their impress upon His sacred form, so that 
 after the resurrection their marks were visible to St. 
 Thomas ; so did the trials and temptations of life 
 exercise their own proper influence on His soul, shap- 
 ing it to sympathy, and giving to it a distinct indi- 
 viduality. There is a sense in which our Blessed 
 Lord is Man, the representative of the entire race, 
 
 b Quoted by Hooker, Eccles. Pol. v. 55. 
 F
 
 66 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SKRM. 
 
 belonging to no age or country, but equally akin to 
 all; there is another sense in which He is to be 
 regarded as a Man, in soul and body as created, 
 and as acted upon by the circumstances of life, possess- 
 ing a perfect individuality. 
 
 And thus we may approximate to the great truth 
 before us. The Victor on His throne! He who in 
 His human nature was tempted, but in vain; who 
 knew alike bodily anguish and travail of soul, has trans- 
 ferred Himself with that body and soul to the highest 
 heaven. The Ascension was no laying aside of His 
 human nature, like a garment whose use was over, but 
 the exaltation of that nature above the angels. Hence 
 the meaning of those passages which speak of His 
 having, for the joy which was set before Him, endured 
 the Cross. To His human soul, the crowning and en- 
 throning of His human nature was a real support and 
 encouragement, when the waterfloods closed over Him. 
 Hence, too, the fulness of the assertion, that God hath 
 made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 
 because our nature in its perfectness is already there in 
 Him. Hence the literal fulfilment of all those pro- 
 phecies of the perpetuity of the throne of David, be- 
 cause He who rules now, and will rule to the end the 
 Israel of God, is as truly the offspring of David as He 
 is the Son of God. Hence in heaven, not on earth, is 
 the full mystery of the Incarnation revealed. That 
 God should dwell below in the form of a servant for 
 three and thirty years, ba files our minds ; that He 
 should reign for ever in heaven above, as in the earth 
 beneath, Perfect Man, is a more astounding mystery 
 still. Vet is this the doctrine of Christ's exaltation. 
 Within the innermost tabernacle of Deity, upon the 
 sublimest height of God's holy hill, amidst the unknown
 
 IV.] The Victor, exalted to His Throne. 67 
 
 shapes and dazzling ministries of the everlasting, Scrip- 
 ture bids us recognise the form of a Son of Man brought 
 near to the Ancient of Days. 
 
 II. And now pass on to some of the results of this 
 doctrine. 
 
 (i.) Upon it, we may at once say, depends the 
 true conception of the dispensation under which we 
 live. The language of Scripture speaks almost in- 
 variably of the Church, as the Church of Christ, the 
 kingdom not of the Father, but of the Son. Now the 
 importance of this distinction grows out of the truth 
 that Christ upon His throne is still Man. If that 
 Manhood which He assumed when conceived by the 
 Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and in which whilst 
 upon earth He baffled all the assaults of the great 
 enemy was laid aside at the Ascension, or in any 
 degree absorbed and lost in His Divinity, then would 
 it be a distinction of small moment, to speak of the 
 Church as His Church, rather than the Church of 
 the Father. It is the continuance of His proper hu- 
 manity, now that He is on His throne, which gives 
 the importance to the distinction. Because He is Man 
 still, therefore in no figure of speech, but in a literal 
 sense, may we speak of Him as watching with peculiar 
 care as our Elder Brother over the destinies of the 
 Church, overruling, guiding its conflicts, sympathizing 
 with its saints, the same in His relationships to them 
 and to us, as to the Apostles of old, when visibly going 
 in and out among them. He, which without our nature 
 could not on earth suffer for the sins of the world, doth 
 now also by means of that nature exercise dominion 
 with a true, a natural, and a sensible touch of mercy. 
 And hence we may see the true character of the book 
 of the Acts. Its position in the sacred volume is 
 
 I- 2
 
 68 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SERM. 
 
 a peculiar one. Midway it stands between the Gospels 
 and Epistles, apparently belonging to neither. What 
 is its voice to the Universal Church ? Why this ; to 
 set forth the continued life and action of the Man 
 Christ Jesus now that He is withdrawn from sight; 
 to stamp upon all time this truth, that the dispensation 
 of the Gosi>el since the Ascension is under the rule of 
 the self-same Being who first preached it. St. Luke 
 regarded the Acts only as the second chapter of His 
 Lord's life. So in the outset he speaks of his former 
 treatise as being a narrative of what Jesus began to 
 do and teach, that action and teaching being still 
 carried on, as he designs next to shew, from \vithin 
 the veil. Accordingly, the choice of Matthias to fill 
 the vacant Apostleship is represented as referred to 
 Christ; the outpouring of the Holy Ghost as His gift. 
 He appears to Stephen in his agony. He stands by 
 St. Paul at every great crisis of his career, pointing 
 the way in which he should go. Under all the out- 
 ward instrumentality of apostolic zeal, missionary jour- 
 neys, councils of elders, we are made to see clear and 
 distinct the Lord Jesus, the same in form and cha- 
 racter as we beheld Him in the Gospel narratives, 
 Himself essentially unchanged by the change from 
 earth to heaven, from humiliation to glory. 
 
 (2.) The enthroning of our Blessed Lord as Perfect 
 Man, exactly meets the necessities of our own nature. 
 That which constituted the great fascination of idolatry 
 was that it offered to the worshipper, as an object of 
 worship, something which his mind might in a measure 
 grasp. The demand of the Israelites, " Make us gods 
 to go before us," was the cry of man yet in the infancy 
 of his moral training, unable to lift up his heart to God 
 as a Spirit. And their whole after tendency to idol
 
 IV.] The Victor, exalted to His TJirone. 69 
 
 worship sprang out of the same craving for something 
 which they could more perfectly realize in the object 
 of their worship. Similarly, it has been observed, that 
 the practice of invoking the Blessed Virgin and the 
 saints began to acquire strength just at the period 
 when controversies as to our Lord's Divinity died out. 
 The triumphant vindication of His proper Godhead, X 
 led by a natural re-action to comparative forgetful- 
 ness of His perpetual Manhood ; and as the mind ac- 
 customed itself to contemplate Him only in the Ma- 
 jesty of the Godhead, it began to crave for intermediate 
 intercessors whom it could realize more perfectly. The 
 error in either case arose out of the same instinctive 
 yearning of men's souls for something akin to hu- 
 manity in the Being to whom recourse was to be 
 had for sympathy and aid. Now it is just this desire 
 of the soul which is met and satisfied by the Catholic 
 doctrine of the session of the Man Christ Jesus upon 
 the right hand of the Father. Assure me that He is 
 there whom Thomas felt and handled, in all the in- 
 tegrity of Manhood, in the Body which was pierced, 
 with the Soul that knew fear and sorrow, and you 
 give me something upon which my mind can repose 
 when lifting itself up feebly and wearily to the eternal 
 world; "Touching the Almighty we cannot find Him 
 out," but in becoming incarnate, and that for ever, 
 He has Himself scattered the cloud that is around 
 Him, and drawn near to the creature whom He de~ 
 sires to draw upward to Himself. 
 
 (3.) We may observe how the whole sacramental 
 system of the Catholic Church harmonizes with this 
 same doctrine of Christ's continued Manhood in heaven. 
 What a double character runs through the dispensa- 
 tion under which we live ! As in the two great Sa-
 
 70 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SERM. 
 
 cramcnts, so in minor ordinances, spiritual agency is 
 veiled ever under outward forms. In prayer, in preach- 
 ing, in the Bible itself, it is the same. Something out- 
 ward and visible, something human and tangible is the 
 veil of a power operating beneath, which is more than 
 human. In scarcely any religious act are we left to 
 purely spiritual operations. Fanaticism revolts against 
 this order. Intellectualism derides it. But is there 
 not a wonderful harmony between these laws of the 
 kingdom and the nature of the King ! We are, so 
 Scripture tells us, within the mediatorial empire of the 
 God-Man. He who is the Head of the Church is not 
 divine only, but human likewise. The visibility of the 
 kingdom is but a projection upon this nether world 
 of the visibility of the King above. The whole system 
 of ordinances, uniting so incomprehensibly the earthly 
 and the heavenly elements, independent, yet insepa- 
 rable, does it not find its proper crown and consum- 
 mation in that mystery of mysteries, the second Person 
 in the Trinity incarnate upon His throne. 
 
 Here then are some of the results of the exaltation 
 of our human nature to the right hand of power. Other 
 and profounder consequences there may be which we 
 cannot fathom. How far the whole course of this world 
 is modified, the trials of each individual soul affected 
 by the truth that the Head over all things is Perfect 
 Man as well as God, we shall probably never know 
 until that mysterious moment when the mediatorial 
 kingdom shall be resigned. But inasmuch as all these 
 things arc not theological fictions, but realities ; a reality, 
 the bringing near of a Son of Man to the Ancient of 
 Days, and His receiving the dominion; a reality, the 
 delivering up of that dominion to the Father when the 
 end shall come, therefore must we believe that our
 
 IV.] The Victor, exalted to His Throne. 7 1 
 
 whole existence, even although we know not how, is 
 coloured by the fact that we are under the sceptre of 
 One who is Flesh of our flesh. So, from generation to 
 generation, the majestic session is prolonged. Age after 
 age casting up its own forms of evil, and He, the Victor 
 on His throne, gathering out of each His own triumphs, 
 working through each the counsels of His will, in His 
 twofold nature laying His hand at once upon the in- 
 finite and finite, meeting the upward yearnings of His 
 people, giving its own special character to their war- 
 fare and their worship, and so preparing them, by an 
 intermediate discipline, for that life where no longer 
 through a Mediator, but face to face, they shall see 
 God, and know as they are known. 
 
 Finally, let us from this whole subject gather fuller, 
 deeper convictions of the solemn character of our own 
 earthly lives. Doubtless there are difficulties in ap- 
 prehending this prolonging of the great mystery of the 
 Incarnation ; but this difficulty is only one instance 
 among many of the tendency to banish the super- 
 natural to the realms of the past or the future. Past 
 and future, it has been said, are great words, and the 
 changes which they necessarily involve are so strange 
 and eventful, that it seems not inconceivable that the 
 work of redemption should have been wrought in the 
 one, and that the hour of judgment should await 
 us in the other. The marvels of the manger bed are 
 softened down in the dim distance, and the terrors 
 of the great white throne are swathed in the thick 
 folds of ages not yet unrolled. But the doctrine on 
 which we have spoken knits up our modern lives, even as 
 the lives of the Apostles were knit up of old with the 
 supreme miracle of all, making the Incarnation itself 
 a contemporaneous fact. It may be a teaching hard
 
 72 The Victor, exalted to His Throne. [SF.RM. IV. 
 
 to receive. Yet herein lies our strength against temp- 
 tation, our incentive to high purposes and holy living. 
 The more we realize the truth of our own lives being 
 interwoven even now with the sublimest mysteries of 
 God, a portion already of the invisible and the eternal, 
 the more mean in our eyes will become the pleasures of 
 sin, the more determined and the more hopeful our re- 
 sistance to the evil which compasses us around.
 
 SERMON V. 
 Ftctor, on f&te Efjrone, tfje bject of 
 
 KEVELATIONS v. 1113. 
 
 " And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about 
 the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of 
 them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
 thousands ; saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that 
 was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
 and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which 
 is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such 
 as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, 
 Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." 
 
 /^\NE is the Church of the redeemed ; one is their 
 God, their Lord, their Head ; one Spirit knits the 
 whole in one, pervading all, filling each separate mem- 
 ber according to the capacity of each to receive Him ; 
 endowing each with his own special gifts, and in all 
 diffusing the love, the wisdom, the holiness, the right- 
 eousness of God. One they are, because He who per- 
 vades all the whole mystical body of Christ militant, 
 expectant, triumphant, is one and indivisible. 
 
 And as they themselves are one through the in-oneing 
 Spirit, so the Object of their being, their bliss, is one ; 
 only, that while our praises, and thanksgivings, and in-
 
 74 The Victor, on His Tlironc, [SKRM. 
 
 tcrccssion ascend together to the eternal throne, those 
 above, being already perfected, need no prayer for graces 
 for themselves. No Miserere can mingle with their un- 
 ceasing, endless Ilalleluias, save for us in our pilgrimage, 
 whom they long to be brought safe through, to swell 
 the sweet concord of redeemed praise. 
 
 One, also, is the object of their worship ; one only 
 object can there be of divine worship, Almighty God. 
 This was the fundamental central doctrine of the old 
 law : " The Lord our God is one Lord a ;" " And thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Thou shalt 
 fear the Lord thy God: Him shalt thou serve, and to 
 Him thou shalt cleave, and swear by His name 1 '." This 
 doctrine our blessed Lord emphasised at the thrcshhold 
 of the Gospel, when He rebuked His bad rebellious 
 spirit and dismissed him from His sacred presence with 
 the words, "Get thee behind Me, Satan. For it is 
 written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God only, 
 and Him only shalt thou serve c ." "Since then," says 
 St. Augustine' 1 , "we serve both the Father and the Son 
 and the Holy Spirit with that servitude which is called 
 latreia, and we hear the law of God enjoining that we 
 should shew this to no other but the Lord our God only ; 
 doubtless our one and only God is the Trinity Itself, to 
 which, one and alone, we, by right of piety, owe such 
 a servitude." Hence it was rightly objected to the 
 Arians that, owning (as they did, and as Socinus did 
 in later times) that our Lord was an object of divine 
 worship, and yet holding God the Son to be a creature, 
 the}' were, in fact, idolaters. It would have been but 
 the revival of the old Polytheism within Christianity. 
 
 l>cut. vi. 4, 5. h ll)id . x. 20. ' St.. Matt. iv. 10. 
 
 ' c. Semi. Arian, c. 29, Opp. viii. 643.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 75 
 
 " Who told them," says St. Athanasius e , " ' Abandon the 
 worship of the creation, and then draw near and wor- 
 ship a creature and a work ?' " " They," said another f as 
 to the heathen, " whereas they ought to have worshipped 
 the true God, offered the divine honour to the creation. 
 To this censure are they too liable who call the Only- 
 begotten Son of God a creature, and yet worship Him 
 as God. For it were due, either if they call Him God, 
 not to rank Him with the creation, but with God who 
 begat Him ; or if they call Him a creature, not to offer 
 Him divine honour." 
 
 Nor, plainly, does the humility of the Incarnation 
 make any difference herein. For He deified our nature 
 in Himself by taking it ; He could, and did, empty 
 Himself of the visible glory of His Godhead ; He could 
 not, by becoming man, cease to be God. He became 
 man, "not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but 
 by taking of the Manhood into God." " We worship not 
 a creature," says St. Athanasius g ; " God forbid ! For 
 such an error belongs to heathens and Arians. But we 
 worship the Lord of the creation, the Word of -God In- 
 carnate. For although the Flesh, Itself by Itself, is a por- 
 tion of the things created, yet It became the Body of 
 God. And neither, severing the Body, being such, by 
 Itself apart from the Word, do we worship It ; nor, wish- 
 ing to worship the Word, do we remove Him from the 
 Flesh ; but knowing, as I said before, the Scripture, 
 ' The Word was made Flesh,' we own Him, although 
 being in the Flesh, to be God. Who, then, is so sense- 
 less as to say to the Lord, ' Remove from the Body that 
 I may worship Thee ?' or who so ungodly as, with the 
 frantic Jews, on account of the Body, to say to Him, 
 
 ag. Arians, i. 8, p. 191, Oxf. Tr. ' Theodoret on Rom. i. 25. 
 
 * Ep. ad Adelph. 3, p. 912, 913, Ben.
 
 76 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 ' \Vhy dost Thou, being a Man, make Thyself God ?' 
 Not such was the leper; for he worshipped the God, 
 being in the Body, and knew that He was God, saying, 
 ' Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean ;' and 
 neither, on account of the Flesh, did he account the Word 
 of God a creature ; nor, because the Word was the Arti- 
 ficer of all creation, did he make light of the Flesh, 
 wherewith He was arrayed ; but he worshipped as in 
 a created temple the Creator of all, and was cleansed. 
 So also the woman with an issue of blood, believing and 
 only touching the hem of His garment, was healed ; 
 and the sea, tossing its foam, heard the voice of the 
 Incarnate Word, and ceased its tempest ; and the 
 blind from his birth, through the spittle of the Flesh, 
 was healed by the Word ; and greater and more mar- 
 vellous still (for this, perchance, shocked even the most 
 ungodly), when the Lord, being upon the Cross itself, 
 (for the Body was the Lord's, and in It was the 
 Word,) ' the sun was darkened, and the earth shook, 
 the rocks were rent, and the veil of the temple was 
 rent in twain, and many bodies of the saints which 
 slept, arose.'" 
 
 The confusion, created by heretics, arose in the igno- 
 rance or misbelief of the doctrine of the Incarnation, the 
 fruitful source of manifold heresy. For men, in one or 
 the other way, parted with the belief that our Lord's 
 Divine Nature, being Divine, was unchangeable ; that It 
 could not be confused ; that It could receive no acces- 
 sion to Itself, so as to be a complement of Itself. For 
 It was all-perfect. When, then, God the Word vouch- 
 safed to take our nature upon Him in the Virgin's 
 womb, lie did not unite to Himself a pre-existing 
 nature, so that It should have a distinct personality, but 
 "created that manhood which He took, by taking It,
 
 v.] the Object of Divine Worship. 77 
 
 and took It by creating It h ." His Manhood, real and 
 perfect as It was, was but an adjunct of His Deity. 
 He took our nature, that for us He might suffer, that 
 for us He might die ; that He might bear our sins, that 
 He might offer a full price and ransom for us ; that He 
 might be our High Priest for ever at the Right Hand of 
 God ; yea, that, having redeemed us, He might, by 
 taking a manhood joined to His own Nature, make 
 His Flesh lifegiving, and " through His flesh akin to us 
 might draw up to Him all humanity \" " He used it 
 as His instrument for the operation and the shining 
 forth of His Godhead k ." Yet His Personality is not 
 human but Divine. When, then, we adore Christ, our 
 God, we adore not His Deity and His Humanity sepa- 
 rately, but His Deity clothed with His Humanity. This 
 the Church of God proclaimed that she had received 
 from the first, that " God, the Word Incarnate, with His 
 own Flesh was worshipped V' rejecting, with anathema, 
 the opposite heresies, that Christ is worshipped in two 
 natures, thus introducing two acts of worship, one ap- 
 propriated to God the Word, the other appropriated to 
 the Man ; or again, with either destruction of His 
 Humanity, or confusion of the Godhead and Manhood, 
 or the assumption of " one nature from both concurring." 
 This Divine Nature, then, of our Lord in His Hu- 
 manity, St. John exhibits as a distinct Object of the 
 praises and thanksgivings of the Church Triumphant. For 
 he saw the beatified beings, whom he was admitted to 
 behold, at times prostrate in adoration before the Lamb, 
 at times as adoring; at once Him Who sitteth on the 
 
 h Hugo de S.Vict, Summa .Sent. i. 15. t. iii. p. 431. 
 
 ' Ps. Basil in note k on S. Ath. ag. Arians, p. 444, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 k 8. Ath. ag. Arians, iii. 53, p. 475, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 1 Cone. Const, ii. can. 9 ; Cone. T. vi. p. 212 Col,
 
 The Victor, on I/is Throne, [SKRM. 
 
 Throne, and the Lamb. At one while, he shews us the 
 four living creatures and four and twenty elders falling 
 down before the Lamb, having, every one of them, harps 
 and golden vials full of incense, which arc the prayers of 
 the saints. We hear the new song of redeemed love : 
 " Worthy art Thou . . . for Thou wast slain, and hast 
 redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out of every kin- 
 dred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast 
 made us unto our God kings and priests" 1 ." "Worthy 
 is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
 riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and 
 glory, and blessing"." And again, the song is echoed 
 from the whole Church, triumphant, militant, and ex- 
 pectant : "every creature which is in heaven, and on 
 the earth, and under the earth, saying, Blessing, and 
 honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
 upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and 
 ever ." And again, all that great white-robed, palm- 
 bearing " multitude, which no man could number, of all 
 nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
 before the throne, and before the Lamb, saying, with 
 a loud voice, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon 
 the throne, and to the Lamb >'." 
 
 This same, which St. John exhibits in being, as God 
 shewed it him, St. Paul sets forth as the end of the 
 humiliation of the Son of God. God humbled Himself, 
 emptied Himself, to exalt that Manhood which He 
 humbled Himself to take, and then, in Him, all our 
 humanity. In Himself the Son could not be exalted. 
 For He was Co-eternal, Co-equal with God. But He 
 willed to be One Person with the Humanity which He 
 humbled Himself to take. He humbled Himself, so 
 closely to unite Himself with man, that all which could 
 
 111 Rev. v. S 10. " Il>. 12. " Ib. 13. F Ib. vii. 9, 10.
 
 v.] the Object of Divine Worship. 79 
 
 belong to His Manhood might be spoken of Him as 
 God ; what belonged to Him, as God, might be spoken 
 of the Man Christ Jesus. Was it not so ? They of old 
 said boldly, "the Passion of Christ my God V "the 
 sufferings of God r ," "God was dead and buried 8 ," be- 
 cause, although God could not suffer or die, lie Who 
 for our sakes died and was buried and rose again was 
 Almighty God. " Because of the perfect union of the 
 Flesh which was assumed, and the Godhead which 
 assumed It, the names are interchanged, so that the 
 human is called from the Divine, and the Divine from 
 the Human. Wherefore He Who was crucified was 
 called by Paul 'the Lord of glory;' and He Who is 
 worshipped by all creation, of things in heaven, in 
 earth, and under the earth, is named Jesus 1 ." God the 
 Son plainly could not be exalted ; for He was in all 
 eternity, " in the form of God." It was the equality 
 with God which He had, of which He " held it no de- 
 sirable thing" to retain the manifestation ; but He 
 humbled Himself by " taking upon Him the form of 
 a servant " of God, by " coming to be (by His Birth) in 
 the likeness of man ;" (not mere man, being still what 
 He was, Almighty God) " and, being found in guise as 
 a man," [i.e. being, again, not mere man, but personally 
 God, clothed with our humanity,] " He humbled Him- 
 self by becoming obedient even unto death, and that 
 the death of the Cross," the shameful, the accursed, the 
 transgressors' doom. 
 
 The counterpart of the exaltation relates to the 
 
 i S. Ignat. ad Rom. n. 6. " God suffered ;" S. Melito ap. Anast. IIo- 
 deg. 12. See St. Ath. ag. Ar., p. 444, n. i. 
 
 r Tert. de Cam. Christi, c. 5. 
 
 s Vigil, c. Eutych. ii. 502, ib. ; see also Petav. de Inc., ii. 2. 12, 13 ; 
 iv. 15. 5 sqq. 
 
 1 S. Greg. Nyss. in Apoll., t. iii. 265, 6.
 
 8o The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 self-same. The humiliation was the veiling of His 
 essential glory, which He had, co-equal with the Father, 
 before the world was, by taking our manhood. The 
 exaltation was of Himself, not in Himself, but in re- 
 gard to that Manhood which He had taken. He was 
 exalted, because the Manhood was exalted which He 
 had made an adjunct of Himself. His Manhood had 
 no separate existence, but was assumed to His own 
 Personality. "His Godhead was in It; the Body was 
 God's"." "Being God and Man, He was One Christ v ." 
 St. Paul then speaks of Him as being super-eminently 
 exalted by God, because the Manhood was exalted, 
 which was His own. " Wherefore," since He so hum- 
 bled Himself and was so obedient, "God super-exalted 
 Him, and gave Him that Name," that Name which is 
 excellent and glorious above every name, that saving 
 Name, which was predicted by the angel, which was 
 given beforehand at His Circumcision, which received 
 its full meaning and fulfilment when on the Cross He 
 poured out His Blood, and paid the price of the re- 
 demption of the whole world, that " at the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 
 things on earth, and things under the earth ; and every 
 tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to 
 the glory of God the Father." It is, as if he described 
 our worship 1800 years before. All things human have 
 manifoldly changed, are changing. The worship of 
 Jesus, our Lord and God, changes not, being, like Him- 
 self, eternal. 
 
 And so is fulfilled that solemn prayer of our Lord, 
 "Father, glorify Thou Me with Thyself with that glory 
 which I had with Thee before the world was x ." The 
 
 u St. Ath. ay. Ar., iii. 31. ]>. 444. O. T. v Ath. Creed. 
 
 1 St. John xvii. 5.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 81 
 
 Son never ceased to be in that glory, in that oneness 
 with the Father, in which He eternally is. But as, when 
 on earth, He spoke of Himself, as "the Son of Man 
 Who is in heaven >' ;" because, as God, He is there and 
 every where eternally ; as He said to the Jews, "What 
 and if ye see the Son of Man ascend up where He 
 was before * ?" although His Divine Person alone, not 
 His Manhood, which was now in one with It, had been 
 there before ; as He said, that "the Son of Man hath 
 power on earth to forgive sins a ," although " none" has 
 that power " but God alone b ," and the Son of Man 
 had it, only because He was God the Son ; as " the 
 Son of Man was Lord of the Sabbath c ," which " the 
 Lord" God had "blessed and hallowed d ," because He 
 was One Substance with God Who had so hallowed it ; 
 as He saith that the Son of Man shall, in that great 
 day which shall decide eternity, "come in His own 
 glory e ," although the glory in which He shall come 
 is the glory of the Godhead, since He also calls it 
 " the glory of the Father f ;" as it is said, that in that 
 day " the Son of Man shall send forth His angels %," 
 although those blessed spirits are " the ministers of 
 God" only, "to do His pleasure 11 ;" so He, being One 
 Person with God the Son, is glorified with that glory 
 which He had with God before the world was, although 
 then the Manhood existed not. 
 
 This worship of " the Word made flesh " began from 
 the moment that He took that Flesh. Elisabeth owned 
 Him as her Lord, ere yet He was born : " Whence is 
 this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come 
 
 y St. John iii. 13. z Ibid. vi. 62. a St. Matt. ix. 6. 
 
 b St. Mark ii. 7. c Ibid. ii. 28. d Exod. xx. II. 
 
 e St. Matt. xxv. 31. f St. Mark viii. 38. St. Matt. xiii. 41. 
 h Ps. ciii. 21. 
 
 G
 
 82 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 unto me 1 ?" This worship the angels paid Him unseen, 
 when He lay yet in His narrow manger-bed. The 
 shepherds heard their songs of joy, "Glory to God in the 
 Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mcn k ;" 
 but, unseen, they worshipped Him, where they told the 
 shepherds that they would find Him ; for they obeyed 
 that command, "When He bringeth the First-Begotten 
 into the world, He saith, 'And let all the angels of 
 God worship Him 1 ."' This worship they must have 
 paid Him, as He ascended from choir to choir above 
 the highest heavens, as they owned Him the King 
 of Glory. " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be 
 ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of Glory 
 shall come in. Who is the King of Glory ? The Lord 
 of Hosts," - their own Lord, who took this title of 
 " Lord of Hosts" from them, " He is the King of 
 Glory m ." 
 
 But what on earth ? which Prophets had foretold 
 would be His, where kings were to worship Him, 
 where all nations were to serve Him, which He had 
 claimed as His own, but which, as Man, lie had left 
 for that "far country"," whence lie was to return? 
 What on earth ? His own Person could not but be, 
 it was, it is, it will be to the end, the centre of the 
 faith, the object of attack, the rock on which His 
 Church should be founded, on which the waves of 
 unbelief would dash themselves; the magnet attracting 
 love and hate, adoration and blasphemy. Had His 
 religion been a philosophy, no need to destroy it : it 
 would have taken its place among the things of earth, 
 and have died. Had it been a mere worship of what 
 men call the Deity (meaning something about as vague 
 
 1 St. Luke i. 43. k Ibid. ii. 14. ' Heb. i. 6. 
 
 m l'>. xxiv. 9, 10. " St. Matt. xxv. 14.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 83 
 
 as what the old heathen believed), it would have been 
 admired, have caused no uproar, have been forgotten. 
 But the Jews, and His own "little flock," and the 
 heathen presently, alike understood the issue. Was 
 Jesus what He claimed to be, God ? or was He what 
 the Chief Priests and Pharisees called Him to Pilate, 
 "a deceiver?" There was no middle term. Either 
 Almighty God, One Substance with the Father, in- 
 dwelling in the Father and indwelt by the Father 
 through the absolute numerical Oneness of the Divine 
 Nature, or, less than man ; not such as Socrates or 
 Graecia's wise men, but it is well to face the alter- 
 native, to look it straight, full in the face, not even 
 an upright man, such as many whom we reverence 
 now on earth, but a deceiver. The Jews sought to 
 extinguish His Name. Either they were Deicides, or 
 He was such as they between whom they had crucified 
 Him, yea, worse than they, by how much spiritual 
 seduction from loyalty to our God and Father, spiritual 
 falsehood, taught in the Name of, and against, the God 
 of Truth, is worse, more desolating, more destructive 
 than sedition of a conquered nation against their tem- 
 poral masters. And so they forbade to teach in His 
 Name ; they gave authority (it is doubtless, according 
 to the wont of Holy Scripture, but one instance out 
 of many,) they gave authority to Saul, while "yet 
 breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the 
 disciples of the Lord," to " bind all who should call on 
 the Name of Jesus ." To that same Jesus the con- 
 verted Saul, when struck to the earth by the majesty 
 of His appearing, submitted his whole soul, all which 
 he was, all his life, as to his Lord : " What shall I do, 
 Lord p ?" To Him he prayed, as washing away his sins, 
 
 Acts ix. I, 14, 21. P Ib. xxii. 10. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 when baptized ; " calling on the Name of the Lord V To 
 Him he prayed thrice 1 " in that distressing temptation 
 which he calls "the thorn in the flesh," that it might 
 depart from him, and received answer, "My grace" 
 (imparted manifestly upon that prayer) " sufficeth for 
 thee," yea, and (it lies in the words) " shall suffice." 
 And should this be an insulated act ? What religious 
 act of any religious man is an insulated act ? Where 
 we have found help, there we again seek it ; where it has 
 been opened to us, there we again knock ; of Him Who 
 has given to us, we again ask. Much more in St. Paul. 
 One word, one act, opens to us a large vision into his 
 inner life. Man's fickleness waves to and fro ; stayed 
 and steadfast is the soul whose centre, whose attraction, 
 whose lodestone is Christ! His strength was perfected 
 in this one weakness ; His might, upon St. Paul's prayer, 
 resided upon him as its home. What, then, of those 
 other weaknesses in which his soul rested content, in 
 which to be weak was to be mighty ? He whose life 
 was the life of Christ in him 3 ; he, in whom what he 
 wrought, Christ wrought l ; he, in whose body Christ 
 was evermore magnified u ; he, who could do all things 
 in Christ ^strengthening him x ; he, in whose heart 
 
 o o 
 
 Christ dwelt, and by whose mouth Christ spake ; in 
 whom Christ was. Whence could he have this closest 
 union and communion with Christ, but that that in- 
 tense prayer in his weakness, which he mentions the 
 rather because it was answered otherwise than he asked 
 it, was but one flash which shines forth from his God- 
 illumined soul ? 
 
 St. Paul prayed not only to Jesus but in that cor- 
 
 '' Acts xxii. 1 6. '2 Cor. xii. 8. Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 1 Rom. \v. 18. " Phil. i. 20. 
 
 1 II). iv. 13. See further in Dr. Hourtley's " Prayer to Christ," p. 15-
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 85 
 
 responding act, wherein we are so mean and niggard 
 towards Almighty God, he thanks alike God and Jesus. 
 He thanks Jesus as his Lord for that Divine act of 
 grace which was the turning-point of his whole life : 
 " I thank Christ Jesus our Lord Who instrcngthened me, 
 that He accounted me faithful, putting me into the 
 ministry, being a blasphemer and persecutor and in- 
 sultery." 
 
 And what of others ? What were his manifold bene- 
 dictions but prayers to his Lord and God, Christ Jesus, 
 either by Himself or with God the Father 2 with Whom 
 the Son is One, that He, Jesus, would be present with 
 the spirit of those whom He blessed ; that Jesus would, 
 equally with the Father, pour peace, love, faith, grace, 
 mercy into their souls ; that He would comfort their 
 hearts and stablish them in every good word and work ? 
 St. Paul gathers into one thought the whole body of 
 Christians, as, "all who call upon the Name of" our 
 common " Lord, Jesus Christ a ;" he speaks of all who 
 were Christ's disciples in sincerity and truth, as those 
 who "call on the Lord with a pure heart V Devotion 
 and prayer to Jesus was the characteristic of Christians. 
 He, One and the same Lord of all, was ever-abounding 
 in wealth toward all who call upon Him, gushing forth 
 in one ever-flowing munificence of grace and love to 
 all everywhere who looked to Him for aid ; not of 
 any temporary, fleeting graces, but of "grace upon 
 grace," grace heaped upon grace, grace issuing in sal- 
 vation. For so had the prophet foretold, "Whosoever 
 shall call upon the Name of the Lord c " (i.e. as is plain 
 from the context d , the Lord Jesus,) "shall be saved." 
 
 y I Tim. i. 12. z I Cor. i. 3. a Tb. ver. 2. 
 
 b 2 Tim. ii. 22. c Rom. x. 13 ; Joel ii. 32. 
 
 d For it continues, "How shall they call upon Him, in Whom they 
 have not believed ?" See Alford, ad loc.
 
 86 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 Momentary prayer obtains the grace it asks for ; abiding 
 prayer obtains abiding grace ; prayer for perseverance 
 obtains the grace of perseverance ; prayer, persevering 
 to the end, obtains grace in the end ; grace in the end 
 yields the soul to salvation. 
 
 What one of the glorious company of the Apostles 
 did, in so central a point of Christian faith, self-evidently 
 all must have done. To Jesus, probably, St. Peter ad- 
 dressed that prayer about the choice to Judas' vacated 
 place : " Lord, discerner of the heart of all c ." To Jesus, 
 in that most perfect imitation of His close of His earthly 
 life, in entire resignation and Divine love, St. Stephen 
 yielded his soul in His own prayers as Man, " Lord 
 Jesus, receive my spirit;" "Lord, lay not this sin to 
 their charged" How did he, whom Jesus loved, fall 
 unrcproved at His Feet*, on Whose breast he once lay, 
 ascribing to Him the incommunicable "glory and 
 might h ," which belong to God only! How does he 
 thank Him for His ever-abiding, ever-present love 1 , and 
 for that more than atoning, more than forgiving act ; 
 that act, in one, atoning, forgiving, re-creating, sanctify- 
 ing ; " Who lovcth us, and washed us from our sins 
 
 O ' 
 
 in His own Blood k !" How does he pray for grace and 
 peace, to issue to the Churches, at once from the Eternal 
 God, and from Him in Whom the Godhead was en- 
 shrined, with Whom It was united by that hypostatic 
 union, which was closer, more inter-penetrating, than 
 any union, save of the Persons of the self-inexisting 
 Trinity in Unity ! 
 
 And since the Father and the Son arc One, and our 
 Lord had said, as meaning one and the same thing, 
 
 Acts i. 24. ' II). vii. 59, 61. K Rev. i. 17. 
 
 h II). 6 ; comp. I Tim. vi. 16 ; Ileb. xiii. 21 ; I Pet. iv. n, v. II. 
 ' a.-,airuvrt. k Rev. i. 4, 5.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 87 
 
 " Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, 
 He may give it you V' and " Whatsoever ye shall 
 ask in My Name, that will I do m ;" so St. John, summing 
 up the end and object of his own teaching, "that ye 
 may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may 
 believe in the name of the Son of God n ," adds, as to 
 Him of Whom he had so spoken, "and this is the con- 
 fidence which we have towards Him, that if we ask 
 anything according to His Will, He heareth us. And if 
 we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we 
 know that we have the petitions which we have asked 
 from Him." What a volume of accumulated prayer, 
 asked of and granted by the Son of God ! " We know 
 that whatsoever we have asked for, that " not we had 
 simply, but, " we have" an ever-present possession of all 
 we ever asked Him. 
 
 Ere yet St. John had left the earth, the heathen Pliny 
 knew of the Christian worship that, " in meetings before 
 day-break, they sang responsively a hymn to Christ as 
 God ." "Very many Psalms and songs of the brethren," 
 we are early told p , " written from the beginning by 
 the faithful, hymn Christ, the Word of God, entitling 
 Him God." The heretic, Paul of Samosata, in order to 
 make way for his heresy of the simple humanity of 
 Christ, had to do away with those Psalms to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, feigning that they were recent q . Morning 
 by morning they echoed those lauds in Heaven : " Glory 
 to God in the highest r ." They prayed, as we still 
 
 1 St. John xv. 16. m Ib. xiv. 13. n I Ep. v. 13 15. 
 
 Plin. Ep. x. 97. P Caius, A.D. 210, in Eus. II. E. v. 28. 
 
 1 Ep. Cone. Antioch. in Eus. H. E. vii. 30. 
 
 r The beginning of the hymn is given in the ancient dc virginifafe, in 
 St. Athan. Works, and by St. Chrysostom, Horn. 68 in St. Matt., as 
 a morning hymn ; the whole, with variations, in the Apost. Const, vii. 47. 
 See further Abp. Ussher, who thinks that it is one of the early hymns men-
 
 88 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 carry on their prayer : " O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son 
 of the Father, Who takcst away the sins of the world, 
 have mercy upon us ;" and the rest of that prayer, which, 
 in deepest thankfulness, you have said so often to Him, 
 blessing Him, that He Alone is holy, He Alone is the 
 Lord, He, Jesus Christ, "with the Holy Ghost in the 
 glory of God the Father." Evening by evening, as 
 they came to the setting sun, they hymned Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost, and Him, through Whom we approach 
 to God, God and Man : " Worthy art Thou to be hymned 
 at all times with holy voices, Son of God, Who givest 
 life ; wherefore the world glorifieth Thee 8 ." 
 
 " The world glorifieth Thee !" Ere the second cen- 
 tury had expired, Tertullian, enumerating the narrow 
 bounds of those world-empires which had passed away, 
 appeals to the Jews : " Why speak I of the Romans, 
 who guard their empire by the outposts of their legions, 
 nor can stretch the might of their reign beyond those 
 nations ? But the reign and Name of Christ is stretched 
 forth everywhere ; everywhere He is believed ; by all 
 those nations He is worshipped ; everywhere He reigns ; 
 everywhere He is adored ; He is given equally to all 
 everywhere ; kings stand in no greater favour with 
 Him; no barbarian hath an inferior joy; no dignities 
 or birth confer distinct merits ; to all, He is the same ; 
 to all, the King ; to all, the Judge ; to all, Lord and 
 God 1 ." 
 
 This seemed to the Heathen " madness ", that, after 
 the immutable, everlasting God, Parent of all, they 
 alleged, that Christians gave the second place to 
 
 tioned by the writer in Eusebius (see p. 87) DC SyniMis, n. 3, Works, vii. 
 335. 6. 
 
 " Sec in Koutli, A',-/. S. iii. 515. St. Hasil (</< Sf>. S. c. 29,) speaks of it 
 as "ancient," of its "evidence, from its antiquity." 
 
 1 Adv. Jud. i. 7, p. 213, Rij;. u St. Justin, Apol i. 13, p. 9, Oxf. Tr.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 89 
 
 a Man, Who had been crucified ;" " they worshipped 
 exceedingly One Who had lately appeared x ;" " the 
 Son of Man, under the plea that He was the Great 
 God? ;" " the leader of their sedition, Whom they called 
 the Son of God z ." " That great Man, Who was cruci- 
 fied in Palestine because He brought into the world 
 this new religion a ." 
 
 And the Apologists answered the Jews that so had 
 their own Prophets foretold in express terms (as they 
 did), that Christ should both suffer, and be worshipped, 
 and be God ; nay, they say that the Jews admitted 
 this b , only that they dared to deny that Jesus was the 
 Christ. They worshipped One, (they said,) not Man 
 only but God. " We worship," they said c , " One God, 
 the Father and the Son, and do not give an excess of 
 worship to Him Who appeared of late as though, be- 
 fore, He were not. For we believe Himself Who said, 
 ' Before Abraham was, I am d .' " They told the Hea- 
 then that what these counted madness, they with 
 reason did, "having learned that He, Who was born 
 Jesus Christ, Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, 
 
 1 Celsus in Origen, c. Cels. viii. 12. 1 Ib. 15. 7 - Ib. 14. 
 
 a Lucian de morte Peregrini, t. i. p. 565, Gr. " I come now to the 
 Passion itself, which is wont to be objected to us as a reproach, that we 
 both worship a Man and One who was by men afflicted by a notable punish- 
 ment and excruciated." Lact. iv. 16. " ' But,' one saith, 'the gods are not 
 therefore your enemies, because you worship God Almighty, but because 
 you both believe that one, born man, and (what is infamous to vile persons) 
 put to death by the punishment of the cross, still survives, and you adore 
 Him with daily supplications.' " Arnob. i. 36, "A man, punished capitally 
 for guilt, and the cross's sad wood, they relate, are their worships, fitting 
 altars for lost and guilty men, that they should worship what they deserve." 
 Csecil. in Minut. Fel. p. 86, Ouz., "We worship, the gods with joy, feast- 
 ings, songs, plays, revellings, and wantonness ; but you a crucified man, 
 Whom they cannot please who enjoy all these things." Heathen judge to 
 St. Epipodius ; Ruinart, Act. Mart., p. 64. 
 
 b St. Justin, Dial. c. Tryph. n. 68, p. 160, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 c Orig. c. Cels. viii. 17. '' St. John viii. 58.
 
 90 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 was the Son of the true God e ." " We are no worship- 
 pers of insensate stones, but of the Only God, before 
 all and above all, and of His Christ, being indeed God 
 the Word before all ages f ." To this they exhort them : 
 " Believe, O man, in Him, Who is Man and God. Be- 
 lieve, O man, in the Living God, Who suffered and is 
 worshipped *." 
 
 This was the confession of the Martyrs. 
 
 " The common people knoweth Christ as one among 
 men, whence one might the rather suppose us worship- 
 pers of a man. We say openly and, while ye torture us, 
 mangled and gory we cry out, We worship God through 
 Christ: believe Him a Man ; it is in Him and through 
 Him that God willeth to be known and worshipped 11 ." 
 
 To Him they cried, when their tortures were passed 
 human endurance. We still have their broken words 
 faithfully preserved. To Him they looked for aid, for 
 Whom they suffered ; yea, Who in them was persecuted, 
 and suffered. To Him they prayed: "Christ, I pray, 
 have mercy; Son of God, help 1 ." "Christ, my Lord, 
 let me not be confounded." " I pray, O Christ, give 
 endurance. Thou art the hope of Life k ." 
 
 ' St. Justin, Apol. i. 13, p. 5. 
 
 ' St. Mclito, Apol. in Chron. Fasch., p. 259 ; Gall. i. 678. 
 
 St. Clem. Coh. c. IO, p. 30. Sylb. 
 
 h Tort. Apol. n. 21, p. 50, Oxf. Tr. Maximian afterwards "commands 
 that the loorshipptrs of Christ [ChristicolasJ, unless they would sacrifice 
 to idols, should perish by exquisite deaths." Pass. St. Victor, &c. , Ruinart, 
 p. 301. 
 
 1 Saturninus, Acta Mart, in Baron. A. 303, n. 48. 
 
 k Thus Dativus, Il>. n. 44, "So, while he is wholly in Christ and, now 
 worn out, invoke* Him with his last words, he breathes out his blessed 
 spirit." Alexander, in Act. Kpipod. et Alex , n. 1 1 ; Ruin., p. 66. Satur- 
 ninus Jun., II). n. 54., "O Lord Jesus Christ, Hope of the hopeless, grant 
 me to finish my course, and to offer the shedding of my blood for a sacri- 
 fice and libation, for all their sakcs who arc afflicted for Thee." St. Theo- 
 d<>lu> in Ruinart., p. 364.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 91 
 
 Him they confessed before their judges, as the object 
 of their adoration : " I am the servant of Christ ; Him 
 I confess with my mouth, hold in my heart, adore un- 
 ceasingly 1 ." "There is no king beside Him Whom I 
 have seen m ; and I adore and worship Him; and if for 
 His worship I die a thousand deaths, His will I be, as 
 I have begun. Christ from my mouth, Christ from my 
 heart, tortures cannot take 11 ." "The sacrifice of prayer 
 and deprecation, of compunction and praise, I must 
 offer to the Living and True God, to the King of all 
 ages, Christ ." To Him they offered themselves as a liv- 
 ing sacrifice : " Father, Son, and Holy Ghost I adore ; 
 the Holy Trinity I adore ; beside whom there is no God. 
 I am a Christian. I sacrifice myself to Christ God p ." 
 
 1 Alexander in Acta St. Felic. n. 3. in Ruinart, Acta Mart, p. 22. 
 " Christ, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, I confess to be God ; and it 
 is meet that I give back my soul to Him Who is both my Creator and Re- 
 deemer." Acta St. Epipod. Ruin., p. 65. 
 
 m In a vision. Ib. 
 
 n Acta St. Genesii ex mimo Martyris ; Ruinart, p. 284. Q. " What 
 God do you worship?" Polemon, "Christ." Q. "What, then, is He 
 another?" Pol. "No, but the same, Whom those, too, confessed a little 
 before." Acta St. Pionii, n. 9, about A.D. 250, Ruin-, p. 129. " What 
 God do ye worship ?" Pionius. " Him Who made heaven," &c. Q. " Sayest 
 thou Him Who was crucified?" Pion. "I say, Him Whom the Father 
 sent for the salvation of the world." Ib. , n. 16, p. 134. "We render 
 honour to Coesar ; fear and worship we yield to Christ, the true God." 
 St. Donata in Act. Mart. Scillit. A.D. 200 ; Ruinart, p. 80. 
 
 Act. SS. Martr. Petri, Andrere, &c. ; Ruinart, p. 147. 
 
 P Consular. "Cease, Euplius, from this madness. Adore the Gods, and 
 thou shall be free." Enfliits. " I adore Christ, I detest daemons. Do what 
 thou wilt, I am a Christian." C. " Unhappy one, adore the gods, Mars, 
 Apollo, /Esculapius." E. "Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit I adore; 
 the Holy Trinity I adore; besides Which there is no God." C. "Sacri- 
 fice, if thou wouldest be freed." E. "Now I sacrifice myself to Christ, 
 God. I can do no more. In vain thou essayest ; I am a Christian." Acta 
 Euplii, n. 2 ; Ruinart, p. 440. " I never sacrificed, nor sacrifice, save to 
 the One God, and our Lord Jesus Christ His Son, Who was born and suf- 
 fered." Acta St. Crispini, Ruin., p. 494. "We sacrifice to our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," &c. Acta St. Mammarii in Mabillon, Analect. t. iv. ap. Ruinart, 
 p. 367, n. 2 ; add Acta Mart. Lugd., n. 14; Ruin., p. 56.
 
 92 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 " Lord God of heaven and earth, Jesu Christ, to Thee 
 I bend my neck as a victim, Who abidest for ever, to 
 Whom is glory and majesty for all ages'*." In thanks- 
 giving to Him, their God, they closed their lives : " Us 
 Christ govcrneth, Who hath brought us to this glory. 
 Glory to Thee, O Christ, Who hast vouchsafed to gather 
 us with the holy Martyrs 1 "." "Thanks be to Thee, O 
 Christ ; keep me, who suffer these things for Thee. I 
 adore Christ*." "The eternal kingdom, the undefilcd king- 
 dom dawneth, O Lord Jesu Christ. We arc Christians. 
 We serve Tliec. Thou art our Hope ; Thou art the hope 
 of Christians. O God most Holy, O God most High, 
 O God Almighty, we give Thee praise for Thy Name 1 ." 
 
 Such, then, was the Will of the Eternal Trinity towards 
 us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, not only that we should 
 be admitted to the blissful adoration and intuition of 
 the Triune God, through the Incarnation and Atoning 
 Death of God the Son, but that He Himself, our Re- 
 deeming Lord and God, should, in His Humanity, be 
 a distinct Object of our contemplation and adoration 
 and thanksgiving and joy. One indeed is God, and the 
 
 q Acta St. Fclic. in Baron. A. 302, n. 123 ; add Acta St. A free in Ruinart, 
 p. 502. 
 
 r Acta Olympii in Karon., A. n. 259, n. 30. " Bl. Crispina said, 'I 
 give thanks to [my God, and my] Christ. I bless the Lord, Who has 
 vouchsafed thus to deliver me from thy hands.'" Acta St. Crispinre, 
 Ruin., p. 496. 
 
 1 Acta Kuplii, Ruinart, p. 439 ; add Acta Mart. Scillit. fin. Ruin., p. 78. 
 Act. I.ucian. et Marcian., n. 7 ; Ih., p. 154. Acta St. Afnv, n. 3 ; Ih. 502. 
 Acta St. Ircnari. n. 5, p. 434; Acta St. I'hilippi, n. 10 ; Ih., p. 450. Acta 
 Probi, Ib. 481. St. Ampelii, Baron. A 303, n. 52 ; St. Kelic. Baron, 1. c. 
 Acta St. Ignatii ; Ruinart, pp. 12, 698: "I give Thee thanks, O Lord, 
 because Thou hast vouchsafed to honour me with perfect love, to be with 
 Thy Apostle Paul placed in iron chain>." Kp. Keel. Smyrn. de Mart. 
 St. I'olycarp. n. 14. Cntel. I'ati. A p. ii. 199. 
 
 1 Acta Thelicie in Baron. 1 c. A. D. 303, n. 41.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 93 
 
 God-enabled eye of the blessed shall see the truth which 
 our Lord enounced : "I am in the Father, and the Father 
 in Me u ." They, being empowered to see the Essence 
 of God, must see, how " the Holy Ghost reposes and 
 habitates in God x ," how "All the Father embosometh 
 the Son >'," and how " the Father is the natural Place 
 of the Son 2 ." The Father has in Him the Son; and, 
 again, He is in the Son, because of the identity of the 
 Substance. " Each is contemplated, and is truly in the 
 Other 8 ." "The Union is not as that of our Lord's God- 
 head and Humanity (intimate as was the blending of 
 Both in the One Person of our Lord), but as the whole 
 Power, Life, Substance, Wisdom, Essence of the Father 
 is the very Essence, Substance, Wisdom, Life, and 
 Power of the Son b ." So that he who sees the Essence 
 of the Son, or the Son as He Is, must needs see the 
 Essence of the Father and of the Holy Ghost. For 
 they are One. And he who adores God the Father 
 must needs, by one act, adore the Son and the Holy 
 Ghost, since the Holy Ghost is "co-glorified and co- 
 worshipped with the Father and the Son ;" and the 
 Trinity is worshipped in the Unity, which It is, and the 
 Unity in the Trinity, which co-exist and in-exist as One. 
 Yet there, too, we must retain a separate love and 
 thankfulness for that which in their Oneness of Being 
 Each separate Person has done for us. For although 
 
 u St. John xiv. 10. 
 
 * St. Dionys. Rom. in St. Ath. ag. Arian., p. 46, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 y An orthodox expression in the Macrostich, Ib. p. 116, the correlative 
 of St. John i. 18 : "The only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the 
 Father." 
 
 z St. Cyril, Thes. vii. t. v. p. 5, quoted in St. Ath. ag. Ar., p. 399, n. a. 
 "The Son is the place of the Father, as the Father, too, is the place of the 
 Son." St. Jerome in Ezek. iii. 12. Ib. 
 
 * St. Cyril de Trin. vi. p. 621 ; Ib. p. 403, n. i. 
 b Thomassin de Trin. 28, I. Ib.
 
 94 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 inseparable arc the works of the Trinity, and the Father 
 so loved the world that He sent His Only- Begotten Son 
 to die for us ; yea, and according to His Sacred Hu- 
 manity that is true, that " the Lord God and His 
 Spirit sent " Him, yet it was One of the All-Holy 
 Trinity Who vouchsafed to take our nature upon Him, 
 and, in it, unsufifering to suffer for us through that 
 Flesh which He took. Why does the heart so throb at 
 the Name of Jesus ? Why is it so jubilant ? Why so 
 instrcngthening ? Why does it so melt us, if we are 
 dry ? Why does it so kindle us, if we are cold ? Why 
 docs it diffuse in us such serenity, if we are sad ? Why, 
 if we arc half-dead, does it give us life ? Why, if we sit 
 in darkness, does it flash light into our souls ? Why, if 
 we are quivering in temptation, does it give us strength ? 
 AVhy, if we are terrified at our past sins, does a ray burst 
 forth from it, which transmutes the dark cloud into the 
 crimson tinge of His Blood ? Why, but because it is 
 the " Name Which is above every name ;" because the 
 Name of Redeemer is in one way mightier than that 
 of Creator, (for it cost more to redeem our souls than to 
 create them,) because it is the Name of God, for us and 
 for our salvation, become Man. 
 
 Every thing good and Divine on earth is a counter- 
 part of something more wondrously beautiful or visibly 
 Divine in Heaven. We cannot think of Jesus here but 
 with adoring love, or loving adoration. We must cease 
 to believe in Him, ere we could cease to adore Him. 
 But Jesus cannot cease to be. Nay, rather, we are 
 told that when God shall be all in all d , and all shall 
 be subdued unto Him, and the whole multitude of His 
 elect shall be perfected, and Christ, i.e. Whole Christ, 
 Himself in His Human Nature our Head, and we His, 
 
 1 Isa. xlviii. 16. ' I Cor. xv. 28.
 
 V.] the Object of Divine Worship. 95 
 
 as yet, imperfect members, shall be subject to God 
 through the entire subjection of His whole redeemed 
 Body in their whole compass and their entire selves to 
 the mind of God e , then, too, His kingdom shall have 
 no end f ; then, too, more than before, " shall every 
 knee bow in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and every 
 tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory 
 of God the Father s;" then, too, the Humanity of 
 Christ, and God manifest in that Human Form, will 
 be a distinct joy and adoration in Heaven. For then, 
 too, that "river of living water h ," that torrent of plea- 
 sure, that unceasing effluence of beatitude, that over- 
 streaming fulness of joy which shall, with its multitudi- 
 nous bliss, inundate the souls, and minds, and senses 
 of the beatified, shall issue forth from the one throne 
 of God and of the Lamb. There, amid all the varied 
 fruition in that blissful Paradise of God, where all curse 
 is done away for ever, the central joy is, that the one 
 Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it 1 ; and 
 St. John speaks as though we should see Them with one 
 vision, and adore Them with one adoration, and bear the 
 Name of God and of Jesus, as One Name, upon our 
 foreheads. For, having spoken of the Throne of God 
 and of the Lamb therein, he adds, "And His servants 
 shall worship Him, and shall see His Face ; and His 
 Name shall be on their foreheads." And again, " The 
 Lord God Almighty is the temple thereof, and the 
 Lamb k ." There shall be no visible temple, for God 
 shall, if we attain, be our place. In Him we shall see 
 Himself; in Him we shall contemplate, adore, praise, 
 thank, bless Himself. Yet then, too, we shall be in 
 
 e See Fathers in Petav. de Trin., iii. 5 ; de Incarn., xii. 18, 13. 
 f St. Luke i. 33. * Phil. ii. 10, 11. 
 
 h Rev. xxii. I. ' Rev. xxii. 3, 4. k Ibid. 23.
 
 96 The Victor, on his Throne, [SEKM. 
 
 Christ ; for not God only, but the Lamb also, shall be 
 our temple. "And the glory of God shall enlighten" 
 that city of the blessed ; His uncreated glory filling it 
 with the beatific, illumining, transporting light of His 
 Godhead ; and yet then, too, undimmcd by that essen- 
 tial Light, shall shine out the glory of the Humanity 
 of Jesus ; undimmed by It, because, although seen dis- 
 tinctly, It is the self same, "The glory," Jesus says, 
 " Which I had with Thee, before the world was '." It 
 shall shine with a separate, transporting lustre, an illu- 
 mining, beatifying beauty. For so God says, " The 
 glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light 
 thereof." We could not even imagine it otherwise. 
 Heaven would not be a Christian's heaven without 
 Jesus. No, even in this land of shadows, amid the 
 necessary distractions of this life's duties, amidst our 
 infirmities, whether self-contracted or incidental to our 
 wayfaring condition, it would be misery to think that 
 our poor praises and thanksgivings here for His re- 
 deeming love would be all ; that we should not end- 
 lessly love and praise Him for that mercy which itself 
 " endureth for ever." Our thanklessness is well-nigh in- 
 tolerable to our better selves now. But to think that 
 we should never see Him, to praise and adore Him, 
 not worthily of Himself, for that were impossible to 
 created love (His Blessed Mother, by reason of her 
 creatureship, could not adequately praise Him), but 
 to the utmost of our created capacity, it would leave 
 (which is impossible) an unfilled blank, an unsatisfied 
 longing, in Heaven. It is our joy and consolation now 
 to think of that great white Throne, and, in faith, to 
 behold Him there; to see those Kyes, which once wept 
 over Jerusalem, now beaming not only with the human 
 
 ; St. John xvii. 5.
 
 V.] tJie Object of Divine Worship. 97 
 
 love of God-Man, but with the Infinite Love of His 
 Godhead ; to behold those Hands, once stretched forth 
 to heal, once nailed on the Cross ; or those Sacred Feet, 
 which went up and down to save the lost, and which we, 
 with Magdalene, would so long to dare to touch, and 
 (if it could but be) to kiss with penitent love ; or, even 
 chiefly, that wounded Side, riven, that we might hide 
 ourselves therein, pouring forth from those Wounds 
 which for us He received, not His Redeeming Blood 
 as once, but the radiant Majesty of His Divine love, 
 lighting and love-enkindling the utmost bounds of God's 
 creation, wherever there is a being which can love. Our 
 consolation and joy is to know that, wherever our place 
 be, although the last and lowest, there too we shall 
 " ever be with the Lord m ;" there we shall speak to 
 Him, adore Him, love Him, as our own Jesus ; " My 
 Lord and my God "." " O, it is good for us to be here ." 
 Would that we could, in thought at least, be thus with 
 Him in the holy mount! Would that we could ever 
 bear about with us the dying of the Lord Jesus, that 
 He could be our life, as He is invisibly our life's Source ! 
 But there is an awful gulf, an awful Day, an awful 
 aspect of our Divine (would we may say our Dear) Lord, 
 between ; the gulf of death, the Day of Judgment, the 
 truth that "we believe that Thou shalt come to be our 
 Judge." Yet He Who shall be our Judge is Omnipotent 
 to save. He has " the keys of death and hell ;" He, 
 not Satan, its prince and our accuser ; He shall be our 
 Judge, Who died that we might not die the second 
 death ; Who liveth that we might also live through 
 Him, in Him, to Him, with Him ; through Him, by 
 His redemption ; in Him, by His Sacraments and His 
 
 m i Thess. iv. 17. " St. John xx. 28. St. Mark ix. 5. 
 
 H
 
 98 The Victor, on His Throne, &c. [SF.RM. V. 
 
 Spirit; to Him, in our lives, by His grace; with Him, 
 in eternity, to adore and to love Him. 
 
 Only now, in the day of salvation ; now, in this season 
 of penitence ; now, while the door is not shut to ; now, 
 when He anew calleth thcc, turn to Him, if thou hast 
 not yet turned ; resolve, by His grace, to break off any 
 deadly sin if thou yet be in one ; if not, pray for true, 
 abiding, loving sorrow, that thou didst ever displease 
 Him ; pray, day by day, for that His great gift perse- 
 verance against that sin, perseverance unto the end ; re- 
 member, whenever thou canst, His poor, (and now, those 
 penitent sinners who, with thee, have been snatched from 
 the jaws of hell p ). Pray Him, with the penitent Robber, 
 " Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy king- 
 dom ; though last, least, lowest, Lord, remember me ;" 
 and He Who came, not to destroy men's lives but to 
 save them, will in that dread Day remember thee, de- 
 liver thee, that thou too maycst for ever behold His 
 Face, for ever have the beatitude of adoring Him, of 
 loving Him, of being loved by Him. 
 
 >' There was a collection for a Penitentiary.
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 Uictor, on PHs fttrone, tfje JHeDiator between 
 anti 
 
 HEBREWS vii. 25. 
 
 " Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
 come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make inter- 
 cession for them." 
 
 THE subject to which I have to invite your atten- 
 tion this evening is, "The Victor, on His Throne, 
 the Mediator between God and Man." 
 
 You have had already brought before you, in this 
 course of Lenten Sermons, the various stages which 
 Holy Scripture unfolds in the gradual development of 
 the great scheme of redemption through the only- 
 begotten Son of God. Your thoughts have been car- 
 ried back to a point beyond the limits of time, when in 
 the " Counsels of Eternity" 1 He was "foreordained before 
 the foundation of the world," as the Redeemer of our 
 race : you have reviewed the " Times of Preparation' 
 those long ages of preliminary education and training 
 which God, in His infinite Wisdom, saw fit to inter- 
 pose between the Fall and the Restoration, between the 
 first dim promise of a Redeemer and the actual advent 
 of the " Desire of all Nations." You have contemplated 
 
 H 2
 
 1OO The Victor, on fit's Throne, [SERM. 
 
 " the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the 
 ficsli ;" when He, who was "the brightness of His Fa- 
 ther's glory and the express image of His person," emp- 
 tied Himself of His Divine majesty and glory, and 
 "took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made 
 in the likeness of men ;" " for us men, and for our salva- 
 tion, came down from heaven, was incarnate by the 
 Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man." 
 You have beheld Him, after being " made a little lower 
 than the angels, for the suffering of death," "exalted to 
 His Tlironc" on the right hand of the Majesty in the 
 heavens. Seated there on His mediatorial throne, you 
 have regarded Him as " the Object of Divine Worship" 
 the centre of countless multitudes of the host of heaven, 
 uttering, as with the voice of many waters, their hymn 
 of adoration, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
 receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
 and honour, and glory, and blessing ;" a strain taken 
 up and re-echoed by every creature in heaven and 
 earth, " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power 
 be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
 the Lamb for ever and ever." 
 
 With minds thus prepared, you come to the contem- 
 plation of the subject proposed for our special con- 
 sideration this evening, "The Victor, on His Throne, 
 the Mediator between God and Man." 
 
 This introduces us to the all-important subject of the 
 Priestliood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need not remind 
 you that, among the topics of which the Apostle Paul 
 treats most largely and elaborately in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, the subject of the High-Priesthood of Christ 
 holds a conspicuous place. The Jew, accustomed to the 
 gorgeous temple-worship at Jerusalem, would naturally 
 deem it an essential defect in the Christian system, that
 
 VI.] the Mediator between God and May. 101 
 
 it had no proper ritual or ceremonial worship, and, espe- 
 cially, no priesthood, through whose ministry and sacri- 
 ficial mediation God might be approached and pro- 
 pitiated. We know how the same craving after a sacer- 
 dotal religion corrupted Christianity in later ages, until, 
 at length, it became, in this respect, little better than 
 a modified Judaism. St. Paul addresses himself with 
 especial care to answer this alleged deficiency in the 
 Gospel scheme. He shews that every important end 
 which the Jewish sacrificial system could accomplish 
 was secured by Christianity, and in a much higher and 
 more perfect manner ; inasmuch as the incarnate Son 
 of God Himself discharged the mediatorial functions of 
 the Levitical High-Priest, and in His own person sup- 
 plied the place of the abolished sacrifices of the Mosaic 
 Law. 
 
 Now, the priestly office of Christ embraces two dis- 
 tinct, though closely related, functions : namely, first, 
 that of A tenement, or satisfaction for sin ; and, secondly, 
 that of Intercession, founded upon the Atonement. The 
 former of these functions that of Atonement our 
 Blessed Lord discharged ONCE FOR ALL, by His vica- 
 rious sufferings and death upon the Cross, and by His 
 oblation of Himself in heaven, the true Holy of Holies, 
 of which the earthly sanctuary was only the image and 
 shadow. The vicarious sacrifice which took place upon 
 earth, and the oblation of it which was made in heaven, 
 after the Ascension, constitute t\vo intimately connected 
 parts of the same expiatory action, which was typified 
 in the Jewish ritual by the high-priest's slaying the 
 victim, on the great day of atonement, outside the sanc- 
 tuary, and then presenting the blood before the mercy- 
 seat in the Holy of Holies. This whole expiatory 
 action the sacrifice on earth, the oblation in heaven
 
 IO2 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 took place once for all, and was never more to be re- 
 peated : " Not by the blood of goats and calves, but 
 by His own Blood, He entered in once into the holy 
 place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." 
 
 The second function belonging to Christ's priestly 
 office that of Intercession He perpetually exercises, 
 at the right hand of God, and will continue to exercise 
 until the close of His mediatorial kingdom. This per- 
 petual Intercession which He carries on in heaven is 
 based upon, and derives its efficacy from, the Atone- 
 ment made and perfected once for all. 
 
 I shall presently inquire a little more particularly in 
 what this intercession consists. As a preliminary step, 
 it is important to bear in mind that, in several pas- 
 sages of the Apostolic epistles, and especially in the 
 epistle now before us, this function of intercession, while 
 it is based on that of expiation or atonement, is yet 
 very carefully and clearly discriminated from it. In 
 the eighth chapter of Romans, for example, we have 
 a locus classicus on the subject : " who is he that con- 
 demneth ? It is Christ that died " (made atonement 
 once for all for sin by His death on the Cross), "yea 
 rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand 
 of God, who also maketh intercession " (emvy^dvet, 
 continues to make intercession) " for us." 
 
 But it is in the Epistle to the Hebrews that we find 
 these two functions, or aspects, of Christ's priesthood 
 most clearly distinguished. Thus, at the close of the 
 second chapter we read, " Wherefore in all things it be- 
 hoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He 
 might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things 
 pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of 
 the people ;" this is the first part of His sacerdotal 
 office : the second is stated in the following verse, " For
 
 VI.] the Mediator between God and Man. 103 
 
 in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is 
 able to succour them that are tempted ;" or, as it is 
 more fully declared in the fourth chapter, "we have not 
 an high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling 
 of our infirmities ; but was in all points tempted like as 
 we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly 
 to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and 
 find grace to help in time of need." The union of the 
 human and divine natures in the person of our Re- 
 deemer Jcsns, the Son of God, rendered His atone- 
 ment of. surpassing value, made Him a great High- 
 Priest; His human nature renders Him a merciful and 
 sympathizing Intercessor and Advocate at the throne 
 of. grace. Again, in the chapter now before us, we 
 have the intercessional and sacrificial aspects of Christ's 
 priesthood most explicitly discriminated in the twenty- 
 fourth and following verses : "But He (Jesus), because 
 He continueth ever, hath His priesthood unchangeable. 
 Wherefore He is able also to save to the uttermost " 
 (that is to say, not only in this world but in the next) 
 "them who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever 
 liveth to make intercession for them." ..." who needeth 
 not daily, as those high-priests, to offer up sacrifice, first 
 for His own sins, and then for the people's : for this He 
 did once, when He offered up Himself." I will add but 
 one passage more the very remarkable one in the ninth 
 chapter, where we read (twenty-fourth and two follow- 
 ing verses), " For Christ did not enter into holy places 
 made with hands, which are figures of the true, but into 
 heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for 
 us" to manifest Himself, face to face with God, on our 
 behalf, as our Advocate and Intercessor ; not like the 
 Jewish high-priest, who dared not look on the mercy- 
 seat except through the cloud of incense interposed be-
 
 1O4 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKKM. 
 
 twcen him and it: "Nor yet," continues the Apostle, 
 "that He should offer (sacrificially offer up) Himself 
 often, as the high -priest cntercth into the holy place 
 every year with blood of others ; . . . but now once, in 
 the end of the world, hath He appeared to put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of Himself." 
 
 The importance of keeping steadily in view the dis- 
 tinction, so clearly marked in Scripture, between these 
 two functions of Christ's priestly office the expiatory 
 sacrifice and oblation offered once for all, and the per- 
 petual intercession, based upon that sacrifice, which lie 
 is ever making at God's right hand the importance of 
 insisting on this distinction, I say, appears from the fact 
 that two opposite, and in some respects equally dan- 
 gerous, errors have arisen from not sufficiently ob- 
 serving it. Socinus and his followers, relying on some 
 passages in this Epistle to the Hebrews which they 
 have misunderstood or misrepresented, have contended 
 that the offering of Christ, by which our sins are said 
 to be expiated, was not perfected on the Cross, and by 
 the shedding of His blood there, but is still going on 
 in heaven, and by the presentation of Himself before 
 God on our behalf. They maintain that Christ is per- 
 petually expiating our sins, and that this expiation con- 
 sists merely in His constantly interceding for us ; by 
 which intervention He averts in some way or another 
 (qnodamniodo) the wrath of God from us, and saves us, 
 not from the guilt of our sins, but from the punishment 
 due to them. In fact, Christ's atonement, in any proper 
 sense of the word, is denied ; and His intercession, which 
 is really the consequence and effect of His atonement, 
 is substituted in its place. 
 
 The Church of Rome, on the other hand, obliterates.
 
 VI.] the Mediator between God and Man. 105 
 
 or at least obscures, the distinction between Christ's 
 atonement and His intercession, by virtually resolving 
 the latter into the former. She also maintains that the 
 expiatory sacrifice of Christ was not offered once for 
 all upon the Cross, but is being perpetually offered, 
 in heaven by our Lord Himself, and on earth by His 
 priests in the sacrifice of the Mass : and that, by means 
 of the perpetual repetition of this expiatory sacrifice, 
 pardon is procured for the sins of the living and the 
 dead, mercy obtained, and grace communicated. The 
 mediation or intercession of Christ at the right hand of 
 God is, in fact, neither more nor less than a continua- 
 tion, or perpetual representation, of the sacrifice made 
 upon the Cross. In order to evade the force of the 
 passages in which the one sacrifice of Christ, once for 
 all offered, is so plainly and emphatically asserted, the 
 scholastic fiction has been adopted, which distinguishes 
 between the one bloody sacrifice on the Cross, and the 
 perpetual unbloody repetition of it in the Mass. 
 
 Nor is it merely with respect to the sacrifice of the 
 Mass that this virtual identification of the Atonement 
 and the Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ has pro- 
 duced evil results. It is also the direct source of one of 
 the greatest practical corruptions which Christianity has 
 ever undergone. When once the mediation of our Lord 
 upon His throne in heaven was made to consist in the 
 perpetual representation or reproduction of His sacri- 
 fice, His office of Intercessor was lost sight of and sys- 
 tematically suppressed. And when men ceased to be 
 taught that we have a great High-Priest who can Him- 
 self be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and 
 who, in virtue of the sympathy arising from an actual 
 experience of all our sorrows and sinless infirmities, ever 
 liveth Himself to make intercession for us, when men
 
 io6 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKRM. 
 
 ceased to be taught this, they very naturally looked out 
 for a class of mediators, with human sympathies like their 
 own, by propitiating whom they hoped to have their 
 petitions favourably received at the throne of grace. 
 Their wishes in this respect were soon met, or, rather, 
 were already anticipated, by their spiritual guides, whose 
 interest it was to foster and minister to cravings of this 
 kind. These intermediate intercessors have, as might 
 be expected, intercepted the devotion and worship due 
 to the great Intercessor Himself. The more exalted the 
 saint, and the more tender, at the same time, the sym- 
 pathy supposed to be felt for the suppliant, the more 
 intense, of course, became the devotion, the more pro- 
 found the homage. And hence, by a very natural, 
 though not less fearful, process of development, a fourth 
 person (with reverence be it said) has been virtually 
 added to the Godhead, and a created, sinful being 
 " highly favoured," indeed, but still a creature like our- 
 selves has been elevated to a rank, confessedly all 
 but equal, virtually superior, in dignity and honour, to 
 that of the Son of God Himself! Such has been the 
 practical effect of ignoring or explaining away the 
 fundamental truth that, in heaven, as well as upon 
 earth, there is but "one Mediator between God and men, 
 the man Christ Jesus," and that "through Him (and 
 Him alone) we have access by one Spirit unto the 
 Father." 
 
 Let us now briefly consider what our blessed Lord 
 does for us, as the Victor on His throne. 
 
 Our text says that " He ever liveth to make inter- 
 cession for those who approach unto God through 
 Him" through faith, that is, in His person and His 
 atoning work. This intercession, so far as we can 
 gather directly or by inference from Scripture, appears
 
 VI.] the Mediator between God and Man. 107 
 
 to include several particulars. The first and most im- 
 portant aspect of it is this, that our great High-Priest 
 continually pleads before God the merits of His atoning 
 sacrifice, and, in virtue of the eternal covenant subsist- 
 ing between Him and the Father, thereby obtains for 
 those who come to Him by faith the application to 
 their souls of the saving efficacy of His atonement. 
 Moreover, when, from time to time, they fall into occa- 
 sional sin, He is their Advocate with the Father, and, in 
 virtue of His atonement once for all offered for all sin, 
 procures for them remission of the special transgressions 
 into which, through the frailty of their nature, they have 
 fallen. "If any man sin" if any believer in Christ 
 fall into particular acts of sin " we have an Advocate 
 (a Paraclete or Intercessor) with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous." As the Son of Man, the sharer 
 of our nature, with all its sinless infirmities, and, more- 
 over, tried and tempted in all things like as we are, our 
 Divine Mediator is specially qualified to discharge this 
 function of intercession. His experience of human in- 
 firmity, human suffering, and human temptation, enables 
 Him to have a fellow-feeling, a bond of sympathy, with 
 the weak, the suffering, and the tempted. Objections, 
 no doubt, have been urged, and difficulties there un- 
 questionably are, as to how a Being, perfectly holy and 
 free from all tendencies to evil, can, in any proper sense 
 of the word, be said to have been tempted like as we 
 are. These difficulties and objections I cannot now 
 stop to consider. It would lead us into discussions 
 foreign to our present subject, and demanding long 
 and careful attention. Suffice it to say that the diffi- 
 culties have been removed and the objections an- 
 swered, quite sufficiently for all practical purposes, 
 and quite as far as we could even hope for, taking
 
 io8 The Victor, on His Throne, [SMKM. 
 
 into account the profoundly mysterious nature of the 
 subject, the union in one person of perfect God with 
 perfect Man. 
 
 Neither shall I stop to enquire why an experimental 
 acquaintance with the infirmities and trials of our na- 
 ture should be necessary (as St. Paul so plainly asserts 
 it to be, in the passage which I have already quoted 
 from the second chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews,) 
 in order to move the sympathy of Him who, as our 
 Creator, knows what is in man, all the weaknesses 
 of his nature, and all the difficulties of his position ; of 
 Him, whose boundless love and compassion it was 
 which, in the first instance, prompted Him to assume 
 our nature: why it "behoved Him to be made like 
 unto His brethren in all things," in order that He might 
 be a "merciful High-Priest:" and why an actual fami- 
 liarity with suffering and temptation should be requisite 
 in order that He should be "able to succour them that 
 are tempted." These are questions which cannot now 
 be discussed. I shall only observe, in general, that 
 there may possibly be something in the very nature of 
 a Being completely happy, and wholly removed from 
 the sphere of temptation and suffering, incompatible 
 with the perfect exercise of that kind of sympathy and 
 compassion which is involved in the notion of an Inter- 
 cessor or Advocate, such as our blessed Lord is de- 
 scribed to be. The presence of a tinman clement may, 
 for anything we can tell, be essential to the perfect dis- 
 charge of that office. It is remarkable that our Lord's 
 office of Universal Judge is also connected and that, 
 too, by Himself in very explicit terms with His human 
 nature: "The Father judgeth no man, but hath com- 
 mitted all judgment to the Son The Father hath 
 
 given Him authority to execute judgment, because He
 
 VI.] the Mediator between God and Man. 109 
 
 is the Son of Man." The reason, or at least part of it, 
 is well expressed by Bishop Pearson : because of " His 
 affinity with their nature ;" because of " His sense of 
 their infirmities ;" because that " His appearance in this 
 human form is most fit to represent the greatest mild- 
 ness and sweetness of equity in the severity of that 
 just and irrespective judgment." 
 
 Again, as "every good gift and every perfect gift 
 is from above, and cometh down from the Father of 
 lights," so it is through the mediation and intercession 
 of the Lord Jesus that such gifts are bestowed upon 
 men. This office of the triumphant Messiah was fore- 
 shadowed in that prophecy of the sixty-eighth Psalm, 
 which St. Paul quotes in the fourth chapter of his Epis- 
 tle to the Ephesians : " When He ascended up on high, 
 He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men." 
 The Psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
 represents Jehovah Himself, the God of Hosts, after 
 having subdued His enemies, as ascending in triumph 
 the heights of Zion, and receiving as a conqueror the 
 gifts of the vanquished and tributary nations. These 
 gifts or spoils He then distributes, as eastern conquerors 
 were accustomed to do, among His own people. But 
 those words of the inspired Psalmist had a further 
 and a deeper meaning, which the inspired Apostle was 
 enabled to unfold. They foreshadowed the future vic- 
 tory to be achieved by the Son of God, when, having 
 conquered sin and death and hell, He should ascend to 
 the highest heavens, and, as the fruits and trophies of 
 His victory, shed forth spiritual gifts, whereby His 
 Kingdom should be established in the world, and His 
 faithful people throughout all time be cheered and 
 strengthened and sustained. As the Victor, upon His 
 Throne, He is the Mediator through whom are dis-
 
 iio The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 pensetl all the spiritual gifts and blessings which arc 
 shed forth on each and every member of His Church. 
 He is "the Head, from whom all the body by joints 
 and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit 
 together, increaseth with the increase of God." The 
 gift of the Holy Spirit, to abide for ever with His 
 Church, was the first and most precious fruit of the 
 intercession of Christ, after His ascension to the throne 
 of the Majesty in the heavens ; " I will pray the Father, 
 and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may 
 abide with you for ever." The intimate relation and 
 interdependence which subsist between the mediatorial 
 office of Christ in heaven and the operations of the 
 Holy Spirit in the Church on earth, explains why it is 
 that St. Paul, in a well-known passage of the Epistle 
 to the Romans, calls the Holy Spirit " the Spirit of 
 Christ ;" and it further explains why our blessed Lord 
 is so often described as the Dispenser of those spiritual 
 gifts which, in the economy of salvation, it is the direct 
 and special function of the Holy Ghost to impart. And 
 well may our glorified Redeemer be regarded in this 
 light, seeing that the infinite merits of His atonement 
 are the ultimate source and efficient cause of all the 
 spiritual blessings which the world enjoys ; seeing that 
 vital union with Him is necessary in order that the out- 
 flowings of Divine grace, through the ministration of the 
 Holy Spirit, may reach each individual soul; and see- 
 ing, lastly, that He is the supreme Ruler of His Church, 
 God having given "Him to be Head over all things to 
 the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that 
 filleth all in all." 
 
 Again, Christ, on His Throne, as the Mediator be- 
 tween God and man, hears our prayers and answers 
 them. \Ve offer up our prayers at the throne of grace
 
 VI.] the Mediator between God and Man. \ 1 1 
 
 to Him, as "very God of very God ;" through Him, as 
 the channel whereby we have access unto the Father ; 
 and in Him, as the spiritual sphere, the holy element, 
 in which every petition is to be offered, and every knee 
 is to bow. Every temporal and spiritual evil that we 
 deprecate, every temporal and spiritual good that we 
 desire, is averted or conferred (so far as it seemeth good 
 to His godly wisdom) by Him, and through Him, and 
 in Him. Brethren, what a blessed thought it is, that, 
 amid all the sin and suffering and sorrow which we see 
 around us in the world ; amid the trials, disappoint- 
 ments, and afflictions with which it may be our own 
 lot to have been visited ; what a blessed thought it is, 
 that there is One " who is able to save to the utter- 
 most those that come unto God by Him, seeing that 
 He ever liveth to make intercession for them !" What 
 a comforting thought that our great Intercessor can be 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities ! The same 
 principle which prompts us, when exposed to suffering 
 and trial, to rely most firmly on those who have them- 
 selves suffered and been tried, leads us to confide im- 
 plicitly in Him who shared all our sorrows, and who 
 " in all our affliction was afflicted." Our reason, indeed, 
 may be convinced that a good and merciful Creator 
 will not try us unnecessarily, and beyond our powers 
 of endurance ; but our feeling of sympathy irresistibly 
 impels us to believe that One who was tried and 
 tempted in all points like as we are, will not inflict 
 upon us a single superfluous pang, and will, more- 
 over, " with every temptation also make a way to es- 
 cape, that we may be able to bear it." When, in the 
 hour of suffering and trial, we look for human consola- 
 tion, we do not seek it at the hands of the careless, the 
 gay, the happy, or the stoical. We desire to pour our 
 griefs into the ear of that friend who, we know, has had
 
 1 1 2 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 his own trials and afflictions, and who can, therefore, 
 enter into our thoughts and understand our feelings. 
 And so, when we look for higher consolation than 
 earthly friends can offer, what an inestimable blessing 
 and privilege it is that we have, enthroned above, a 
 Mediator, a Friend, a Brother, who was Himself pre- 
 eminently " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
 grief," and "was tempted in all points like as we are, 
 sin alone excepted." 
 
 That merciful and sympathizing Mediator " is able 
 to save to the uttermost" completely and for ever 
 "those who draw near to God through Him," by that 
 " new and living way which He hath consecrated for us, 
 through the veil, that is to say, His flesh," seeing He 
 ever liveth to make intercession for us. That media- 
 torial intercession with His Father shall continue until 
 the complete redemption of God's people shall be ac- 
 complished, when sin shall be utterly abolished, Satan 
 finally vanquished, " death swallowed up in victor)'," 
 "all tears wiped away," suffering and sorrow brought 
 for ever to a close. 
 
 Such, brethren, is the mediation of the Victor, on His 
 Throne. Its foundation is the sacrifice and oblation 
 offered once for all by the crucified and ascended 
 Jesus : its motive, the infinite love and compassion of 
 Him who has borne our griefs, and shared our suffer- 
 ings and trials ; its effect, the continued preservation 
 of His believing people during their journey to their 
 heavenly home, and the removal of every cloud which 
 sin from time to time interposes between them and their 
 Father's countenance. The perpetual mediation of Christ 
 in heaven bears the same kind of relation to the work 
 of redemption which He accomplished on earth, that 
 God's perpetual providence bears to the original crea- 
 tion of the world by Him.
 
 VI.] tJie Mediator betivecn God and Man. \ 1 3 
 
 Seeing then, brethren, that we have a great High- 
 Priest, who has passed through the heavens, and taken 
 His seat on the right hand of the throne of God, there 
 to remain as the Mediator, Intercessor, and Advocate of 
 His people, until He shall come again in His glorious 
 Majesty to judge both the quick and dead, let us hold 
 fast the confession of our faith and of our hope with- 
 out wavering ; and let us come boldly to the throne of 
 grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help 
 in time of need. 
 
 To those who come humbly trusting in the merits 
 of their crucified Redeemer, this mercy and grace will 
 be vouchsafed in every time of need. Most comfortable 
 words these, but they also convey a very solemn warn- 
 ing, which must not be lost sight of. I cannot convey 
 it better than in the words of St. Chrysostom : " The 
 Apostle has well said 'seasonable help' (ev/caipov ftoij- 
 deiav) ; that is to say, If you come now to the throne 
 of grace, you will obtain mercy and find grace ; for, in 
 that case, you come seasonably or opportunely. But if 
 you defer coming to some future time, the result may 
 be otherwise. Your approach then may be too late ; 
 for then it may be no longer the throne of grace. It is 
 the throne of grace so long as the King sits dispensing 
 grace ; but when the day of grace is over, He ariseth to 
 judgment." Here, then, we have, along with the com- 
 forting assurance arising from our knowledge of the 
 tender sympathy of our merciful Redeemer and Inter- 
 cessor, a solemn warning also not to abuse His long- 
 suffering and compassion. There is "an acceptable 
 time ;" there is an " opportune help." But that time 
 is the present ; f that aid is offered now: "I have heard 
 thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation 
 have I succoured thee : behold, now is the accepted 
 
 1
 
 114 The Victor, on His Throne, &c. [SKRM. VI. 
 
 time ; behold, now is the day of salvation." An in- 
 spired Apostle has described that terrific scene which 
 shall take place when they who have not sought mercy 
 at the throne of grace, shall, in the agony of their 
 despair, exclaim to the mountains and rocks, " Fall 
 on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth 
 on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." 
 
 May the Spirit of God dispose each one of us, my 
 fellow-sinners, to " seek the Lord while He may be 
 found, and to call upon Him while He is near!" May 
 He enable us to " flee for refuge," at once, and " to 
 lay hold upon the hope set before us !" That hope we 
 shall find, amid all the trials and sufferings of this 
 chequered scene, to be a " sure and stedfast anchor 
 to our souls," uniting them to Him who, on our behalf, 
 has entered within the veil, and there, the Victor over 
 death and Satan, sits enthroned, our great High-Priest, 
 our sympathizing and never-failing Mediator, Inter- 
 cessor, and Friend.
 
 SERMON VII. 
 Ftctor, on &ts &ijrone, tjje Driest of 
 
 HEBEEWS vii. 26. 
 
 " Such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, unde- 
 filed, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." 
 
 THERE is nothing which has to do with religion so 
 world-wide as the institution of Priesthood, and 
 necessarily so, if religion be a social thing if under its 
 influence men come together to worship God with any 
 sort of common worship. If the original idea of reli- 
 gion had been disintegrating if from the first it had 
 taught men that the most acceptable worship of God 
 is that each one, alone, by himself, should worship God 
 without temples, altars, courts, then there would have 
 been no room for priesthood of any sort ; but if religion 
 in its idea be a uniting thing if men under its in- 
 fluence have from the first come together to worship 
 God, then they must have some one to act for them 
 towards God. 
 
 If a multitude meet together to offer a common sacri- 
 fice, there must be some one to kill the sacrifice, or to 
 sprinkle the blood, or to apply the fire, or to do that, 
 whatsoever it be, upon which they agree to think that 
 the acceptance on God's part depends. 
 
 I 2
 
 ii6 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 Again, if they come together to offer up united sup- 
 plications, or to acknowledge mercies received by all, 
 there must be some one to lead, if the common utter- 
 ance is to be anything beyond a confused murmur. 
 
 Hut there is another universal principle connected 
 with religion, considered as intercourse with God, which 
 also has upheld in all forms of worship of all nations the 
 priestly idea, and that is the sense of sin. 
 
 The universal conscience of mankind bears witness to 
 some natural alienation between God and man ; that 
 God and man are not at one, that there must be some 
 intercessor for men, who is not, in all respects, one 
 of themselves. 
 
 But who is he that is to act such a part ? Who can 
 speak for his brethren from a standing not their own ? 
 
 Evidently it must be one who whilst one of themselves 
 is still in some sense separate from them. 
 
 Hence the universality of consecration. If he who is 
 to act for his brethren cannot be naturally separate, 
 since God has made all men of one blood, men will 
 separate him in some way ; they labour to give him 
 a factitious separation ; they set him apart by the 
 holiest rites that can be devised ; they clothe him with 
 a special robe ; they ordain that he shall be of one tribe 
 or cast, or else that he shall not marry ; they forbid him 
 to eat with his brethren, anything, provided that it will 
 separate or distinguish him. 
 
 So that, whilst his participation in the common nature 
 enables him to be the ambassador of his brethren to 
 represent them with God, there may yet be that about 
 him which may help men to realize (or to imagine) that 
 in some sense he comes from God and acts for God. 
 
 Such is the principle of Priesthood, having its roots 
 deep struck into the ground of all common intercourse
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 117 
 
 between God and man, and that intercourse, so far as 
 we are concerned, the intercourse of sinners with God 
 their Judge. 
 
 So that the idea of Priesthood seems to be inseparable 
 from the religious consciousness of the human race. 
 
 For all the religions or superstitions which lay claim 
 to remote antiquity, or seem to embody any part of the 
 early religious traditions of the race Pelasgic, Etruscan, 
 Egyptian, Persian, Hindoo, Gothic, Celtic, even the 
 Mexican and Peruvian, as well as those of the Islands 
 of the Pacific recognise Priesthood. There is none 
 in which the idea of Priesthood in some shape is not 
 imbedded. 
 
 It is impossible to get rid of it. 
 
 It lingers when the idea of God is almost extin- 
 guished. It re-appears in those adaptations, or refor- 
 mations, or perversions of old faiths which have taken 
 firmest hold of nations and races, such as Buddhism and 
 Mahometanism. It cannot be eliminated from Christi- 
 anity without denying the Christian ministry altogether. 
 The one sect, the Friends, who have most thoroughly 
 and consistently repudiated all Priesthood, have got rid 
 of all ministry and all Sacraments as well. 
 
 They who retain wholly, or in part, the idea of the 
 Christian ministry, and yet would fain reject the idea of 
 Priesthood as connected with that ministry, cannot do 
 so. Their own discipline and worship witness against 
 them. Not only do they, as a rule, rigorously confine 
 the ministration of the Sacraments to those who have 
 had some sort of ordination among them, but in one 
 point they even go further than the Catholic Church in 
 the direction of Priesthood ; for, as a rule, the minister 
 who conducts the worship of Presbyterian or other 
 similar bodies conducts it by himself. It is supposed
 
 ii8 7 '/if Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 to be his sole composition at the time, and is un- 
 doubtedly uttered by him alone. The people having 
 no frequent share in it, nor making it their own by 
 response. 
 
 So that they who would fain get rid of Priesthood as 
 connected with the ministry, end in depriving the peo- 
 ple, as priests of God, of their due share in what ought 
 to be the Church's common utterances. 
 
 Priesthood, then, is inseparable from the religion of 
 sinners, i.e. from the religion of our race ; at least from 
 any form of it which has not utterly severed itself from 
 the past, or professes to inherit any traditions whatso- 
 ever Primitive, Jewish, or Christian. 
 
 And now, how came this idea amongst men ? We 
 know not, just as we know not (so, that is, as to speak 
 with certainty) how the idea of Sacrifice became so uni- 
 versally prevalent. But it must have come in one of 
 two ways : Either God gave special directions to the 
 first family, so that they heard the voice of the Lord 
 God telling them that when they came together they 
 must approach Him by sacrifice, and that the highest 
 or holiest amongst them must perform this service for 
 his brethren, and that as they increased and multi- 
 plied, they must set apart a family, or tribe, or order, 
 so that the service of God should not be the occa- 
 sion of strife and debate ; or God acted in this mat- 
 ter more impalpably: He simply convinced men's con- 
 science of sin, so that they desired to draw near to 
 God in solemn worship, not alone, not one by one, but 
 in the company of their fellows, so that each indi- 
 vidual sinner might be less noticeable ; and if so, there 
 must be one chosen out from among them to speak 
 for them in prayer, and to sprinkle the blood of the 
 sacrifice.
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 1 1 9 
 
 But no matter how the priestly idea arose and gained 
 ground, it must have been from God, or God could 
 not have stamped it with sanctions so marked as He 
 has done. 
 
 If Priesthood among men were from beneath, not 
 from above, God would not have directed His first 
 great servant, whom He called His Friend, to bow 
 before Melchizedec for his blessing ; nor would He have 
 separated one tribe from among His people to " be 
 His priests, to come near to Him, to offer upon His 
 altar, to burn incense ;" nor, above all, would He have 
 permitted His servants to ascribe priestly functions to 
 His Only-Begotten. 
 
 No, my brethren, it cannot be that the religious con- 
 sciousness of mankind first embodied in all Gentile 
 tradition, and then sanctioned and purified by Jewish 
 or Christian revelation should be wrong. 
 
 If the conscience of mankind in this matter of Priest- 
 hood has been wrong, then there is no religious con- 
 science at all ; no such thing in the world as religious 
 instinct. 
 
 But if this principle of Priesthood be, as we have 
 every reason to think that it is, a gleam from the true 
 light which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world, then, in all confidence, we may take it to be 
 a part of the " education of the world ;" not the secular 
 education of the world for the reception of a human 
 philosophy, however excellent, but the religious educa- 
 tion of the world for the saving reception of the truth 
 of the Person and office of Jesus Christ. 
 
 It fulfils in this respect the same work as the uni- 
 versal prevalence of Sacrifice, the same work as the 
 universal belief in supernatural interferences. 
 
 There was one principle underlying every ancient
 
 120 The Victor, OH His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 faith, which was that the gods can interfere, and have 
 interfered, with the visible order of things, for the pur- 
 pose of manifesting themselves in kindness or in wrath ; 
 and unless there had been an universal diffusion of this 
 idea, so as to make it conceivable at least by all, how 
 could men have ever been called upon to entertain the 
 idea of the Incarnation? If the sequence of nature had 
 never been broken, or if the dim distorted memory of 
 Divine interferences had been allowed to perish utterly, 
 how could men have received such books as the Gos- 
 pels ? The miracles of Jesus would have been power- 
 less either to convince, or even to teach. They would 
 have had nothing to appeal to. They would have been 
 like the forms of letters to men who could not enter- 
 tain the idea of an alphabet. 
 And so with Sacrifice. 
 
 In some mysterious way the Death on Calvary 
 cleansed the very world. " What God hath cleansed," 
 said the voice from heaven to one who as yet realized 
 not the acceptance of the Gentiles in Christ, " What 
 God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." 
 
 Unless the New Testament be from end to end an 
 utterly misleading book, the crucified Body of the Re- 
 deemer was to be, from the moment of the consum- 
 mation of the sacrifice, the source of all cleansing, all 
 reconciliation, all forgiveness. 
 
 But how could the human mind be in a condition to 
 receive such ideas ? Simply, we answer, through its 
 education by sacrifice. By far the clearest setting forth 
 of this great truth, that the sacrificial system was the 
 greatest element in the religious education of the world 
 for the reception of the atoning power of the death of 
 Christ, comes from the pen of one who (strange to say) 
 denies the expiatory nature of that death. " In the
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 121 
 
 facts (of the death of Christ)," he says, "outwardly re- 
 garded, there is no sacrifice, or atonement, or oblation, 
 or propitiation, but simply a living and dying thus and 
 
 thus How shall we come to God by help of this 
 
 martyrdom ? How shall we turn it, or turn ourselves 
 under it, so as to be justified and set in peace with 
 God ? Plainly there is a want here, and this want is 
 met by giving a thought form to the facts which is 
 not in the facts themselves. They are put directly 
 into the moulds of the altar, and we arc called on to 
 accept the crucified God-Man as our sacrifice, an of- 
 fering or oblation for us, our propitiation ; so to be 
 sprinkled from our evil conscience, washed, purged, 
 purified, cleansed from our sin. Instead of leaving 
 the matter of the facts just as they occurred, there 
 is a reverting to familiar forms of thought, made fami- 
 liar partly for this purpose ; and we are told to use 
 the facts just as we would the sin-offerings of the 
 
 altar According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 
 the ancient ritual was devised by God, apart from 
 its Liturgical uses, to be the vehicle in words of 
 the heavenly things in Christ, moulds of thought for 
 the world's grand altar-service in Christ the universal 
 Offering .... 
 
 "And so much is there in this, that without these 
 forms of the altar, we should be utterly at a loss in 
 making any use of the Christian facts that would set 
 us in a condition of practical reconciliation with God. 
 Christ is good, beautiful, wonderful, His disinterested 
 love is a picture in itself, His forgiving patience melts 
 into my feeling, His Passion rends open my heart ; but 
 what is He for, and how shall He be made unto me 
 the salvation I want ? One word He is my Sacri- 
 fice opens all to me, and beholding Him, with all 
 my sin upon Him, I count Him my offering, I come
 
 122 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKRM. 
 
 unto God by Him, and enter into the holiest by His 
 Blood ." 
 
 And so with Priesthood. 
 
 The Priesthood of Christ is that aspect of His whole 
 mediatorial work with which, as sinners, we have first 
 and most to do. 
 
 Christ is our Mediator. He is our great mediating 
 Prophet, Priest, and King. And God has so ordered 
 the constitution of this world's society, that in each of 
 these functions men might comprehend, and so receive 
 His acting. 
 
 Men, for instance, may be all naturally equal, but if 
 from the first there had been nothing but a dead level 
 in human society, all office proceeding from and held 
 at the mere will of the people, how could men have 
 been able to receive such a kingship as that of the 
 Redeemer ? It was for this ; that men might in due 
 time own the everlasting rule of Christ, that " The 
 pageant of earthly royalty has the semblance and the 
 benediction of the Eternal King." 
 
 And so with Christ's Priesthood. Christ's media- 
 torial work has not only to do with our instruction 
 as our Prophet, and with the ordering of all things 
 for us and in us as our King, but it has above all 
 things to do with the putting away of sin, the cleansing 
 of the worshipper, so that the remembrance of past 
 sins may not keep him from God, and hinder or mar 
 his service. 
 
 The universal religious instinct of mankind, as well 
 as direct revelation, have taught that repentance is not 
 sufficient of itself. There must be purification from 
 some thing out of ourselves, and there must be some 
 one to dispense or apply the purification with the au- 
 thority of that God whose law has been outraged. 
 
 1 J>r. fiiithnell on Vicarious. Sacrifice, p. 460.
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 123 
 
 And as the sacrificial idea, with its accompanying 
 vocabulary, prepared men for the sacrifice of Christ ; so 
 the idea of priesthood, inextricably intertwined with it, 
 prepared the world for the reception of the fact that 
 the Son of God, having procured for us forgiveness by 
 the sacrifice of Himself, would Himself be, in His own 
 Person, on His throne, the minister of His Father in 
 dispensing that forgiveness. 
 
 Christ is the Priest of His people. 
 
 All other priesthood is but a shadow of His. The 
 God-ordained Jewish priesthood was the shadow which, 
 though without life, still preserved the outline. 
 
 The various priesthoods of heathendom are like the 
 dim disjointed shadows in turbid and troubled water, 
 but still in them His Priesthood is discernible, in both 
 men have a something which enables them the more 
 readily to accept Him as their Priest. 
 
 I trust that the time has not been lost in this attempt 
 to shew the hand of God in the diffusion of this world- 
 wide religious form. There are those in our midst 
 who would deprive the Church of the reality of the 
 Redeemer's Priesthood, i.e. they would deprive the 
 sinner of that office of Christ which has especially to 
 do with the forgiveness of his sins, and the commu- 
 nication of God's grace to him. 
 
 They would throw us back upon natural religion. 
 They would discredit all in Christianity in which there 
 is " progress" beyond natural religion. Well, then, in 
 this matter of Priesthood, Christianity is but the an- 
 swer to the inarticulate prayer of universal human 
 nature. 
 
 The religious aspirations of the race arc not what 
 men develope in their studies, but what corresponds 
 with the facts of universal history and human life.
 
 124 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 And the prayer of human nature in all its tribes has 
 been but the " Amen" to that of Israel of old : " Speak 
 thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak 
 with us, lest we die." 
 
 The function inherent in true priesthood is twofold : 
 the priest pronounces blessing from God on his bre- 
 thren, and he offers up to God the prayers, the praises, 
 the sacrifices, or Eucharists, of his brethren. 
 
 So it was with the first priest on record. " And 
 Melchizcdec, King of Salem, brought forth bread and 
 wine : and he was the priest of the Most High God. 
 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram 
 of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth : 
 and blessed be the Most High God, which hath deli- 
 vered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him 
 tithes of all." Here Melchizedec, on the part of God 
 and as His ambassador, blesses even the father of the 
 faithful, and offers up to God blessing on the part of 
 the father of the faithful, for his victory, and receives 
 in God's stead his thank-offering of the tithe of all. 
 And so with the Jewish high-priest. He blessed the 
 people in the name of God, and he received at the 
 people's hands the sacrifices which they offered up to 
 God. It was because he, or those under him, offered 
 them to God on His altar, that there was any atone- 
 ment attending the offering ; but of this reconciliation 
 or atonement he was of course only the minister or 
 dispenser. It all came from God. 
 
 In the fulness of time appeared the great High- 
 priest. The One only Priest who has the truth of 
 the office inherent in Himself. The One Priest whose 
 blessing from God is all-availing, and whose interces- 
 sion with God is all-prevailing. 
 
 lie, our one perfect Priest, if He is to fulfil the idea
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 1 2 5 
 
 of perfect priesthood, must be at once one with sinners, 
 and yet separate from them. 
 
 One with sinners, so that He may be on their side, 
 and act for them towards God ; and yet separate from 
 sinners, so that we may regard Him as truly coming 
 from God, and identified with the cause of the All- 
 Holy, so that He may with the authority of God act 
 from God towards us. 
 
 All this meets in Him. 
 
 He is one with sinners, for He has taken part in 
 their flesh and blood. He has a human soul as they 
 have, having the passions of such a soul, having all its 
 sinless infirmities. In the days of His flesh He hun- 
 gred, He thirsted, He submitted to the will of His 
 own creatures ; He suffered grief, so as to weep over 
 Jerusalem ; He wept for very sympathy when He saw 
 others weep, as at the grave of Lazarus. He was one 
 with sinners, too, in the consequence of their sin, in 
 pain, in agony, in desertion of soul, in death. 
 
 And with all this He was separate : so far as re- 
 gards the union of the two natures there was, of course, 
 within Him the abyss between the uncreated and the 
 created, the infinite and the finite. He could act for 
 God, on God's part, on God's side because He is God, 
 and so is identified with all that is in God ; as, for in- 
 stance, with God's severity as well as with His mercy, 
 for who has ever revealed the extreme wrath of God 
 against sinners as Christ has revealed it. And as 
 regards His human nature that in which He is one 
 with us He is also separate ; marvellous, blessed 
 mystery, one and yet separate. One with us, in that 
 He is " perfect Man of a reasonable soul and human 
 flesh ;" a reasonable soul that in the days of its pro- 
 bation tasted grief, disappointed hopes, desertion, every
 
 126 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 bitter thing that a pure soul can taste : and yet sepa- 
 rate, for whereas every other soul of man has been 
 vanquished by sin and evil, He was victorious. 
 
 In this one point is His separation for His priestly 
 work. For though in His Father's councils He was 
 separate from eternity, though He was separated 
 in the womb and from the womb by the Spirit of 
 God, though He was solemnly consecrated at His 
 baptism, yet all this would have been utterly un- 
 availing if He had been for but one moment one 
 with His brethren in their subjugation by sin. He 
 would then have needed a priest, or intercessor, or 
 mediator, for Himself. 
 
 But He was the Victor in every conflict. We are 
 ever to remember that though at one particular crisis 
 He was brought face to face with the Evil One, and 
 was compelled to hold converse with the arch liar and 
 murderer, when the devil was permitted, as it were, to 
 treat with Him for the dominion of the world ; yet that 
 we are by no means to limit His victory to the issue of 
 this conflict, or even to the issue of the final conflict in 
 His victory over death. 
 
 His whole life was one conflict. 
 
 Did it cost Him no struggle, He who was from the 
 first dawn of consciousness filled with wisdom, to live 
 thirty years the life of an obscure artizan in a country 
 town of a half-civilized province ; so veiling His asto- 
 nishing powers that they who were of His own flesh and 
 blood, certainly those who had been in familiar inter- 
 course with Him from His childhood, were astonished 
 beyond measure when they first heard Him expound 
 the Scriptures ? Was there no struggle, whilst such 
 latent powers were pent up within Him, to wait for 
 so many years His Father's time for His full manifesta-
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 127 
 
 tion ? No struggle to Him to live these many years 
 in unknown and unnoticed obscurity, attracting little, 
 perhaps no more attention than any other good but 
 poor man in a similar state of life ? 
 
 Yes, we may be sure that there was a conflict and 
 a victory here ; and that this victory did its part to 
 separate and sanctify Him to be a Priest capable of 
 sympathizing with the myriads of His brethren, who 
 have to dwell in poverty and obscurity, unknown and 
 unregarded, under subjection, depending for their sub- 
 sistence upon the will of employers. 
 
 So that in this, and doubtless in many other matters, 
 His private life was a conflict and victory. 
 
 Again ; when He began a more public life, was there 
 no struggle and victory in His every-day intercourse 
 with the Twelve ? Surely there is a hard conflict to 
 maintain persevering patience revealed in such words as 
 " Why reason ye because ye have no bread, perceive 
 ye not yet neither understand, have ye your heart yet 
 hardened, having eyes see ye not, and having ears hear 
 ye not, and do ye not remember ; how is it that ye do 
 not understand ?" 
 
 And is nothing of conflict revealed in that almost 
 bitter exclamation : " Oh, faithless and perverse gene- 
 ration, how long shall I be with you, how long shall 
 I suffer you ?" 
 
 And this conflict and victory must have been a daily 
 one ; increasing, apparently, not diminishing, until His 
 final victory over death. Nay, even after His resurrec- 
 tion we find a trace of it: "Oh fools," He says, "and 
 slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have 
 spoken." 
 
 In ways like these we may see clearly how the whole 
 life of the Son of Man was a struggle and victory ;
 
 128 The Victor, on His Throne, [SEKM. 
 
 a struggle, having its more glorious scenes of triumph 
 in the wilderness, and in the judgment-hall, and on the 
 cross ; but, after all, a conflict which had His whole life 
 for its battle-field. 
 
 And thus was He, in the nature which He had 
 assumed, "separate from sinners." Thus did it become 
 Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
 things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make 
 the High-priest of their salvation "perfect through 
 suffering." 
 
 It became Him to give us such a Priest, and such an 
 High-priest became us; for our Priest was not to be 
 a mere outward Priest, whose work was the manipu- 
 lation of external rites and outward forms of cleansing. 
 No ; He was to be the Reconciler and Restorer of 
 souls. He was to apply His forgiveness, His conso- 
 lations, and His sustaining grace, to each one of His 
 brethren according to his need. His priestly work has 
 a twofold aspect, whether we regard Him as acting 
 towards God or towards His brethren. Towards God 
 He has to act by presenting towards His Father His 
 Church and its united prayers, supplications, Eucha- 
 rists, and praises : He is her mouth to speak for her, 
 and in her name, towards God. And He has also to 
 intercede with His Father for each soul, (" Lord, let 
 it alone this year also"). He has also to present to 
 His Father, and to perfume with His merits, the in- 
 tercourse of each soul with God. 
 
 In this consists the twofold aspect of His Priesthood, 
 in that the transactions of each soul in His Church with 
 Him is twofold. Each soul comes to Him individually, 
 by itself, and unburdens its griefs, its sufferings, its falls 
 and sins to Him, as if there were no one in the Universe 
 except Him and her; and yet, if His word is to be
 
 VII.] the Priest of His People. 129 
 
 trusted for one single truth, each soul must come to 
 Him in and through the ministrations of His Church, 
 as one of an innumerable multitude, knit together in 
 a mystical body under Him as its head, all joined toge- 
 ther in one organization as branches of Himself, the 
 living Vine. 
 
 And in each of these cases the Church, or the soul, 
 comes to Him as the true and only Israel, the Victor 
 Who, after a life-long struggle and wrestling, prevailed ; 
 won from God the blessing of all blessings, the eternal 
 life of those in Him. 
 
 And as He acts on the behalf of His Church and 
 of every individual member of it towards God, so, cor- 
 responding to this, is His acting on behalf of God to- 
 wards His Church. It, too, is twofold. 
 
 Through His ministers, the dispensers of His word 
 and Sacraments ; and towards each soul individually. 
 Through His under-priests He is at once the universal 
 Baptizer, the Confirmer, the Confessor, the Absolver, 
 the Dispenser of His Body and His Blood. 
 
 When we come to Him through His ministers for 
 grace in these rites of His Church, it may be well for 
 us to remember that the grace which He dispenses He 
 won. It was given to Him as the reward of His victory 
 in a life-long conflict. 
 
 And He won it for us. 
 
 Oh, it may make us more careful to prepare our souls 
 to receive His grace, if we remember that He had to 
 purchase the power of giving it to us from God by 
 an infinite humiliation ; and this humiliation not a mo- 
 mentary act, not once for all accomplished, but in 
 which He had to maintain a strife through long years 
 of hard usage, sorrow, disappointment, contempt, and 
 scorn. 
 
 K
 
 130 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 And it might subdue our souls to esteem more highly 
 His gifts of grace, and to examine more carefully how 
 we grow in them and profit by them, if we realized 
 more that He, the Victor Priest, gives them to us in 
 order to ensure to us, if we hold fast His grace, the 
 victory over the same enemies. 
 
 He, the Victor, dispenses to us His grace in order 
 that we may be partakers with Him in the victory. 
 
 He conquered death for us, and so it is a faithful 
 saying : " If we be dead with Him" if we be partakers 
 with Him in His death to sin "we shall also live 
 with Him." 
 
 He attained to this victory by a life of suffering, and 
 so the faithful saying ends not there, but continues 
 " If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." 
 
 Oh, then, when we approach the Sacrament of His 
 Body and Blood, let us have before us not only the 
 heavenly and spiritual presence of the Bread which 
 comes down from heaven, but His own personal pre- 
 sence as the Dispenser. 
 
 Behind the earthly ministering priest is the heavenly 
 One ; and He, as the Victor, strengthening our souls 
 for the same conflict which He endured against the 
 same foes by that Flesh in which is life, and in which 
 He conquered. We see the hand of His ministering 
 servant, but it is but the instrument of another hand 
 which reaches to us the bread of life, the hand of the 
 Omnipresent Victor. 
 
 And when in the same Eucharist we shew forth His 
 death till He come again, let us realize that when we 
 "do this" in these His courts below, we are joining in 
 that one eternal Eucharist of His own blessed presence, 
 of His own blessed Body, marked with the wounds 
 which He received when He gained the victory over
 
 VII.J the Priest of His People. \ 3 1 
 
 the last enemy, which is ever being celebrated at the 
 right hand of God in heaven. 
 
 And so also with the secret approaches of the soul to 
 Him. When we come to Him in self-denial and fasting, 
 we come to One Who nerved His human nature to 
 conquer by these weapons, and can teach us how to 
 use them, and impart to us of His power, so that in 
 Him we should be conquerors. When we, looking to 
 Him, treasure up His word in our hearts, so that with 
 it we may drive back the enemy, as we humbly use 
 this sword of the Spirit we gain more confidence from 
 the thought that, in the use of it, He too was more than 
 Conqueror, and that for us. 
 
 When we plead in prayer His promised intercession, 
 it may make us more careful, and more persevering, 
 if we remember that He won a blessing for us by 
 more than prayer, by " strong crying and tears to 
 Him that was able to save Him." And when we meekly 
 accept reproach and suffering for His sake, and strive 
 to regard it as a partaking of His Cross, it may 
 give us more patience and endurance, and, perhaps, 
 more joy under it, to remember that by the things 
 which He suffered, He won the knowledge of the obe- 
 dience 77 vTTdKor) that special obedience by which He 
 became perfected as our sympathizing and consoling 
 High Priest. 
 
 And, lastly, are we His Priests ? Bear we His com- 
 mission to preach, to teach, to baptize, to feed, to lead, 
 to defend His flock ; or is this ministry the object of 
 our hopes, and of our prayers ? How can we be His 
 efficient priests, if we be not ourselves, in our poor 
 way, victors ? 
 
 If we are conquered by the love of pleasure, of ease, 
 of refined society, of amusement, or by vain glory, or 
 
 K 2
 
 132 The Victor, on His Throne, &c. [SKRM. vn. 
 
 by the desire of preferment, or by party spirit, or by 
 the world in any of its manifold shapes, or by the 
 flesh in any of its manifold cravings, how can we be 
 the instruments of the Victor Priest for the convey- 
 ance of His conquering grace to His brethren in their 
 conflict ? 
 
 We may, it is true, convey His grace officially. God 
 in mercy to His flock will see to it, that the pledges 
 of His grace are to true hearts what He designs them 
 to be to all, even at our hands ; but in all that is not 
 strictly official, in all that needs heart and soul, how 
 can we represent our great Victor Priest to His strug- 
 gling fellow-members ! 
 
 Oh wonderful, oh most wonderful insight into the 
 deepest relations of the Victor Priest, through His 
 under priests to His people, in the Evening Hymn 
 of Him whom God since last Lent has removed from 
 His militant Church. 
 
 In that hymn we have a precious litany of suppli- 
 cation, for the ark of Christ's Church, the civil rulers, 
 the priests, the falling, or unconverted ; the sick, the 
 poor, the mourners : and what is the one supplication 
 for the priests of Christ ? 
 
 " Oh, by Thine own sad burden, borne 
 So meekly up the hill of scorn, 
 Teach Thou Thy priests their daily cross 
 To bear as Thine, nor count it loss."
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 Efje Fictor, on fgte &h.rone, gibing <ifte to fften. 
 
 EPHESIANS iv. 712. 
 
 " But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure 
 of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith : When He ascended 
 up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 
 
 " Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended 
 first into the lower parts of the earth ? He that descended is 
 the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He 
 might fill all things. And He gave some, apostles ; and some, 
 prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teach- 
 ers : for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, 
 for the edifying of the Body of Christ." 
 
 *" I^HE Christians of Ephesus lived within sight of the 
 -- temple of Diana, " whom all Asia and the world 
 worshipped a ." Inside the temple was a black image of 
 the goddess, which was reputed to have fallen from 
 heaven b . Hither flocked crowds of pilgrims, who, on 
 returning home, were accustomed to take with them 
 miniature models of the shrine in silver or other metal. 
 Thus Ephesus became the centre of a vast system of 
 heathenism ; one of the chief instruments employed 
 by the " rulers of the darkness of this world" to hold 
 men down in spiritual bondage. 
 
 From this system believers in Christ had separated 
 themselves. By doing so, they appeared to the heathen 
 
 Acts xix. 27. h ver. 35. ' ser. 24.
 
 134 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 world to have given up everything that adorned hu- 
 manity, or made life itself desirable. They became, to 
 pagan eyes, so many detached atoms; without any 
 principle of cohesion ; out of communion with earth 
 and heaven. 
 
 In reality, how different from all this was their state ! 
 These seeming outcasts had, in fact, been incorporated 
 into a society, which is destined to embrace both hea- 
 ven and earth in its unity. 
 
 The Son of God had descended to this lower world, 
 and taken on Him our nature, that we might " have 
 redemption through His blood d ." Then He "ascended 
 up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things 6 ;" 
 sending forth His new-creating Spirit to raise the spi- 
 ritually dead, and to gather them into living unity 
 with Himself; thus forming, as out of the dust of the 
 earth, that "Church, which is His body f ." 
 
 To this Church, or congregation of faithful men, 
 Christ, the ascended Saviour, stood in the closest re- 
 lationship. As every particle of the body is in vital 
 connexion with the head, and contributes to the well- 
 being of the body, so every Christian, even the very 
 humblest, had "grace given to him, according to the 
 measure of Christ's bounty," and contributed something 
 to the well-being of the Church. 
 
 The analogy extended yet further. As the bodily 
 life is upheld by means of certain organs and channels 
 of circulation, such as nerves and arteries, so is it 
 with the Church. When Christ " ascended up on high," 
 He provided certain special gifts, which He left behind 
 for the Church's nourishment and conservation. What 
 were these GIFTS ? 
 
 d Eph. i. 7. Epli. iv. 10. ' Eph. i. 22, 23.
 
 VIII.] giving Gifts to Men. 13-5 
 
 Were they (as some have dreamt?) moral or intel- 
 lectual endowments, justice, courage, wisdom, philo- 
 sophy, or the like ? No : says the Apostle, He took 
 from among men those whom He "gave to men" as the 
 special channel of His blessing. " He gave some (to 
 be) apostles ; some, prophets ; some, evangelists ; some, 
 pastors and teachers." These were His own chosen 
 gifts. 
 
 So, says St. Paul, was realized, in its full dimensions, 
 that which had been set forth in historical type under 
 the elder Covenant ; that to which the great Pente- 
 costal Psalm referred 11 , where it says, that when the 
 Lord "ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, 
 and gave gifts unto men." 
 
 To see the meaning of this more clearly, we must 
 go back to the commencement of Israel's existence as 
 a Church. 
 
 When God "came down 1 " with visible glory on 
 Mount Sinai, amidst myriads of angels k , He formally 
 established the Abrahamic covenant 1 , and adopted 
 Israel to be His people. They were to be to Him 
 "a kingdom of priests m ;" and He would "dwell among 
 them n , and be their God." For this end He instituted 
 " the Tabernacle of Congregation," (or " of Meeting") ; 
 for " there" said God, " I will meet with the children of 
 Israel ; and it shall be sanctified by My glory." The 
 spiritual life of the nation was bound up with this 
 holy Tabernacle. 
 
 But observe how the life was to circulate from it. It 
 was by means of one tribe, the Levites, whom God 
 
 * See, e.g., the painted altar-piece of Christ Church. Marylebone. 
 
 h Psalm Ixviii., which was sung by the Jews at the Feast of Pentecost. 
 
 ' Exod. xix. 18, 2O, xxxiv. 5, (LXX. KO^'ST; ; cp. Eph. iv. 9). 
 
 k Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; cp. Ps. Ixviii. 17. ' Gen. xvii, 7. 
 
 01 Exod. xix. 6. " Exod. xxix. 42 45 ; cp. Ps. Ixviii. 16, 18.
 
 136 Tlie Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 " took out of the midst of the sons of Israel," to be 
 "given to the Lord to serve the service of the Taber- 
 nacle of Congregation ." He first took them, as His 
 own, "wholly given to Himself;" and then He gave 
 them to Aaron and the Church " for the work of the 
 ministry" in the Tabernacle p . As soon as Canaan was 
 occupied, the dedicated tribe was distributed through- 
 out the country, both east and west of Jordan ; so that 
 by its means the Tabernacle of God virtually spread 
 itself over the whole land. By the Levites, then, " as 
 by joints and bands, the whole body" of Israel, " having 
 nourishment ministered and being knit together," was 
 to " increase with the increase of God V 
 
 Let us now return to the Pentecostal Psalm, quoted 
 by St. Paul. 
 
 This majestic ode was written to celebrate God's 
 goodness in dwelling among His people Israel. He, 
 whose name was "YAH," the 'Self-Existent/ con- 
 descended to care for that poor nomad horde in the 
 wilderness. He even took up His abode among them, 
 in the centre of their encampment. This was their 
 strength in conflict; "God arose, and His enemies 
 were scattered r ." This gave them possession of Ca- 
 naan. This kept them in it through the period of the 
 Judges 8 . This enabled David to triumph over Israel's 
 enemies. And now God had been pleased to allow His 
 Ark to be carried up to Mount Sion. There, on lowly 
 Sion, His presence was granted as really, though not 
 with the same accompaniments of visible glory, as it 
 
 Numb. xviii. 6. (I, XX. tyu> t1\ij<pa . . . rovs Atuiraj . . . S6^a 5f5ju'- 
 vov Kvpi(f). 
 
 * Cp. Numb. iii. 9, viii. 9 19. (At ver. 19, the I, XX. have, KO! dirt- 
 Suxa 'ovs At>/Taj.) 
 
 1 Col. ii. 19. ' I's. Ixviii. I ; cp. Numb. x. 35. 
 
 IS. Ixviii. 1214.
 
 VIII.] giving Gifts to Men. 137 
 
 once was at Sinai. He did not now choose the minis- 
 trants of His sanctuary "the Tabernacle He pitched 
 among men t>( from the ranks of the " twice ten thou- 
 sand angels" who formed His retinue at Sinai u : He 
 took them " f rom among men" From among men 
 He took them, rebellious men, that even here on 
 earth, " the Lord God might have a home x ." 
 
 This was wondrous condescension : scarcely credible, 
 indeed, were it not that that "Tabernacle of Meeting" 
 prefigured a yet deeper mystery, that meeting of God 
 and man, which was effected when " the Word was made 
 flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us>'." In Christ 
 " dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily z ." He 
 descended into the conflict with sin, and death, and 
 hell; and after "triumphing over them openly z ," He 
 took from amongst His redeemed some, whom He 
 made over as His own gifts to mankind, " for the per- 
 fecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for 
 the building up of the Body of Christ." " He gave 
 some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evan- 
 gelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." 
 
 The statement in my text, then, clearly implies what 
 St. Paul's view was of the Church, the " tabernacle, 
 which the Lord pitched, and not man." 
 
 (i.) High beyond all thought, and invested with un- 
 approachable dignity, stands our kingly Priest ; exalted 
 " far above all heavens," yet in intimate union with us 
 on earth ; presenting before the mercy-seat His most 
 perfect sacrifice and intercessions on behalf of all His 
 penitent, obedient, self consecrating people. 
 
 And here below are (2.) His Levites ; not priests ; 
 forbidden, indeed, "to come near the vessels of the 
 
 1 Ps. Ixxviii. 60. u Ps. Ixviii. 17. * ver. 18. (On Ar-adam, 
 
 cp. Numb, xviii. 15.) y St. John i. 14. z Col. ii. 9, 15.
 
 1 38 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 sanctuary and the altar ;" but given to Christ, and 
 by Christ, for the salvation of men ; " ministers of 
 Jesus Christ, ministering the Gospel of God, that the 
 offering up of the nations may be acceptable being 
 sanctified by the Holy Ghost V In brief, the work of 
 t heir ministry is " to make ready a people prepared for 
 the Lord c ;" that these may be "built up a spiritual 
 ho use, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, 
 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ d ." 
 
 Thus, brethren, " the Tabernacle of God is with men, 
 and He dwells among them 6 :" not, indeed, manifested 
 in terrible majesty, as on Sinai ; but ruling with effec- 
 tive power, as from Sion ; ruling so that even the 
 world's outward history gives at least indications of 
 His presence. 
 
 Is not this the reason why that portion of mankind 
 which is called Christendom is by far the most ad- 
 vanced, the noblest, the most replete with living energy ? 
 We confess that in all Christian nations there are many 
 who adhere only to the outside of the Church ; but 
 the elevated character of the collective mass is unques- 
 tionable ; and this is primarily due to the working of 
 the Church inside it. 
 
 And whence came this Church ? We all know. It 
 dates its birth from the day of Pentecost which followed 
 our Lord's ascension. It sprang forth suddenly ; a new 
 Creation. Its own averment (and there is no other 
 credible account) has always been, that Jesus, "being 
 
 Numb, xviii. 3. 
 
 h Rom. xv. 16. \firo vpybv 'Itjaov XpitfTof, It povpfovvr a, rb 
 Awi'. On which Uengel rightly notes, "Jesus cst sacenlos ; Paulus 
 saterdotis minister. " 
 
 c St. I.uke i. 17 ; cp. Coll. for 3rd Sunday in Advent. 
 
 d I St. Pet. ii. 5 ; cp. ver. 9, and Kxod. xix. 5, 6. 
 
 ' Kev xxi. 3.
 
 VIII.] giving Gifts to Men. 139 
 
 exalted by the right hand of the Father, and having 
 received from the Father the promise of the Holy 
 Ghost, poured forth" the stream of miraculous influ- 
 ence, which on that day amazed Jerusalem. 
 
 From that epoch the various ministers of the Church 
 began to work. Apostles stood forth as Christ's envoys, 
 commissioned to " Christianize all nations ;" to lay the 
 foundations of the Church ; to establish by their acts 
 and their writings the model on which all after genera- 
 tions were to mould themselves. PropJiets gave utter- 
 ance to high religious truth, whether in the form of 
 expositions of Scripture or in hymns and prayers. 
 Evangelists were enabled to communicate the Gospel 
 to strangers ; as pastors and teachers were to feed and 
 instruct settled congregations. 
 
 By these agents (Christ working through them) the 
 Churches of the first age were formed and consolidated ; 
 many Churches, and yet One; all being bound 
 together in their common relation to " Him which is 
 the Head, even Christ." 
 
 But how, when we leave that first age ? Did Christ's 
 "gifts" die out, or did He raise up a continuous suc- 
 cession of them ? 
 
 In general, it is most evident that there has all along 
 been a body of men known as " the Lord's portion," 
 clerus Domini, the Clergy. These have claimed to be, 
 and have been regarded as, Christ's ministers. They 
 have traced up their authority and spiritual lineage to 
 the Apostles. With their health or sickness the Church 
 has prospered or languished. If doctrinal error or prac- 
 tical corruption got entrance among them, the whole 
 body suffered decay ; when they were sound, then by 
 them, "as by nerves and arteries," religious life cir- 
 culated through the system.
 
 140 The Victor, on His Tlironc, [SERM. 
 
 Although, then, (like the Lcvites of old,) they may 
 often have deviated from the rule laid down for them 
 must we not still regard them as Christ's "gifts ?" And, 
 as a matter of fact, do we not find that, in a very con- 
 siderable degree, their history presents us with a con- 
 tinuation of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, 
 and teachers of the First Age ? 
 
 (i.) The office of Apostles could not, from its very 
 nature, be in its fulness transmissible. For they were 
 to speak of Christ as eye-witnesses ; to testify what 
 Christ had entrusted to them personally ; to lay the 
 foundations of the Universal Church ; to be the pillars 
 in God's temple, on which the " great mystery of godli- 
 ness" should stand recorded to all ages. This was 
 necessarily peculiar to themselves. 
 
 Yet they ordained men to take up and perpetuate 
 their work. They appointed bishops, who were to 
 bear rule in the Apostolic federation, and to feed the 
 Church of God with Apostolic doctrine, as embodied 
 in Scripture. 
 
 We know how carefully the Episcopate did for many 
 centuries watch over this sacred deposit. The spirit 
 that animated them was that of Irenxus, who wrote, 
 " The Apostles handed down to us in the Scriptures 
 what was to be the pillar and ground of our faith f ." 
 To these Scriptures they adhered as their sole rule 
 of faith. " We are resolved," said Athanasius, " to 
 hear nothing and to say nothing beyond that which 
 is written *." This was the resolve which swayed the 
 great councils of bishops that assembled in defence 
 of the faith in the best times. 
 
 Through long and weary ages this order of bishops 
 has survived : and still amongst ourselves its work is 
 
 ' Adv. Ha-r. iii. I. De Inc. Christ! [i. p. 484]
 
 VIII.] giving Gifts to Men. 141 
 
 to maintain the succession of Apostolic doctrine and 
 discipline. When a bishop is consecrated, a Bible is 
 delivered to him with the words, " Think upon the 
 things contained in this book." When a bishop ordains 
 presbyters or deacons, he puts a Bible or a New Testa- 
 ment into their hands. Thus from generation to gene- 
 ration the Apostolic word is committed to living wit- 
 nesses ; as in Israel, the Law of Moses, placed by 
 the side of the ark, was entrusted to the keeping of 
 the Levites 1 '. 
 
 In a recurrence to this Apostolic deposit, brethren, 
 is all our hope of attaining to any wholesome peace 
 or Church-reformation at the present day. When Chris- 
 tians shall turn from their weak dependence on the 
 traditions of human schools, ancient or modern, and 
 receive the teachings of Christ's own Apostles in their 
 plain and undiluted meaning, then will the Holy Spirit 
 (does not "the residue of the Spirit" still abide 
 among us?) work His full work without let or hin- 
 drance. Then believers, being joined " in the Apostles' 
 doctrine and fellowship," shall again be "of one heart 
 and one soul." 
 
 (2.) The work of Prophets was to build up the Church 
 by unfolding the interior sense of Scripture, or by other 
 devotional utterances. 
 
 And in what age have there not been men (chiefly 
 among the clergy) whose insight into the meaning 
 of God's Word, and whose skill in evolving that mean- 
 ing, in homilies, 'prayers, hymns, or other forms, 
 have been such as to make us thank God for them ? 
 
 Has not the Church had in them a continuation of 
 the prophetic grace ? 
 
 (3.) The function of Evangelists was to carry the 
 
 h Deut. xxxi. 2~.
 
 H 2 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 glad tidings of God's love to people who had not heard 
 of it. At first this was, of course, done without written 
 Gospels ; but when Scripture had taken form, chiefly 
 by its help. 
 
 So Eusebius 1 describes the work of an Evangelist 
 as being to "preach Christ and deliver the Scripture 
 of the Holy Gospels." And speaking of Pantaenus, 
 (who went as a missionary to India,) he calls him, " an 
 Evangelist of the WordV 
 
 To procure acceptance for the written Word was at 
 all times an important part of the missionary's work. 
 It is recorded that when our own Wilfred visited Rome, 
 before he went out as missionary to Thuringia, he col- 
 lected numerous copies of the Scriptures there, and 
 brought them away " at the cost of no slight toil V 
 
 And now that the Church has begun again to " stir 
 up" the evangelistic grace within her, we have the 
 same temper exhibited. The work of translating the 
 Gospels, of transfusing their meaning into the vernacu- 
 lars of pagan races, is now going on in every part of 
 the world. It is a work for which men of very special 
 endowments are required. Let us pray God to bestow 
 them upon us in larger abundance. 
 
 (4.) Of the work of pastors and teachers I need not 
 speak. Beyond all controversy this office has existed, 
 and still exists. Each person, to whom it is committed, 
 solemnly professes beforehand his belief that he is in- 
 wardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take it upon 
 him; in other words, that he is Christ's own "gift" 
 to the Church. 
 
 Thus, then, my brethren, down to the present time, 
 men have been raised up to guard the Apostolic de- 
 posit, to quicken the Church's understanding of Divine 
 
 ' II. E., iii. 37. ^ v. 10. k Non modico laborc.
 
 VIII.] giving Gifts to Men, 143 
 
 mysteries, to carry the Gospel to the heathen, to watch 
 over and instruct the faithful. And these "gifts" of 
 the ascended Saviour have (in spite of man's short- 
 comings) availed to the "edification of the body of 
 Christ." Through them "the Lord God has had His 
 dwelling" on earth. Millions of souls have by their 
 means been united into one holy temple. Baptized into 
 the blessed Triune Name, they have owned one Lord, 
 been sanctified by one Spirit, and adored one God 
 and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
 and in us all. 
 
 God's covenant has not been broken. His "word 
 has not returned to Him void." 
 
 Too often, indeed, Christ's Levites have not retained 
 their fidelity ; so that to them the old reproof 1 might 
 be addressed: "Ye have corrupted the covenant of 
 Levi." Too often have God's Nazarites, instead of being 
 " purer than snow," had " their visage darkened 1 "" with 
 famine of the word of God, and the oppression of the 
 great enemy. 
 
 God's grace no more precludes the working of man's 
 free-will now than it did under the Old Covenant. 
 Within forty days of the giving of the Law on Sinai, 
 the Israelites, with Aaron at their head, had fallen 
 back into Apis-worship. Within forty years after the 
 consecration of the temple, Solomon was seen bowing 
 down to Milcom and Ashtoreth. 
 
 Yet God's "gift" to Israel was not in vain. 
 
 So it is now. Jesus, our Mediatorial King, is seated 
 in heaven dispensing gifts unto men, "gifts" that are 
 taken from among men. Though these may "corrupt 
 themselves 11 ," yet His purposes shall never be frustrated. 
 " The gates of hell," its council chamber and its legions, 
 
 1 Mai. ii. 8. m Lam. iv. 7, 8. n Deut. xxxr. 5.
 
 144 The Victor, on His Throne, &c. [SERM. vill. 
 
 "cannot prevail against" Christ's Church. "God is 
 in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved." Age 
 after age souls are still being prepared for a more 
 glorious " inhabitation of God ;" when all the sancti- 
 fied shall be gathered into the perfected Church, which 
 shall be "the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." 
 
 My brethren, the meditation we have been engaged 
 in has been a very solemn one. I trust it may not 
 have been unprofitable. It will not be so, if it lead us 
 to think with deeper reality of Christ's manifold work- 
 ing in His Church. 
 
 His "gifts" are still with us. Let our faith grate- 
 fully acknowledge their presence, and diligently profit 
 by them. Let them serve to bind us in union to Him 
 from whom all our spiritual life comes. He is the 
 "Apostle and High-Priest of our profession;" He 
 the Prophet of His Church, " in whom are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge ;" He the Light 
 "to lighten the heathen;" He the Chief Shepherd 
 and Bishop of souls. He is " the Head, from whom 
 the whole body, fitly joined together, and compacted 
 by that which every joint supplicth, according to the 
 effectual working in the measure of every part, makcth 
 increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love." 
 
 To Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever 
 one adorable God, be ascribed all honour and glory 
 through all ages. Amen.
 
 SERM ON IX. 
 
 Ejje Utctor, on ?is Efjrone, mystically. 
 to 
 
 ST. JOHN xvii. 10, 
 
 " And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified 
 
 in them." 
 
 THE subjects of this series of sermons have hitherto 
 had in view our Lord in His own Person alone, 
 though Himself as the centre of infinite energies of life. 
 They regard Him in His own pure individuality as act- 
 ing on or for others in the manifold spheres of the spiri- 
 tual life. The subject which has been committed to me 
 involves the contemplation of Him in His intimate con- 
 nection with His elect; His individuality merged in the 
 oneness of His mystical Body, what Holy Scripture 
 describes under a term scarcely possible for us to com- 
 prehend in its full meaning, "the Fulness of Him that 
 filleth all in all a ." It is Himself no longer as one, but 
 losing Himself in another unity, the perfected commu- 
 nion of His elect people. 
 
 Our Lord in His Incarnation acts as the medium be- 
 tween the invisible God and the creatures. It was 
 necessary, according to the design of eternal Love to- 
 wards the creation, and for the perfecting of the bliss 
 and holiness of the creatures, to constitute a link to bind, 
 
 E r h. i. 23. 
 L
 
 146 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 to unite them with God. Our Lord supplies this link 
 in His own Person. The complete purpose of the In- 
 carnation is fulfilled in the final ingathering and reunion 
 to use the Scriptural term, the " reconciliation" of all 
 the elect creatures, and our Lord is the principle of re- 
 union, the Reconciler of all orders of intelligent beings 
 throughout the entire range of created life, which cir- 
 culates to and fro around Him, as it emanates from 
 Him, and pervades and unites all the separate indi 
 viduals who are to be taken up into this entireness of 
 a blessed Unity in the consummation of bliss through 
 the accomplishment of the predestination of God. 
 
 Our Lord in the text expresses the fact of His being 
 thus the One medium of union between the Father and 
 the elect. This is the primary meaning of the words, 
 "And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine." He is, 
 through the operation of the Eternal Spirit, both the 
 cause and bond of this union. The extent to which it 
 reaches forth on every side, is revealed by St. Paul, as 
 e.g. in the Colossians, where Christ is represented to be 
 the cause of the first creation, as it was projected forth 
 from God, creating life to be dependent on God through 
 Him. He describes our Lord as the Image, the visible 
 manifested form or expression of the invisible God : 
 " For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, 
 and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
 be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all 
 things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is 
 before all things, and by Him all things consist V 
 
 Afterwards the Apostle reveals the subsequent truth 
 that Christ is likewise the Restorer of the Creation after 
 the Fall, the cause of the reunion of what had been sepa- 
 rated from God by sin : " For it pleased the Father that 
 
 h < 'ol. i. in, 17.
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 147 
 
 in Him should all fulness dwell ; and, having made peace 
 through the Blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all 
 things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be 
 things in earth, or things in heaven c ." The whole vast 
 circumference of created being revives in the union of 
 love which, centring in Christ, diffuses itself so as to 
 take up and absorb into itself all true angelic as well as 
 all true human life. 
 
 But human life has its special distinctive glory in the 
 midst of that all-glorious mystical Body of which Christ 
 is the Head and Heart : " He took not on Him the na- 
 ture of angels ; but He took on Him the seed of Abra- 
 ham d ." There is a oneness between Christ and His own 
 elect among men, through their common nature, which is 
 peculiar to man. Where do we read anything with re- 
 gard to angels in their relation to our Lord, like to what 
 St. Paul speaks of as the end of the ministry on earth of 
 Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, pastors, and teachers ? 
 It was ordained, as he declares, " for the perfecting of the 
 saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of 
 the Body of Christ : till we all come in the unity of the 
 faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto 
 a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
 fulness of Christ e ." St. Paul describes the result to be 
 that the whole body of the redeemed from among men 
 form but one man, that there is but one individual, as it 
 were, compacted together, composed of the multitudi- 
 nous individual souls of men, our Lord having His part 
 with us in the complete Humanity for he speaks of 
 Him as the Head, and the rest, His own elect people, as 
 the members of this one complete Body. And this idea 
 runs throughout Holy Scripture ; for separate individual 
 men are compared to the eye and the hand, and the 
 
 r Col. i. 19, 20. d Heb. ii. 16. * F.ph. iv. 12, 13. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 foot, each one being not a whole, but part of a whole, 
 members in a body, all together making the one man, 
 the compound man in Christ, in which Body nevertheless 
 every one, as Christ Himself, preserves his own separate 
 individuality. 
 
 Man's nature commenced in oneness of life. Eve 
 dwelt in Adam's side before she came forth into sepa- 
 rate existence. The Creator, while Adam slept, took 
 one of his ribs, and formed the woman. It was a part- 
 ing away of part of himself, that from the separated 
 existence of the one humanity existing in the pair, 
 there might grow as out of one the multitudinous 
 races, still one in their origin, in their separate indivi- 
 dualities diverging infinitely. And, again, this original 
 division was designed only that these separated indi- 
 viduals might again return into oneness in the new 
 Adam. This returning is effected as each individual 
 life after living apart for a while, and feeling its own 
 loneliness, and longing the more to be one finds its 
 rest again in the perfect Man. Each individual expe- 
 riences itself to be but an imperfect being, not able to 
 live alone, because not good for it to be alone, and dis- 
 covering this truth in the conscious helplessness of his 
 lonely struggles with the burden of his life, hastens back 
 to the opened side, His side which bled for him, and, as 
 it bled, opened the new way, through the " rent veil 
 which is His flesh," to return to God in Him Who is 
 both God and Man in one, for man's own sake, that all 
 might be one again in Him. Man's troubled life is thus 
 a cycle proceeding from unity in the first Adam, and 
 then through endless division returning into unity again 
 in the second Adam. The first unity is in the earthly 
 embryo, an undeveloped state existing only in the pos- 
 sibility of a perfect life, as Christ Himself was once "in
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 149 
 
 the loins of Abraham when Melchisedech met him." 
 The last unity will be a conscious existence of per- 
 fection in Him, as though His Godhead were become 
 one's own individual personality, with all the thrilling 
 fulness of perfect powers in oneself, corresponding with 
 the love and joy, the peace and holiness, developed in 
 the glorified life of Jesus in His Victor form of power 
 on His throne, at His Father's side, as we in Him, and 
 Himself in all, are glorified together. 
 
 Further, this closest union of all life in Christ, so pe- 
 culiar to man, has an importance in God's design far 
 beyond our own special glory and bliss in Christ ; for 
 our union in Him forms the basis, the underlying inner 
 principle on which all other creatures are reconciled and 
 united with God. The human nature has a ground of 
 union with God, of which no other nature is capable. 
 The angelic natures in their varied orders are repre- 
 sented in the Revelations circling around the inner 
 Unity of the One Incarnate God, as all lower natures 
 still further off from the throne of God circle around 
 them ; but the saints formed on earth are " in the 
 midst of," as well as "around the throne" of the Victor. 
 Angels are only " around the throne," and there are 
 creatures yet beyond, while man alone is " in the midst 
 of" its mysterious majesty of ineffable glory f . 
 
 And this truth was the real cause of the importance 
 of all that passed on earth while our Lord, yet visibly 
 present in the flesh, was drawing to Himself the first 
 disciples whom the Father gave unto Him. For it was 
 not merely God's own drawing. The will of those who 
 were drawn must necessarily coincide with His own will, 
 according to the laws of responsible creatures. They 
 
 ' Rev. is. 6.
 
 1 50 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 must believe and see, and yield their own natures, as 
 truly as God draws them. And there was, therefore, an 
 indescribable anxiety hanging on the results of those 
 first drawings through which, in the days of His flesh, 
 our Lord was attracting souls to Him, and in Him to 
 the Father. During the first two years of His ministry 
 there was no sign of any such real union. His fol- 
 lowers crowded around, and pursued Him even for days 
 in the wilderness ; but yet any single hard saying was 
 enough to cause whole multitudes to fall back. The 
 one idea which pervaded even the Apostles' minds, was 
 the Jewish view of the earthly kingdom, the reign of 
 the Victor on Mount Zion, in the national exaltation 
 manifesting some earthly millennial glory. Of the mys- 
 tical body, of the inner life of the spirit-world in intimate 
 union with God, in the home of light and perfect love, 
 there was no gleam of anticipation, no thought. Nor 
 indeed could there be, for there was no basis on which it 
 could rest, while as yet the hidden Godhead of the Son 
 of Man was unrevealed. This shews how much hung on 
 the question which at last but not until two full years 
 of the ministry were expired, and the time was rapidly 
 drawing towards the end our Lord put to the Apo- 
 stles, " Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am ?" 
 The answer even then gave no hope that the very first 
 foundation of the mystical union was as yet laid among 
 the people. " Some say, Thou art John the Baptist, 
 some Elias, and others one of the Prophets *." All was 
 as yet dark. No foundation as yet was gained in the 
 heart of man for the future unity of God and man ; for 
 faith in the Godhead of Christ was the very first con- 
 dition of the restored unity. Then was uttered the 
 critical question as to the Apostles themselves, which, if 
 
 St. Matt. xvi. 13, 14.
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 151 
 
 this had failed also, would still have left all in doubt. 
 But the desired answer came, and its eventfulness, if we 
 bear in mind what hung upon it, it is impossible to 
 exaggerate : " Peter answered and said, Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God V 
 
 We can understand the rising up of the heart of Jesus, 
 rejoicing at this reply, because here was the first indi- 
 cation of the truth having entered into the hearts of 
 those who were to form the nucleus of the future com- 
 munion of saints, the first-fruits of the working of the 
 life which He had come to form in union with Himself 
 when He should return in His ascended Majesty to His 
 throne. Therefore the great blessing fell on him whose 
 lips had uttered it: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for 
 flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My 
 Father which is in heaven." Nor did the words of bless- 
 ing cease, but it continued on, the strain of triumphant 
 anticipation still breaking forth from the lips of Jesus, as 
 He marked this commencement of living faith, and saw 
 developing in the future the complete mystical Body 
 of the elect around His throne : " And I say unto 
 thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
 My Church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it 1 ." 
 
 Consider, again, this same truth as the interpretation 
 of that intensity of feeling which our Lord evidently 
 experienced when the Greeks came to Him, desirous of 
 seeing Him. As soon as their coming was announced 
 to Jesus, there arose from His lips expressions of joy 
 and victory, unaccountable except from this same cause : 
 " And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, 
 that the Son of Man should be glorified k ." He saw in 
 these representatives of the heathen world the ingather- 
 
 h St. Matt. xvi. 16. s Ibid., 17, 18. k St. John xii. 23.
 
 1 52 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 ing of the faithful of the whole Gentile races into His 
 mystical Body, which was in truth His own glorification. 
 He saw, He felt the inner bond of union being knit, 
 already drawing these few, because they were to Him 
 the first realization of the consciousness of the countless 
 followers of all times and nations, who in the opening 
 future, by a mutual embrace in the deep yearnings of 
 spiritual love, would at last be united to Him ; to be 
 the witnesses and sharers of His triumph on His throne, 
 in the great Day when He would perfect the hosts of 
 His redeemed from among men. The scene brought 
 vividly before the mind of our Lord the whole results 
 of His atoning Death, and the final reconciliation to 
 God of all creatures. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, 
 it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much 
 fruit V 
 
 It is by considering this same eventful issue then at 
 stake that we may discern the cause of the earnest, 
 anxious care with which in the same night in which He 
 was betrayed by one Apostle, our Lord guarded the 
 others who abode faithful, from the possibility of falling 
 away under the approaching trial to which their hearts 
 would be exposed, during the last crisis of His Passion. 
 For what if these should fall away ? What if these feu , 
 who formed the only nucleus of the future Church, were 
 to forsake Him, and return no more? Consider how He 
 used that night persuasion, encouragement, promises, to 
 fortify, to prepare them ! Sec what warnings He gave, 
 what clear, earnest revelations of the future, that they 
 might be forearmed against the peril before it came to 
 pass, that " when it was come to pass, they might be- 
 lieve." And may we not see arising within the heart 
 
 1 St. John xii. 24.
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 153 
 
 of our Lord a feeling of relief, even a triumphant expec- 
 tation as He felt how His power would work in Peter's 
 soul, as the representative of the rest of the Apostles, in 
 saving Him from the uttermost fall: "I have prayed 
 for thee, that thy faith fail not ; and when thou art con- 
 verted, strengthen thy brethren m ." 
 
 Surely this was one main cause why our Lord so 
 "greatly desired to eat this Passover" with them before 
 He suffered ; a desire that they should be fitted to re- 
 ceive aright that mystical Presence of Himself; a desire 
 to impart Himself to them as the Sustenance of their 
 frail humanity. For now they would be strengthened ; 
 now He had actually accomplished the first stage of 
 that mystical union which He had come to form be- 
 tween Himself and them. That Passover was on this 
 account to our Lord a special rest, because it was 
 the pledge and assurance of a sustaining power that 
 they could receive, and which, if truly received, would 
 uphold them under the terrible crisis of the approach- 
 ing Crucifixion. One received to his greater condem- 
 nation ; but the rest " to the strengthening and re- 
 freshing of their souls," and thus though falling par- 
 tially, they yet remained secure in the " strength of that 
 meat" in which they would be enabled to ascend to the 
 truer Horeb, the real " mount of God." 
 
 That first Eucharist was the token, the foreshadow- 
 ing of what would in fuller measure continue in cease- 
 less operation throughout the world, when on His 
 throne, His victory accomplished, the Victor would shed 
 forth everywhere His glorified Humanity, through His 
 Spirit. The great intercessory prayer, of which the 
 text is the central idea, is throughout one prolonged 
 pleading for the completeness of the union then com- 
 
 B1 St. Luke xxii. 32.
 
 1 54 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 mcnced, to extend and develop through all time into 
 eternity, as its true home of bliss. " I have manifested 
 Thy Name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me. Thine 
 they were, and Thou gavest them Me. ... I pray for 
 them, for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and 
 Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them. . . . Neither 
 pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall be- 
 lieve 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, ... and the glory which 
 Thou gavest Me, I have given them. ... I in them, and 
 Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in One. . . . 
 Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, 
 be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory 
 which Thou hast given Me, . . . that the love wherewith 
 Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them "." 
 
 These last words lead us to consider how this life of 
 mystical union with our Blessed Lord is partaken of and 
 perfected, now that He has ascended to His throne 
 of glory. 
 
 Bear first in mind that it is here on earth, in our pre- 
 sent state, this union commences, wherever the true 
 conditions are fulfilled. Let us consider some of these 
 conditions, and first such as are independent of the 
 sacramental means through which they are wrought. 
 
 First, there needs a living faith in our Lord's true 
 Divinity equally as in His true Humanity. This primary 
 faith is essential to our union with Him. For the ground 
 of union is His Godhead, by which alone He can recon- 
 cile to Himself all creatures. It is not merely a figu- 
 rative, a metaphorical idea of which we speak, when we 
 speak of the mystical union of Christ and His elect. It 
 
 St. John xvii.
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 155 
 
 is not a union as of men bound by common ties and 
 mutual interests, not even a union as of man and wife, 
 which though indissoluble except by death, is yet but 
 a oneness of mutual dependence and common duties, 
 and consecrated rights binding the one to the other. 
 This closest tie of earth, though sacramental, is but 
 a type and symbol of a yet more august and more 
 sacred union. 
 
 The union of Christ with His elect, is a union of 
 mutual indwelling, a working together of one life, and 
 one heart beating in its infinite pulsations through the 
 One body, and while yet retaining its separate indivi- 
 dualities of existence, is itself an individuality as really as 
 if there were but one soul in one body. And how could 
 this be but by the operation of Divine power, by that 
 which is infinite, supernatural, superlocal, pervading, in- 
 terpenetrating the finite, the natural ? And how can we 
 participate of this but by faith ? " The just shall live by 
 faith." It is only to be accomplished by the coalescing 
 of souls animated and transformed by grace, with the 
 indwelling Presence of the Son of God manifest in the 
 flesh ; as St. John says, " That which was from the be- 
 ginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with 
 our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands 
 have handled, of the Word of life ; that which we have 
 seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may 
 have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship is 
 with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ ." 
 Without the full reception of the Godhead through the 
 soul's true faith in Him, this mystical union has no 
 groundwork, no living subsistence. He must be re- 
 cognised as the Victor, eternally co-equal with the 
 Father ; otherwise no substratum is laid for the possi- 
 
 I St. John i. I, 3.
 
 i 56 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 bility of such a union ; there is no true meeting- 
 point between God and man. In no other true sense 
 could He say, "All Mine are Thine, and Thine are 
 Mine." Nor can we be among the "Thine," except 
 through the faith by which the Father draws us to 
 Himself by the Son. 
 
 Secondly, there must in this fellowship be the union I 
 of heart and will, of thought and desire. It would be 
 a mere mechanical union unless the mutual intelli- 
 gence meet and intermingle. Our Lord and the Fa- 
 ther are One, because of the perfect union and corre- 
 spondence existing between them, in their will equally 
 as in their substance. Could there by any possibility 
 have been any divergence of the will of Jesus from 
 the will of the Father, the unity would have been dis- 
 solved. " All Mine are Thine." This was through all 
 His course the one great principle of life. " I come 
 to do Thy Will, I am content to do it, yea, Thy law is 
 within My heart p ." " The Son can do nothing of Him- 
 self, but what He seeth the Father doi." There was 
 the complete inner union, the unvarying oneness of 
 mind. And the same must extend itself also to His 
 members, His own elect. It must be equally true that, 
 " All Thine are Mine ;" all who are drawn by Thee to 
 Me, are made one with Me in mind. The mystical union 
 is unreal and practically fails, if this moral union exists 
 not. Can we claim oneness, any real portion in the 
 mystical Body of Christ, if the temper, the desires, 
 the joys, the will, the affections are permanently and 
 essentially at variance with Him ; if there be no ten- 
 dency in the uncertain, wavering lines of life to con- 
 verge ; if there be no effort to meet ? There is, indeed, 
 a real mysterious intercommunion of grace between the 
 
 f Hcb. x. 7. i St. John v. 19.
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 157 
 
 several individual members of the mystical Body of 
 Christ, one being linked to another in common bonds 
 of life, and having a common share in the One Life. 
 Our Andrewes teaches that in the " Communion of Saints 
 there is the mutual participation in sanctification vouch- 
 safed to every member of that mystical body." But this 
 unity in grace implies oneness of mind, and we fall off 
 from the mystical body in proportion as we become 
 spiritually out of harmony with the true members of the 
 body, and so out of harmony with Him as Head of the 
 body. How can we be truly and vitally in Him unless 
 we are among those whom He owns, among the " Thine" 
 who are " Mine," if it could be said of us, " your thoughts 
 are not My thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, 
 saith the Lord r ?" If there be conscious sin unconfessed, 
 not put away ; if there be any allowance of a known 
 evil habit ; if evil thoughts prevail unresisted, unsubdued, 
 becoming habitual ; if the character have taken a wrong 
 bent or tone ; if the constant tendency is against, not 
 for, Him and His cause, not seeking to copy His ex- 
 ample in His union with the Father ; if we are diverse 
 in habits of mind and heart, when compared with Him, 
 how can it be but that the union involved in our re- 
 generation, must practically grow less and less, till it 
 becomes a very mockery, and a ground of hopeless 
 condemnation ? 
 
 Thirdly, as this moral union is required to form an 
 inner living reality, so this again requires a continual 
 increase of life, through actual participation of our Lord. 
 This is the ground on which rests the need of the con- 
 stant reception of the Holy Eucharist. This blessed 
 ordinance is at once the great means of bestowing the 
 mystical life, and the anticipative realization of the per- 
 
 ' Isa. lv. 8.
 
 I $8 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKRM. 
 
 footed union hereafter. He who is the very central 
 Life of the whole mystical Body imparts Himself to 
 all in His divine Communion, uniting all with Himself, 
 and through Himself with each other. It is a pause in 
 our earthly course when the longed-for union knows no 
 let, no hindrance. It is a time when even here on earth 
 Heaven and earth are one ; when the Victor from the 
 Throne and the earthly captives of His grace, meet ; 
 when all variances and discords of mind and heart are 
 for the moment silent ; when all the movements of each 
 separate member of the body are at rest in one heart- 
 thrilling consciousness; when the power of the Highest 
 possesses, enfolds, enwraps, enchants each and all with 
 a common glory ; when there is but one thought, one 
 consciousness, one vision, one pervading power, one pure 
 joy, thrilling with a uniform pulse throughout the whole 
 body ; when the mystical union is complete and undis- 
 turbed, the Eucharistic Presence through the over- 
 shadowing of the Holy Ghost, being over us, around 
 us, within us, reconciling all in one, absorbing together 
 Himself the very Head, and ourselves, His members, now 
 filled with Himself, and living in His fulness. It is then 
 that this unity is for the time, as an anticipation, fulfilled ; 
 when it may be truly said, "All Mine are Thine, and 
 Thine are Mine." Our Lord and His faithful are then 
 indeed for the time glorified in one. "We are one Body, 
 for we are all partakers of that one Bread ." It is heaven 
 begun in a very truth, only how soon to lose that com- 
 pleteness, as again we fall ; and yet the same perfect life 
 to be again and again realized, even though not possible 
 to be kept perfect and undisturbed in the complete pos- 
 session of an indefectible grace, though with power to 
 grow ever more and more, as we increasingly feed on 
 
 ' I Car. x. 17.
 
 IX.] mystically United to His People. 159 
 
 Him, and abide in Him. We are, as we communicate, 
 really lost to the consciousness of time and space ; all 
 mere sense of the creatures and of nature is passed 
 away for the moment, and it is as though already God 
 were All in all ; as though the unity which pervades 
 the Blessed in Heaven, had suddenly spread itself 
 forth to flood the earth, as an advancing tide overflows 
 its bounds by a sudden rush, and though to retreat 
 again, yet again and again to return. Such is the 
 blessedness and the need of constant and fervent re- 
 ception of the Blessed Sacrament. Our life becomes 
 thus a life of grace in nature, overpowering nature. It 
 is Christ formed in us, and through Him, the whole 
 blessed Trinity. " If a man love Me, he will keep My 
 words : and My Father will love him, and we will come 
 unto him, and make our abode with him V It is the 
 forming within us of the glory which exists first in the 
 Humanity of Jesus, which broke forth in His Trans- 
 figuration as for a moment, and is now in its full and 
 stedfast radiance clothing Him on the throne, and by 
 His Spirit spreading and communicating itself through 
 all the elect, as they become by grace capable of re- 
 ceiving Him. 
 
 Such, then, is our present dignity, in proportion as 
 it is realized in us, making us one with God, linking us 
 with all true created life in God ; hidden within us, but 
 yet even now our only real life, by which we already 
 rise, and live above space and time in the Infinite and 
 the Eternal. 
 
 What would life become more and more, if we lived 
 more and more in the power of this consciousness ? 
 What our present share in the glory which, encircling 
 His Throne, is overshadowing and indwelling secretly 
 
 ' St. John xiv. 23.
 
 160 The Victor, on His Throne, 6r. [si-RM. IX. 
 
 on earth all true hearts ? To attain this should ever be 
 our fervent, earnest, longing, as we "press forward to 
 the things that are before," " if by any means we may 
 apprehend that for which we are apprehended of Christ 
 Jesus." What need of watchful care, of unceasing, sted- 
 fast studying of the life and spirit of Jesus ? What 
 a call ever sounding in our hearts to put forth increasing 
 efforts for the attainment of His mind ! What utter 
 loss if we fail ! What unspeakable, endless blessedness, 
 if at last we are found faithful, and in Him, the Head 
 and centre of this life, are accepted !
 
 SERMON X. 
 Efje Ftctor, on $?ts Eijrone, aftsolbing 
 
 ST. MATTHEW vii. 29. 
 
 " Tor He taught them as one having authority, and not as the 
 scribes." 
 
 ST. JOHN xx. 23. 
 
 " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and 
 whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 
 
 WE cannot wonder that the Jews were unable 
 to see the greatness of the Majesty which in 
 Christ was concealed under a human form, and that 
 they could not at once distinguish between Him and the 
 crowds of scribes and philosophers who came, each with 
 his theory, to find acceptance with the people. 
 
 Men would not at once recognise the claims of one, 
 who had received no instruction, to speak with an autho- 
 rity greater than that which the scribes presumed to 
 claim. Yet this claim to authority gives our Lord's 
 words their distinctive character : He does not proclaim 
 that, which men may accept, or reject at their pleasure ; 
 but absolute truth, which those who reject, reject at their 
 peril : and He asks from all an obedience so entire, that 
 those who knew His mother and His brethren might 
 well say, " Whence hath this Man these things ; and 
 who gave Him this authority ?" 
 
 And if His claims seemed to be extraordinary, it 
 must be admitted that the prophecies which formed 
 the Jewish conception of a Messiah were somewhat 
 confusing ; there was in the coming Christ a double 
 
 M
 
 1 62 The Vic tor, on His Throne, [sERM. 
 
 character ; in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah it says, 
 " When we shall see Him there is no beauty that we 
 should admire Him." In the sixty-third another note is 
 struck, and at sight of Him the prophet says, "Who is 
 this that comcth from Edom, with dyed garments from 
 Bozrah ? this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling 
 in the greatness of His strength." There is a coming 
 one, but He is now, a sheep led to the slaughter, and 
 now, the Conqueror treading the wine-press in His 
 wrath. 
 
 This double character exhibited in the prophecies is 
 very observable in our Lord's life ; and there are occa- 
 sions in that life when the sufferer and the conqueror 
 are presented together in a very striking manner. Our 
 Lord's endurance is probably too exclusively dwelt upon 
 by us : and we thereby get a mistaken notion of the 
 manner of man He was. There were endurance and 
 suffering ; but there was aggression too : He was the 
 Lamb led to the slaughter ; but He was, too, a Con- 
 queror ; He bore the taunts and insults of Pharisees 
 and Sadducees ; but He dealt back shafts of rebuke and 
 withering satire, which, destroying the people's faith in 
 their old leaders, shattered the crystal fabric of Phari- 
 saism in which the fossil forms of a once living faith 
 were imbedded. He never appeared to the leaders of 
 the Jews to be a patient sufferer until He hung as their 
 victim on the cross. He was rather a daring aggressor, 
 rooting up all things that had received the sanction of 
 ages. The Pharisees had lived in the respect of the 
 people, and the teachers had been called Rabbi ; and 
 when He denounced against them the woes of the 
 twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew, He must have 
 seemed to them not a meek sufferer, but a formidable 
 enemy that must be crushed. And they judged Him
 
 X.] absolving His People. 163 
 
 rightly ; for they had felt His power ; they had ex- 
 perienced His withering satire, and saw Him enter the 
 streets of Jerusalem accompanied by the shouts of those 
 who once had recognised their leadership and called 
 them Rabbi, but now cried to Him " Hosanna ; Blessed 
 is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord : Hosanna 
 in the Highest." It was not by endurance only that 
 He took their place in the affections of the people. 
 
 On several occasions while we seem to be looking at 
 the Man of sorrows we start back at hearing the voice 
 of the Victor. His disciples felt themselves to be in the 
 presence of the Man of sorrows, when they, wishing to 
 help Him, said, " Lord, shall we smite with the sword ?" 
 They felt themselves in the presence of a Conqueror, 
 voluntarily suffering, when He said, " Thinkest thou not 
 that I can pray to My Father, and He shall presently 
 send Me twelve legions of angels ?" 
 
 Pilate seemed to be speaking to His victim when he 
 said, " Knowest Thou not that I have power to con- 
 demn Thee, and have power to release Thee ?" but it 
 was the Conqueror's voice which said to him, " Thou 
 sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and 
 for this cause came I into the world." 
 
 He was the enduring sufferer in Gethsemane and on 
 the cross ; but it was to a King the thief addressed 
 the petition, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest 
 into Thy kingdom ;" and it was the Conqueror's voice 
 which answered, " This day shalt thou be with Me in 
 Paradise." 
 
 The life of Christ is the life of the Man of sorrows ; 
 but it is, too, the life of the hero cleaving his way to 
 victory : the difference between Him and worldly heroes 
 being, that one fights with the chances of victory or 
 death, the other gains victory in death ; that death, who 
 
 M 2
 
 164 The Victor, on His Throne, [sEKM. 
 
 discrowns kings and strips the laurel from the victor's 
 brow, placed upon His brow the unfading laurel of 
 victory. Pilate wrote on the cross in mockery, " This 
 is Jesus the King of the Jews ;" Death turned the sar- 
 casm into a prophecy. The Man of sorrows cried, " My 
 God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" the Victor, 
 Conqueror in death, bowed His head, and said, " It is 
 finished." 
 
 After His resurrection, one of these elements is gone 
 the double character ceases. He is then the Victor 
 giving laws to the kingdom He has purchased ; speak- 
 ing to His disciples of the kingdom of heaven, and 
 giving them the commission in the language of au- 
 thority, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
 tized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
 damned." 
 
 He spoke to the Apostles the things concerning His 
 kingdom ; and He bids them tell men to observe all the 
 things He had commanded. He proved from Scripture 
 that repentance and remission of sins must be preached 
 to all nations, and He shewed how they were to be re- 
 mitted when He said, "Whose soever sins ye remit, 
 they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins 
 ye retain, they are retained." And He shewed that 
 this authority was intrusted to the whole body of the 
 Church, when He told them to refer all disputed ques- 
 tions to the Church, and promised Himself to ratify the 
 decision of that Church". It is the voice of the Victor 
 forming and organizing a kingdom ; giving with autho- 
 rity laws to guide that kingdom, and giving the Church 
 authority over its members by the promise that their 
 decision should be His decision. It is sufficiently clear 
 
 St. Matthew i. 17, 18.
 
 X.] absolving His People. 165 
 
 that Christ formed a kingdom, and that this authority 
 to absolve or remit sins was committed to the body of 
 that kingdom, to be exercised under proper restrictions 
 by the executive of that kingdom. What that kingdom 
 is, I proceed shortly to consider. 
 
 I shall but be stating a simple historical fact when 
 I say that, since our Lord's time, a kingdom professing 
 to have sprung from Him has existed in the world, and 
 that the progress and growth of this kingdom is the 
 most important fact of the last 1800 years. It has 
 retained all the marks by which the continuity of 
 a society may be proved : it has had in all countries 
 a definite and distinct method of admission to its 
 offices, and a fixed form of government ; it has held 
 a definite and distinct creed, and owned Christ as its 
 universal King. And this kingdom is not a mere in- 
 visible society, or an abstract idea, but a very tangible 
 and visible organization : for as an abstract thing, un- 
 embodied in a system, Christianity never has had an 
 existence, while the system itself has been, and is, the 
 most important element in human society. The perse- 
 cutions of early ages were not directed against mere 
 abstract principles, but were intended to decimate and 
 destroy a very visible and very tangible kingdom. The 
 savage chiefs of the Middle Ages, in their contests with 
 the Church, knew they were not contending with a mere 
 phase of opinion, but, as they found to their cost, with 
 a very visible and very tangible power ; and the con- 
 cordats of the present day are attempts to adjust the 
 relationship between the secular officials of kingdoms 
 and the officials of an organization whose living pre- 
 sence is felt and recognised. The difficulties between 
 what are called Church and State arise from the exist- 
 ence of the officials of a kingdom who recognise laws as
 
 1 66 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 binding upon them which do not form part of the laws 
 or systems of any mere political systems. 
 
 And this very visible kingdom is the outgrowth of 
 that society which Christ established ; if Baptism was 
 then the one only mode of admission, it is the one only 
 mode now ; if in early times each new branch organized 
 itself as soon as practicable under the episcopal form of 
 government, as the mode which Christ had provided, 
 episcopacy is the universally accepted form of govern- 
 ment now ; if the laying on of the hands of the pres- 
 bytery was then the one mode of admission to its prin- 
 cipal offices, it is the one mode adopted now. There is 
 no break in the continuity of the kingdom ; it has 
 been, and is, a corporation having branches all over the 
 world ; propagating one creed, with one universal form 
 of government, and one only mode of admission to its 
 offices. And if our Lord said, " Whose soever sins ye 
 remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever 
 sins ye retain, they are retained," it is quite certain that 
 ever since that time and now, it has been, and is, the 
 faith of the Catholic Church that this power and au- 
 thority is the heir-loom of the kingdom until He shall 
 come again. 
 
 I do not deny that at times the Church has used its 
 power unjustly, and sometimes unwisely, and that in 
 it there has often been a strange mingling of truth and 
 superstition : this is only what our Lord led us to expect, 
 but it was a kingdom Christ came to found, and a king- 
 dom the Apostles went forth to found, and the growth 
 of this kingdom is, I repeat, the great fact of the last 
 1800 years. Truth during that period has been more or 
 less mingled with error, the error however, as years have 
 gone by, existing in a constantly decreasing proportion. 
 The Scriptures have been more or less, but with an ever-
 
 X.] absolving His People. 167 
 
 increasing power, studied and accepted ; Christianity 
 has been more or less mingled with error and super- 
 stition ; the kingdom has been with varied intensity in 
 different countries, but on the whole with a deepening 
 intensity penetrated with its own principles, but the 
 kingdom itself is a living fact. And this is exactly what 
 the New Testament leads us to expect ; the point kept 
 before us is not the universal acceptance of the Scrip- 
 tures ; we are nowhere told of the immediate elimina- 
 tion of error, or of lower forms of truth ; the kingdom is 
 the burden of our Lord's discourses, the object of His 
 parables, the work of the Apostles, and the great fact 
 of 2000 years, and now in its widely-extended bounds 
 260 million people find a home, while Christian sects 
 who have separated from it do involuntarily yield to it 
 the homage of respect and superiority. 
 
 Where, if this Holy Catholic Church is not the King- 
 dom of Heaven, is that kingdom to be found ? Where, 
 if not in the body of this society, is the depository of 
 the authority Christ gave ? And who should exercise 
 this authority, if not the legally appointed officers of 
 this kingdom ? And this kingdom has ever borne the 
 marks its Master bore, the double character of enduring 
 and conquering. Its martyrs, while they seemed to be 
 the victims of a losing cause, were really the heralds 
 of victory, and the Church has bent before the storm 
 only to rise refreshed for new conquests, and its con- 
 querors have dictated terms to it only in turn to receive 
 from the Church conditions which they were compelled 
 to accept. And like its Master, the Church has spoken 
 with authority, and not as the scribe ; and through all 
 ages the power and right to retain or remit sins has 
 been held to be inherent, and ever has been ceaselessly 
 and fearlessly exercised.
 
 168 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 Now it is against this power claimed by the Christian 
 Church that some of the sharpest darts of criticism are 
 aimed, and unformed Christians see in it the badge of 
 superstition, the rag of Popery, the tyrant efforts of 
 a priesthood to rivet chains on a free people. Mere 
 declamation is of little importance, and all the protests 
 made against a doctrine can be of little value unless 
 they derive a value from the falsity of the position itself. 
 It is more to the purpose to examine into the internal 
 constitution of the Christian kingdom, to search for our 
 credentials, and if we find them to produce them, and 
 fearlessly to claim from Christians whatever may belong 
 to our possession of these credentials. 
 
 Before proceeding, it may be as well to point out 
 some things which will prepare the way for our accept- 
 ance. The power claimed by human society over its 
 members, is of a kind so similar to that claimed by the 
 Christian Church that it does almost prepare the way 
 for the acceptance of the higher doctrine of the Church, 
 and a consideration of it may modify the feelings with 
 which some people regard it. The power to retain or 
 remit sins is claimed and exercised by society so freely, 
 that it almost startles one to find a similar claim put 
 forward by a spiritual kingdom, as derived from its 
 King and exercised by the authority of its King, ex- 
 citing any astonishment. It is universally accepted, 
 that a right dwells in a kingdom to punish the viola- 
 tion of its laws by any individual ; it is also universally 
 accepted, that society may either punish or forgive the 
 offender. Indeed, the exercise of this power, through 
 the agency of its magistrates, is one of the most im- 
 portant of the functions and duties of kingdoms ; while 
 the determination and pertinacity with which we pursue 
 the offender against our laws can hardly escape ob-
 
 X.] absolving His People. 169 
 
 servation. The thief, or the murderer, or the forger, is 
 tracked to his hiding-place ; the officer of justice pursues 
 him across the ocean, and brings him to the bar of judg- 
 ment : he has offended against the laws of human 
 society, and that society claims the right to remit or 
 to retain, to punish or to forgive. It scarcely needs 
 illustration, yet to make the matter more clear we may 
 dwell on it for a few moments. Offences against the 
 laws of our country are visited with little mercy upon 
 the violator of those laws. The Sepoys rebelled against 
 our government in India, striving, as it seemed to them, 
 to free their country ; they were crushed and decimated ; 
 and the tale of the suppression of the mutiny is fresh 
 in our memory. They had rebelled against England's 
 rule, and violated England's laws, and the officials of 
 England doled out mercy or judgment as it seemed fit 
 to them, and England ratified the deeds of its officers. 
 Whose sins they remitted, England remitted ; and whose 
 sins they retained, England retained ; and human society 
 asserted its authority by blowing the poor Sepoys from 
 the cannon's mouth, and hastening them all unshriven 
 into the eternal world ; and there seemed nothing 
 strange in this assertion of a country's right to retain or 
 absolve. In all criminal prosecutions which take place, 
 society asserts the same right to absolve or retain ; the 
 criminal violates the laws, and is guilty of a crime of 
 a greater or less description, and society rightly enough 
 defends itself, and punishes or absolves the offender, and 
 the judge pronounces the sentence which hurries the 
 criminal to the gallows or sets him at liberty ; the judge 
 is the magistrate of human society, and exercises the 
 right claimed by it to remit or retain sins, and none 
 dispute that right. Here is a power exactly analogous 
 to that which it seems to us our Lord entrusted to His
 
 170 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKKM. 
 
 Church, the only difference (though I admit it to be an 
 important difference) being, that one deals with the 
 actions of men as offences against human society, while 
 the other deals with them as offences against human 
 society re-organized by Christ, which possesses and 
 claims to exercise authority in the region where the 
 sources and springs of actions are to be found. Actions, 
 as offences against ordinary society, are capable of 
 punishment or reward, irrespective of the motive power 
 which prompted them. Its sins and its virtues are the 
 deed done : they are sins against society, and are dealt 
 with by the magistrate, whose decisions are ratified 
 by the sovereign. Sins of conscience are sins against 
 God, and are to be dealt with not by the magistrate but 
 by the priest : by the representative of a power given 
 to regenerate human society, to remit or retain sins. 
 We extend into the region of conscience an authority 
 which is constantly exercised in the region of actions. 
 Men say such power is too great to be entrusted to man 
 over his fellows : it is difficult to see force in such an 
 argument, considering the immense influences exercised 
 by society over its members, and the effect that influ- 
 ence has upon our spiritual prospects. The authority 
 which, dealing with conscience, tries to check and reform, 
 is a merciful authority compared with that which blows 
 poor Sepoys from the cannon's mouth, to find or miss 
 in heaven the mercy they had failed to find on earth. 
 
 Christianity has been resolved in so many minds into 
 a mere phase of opinion, and the abundant notices con- 
 tained in the New Testament of our Lord's work in 
 organizing a visible Church, have been so entirely over- 
 looked, that it is very necessary to place much stress 
 upon the authority which our Lord claimed for Himself, 
 and which He gave to the kingdom He was founding ;
 
 X.] absolving His People. 171 
 
 especially as many of the most important statements of 
 the Scripture are utterly incomprehensible, if we ban- 
 ish the Holy Catholic Church from our creed. Christ 
 claiming to be a King, and organizing by His disciples 
 a visible kingdom in the world, is the burden of the 
 New Testament : while the powers with which He in- 
 vested the new kingdom all spring out of and result 
 from the authority with which our Lord was Himself 
 invested. He proved the power possessed by the Son 
 of Man to forgive sins when He cured the man sick 
 of the palsy. He invested His kingdom with this power 
 over the consciences of its members, when He said, 
 (< Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
 them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." 
 And He promised to ratify the decisions of His Church 
 when He said, " If he refuse to hear thee, tell it to the 
 Church ; if he shall not hear the Church, he shall be to 
 thee as a Gentile or a publican. Verily I say unto you, 
 Whatsoever things ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound 
 in heaven : and whatsoever things ye shall loose on 
 earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Here is the promise 
 of a ratification by Him, our absent King, of the official 
 acts of the Church on earth. 
 
 If in His suffering and death our Lord became the 
 Lamb of God, of which the sacrificial lamb was the 
 type, the work of His life, His claims of authority, 
 the teaching of His parables, the training of His Apo- 
 stles, all set Him forth as fulfilling the prophecies which 
 tell of a king coming to reign, and of a kingdom which 
 should have no end. That wondrous life and death 
 have been long since wrought out, and the suffering 
 and conquering Messiah are blended for ever in our 
 mind in Him who died on Calvary, and who, having 
 become Victor in death, spoke to His Apostles in the
 
 172 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 language of authority, and said, " Go ye into all the 
 world and preach the Gospel to every creature : he that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that 
 believeth not shall be damned." Christ is our King, 
 and the Catholic Church, with its ever-extending bounds, 
 is the kingdom that shall have no end. 
 
 But men object to authority in the region of con- 
 science, and speak of any exercise of it as a tyranny ; 
 and it sounds well to talk so. Yet a recognised autho- 
 rity is of the utmost value, not as a tyranny but as an 
 ultimate court of appeal to quiet doubts ; and in this 
 respect the authority of Christian dogma has been of 
 immense value, not as a tyrant but as a helper, not as 
 the oppressor of human thought but as its saviour. We 
 know the scepticism embodied in Pilate's question, "What 
 is truth ?" and we believe our Lord's assertion that He 
 came to bear witness to the truth. How did He witness, 
 but by supplying authoritatively a few dogmatic truths, 
 round which all human thought might afterward cluster, 
 and by which it should be interpenetrated and ennobled. 
 That the Christian creeds have given fixity to human 
 thought, and definiteness to human faith, it is impossible 
 to doubt ; and they have not affected this by crushing 
 human thought ; but by the authoritative solution of 
 problems we could not solve, they have freed for the 
 pursuit of other truths efforts which were being wasted 
 in fruitless guesses. Dogma is the vertebra, the back- 
 bone of truth ; dogma is the nucleus around which all 
 human thoughts may cluster, and gather from it life 
 and strength. In this respect the kingdom of heaven 
 has supplied the shortcomings of the intellectual world ; 
 giving us a faith instead of a superstition ; dogma, in 
 place of wild guesses ; creeds, in the place of uncertain 
 statements. And its value has been and is this, that it
 
 X.] absolving His People. 173 
 
 speaks with authority, and not as the scribe ; it is a voice 
 speaking to the realms of conscience with an authority 
 conscience feels bound to recognise : and authority thus 
 in the realms of conscience has been and is of the highest 
 possible value ; and we must admire His knowledge 
 who, seeing the want, so wisely supplied it ; authority 
 in the realm of conscience has been the end of strife, 
 and the strife has been ended by a voice which con- 
 science recognises. 
 
 There are constant witnesses that the authority pos- 
 sessed by human society needs supplementing by an 
 authority dealing in the regions of conscience. For it 
 is in that region the sources and springs of all our 
 miseries are found. Our Lord pointed to this when 
 He said, " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adul- 
 teries, fornications, &c. ; these are the things that defile 
 the man." The act is only the crystallized thought ; 
 and any true reformation must be accomplished by work 
 done in that region, and society "is ever bearing witness 
 to the felt necessity of such dealing. When any great 
 crime has been committed and punishment has been 
 adjudged, we are anxious to justify our own judgment 
 by extorting, if possible, the confession of guilt. But 
 conscience is not amenable to any authority that is only 
 the voice of man ; it will only yield to an authority 
 which comes from Him to "whom all hearts are open, 
 all desires are known, and from whom no secrets are 
 hid." To such an authority conscience has yielded up 
 its secrets, and will yield them up ; but to any lower 
 claim it never has yielded, and it never will yield. And 
 society has often had to acknowledge its impotence ; 
 against the cold north wind of human authority con- 
 science gathers up its cloke, refusing to yield, and sinks 
 the secret deep in that impenetrable abyss into which
 
 174 T/u Victor, OH His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 no human eye shall ever look, and from which no human 
 hand shall ever extract it. But it has been and is dif- 
 ferent with the authority of Christ's kingdom ; men have 
 recognised its right to deal with conscience, and have 
 yielded up their secrets. Constance Kent stood un- 
 blanched before a human tribunal, and listened unmoved 
 to the screams of a helpless public opinion ; it was not 
 in its power to extract the secret ; it was conscience 
 yielding to an authority which it felt bound to re- 
 cognise which brought the murderer before the bar of 
 human society. It was the Kingdom of Heaven sup- 
 plementing the imperfect authority of human society, 
 dealing authoritatively in a region beyond the power 
 of human law. And the necessity of some authority 
 to deal with men, if any true reformation is to be ac- 
 complished, is obvious in another matter. We are 
 always aiming, as the great object of our preaching, to 
 bring about conviction of sin, and to induce men to ac- 
 cept those responsibilities which, as Christians, they are 
 bound to recognise. And the throes of a convicted 
 conscience are among the most wonderful facts with 
 which the Christian priesthood has to deal. The course 
 of this wonderful change, as described in ordinary dis- 
 senting works, is well known ; there is the troubled con- 
 science, the awakening to the conviction of sin, the 
 terrors of a broken law, and the peace of a soul which 
 has found forgiveness. This is the stereotyped story, 
 and we who have to do with human souls, are acquainted 
 with the utterly unsatisfactory character of the process. 
 There arc some minds whose native force of character 
 enables them to work out this matter to a proper con- 
 clusion ; but in nine cases out of ten the peace which 
 is called the consciousness of pardon is just the exhaus- 
 tion that follows an unnatural excitement. It is just in
 
 X.] absolving His People. 175 
 
 these trying periods of the Christian life that there is 
 felt the necessity of some authoritative guidance, an 
 authority so recognised that the troubled conscience 
 will appeal to it, and for want of which so many strong 
 convictions die away without a true repentance, and 
 without a solid amendment, until at last men are tempted 
 to regard the convictions as themselves worthless. 
 
 The Kingdom of Heaven has supplied this need ; 
 and though in England this valuable feature of Christ's 
 instructions has been neglected, it is enshrined in tlu 
 Scripture and asserted in our Prayer-book, and the 
 neglected truth must again be put forward. In the in- 
 vitation to the Sacrament the scriptural method of pro- 
 ceeding is put forward. Self-examination is urged, but 
 it goes on to say, "If there be any of you, who by this 
 means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but re- 
 quireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, 
 or to some other 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, to- 
 gether with ghostly counsel and advice, to the quieting 
 of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubt- 
 fulness." Here is a definite relationship shewn betwixt 
 the priest and the people ; and those who have in their 
 times of doubt acted upon it and used it, and have been 
 guided in the paths of a true repentance and received 
 the authoritative absolution, know the comfort that 
 springs from it, and the blessedness of the work which 
 by this scriptural method is accomplished. The execu- 
 tive of a society intrusted with authority has spoken 
 with authority in the region of conscience, and given 
 peace ; and instead of that false peace which is the mere 
 quiet of exhaustion, there is the consciousness of true 
 penitence, and the assurance springing from a pardon
 
 176 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKRM. 
 
 spoken by one who has authority to speak it, and who 
 therefore speaks with authority, and not as the scribe. 
 So the Kingdom of Heaven supplements the imperfec- 
 tions of human society ; and we must admire His know- 
 ledge of human society and of its wants who entrusted 
 to His kingdom the needful authority by saying, " Whose 
 soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and 
 whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," for so 
 the Victor on His Throne absolves His people. 
 
 The absolving power is, then, one among other methods 
 by which our Blessed Lord has supplemented the autho- 
 rity of human society, and given stability to human 
 thought and action ; and He has done so, not by tyran- 
 nizing in the human intellect or human heart, but 
 by solving for the intellect problems impossible to it, 
 and giving the Church the authority necessary to en- 
 able souls to work out their spiritual convictions to 
 a healthy result. 
 
 Though not immediately illustrating this subject, we 
 may notice another way in which the Catholic Church 
 presents this same supplemental character. Human 
 society is an unstable thing, wanting any permanent 
 bond of union ; it is ever shifting, gathering now round 
 one centre, now round another ; now adopting one form 
 of government, and now another ; divided at times into 
 the deep antagonisms of clanships, fighting with savage 
 instincts over every trifle. Men grouped themselves in 
 Greece under its petty tyrannies, each standing off from 
 the other and engaged in eternal strife, until the power 
 of Rome stepped in and deprived them of the liberty of 
 mutual slaughter by depriving them of liberty itself, and 
 embracing all the petty states in a province of its world- 
 wide empire. Christ came into the world when Rome, 
 having crushed all beneath her grasp, was commencing
 
 X.] absolving His People. \ 77 
 
 her own drift towards dissolution. He came to found 
 a kingdom which should not change ; with a few fixed 
 outlines of government, a definite organization con- 
 structed for all nations and all times, a bond that would 
 unite men together in one great family. And it has 
 realized the purpose, for it has been, and still is, the 
 permanent in the midst of the unpermanent, the eternal 
 in the midst of change ; and possibly now, when the 
 past is strangely breaking up, and in politics people can 
 find no abiding principle, this Catholic Church may form 
 a nucleus round which men may gather to obtain sta- 
 bility in the midst of change, and to escape from the 
 petty rivalries of national strife, in a brotherhood which 
 knows no distinctions, Englishman or American, German 
 or French, but all are one in Christ. Through the changes 
 of the Middle Ages it formed a home of rest ; in the 
 changes and doubts of the present time it may prove to 
 be, not the tyrant but the helper of intellect, not the 
 tyrant but the comforter of conscience, not the tyrant 
 but the liberator of nations ; and in so far as it shall be 
 the helper of the intellect, the comforter of the con- 
 science, and the liberator of nations, we shall learn to 
 admire the wisdom which speaks with authority, and 
 not as the scribe. 
 
 This definiteness in the whole position occupied by 
 the Catholic Church, contrasts remarkably with the 
 indefiniteness which marks ordinary Protestant teach- 
 ing, rendering it so utterly unsatisfactory to all thought- 
 ful minds. Had the men who led the great evangelical 
 movement fifty years ago grasped the doctrine of the 
 Incarnation and Atonement more completely, that move- 
 ment would have had a far greater aspect of finality 
 than it now has. But its imperfection is witnessed to 
 by the unstable attitude of those who are trying to make 
 
 N
 
 1 78 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 a stand upon it. With no positive line which they can 
 defend, they shift incessantly from pillar to post, ac- 
 cusing others of denying the doctrine of the Incarnation 
 whose only fault is that they see and embrace it with 
 a clearness and entirety which the evangelical party 
 seems utterly unable to attain to ; and the clear grasp 
 of Christian truth which Catholics in the Church have 
 reached, must have its weight. 
 
 An invisible Church, with invisible gates, containing 
 only invisible people, may suit the fervid souls of sec- 
 tarians, but can have few attractions to sober Bible- 
 reading Christians. In the ordinary Protestant theory 
 there is a want of definiteness about everything. We 
 are told by it of the blood of sprinkling with which each 
 soul must be washed, but it knows nothing of the way 
 in which that blood is to be applied. We are told of 
 pardon of sin, and the only assurance is to be sought 
 for and found in the pardoned. We are presented with 
 sacraments which have no reality in them, but are at 
 best indifferent substitutes for sermons. In contrast 
 with these most unsatisfactory theories, the Catholic 
 religion presents us with sacraments where the blood 
 of sprinkling may be found, and with pardon conveyed 
 to us by the accredited authorities of Christ's Church. 
 The Catholic religion is all that Protestantism is, but 
 something more ; and nowhere is its superiority shewn 
 more clearly than in the exercise of the absolving 
 power. It is beautifully set forth in the absolution 
 pronounced by the executive of the Christian Church 
 at public worship. It is more strikingly seen in the 
 absolution preparatory to the Holy Communion ; there 
 the Victor absolves and then sprinkles with His blood. 
 But possibly, no aspect of the absolving power presents 
 the Victor to us in so glorious a manner as that which
 
 X.] absolving His People. 179 
 
 He presents to us, when, in the extreme hour of weak- 
 ness, the penitent trembles on the verge of the eternal 
 world. Strength and weakness then shew by contrast. 
 There is the Victor on His Throne, receiving the homage 
 of the spiritual world, omnipotent, omnipresent ; and 
 there is the penitent, the last failing power of life only 
 left, with intellect too feeble to measure the value of 
 his position or to grasp a theory, yet with conscience 
 strong enough to feel the sense of sin ; able to per- 
 ceive the stain, yet unable to use one effort to wash 
 the stain away. The Victor and the penitent then 
 stand in strange contrast. And what does ordinary 
 Protestantism do at such a moment ? What does it 
 offer ? It appeals to the feelings of the penitent ; it 
 says, "Do you feel happy?" What! make an appeal 
 to the feelings of the dying hour, when the whole 
 mental power is nigh to extinction, and the last feeble 
 flash of life is glimmering in the socket ; to look to 
 the feelings of that moment for an assurance, oh, this 
 is the last degrading end of a degrading superstition. 
 Through life the poor soul has been the victim of 
 a mistake, which makes men look to their frames and 
 feelings for the evidence of their spiritual life ; and the 
 superstition hangs over their dying hour, making the 
 clouds that darken the soul in its dying agony the 
 proof of a perishing soul, and the fever gleams that 
 flash for a moment in the expiring socket a proof of 
 salvation. Miserable delusion ; the last end of a de- 
 grading superstition. Instead of bringing strength to 
 weakness, it appeals to weakness for strength ; instead 
 of bringing the absolving power and the cleansing 
 blood to the poor penitent, it leaves the poor soul to 
 seek and find them where it may. Contrast this with 
 the Gospel plan. One who has held the faith of Christ, 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o Tlie Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 knows in that hour where to look for strength, and 
 Christ, the Victor, knows where true weakness is. The 
 weight of sin is on the penitent's soul, and he may not 
 die with that burden on him ; but Christ has said, 
 " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
 them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re- 
 tained." And the priest of the kingdom that He has 
 founded, of the Church which He purchased with His 
 blood, comes to the dying penitent, an accredited mes- 
 senger from the Victor on His Throne ; the magistrate 
 of the kingdom, comes with the authority Christ gave 
 to His kingdom, and says, "By His authority com- 
 mitted to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost." He is the officer of that kingdom, to the 
 body of which Christ committed authority over its 
 members, and the poor penitent, hearing these words, 
 remembers that the Victor said, " Whose soever sin s 
 ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose 
 soever sins ye retain, they are retained," and he has 
 confidence. 
 
 Here indeed is ground for assurance; it is pardon 
 and peace spoken as then it needs to be spoken, with 
 authority, and not as by the scribe ; and it gives true 
 peace. He comes to loose, and Christ has said "What- 
 soever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; 
 and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed 
 in heaven." He is the officer of a kingdom whose King 
 has promised to ratify the official acts of His kingdom. 
 Here is the messenger of the Victor to speak with au- 
 thority, and not as the scribe ; and when He has thus 
 spoken, and absolved the penitent, the Altar is spread, 
 and the Victor present by His priest to pardon, is, 
 Himself, present in His Sacrament to cleanse and
 
 X.] absolving His People. 181 
 
 sprinkle with that blood which is drink indeed, and 
 with that body which is meat indeed. Here is the 
 action of a living faith, here is ground for assurance 
 it is pardon and peace spoken with authority, and it 
 gives true peace : it is strength perfected in weakness : 
 it is the Victor on His Throne absolving the penitent, 
 and men need not wonder if He speaks with authority, 
 and not as the scribe. 
 
 I have thus with plainness dealt with this great ques- 
 tion, which does so much disturb the minds of men ; 
 and I know I have put forward views which will at 
 once seem to some a proof of unfaithfulness. We are 
 told that Englishmen will never accept such teachings ; 
 that they will never obey any human authority. I 
 know, or think I know something of my countrymen ; 
 I know their impulsiveness, their hatred too of all 
 tyranny ; their genuine love of that which seems to 
 them to be truth ; but I believe too that amidst all 
 religious differences, they do with heart and soul love 
 Jesus, and that they will readily obey a law or rule 
 which seems to them to express His will ; and because 
 I think the thoughts I have put before you do express 
 His will, I do not fear to set them forward, thinking 
 that truth is great and will prevail ; and all we ask is 
 that what we have to say shall be fairly and dispas- 
 sionately weighed. For, what are those among us to 
 do, who believe that what we call the Catholic faith is 
 but imperfectly understood, and that to fulfil the will 
 of Christ a fuller view of Christianity is necessary ? 
 Are we to be silent ? Are we to shrink back because 
 such thoughts are unpopular ? The growth of truth is 
 not in this way served. We must freely and fairly 
 state what we believe to be truth, trusting to the 
 power there is in truth to make its way and gain ac-
 
 1 82 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 ceptance ; and however unwilling Englishmen may be 
 to accept it, the time may come when greater know- 
 ledge and a clearer comprehension of the meaning of 
 Catholic truth shall very much change their thoughts, 
 and make them ready to accept what they now reject. 
 Truth always has to work its way upward from mino- 
 rities to majorities ; all forms of truth have had to do 
 this ; and we work on, striving to extend Christ's visi- 
 ble kingdom, and to deepen the character of the Chris- 
 tian faith, feeling that we, like our Master, must bear 
 witness to the truth, and, if need be, suffer loss for its 
 sake ; for there is coming a time when all motives and 
 all actions will be searched into and tried by the clear 
 light of the great day of judgment, and an absolution 
 shall be pronounced by the Victor on His Throne, not 
 through another, but by His own lips ; and then when 
 the words of pardon are uttered, we, remembering all 
 our short-comings and our many sins, shall wonder 
 that in that form of absolution no mention of sin is 
 made ; but that the little good we have contrived to 
 do for Him, exaggerated by the loving soul of Jesus, 
 shall seem to be a reason for our receiving the blessing 
 which His blood alone had purchased. Then in that 
 hour the little we have done or suffered for the cause 
 of truth will seem as nothing, and we shall rejoice that 
 we were permitted to speak in His Name, and to bear 
 witness for that truth ; and, Christians, the joy of that 
 hour will more than compensate for any cross we may 
 have to bear now. It may be, and it doubtless will 
 be, that we shall see that our best views of truth were 
 but feeble conceptions of the truth itself; but He who, 
 blinding Himself to the sins done and duties left un- 
 done, sees only the little good, and yet says, " Come, 
 ye blessed children of My Father, inherit the kingdom
 
 X.] absolving His People. 183 
 
 prepared for you from the foundation of the world." 
 That Holy One, who knows how we see through a glass 
 darkly, shall know the boldness which made men speak 
 for that truth, and shall confess us in the great day be- 
 fore men ; and we, seeing the Victor upon His Throne, 
 and hearing His blessed words of love, shall rejoice 
 that we had faith to believe and preach His words : 
 "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
 them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re- 
 tained."
 
 SERMON XL 
 
 Efje Fictor, on &te ^jjrone, tolling tf)e ^egs of 
 ffcell anti of 
 
 ACTS vii. 59. 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 
 
 T F we can set ourselves to think what it will be to die, 
 we must feel what a tremendous trial we shall have 
 to pass through at the hour of death. It will be a very 
 sore thing to have to bear the pangs and sufferings of 
 a wasting sickness, to pine away day after day, and at 
 last, all weak, and worn, and feeble, to meet that sharp 
 struggle in which soul and body are parted asunder. 
 And over and above this, we can hardly doubt that for 
 most of us the time when we lie dying will be a time of 
 very great distress for the soul. We must almost ex- 
 pect to be assaulted then by fears, and doubts, and 
 temptations of a peculiar character. If ever the Evil 
 One sets upon us to cut us off from God, he is likely to 
 set upon us then with all his force and craft. He will 
 know that his time is short, and he will try to make 
 sure of our souls before the sand of life is run out. We 
 shall have to do battle with him in a deadly conflict ; 
 and so we feel that our last moments in this world will 
 be moments of tremendous trial. We are right. But, 
 my brethren, do we feel that the first moment after 
 death, the first moment in the next world, the first
 
 1 86 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 moment when we have closed our eyes on all that we 
 are used to in this world, the first moment when we 
 have opened the eyes of the soul on all that is new, and 
 strange, and unknown will be more tremendous still ? 
 If we do not in some degree realize how amazing and 
 awful that moment will be, we shall hardly see the need 
 of believing in the power that our blessed Lord has to 
 aid the soul which has passed away from the world. 
 ; Let me ask you, then, to begin to-night, by trying to 
 master the thought of a soul passing away from this 
 world. And first, to aid you in this, take the case of 
 St. Stephen, whose last dying moments are described in 
 the history from which the text is taken. What do we 
 think of, as we read that story of the first martyr's 
 death, sketched for us by St. Luke with the power as of 
 a painter, so as to call up the whole scene vividly before 
 us ? We seem to see, perhaps, the raging crowd gather- 
 ing in fierceness round their intended victim. With one 
 mad onslaught they rush upon him, and hurl their stones 
 at him. The very violence with which they hurl stone 
 after stone seems to be at once a relief to their pent-up 
 fury, and also to lash them into a fiercer cruelty. And 
 there is St. Stephen in the midst of those who are vent- 
 ing their rage upon him, wherever he turns meeting the 
 glare of their rage, not a friend near to comfort or aid 
 him, mangled and wounded as blow follows blow. And 
 then we hear him call upon our blessed Lord, and we 
 think in wonder of the stedfast faith which made him 
 see and feel how near our blessed Lord was to him. 
 He seems to forget all else, the cries, the blows, the 
 noise, the fierceness. His gaze, his heart, his soul, is 
 fixed on our blessed Lord, as if he were alone with 
 Him, and so he speaks to Him, and says, " Lord Jesus, 
 receive my spirit." It is, indeed, a wonderful faith, of
 
 X I.] holding the Keys of Hell and of Death. \ 87 
 
 which we have the history here. It shews us the soul 
 of the suffering disciple leaning on the Lord who had 
 suffered. We see that the secret of strength in all trials 
 lies in appealing to the love and power of the blessed 
 Jesus. In the death-struggle, St. Stephen had faith to 
 hang upon his Lord, and his Lord bore him through the 
 agonies of that hour. This is what we are most likely 
 to think of in reading of the martyr's death. But was 
 this the greatest proof of St. Stephen's faith ? Was his 
 greatest trial in this world ? Did it not lie beyond the 
 world ? The life was nearly crushed out of him. The 
 pains of death were coming thick and fast upon him. 
 But was death the end ? What was awaiting him after 
 death ? He was entering on the unseen state. All was 
 dim, unknown, untried, before him. He must have felt 
 as if his whole being was giving way, as if there were 
 no ground beneath his feet, as if he were sinking into 
 a fathomless abyss. He was going, but whither ? And 
 if he was passing into the world of spirits, would he be 
 safe from all enemies there ? We think of his falling 
 asleep, and it soothes us to read the words. We feel 
 that the pelting of the bloody storm of stones ceased at 
 last, and that the spirit of the martyr had left his enemies 
 behind. They had killed the body, and they had no 
 more that they could do. But were there not fiercer 
 enemies that were not left behind ? Had Satan and 
 his angels lost all power over that spirit ? Could the 
 dying martyr be sure that he should escape from these ? 
 And then, once more, if his spirit passed away, to whom 
 would it go ? It must return to God Who gave it. It 
 must go before God, meet Him, and give up its account 
 to Him. It is such thoughts as these which add so 
 wonderful a power and force to those words, " ' Lord 
 Jesus, receive my spirit.' I know not where I go. All
 
 1 88 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 1 nature seems to open out into vast untried depths be- 
 neath me. Take me, hold me in Thine everlasting arms ; 
 I am safe with Thee. I know not who may attack me, 
 how the powers of evil may gather against me; take 
 me, guard me. I know not how to meet the judgment. 
 I know only that I have been dear to Thee in this life. 
 Thou hast loved me, died for me, kept me. Take me 
 now ; to Thee do I commit my cause. ' Lord Jesus, 
 receive my spirit.' " Here is indeed a strange, calm 
 faith in the power of our blessed Lord to keep and 
 bless the soul in that unseen world. One who could 
 speak thus must have felt that our Lord had conquered 
 in that world, as in this, and emptied it of its horrors. 
 
 He looked, as it were, through the mist and darkness 
 that was gathering round him ; he pierced with the 
 steady gaze of his mind through the veil that was drawn 
 between him and the state on which he was entering, 
 and there he saw his Lord waiting and ready for him. 
 Or rather, with a surer faith, though he did not see, he 
 felt certain that our Lord was King in that realm of the 
 departed, and he was ready to pass into it because he 
 knew that our Lord had power to keep and uphold him 
 there. Ah, brethren, perhaps we shall never know the 
 full force of those calm words of St. Stephen's till we are 
 on the edge of that unseen world ourselves. 
 
 And now the next thing which I would ask you to do 
 is to try and bring before you the peculiar trial of pass- 
 ing into the unseen world. We can only try to imagine 
 it, but it may be of use to us to make the effort. 
 
 Take, then, such points as these : 
 
 i. The moment will come when your soul will leave 
 the body. There are two moments before you, in the 
 first of which you will be still in this world, in the second 
 of which you will have passed out of the world. This
 
 XI.] holding the Keys of Hell and of Death. 1 89 
 
 we all know well. But do we know no more than this ? 
 We cannot see into the world of spirits, but our Lord 
 can. All souls live under His eye, whether they are in 
 the body or out of the body. And He has given us the 
 history of two departed souls. He tells us how the soul 
 of the beggar Lazarus, immediately after death, was 
 carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and there 
 was soothed and comforted after the sufferings of the 
 world were passed. He tells us also of the wretched 
 soul of the rich man, and of the torments into which it 
 was cast. Between the two a great gulf was fixed. One 
 was in misery, the other was in peace. Their state was 
 settled, as it could only be settled, by some secret judg- 
 ment of God. Our Lord speaks of both these men as 
 living still in the spirit, thinking, feeling, using their 
 powers and energies. One knew the comforts with 
 which he was visited, the other knew the torments to 
 which he had been condemned. And both had memo- 
 ries of the past. One could look back upon the sorrows 
 from which he had been released, the other could look 
 back upon the sins which had brought him to " the 
 place of torment." 
 
 We have the histories of two other souls given to us 
 in Holy Scripture. We are told of the wretched Judas in 
 words pregnant with a terrible meaning, that " he went 
 to his own place." We are told of the penitent thief 
 that it was promised to him that on the very day on 
 which he died he should be with our blessed Lord in 
 Paradise. And so we may gather what will be the case 
 with each of us when we die. Each of us will go to his 
 own place, as God shall appoint, and fix that place for 
 us. And if this be so, then one by one we shall have to 
 pass under the sentence of God. 
 
 My brethren, try and think what the effect upon us
 
 190 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 of that one moment will be ! Will it not seem like an 
 age ? How will all our past days and hours be crowded 
 into that moment, as we live them over again in me- 
 mory, no, not in memory, but in one clear, vivid pre- 
 sent ! And then, bear in mind that all outward things 
 will be shut out from us. The sights and sounds of 
 this world will have been left behind. In our present 
 state a thousand things carry away our thoughts from 
 ourselves. We are always forgetting ourselves in what 
 others do or say. The mind wanders off to this thing 
 or to that, and finds relief in change. But in that 
 moment the whole powers of the mind will be turned 
 inwards, and bent upon itself. There will be not a 
 word, not a whisper, not a sound, not a motion to dis- 
 tract it from itself. It will be alone. And yet again, 
 in one sense, it will not be alone. The soul will feel 
 that it is before God ! Yes ! we let us speak plainly, 
 that we may realize what it is that we shall have to 
 pass through, we shall feel that we are alone with 
 God. We shall feel that we are under His gaze, His 
 piercing, searching gaze, and that He is reading us 
 through and through. He will see us ; we shall feel 
 that He sees us. And in some sense we shall see Him. 
 We shall probably know what He is, as we have never 
 known it before. We shall have such a notion as 
 a creature may have of His pure, spotless holiness, of 
 His bright and glorious perfection. And with this 
 what must come but a sense of the abomination of sin 
 in His sight ? 
 
 We have heard that " He is of purer eyes than to 
 behold iniquity," we shall know then what this means, 
 when we arc alone with Him, shut in from all created 
 beings, face to face with His purity, in the moment 
 when He has required our souls of us. What will our
 
 XL] holding the Keys of Hell and of Death. 1 9 r 
 
 life look like to Him then ? And what will it look like 
 to us ? There may be a hundred faults which we have 
 made ourselves easy about, because they are so common, 
 or because it is the way of the world to excuse them. 
 Alas ! such excuses will shrivel like tow before the fire, 
 when we have to face the consuming brightness of the 
 holiness of God. What are those faults to Htm ? What 
 will He think of the ease, the carelessness, the forget- 
 fulness of Him, the ingratitude with which we have 
 committed them, and committed them again and again ? 
 What shall we think of having grieved Him by each 
 separate sin that we once made so light of? We shall 
 see clearly then what we know even now, if we would 
 stop to consider it, that by each bad act which we do 
 we scorn the love of God, by each bad word which we 
 speak we affront His listening ear, by each bad thought 
 which we indulge we thrust our foulness upon His sor- 
 rowing eye. What shall we feel when all this comes 
 vividly before us ? And then, add to this what will be 
 perhaps the most overwhelming feeling, the remem- 
 brance of all that God has been to us, and all that He 
 has done for us. Imagine this bursting upon us ; imagine 
 God revealing to us all the whole history of His acts of 
 love towards us, so that we see at a glance every grace 
 that He has ever given us, all His calls, and warnings, 
 and invitations, His lessons, His drawing of our hearts 
 to Him, His devices and plans to win us, His many 
 thousand aids bestowed on us ; and so our awakening 
 up to all that we might have been, and to all that we 
 are ; our seeing clearly all His vast love, and all our 
 ingenuity in thwarting His purposes. Ah ! my bre- 
 thren, think deeply of all this, and you will see that 
 the moment in which the soul passes before God is 
 the most tremendous of all moments.
 
 192 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 2, But have we any reason to suppose that what the 
 soul feels and knows about itself in that moment, will 
 pass away and be forgotten ? Surely all that we know 
 about our own powers, all that we know about the love 
 of God, would lead us to believe that the memory of 
 that meeting with God would live on in the soul, and 
 work most powerfully upon it for good. Probably we 
 ourselves, even now, rarely or never forget altogether 
 what has settled down in our minds. At any rate, it is 
 strange to see how a slight circumstance will bring be- 
 fore us things which have happened long years ago in 
 all their most minute particularity, when we fancied that 
 we had forgotten them. And certainly when God calls, 
 and warns, and teaches us, He does not mean that we 
 should forget His revelations. It is part of our misery 
 in this world that so many things for a while cover over, 
 and hide what He writes with His finger on the soul, 
 as dust gathers over an inscription until it cannot be 
 read. In the unseen world there will be nothing to 
 turn away the mind from the thought of God and of 
 itself. Surely, then, the vision of God will live on in us. 
 The sight which we have of Him in that moment, when 
 we pass beyond all the distractions of the world, to sec 
 nothing but Him, will be stamped upon our spirits. 
 And the sight which we had of ourselves, in our own 
 true, real character, as shewn to us by God, with all our 
 past sins, faults, failings, imperfections, and corruptions, 
 will remain fixed there also. 
 
 3. But will not this be torture, and misery, and 
 wretchedness to the soul? No: for it will not be 
 alone in that state of the departed. Our blessed Lord 
 will be present there. He has taken possession of that 
 realm ; He has made it His own ; He blessed it with 
 His visible presence when He descended into hell; He
 
 XI.] holding the Keys of Hell and of Death. 1 93 
 
 claimed for His own soul as man the guardian care, the 
 comforts, the support, the presence of God with the 
 departed, when He said, "Father! into Thy hands I 
 commend My Spirit." He assured the same protection 
 and the same comforts of God, of which He tasted 
 Himself, to us who are the members of His Body ; for 
 all which He took for Himself as the head, He took 
 that we might share it with Him. He has claimed 
 as part of His kingdom that abode of souls, for, when 
 the penitent thief asked to be remembered by Him 
 when He came into His kingdom, He answered, " To- 
 day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise :" this very day 
 thou shalt know what it is to be with Me, to feel Me 
 near thee, guiding, teaching, comforting, assuring thee 
 that thou art Mine for ever. There is a mysterious 
 passage which seems to tell us how He Himself bore 
 revelations of His love and mercy to the spirits of those 
 in that unseen world, " The Gospel was preached to 
 them that are dead." And so doubtless He reveals 
 Himself to them still. The manner of His presence 
 with the departed may not be the same as when His 
 soul was amongst them, while His body lay in the 
 grave, but we need not doubt that He is there present 
 still. The manner of His presence with us on earth is 
 different from what it was when He was seen by men in 
 the flesh, but we know that He is with us even to the 
 end of the world. And so we cannot but believe that 
 He is still present with the departed, and puts forth 
 His power and love to bless them. Nay, He seems 
 Himself to claim this power over the place of departed 
 spirits as part of the special fruits of His own victory 
 over death, when He says, " I am He that liveth, and 
 was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have 
 the keys of hell and of death." 
 
 O
 
 194 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 Pause here, then, and imagine what must be the 
 effect of that presence of our blessed Lord upon the 
 departed spirits. As the sight of their past sin broods 
 upon their minds, how may we believe that He makes 
 them hate and abhor that old pollution ! As the know- 
 ledge of the purity of God sinks down into their being, 
 and its beauty and fairness grows upon them, how must 
 He make that knowledge work in them, till they crave 
 and long to be made more and more pure themselves! 
 As the memory of all God's wondrous love to them 
 melts, and entrances them more and more, how must 
 our Lord give force to that memory, and so quicken 
 their longings to be brought nearer and nearer to the 
 very presence of God unveiled in heaven ! We may 
 well trust that in His conquering power our Lord will 
 thus overrule all that might hurt the soul, and turn it 
 into a gain. We may perhaps even venture to use His 
 words by the Prophet Hosea as though they were 
 spoken to the spirit before the full and final triumph 
 of the resurrection hour has arrived : " I will ransom 
 thee from the power of the grave ; I will redeem thee 
 from death. O death, I will be thy plagues ; O grave, 
 I will be thy destruction." 
 
 4. But this is not all which we may say of the power 
 of our Lord in the world of departed spirits. There 
 must be blessings and gifts which He bestows upon the 
 spirits there, far beyond those which He gives here. 
 So great are those blessings, that St. Paul longed to 
 depart and be with our Lord. The Apostle had seen 
 our Lord in glory while he was in this world. He had 
 had abundant revelations from Him. He had heard 
 His voice. He had felt the strength of our Lord work- 
 ing in him so powerfully that it overcame his own 
 weakness. He had even learnt to rejoice in suffering,
 
 XL] holding the Keys of Hell and of Death. 195 
 
 because it gave an opportunity for our Lord to shew 
 how near He was to His disciple. So closely was he 
 bound to our Lord, that he says that he lived by the 
 life of Christ. And yet he felt that after death our 
 blessed Lord would be nearer to him, and he would be 
 nearer to our Lord. There was greater joy and happi- 
 ness in store for him, when he should be set free from 
 this world. Can we not guess how this would be ? 
 Think only how all that is in the world comes be- 
 tween us and our Lord, and draws away our hearts 
 from Him, or threatens to fill our hearts and leave no 
 room for Him to work in them. The grace of Christ 
 works within us. What should we be if it did not ? 
 But we live in the midst of coldness and carelessness, 
 which check the love of God in us. The frost of the 
 world chills the soul, and keeps it from putting out in 
 full beauty the fruits of the Spirit. What, again, then, 
 must it be to depart from this world, and to be taken 
 into that nearer presence of our Lord, where He shall 
 foster and cherish the soul, while there will be nothing 
 to interfere any longer with His loving influence over it ! 
 There must be times in the lives of nearly all of us, 
 when the sore struggle against temptation, or the sharp- 
 ness of the conflict in standing out against the bad ex- 
 ample of those around us, or the weight of the sorrows 
 of life, or the very comforts of grace with which God 
 blesses us now, make us turn our longing eyes towards 
 the peace, and calm, and safety of Paradise. We are 
 ready to cry out with St. Paul, " I have a desire to de- 
 part, and to be with Christ ;" " O that I had wings like 
 a dove, for then would I flee away " from the strife, and 
 din, and stress, and weariness of the battle of life, " and 
 be at rest." Even before our appointed hour has come, 
 when the storm of a great trial is pelting ceaselessly 
 
 O 2
 
 196 The Victor, on His Throne, [SF.RM. 
 
 upon us, we are tempted to cry out, " ' Lord Jesus, re- 
 ceive my spirit :' oh ! take me, and gather me unto 
 Thyself. ' Hide me secretly in Thy Tabernacle from 
 the strife of tongues !' " So do we long to be sheltered, 
 and soothed by Him. 
 
 And will not this very longing of our hearts suggest 
 to us how He will deal with the faithful soul when He 
 has at last taken it to Himself? How will He calm, 
 and soothe, and refresh it after the trials of life ! 
 " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Yea ! 
 saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours." 
 When the souls under the Altar cry out, there are 
 given unto them white robes. How full of promise to 
 all that have suffered in faith and patience in this life 
 are those words which our Lord spoke of the soul of 
 Lazarus : " Now, he is comforted !" He received evil 
 things in this life, but now he is comforted. How do 
 they seem to tell us of our blessed Lord watching 
 those who love Him, in their sorrows and sufferings 
 here below, and waiting to bless them, when the trial 
 hour shall be past ! Surely His eye marks every pang 
 we bear for His sake, every struggle we make to do 
 His will, every faintness of our worn spirit as the battle 
 bears down hard upon us. He marks, He remembers 
 them all ; and He will comfort us in His own good 
 time. As a mother takes up her child after a night of 
 agony, and folds it in her arms, and soothes it- so our 
 Lord will take up our spirits, when the sufferings of life 
 are past, and calm, and still every throb of anguish in 
 them. Yes ! when He calls us from this world it is as 
 though He spoke His own old words that have cheered 
 us so often, only with a deeper, fuller meaning, " Come 
 unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and 
 I will give you rest."
 
 XI.] holding the Keys of Helt and of Death. \ 97 
 
 But even rest and calm are not all that we shall gain 
 from being with Him in that unseen world. How could 
 it be ? If our blessed Lord is in some sense nearer to 
 the soul there, even than He is here, so that St. Ste- 
 phen could ask Him to take his spirit to Himself, and 
 St. Paul could speak of his being more with Christ after 
 he had departed from this world, then that presence 
 must help to change, to influence, to purify the soul- 
 What must it be to be brought in any way nearer to 
 Him, to know more of Him, of His wisdom, of His 
 holiness, of His purity, of His tenderness, of His love ! 
 We cannot live in constant intercourse with a wise and 
 holy friend, without feeling the force of his character 
 and example. He lifts and raises us out of and above 
 ourselves. His presence keeps down what is evil in us : 
 it draws out all the better parts of our nature. How 
 much more will the presence of our Lord so act upon 
 us ! Even in this world St. Paul teaches us that by 
 " beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are 
 changed into the same image from glory to glory." If 
 this is so here, where there is still so much to distract, 
 who can venture even to guess what may be the power 
 of the presence of Christ to work upon the soul in 
 that world when it is gathered into a place of secluded 
 secrecy, from which every evil influence is banished ? 
 How will our Lord Himself, who began the good work 
 in the soul, perform and carry it on until His day! 
 How will He make it more and more like Himself in 
 love, and purity, and perfection ! 
 
 These, then, are the victories of our blessed Lord in 
 the valley of the shadow of death. He has made that 
 place of separation a safe and calm resting-place, and 
 a school of preparation for the glory of heaven a . He 
 
 Dr. Newman, in a sermon preached at Oxford, describes the state of 
 the departed as "a school-time of contemplation, as this world is a disci-
 
 H)8 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 has received the souls that enter Paradise to Himself. 
 They are in His hand. They are "absent from the 
 body " and " present with the Lord." He guards, 
 guides, and sustains them. He has turned their sad 
 memories of the past into blessed and healing lessons 
 of the hateful nature of sin. He quickens their longings 
 after God, and meets those longings with fresh conso- 
 lations. He soothes them after the trials of life. He 
 visits them, and blesses them with His presence, and 
 so leads them onwards to the day of their perfected joy 
 at the resurrection. And then He shews Himself to be 
 the Lord both of the dead and of the living. On Him 
 all souls hang, in the body or out of the body. He is 
 the strength, and hope, and life of all. 
 
 And now, dear brethren, one great lesson rises out of 
 all that has been said. If God has given us but little 
 clear knowledge of that state of the departed, if we 
 have been obliged to guess at what passes in that state, 
 and are not able to speak with absolute certainty, one 
 thing, at least, is clear and certain, every hope of the 
 soul as it passes from the body centres in our blessed 
 Lord. If, therefore, He is to be our hope and stay after 
 death, He must be our hope and stay now. We must 
 live in close, earnest, true communion with Him. \Ve 
 must live with Him as our friend, our guide, our heart's 
 inmost life. If we wish to feel that we can commit our- 
 selves to Him, and lean upon Him, when our spirits 
 shall have to venture forth at His call into the dim, 
 uncertain, untried world beyond the grave, then we must 
 familiarize ourselves now with His love, His power, His 
 
 pline of active service." A Lutheran writer, Martensen, speaks of the 
 same state as " a kingdom of calm thought, and self-fathoming, of re- 
 membrance." He calls it "that cloister-like, that monastic, or con- 
 ventual world." The similarity of thought between these two writers is 
 verv remarkable.
 
 XI.] holding the Keys of Hell and of Death. 199 
 
 gifts, His might. If we hope to say with the calm, un- 
 doubting trust of St. Stephen, at that last moment, 
 " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ;" then we must learn 
 such trust beforehand by commending our spirits to 
 Him now. Aim at this, then. Dwell on the greatness of 
 that love which made our Lord die for us. Dwell on 
 that thought during this Lent, when your sins rise up 
 against you, and accuse you. See how He died for us 
 while we were yet sinners. So when you have to go, all 
 sinful as you are, to find your sins coming back upon 
 your mind in that tremendous moment, when you come 
 to appear before the presence of God, you will have 
 learnt to lean on the atoning power of the Cross of your 
 Lord. Let it be often your prayer now, " Lord Jesus, 
 receive my spirit." " Stained as my soul is, take it, 
 count it as Thine own, cleanse it, offer it to God to be 
 accepted through Thee." Make the same prayer, the 
 same offering of yourselves to your Lord in all the 
 dangers of life. As any fierce temptation bears up 
 against you, fly to Him for shelter and safety, with the 
 words, " ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ;' keep it, shield 
 it, hold it, ' lest it be torn away from Thee.' " As the 
 hosts of the Evil One assault you, lift up the same cry 
 for help. In acts of faith yield up your souls to the 
 Lord. In acts of self-denial and self-sacrifice separate 
 your souls from all else that may interfere with your 
 love for Him, and give to Him, to Him only, the right 
 over them. In acts of love, choose Him, bind your- 
 selves to Him, fasten your affections on Him. In acts 
 of pain and suffering, lay yourselves out, as it were, to 
 be nailed to the Cross by Him, and leave yourselves in 
 His hands. Above all, in acts of communion offer up 
 your souls to Him, ask Him to come and take posses- 
 sion of them. " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ;" ''make
 
 200 The Victor on His Throne, 6r. [SERM. XI. 
 
 it Thine own, work in it, bind it to Thyself, unite it, 
 make it one with Thee." So you will find out more 
 and more what He can do, what He can be to the soul. 
 As you live with Him you will be able to die with Him. 
 As all through life you will have found His love come 
 out the more as the trial was the greater, so in that 
 most tremendous trial, when you are on the borders of 
 the unseen world, you will look for a greater love still. 
 You will feel, " He has been there in that world before 
 me ; He is there in power now : He has the keys of hell 
 and of death ; I am not going out of the borders of 
 His kingdom, nor where His love cannot bless : no, but 
 nearer, nearer to Him : ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit :' 
 'though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 
 death, I will fear no evil ; for Thou art with me.' ' I 
 know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
 He is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
 Him against that day.' "
 
 SERMON XII. 
 Efje Ftctor, on f&tg Ejjrone, toeliberinjj up tjje 
 
 I OOK. xv. 28, 
 
 " And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the 
 Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under 
 Him, that God may be all in all." 
 
 IN the course of sermons which have been delivered 
 here during this Lenten season, you have had pre- 
 sented to you the Person and the work of Christ as the 
 Victor in the conflict of the Church with evil. It falls 
 to my lot this evening to wind up the series. I have to 
 speak to you, though not without a deep sense of my 
 own insufficiency for the handling of so great a subject 
 I have to speak of the termination of the conflict, and 
 of the delivering up of the Kingdom by the Victor. The 
 passage which I have just read to you will furnish my 
 theme. But in order to a right understanding of it, 
 it will be first necessary to take a brief review of the 
 Apostle's argument in the context. 
 
 He is reproving certain amongst the Christians at 
 Corinth, who professed indeed to be believers in Christ, 
 but who denied that there was any resurrection of the 
 dead. And he begins by enumerating the leading facts 
 of the Gospel which he had delivered to them. The 
 words seem, as has been often noticed, to assume the
 
 2O2 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 form of an elementary Creed. " I delivered unto you," 
 he says, " first of all, that which I also received, how 
 that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scrip- 
 tures ; and that He was buried, and that He rose again 
 (or rather has risen again and now lives 8 ) the third day, 
 according to the Scriptures." He then rapidly accu- 
 mulates some well-known evidences of Christ's resur- 
 rection, not failing to add to them the vision vouchsafed 
 to himself, when he was on his way to Damascus ; and 
 so concludes this historical summary by affirming that 
 the resurrection of Christ was the one great central 
 truth of which they, the Apostles, were witnesses, the 
 substance of their preaching, and the ground of their 
 faith. 
 
 This, then, being the foundation of his great argu- 
 ment, St. Paul proceeds to shew that there is such 
 a close connection between the fact of Christ's resur- 
 rection and the general resurrection, that he who refuses 
 to accept the one, cannot believe in the other. Admit 
 that Christ is risen, and as a necessary consequence 
 you are committed to the belief in a resurrection ; deny 
 that there is a resurrection of the dead, and you must 
 be prepared to deny that Christ now lives. If it is a 
 true proposition that Christ is risen from the dead, then 
 the correlative must be true, that there is a resurrection. 
 To those who accept such evidence as carries conviction 
 in ordinary cases, there can be no question that Jjsus 
 rose, and now lives again ; and faith in that fact in- 
 volves faith in a general resurrection. But how ? it may 
 be asked. Let it be granted, you will say, that there 
 may have been an exercise of Divine power in the 
 resurrection of Christ from the dead ; how does it 
 follow from hence that all mankind shall be raised ? 
 
 The perfect l-rfytpvat expresses this.
 
 XII.] delivering up the Kingdom. 203 
 
 Well, to begin with, it shews that a resurrection is at 
 least possible. You cannot dismiss the idea of a resur- 
 rection as absurd, so long as we can exhibit to you one 
 clear instance of a victory over the grave. The great- 
 ness of Divine power is manifested to us in many dif- 
 ferent ways. We see it in the heavens above. The 
 variety of organization in " celestial bodies " is itself 
 a proof of the possibility of future combinations, in- 
 finitely exceeding our present conceptions. We see it 
 in the earth beneath, in the mysterious changes of 
 " bodies terrestrial." We see it in the seed, which con- 
 tinually propagates itself by dying ; (for " that which 
 thou sowest is not quickened except it die ;") and which 
 thus shews how death is the gate of life, and how iden- 
 tity may be preserved in different combinations, and 
 under new forms. We need not, then, be deterred by 
 any philosophical difficulties from accepting the doc- 
 trine of the resurrection. We know that all things 
 were formed at first out of nothing, and that the Divine 
 Will was the sole origin and essence of creation. Is it 
 a greater demand upon my faith to believe that what 
 now exists may be restored to its own body, than 
 to believe in the original creation of matter out of 
 nothing ? 
 
 But St. Paul's argument does not rest here. He goes 
 on to shew that the resurrection of Christ proves not 
 only the possibility, but the necessity of the general 
 resurrection. Our Lord did not rise merely as an ex- 
 ample of a resurrection, but as the great Head and 
 Representative of redeemed humanity. He is "the first- 
 fruits of them that slept," "the first-begotten of the 
 dead." " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
 shall all be made alive." He holds the same relation 
 to the new creation that Adam does to the old. As
 
 2O4 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 Adam was the bringer in of death, so is He the bringer 
 in of life. As from the first Adam death was propagated 
 to the whole human race ; so from the Second Adam 
 is life transmitted to all. And therefore His resurrec- 
 tion is not, merely an instance of the possibility of the 
 resurrection ; it has a vital force, influential upon all 
 mankind, to raise them from their graves. It is the 
 commencement of a prolonged fact, ending in the re- 
 surrection of all mankind. It is through the first man 
 that we have derived mortality ; it is through the 
 Second that we drink at the fountains of immortality. 
 It is the purpose and appointment of God that the 
 power of evil shall at length be crushed, that the effects 
 of the Fall shall be completely done away, and that all 
 things shall again be brought into subjection to their 
 rightful Lord. For this purpose the Eternal Son be- 
 came Incarnate, assuming to His Divine Person the 
 mortal nature of man. How the mystery of the Holy 
 Incarnation was accomplished, we know not. We only 
 know the fact. The mode of the fact is hidden from 
 us. " The Word was made Flesh, and tabernacled 
 amongst us." He did not take any particular person 
 into union with Himself. But He took our flesh, our 
 nature, in its very first original element. From the 
 moment of the "overshadowing" of the Holy Ghost, 
 and of the miraculous conception in the womb of the 
 Blessed Virgin, the Godhead and the Manhood were 
 united in the Person of Christ, never to be separated. 
 From that instant He who had existed before from all 
 eternity as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, 
 began to exist in habit of our flesh ; so that thence- 
 forth He has existed in a twofold substance. Thence- 
 forth the Deity and the Humanity have been united in 
 the Person of Jesus, never to be severed. In all the
 
 XII.] delivering up the Kingdom. 205 
 
 changes of His earthly condition the Deity has been 
 with Him. It has never forsaken Him, not even in 
 death. The Deity was alike with His Soul in Paradise, 
 and with His Body in the grave b . It was the God- 
 Man who rose from the dead, the God-Man who as- 
 cended. It is the God-Man who now reigns in heaven 
 as Mediator, " from henceforth expecting until His 
 enemies be made His footstool." And then, when all 
 things shall have been subdued unto Him, and when 
 " He shall have put down all rule, and all authority 
 and power," then shall He deliver up the Kingdom to 
 God, even the Father ; and then shall the Son also 
 Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under 
 Him ; that God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost, may be all in all. 
 
 But how, it will now be asked, can this prophetic 
 announcement of the Apostle be consistent with those 
 passages which speak of the absolute essential Divinity 
 of the Son, and of His consequent co-equality with the 
 Father, and of the perpetuity of His kingdom ? 
 
 In order to answer these questions, it will be neces- 
 sary to consider with reverence and humility, though 
 somewhat more in detail, the mystery of the Person of 
 the Son of God, and the purposes for which He now 
 sits on His mediatorial throne. 
 
 We know that there is but one God. But in this 
 Unity we are taught " to acknowledge the glory of the 
 eternal Trinity ;" the Father, " made of none, neither 
 created nor begotten ;" the Son, " begotten from ever- 
 lasting of the Father ;" and the Holy Spirit, proceeding 
 
 b "Even when His soul forsook the tabernacle of His body, His Deity 
 forsook neither body nor soul. If it had, then could we not truly hold, 
 either that the Person of Christ was buried, or that the Person of Christ 
 did raise up Himself from the dead." Hooker, bk. v. 52.
 
 206 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 eternally from both. Each Person by Himself is God, 
 alike Eternal, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient. But 
 in this Divine Mystery there is an order : the Father 
 is not of the Son ; but the Son is of the Father. The 
 Father is the dp-xfj, the fountain, the original, of the 
 Godhead c . The Son of God, as the Only-begotten of 
 the Father, shares His essence, His attributes, His per- 
 fections ; derived naturally, and not of grace ; eternally, 
 and not in time. He is " God of God, Light of Light, 
 Very God of Very God." He is co-enthroned with 
 the Father. He teaches us that " what things soever 
 the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise d ." 
 The Father " raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them ; 
 even so the Son quickeneth whom He will e ." All 
 things that the Father hath are His : the authority of 
 the Only-begotten Son is exactly measured by that 
 of Him that begat Him f . 
 
 But at the same time He is a Son ; the relation be- 
 tween an earthly father and an earthly son, expressing 
 as nearly as our finite conceptions can grasp it, the re- 
 lation which subsists between the Divine Father and 
 the Divine Son. There is absolute identity of nature : 
 He is of one substance with the Father. There is also 
 the obedience of the Son : " As becomes a Son and 
 a Divine Person," says St. Chrysostom, " so He obeys; 
 not humanly, but as one acting freely, and having all 
 authority *." As such He is represented to us as the 
 Divine Messenger, coming forth from the Father, and 
 taking upon Him that ministry of grace, appointed for 
 Him in the counsels of eternity, both when He ap- 
 
 c " Pater est principium totius Divinitatis, quia Ipse a nullo est. Xon 
 enim habet de quo procedat ; sed ah Eo et Films est genitus, et Spiritus 
 Sanctus procedit." Aitg. de Trin., lib. iv. c. 40. 
 
 H John v. 19. Ib. 21. ' St. Chrysostom. Ib., /;/ loc.
 
 XII.] delivering up the Kingdom. 207 
 
 peared to patriarchs and saints under the Old dispensa- 
 tion, and also under the New, when, having assumed 
 man into the unity of His Person, He conversed with 
 man upon the earth. 
 
 As the Son of God, He thought it not robbery to be 
 equal with God. It was His right, His natural right 
 from all eternity, incapable of any change whether of 
 addition or of diminution. Therefore the Incarnation 
 made no difference in His Divine Nature. It is the 
 essential property of Deity that He never changes. He 
 cannot rule at one time and serve at another. " The In- 
 carnation," says Leo, "added nothing to the majesty of 
 the Son of God, and took nothing from it V But if the 
 Divine Nature of the Son is thus unchangeable ; as 
 Man, He became subject to the laws and developments 
 of man's nature. That nature, formed of the very sub- 
 stance of the Blessed Virgin, passed through the gradual 
 stages of growth and stature, and of wisdom and favour 
 with God. Moreover we must believe that this human 
 nature in the Person of Christ, by virtue of its union 
 with the Godhead, was either enlarged or restrained as 
 the economy of our redemption required. It was not 
 that the properties of the one nature were infused into 
 the other. But nevertheless, while this wonderful union 
 could add nothing to the higher nature, it did add per- 
 fection to the weaker. His human soul could not but 
 be conscious of all things which God works, and yet 
 without possessing that infinite knowledge which be- 
 longed to Him as God. His body also received the 
 influences of Deity proportioned to His own counsels 
 and purposes. It was indeed "without spot of sin," 
 though made " in the likeness of sinful flesh ;" and 
 
 h "Majestati Filii Dei corporea nativitas nihil contulit, nihil abstulit." 
 Leo de Nativ., Serm. viii.
 
 208 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 therefore not exempt from the consequences of sin, 
 (such as sorrow, and weariness, and pain, and death,) 
 until after His resurrection. 
 
 What that glorious Body may be now, it is beyond 
 the power of man to conceive. These two inferences 
 only would I draw from what has been so far stated ; 
 (i) First, that nothing belonging to the Person of Christ 
 which is created, and therefore limited, can be every- 
 where present. The Man, Christ Jesus, is now in hea- 
 ven by a local presence, in that special nearness to God 
 which is described as His " Right Hand ;" from whence 
 He shall come at the last day in the same substance of 
 flesh that He carried thither. As God, indeed, He is at 
 the same time everywhere present, and therefore carries 
 everywhere the influence of that Humanity which is 
 inseparably united with the Deity'. But "we must be 
 careful lest, while we maintain the glorious Deity of Him 
 who is Man, we deprive Him of the true bodily sub- 
 stance of Man V This first ; then (2) secondly, so inti- 
 mate, so awfully mysterious is the hypostatic union, that 
 I earnestly deprecate any attempts to sketch the life 
 of our Blessed Lord in its human aspect only. He is 
 a twofold sign, from the depth beneath and from the 
 height above ; a Child from the earth beneath, a Son 
 from the heaven above. The Divinity and the Hu- 
 manity in the Person of Christ, God has joined them ; 
 and let no man put them asunder. The contemplation 
 
 ' "For His Body, being a part of that nature which whole nature is 
 presently joined unto Deity; wheresoever Deity is, it followeth that His 
 bodily substance hath everywhere a presence of true conjunction with 
 Deity. And forasmuch as it is, by virtue of that conjunction made the 
 body of the Son of God, by whom also it was made a sacrifice for the sins 
 of the whole world, this giveth it a presence of force and efficacy through- 
 out all generations of men. " Hooker, bk. v. 55. 
 
 k Aug., Ep. 187, c. iii., quoted by Hooker.
 
 XII.] delivering up the Kingdom. 209 
 
 of the Human Nature out of the light of the Divine may 
 present us with a character, beautiful indeed, and full of 
 grace. But nevertheless such a view can hardly fail to 
 be too earthly and sensuous, below the dignity of Him 
 who is " perfect God" as well as " perfect Man." 
 
 With these views of the Person of Christ, let us now 
 consider the purposes for which He reigns. We know 
 that after His triumph over death, the Victor was ex- 
 alted to His throne, and there was a Name given Him 
 which is " above every name." We know further that this 
 exaltation is the reward of His humiliation. God now 
 glorifies in heaven that nature which yielded Him obedi- 
 ence on earth ; and has raised the Mediator as the Son 
 of Man to the super-eminence of power. The expres- 
 sions which describe His exaltation seem to mount as 
 high as is possible for imagination to reach. He is 
 placed " far above all principality, and power, and might, 
 and dominion, and every name that is named, not only 
 in this world, but also in that which is to come." God 
 has put all things under His feet, leaving nothing, Deity 
 alone excepted, which is not put under Him. But this 
 vast authority is given to Him for a special purpose. It 
 is that He may subdue all things to Himself. And 
 when that end is accomplished, then will He yield up 
 the Sceptre, there being no longer any enemies to sub- 
 due. So that the Kingdom is no sooner won, than it is 
 laid at the feet of the Father, as the crowning act of 
 redemption, the completion of that obedience which 
 He manifested in His Incarnation and His Death. 
 
 But we must consider this subjection of the Son not 
 merely as an individual act, but, (as the Apostle's argu- 
 ment throughout would lead us to regard it,) as the act 
 of the great Head and Representative of human nature. 
 Now a very slight examination of the passage will, 
 
 p
 
 2io The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 I think, shew us that the "delivering up of the King- 
 dom" and the " subjection of the Son" both refer to the 
 same event, and are, in fact, only different modes of ex- 
 pressing the same thing. What, then, is this Kingdom 
 which is at the end to be delivered up to the Father ? 
 and how is this event connected with the subjection 
 of the Son ? In order to answer this question, we must 
 bear in mind that the dominion of Christ is twofold, 
 whether we consider it in reference to Him who reigns, 
 or with regard to its own nature. 
 
 As the Son of God, the Creator of the world, He is 
 Lord of all, holding in His own right the supreme 
 dominion of the world. But as the Son of Man, He 
 has been invested with power over all things a power 
 partly conferred upon Him while upon earth, but fully 
 conveyed to Him when He was set at " God's own right 
 hand in heavenly places." Now this power has been 
 given to Him as a reward of His obedience. It was 
 because He became obedient unto death, even the 
 death of the Cross, that God has highly exalted Him, 
 and given Him "to be the Head over all things to the 
 Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that 
 filleth all in all." 
 
 We thus see that the dominion which Christ has 
 acquired, as Man, is twofold. The one universal and 
 absolute, by virtue of which He will reign till all things 
 are put under Him ; the other, limited, a kingdom of 
 appropriation 1 , consisting of those who become "willing 
 in the day of His power," and yield themselves to His 
 service by a voluntary obedience. 
 
 Now it is in this acquired sovereignty of Christ as 
 Man that we are to look for an explanation of the ex- 
 pressions, "the delivering up of the Kingdom," and "the 
 
 '^Kara oiwciuxrif. St. Chrysostom.
 
 XII.] delivering up the Kingdom. 21 1 
 
 subjection of the Son." A part of this sovereignty has 
 been given for a definite purpose ; and when that pur- 
 pose is accomplished, when all enemies shall have been 
 put under His feet, then will He retire from the vic- 
 torious conflict, and, as Man, resign His commission, 
 that the Humanity may be subject to the Divinity. 
 
 But He reigns not merely that He may crush His 
 enemies, but that He may bring many sons to glory, 
 and that, too, by the same pathway of obedience and 
 of suffering which He has trodden. The world was 
 lost by disobedience, and it is the will of God that 
 it should be saved by obedience. " Lo ! I come to 
 do Thy will, O God ;" this is the essence of the Re- 
 deemer's work, the very genius of His kingdom. It 
 was the perfect, undeviating obedience, both active and 
 passive, of the Son to the Father ; it was His spotless 
 life, terminating in the awful sacrifice of atonement on 
 Calvary, which constituted the offering well pleasing to 
 God. It is by this that the victory over Sin and Death 
 has been obtained. But Christ, as we have seen, is one 
 with His redeemed. It is from Him, as the Head 
 of humanity, that the destruction of evil has taken 
 its beginning. And now He is exalted to His media- 
 torial Throne, that He may complete His glorious con- 
 quest. He reigns that every opposing power may be 
 put down, and that He may gather together again in 
 one all things unto Himself, thus restoring harmony 
 throughout God's Universe. But especially that He 
 may bring to glory those whom He has redeemed with 
 His most precious blood, that they may reign with Him 
 for ever. But this cannot be until the whole Body of 
 the Church is subject to God ; it cannot be until Sin 
 and Satan shall have been subdued, and the last enemy 
 destroyed. But when the whole body of the Church
 
 212 The Victor, on His Throne, [SERM. 
 
 shall have been set free from sin, then will the subjec- 
 tion of the Body be complete. But Christ is the Head 
 of the Body ; hence the subjection of the Body may 
 truly be said to be the subjection of the Son, seeing 
 that the Son is the Head of the Body m . Christ is now 
 building up and perfecting a kingdom, which is His 
 Church, His mystical Body, sacramentally and by faith 
 united to Him. This Body is not yet complete, either 
 in numbers or in perfection. The great work is now 
 going on. Each faithful one, by the help of the in- 
 dwelling Spirit, is gradually overcoming evil, gradually 
 becoming more and more conformed to Christ's image. 
 But there is yet more of suffering to be endured, ere 
 "that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ" is 
 filled up ; and every true Christian in every age, by his 
 submission to God in obedience and suffering, is supply- 
 ing that which is still lacking for the sake of Christ's 
 Body. Not a pang, not a tear is in vain : all is help- 
 ing forward the great object, complete subjection to 
 God, in the noble freedom of a voluntary obedience. 
 At length the end will come, when the increase and per- 
 fection of the Body shall have reached its full measure, 
 and nothing more shall be wanting ; all having "come 
 unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ." There is something amazingly 
 grand in this view. We see Him now upon the Throne 
 of His omnipotent power. We see Him, the conquering 
 Messiah, with a Name written upon His vesture and 
 upon His thigh, " King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." 
 We see Him, gradually it may seem, according to 
 human estimate, but nevertheless surely, working out 
 the purposes of redemption ; gradually gathering in 
 
 " See Greg. Xyssen, Homily on this text.
 
 XII.] delivering lip the Kingdom. 213 
 
 His own, and drawing unto Himself more and more of 
 that which had been lost by transgression. Subjection 
 again to God ; this is the object for which He now reigns. 
 That millions on millions of conscious beings may be 
 brought, through His power, into harmony with God, 
 carried safely through death, and saved for ever ; for 
 this object has He been made " Lord both of the dead 
 and of the living." And this can only be attained by 
 union with Himself, who, as God, is ever one with 
 the Father, and as Man has become one with us, that 
 we through Him might become one with God. He 
 is now the only way of access ; touching the finite with 
 the hand of His Humanity, and with the hand of His 
 Divinity reaching to the infinite. And thus He is ever 
 drawing to Himself His willing people. The ages as 
 they roll onwards are ever recording new victories over 
 the powers of darkness, the resistance of the world, 
 the weakness of the flesh. Then will come the end, 
 when He, the Pattern Man, the Head of the regenerate 
 race, shall give a visible demonstration of His subjec- 
 tion ; and, in proof of His mighty work being accom- 
 plished, shall present His own homage as Head of the 
 Body, and, as it were, in the name of the Body, to 
 the Father And this is the completion of the media- 
 torial work ; the prolonged rebellion closed ; the strife 
 of ages hushed for evermore ; the Church, the Bride of 
 Christ, presented in her glorious apparel ; the Sceptre 
 passed by the Mediator into that Light to which no man 
 may approach ; the Victor rendering as Man, and, at 
 the same time, receiving as God, the universal homage 
 of created things. 
 
 Not that Christ will then cease to reign. This expres- 
 sion, " the delivering up of the Kingdom," says St. Chry- 
 sostom, "must be taken in a sense becoming Deity. If
 
 214 The Victor, on His Throne, [SKRM. 
 
 taken in any other sense it would imply two absurdities ; 
 i. that He would not afterwards retain it, and, 2. that the 
 Father had not before possessed it"." He will never re- 
 sign His dominion over those whom He has purchased 
 with His own blood. " For His kingdom lasteth, and 
 grows not faint until He has accomplished all things ; 
 and when He has accomplished all things, then it lasts 
 much more ; for of His kingdom there is no end ." Our 
 life is bound up with His life. It is upon His Eternal 
 Humanity that our eternal life depends p ." He, the Second 
 Adam, will ever remain the Head of the new creation. 
 The Head implies dominion as well as union ; and " of 
 His kingdom there shall be no end." "To him that over- 
 cometh," He says, "will I grant to sit with Me in My 
 Throne ; even as I also overcame and am set down with 
 My Father in His Throne." And here we see the distinc- 
 tion. " If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with 
 Him ;" enthroned together with Him. " My Throne," 
 this is the place and dignity of the Church, the Bride of 
 Christ ; but " My Father's Throne" is the place of Divine 
 Majesty. To sit at the right hand of God is to have 
 a God-like royalty, to which no mere creature can attain* 1 . 
 The nearest approach that the creature can make to the 
 Divine essence, is to sit upon His throne with Christ as 
 Man, Who as God sits on the throne of the Father. 
 And this may help us somewhat towards finding 
 
 " See St. Chrysostom in loc. 
 
 Theophylact, Comm. in I Cor. xv. 'Opoj &TI rb, &xpts> ov irpbs bvalptaiv 
 TOV, fj-trci ravra, Kt?rai' dAAa Si' 'nv ffprjrai ahiav. KpaTt? ")ap, (prjtric, ainov 
 rj 0affi\fia, xa.1 OVK iurovti fait ov travTa. KaropBuxrti' fifff o 5f KaropBufffi, 
 *o\\tf na\\ov TTJJ yap /SatriAcfar avrov OVK (trrai r/Aot. 
 
 t " Our corruptible bodies could never live the life they shall live, were 
 it not that here they are joined with His Body which is incorruptible, and 
 that His is in cur's as a cause of immortality, a cause by removing, through 
 the death and merit of His own flesh, that which hindered the life of cur's." 
 Hooker, bk. v. 56. i See J. Mede, Works, p. 905.
 
 XII.] delivering up the Kingdom. 215 
 
 a meaning for the last words of the text, which assign 
 the object and the result of this delivering up of the 
 Kingdom, namely, " that God may be all in all." 
 
 At present we can only approach to God through the 
 Mediator, Who is both God and Man. He is now the 
 "living way" to the Father. First the Church is drawn 
 up into Himself and purified; and then, at length, joined 
 through Him to God, "that God may be all in all." But 
 when the purified Church shall have been placed upon 
 the Throne of Christ, then shall the saints approach di- 
 rectly to God, as nearly, at least, as the finite can ap- 
 proach to the Infinite. This intimate communion with 
 God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is the 
 last and highest of the creature's aspirations. Then 
 shall we see face to face, and know even as we are 
 known. So that the delivering up of the Kingdom is the 
 bringing of the saints into the very Presence-chamber of 
 God. It is the removal of the last barrier the taking 
 away of all that is intermediate the unfolding of the 
 doors which shall reveal to our sight the King in His 
 beauty, the infinite rest and everlasting portion of the 
 soul. 
 
 Brethren, I have thus spoken to you of the termination 
 of the mighty struggle with evil, and of the delivering 
 up of the Kingdom. Let us not fail to remember that it 
 is a struggle in which each one of us is now taking part, 
 and that in any case it must end in our subjection to 
 God. The only question is, whether that subjection 
 shall be the voluntary obedience of the son, or the con- 
 strained submission of the slave. And this question 
 must be answered NOW. Each day, as it passes, is mould- 
 ing us for eternity. The question therefore is, What am 
 I now ? Am I now yielding myself up to God, or am I 
 resisting the call of His Spirit ? There is no neutral
 
 216 The Victor, on His Throne, &c. [SERM. XII. 
 
 position. "He that is not with Me," says Christ, "is 
 against Me." Whatever, then, the secret verdict of your 
 conscience may be, fall down before His Throne, where 
 He yet sits as Mediator, and tell Him that you are re- 
 solved to be, henceforth, wholly His. The end cometh, 
 when He will sit as Mediator no longer. The delivering 
 up of the Kingdom closes the time of mercy and inter- 
 cession. Come to Him then, now, as your Saviour, be- 
 fore you are called to meet Him as your Judge. 
 
 So shall you stand at His right hand in that dread 
 day, and enter into the visible unity of His Eternal 
 Kingdom. 
 
 PRINTED BV JAMES PARKER ANI> CO., CROWN-VARD, OXFORD.
 
 RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY 
 
 JAMES PARKER AND CO., 
 
 OXFORD, AND 377, STRAND, LONDON, 
 
 THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 
 
 REV. DR. MOBERLY. 
 THE BAMPTON LECTURES FOR 1 868. THE ADMINISTRATION 
 
 OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BODY OF CHRIST. By the Rev. 
 GEORGE MOBERLY, D.C.L., Fellow of Winchester College, Rector of Brighstone, 
 Isle of Wight, and Canon of Chester. 8vo., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 THE LATE REV. JOHN KEBLE. 
 
 ON EUCHARISTICAL ADORATION. By the late Rev. JOHN 
 KEBLE, M.A., Vicar of Hursley. With CONSIDERATIONS SUGGESTED 
 BY A LATE PASTORAL LETTER (1858) ON THE DOCTRINE OF 
 THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST. Third Edition. 8vo., cloth, 6s. A Cheap 
 Edition, 24#to., sewed, 2s. 
 
 ON THE MYSTICISM ATTRIBUTED TO THE EARLY 
 FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. By the Rev. JOHN KEBLE, M.A., late Vicar 
 of Hursley. Being No. LXXXIX. of "Tracts for the Times." 8vo., sewed, 3s. 6d. 
 
 SERMONS, OCCASIONAL AND PAROCHIAL. By the Rev. JOHN 
 KEBLE, M.A., late Vicar of Hursley. 8vo., cloth. [ Just ready. 
 
 The profits (if any) to be added to the " Keble Memorial" Fund. 
 
 VILLAGE SERMONS ON THE BAPTISMAL SERYICE. By 
 
 the late Rev. JOHN KEBLE. 8vo., cloth, 5s. [Just ready. 
 
 THE FIRST EDITION OF THE CHRISTIAN YEAR, Printed 
 
 in Facsimile. In 2 vols., Fcap., paper boards, as first issued, 7s. 6d. [Ready. 
 
 To this reprint is appended a list containing " all the variations of any importance from the 
 original text which the author made in later editions " 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF BRECHIN. 
 AN EXPLANATION OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 
 
 With an Epistle Dedicatory to the Rev. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. By A. P. 
 FORBES, D.C.L., Bishop of Brechin. Post 8vo., 2 vols., cloth, 19s. 6d. Sepa- 
 rately, Vol. I. 7s. 6d. ; Vol. II. 12s. 
 
 A SHORT EXPLANATION OF THE NICENE CREED, for the 
 
 Use of Persons beginning the Study of Theology. By ALEXANDER PENROSE 
 FORBES, D.C.L., Bishop of Brechin. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 SIR JOHN T. COLERIDGE. 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE REY. J. KEBLE, M.A. By Sir J. T. COLE- 
 RIDGE. Post Svo. Nearly ready. 
 11(58(2)30
 
 KKW THEOLOGICAL WORKS, (continutd). 
 
 EEV. E. B. PU8EY, D.D. 
 
 ELEVEN ADDRESSES DURING A RETREAT OF THE COM- 
 PANIONS OF THE LOVE OF JESUS, engaged in Perpetual Intercession 
 for the Conversion of Sinners. By the Rev. E. 15. PUSEY, D.I)., &c. 8vo., cloth, 
 3s. G.I. 
 
 TWO LETTERS TO THE VERY REV. DR. NEWMAN, i. In 
 
 Explanation, and chiefly on the Immaculate Conception, ii. On the Possibility 
 of Corporate Re-union, and of Explanation on the part of Rome. With an 
 Appendix in Answer to the Rev. T. HARPER'S Strictures. By the Rev. E. B. 
 PUSEY, D.D., &c. 8vo. [In the Prett. 
 
 DANIEL THE PROPHET. Nine Lectures delivered in the Divinity 
 School of the University of Oxford. With a new Preface. By E. B. PUSEY, D.D., 
 &c. Third Edition. Fifth Thousand. 8vo., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 THE MINOR PROPHETS; with a Commentary Explanatory and 
 Practical, and Introductions to the Several Books. By E. B. PUSEY, D.D., &c. 
 4to., sewed. 5s. each part. 
 
 Part I. contains KOREA JOKL, INTRODUCTION. I Part III. AMOS vi. 6 to MICAH i. 12. 
 
 Part II. JOKL, INTRODUCTION AMOS vi. C. | Part IV. [/ t he Prett. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND A PORTION OF CHRIST'S ONE 
 HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND A MEANS OF RESTORING 
 VISIBLE UNITY. AN EIRENICON, in a Letter to the Author of "The 
 Christian Year." By E. B. PUSEY, D.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew, and 
 Canon of Christ Church. Sixth Thousand. 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 EEV. CANON JENKINS. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE MARTYRS. By the Rev. CANON 
 JENKINS, B.D., Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. [In the Prets. 
 
 EEV. E. E. TYEWHITT. 
 ESTHER AND AHASUERUS : an Identification of the Persons 
 
 so Named ; followed by a History of the Thirty-five Years that ended at their 
 Marriage, with Notes and an Index to the Two Parts: also an Appendix. By 
 RICHARD EDMUND TYRWHITT, M.A., Retired Indian Chaplain. Two Vols., 
 8vo. (970 pp.), cloth, 21s. 
 
 OXFOED LENTEN SEEMONS. 
 
 THE VICTOR IN THE CONFLICT. Sermons preached during 
 the SEASON OF LENT, 1867, in Oxford, by the LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, 
 Rev. H. P. LIDDON, the DEAN OF COIIK, Rev. CANON WOODFORD, Rev. DR. 
 PUSEY, the LORD BISHOP OF MKATII, the Rev. F. M. SADLER, T. T. CARTER, 
 G. BUI.STKODE, R. RANDALL, and ARCIID. BICKERSTLTH, with a Preface by the 
 BISHOP OF OXFORD. 8vo., cloth, 7s. Gil. [Ready. 
 
 AECHDEACON CHTTETON. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO WATERLAND'S WORKS. FOURTEEN 
 LETTERS FROM DANIEL WATERLAND TO ZACIIARY PEAKCE. 
 Edited, with an Historical and Critical Preface, by EDWARD CIIURTON, M.A., 
 Archdeacon of Cleveland. 8vo., sewed, 2s. 6d. 
 
 A MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOSHUA WATSON, ESQ. By the 
 
 Venerable Archdeacon CHURTON. A new and cheaper Edition, with Portrait. 
 Crown 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 THE IEISH CHTJECH. 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE IRISH CHURCH : HER PRESENT STATE 
 AND POSITION. By CLERGYMEN OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OP 
 IRELAND. Cheap Edition. 8vo., cloth, 6s.
 
 THEOLOGICAL WORKS, (continued). O 
 
 EARL NELSON. 
 FAMILY PRAYERS. By EARL NELSON. With the Psalter and 
 
 a Calendar of Lessons, for the use of the Master. Limp cloth, Is. Third Edit. 
 The Family Prayers, with Responses and Variations for the Different Seasons, 
 for General Use, may be had separately, in paper covers, at 3d. each; or with the 
 Psalter, limp cloth, 9d. 
 
 Also, the Calendar of Lessons ; a Course of Reading for the Christian Year, 
 for Private or Family Use. Limp cloth, 6d. 
 
 EEV. W. H. LYTTELTON. 
 
 FORM OF PRAISE AND PRAYER IN THE MANNER OF 
 OFFICES. Edited by the Hon. and Rev. W. H. LYTTELTON, M. A. [Nearly ready. 
 
 REV. C. WARD. 
 PRAYERS FOR MARRIED PERSONS, from Various Sources, 
 
 chiefly from the Ancieiit Liturgies. Selected and Edited by CHARLES WARD, 
 M.A., Rector of Maulden. 2nd Edit., revised and enlarged. 16mo. [Nearly ready. 
 
 REV. H. W. BELLAIRS. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOL ; or, Hints on Clerical Life. 
 By HENRY WALFORD BELLAIRS, M.A., one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of 
 Schools. Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. [Ready. 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD. 
 
 ADDRESSES TO THE CANDIDATES FOR ORDINATION ON 
 THE QUESTIONS IN THE ORDINATION SERVICE. By SAMUEL, 
 LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD, Chancellor of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, 
 and Lord High Almouei to Her Majesty the Queen. Fifth Thousand. Crown 
 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 REV. J. R. WOODFORD. 
 TRACTS FOR THE CHRISTIAN SEASONS. Third Series. 
 
 Edited by the Rev. J. R. \\'OODFOKD, M.A., Vicar of Leeds, Examining 
 Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford. 4 vols. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 14s. 
 
 DIOCESAN CONFERENCE ADDRESSES. 
 THE SERMONS AND ADDRESSES delivered at a Conference of 
 
 Clergy of the Diccese of Oxford, held in Oxford, on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of July, 
 1867. With a Preface by the LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD. Crown 8vo., 2s. 6d. 
 
 REV. T. S. ACKLAND. 
 A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCES FOR THE BIBLE. 
 
 By the Rev. T. S. ACKLANU, M.A., late Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, In- 
 cumbent of Pollingtou-cum-Balne, Yorkshire. 24mo., cloth, 3s. 
 
 REV. C. A. HEURTLEY, D.D. 
 THE FORM OF SOUND WORDS: HELPS TOWARDS HOLDING 
 
 IT FAST: Seven Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, on some 
 Important Points of Faith and Practice. By CHARLES A. HEURTLEY, D.D., 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity, and Canon of Christ Church. 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 DE FIDE ET SYMBOLO, Tratctatus quondam. Edited by the Rev. 
 
 C. A. HEURTLEY, D.D. [In the Press. 
 
 REV. T. T. CARTER. 
 REPENTANCE : A Manual of Prayer and Instruction. Edited by 
 
 the Rev. T. T. CARTER, M.A. 18mo., limp cloth, Is. 6d. 
 
 CANONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 THE DEFINITIONS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH AND CANONS 
 OF DISCIPLINE OF THE FIRST FOUR GENERAL COUNCILS 
 OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH. In Grtek and English. Fcap. 8vo., 
 cloth, 2s. 6d.
 
 4 THEOLOGICAL WORKS, (eontiimed). 
 
 BEY. R. PAYNE SMITH, D D. 
 
 THE AUTHENTICITY AND MESSIANIC INTERPRETATION 
 
 OF THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH vindicated in a Course of Sermoni 
 preached before the University of Oxford, by the Rev. R. PAYKB SMITH, D.D., 
 Canon of Christ Church, Regius Professor of Divinity. 8vo., cloth, 10s. Cd. 
 
 THE CATECHIST'S MANUAL. 
 
 THE CATECHIST'S MANUAL ; with an Introduction by SAMUEL, 
 LOBD BISHOP OF OXFORD. Fourth Thousand. Crown 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 ARCHDEACON FREEMAN. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE ; or, An Inquiry con- 
 
 cerning the True Manner of Understanding and Using the Order for Morning and 
 Evening Prayer, and for the Administration of the Holy Communion in the Eng- 
 lish Church. By the Ven. ARCHDEACON FREEMAN, M.A., Vicar of Thorverton, 
 Prebendary of Exeter, and Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Exeter. 
 2 vols., 8vo., cloth, II. 4s. 6d. 
 
 The Volumes may be had separately, thus Vol. I., 10*. 6d.; Vol. II., 
 Part I., 6s. i Vol. IL, Part II., 8*. 
 
 REV. J. W. BUBGON. 
 
 A PLAIN COMMENTARY ON THE FOUR HOLY GOSPELS, 
 intended chiefly for Devotional Reading. 5 vols., Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 1 Is. 
 
 INSPIRATION AND INTERPRETATION. Seven Sermons 
 preached before the University of Oxford; with an Introduction, being an 
 answer to a Volume entitled " Essays and Reviews." By the Rev. JOHN W. 
 BUBGOIT, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, and Select Preacher. 8vo., cloth, 14s. 
 
 SHORT SERMONS (NINETY-ONE) FOR FAMILY READING : 
 
 following the Course of the Christian Seasons. Second Series. By the Rev. 
 JOHN W. BURGON, M. A., Fellow 'of Oriel, and Vicar of St. Mary-the- Virgin's. 
 Now complete in Two Volumes. Fcap., cloth, 8s. 
 
 The First Series (Ninety) may also be had in Two Volumes, cloth, 8s. 
 
 THOMAS A KEMPIS 
 
 OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. Form BOOKS. By THOMAS 
 
 A KEMPIS. A New Edition revised. On thick toned paper, with red border- 
 lines, mediaeval titles, ornamental initials, &c. Small 4to., ornamental cloth, 12s. 
 
 OF THE IMITATION OF CHEIST. Four Books. By THOMAS 
 A KEMPIS. A new Edition, revised. Printed in red and black with red lines, 
 on toned paper. Fcap., cloth antique, 4s; antique calf, red edges, 11s. [Ready. 
 
 BET. WILLIAM BRIGHT. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, from the EDICT of MILAN, 
 A.D. 313, to the COUNCIL of CHALCEDON, A.D. 451. By WILLIAM BRIGHT, 
 M.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford ; late Professor of Ecclesiastical Hit- 
 tory in the Scottish Church. Second Edition. Post 8vo., price 10s. 6d. 
 
 ANCIENT COLLECTS and OTHER PRAYERS, Selected for De- 
 
 votional Use from various Rituals, with an Appendix on the Collects in the 
 Prayer-book. By WILLIAM BRIGHT, M.A. Third Edition. Antique cloth, 5*. ; 
 morocco, 8s. ; antique calf, 12s. 
 
 BEV. W. H. KARSLAKE. 
 
 AN EXPOSITION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER, Devotional, Doc- 
 trinal, and Practical; with Four Preliminary Dissertations, and an Appendix of 
 Extracts from Writers on the Prayer for Daily Use. By the Rev. W. H. KARS- 
 LAKK, Fellow and sometime Tutor of Mcrton College, Oxford. 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d.
 
 THEOLOGICAL WORKS, (continued). 
 
 THE CATENA AUEEA. 
 
 THE CATENA AUREA. A Commentary on the Four Gospels, col- 
 lected out of the Works of the Fathers by S. THOMAS AQUINAS. Uniform with 
 the Library of the Fathers. Complete in 7 vols., cloth, 2 2s. 
 
 The First Volume having been reprinted, a few complete Sets may now be had. 
 
 EEV. W. H. EIDLEY. 
 
 THE EYERY-DAY COMPANION. By the Rev. W. H. RIDLEY, 
 M.A., Rector of Hambleden, Bucks. FT. I. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 2s. FT. II. la. 6d. 
 
 EEV. DE. HESSEY. 
 CATECHETICAL LESSONS, designed to aid the Clergy in Public 
 
 Catechising. Two Vols., Fcap., cloth, 10s. 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. On the Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, The Ten 
 Commandments, The Two Sacraments, The Thirty-nine Articles, and on the 
 Order for Morning and Evening Prayer and the Litany. 
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. II. On the Parables and Miracles of our Lord, on the 
 Saints' Days, and on Miscellaneous Subjects for the use of Bible Classes. 
 
 Also, in continuation, 
 
 CATECHETICAL LESSONS ON THE BOOK OF COMMON 
 
 PRAYER. By the Rev. Dr. FRANCIS HESSEY. Vol. I., to the end of the 
 Collects, Epistles, and Gospels. Cloth. [Just ready. 
 
 EEV. E. CHEEEE. 
 THE CHURCH CATECHISM EXPLAINED. By the Rev. 
 
 EDWARD CHEERE, M.A., Vicar of Little Drayton. Fcap., cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 EEV. T. LATHBUEY. 
 A HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, AND 
 
 OTHER AUTHORIZED BOOKS, from the Reformation; and an Attempt to 
 ascertain how the Rubrics, Canons, and Customs of the Church have been under- 
 stood and observed from the same time: with an Account of the State of Reli- 
 gion in England from 1640 to 1660. By the Rev. THOMAS LATHBURY, M.A., 
 Author of "A History of the Convocation," &c. Second Edition. 8vo., 10s. 6d. 
 
 THE LATE EEV. H. NEWLAND. 
 A NEW CATENA ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES. A PBACTICAL 
 
 AND EXEGETIOAL COMMENTABY ON THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL TO THE EpHE- 
 
 SIANS, AND THE PHILIPPIANS : in which are exhibited the Results of the most 
 learned Theological Criticisms, from the Age of the Early Fathers down to the 
 Present Time. Edited by the late Rev. HENEY NEWLAND, M.A., Vicar of 
 St. Mary Church, Devon, and Chaplain to the Bishop of Exeter. 8vo., cl., 12s. 
 
 EEV. H. DOWNING. 
 
 SHORT NOTES ON ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL, intended for the Use 
 of Teachers in Parish Schools, and other Readers of the English Version. By 
 HENRY DOWNING, M. A., Incumbent of St. Mary's, Kingswinford. Fcap. 8vo., 
 cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. Cloth, 2s. 
 
 DE. ELVEY. 
 THE PSALTER, or Canticles and Psalms of David, Pointed for 
 
 Chanting, upon a New Principle ; with Explanations and Directions. By the 
 late STEPHEN ELVEY, Mus. Doc., Organist and Choragus to the University of 
 Oxford. Fifth Edition, 8vo., cloth, price 5s.
 
 SERMONS, 
 
 SERMONS, &c. 
 
 PAROCHIAL SERMONS. By E. B. PCSEY, D.T). From Advent 
 to Whitsuntide. Vol. I. Fifth Edition. 8vo., cloth, 6. Vol. II. Fourth 
 Edition. 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 NINE SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF OXFORD. By E. B. PUSEY, D.D.. and printed between 18431855. 
 Now collected in one volume. 8vo., cloth, It. 6d. 
 
 PAROCHIAL SERMONS PREACHED AND PRINTED ON 
 VARIOUS OCCASIONS. By E. B. PUSEY, D.I). Now collected in one 
 volume. 8vo., cloth, 7s. (id. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FAITH. EIGHT PLAIN SERMONS, 
 
 by a Writer in tlie "Tracts for the Christian Seasons" [the late Rev. EDWARD 
 MONBO]: Abel; Enoch; Noah; Abraham; Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph ; Moses; 
 The Walls of Jericho; Conclusions. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 2s. (id. 
 
 Uniform, and by the same Author, 
 
 PLAIN SERMONS ON THE BOOK OP COM- 
 MON PRAYER. Fc<ip. 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL SKRMONS 
 ON THE SUFFERINGS AND RESUR- 
 
 BECTION OF OUR LORD. 2 vols., Fcap. 
 
 8vo., cloth, 10s. 
 
 SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT CHARAC- 
 TERS. Fcap. 8vo., 4s. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SEASONS. Short and Plain Sermons for every Sunday 
 and Holyday throughout the Year. Edited by the late Bishop of Grahamstown. 
 4 vols., Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 16s. 
 
 A Second Series of Sermons for the Christian 
 
 Seasons. Uniform with the above. 4 vols., Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 16s. 
 
 ARMSTRONG'S PAROCHIAL SERMONS. Parochial Sermons, by 
 JOHN ARMSTRONG, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Grahamstown. Fcap. 8vo., cl., 5s. 
 
 ARMSTRONG'S SERMONS FOR FASTS AND FESTIVALS. A 
 
 new Edition. Fcap. 8vo., 5s. 
 
 SERMONS FOR THE HOLT SEASONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Advent to Trinity. By GF.OROE HUNTINGTON, M.A., Rector of Tenby, and 
 Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. 
 Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 PAROCHIAL SERMONS, by the Rev. H. TV. BURBOWS, B.D., Per- 
 petual Curate of Christ Church, St Pancras. Second Series, Fcap. 5s. 
 
 SERMONS ADDRESSED TO THE CONGREGATION OF ST. 
 MARY-LE-TOWER, IPSWICH. By the Rev. J. R. TURNOCK, M.A., In- 
 cumbeut. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 SERMONS preached before the University of Oxford, and in Win- 
 chester Cathedral, by the late DAVID WILLIAMS, D.C.L., Warden of New College, 
 Oxford, and Canon of Winchester ; formerly Head Master of Winchester College. 
 WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR OF TIIK AUTHOR. 8vo., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OX- 
 FORD, and in other places, hy the late Rev. C. MARRIOTT, Fellow of Oriel 
 College, Oxford. I2mo., cloth, 6. Vol. II. 12mo., cloth, 7s. 6d.
 
 ENGLISH DIVINES. 
 
 of tlit jftandard English 
 
 TUBLISHED IN THE LIBRARY OF ANGLO-CATHOLIC THEOLOGY, 
 
 AT THE FOLLOWING PKICES IN CLOTH. 
 
 ANDRE WES' (BP.) COMPLETE WORKS. 11 vols., 8vo., 3 7s. 
 
 THE SEKMONS. (Separate.) 5 vols., 1 15s. 
 BEYERIDGE'S (BP.) COMPLETE WORKS. 12 vols., 8vo., 4 4s. 
 
 THE ENGLISH THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 10 vols., 3 10s. 
 BRAMHALL'S (ABP.) WORKS, WITH LIFE AND LETTERS, &c. 
 
 5 vols., 8vo., 1 15s. (Vol. 2 cannot be sold separately.) 
 
 BULL'S (BP.) HARMONY ON JUSTIFICATION. 2 vols., 8vo., 10s. 
 
 DEFENCE OF THE NICENE CREED. 2 vols., 10s. 
 
 JUDGMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 5s. 
 
 COSIN'S (BP.) WORKS COMPLETE. 5 vols., 8vo., 1 10s. (Yol. 1 
 
 cannot be sold separately.) 
 
 CRAKANTHORP'S DEFENSIO ECCLESIJE ANGLICAN^E. 
 
 8vo., 7s. 
 
 FRANK'S SERMONS. 2 vols., 8vo., 10s. 
 
 FORBES' CONSIDERATIONS MODESTO. 2 vols., 8vo., 12s. 
 GUNNING'S PASCHAL, OR LENT FAST. 8vo., 6s. 
 HAMMOND'S PRACTICAL CATECHISM. 8vo., 5s. 
 
 - MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 5s. 
 
 - THIRTY-ONE SERMONS. 2 Parts. 10s. 
 
 HICKES'S TWO TREATISES ON THE CHRISTIAN PRIEST- 
 HOOD. 3 vols., 8vo., 15s. 
 
 JOHNSON'S (JOHN) THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 2 vols., 8vo., 10s. 
 ENGLISH CANONS. 2 vols., 12s. 
 
 LAUD'S (ABP.) COMPLETE WORKS. 7 vols., (9 Parts,) 8vo. 
 2 17s. 
 
 L'ESTRANGE'S ALLIANCE OF DIYINE OFFICES. 8vo., 6s. 
 MARSHALL'S PENITENTIAL DISCIPLINE. (This volume 
 
 cannot be sold separate from the complete set.) 
 
 NICHOLSON'S (BP.) EXPOSITION OF THE CATECHISM. (This 
 
 volume cannot be sold separate from the complete set.) 
 
 OVERALL'S (BP.) CONYOCATION-BOOK OF 1606. 8vo., 5s. 
 PEARSON'S (BP.) YINDICL3] EPISTOLARUM S. IGNATII. 
 
 2 vols. 8vo., 10s. 
 
 THORNDIKE'S (HERBERT) THEOLOGICAL WORKS COM- 
 PLETE. 6 vols., (10 Parts,) 8vo., 2 10s, 
 
 WILSON'S (BP.) WORKS COMPLETE. With LIFE, by Rev. 
 
 J. KLULE. 7 vols., (8 Parts,) 8vo., 3 3s. 
 
 A complete set, 25.
 
 8 
 
 NEW DEVOTIONAL WORK 8. 
 
 THE DAILY SERVICES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 With an Introductory Preface by the LORD BISHOP OP OXFORD. Complete in 
 One Vol., Crown 8vo. The Fifth Thoutand. Roan, 12s.; antique calf, red 
 edges, 16s.; best morocco, 18s. [Ready. 
 
 DAILY STEPS TOWARDS HEAVEN; or, Practical Thoughts on 
 the Gospel History, and especially on the Life and Teaching of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, for every day in the year, according to the Christian Seasons. With 
 Titles and Characters of Christ, and a Harmony of the Four Gospels. Fourteenth 
 Edition. 82mo., roan, 2s. Gil. ; morocco, 4e. 6d. 
 
 LARGE-TYPE EDITION, sq. cr. 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 THE DEVOUT COMMUNICANT. Edited by the Rev. G. 
 
 MOULTRIE, M.A. [/ the Prett. 
 
 A MANUAL OF PASTORAL VISITATION, intended for the use 
 
 of the Clergy in their Visitation of the Sick and Afflicted. By a PARISH PRIEST. 
 Dedicated, by permission, to his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin. Crown 8vo., 
 limp cloth, 3s. Gd. ; roan, red edges, 4s. [Ready. 
 
 THE PASTOE IN HIS CLOSET ; or, A Help to the Devotions 
 of the Clergy. By JOHN ARMSTRONG, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Grahamstown. 
 Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 2s. 
 
 THOUGHTS DURING SICKNESS. By the Author of " The Doc- 
 trine of the Cross," and " Devotions for the Sick Room." 3rd Edit. 2s. 6d. 
 
 BREVIATES FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE, arranged for use by the 
 Bed of Sickness. By the Rev. G. ARDEN, M.A., Rector of Winterborne-Came; 
 Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of Devon. 2nd Ed. Fcap. 8vo., 2s. 
 
 THE CURE OF SOULS. By the Same. Fcap. 8vo., 2s. 6d. 
 
 OXPOBD SEEKS OF DEVOTIONAL WORKS. 
 
 The Imitation of Christ. 
 FOUR BOOKS. By Thomas A KEM- 
 ris. Cl., 4s.; antique calf, 11s. 
 
 Taylor's Holy Living. 
 THE RULE AND EXERCISES 
 OF HOLY LIVING. By BISHOP JEBP.MY 
 TAYLOR. Antique cl., 4s. ; morocco, 7s. ; 
 antique cf., 108. Gd. 
 
 Taylor's Holy Dying. 
 THE RULE AND EXERCISES 
 OF HOLY DYING. By BISHOP JEREMY 
 TAYLOR. Antique cl., 4e. ; morocco, 7s. ; 
 antique cf., 10s. (id. 
 
 Taylor's Golden Grove. 
 
 THE GOLDEN GROVE; a Choice 
 Manual, containing what is to be Believed, 
 Practised, and Desired, or Prayed for. By 
 BISHOP JKUXMY TAYLOR. Printed uniform 
 with " Holy Living and Holy Dying." An- 
 tique cl., 3s. (xl. ; morocco, (is. Gd. ; antique 
 cf., 10*. 
 
 The 3 Volumes in antique ef. binding, 1 6s. Gd. 
 
 Button's Meditations. 
 GODLY MEDITATIONS UPON 
 THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE 
 LORD'S SUPPER. By CHRISTOPHER SUT- 
 TOW, D.D., late Prebend of Westminster. 
 A new Edition. Antique cloth, 5. ; antiiu* 
 alf, 12*. 
 
 Pcap. 8vo. 
 
 Laud's Devotions. 
 
 THE PRIVATE DEVOTIONS of 
 DR. WILLIAM LAUD, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, and Martyr. Antique cl., 5s. ; antique 
 cf., 12s. 
 
 Wilson's Sacra Privata. 
 THE PRIVATE MEDITATIONS, 
 DEVOTIONS, and PRAYERS of the Right 
 Rev. T. WILSON, D.D., Lord Bishop of Sodor 
 and Man. Now first printed entire. Cl., 4. ; 
 morocco, 7s. ; antique cf., 10s. Gd. 
 
 Andrewes' Devotions. 
 DEVOTIONS. By the Right Rev. 
 Father in God, LACSCELOT ANDREWES. 
 Translated from the Greek and Latin, and 
 arranged anew. Cloth, 6s. ; morocco, 8s. ; 
 antique calf, 12s. 
 
 Spin ekes' Devotions. 
 TRUE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 MAN'S COMPANION IN THE CLOSET; 
 or, a complete Manual of Private Devotions, 
 collected from the Writings of eminent Di- 
 vine* of the Church of England. Floriated 
 borders, antique el., 4i. ; antique cf., 10s. 6d. 
 
 Ancient Collects. 
 
 ANCIENT COLLECTS AND OTHER 
 PRAYERS. By WM. BRIGHT, M.A. Step.*. 
 
 EIKflN BA2IAIKH. 
 
 THE PORTRAITURE OF HIS 
 SACRED MAJESTY KING CHARLES 1. 
 in his Solitudes and Sufferings. 
 
 [/ tht Prut.
 
 POETRY, 
 
 "THE CHRISTIAN YEAB." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and 
 Holydays throughout the Year. Foolscap Octavo Edition, Cloth, 7s. 6d. ; mo- 
 rocco, 10s. 6d. ; best morocco, 15s.; antique calf, 14s. 32wo. Edition, Cloth, 
 8s. 6d. ; morocco, plain, 5s. j best morocco, 8s. 6d. Cheap Edition, Cloth, 
 Is. oil. ; bound, 2s. 
 
 THE "LYRA INNOCENTITTM." 
 LYRA INNOCENTIUM. Thoughts in Verse on Christian Children. 
 
 Foolscap Octavo Edition, Cloth, 7s. 6d. ; morocco, plain, 10s. fid. ; best mo- 
 rocco, 15s. ; antique calf, 14s. Cheap Edition, Cloth, Is. 6d. ; bound, 2s. 
 
 "THE CHILD'S CHRISTIAN YEAB" 
 
 THE CHILD'S CHRISTIAN YEAR. Hymns for every Sunday 
 and Holyday throughout the Year. Cheap Edition, 18mo., cloth, Is. 
 
 "THE CATHEDRAL." 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL. Foolscap 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. ; 32mo., with 
 Engravings, 4s. 6d. 
 
 WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE CATHEDRAL." 
 
 THOUGHTS IN PAST YEARS. The Sixth Edition, with several 
 new Poems, 32mo., cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 THE BAPTISTERY, OR THE "WAY OF ETERNAL LIFE. By 
 
 the Author of "The Cathedral." With Thirty-four Plates from BOETIUS 
 A BOLSWERT. A new Edition, revised by the Author. 2 vols., Large Fcap. 
 8vo., cloth, 14s. 
 
 THE BAPTISTERY ; or, The Way of Eternal Life. 32mo., cl., 3s. 6d. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR. Foolscap 8vo., 10s. 6d. ; 32mo., 
 cloth, 4s. 6d. 
 
 THE SEVEN DAYS ; or, The Old and New Creation. Second 
 
 Edition, Foolscap 8vo., 7s. 6d. 
 
 THE LITANY. 
 
 HYMNS ON THE LITANY. By A. C. Fcap. 8vo., on toned 
 paper, cloth extra, 3s. 
 
 THE APOSTLES' CREED. 
 LYRA FIDELIUM : Twelve Hymus on the Twelve Articles of the 
 
 Apostles' Creed, with Prose Analysis and full Scriptural Authorities. By 
 S. J. STONE, B.A., Curate of Windsor. Fcap. 8vo., on toned paper, cloth, 2s. b'd. 
 
 THE SECOND LESSONS. 
 
 MORNING THOUGHTS. By a CLERGYMAN. Suggested by the 
 Second Lessons for the Daily Morning Service throughout the year. 2 vols. 
 Foolscap 8vo., cloth, 5s. each. 
 
 FLORUM SACRA. By the Rev. G. HUNT SMYTTA.N. 16mo., Is. 
 COXE'S CHRISTIAN BALLADS. Foolscap 8vo., cloth, 3s. Also 
 
 selected Poems in a packet, sewed, Is. 
 
 CORNISH BALLADS. 
 
 THE CORNISH BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS of the Rev. 
 R. S. HAWKER. Fcap. 8vo. [In the Press. 
 
 THE ENGLISH CAVALIERS. 
 LAYS OF THE ENGLISH CAVALIERS. By JOHJT J. DANIELL, 
 
 Perpetual Curate of Langley Fitzurse, Wilts. Small 4to., printed on toned paper, 
 with Frontispiece and Vignette, ornamental cloth extra, gilt edges, 6s.
 
 10 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 PROFESSOR OOLDWIN SMITH. 
 
 THE REORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 
 By OOLUWIN SMITH. Pott 8vo., limp cloth, 2*. 
 
 LECTURES ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY, DELIVERED IN 
 
 OXFORD, 185961. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., limp cloth, 3s. (id. 
 
 IRISH HISTORY AND IRISH CHARACTER. By GOLDWIK 
 SMITH. Second Edition. Post 8vo., 5s. 
 
 Cheap Edition, Fcap. 8vo., sewed, Is. 6d. 
 
 THE EMPIRE. A SERIES OF LETTERS PUBLISHED IN 
 "THE DAILY NEWS," 162, 1863. By GOLDWIN SMITH. Post 8vo., cloth, 
 price 6s. 
 
 PEOFESSOR DAUBENY. 
 
 MISCELLANIES: BEING A COLLECTION OF MEMOIRS and 
 ESSAYS ON SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY SUBJECTS, published at 
 Various Times, by the late C.IARLES DAUBENY, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of 
 Botany and of Rural Economy in the University of Oxford, &c. 2 vols., hvo., 
 cloth, 21s. 
 
 CLIMATE : An Inquiry into the Causes of its Differences, and into 
 its Influence on Vegetable Life. 8vo., cloth, price 4s. 
 
 LECTURES ON ROMAN HUSBANDRY: An Account of the 
 System of Agriculture, the Treatment of Domestic Animals, the Horticulture, 
 &c., pursued in Ancient Times. 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 ESSAY ON THE TREES AND SHRUBS OF THE ANCIENTS : 
 
 Intended to be supplementary to Lectures on Roman Husbandry, already pub- 
 lished. By C. DAUBENY, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Botany and Rural Economy 
 in the University of Oxford, <tc., &c. 8vo., limp cloth, lettered, 5s. 
 
 FUGITIVE POEMS, relating to Subjects connected with Natural 
 
 History and Physical Science, Archaeology, &r. Selected by the late CHARLES 
 DAUBENY, Professor of Botany in the University of Oxford. [7w the Press. 
 
 PROFESSOR BURROWS. 
 THE RELATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE HISTORICALLY 
 
 CONSIDERED. Two Public Lectures delivered at Oxford, on November 16 
 and 17, 1865. By MONTAGU BURROWS, Chichele Professor of Modern History. 
 Post 8vo., limp cloth, 3s. 
 
 CHARLES ELTON. 
 THE TENURES OF KENT; or, A View of the Kentish Lands 
 
 which are not Gavelkind. Chiefly from Unpublished Records and MSS., with 
 many New Cases. By CHARLES ELTON, late Fellow of Queen's College, 
 Oxford; and of Lincoln's Inn, Barrister- at- Law. Royal 8vo., cloth, II. (is. 
 
 NORWAY: THE ROAD AND THE FELL. By CHARLES ELTOIC, 
 late Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford. Post 8vo., cloth, price 7i. 6d.
 
 NEW AECHMOLOQICAL WORKS. 11 
 
 THE PRAYER-BOOK CALENDAR. 
 
 THE CALENDAR OF THE PRAYER-BOOK ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 (Comprising the first portion of the "Calendar of the Anglican Church," with 
 additional Illustrations, &c.) With Two Hundred Engravings from Medieval 
 Works of Art. Third Thousand. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 6s. 
 
 THE LATE CHAELES WINSTON. 
 
 AN INQUIRY INTO THE DIFFERENCE OF STYLE OBSERV- 
 ABLE IN ANCIENT GLASS PAINTINGS, especially in England, with 
 Hints on Glass Painting, by the late CHARLKS WINSTON. With Corrections and 
 Additions by the Author. 2 vols., Medium 8vo., cloth, jgl 11s. 6d. 
 
 REV. JOHW PTTCKLE. 
 
 THE CHURCH AND FORTRESS OF DOVER CASTLE. By 
 the Rev. JOHN PUCKLE, M.A., Vicar of St. Mary's, Dover; Rural Dean. 
 With Illustrations from the Author's Drawings. Medium 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 G. G. SCOTT, F.S.A. 
 
 GLEANINGS FROM WESTMINSTER ABBEY. By GEORGE 
 GILBERT SCOTT, R.A., F.S.A. With Appendices supplying Further Particu- 
 lars, and completing the History of the Abbey Buildings, by Several Writers. 
 Second Edition, enlarged, containing many new Illustrations by O. Jewitt and 
 others. Medium 8vo., 15s. 
 
 REV. SAMUEL LYSONS, F.S.A. 
 OUR BRITISH ANCESTORS : WHO AND WHAT WERE 
 
 THEY? An Inquiry serving to elucidate the Traditional History of the Early 
 Britons by means of recent Excavations, Etymology, Remnants of Religious 
 Worship, Inscriptions, Craniology, and Fragmentary Collateral History. By the 
 Rev. SAMUEL LYSONS, M.A., F.S.A., Rector of Rodmarton, and Perpetual Curate 
 of St. Luke's, Gloucester. Post 8vo., cloth, 12s. 
 
 M. VIOLLET-LE-DTIC. 
 THE MILITARY ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 Translated from the French of M. VIOLLET-LE-DUC. By M. MACDERMOTT, 
 Esq., Architect. With the 151 original French Engravings. Medium 8vo., 
 cloth, 1 Is. 
 
 JOHN HEWITT. 
 ANCIENT ARMOUR AND WEAPONS IN EUROPE. By JOHN 
 
 HEWITT, Member of the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain. Vols. II. and 
 III., comprising the Period from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth Century, 
 completing the work, \l. 12s. Also Vol. I., from the Iron Period of the Northern 
 Nations to the end of the Thirteenth Century, 18s. The work complete, 3 vols., 
 8vo., 21. 10s. 
 
 REV. PROFESSOR STUBBS. 
 
 THE TRACT "DE INVENTIONE SANCT^E CRUCIS NOSTR^l 
 IN MONTE ACUTO ET DE DUCTIONE EJUSDE.M APUD WALT- 
 HAM," now first printed from the Manuscript in the British Museum, with In- 
 troduction and Notes by WILLIAM STUBBS, M. A., Vicar of Navestock, late Fellow 
 of Trinity College, Oxford. Royal 8vo., uniform with the Works issued by the 
 Master of the Rolls, (only 100 copies printed,) price 5s. ; Demy 8vo., 3s. 6d. 
 
 HENRY GODWIN, F.S.A. 
 THE ARCHAEOLOGIST'S HANDBOOK. By HEXHY GODWIN, F.S.A. 
 
 Tnis work contains a summary of the materials which are available lor the investi- 
 gation of the Monuments of this country, arnmsjed chiefly under their several 
 successive periods, from the earliest times to the fifteenth century, together with 
 Tables of Dates, Kings, &c., Lists of Coins, Cathedrals, Castles, Monasteries, &c. 
 Crown 8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d.
 
 12 ATLCnXOLOQICAL WORKS. 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER, F.8.A., HON. M.A. OXON. 
 
 THE EARLY CHRISTIAN AND MEDIJEVAL ANTIQUITIES 
 OF ROME. By JOHN HENRY PARKER, F.S.A., lion. M.A. Oxon. Medium 
 8vo. Illustrated by Woodcuts. [In the Preu. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF GOTHIC ARCHI- 
 TECTURE. By JOHN HENRY PARKER, F.S.A., Hon. M.A. Oxon. Third 
 Edition, Revised and Enlarged, with 180 Illustrations, and a Glouarial Index. 
 Fcap. 8vo., cloth lettered, 5s. 
 
 A CONCISE GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN GRECIAN, 
 ROMAN, ITALIAN, AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. By JOHN 
 HENRY PARKER, F.S.A., Hon. M.A. Oxon. A New Edition, revised. Fcap. 
 8vo., with 470 Illustrations, in ornamental cloth, 7s. 6d. 
 
 The " Abridgment of the Glossary of Architecture" met with a rapid sale some yearn ago, 
 since which time it has remained out of print. It is now reprinted with very numerous addi- 
 tions and alterations. 
 
 THE ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY OF 
 
 WELLS. By JOHN HENRY PARKER, F.S.A., Hon. M.A. Oxon., Honorary 
 Member of the Somerset Archwological Society, &c. Illustrated by Plans and 
 Views. Medium 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF ARCHITECTURAL ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 WELLS: 32 Photographs, Folio size, in portfolio, price 3/. 3s. ; or separately, 
 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 Also 16 Photographs, in 8vo., reduced from the above, in a case, price 15s.; 
 
 or separately, Is. each. 
 
 GLASTONBURY ABBEY: 9 Photographs, Folio size, in portfolio, price I/.; or sepa- 
 rately, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 DORSETSHIRE: 23 Photographs, Folio size, in portfolio, price 41.4s.; or separately, 
 2s. lid. each. 
 
 AN ATTEMPT TO DISCRIMINATE THE STYLES OF AR- 
 CHITECTURE IN ENGLAND, FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE 
 REFORMATION : WITH A SKETCH OF THE GRECIAN AND 
 ROMAN ORDERS. By the late THOMAS RICKMAN, F.S.A. Sixth Edition, 
 with considerable Additions, chiefly Historical, by JOHN HENRY PARKER, F.S.A. , 
 Hon. M.A. Oxon., and numerous Illustrations by O. Jewitt. 8vo., cloth, 12. Is. 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN ENG- 
 LAND, from Richard II. to Henry VIII. (or the Perpendicular Style). With 
 Numerous Illustrations of Existing Remains from Original Drawings. By the 
 EDITOR OF "THE GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURE." In 2 vols., 8vo., II. 10s. 
 
 Also, 
 
 FROM EDWARD I. TO RICHARD II. (the Edwardian Period, or the 
 Decorated Style). 8vo., 21s. 
 
 THE MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE OF CHESTER. By JOHN 
 
 HENRY PARKER, F.S.A., Hon. M.A. Oxon. With an Historical Introduction 
 by the Rev. FRANCIS GROSVENOR. Illustrated by Engravings by J. H. Le 
 Keux, O. Jewitt, &c. 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 REV. L. M. HUMBERT, M.A. 
 
 MEMORIALS OF THE HOSPITAL OF ST. CROSS AND ALMS- 
 HOUSE OF NOBLE POVEKTY. By the Rev. L. M. HUMBERT, M.A., 
 Master of St. Cross. Illustrated with Thirteen Photographs, by W. SAVAGE, 
 and numerous Woodcuts. 4to., cloth extra, gilt edges, 15s. ; morocco elegant, 30s. 
 
 J. T. BLIGHT, F.S.A. 
 THE CROMLECHS OF CORNWALL : with some Account of other 
 
 Prehistoric Sepulchral Monuments, and Articles found in connection with them, 
 in the same County. By J. T. BLIGHT, F.S.A. Medium 8vo., with numerous 
 Illustrations. [In the Prett.
 
 NEW AND STANDARD EDUCATIONAL WORKS. 13 
 
 ERASMI COLLOOJJIA SELECTA : Arranged for Translation and 
 Re-translation ; adapted for the Use of Boys who have begun the Latin Syntax. 
 By EDWARD C. LOWE, D.D., Head Master of S. John's Middle School, Hurst- 
 pierpoint. Fcap. 8vo., strong binding, 3s. 
 
 PORTA LATINA : A Selection from Latin Authors, for Translation 
 and Re-Translation ; arranged in a Progressive Course, as an Introduction to 
 the Latin Tongue. By EDWARD C. LOWE, D.D., Head Master of Hurstpierpoint 
 School ; Editor of Erasmus' "Colloquies," &c. Fcap. 8vo., strongly bound, 3a. 
 
 TRILINEAR CO-ORDINATES. With Examples. Intended chiefly 
 for the Use of Junior Students. By C. J. C. PRICE, M.A., Fellow and Mathe- 
 matical Lecturer of Exeter College,. Oxford. Post 8vo., cloth, 8s. 
 
 NOTES ON THE GEOMETRY OF THE PLANE TRIANGLE. 
 
 By JOHN GRIFFITHS, M.A., Mathematical Lecturer of Jesus College, Oxford. 
 Crown 8vo., cloth, 4s. 
 
 H KAINH AIA9HKH. The Greek Testament with English Notes. 
 By the Rev. EDWARD BURTON, D.D., sometime Regius Professor of Divinity 
 in the University of Oxford. Sixth Edition, with Index. 8vo., cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 ANNALS OF ENGLAND. An Epitome of English History. From 
 Cotemporary Writers, the Rolls of Parliament, and other Public Records. 3 vols. 
 Fcap. 8vo., with Illustrations, cloth, 15s. Recommended by the Examiners in the 
 School of Modern History at Oxford. 
 
 Vol. I. From the Roman Era to the Death of Richard II. Cloth, 5s. 
 Vol. II. From the Accession of the House of Lancaster to Charles I. Cloth, 5s. 
 Vol. III. From the Commonwealth to the Death of Queen Anne. Cloth, 5s. 
 Each Volume is sold separately. 
 
 A NEW SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By the Author 
 
 of " The Annals of England." Crown 8vo. [7n the Press. 
 
 JELF'S GREEK GRAMMAR. A Grammar of the Greek Language, 
 chiefly from the text of Raphael Kiihner. By WM. EDW. JELF, B.D., late 
 Student and Censor of Ch. Ch. Fourth Edition, with Additions and Corrections. 
 2 vols. STO., 11. 10s. 
 This Grammar is in general use at Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Durham; at 
 
 Eton, King's College, London, and most other public schools. 
 
 MADVIG'S LATIN GRAMMAR. A Latin Grammar for the Use 
 
 of Schools. By Professor MADVIG, with additions by the Author. Translated by 
 the Rev. G. WOODS, M.A. Uniform with JELF'S "Greek Grammar." Fifth 
 Edition. 8vo., cloth, 12s. 
 
 Competent authorities pronounce this work to be the very best Latin Grammar yet published 
 in England. This new Edition contains an Index to the Authors quoted. 
 
 LAWS OF THE GREEK ACCENTS. By JOHN GRIFFITHS, M.A. 
 
 16mo. Thirteenth Edition. Price Sixpence. 
 
 THTTCYDIDES, with Notes, chiefly Historical and Geographical. By 
 the late T. ARNOLD, D.D. With Indices by the Rev. R. P. G. TIDDEMAN. Sixth 
 Edition. 3 vols., 8vo., cloth lettered, 1 16s. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR, hy THUCY- 
 DIDES, in Eight Books. Book I. Done into English by RICHARD CRAWLEY, of 
 University College, Oxford. 8vo., cloth, 5s. 
 
 THE ETHICS OF ARISTOTLE. With Notes hy the Rev. W. E. 
 JELF, B.D., Author of "A Greek Grammar," &c. 8vo., cloth, 12s. 
 The Text separately, 5s. The Notes separately, 7s. 6d.
 
 14 OXFORD POCKET CLASSICS. 
 
 A SERIES OF GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS 
 
 FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. 
 
 GREEK POETS. 
 
 
 Cloth. 
 
 
 Cloth. 
 
 i. d. 
 
 
 t. d. 
 
 jEschylus 30 
 
 Sophocles 
 
 . 3 
 
 Aristophanes. 2 vols. . .60 
 
 Homeri llias 
 
 . 3 6 
 
 Euripides. 3 vols. . .66 
 
 /"\ J __ 
 
 . 3 
 
 
 Tragojdioe Sex .36 
 
 
 
 GREEK PROSE WRITERS. 
 
 
 Aristotelis Ethica . .20 
 
 Thucydides. 2 yols. 
 
 . 5 
 
 Demosthenes de Corona, et ) 9 
 
 Xenophontis Memorabilia 
 
 . 1 4 
 
 schines in Ctesiphontein \ 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 
 Herodotus. 2 vols. . .60 
 
 
 
 LATIN POETS. 
 
 
 Horatius . . . .20 
 
 Lucretius 
 
 2 
 
 Juvenalis et Persius . .16 
 
 Phaedrus 
 
 . 1 4 
 
 Lucanus . . . .26 
 
 Virgilius 
 
 . 2 6 
 
 LATIN PROSE WRITERS. 
 
 
 Cffsaris Commentarii, cum Sup- 
 
 Ciceronis Orationes Selectw, 
 
 in 
 
 plementisAuli Hirtii et aliorum 2 6 
 
 the Press. 
 
 
 Commentarii de Bello 
 
 Cornelius Nepos 
 
 . I 4 
 
 Gallico . . . .16 
 
 Livius. 4 vols. 
 
 . 6 
 
 Cicero De Officiis, de Senectute, 
 
 Sallustius 
 
 . 2 
 
 et de Amicitia . . .20 
 
 Tacitus. 2 vols. . 
 
 . 5 
 
 Ciceronis Tusc. Disp. Lib. V. 2 
 
 
 
 TEXTS WITH SHORT NOTES. 
 
 
 UNIFORM WITH THE SERIES OF "OXFORD POCKET CLASSICS." 
 
 GREEK WRITERS. TEXTS AND NOTES. 
 
 
 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 
 i. d. 
 
 *. d. 
 
 AJAX (Text and Notes) . .10 
 
 ANTIGONE (Text and Notes) 
 
 ' 1 
 
 ELECTKA . . .10 
 
 PHILOCTETES ,, 
 
 . 1 
 
 
 TI..U >i i M.I: ,, . . 
 
 . 1 
 
 GlblPUS COLONEUS . .10 
 
 
 
 The Notes only, in one vl., cloth, 3. 
 
 
 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 
 PERS* (Tut and Notes) . .10 
 
 CiionMioR.T. (Text and Notes) 
 
 . 1 
 
 PROMETHEUS VIMCIUB ,,.10 
 
 I.I Ml SIMS ,, 
 
 . 1 
 
 St PTKM CllNTKA TilKBAS ,,.10 
 
 M 1 M li i s 
 
 . 1 
 
 AGAME MNO N ..10 
 
 
 
 The Xotei only, in one vol., clotb, 3. 6d.
 
 NEW SUSIES OF ENGLISH NOTES. 15 
 
 EURIPIDES. Cloth. 
 
 *. d. i. d. 
 
 HECUBA (Text and Notes) - . \ 
 MEDEA . .10 
 
 ORESTES ,, ..10 
 
 HIPPOLYTUS ., . . .10 
 
 PHCENISS.K (Text and Notet) . I 
 ALCESTIS .10 
 
 The above Notes only, in one rol., cloth, 3s. 
 BACCHIC . 1 
 
 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 THE KNIGHTS (Text and Notet) 1 01 THE BIRDS (Texts and Notes) . 1 6 
 ACHARNIANS ,, 1 0| THE FROGS, in preparation. 
 
 HOMERUS ILIAS, LIB. i. vr. (Text and No/es) . 2 9 
 
 DEMOSTHENES. 
 
 DE CORONA (Text and Notes) . 2 | OLYNTHIAC ORATIONS . .10 
 PHILIPPIC ORATIONS, in the Press. 
 
 jESCHINES IN CTESIPHONTEM (Text and Notes) . 2 
 
 LATIN WRITERS. TEXTS AND NOTES. 
 VIRGILIUS. 
 
 BUCOLICA (Text and Notes) . 1 J ./ENEIDOS, LIB. i. in. (Texts 
 GEORGICA ,, . 2 | and Notes) . . .10 
 
 HORATIUS. 
 
 CARMINA, &c. (Text and Notes) 2 
 SATIRE .10 
 
 The Notes only, in one vol., cloth, 2s. 
 
 PH^DRUS . . . FABUL*: (Text and Notes) . . . .10 
 
 LIVIUS . . . . LIB. xxi. xxiv. (Text and Notes) sewed, 4s.; cloth, 4 6 
 
 SALLUSTIUS. 
 
 JUGURTHA (Text and Notes) . 1 6 | CATILINA (Texts and Notes) . I 
 
 M. T. CICERO. 
 
 EPISTOL*: ET ARS POETICA (Texts 
 and Notes) . . .10 
 
 PRO MILONE (Text and Notes) . 1 
 IN CATILINAM .10 
 
 PRO LEOE MANILIA, and PRO 
 
 ARCHIA ,, . . .10 
 DE SENECTUTE and DE AMICI- 
 
 IN Q. C^CILIUM DIVINATIO 
 
 (Text and Notes) . . .10 
 IN VERREM ACTIO PRIMA . 1 
 
 EPISTOL.K SELECTEE . .16 
 
 ORATIONES PHILIPPICS . .16 
 
 TIA 10 
 
 CAESAR .... LIB. I. ill. (Text and Notes) . . .10 
 
 CORNELIUS NEPOS. LIVES (Text and Notes) . . .16 
 
 Other portions of several of the above-named Authors are in preparation. 
 
 POETARUM SCENICORUM GE^ECOEUM, -ffischyli, SophocHs, 
 
 Euripidis, et Aristophanis, Fabula?, Superstites, et Perditariun Fragnienta. Ex 
 recognitione GUIL. DINDORFII. Editio quinta. One Vol , Royal 8vo., 
 cloth, 21s. [Just published. 
 
 Uniform with the Oxford Pocket Classics. 
 
 THE LIYES OF THE MOST EMINENT ENGLISH POETS; 
 WITH CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR WORKS. By SA- 
 MUUL JOHNSON. 3 vols., 24mo., cloth, 3s. 6d. each. 
 
 CHOICE EXTRACTS FROM MODERN FRENCH AUTHORS, 
 
 for the use of Schools. [/n the Press .
 
 16 BOOKS RELATING TO OXFORD. 
 
 Price 4i. 
 
 THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY CALENDAR 1868. Corrected to 
 
 the end of Michaelmas Term, 1867. 
 
 12mo., cloth, price 5s.; black roan, 5s. 6d. 
 
 THE OXFORD TEN- YEAR BOOK : A Volume Supplementary to 
 
 the " Oxford University Calendar." This Volume has an Index which shews at 
 once all the academical honours and offices of every person comprised in the 
 lists, which date from the earliest times in the history of the University to the 
 present The first of these decennial volumes is made up to the end of the year 
 1860; the second will be issued after the end of 1870. The CALENDAR itself 
 will be published annually as before, and will contain all the Class Lists, and all 
 the names of Officers, Professors, and others, accruing since the date of the 
 preceding TEN-YEAR BOOK. 
 
 THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION PAPERS during 
 
 the Hilary, Easter, and Trinity Terms, 1864. Including those for the several 
 Scholarships as well as those for the Public Examinations. In one volume, 8vo., 
 cloth, price 10s. 
 
 For the Academical Year ending 1865, in one vol., 8vo., cloth, price 12s. 
 
 For the Academical Year ending 1866, in one vol., 8vo., cloth, price 12s. 
 
 . For the Academical Year ending 1867, in one vol., 8vo., cloth, price 12s. 
 
 FOB THE ACADEMICAL YEAR ENDING JULY, 1868. 
 
 Copies of each may be had separately, as follows : 
 
 Michaelmas, 1867. 
 
 No. .-. d. 
 
 76. Responsions 06 
 
 80. 1st Public, Lit. Grwc. et Lat. . .10 
 
 81. 1st Public, Disc. Math. . .10 
 
 77. 2nd Public, Law and Hist . .10 
 
 78. 2nd Public, Lit. Hum. . .10 
 
 79. 2nd Public, Math, et Phys. . .10 
 
 82. 2nd Public, Nat. Science . .06 
 
 Hilary, 1868. 
 No. i. d. 
 
 83. Responsions 00 
 
 Trinity, 1868. 
 
 84. Responsions 06 
 
 88. 1st Public, Lit Grac. et Lat. . 
 
 89. 1st Public. Disc. Math. . 
 
 85. 2nd Public, Nat. Science . 
 
 86. 2nd Public, Law and Hist. 
 
 87. 2nd Public, Lit. Hum. . 
 
 90. 2nd Public, Math, et Phys. 
 
 These are printed directly from the official copies used by the 
 Examiners in the Schools. 
 
 PASS AND CLASS : An Oxford Guide-Book through the Courses of 
 Litera Humanioret, Mathematics, Natural Science, and Law and Modern His- 
 tory. By MONTAGU BURROWS, Chichele Professor of Modern History. Third 
 Edition. Revised and Enlarged ; with Appendices on the Indian Civil Ser- 
 vice, the Diplomatic Service, and the Local Examinations. Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 
 price 5s.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stani|>ed below. 
 
 Form L9-Series 4939