Ex Libris
C. K. OGDEN
I
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
THE DOCTRINE
OF THE INCARNATION
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
THE DOCTRINE
OF THE INCARNATION
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,
IN ITS KELATION
TO MANKIND AND TO THE CHURCH.
BY EGBERT ISAAC WILBERFOBCE, A.M.,
ARCHDEACON OF THE EAST RIDING.
" Ad imagiiiem Dei factus est homo, ilia imagine qua postea homo factus
est Deus." S. AUGUSTINUS.
" Corpus regenerati fit caro crucifixi." S. LEO.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET;
JOHN AND CHARLES MOZLEY, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1849.
JOHN AND CHARLES MOZLEY, PRINTERS, DERBY.
.0
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE YEARNINGS OF HUMANITY AFTER A DIVINE
DELIVERER,
The Gospel opens with a Personal Deliverer. Pre-
vious anticipations of a Divine Helper. The
Divine Power associated by Greeks with Beauty
of Form ; by Orientals with Immensity. The
Incarnation the setting forth of an external Saviour.
The subject divided into two main parts First, the
Doctrine of the Incarnation in itself; Secondly,
the Benefits which mankind receive by it. The
necessity of believing in the existence of a Saviour
as an actual object, external to our minds - 1-7
CHAPTER I.
CHRIST THE PATTERN MAN; THE FIRST FRUITS
AND BEGE^TNING OF THE NEW CREATION.
The inquiry begins with Christ's Human Nature.
Christ the Pattern Man. The principles of hu-
manity find their perfection in Him. Illustration
from the feelings of loyalty, and the endowments
of genius.
b
VI CONTENTS.
Christ the Pattern of Humanity, not only through the
development of its natural powers, but also through
the introduction into it of what is supernatural.
The first, the fundamental principle of Rationalism ;
the second, of the Church the first built on Pan-
theism, the second on the Incarnation. Christ the
perfection of Manhood by Office, Nature, and Sym-
pathy 8-15
CHAPTER II.
THE OFFICE OF CHRIST AS THE PATTERN MAN
MARKED OUT IN ANCIENT SCRIPTURE.
Scripture testified from the first that the restoration of
man's race would be effected through some principle
working within it.
Indefinite expectations of the Patriarchal age. This
inward principle identified with that external gift,
which was to be bestowed through the seed of Abra-
ham. Personal character of the heir of David's
throne. The Prophets reveal more fully the coming
exaltation of man's nature through its single repre-
sentative and head, the Son of Man - - 16-30
CHAPTER III.
CHRIST THE PATTERN MAN BY NATURE.
Christ the Son of Man, as no other could be, through
the constitution of His nature. This built on two
considerations First, The nature of that Humanity
which was taken by Christ ; Secondly, His manner
of taking it.
I. Nature shows itself by continuity of type in animals
and in men. Its assertion not open to the charge of
Realism. It depends upon the law of organization,
by which every race of animated beings is bound
together.
CONTEXTS. Vll
Limits of Traducianism and Creatianism. The whole
race of man one, through the community of nature.
Testimony to its unity in Scripture. This common
nature taken by Christ. His consequent relation to
all mankind.
II. When Christ took our nature He became its repre-
sentative, because He was the secotid Adam. Adam
the type of man's race First, because the father of
all ; Secondly, because the model on which all are
formed. The same two things found in Christ.
How Adam was the type, on which humanity formed.
Purity of those principles of body, soul, and spirit,
which have been perverted in his descendants. A
divine light needed for their guidance. This light
connected with that image of God, which supplied
the whole perfection of humanity. Three especial
effects of God's image. The principle of conscience
a remnant of it. This gift of a divine light perfectly
given back to humanity in Christ.
Christ consubstantial with our nature, but without
sin : inference respecting man's sinfulness. Christ
the new Adam, because all which was designed for
humanity in the First Man, is attained in the Se-
cond. Man's nature recapitulated in Christ. The
expectation of man surpassed.
The evil of idolatry, whether material or mental, is
that God's image is lost sight of - - 31-82
CHAPTER IV.
CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN IN SYMPATHY.
Our Lord had a real human character such as suited
the Pattern Man both in body and mind.
His Body shown to sympathize with ours by the cir-
cumstances of His Life. That His Body was that
of the Pattern Man, shown in four things freedom
from sickness power over animals freedom from
death His being the source of life to others.
Till CONTENTS.
The reality of His human mind shown in respect of
the will and of the understanding. His will as-
sailed like ours. But the only will since Adam's,
which ever possessed perfect freedom. Our Lord's
manhood not positively ignorant, but ignorant as
man, or so far as concerns those means of know-
ledge which men employ. The true source of
perfect knowledge intercourse with God was
first restored to men in Him.
The perfection of Christ's sympathy and the univer-
sality of His human mind, the consequences of His
being truly a man, and yet the Pattern Man - - 83-112
CHAPTER V.
OUK LORD IS GOD THE WORD, VERY GOD OF
VERY GOD.
Wonderful nature of this truth. The only explana-
tion, however, of other mysteries.
Our Lord's Deity the key to all the Creeds. To trace
the manner in which they arose out of it, the best
method of appreciating it. Its full relations com-
municated to the Apostles by immediate Inspira-
tion to their successors, by the teaching of the
Spirit. The Early Church not only a witness to
facts, but possessed of authority, because guided by
the Holy Ghost. The Creeds stand on the united
force of historical testimony and divine teaching.
Need of the perpetual counterpoise of written Scrip-
ture. Advantage of profiting by the religious
growth of the Church's mind. The Church's whole
system of doctrine elicited by its defence of the
truth, that Christ was the God-man. His Man-
hood especially assailed in the Second Century, His
Godhead in the Third and Fourth. In the Fifth
the Personal Unity of His two natures.
CONTENTS.
Century Second. Ebionites deny Our Lord's God-
head, Gnostics His Manhood. Justin Martyr
maintains Our Lord's Godhead from prophecy
from the doctrine of the Logos, as the wisdom of
God. Christ's pre-existence His independence of
the Creation.
Deeper arguments of St. Irenaeus, in his defence of
Our Lord's manhood. The Logos, the representa-
tive of the moral attributes of God, as opposed to
the Gnostic notion, that God's essence consisted in
mere Infinity. Our Lord really a man, because the
New Head of man's race. Proofs of His true hu-
manity First, from His atoning death ; Secondly,
from His real union with men in the Holy Com-
munion. The elements employed in this feast
bread and wine ; its object to unite men to the
manhood of Christ.
Century Third. Objections brought against Our
Lord's Godhead, from its alleged inconsistency with
the Divine Unity. The arguments which had been
adduced for Our Lord's Divinity, from the relation
of the Logos to the Divine Attributes and from
His mission to create the world are found, if taken
by themselves, to be insufficient. The first, by al-
lowing the Word to be supposed a mere character
of Godhead, would leave an opening for Sabellian-
ism the second, by exhibiting Him as an inferior
minister, would leave an opening for Arianism.
Anticipation of the right answer in St. Irenseus. The
Son personally distinguished from the Father, in
Himself, and independently of the world. The Son
of one substance with the Father [Tertullian.]
Bound to the Father by eternal generation
[Origen].
The Antinicene writers were not in error respecting
Our Lord's nature. Three Local Councils held in
the Third Century two which opposed opinions
having a Sabellian ; one those which had an Arian
tendency.
X CONTENTS.
Century Fourth. Arian and Sabellian Heresies con-
demned in General Councils of Nice and Constan-
tinople. Teaching of St. Athanasius.
The Doctrine of the Trinity, the assertion of some
real mystery in the nature of God. Not a contra-
diction in terms, though beyond our comprehension.
One God, yet truly Three Persons. To explain
away the doctrine of the Three Divine Persons the
more prevalent danger at present. This error was
guarded against in early times, because the Church
started from the worship of Incarnate God, and
the existence of separate Personalities in the God-
head is a necessary pre-requisite to the Incarnation.
But unless the discriminating condition of such Per-
sonalities is laid in the nature of Godhead itself,
their reality will evaporate either in Arianism or
Sabellianism.
The Incarnation, therefore, involves the Eternal Son-
ship of the Word. That the Second Person in the
Blessed Trinity should have undertaken to become
Incarnate, the result of His original nature. The
Son the natural representative of the Father's moral
attributes, and His natural object of contemplation.
Hence the doctrine of the Divine Coinherence. Its
relation to the Christian notion of the moral nature
of God.
Thus the single truth of the Divine Incarnation leads
up to the conclusion that the Ever-Blessed Trinity
does not exist for the sake of the world, but in and
for itself, and therefore is the ultimate cause and
object of all existence - 113-180
CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER VI.
THE UNITY OF PERSON BETWEEN GOD THE WORD
AND THE SON OF MAN.
The Personal Oneness of Godhead and Manhood in
Christ, not less essential to His office than the reality
of each nature. The reality of Christ's two natures
assailed in the fifth century : His Godhead by the
Nestorians His Manhood by the Eutychians.
Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon.
Error of Nestorius to deny that the Son of Mary was
truly God. By denying the distinction between na-
ture and personality, he excluded the possibility of
an union between God and man. This union prac-
tically testified by the Holy Communion.
The Hypostatical union, the real presence in one per-
son of two distinct natures, Godhead and Manhood.
The Personality of Christ lies in the former. But
an intimate connexion obtains between His two
natures. From which connexion comes the en-
nobling of humanity. Effect which one nature
produced upon the other.
The exaltation which Christ bestowed upon man's
nature, as God, by His Incarnation, distinct from
that which, as man, He procured for it by His
Obedience. The exaltation of Manhood in the In-
carnation limited only by the conditions of the
Created nature. To omit this limitation, as done
by Eutyches, entails the very same result, which
was arrived at by Nestorius the denial of a true
union between God and man. For He could not be
the representative of man, if Manhood was swal-
lowed up in Godhead.
Xll CONTENTS.
The Descent of Our Lord's human soul into Hell, sets
forth the permanence of His humanity. Opinion of
Monothelites really involves the evils of the system
of Eutyches. Remarkable durability of these
heresies. Honour conferred on humanity by the
Incarnation - 181-210
CHAPTER VII.
OUR LOED'S MEDIATION THE CONSEQUENCE
OF HIS INCARNATION.
Our Lord's Mediation is not a work which is arbitra-
rily undertaken, but results from His being the real
medium through whom Godhead has been pleased
to communicate with Manhood. Our Lord's nature
made the basis of the Creeds, because His offices are
dependent upon it. By virtue of His Mediation He
is the sole channel of intercourse between God and
Man. And must so continue during His mediatorial
kingdom - - 211-218
CHAPTER VIII.
OUR LORD'S ACTS OF MEDIATION PREVIOUSLY
TO HIS ASCENSION; OR HIS TEACHING, HIS
EXAMPLE, AND HIS SACRIFICE.
Our Lord's Mediation may be viewed in reference
either to God, or to man. Our Lord's teaching and
example renders men conscious of truths which
their own hearts witness.
The characteristic of Our Lord's acts towards God was
Obedience. The crowning act of obedience, His
Death. This the true ransom for man, of which all
sacrifices were typical. Burnt -offerings, Sin-offer-
ings, and Peace-offerings, have their completion in
Him. His work of redemption a real work, making
a difference in the relations between God and Man.
CONTENTS. Xlll
Both the Divine and Human Nature in Christ con-
tribute to the Avork of redemption. The Divine
nature renders Our Lord a fitting Priest, and a
sufficient victim. His Human nature gives man-
kind a participation in His work.
Without venturing to pronounce a priori on the neces-
sity of Our Lord's sacrifice, we find in it a revealed
example of God's justice. The justice of Our Lord's
answering for men, as being the Head of man's race,
with whom the whole race is actually connected.
St. Anselm's reason why fallen spirits not salvable 219-243
CHAPTER IX.
OF OUK LORD'S ACTS OF MEDIATION, SUBSE-
QUENTLY TO HIS ASCENSION, AND FIRST OF
HIS INTERCESSION.
Christ our perpetual Advocate in Heaven. How His
Godhead and His Manhood conjoin in this service.
Difficulty of realizing it as a present work. Yet
such belief results from accepting Christ's Incarna-
tion as a reality. Infidelity on this subject, owing
in part to a covert Socinianism or Sabellianism.
Christ's Intercession in heaven, exhibited figuratively
in the Book of Revelations argumentatively in the
Epistle to the Hebrews. The consequent oneness of
that service which is offered by the whole Church
on earth. To pray for the sake of Christ is to
trust to that Intercession which He makes as the
God-man - - 244-263
CHAPTER X.
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE AS MEDIATOR
WITH MEN.
All Christ's acts towards man since His Ascension, are
summed up in His Presence as the God-man : i. e.
in such presence as implies the action of His
human, as well as of His Divine nature.
XIV CONTENTS.
I. Christ's Presence with His people implies the Pre-
sence of His Humanity, because that which de-
parted at His Ascension was thus given back ; and
because it is a presence in some places, and under
certain conditions, whereas Godhead, taken by it-
self, is everywhere present.
Objections drawn, first, from the coming of the Holy
Ghost ; secondly, from God's peculiar presence un-
der the ancient Covenant.
Answer to the first objection postponed; answer to the
second that all those media of intercourse, which
God was previously pleased to adopt, are superseded
by the real Mediation of the God-man. The effi-
cacy of prayer depends upon His Presence as man,
because upon His Mediation.
II. Christ's Presence as man not carnal, or material, but
spiritual. Material substances are present in place
and by contact. Spiritual substances not subject to
these laws. Our Lord's material body in heaven.
Its presence upon earth through spiritual power.
Spiritual not less real than material presence. Spi-
ritual not the same thing as figurative. Our Lord's
spiritual presence does not depend upon the concep-
tions of men, but implies a real power, resulting from
the influence of His Godhead.
III. The Presence of Christ shown to be the Presence
of His Manhood, because the office of the Holy
Ghost is to unite men to it. The coming of the
Holy Ghost is the undertaking this office. There-
fore, the Holy Ghost said to be sent by the Incar-
nate Son.
By this means does the co-operation of the Holy Ghost
in the Mediatorial office of the Son, consist with
their Personal distinctness.
IV. The benefits of that union with Christ's manhood,
which it is the office of the Holy Ghost to effect,
must be real, and not technical or artificial.
CONTEXTS. XV
Man's salvation dependent on those graces, which had
their fountain and well-head in the Head and Pat-
tern of our race, the Man Christ Jesus. The man-
ner in which they are transmitted from Him to others
inscrutable, but parallel to the transmission of na-
tural powers. The last Adam a quickening spirit.
His Manhood the vine in which we are branches.
Adam the perfection of nature ; Christ, according to
His Manhood, the perfection of grace, in whom
Manhood was perfected and purified. This renders
Him the continual Mediator between God and Man,
through whom the gifts bestowed by the one flow
into the other.
The denial of this function of Christ's Manhood is
intimately connected either with the Arian or the
Sabellian heresy. Evils of either alternative - 264-309
CHAPTER XI.
CHRIST IS PRESENT WITH MEN IN HIS CHURCH
OR BODY MYSTICAL.
Objective nature of this inquiry. Intimate union
between Christ and His Church. As shown by
Scriptural expressions respecting His Body. A
real relation between His Body Natural and His
Body Mystical. The Church's Unity the result of
this relation.
The assertion of the Church's Unity in Scripture and
the Creed, shows it not to be an accidental circum-
stance, but a fundamental principle the result of
organization, not of enactment. Its rule and origin
is the harmony of Persons in the Blessed Trinity.
The unity which exists above is extended to man-
kind in Church-union, through the Mediation of
Christ.
XVI CONTENTS.
This system no abridgment of man's liberty, because
it does not preclude the actings of God on individual
minds. But those who understand the nature of
Christ's Mediation as the God-man, cannot safely
overlook it.
Result of addressing God as the Ultimate Spirit
of the Universe, independently of Sacramental sys-
tem, as done by the Quakers. Since the channel of
Mediation is opened to us through the Manhood of
Christ, to leave His Manhood out of account in our
approach to God, even though we used His name,
would be to pass over His Mediation. Evil of al-
lowing internal emotions, or anything by which we
draw near to Christ, to supersede those external
ordinances, by which Christ draws near to us.
Testimony of Hooker and Jackson.
The history of Fox, the founder of the Quakers, shows
the manner in which the notion of an immediate in-
tercourse with God, through the self-originating ac-
tion of the mind, leads to a forgetfulness of that Me-
diation of Christ, which He discharges as the God-
man. Coincidence between his principle and the Sa-
bellian theory, which destroys the permanence of the
union between the Son of God and the Son of Man.
Other examples of the connexion between the full
recognition of Our Lord's nature and the doctrines
of grace. Schleiermacher denies the existence of
any real relation between the Mystical Body of
Christ, and His Body Natural. His opinion traced
to his denial of that diversity of Persons in the Tri-
nity, which is a necessary pre-requisite to a perma-
nent union between Godhead and Manhood in Christ.
Archbishop Whately's tendency to represent the
Church as a technical system of restrictions, rather
than as the effect of Christ's Presence by Grace.
To recognise Christ's Mediation through His Man's
nature, as the Fountain of Grace, is the rightsecurity
against the error of putting the Church in the place
of Christ : it supplies the principle of Church-
Communion and of Church-Obedience - - 310-351
CONTEXTS. xvii
CHAPTER XII.
OF COMMON WORSHIP AS A MEANS OF UNION
WITH THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHIUST.
I. Common Worship the natural voice and action of
the Christian Community.
II. Its intimate connexion with the very essence of
Christianity, shown by its maintenance in early
times, even when forbidden by law, and not directly
commanded in Scripture.
III. The advantage possessed by Israelites was that
opportunity of access to God, which was maintained
by their Public Ritual. In which even those who
were unavoidably absent from the Temple had an
interest.
IV. The like advantage secured for Christians through
that Communion in Chui'ch Offices, whereby they
participate in the Mediation of Christ. This privi-
lege men cannot enjoy except as members together
in the Body of Christ. Christ's Intercession is
especially on behalf of His Body Mystical.
Since Christ's Intercession is a perpetual work, the
mean whereby it is perpetually participated is
essential. But the Sacrifice of the Holy Commu-
nion, which is the act whereby it is especially par-
ticipated, is a federal act, and therefore implies
participation in Common Worship.
In what sense the Holy Communion is truly the
Christian Sacrifice. This character belongs to it, in
consequence of its connexion with the offering of
Christ's Body upon the Cross once for all. This
Body present materially in heaven. Christ's sacri-
ficial acts above are participated in by Christians
through the sacrificial acts of His ministers.
XV111 CONTENTS.
Objection 1st That this is not to ascribe sufficient
reality to the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. But it is
to make it as truly a sacrifice as the Passover. The
reality of its sacrificial character depends upon the
reality of those functions, which Christ continues to
discharge as the God-man.
Objection 2nd That too much reality is hereby as-
cribed to the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. For it is
alleged that the existence of a Sacerdotal system in
the Church is First, inconsistent with the privileges
of Christians and Secondly, incompatible with the
prerogative of Christ.
But First, the privileges of Christians arise from that
union with the Manhood of Christ, which is main-
tained by the Sacerdotal system Secondly, to sup-
pose that a Sacerdotal system is incompatible with
the prerogative of Christ, would be to assign too
little to Christ, and too much to men. For it would
be to suppose that Christ's Mediation is not real,
which it is and that men's Mediation was real,
which it was not. The Jewish sacrifices and
priesthood depended for their whole efficacy on
Christ and the reality of the Christian Sacrifice
arises from the perpetuity of Christ's Intercession
for that Mystical Body, to which men are associated
in Common "Worship.
V. Scripture witnesses to the existence of a Christian
Ministry, by the agency whereof men are joined to
the humanity of Christ. The nature of this Minis-
try gathered from the practice of the Apostles.
Apostolical Succession the safest course.
Abandonment of the Apostolical Succession has usually
been followed by a disbelief in the reality of those
means, whereby union with Christ as the God-man
is maintained. The absence of a public Liturgy has
contributed to the same result. Consequent loss of
the real dignity of Christian privileges, as dependent
on communion with Christ, the Incarnate Head - 352-403
CONTENTS. XIX
CHAPTER XIII.
OF SACRAMENTS, AS MEANS OF UNION WITH THE
MANHOOD OF CHRIST.
Sacraments " the Extension of the Incarnation"
Their object is First, to be "badges or tokens of
Christian men's profession ;" Secondly, to be chan-
nels of Grace. They have the advantage of being
a comfort in doubt, without ministering to pride.
The prejudice against Sacraments as an arbitrary ap-
pointment vanishes, if we remember that their
essence is to be the means by which the members
of Christ are united to their Head. While other
means of grace result from union with Christ, they
effect it. For such a work their compound nature
gives them a singular congruity. Man's whole being
requires to be united to Christ.
Graces flow into humanity, because first concentrated
in the Person of Christ. A just appreciation of
what was present in Him, connected with a true
belief of what is communicated to us. The mode
of communication spiritual and not material.
The benefit of Sacraments does not result from the
inherent efficacy of the elements themselves, eitlu-r
in Baptism, or the Lord's Supper for, First, the
elements would not gain more Sacramental virtue
through any material transmutation ; and, Secondly,
such an opinion would withdraw men from that refe-
rence to the Person of Christ, which is the essence
of the Sacrament. Testimony of St. Jerome and
St. Augustin. We do not understand the natural,
much less the supernatural effect of the elements.
The benefit of Sacraments results from the spiritual in-
fluence of Christ, with whom they bring us into con-
nexion. Two senses in which the word spiritual is
used one subjective and metaphorical, the other
obj ective and real. The latter sense is intended in this
XX CONTEXTS.
case, because Christ, with whom we are brought into
connexion by immaterial influence, is an actual Being
external to us.
Baptism stated in Scripture to effect our first union
with Christ. Objections drawn first, from Cal-
vinistic Doctrine of Decrees ; secondly, from the
want of visible results. But,
First, the statement of Scripture that Baptism is the
means of original union -with Christ, is not more in-
consistent with Calvinistic decrees, than its general
invitations to repentance.
Secondly, the common want of effect may arise from
want of faith, and is not more than was exhibited in
Adam.
The statements of the Liturgy respecting Baptism are
not merely hypothetical because an assertion, not a
hope ; and because they speak of its present effect,
not its future consequences. Their rejection in-
volves the Pelagian hypothesis, that the first move-
ment towards men's salvation comes from themselves.
Christian education proceeds on the supposition that
grace has already been given.
The Lord's Supper a real participation of Christ.
The sixth chapter of St. John has a prophetic
relation to it. It was not ministered until the Holy
Ghost had been pleased to become the means of
union between Christ's manhood and His mystical
members.
To deny the reality of Sacraments, is to supersede the
action of Christ as Mediator between God and man 404-455
CHAPTER XIV.
CHRIST AS MEDIATOR THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS
AND KNOWLEDGE TO MANKIND.
General effects of the system of Mediation upon the
position of mankind. The gifts of holiness and
knowledge bestowed through this channel.
CONTENTS. XXI
First Civil institutions have been supposed capable
of securing them. The principles of Rationalism
suppose man united to God through the gifts be-
stowed on him at Creation, and by the mere exercise
of thought. Failure of the attempt, for want of some
power which may recover what in Adam was lost.
Secondly Religious institutions looked to with the
same view. But these, so far as they are true, refer
to Him who by His nature is the only real Mediator.
All gifts, therefore, of Holiness and Truth come
through Him.
I. Holiness has its source in God. Bestowed through
the Mediator on man. So far as it is perfect, it is
imparted; but the infused holiness, which is ne-
cessary to salvation, has likewise its life from the
fountain from which it is derived.
II. Truth has its source in God. Like Holiness, it
is bestowed upon fallen man through the Mediator,
and is both imparted, and infused or engrafted.
The imparted truth depends on that Personal Word,
who has become Incarnate to instruct men. His
Gospel ihejinal system of truth. The Holy Scrip-
tures its written expression. St. Optatus's testimony.
The engrafted truth is that power of spiritual dis-
cernment, which the Incarnate Word communicates
to His Mystical Body. That the external record of
imparted truth, i. e., Holy Scripture, cannot be un-
derstood without that engrafted truth or internal
principle of spiritual illumination, which God the
Son bestows upon His Mystic Body, is shown
First, by the common use of the term " "Word" in
both cases ; Secondly, by consideration of the re-
vealed office of the Mediatorial Word, whose record
Holy Scripture is, in guiding the Body of Christ
into all truth by His Spirit. So that the Word en-
grafted, which dwells in the Body Mystical, is es-
sential to the understanding of that Word imparted,
which is communicated through the Scriptures.
A
XX11 CONTEXTS.
Objection 1st That since the Word conveys its im-
parted gifts through written documents, to assert
the engrafted Word to be necessary to its under-
standing, interferes with the prerogative of reason.
But,
First To admit reason to be, in itself, exclusively of
God's engrafted wisdom, a competent judge of all
truth, is inconsistent with belief in any objective
system of revelation. That some reference must be
made to the principle of reason is the necessary re-
sult of human responsibility. [Duty of Private
Judgment.] But the reasoning faculty, which
claims to be independent of God's engrafted wis-
dom, must be such a principle, as refuses to ac-
knowledge any authority except its own. \Itiyht
of Private Judgment.] It rests its conclusions,
therefore, either on the senses of which it makes
use [Sensualism of Locke] ; or on the senses, to-
gether with the inward constitution of the mind.
[Intellectualism of Kant.] In either case, it can-
not rise to that which is higher than itself, i. i\ to
God's revelation.
Secondly The limits, under which reason may be
safely exercised, are found by considering that Di-
vine things cannot enter the mind except through
some faculty, which supplies means of communing
with external truth. Such a faculty is Faith.
Faith is an original source of knowledge, and co-
ordinate with reason it limits the authority of
reason, while it increases its sphere of knowledge.
Faith depends on the laws of that common nature of
man, which testifies to its authority. How this na-
ture was ascertained by Heathen Moralists. .V</-
tural types of excellence exhibited only what man
possessed by Creation, which ends in Rationalism.
Christian Faith rests on the higher estate to which
nature is elevated, because participated by that Di-
vine type of humanity, the Second Adam. Christian
Faith therefore depends on the laws of that renewed
nature, which, through Mediation, has been bestowed
CONTEXTS. XX111
upon the Mystical Body of Christ. From union
with this Mystical Body of the Church, are derived
those fundamental principles, which form the basis of
Christian reasoning respecting questions of religion.
To assert, therefore, that the TVord engrafted is need-
ful to the comprehension of the Word imparted, or
that truth is attained through the teaching of that
Spirit which dwells in the Body of Christ, is not to
interfere with the due province of reason, but to
enable reason to attain its full perfection by the aid
of Christian Faith.
Respect for the engrafted Word has always been
found to keep pace with reverence for the Word
imparted. The Inspiration of Scripture and the
Church's Authority have stood or fallen together.
Common theories of Inspiration unsatisfactory.
Those, who would draw their system of truth by
mere logical deduction from the text of Scripture,
require to discover one which is more satisfactory.
None has been put forward by the Church, because
her system of interpretation is not built on man's
logic, though not contrary to it, but on the gift of
the engrafted Word.
Objection 2nd That to suppose the engrafted Word,
dwelling in the Church, to be essential to the under-
standing of the Scripture or Word imparted, is in-
consistent with the claims of individual illumination.
Preliminary admission that the excepted cases, in
which God bestows an especial gift of guidance, will
be numerous. But this does not preclude the ex-
istence of a rule. General effect produced by the
Church's testimony in maintaining the standard of
opinion. For,
First To allow private illumination to be a sufficient
judge of the Word imparted, without reference to
that Word engrafted which dwells in the body of
the Church, is incompatible with the authority of
Scripture Proof of this in the case of Semler and
of Fox For it depends on the notion of an imme-
diate intercourse between God and man, which may
XXIV CONTEXTS.
dispense as well with the Word imparted as with the
Word engrafted.
Secondly The due guard to private illumination is its
subordination to the system of Mediation, which sup-
poses that gifts are bestowed through the dwelling of
the Word engrafted in the Body of Christ.
To admit Church authority, therefore, is to allow that
truth is not derived from man's natural intercourse
with his Maker, but through the channel of the one
Mediator. Its security His promise of perpetual
presence with His Body Mystical. The applica-
bility of the rule impaired but not destroyed by
the Church's divisions. Unity as essential to the
Church's perfection as holiness - - 456-530
CHAPTER XV.
CONCLUSION.
That the Doctrine of Our Lord's Humanity is not
duly appreciated, appears,
First From the practical forgetfulness of the doctrine
of future judgment, which will be exercised by
Christ with the reality which is suggested to us
by His Man's Nature.
Secondly From the neglect of those seasons of the
Christian year, by which the acts of Christ as Me-
diator are commemorated ; as those of the Creator
were by the Jewish Festivals. The Lord's Day a
Christian and not a Jewish Sabbath.
Thirdly From the infrequency of Sacraments and
Public Worship.
Need of some principle of union amidst the increasing
turmoil of the age - - 531-542
THE; DOCTRINE
OF THE INCARNATION
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
INTRODUCTION.
THE YEARNINGS OF HUMANITY AFTER A DIVINE
DELIVERER.
" The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the
Son of David" Thus does the later volume of
Revelation usher in the advent of Him on whom
its mysteries and blessings are dependent. The
Gospel, like the Church's year, begins with the
coming of the Son of God in the flesh. And so is
it with the first placed of the Epistles. It begins
by declaring that the Gospel of God concerns "His
Son Jesus Christ Our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh, and declared
to be the Son of God with power." Thus personal
is the dispensation of the Gospel. It rests not, like
the theories of Rationalistic philosophy, on the self-
relying development of man's inherent powers, but
I YEARNINGS AFTER
on the advent of an external Saviour. And herein
it fulfilled the darling anticipations of man's heart,
which for four thousand years had been yearning
after the expected birth of some deliverer of some
one who might redress the miseries which afflicted
every station, age, and country, and give reality to
that golden dream, which lived in the consecrated
traditions of the past, and the inspired imaginations
of the future.
Now this service, as men's natural conscience
testified, could be effected only by some one who
was above themselves : for what was witnessed by
the traditions of primitive antiquity, had been con-
firmed by the experience of forty centuries. And
hence arose the two great systems of religion, by
which the East and West were distinguished from
each other. The intellectual yet sensitive Greek,
surrounded by all the forms of natural beauty, ex-
alted the deified inhabitants of his Olympus into
the courts of heaven, and looked to the advocacy
of these favoured representatives of humanity.
Ille deum vitam accipiet, divisque videbit
Permixtas heroas, et ipse videbitur illis.
Hence the Anthropomorphism of the western
world. If men had become gods, there was hope
that the inferior might, in some way, be benefited
by the superior nature. And the same feeling,
though acting in an opposite direction, possessed
the more thoughtful sages of Asia. For the ori-
A DIVINE DELIVERER. 3
ginal charter of our race, which could not be
altogether effaced from men's minds, was moulded
according to the situation and habits of nations.
In the boundless plains of the East, where man
seemed nothing in face of the immensity of nature
there was still the same longing for the patronage
of some higher being, which, by condescending to
the weakness of our race, might work its welfare.
Such help men hoped to find in those mighty prin-
ciples which lay hid in the powers of organized
nature. Hence the Avaters of Vishnoo, and the
worship of every varied form, under which were
personified the principles of the physical creation.
The same thing may be seen in the purer worship
of ancient Persia. " The kingdoms of Ormusd and
Ahriman are in continual contest with one another ;
but Ahriman will hereafter be conquered ; the reign
of darkness will be altogether at an end; the rule
of Ormusd will be universally extended; and an
all-embracing kingdom of light will alone remain." 1
All these conceptions imply the conviction that
man's evils could not be redressed, unless some
power from above should stoop to meet him, and
they testify to the same need which was felt by
the less abstracted Greek, for union with the Most
High.
This deep-rooted feeling, which had maintained
its place in the tw r o grand branches of the family of
Japhet, as their borders had been enlarged through
1 Zendavesta, quoted in Heeren's Ideen, i. 446.
4 YEARNINGS AFTER
the East and West, was to be satisfied only when
they took up their dwelling in the tents of Shem,
and paid fealty to the God of Abraham. Hitherto
" the earnest expectation of the creature," had
been waiting " for the manifestation of the sons
of God." But " when the fulness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons." Through this gift was that
end attained after which humanity had been yearn-
ing. In Him at once it came to pass, that " truth
shall flourish out of the earth, and righteousness
hath looked down from heaven." For thus did a
higher Being enter into relations with mankind, and
set Himself forth as their deliverer.
Thus does Our Lord's coming in the flesh, lie at
the very beginning of the Gospel. It is stated in
the first pages of Revelation it answers to the first
wants of men. To this truth, then, it is proposed
to draw attention in the following pages. The
Incarnation will be set forth as the great objec-
tive fact of Christianity. The subject divides itself
naturally into two parts : first, the truth itself; and
secondly, the benefits which mankind receive by it.
Such an inquiry, unless the writer is mistaken, will
suit the wants of the present day. Religion being
a divine reality, implies the existence of certain
outward facts, external to ourselves, which have a
being independent of our thoughts, and are the ob-
2 Gal. iv. 4.
A DIVINE DELIVERER. 5
jects of our consideration. Neither can it flourish,
unless the subjective action of our thoughts be
maintained by the presence of such objective real-
ities. For example, we are justified by faith in
Christ. Xow, as faith is a process in our own
minds, to discriminate between a true or living
faith, and a dead or feigned one, is to inquire into
the subjective part of the doctrine of justification
into the part, that is, which belongs to us, who are
the subject matter of its operation. But, then, our
faith must have an object to rest upon the obla-
tion of Christ upon the cross once for all; and
unless this event had truly happened, unless this
great deed, external to ourselves, had an actual
place in the world of realities, our inward feelings
would be only a delusive dream. 3
When the minds of men are roused from any
protracted apathy, their first inquiries will, of
course, be of a subjective character, because they
will begin by taking a survey of their own state,
before they pass into the world around. And this
3 " Faith receives the seeds of grace from the Spirit, and thus
brings forth the germ of a Christian life, rich in the fruit of good
works ; but the notion that faith itself, as a mere human faculty,
is the creative principle of all good, is so fascinating, from its
tendency to magnify man's heart and mind, that we need to
keep watch against every approach to it."
And again, " Such errors have often prevailed, and have pre-
pared the way, ultimately, for the denial of all substantial reality
in the objects of faith, converting religion according to one
theory, into a product of human feeling according to another,
into a product of human reason." Hare's Miss, of the Com-
forter, vol. ii. p. 453, note H.
b YEARNINGS AFTER
accounts for the subjective tone which marked the
great reaction of the sixteenth century, as well as
for the predominance of the same temper in the last
generation. In the last age, the first object required
was to provoke men to a seriousness w r hich was too
often wanting, and thus to call them to an exami-
nation of their own hearts. But it is time that the
subjective revival of the last age, should assume
also an objective character. If this be neglected, it
will gradually die out, like so many other religious
revivals; and the real earnestness which dictated
its growth, will evaporate in a system of empty
phrases and party watchwords. And the sure con-
sequence, if men fancy themselves deluded by a
phraseology, which has no counterpart in the ex-
ternal world, will be the growth of open or covert
infidelity. Such has been the result arrived at by
a popular writer, who tells us, " that all genuine
faith is other circumstances being the same of
about equal value. The value is in the act of faith,
more than in the object" And though admitting
that "it is of very high importance that the ob-
jects of faith should be the loftiest and the purest
that in any particular age can be attained," the au-
thoress cited appears to consider all religions upon
a par as regards their abstract truth, and observes,
that " men afflict themselves needlessly about one
another's safety, as regards points of spiritual be-
lief.' H This were doubtless true, if man's life re-
4 "Eastern Life," by Harriet Martineau, vol. iii. p, 289-91.
A DIVINE DELIVERER. 7
sembled a mere soliloquy, in which the purpose was
to give vent only to the feelings of his own mind.
But if we be truly surrounded by a world of unseen
beings, if we have actually " come unto Mount
Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the hea-
venly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company
of angels, to the general assembly and church of
the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to
God, the JUDGE OF ALL, and to the spirits of just
men made perfect, and to Jesus the MEDIATOR of
the new covenant," then, surely, it cannot be imma-
terial whether we rightly apprehend those mighty
realities which press upon us so nearly, and whether
our acts and language are fitted for that hallowed
intercourse to w r hich we have been admitted. Other-
wise, w r e are intruding, like unconscious dreamers,
into the sacred presence of the Great King. Hence
the desire of the present writer, as being bound by
education and hereditary attachment to those evan-
gelical principles in which he was nurtured, to call
attention to the external truths, on which the doc-
trines of grace are dependent. For it is no system
of idle words which is made known by the holy
Apostles, " concerning Jesus Christ Our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God
with power."
CHAPTER I.
CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN, THE FIRST FRUITS AND
BEGINNING OF THE NEW CREATION.
AN inquiry respecting Our Lord's nature might be
conducted in two ways : either we might consider
what He was at first, and what He subsequently
became ; or we might view Him as He was manifest
upon earth, and then pass from the apparent to the
hidden characteristics of His being. In the first
case, we should begin with His Godhead; in the
second, with His manhood. And the latter is, per-
haps, the most natural course, because His Incarna-
tion is a central point, from which we may approach
the eternity which preceded, as well as that which
follows it. In numbers, unity is a starting point for
those infinite series which ascend above or descend
below it ; and Our Lord's taking flesh of the Virgin
Mary, His mother, is the only thing on which our
minds can fix, which at all resembles a beginning
of His being. For time is that middle space, from
which finite spirits must track their way, either
forwards or backwards, into the profundities of
eternity. We begin, then, with the Apostle, that
THE PATTERN MAN, ETC.
Jesus Christ Our Lord was "made of the seed of
David according to the flesh."
And in this statement, what is especially material
is, that Our Lord came to be THE man, not A man-
to be David's offspring, the woman's seed, the re-
presentative of the human family, the chief among
His brethren, the heir of whatever great qualities
belonged to mortal flesh, the antagonist of Satan,
the second Adam, the new head of man's race. The
disposition to look for such a type or pattern, in
which may be perfectly expressed what each man's
consciousness imperfectly witnesses, lies deep in
human nature. It expresses itself in letters as well
as institutions in admiration for the poet, and in
loyalty to the king. For what is the natural root
of loyalty, as distinguished from such mere selfish
desire of personal security, as is apt to take its
place in civilized times, but that consciousness of a
natural bond among the families of men, which
gives a fellow-feeling to whole clans and nations,
and thus enlists their affections in behalf of those
time-honoured representatives of their ancient blood,
in whose success they feel a personal interest ?
Hence the delight when we recognize an act of
nobility or justice in our hereditary princes.
Tuque prior, tu parce genus qui ducis Olympo,
Projice tela manu sanguis tneus.
So strong is this feeling, that it regains an engrafted
influence, even when history witnesses that past
convulsions have rent and weakened it ; and the
10 THE PATTERN MAN
Celtic feeling towards the Stuarts has been re-
kindled in our own days towards the grand-
daughter of George the Third of Hanover.
Somewhat similar may be seen in the disposition
to idolize those great lawgivers of man's race, who
have given expression, in the immortal language
of song, to the deeper inspirations of our nature.
The thoughts of Homer or of Shakespeare are the
universal inheritance of the human race. In this
mutual ground every man meets his brother : they
have been set forth by the Providence of God to
vindicate for all of us what nature could effect, and
that, in these representatives of our race, we might
recognize our common benefactors.
These are among the natural indications of that
hereditary bond of brotherhood, which attained its
perfect consummation in that supernatural advent
of the Son of Man, of whom all earthly excellence
is typical. For it is a characteristic of the Gospel
to give a higher employment to every faculty of
the understanding, and a nobler object to every
affection of the heart. Its basis is that personal
union between God and man, which has added a
diviner character to all the relations of humanity.
Manhood, with all its mysterious secrets of thought
and feeling, has been chosen to be the temple of
God. And this has been brought about, not by
the natural exaltation of the inferior race, but by
the entrance of that higher seed, from whose inter-
communion it has received a supernatural elevation.
THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE CREATION. 1 1
For there are two ways in which Christ might be
set forth as that Pattern Man, in whom our nature
attained its perfection. Either He might be the
happy example in whom its native qualities found
their perfect expression, in w y hom all that belongs
to mere humanity obtained the utmost develop-
ment of which it was susceptible ; or the perfection
of His manhood might be due to the influence of
that Divine nature, with which it was personally
united. The first of these is the system of Ra-
tionalism the second, the system of the Church.
And it is the main purpose of the present inquiry
to show that the latter system is not only sanc-
tioned by the authority of revelation, and adapted
to the wants of man, but that whatever truth or
reason the system of Rationalism may promise,
could be attained only through that perfect exhi-
bition of man's nature, of which its supernatural
adoption by its divine participator was the cause.
The system of Rationalism, indeed, can go along
with that of the Church so far as to admit Christ
in name, and to recognize in words the necessity of
divine help. For all but positive Atheists allow
the advantage of help from that creative Spirit, to
which they refer the world's parentage. And there
is little difficulty in supposing that Christ may be
the channel through whom divine gifts are be-
stowed, seeing that they were once exhibited with
peculiar lustre in Himself. But the characteristic
distinction between the one svstem and the other
12 THE PATTERN MAX
is, that Rationalism makes the indi vidual the
starting point for all improvement, whereas the
Church's starting point is Christ. The first is for
dealing with nature as it finds it; it takes man
such as he is, with the powders and faculties which
he possesses, and supposes that their cultivation
may enable him to shake off the evils and infir-
mities which all deplore. The man himself, there-
fore, is the commencement of all renewal ; he may
use God's grace, indeed he may invoke the name
of Christ but in himself is the ultimate principle
of renovation. For as an individual is he addressed ;
his conversion must precede that relation to Christ,
which, according to Christians, is the principle of
the new nature. The Church system, on the other
hand, attributes the first renewal of man's race to
the entrance into its ranks of a higher and super-
natural Being. His quickening influence is the
principle of regeneration to all His fellows. In
Him, and not in them, is the original principle of
movement. The restoration of the ancient pattern
of man is not attained through the natural perfec-
tion of individuals, but because in Christ, Our
Lord, was the personal presence of that Divine
Word, which was above nature. He came down
into our lower race to ennoble it. The change,
therefore, in every individual must result from that
diffusive influence of the second Adam, by which
the exertion of individual intellect and will must
be preceded. Thus does it continue to extend
THE FIRST FRUITS OF CREATION. 13
itself through that sacramental system, which binds
all men to the head of the race ; and the restoration
of every man is due to that great gift which was
bestowed upon our common nature through the
Incarnation of Christ.
The contrast of these two systems may be
traced through all their complicated relations.
The Church system of education rests on the im-
provement of that renewed nature, which in Christ,
Our Lord, has been bestowed upon His brethren.
But Rationalistic education addresses itself to man
as he is ; it appeals at once to his natural gifts, and
his intellectual endowments, as though these were
a sufficient ground for his reform. And as the
Church system has its basis in that truth of the
Incarnation, on which it rests the world's renewal,
so Rationalism has its real foundation in that theory
of Pantheism, which ends in deifying the natural
powers of man. For put the Incarnation out of
view, and Pantheism is the natural resource of re-
flective minds. The wonderful mysteries of man's
nature the strange contrast of life and death,
decay and reproduction all these carry us on to
the contemplation of those comprehensive laws of
the physical universe, which ally themselves so
strangely with the existence of mankind. They
are reflected in the traditions of the past they
give deeper meaning to the mythology of ancient
nations. They imply, that in man's life is a divine
principle, akin to that all-embracing power which
14 THE PATTERN MAN
pervades the universe. But the true explanation
of this deep secret is, not that man is naturally
God, but that God has mercifully become man.
The union between these two natures is real ; the
indications of what is high and holy in man's being
need not be questioned. The principle of life, to
which all primitive mythologies witness, which the
ancient mysteries of Egypt and Greece were de-
signed probably to illustrate, is truly a chain,
which links us to the Almighty. It was no vain
notion which taught men in early times, that it
was a sacred principle, which gave life to organic
frames. But man could not thus ascend to God,
until God the Word had first stooped to manhood.
Whatever told of the nobility of man's race, was
an anticipation of that wondrous work, which was
to be fulfilled in its season. In Christ, all that is
great in humanity finds its completion, because His
coming gives the explanation of those principles,
which else seemed too large and noble for our
being and state. Whatsoever visions of beauty
and excellence have floated before the poet's mind,
in Him only they have their fulfilment. " The
Song of Songs" speaks of Him who is " the chief-
est among ten thousand," and whose real kingship
over all His brethren is reflected in the splendours
of earthly royalty.
On this intimate relation between the Head and
the members between Him who entered the human
family, that He might not only exhibit its capacities
THE FIRST FRUITS OF CREATION. 15
in their highest state, but bestow upon it gifts of
which it was before incapable depends the efficacy
of what Christ effected for man's nature in His
death, and of what He " ever liveth" to effect for
it through His intercession. But before we pass
to the consequences of this great truth, we must
set forth the truth itself, on which they are de-
pendent. If such was Our Lord's participation in
whatsoever belongs to humanity if He was the
Pattern Man, in whom humanity first attained its
perfection ; the consequence must have been a com-
plete exhibition of those sympathies which cha-
racterize mankind. Again, the completeness with
which He set forth the distinctive features of man's
race would lead us to anticipate that, regarded as a
man, there w r as some peculiar perfection in the con-
stitution of His nature. And since it was the
object of prophecy to witness His approach, it
would bear testimony to that peculiar character in
which He came, to that office of the Pattern Man,
which it was His purpose to exhibit. These things
go to make up that peculiar character of the head
of man's race, w r hich He entered into our lower
nature to maintain ; and they require, therefore, to
be severally set forth as portions of His human
being. So that we proceed to show that Our
Lord was the Pattern Man, the second Adam
First, by Office ; secondly, by Nature ; thirdly, by
Sympathy.
16
CHAPTER II.
THE OFFICE OF CHRIST AS THE PATTERN MAN
MARKED OUT IN ANCIENT SCRIPTURE.
SINCE Christ was, by Office, the Pattern Man, the
functions which pertained to His character must
have been indicated in those records of prophecy
which announced His approach. Two points there
were which required to be especially set forth
first, that the recovery of man's race must be the
result of some internal movement communicated to
it ; that it was not a mere withdrawal of those ex-
ternal inconveniences by which he was environed,
but an actual improvement in the race itself; and
secondly, that this movement, though existing
within, must come from without him; that it was
not the mere growth and development of his
natural faculties, but some supernatural power, in-
troduced into his fallen race by an external deliv-
erer. These two conditions would be required, sup-
posing that the deliverance, after which humanity
was yearning, was to be brought about through
the entrance into its ranks of some superior being,
by whose communion it was to be raised above itself.
CHRIST'S OFFICE IN ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 17
In the former half of those four thousand years
which preceded the birth of Christ, the first of these
truths was put before men. As the Fall had given
occasion to Christ's coming, so from the very
moment of the Fall was there this intimation of
His approach. The Fall had been the breaking
up of natural society ; the failure of whatever
might be expected from the original stock of man-
kind. His race was doomed to perish " like corn
blasted before it be grown up." Death spiritual at
once asserted its empire over the disobedient seed,
and temporal death would have followed in its ap-
pointed season. But in the meantime came in that
merciful promise, which opened a door of hope
for offending mortality, and asserted that by the
woman's seed her serpent enemy should finally be
subjugated. This promise found its completion in
Christ ; it was the first intimation that He should
be the head and representative of His brethren.
Yet this first promise was so large and general, that
in itself it taught nothing, except that the deliver-
ance promised to man should arise from something
which was bound up with the race itself, and should
connect itself, therefore, with its collective character.
By attaching the promise to the woman's seed, its
giver bound it to the extension of society. And
this is the reason, as St. Irenaeus points out, why
St. Luke, who wrote especially for Gentile readers,
traces up the descent of Christ to Adam ; his object
being to show that all nations, languages, and gene-
c
18 CHRIST'S OFFICE
rations, were related to Him who is the new head
of Adam's race, because they were united to Adam
by common paternity. 1 But as yet there was no
intimation, so far as we read, respecting the nature
of that deliverance, which the progress of society
was to bring along with it; whether God's will was
to save by one or many by a gradual renovation
of the whole kindred, or through the appearance of
some selected combatant, who was to do battle
against the common enemy.
There was the less danger, no doubt, in such an
omission, because, while society was young, and
while man's intellect had gained little ascendency
over the external world, the idea of a self-depen-
dent advancement, through his inward power, had
no basis to rest upon. The Rationalistic notion,
that man's regeneration may be effected through
the progress of society, and the development of his
natural powers, is the delusion of a cultivated age.
In that simpler period of the world's history, the
tendency was rather to such unfounded reverence
for external objects, as issued in sensible idolatry.
But there was enough to sustain faithful hearts,
while the recollection of God's first dealings with
mankind was fresh, and while the promise was so
recent, that through some unknown working of
His sovereign power, there should arise out of the
race itself the means of its deliverance. Men's ex-
pectations showed themselves in such expressions
1 S. Iren. iii. 22, 3. p. 219.
IN ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 19
as those of Eve at the birth of Cain ; and the same
hope probably was associated with the name of
Noah, who was to comfort us concerning our work
and toil of our hands, because of the ground, which
the Lord hath cursed.
But something more was required when the lapse
of two thousand years had removed the first wit-
nesses to God's dealings and promises, while, at
the same time, the powers of man were strength-
ened by the growth of society and the advance-
ment of knowledge. It became essential that the
second part of God's mystery should be unfolded ;
there needed an intimation, that it was not through
' O
the natural development of humanity, but through
the entrance into its ranks of some superior power,
that its regeneration was to be effected. This
was announced through the call of Abraham. As
yet, men might still learn from Shem, what had
been delivered to him by Methuselah and other
contemporaries of Adam. Considering the advan-
tages which the first man had possessed, through
that acquaintance with God w T hich was his singular
privilege, it was impossible that the blessed hope of
reconciliation, with all that it implied respecting
man's original state and future prospects, should be
forgotten by those who had heard it only at second-
hand. But now, through the abridgment of man's
life, this mode of instruction was about to be lost.
The childhood of the human race was to merge in
that busy manhood of crime and toil, which made up
20 CHRIST'S OFFICE
the two thousand years of heathenism. And there-
fore, when the course of events had rolled on from
the Creation for about a similar period, it pleased God
to select a particular family from among the chil-
dren of men, to be the maintainers of His worship,
and the depository of His promises. With Abra-
ham began the peculiar privileges of the Church.
Then was the witness of an institution substituted
for that of individuals. And the promise that
through his seed should all nations of the earth
be blessed, was an indication that man's recovery
should not be effected by the self-relying efforts of
mankind, as they were scattered throughout the
earth, but through a gift, which it would please
God to bestow upon them through the one peculiar
channel of His own election. The seed of Abra-
ham was to be their common benefactor. Thus
was it made known, that though the renewal of
man was to work inwardly through some influence
which was to express itself in the woman's seed,
yet was it to be bestowed on that seed through one
particular family, as an external gift. And this
title to be the universal patron of the human race,
was confirmed by special promise to Isaac. 2 Now,
this promise must plainly look to that peculiar of-
fice, which was to be discharged by the coming Me-
diator, as the head of the human family ; unless,
indeed, it could be supposed that the restoration of
man's race was to be the work of that favoured
2 Gen. xxvi. 4.
IN ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 21
progeny, which inherited the distinction conferred
upon their parents. For it might be alleged that
the descendants of Abraham were designed to be
a seed of hereditary nobles, like the Brahminical
caste of India, through whom the degradation of
the other children of Adam was hereafter to be
redressed. Such was certainly the popular feeling
among the Jews, and such is really the tendency
of those carnal views of Scripture prophecy, which
apply the predictions respecting Israel to the tem-
poral seed of Abraham, and not to that true Israel,
which is heir by grace to the Father of the Faith-
ful. For Scripture speaks plainly of Israel, as the
salt of the earth and the head of the nations ; and
some such earthly superiority, therefore, would still
await it, were not these predictions really applicable
to those spiritual descendants of Abraham, " the
Israel of God." 3 So St. Paul especially assures us,
and he turns our thoughts, therefore, to that head
and representative of our race, in whom the words
of prophecy have their real fulfilment. As it was
through their connexion with Him who was to
come, that Israel was formerly God's people, so
3 Gal. vi. 16. To suppose that the Jewish nation will here-
after be converted, as St. Paul appears to intimate, Rom. xi. 26,
and that its conversion will be productive of blessings to the
world at large, is not inconsistent with a belief that the spiritual
precedency granted to the heirs of Abraham belongs to his
spiritual and not to his carnal progeny. " Nee hi tantum essent
Israel, quos sanguis et caro genuisset, sed in possessionem hoere-
ditatis fidei filiis praeparatse, universitas adoptionis intraret."
S. Leo, Ser. xxv. 2.
22 CHRIST'S OFFICE
does Scripture teach us that it is those who are
members of Him, who at present constitute the
Israel of God. Since the advent of Christ, it is
through union only with Him, that men can be
heirs of the promise to Abraham. In opposition to
that carnal interpretation, which would appropriate
the sayings of Scripture to the physical descen-
dants of the Patriarchs, St. Paul points out an
express declaration in ancient prophecy, that the
world-embracing benefits of His seed would not be
connected with those many nations, which were
sprung from him according to the flesh, but with
that single race, which was united to him through
relation to an individual representative. " He saith
not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to
thy seed, 4 which is Christ." 5 And that Abraham
himself had discovered the meaning of this deep
mystery, we are expressly informed, for " Abraham
rejoiced to see My day ; and he saw r it, and was
glad."
That which was understood by the Father of the
4 That Our Lord is in this verse identified with the members
of His body mystical is subsequently noticed. A neological ob-
jection has been urged against St. Paul's argument, because,
though the Greek word for seed is individual, yet the Hebrew
yif which is used in the original promise, is collective, and
does not, therefore, point out the single character of Christ as
Abraham's representative. But the conditions of St. Paul's
argument are fulfilled by the fact, that the promises to Abraham
were confined to one out of the many races which were de-
scended from him ; and this race he affirms to consist of those
spiritual descendants of the Father of the Faithful, who make
up the body of Christ. 5 Gal. iii. 16.
IX ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 23
Faithful, was made still more manifest in a later
generation, when it was predicted that He who
should arise in Abraham's family, should sit upon
David's throne, and be the perpetual representative
of his royalty. This marked out plainly the indi-
vidual character of Him who was to come. And
herein lies the fulness of that prophetic inspiration,
which asserts the continuance of David's throne,
and the perpetuity of his family. The perpetual
use of the Psalms, according to the immemorial
custom of the Church, must seem unmeaning to
those who discern not the Gospel import of pray-
ing " for the peace of Jerusalem," and to whom the
Church's oneness, as it is asserted in the Creed, is
not a commentary on the declaration that "Jeru-
salem is built as a city that is at unity in itself."
And so is it respecting those predictions of the
head and deliverer of mankind, which were ex-
pressed in the shape of promises to David. We
behold the Pattern Man in His office as the Son of
David, when we testify that " they shall fear Thee,
as long as the sun and moon endureth, from one
generation to another." Or again, " His seed shall
endure for ever, and His seat is like as the sun be-
fore me. He shall stand fast for evermore as the
moon, and as the faithful witness in heaven." These
references to material objects indicate, that the su-
periority here assigned belongs to some representa-
tive of our race, who should share its created cha-
racter. They claim for Him certain rights, (inde-
24 CHRIST'S OFFICE
pendently of the copartnership of that deity, from
which, as we are assured, He was never separate,)
in that He came to be heir of David's throne, and
inheritor of the promises. In this character, u His
name shall endure for ever : His name shall remain
under the sun among the posterities, which shall
be blessed through Him, and all the Heathen shall
praise Him." "All kings shall fall down before
Him ; all nations shall do Him service ; for He
shall deliver the poor when he crieth, the needy
also, and him that hath no helper. He shall live,
and unto Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia :
prayer shall be made ever unto Him, and daily shall
He be praised." 6
To such declarations the fond expectation of the
Jewish nation still clings, and they can not believe
that sayings so express, were not designed to re-
ceive an earthly fulfilment. The mere figurative
interpretation of such promises, seems cold and
meagre. But a literal fulfilment they doubtless
have, if the humanity of the Son of God be taken
account of. It is through His character of the
Pattern Man, that He actually fulfils that office
of Head or King of God's chosen people, to which
ancient prophecy bore such inspiring witness. If
the Church of Christ be really God's kingdom,
where the Son of David rules over the Israel of
His new election, whom He has redeemed to Him-
self through the waves of baptism, and is now lead-
6 Psalm Ixxii. 5, 17, 11, 12, 15 ; Psalm Ixxxix. 35, 36.
IX ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 25
ing, in their weary journey through the wilderness
of this world, to the promised Canaan of their
heavenly rest, then have the declarations of ancient
Scripture a real accomplishment, and "Jerusalem,
which is above," is the present "mother of us all." 7
If ever the light of Gospel truth shall visit the eyes
of God's earlier people, it must surely be by their
abandoning the carnal expectations of earthly great-
ness, and yet adhering to the meaning of their an-
cient realities. If they would thus look at God's
words, neither as a mere letter nor as an empty
figure they would discern the hidden reality of
their hallowed system, they would find their own
Jerusalem in the Church of God, the election perpe-
tuated in her ranks, the divine presence manifested
in her ordinances, the son of David ever with her
" even to the end of the world," and " a new and
living way into the holiest, consecrated for them
through the vail, that is to say, His flesh." 8
As the individual character of man's deliverer
had been indicated by that throne, w T hich was
ascribed to Him as the successor of David, so was
it declared in still more express words, when He
was spoken of by that line of Prophets, who were
types of Him in their witness and sufferings, but
whose full object could not be attained, till He
who had led them by the secret workings of His
spirit, came in personal completeness into the
world, "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
7 Gal. iv. 26. 8 Heb. x. 20.
26 CHRIST S OFFICE
glory of His people Israel." As yet this light
" shined in a dark place," and those who heard
them might not unnaturally ask at times : "I pray
thee, of whom speaketh the Prophet this, of him-
self, or of some other man ?" To their own spirits,
however, "it was revealed that not unto themselves,
but unto us, they did minister the things which are
now reported," and their w r ords intimate clearly the
personal character of Him who was to arise as the
restorer of His brethren. They had deep insight
into the great truths, that the regeneration of man's
race was not merely an outward benefit, attained
through the withdrawal of physical evils, nor yet
the result of the mere self-dependent exertions of
our inner being, but that some actual power from
without must enter into man's nature, and that in
Him the long yearnings of humanity should find
satisfaction.
" There shall come forth," says Isaiah, " a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow
out of his roots ; and the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him." This comparison is repeatedly
employed, and is of singular significancy. It im-
plies, that man's nature is shared in common by
the whole human family; and that He who rises
up out of it, on behalf of its other partakers, is, in
some real manner, united to the parent stock, and,
therefore, to all its branches. "Behold the man,
whose name is the BRANCH, and He shall grow up
out of His place, and He shall build the temple of
IX ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 27
the Lord : even He shall build the temple of the
Lord, and He shall have the glory, and shall sit and
rule upon His throne, and He shall be a priest
upon His throne." 5 Or again, "I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign
and prosper." 10
These passages look to the exaltation of man's
nature, in the person of some favoured representa-
tive, who should obtain blessings for his whole race.
And, therefore, the right of representing the root
itself, is attributed to this prosperous branch, in
which the parent stock is resuscitated. For that
which had been spoken of as a Branch, is imme-
diately afterwards declared by the Prophet to be
the Root itself : " In that day there shall be a root
of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the peo-
ple ; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and his rest shall
be glorious." 11 And thus was the prophecy inter-
preted to the beloved Disciple, since the " Lamb as
it had been slain," by which is plainly indicated
Our Lord, regarded according to His human nature,
is declared to be the "Root of David." 12 Indeed,
the word which our translators have understood
stem, indicates the same conception ; its literal
meaning is that of a stem which has been cut
down 13 a stool, as woodmen technically express
it, which may serve the purpose of supplying a
future plant. And thus are our thoughts led to
9 Zech. vi. 12. 10 Jer. xxiii. 5. " Isaiah, xi. 10.
12 Rev. v. 5. 13 " Abgehauener Stamm." Gesenius, in loco.
28 CHKIST'S OFFICE
the notion, which is otherwise given by Isaiah, in
his fifty-third chapter, where the dry ground of
man's nature is spoken of as germinant with the
plant of our salvation : " He shall grow up before
him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground." 14 This is He, then, of whom it is further
spoken, " unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given." " Weigh the words," says Bishop An-
drews " child is not said, but in humanis, among
men." 1 Here, then, we have so many predictions
of a personal inheritor of humanity, whose office
should be to redeem and restore His race. Thus
are we led to the contemplation of Him as that
" Son of Man," which He is called in the New
Testament as the representative, that is, of man's
nature, growing out of it to a glory which, in no
other instance it had acquired, and becoming a
Head and Pattern, not only to the Jewish, but to
the whole human family. For "to it shall the
Gentiles look, and glory shall be its dwelling."
To follow up this subject, as it becomes manifest
in the New Testament, would be to anticipate
future parts of our inquiry, since it is impossible
to separate the statements of Our Lord's Office
from the consideration of those blessings which He
conferred in its discharge. Here, therefore, it is
enough to say, that He is expressly declared to be
"the last Adam;" and that what was gained in
Him is set against what was lost by His predeces-
14 Isaiah, liii. 2. 15 Sermon II. Of the Nativity, p. 11.
IN ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. 29
sor : " for since by man came death, by man came
also the resurrection of the dead." 16 He is stated,
according to His earthly nature, to be "the first-
born of every creature;" 17 a passage which bears
out the opinion of St. Athanasius, that the refe-
rence to the creation of wisdom in the Book of
Proverbs is designed, among other things, to set
forth the Incarnation of Our Lord, as the head or
pattern of humanity. St. Athanasius, following
the Septuagint, and expressing the Hebrew with
more exactness than is done in our Translation, 18
renders Proverbs, viii. 22, " The Lord created me
a beginning of His ways, which is equivalent," he
observes, "to the assertion that the Father pre-
pared me a body, and He created me for man, on
behalf of their salvation." 19 And again, "Because
the Son says, when He took on Him the form of a
servant, the Lord created me a beginning of His
ways, let not men deny the eternity of His God-
16 1. Corinthians, xv. 21, 45. l7 Colossians, i. 15.
18 The Hebrew word, |"l3p> has for its original meaning, to
T!T
set upright, and thence to build or make. This must be its
signification in Deuteronomy, xxxii. 6 ; Psalm cxxxix. 13 ;
and probably also in Genesis, xiv. 19, 22, where our transla-
tion, following the Vulgate, renders it, as in this case, " possess."
The Greek is en-riaev.
" Firstborn," and " Beginning of His ways," would, in this
case, be taken in the order of ideas rather than of time. Per-
haps, St. Paul speaks in the same way of the Fifth Command-
ment, as being the Foundation Commandment, with a promise.
The Fifth Commandment is not the first in order which has a
promise, but it is Refoundation of our duty to our neighbour.
19 Oratio II. contra Arianos, sec. 47, vol. i. p. 515 ; and also
Athanasius's Epistle to the Bishops of Egypt and Lybia, p. 317.
30 CHRIST'S OFFICE.
head." 20 By putting on our nature then did He
become the type on which it was moulded. His
discharging the function of priest, therefore, and
His submitting to be our common sacrifice, are
set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as con-
sequent upon that undertaking for mankind at
large, whereby the predictions, which had been
uttered respecting the whole race, found their com-
pletion by being concentrated in His single person.
" One in a certain place testified, saying, What is
man, that Thou art mindful of Him ; or the son of
man that Thou visitest him ? Thou madest him a
little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him
with glory and honour, and didst set him over the
works of Thy hands : Thou hast put all things in
subjection under his feet. For in that He put all
in subjection under him, He left nothing that is
not put under him. But now we see not yet all
things put under him : But we see Jesus, who was
made a little lower than the angels, for the suf-
fering of death, crowned with glory and honour;
that He by the grace of God should taste death for
every man." 21 Thus do those things, which were
spoken of humanity at large, find their completion
in Christ, because He, who by office is the Pattern
Man, has a right to represent the rest.
20 Or. II. contra Ar. sec. 51, p. 518. 21 Hebrews, ii. 6-9.
31
CHAPTER III.
CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN BY NATURE.
THE assertion that Our Lord was, by office, the
Pattern Man, leads to the further inquiry, whether
He was so merely by title or in reality. Might
His office have been as fitly assumed by any be-
sides Himself, or was He marked out for it by the
constitution of His nature ? Was He any other-
wise the Pattern Man than Moses, who, in his day,
was representative for his brethren ? Could St.
Peter or St. John have been chosen, with equal
propriety, to be the new Head of man's race; or,
in that case, could such words ever have been em-
ployed as, " Thou hast redeemed us by Thy blood;"
or again, " My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood
is drink indeed ?"
We proceed, then, to show that Our Lord was
fitted, by His man's nature, for the office which
He discharged ; that as man He had a right to
the title which He bore, and was what He passed
for. The long predictions which taught that, in
the fulness of time, a MAN should appear, whose
32 CHRIST, BY NATURE
office should be to restore His brethren, had their
consummation in Him, because He and He only
was qualified, by the constitution of His being, for
the service which He rendered. And although this
fitness resulted from the influence of that higher
nature, which was associated with humanity in His
sacred person, yet it was a fitness which belonged
to His man's nature in itself, and by reason of that
peculiar manner in which He assumed it. Media-
tion was not a function which the Son of Man
undertook from arbitrary choice, but one which
He was born to discharge. For this end did His
Godhead vouchsafe to mingle in our lower world;
and for this end His manhood was purposely
adapted. Now, the grounds of His peculiar fitness
must be found by inquiring into the nature which
He took, and into the manner in which He took
it. We proceed, then, to the consideration of
these questions : First, What is meant by that
human nature which Christ, Our Lord, assumed;
secondly, What was there in His manner of as-
suming it, which made Him the peculiar pattern
and representative of mankind. The settlement of
these two questions is intimately connected with
that which is termed by St. Paul, " the mystery of
God, and of the Father, and of Christ," because they
exhibit to us how " God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself." The inquiry is one
which begins with a survey of our own being, but
which speedily leads us up from God's works, as
THE PATTERN MAX. 33
they are manifest in creation, to His word, as re-
vealed in Holy Writ. The expectations of man
show what is needed for the satisfaction of his
wants, but it must be by some external agency
that these wants can be remedied. Our inner
feelings, our thoughts, views, hopes, and fears are,
no doubt, an important element in our religion
they touch on the momentous questions of our
earnestness and sincerity. But all these are move-
ments and affections which lie within ourselves.
If Christ's service, however, be anything real if
there be truly a kingdom of heaven round about
us if there be such things as heaven and hell,
angels and devils, God sitting upon His throne,
the Lamb which was slain making intercession for
His people then are we likewise surrounded by a
set of truths outside of ourselves, and these eternal
realities press closely on the transitory concerns of
this passing life. And our religious state must
depend not only on our inward feelings, but also
upon our actual relation to those external realities,
which are round about us.
The review of Our Lord's nature has its begin-
ning, then, in a consideration of those observed
wants of humanity, which He came, as the child
of promise, to supply; but it has its consummation
in those higher mysteries, which have been re-
vealed to us as the method of supplying them.
Out of this circumstance arises the extreme re-
verence which is due to the sayings of Scripture.
D
34 CHRIST, BY NATURE
Since its inspired words are our indication respect-
ing that other world which is all around us, we
cannot prize too highly even those occasional in-
timations which open vistas into the mighty depth
of God's counsels. We are actually living in the
midst of a divine and supernatural system. We
know of it only through glimpses, and by shadows.
What so precious, then, as the sayings of those,
" whose eyes were opened," who " spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost ?" To this it is,
then, that our inquiry into that human nature
which was taken by Christ Our Lord, must lead
us up ; in this it must terminate. We must imitate
the great Prophet of nature : " Thy creatures
have been my books, but Thy Scriptures much
more. I have sought Thee in the courts, fields,
and gardens ; but I have found Thee in Thy
temples."
I. We see, then, a race of beings, extending
through every part of the world, the members
whereof resemble one another in features, organs,
understanding, affections, and passions. This race
we call collectively mankind. We see also in the
world an abundance of other organized beings,
which have a greater or less relation to man,
and which, from the singular analogy which their
bodily organs have to our own, are, in some
respects, plainly creatures of the same hand, and
parts of the same creation. All these obey this
THE PATTERN MAN. 35
one singular law, that those only which appear to
be derived from the same stock will multiply to-
gether. Consider their almost boundless number,
the close resemblance which some of them bear to
others, and the perfect subjection of so many of
them to the caprice of man, and there is something
amazing in that plastic nature, which can maintain
the almost imperceptible intervals between so many
continuous lines of animal life, and reproduce the
types of every kind in endless succession, without
confusion, variety, or decay. This is one of God's
great works, whereby He blends the supremacy of
law and the prodigality of nature. From the
lowest sponge to the most complex mollusk, and
thence to the numerous classes of the vertebrate
kingdom, till we come to man there is evidently
some single principle, which show r s itself in nothing
so remarkably as in the perpetuation of the same
type, amidst the various classes of co-ordinate be-
ings. Even if their divisions were not referable, as
most naturalists suppose, to the fact of a common
descent; yet the existence of some such law is
evidenced by that harmonious march, which we wit-
ness in the tribes of animated nature from day to
day. There is, likewise, the singular phenomenon,
that qualities will sometimes come out in individuals
of a race, for which we cannot account, except by
supposing them to have been buried, if such an
expression may be used, in the collective nature,
till favourable opportunities allowed them to re-
36 CHRIST, BY NATURE
appear. Abundant instances of the kind are
afforded by the physical history of man. 2 To this
principle we must refer the fact, that peculiarities
which were accidentally present, as it would seem,
in the heads of any particular subdivision of some
natural class, are commonly, but not perpetually,
transmitted to their descendants. Such circum-
stances are properties of particular families; but
not having been originally bound up with the con-
stitution of the race, they are not an indissoluble
part of it.
We find the animal kingdom, then, pervaded by
a mysterious law, which imposes unity of type
upon all the classes which constitute it. And the
analogy thus supplied, seems as though intended
to lead us on to the observation of the same fact,
when we come to that highest portion of the animal
kingdom, which God has endued with the faculties
of reason, conscience, and love. In the case of
man likewise, we discern the fact of some real prin-
ciple of connexion, by which the individual mem-
bers of his race are bound together, which consti-
tutes them an actual whole, and which shows itself
in that uniformity of type, which marks the per-
petual ranks of their infinite succession. This
1 Looking lower in the scale of creation, it is often observed
that from two horses of the same colour will arise a progeny
which bears no likeness at all to the colour of its parents.
2 Vide Dr. Pritchard's " Researches into the Natural History
of Man."
THE PATTERN MAN. 37
principle of connexion, is what we call human
nature. Wherein this connexion consists can no
more be explained, than wherein consists the union
between the soul and the body. It depends not,
of course, on physical contact, like that which
exists between the waters of the great deep. It
does not interfere with the separate life of each
man's spirit, whereby has been assigned to him the
momentous gift of that individual personality, for
which he must render account at the great day.
All that is asserted of it is that it is a real bond,
by which every man is tied to that primitive type,
which perpetuates itself in him and in all others.
That we should have no powers of analysis, capa-
ble of ascertaining what this principle is, presents
no just reason for denying its existence. What do
we know T of electricity except by its effects ? The
constant repetition of the same results, under simi-
lar circumstances, leads us to infer the existence
of some real though imponderable agent. And the
same conclusion seems justified, when we see the
perpetual re-appearance of the same type in those
who are possessors of the same nature.
This subject needs more close consideration, be-
cause it has been supposed by some persons, that
the belief in such a thing as human nature is essen-
tially connected with the erroneous notions of the
schoolmen, and implies that every class has, as its
counterpart, some actual thing. " Each man," it
is said, " is born with certain powers and dispo-
38 CHRIST, BY NATURE
sitions, which constitute his own nature; and the
resemblance of them in all his fellows, produces a
general idea, or a collective appellation, \vhichever
we may prefer to say, called the nature of man."
And, therefore, Pascal is censured by Mr. Hallam,
because he " seems never to have disentangled his
mind from the notion, that what we call human
nature has not merely an arbitrary and gram-
matical, but an intrinsic, objective reality." 3
Before we consider the justice of this objection,
it will be well to state more exactly the position
of those who believe in the reality of that which is
called human nature. It is not affirmed, then, that
we can trace the connexion by which one man
is bound to another, or analyze the mysterious
principle of transmitted life, upon which it is
dependent. Still less is it asserted, that there is
any independent force in the material substratum
of man's being, which, by virtue of its innate
efficacy, has the power of propagating life. It is
probable that matter depends for its existence upon
the constant efficacy of God's power and presence.
Were not He constantly present with the w r hole
creation, it would seem that " its instant annihila-
tion could not choose but follow." 4 The conti-
3 " Literature of Europe," iv. 160.
4 This last is the principle of God's Immanence, as opposed
to that Deistic theory of Transcendence, which supposes that
the qualities of matter having been bestowed upon it by its
Maker, everything has been left to go on by the impulse which
was originally bestowed.
THE PATTERN MAX. 39
nuity of our race does not depend, any more than
the identity of an individual, on the sameness of
the parts, which at any time make up man's body ;
indeed, one characteristic of it is, that the same
portions of matter may pass successively through
the whole series of the animal kingdom, without
affecting the transmission of that impulse of life,
which is handed on from sire to son. " Why may
not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
till he find it stopping a bunghole ?" Again, it is
not implied that there is any reality in human na-
ture, distinct from the personal characteristics and
conditions of the individuals who bear it. It is a
principle which shows itself in many types, and
exists in the varying types in which it shows itself.
We cannot separate off anything, distinct from the
constituent parts and qualities of each man, and
say that this is the nature which is common to the
race. What is it, then, that we affirm ? On the
fact that the same form continually appears, we
ground the probability that its re-appearance de-
pends on some unknown principle of connexion.
Appearances lead us to imagine that the whole
series of man's race is in some sort an organized
whole ; its several possessors having an actual rela-
tion to one another. As the life of the foot is the
same with that of the hand, because they belong
to the same body ; so, because all the children of
Adam are members of one race, they are the chan-
nels through which is transmitted a single nature.
40 CHRIST, BY NATURE
The scriptural authority for this opinion shall be
noticed shortly : at present let us consider its na-
tural probability. Those who deny it, object to the
assertion, that man's race is to be looked upon as
possessing a common organization. Though they
may admit, therefore, that all men are corrupt, yet
they appear to exclude the notion that original sin
is a transmitted corruption. " Man's nature, as it
now is," says Mr. Hallam, "that which each man
and all men possess, is the immediate workmanship
of God, as much as at his creation." On this prin-
ciple, "the corruption of human nature," is stated
to be a phrase, which is " analogical and inexact."
Now, though every individual specimen of human-
ity be God's creation, why should it not be His
pleasure to exercise His creative powers according
to the law of a natural interdependency ? The foot
and the hand are His work, as much as the whole
body ; but they are not endued with a separate
life, but with a life w^hich is relative to the whole.
In like manner, the preservation of the race of man
is made to grow out of that quickening impulse,
which we call the life of humanity. This notion,
which was called Traducianism by the schoolmen
(the system opposed to it being termed Creatian-
ism), has on its side an overwhelming amount of
probabilities. If men throw dice several times
upon a table, the determination of every cast is
in God's hands ; but because there is no law of
interdependency in the action, the issue in each
THE PATTERN MAN. 41
case is wholly uninfluenced by the case which pre-
ceded it. Every time they throw, the chances are
the same that they were the first time. Now,
unless there be some principle of interdependency
among organized beings, why is not the same va-
riety apparent ? Why should not such anomalies
as Virgil attributes to culture, be the ordinary law ?
CastanesE fagos, ornusque incanduit albo
Flore pyri, glandesque sues fregere sub ulmis.
Unless some reason, therefore, can be assigned
for the contrary, there is an infinite improbability
in the application of Creatianism to the case of or-
ganized nature. And yet there is one case in which
it seems necessary to admit it. There is one part of
man's nature, the very existence of which depends
so completely on its individual, uncompounded, in-
dependent action, that it seems impossible to refer it
to the co-operating influences of human parentage.
The spirit* of man, with its peculiar principle of
6 It may be thought inconsistent with the general argument
of this work, to suppose that the Almighty interferes according
to the law of Creatianism by birth, as He does according to the
law of regeneration by baptism. But this principle is not con-
tended for as respects the soul at large ; there may be enough
to maintain its traditive character, even though Personality be
supposed to be incapable of being transmitted. It is certain
that He who took our whole nature did not take the principle
of Personality according to the law of Traducianism ; but that
" antequam ab illo forma servi esset accepta, nondurn fuerit
Christus, sed tantummodo Verbum." Vlgilius c, Eutych. iv. 5.
" Ut per se sibi assumsit ex virgine corpus, ita ex se sibi animam
assumpsit." S. Hilar. de Trin. x. 22.
42 CHRIST, BY NATURE
personality, is generally supposed to be an imme-
diate work of God's creative will ; although it be
His will, in man's nature at large, to work accord-
ing to the system of Traducianism. St. Augustin, 6
indeed, expresses himself as uncertain to the last,
whether even the soul was an immediate creation ;
but the great majority of later writers agree in the
opinion expressed by Giinther: 7 "Traducianism has
its function in respect to the animal (psyclmclie)
life of man ; on the other hand, the province of
Creatianism is with his soul, and it would travel
out of its province if it extended the immediate
creative action of God to that animal life, which is
the principle of his body's existence."
Some of the most striking arguments for tin's
view of things, are derived from the relation of man
to that inferior world of organized life, of which
his creation was the conclusion and crown. The
singular identity of arrangement which pervades
the whole series of living beings ; the very lowest
possessing in rudiment every part and principle
which belongs to the body of the highest, marks
them out as subject to one universal law. Let us
6 Quod attinet ad animse originem, utrum de illo uno sit, qui
primum creatus est, quando factus est homo in animam vivam,
an similiter ita fiant singulis singuli ; nee tune sciebam, nee
adhuc scio. St. Aug. Retrac. i. 1, sec. 3.
St. Hilary expresses the more predominant opinion, that
anima omnis opus Dei sit, carnis vero generatio semper ex
carne sit. De Trin. x. 20.
7 Vorschule zur speculativen Theologie. Vol. ii. p. 181,
Letter 8.
THE PATTERN MAN. 43
descend the scale, then, till we reach those inferior
beings, in whom the unvaried arrangements of phy-
sical structure appear under their simplest condi-
tions. Now, in their case we actually discern that
continuity, for the existence of which, though after
a different manner, we contend in the case of
mankind. The law of Traducianism cannot be
questioned in the case of the polyp, whose body is
often an actual fragment of the body from which it
is derived. The same principle may be discerned
in this case as in that of the graft or sucker, which
existed in its perfect state as a partaker of life, of
which, when transplanted, it becomes, in its turn,
the parent. If we admit this principle in the lower
ranks of animal life, how can we deny its applica-
tion to the higher ? Nor can an external truth
be destroyed by the logical difficulty which may
attach to its expression. The objection brought
against the actual existence of human nature is,
that being only an abstraction formed by ourselves
from a variety of examples, there can be no real
thing intended by it; to give it actual existence
is supposed to be the error of the Realists, who
attributed an objective existence to those universal
conceptions, which were only the creatures of their
own minds. Hence, the reality of human nature,
as a thing existing in the external world, is denied,
because to assert reality for the idea of it in our
own minds, would be contrary to the theory of
Nominalism, which prevails in logic. But this is
44 CHRIST, BY NATURE
to abuse the principles of Nominalism on one side,
as the opposite principle of Realism has been abused
on the other. That many objects can be united
by our classing them under a common idea, does
not give them any real objective union; but neither
does it take that union away, provided that by
other means it can be shown to exist. Yet this is
the argument of those who, on principles of Nomi-
nalism, deny the objective existence of human
nature. They pass over the distinction between
such classifications as men make for themselves by
an inward act of reasoning, and such as have been
provided in the external world by God's Provi-
dence. The one are only our own internal acts;
the other have an external existence. The error
of the Realists was encouraged, according to Arch-
bishop Whately, 8 by observation of those organized
beings, which are bound together by the unalter-
able laws of nature. That in these cases there
existed a real, though unknown bond, which main-
tained the perpetuity of the class, led men to
attribute an objective existence to their own ab-
stractions. But if no real connexion had united
these external objects, the sight of them would not
have led any one astray. When we class together
philosophers or physicians, we bestow a common
name upon those who are associated by their dis-
positions or employments. There is no connexion
between them, distinct from the thoughts and
8 Whately's Logic, p. 260.
THE PATTERN MAN. 45
actions to which the individuals described choose
to addict themselves. There is a real similarity in
their doings, supposing the class to be happily
designated ; but it is a similarity only, and at their
will they may cease to resemble one another. It
would be a vicious Realism, therefore, to assert the
existence of an objective connexion among these
parties, because we can embrace them under a
common idea; but it would be an equally vicious
Nominalism to deny an objective reality, where
an inherent law prevents the possibility of such
re-arrangement, and confines individuals to the
peculiar classes to w r hich they severally belong.
The first would be to claim for our own mind the
power of making its inward ideas into external
realities ; the second would be to deny the existence
of external realities, because we have not the power
of making them. We have no right, therefore, to
deny the existence of a common nature in those
who are derived from a common origin ; whose
union does not depend upon their voluntary com-
bination, and cannot be dissolved by their own will.
In such a case, then, it would not be contrary to
reason, to suppose that the nature transmitted was
susceptible of improvement or deterioration ; so that
its collective state might be found to be the result
of all those impulses, which had been bestowed
upon it by its innumerable possessors, since it came
first from its maker's hands. Such impulses, must,
of course, be most potent, independently of higher
46 CHRIST, BY NATURE
considerations, in its earliest stages, when as yet
it was centred in a single pair, both because it was
without previous bias, and because there could be
no one whose descent was not derived from its
first possessors. But the very existence of such a
deterioration implies, of course, the reality of that
common being, which links together every child of
Adam.
But the community of nature must not be con-
fined merely to that animal side of man's being, on
which he touches upon the brute creation. What
is the meaning of all conference and concert among
men, unless there be a real unity in the higher part
of their constitution ? The instinctive belief in
such an union lies too deep, surely, to be the mere
result of observation. There is a moral instinct,
by which we feel assured that the sentiments which
live in our own heart, will be responded to in that
of our brother. The man must be cold and faith-
less who could enjoy life without such confidence.
Even our judgments about the material world,
assume the existence of principles common to us
all. Coincidence, resemblance, and proportion, the
three keys to our knowledge of creation, require to
exist within us, in order to be called forth. Any
one will discern this who attempts to demonstrate,
properly speaking, the Fourth Proposition of the
First Book of Euclid. But much more may the
same be observed respecting our judgment on the
great truths of morals. Here it is especially, that
THE PATTERN MAN. 47
we bear witness continually to the possession of a
common nature. Ingratitude and oppression, jus-
tice and truth the feelings of which these are
the natural objects testify clearly to some close
alliance, which binds together all the far-severed
scions of the family of mankind.
Independently of our conviction, that our opi-
nions have such truth and rectitude as must com-
mend them to higher beings, there is a principle
of sympathy in our judgments, which irresistibly
enforces upon us the kindred character of our
minds. When Milton describes Adam's inter-
course with an angel, he is compelled to seek for
that principle of connexion in gratitude to a com-
mon Creator, which some inherent law of union
produces of itself among mankind :
" Only this I know,
That one Celestial Father gives to all."
So that, however strong may be the arguments for
Creatianism in respect to some part of our spiri-
tual constitution, we cannot doubt that a connect-
ing principle either binds together these more
subtile parts of man's being, or that they are in-
fluenced by the alliance of that with which they
are united. 9 How close is the connexion which
9 " The Pelagian can form no other estimate of humanity,
than as a mass of co-ordinate independent spiritual individuals ;
in virtue, as in sin, every one stands and falls by himself. The
Augustinian cannot think of it, except as a collective commu-
48 CHRIST, BY NATURE
may often be traced even in mental qualities, be-
tween the inheritors of the same blood. True, they
resemble one another most closely in such parts of
their mental constitution as most border upon phy-
sical being in memory, for example in habits
in hand-writing ; but such things are surely some
reflection of what lives within. And then rising
from the family to the race, the calculations which
are founded on the acts and opinions of men, indi-
cate as wonderful an accordance in the judgment
of mankind, regarded as a whole, as we find dissi-
milarity through the eccentricities of individuals.
By some this has been carried so far, that tables
have been drawn up, on which it is stated that con-
siderable reliance may be placed, with a view to
estimate the probable moral conduct of a number
of individuals. 10 This has been thought to militate
against the reality of man's spiritual nature. Yet
what does it show in reality, but that the same
unity which belongs so clearly to the animal nature,
extends itself likewise to the spiritual part of man ?
Our knowledge of immaterial, like our knowledge
of material essences, is drawn only from observa-
tion ; each has its laws and mode of action ; and
those who would materialize spirit, go no further
in settling the perplexities of our compound nature,
nity, the individual members whereof are not separate indepen-
dent wholes, but integral portions of the totality." Olshausen
on Rom. v. 12.
10 Vide an extract from the Dublin Review, for August,
1840, in "The Vestiges of Creation," p. 333, second edition.
THE PATTERN MAN. 49
than those who would spiritualize matter. The
fact, therefore, remains where it was before ; both
our outer and inner being testify to the existence
of a relation between the different members of the
family of man. It may be that our inner being is
in part handed down from one to other in part
derived from that creative impulse, which gives
each of us a personal life. But whatever theory
be adopted on this subject, the facts of the case
testify to the existence of one common life, and this
common life we call human nature. 11
It may be said that the preceding considerations
do not disprove the system of Creatianism ; for why
may not like produce like, though no such entity
as human nature be admitted ? No attempt has
been made to disprove this system, as being incapa-
11 " In Adam the original material of Humanity, in Christ the
original idea of it in the divine mind, have a personal existence.
In them is Humanity concentrated, and therefore is Adam's sin
the sin of all, and Christ's offering an universal atonement.
Every leaf of a tree may flourish and wither by itself, but all
suffer from the decay of the root, and profit by its recovery.
The more superficial a man is, the more isolated will everything
seem to him, for on the surface all things are detached. In
mankind, in the nation, even in the family, he will see nothing
but individuals, whose actions are altogether distinct. The
deeper a man is, the more conscious will he be of those inward
principles of unity, which radiate from the centre. Even the
love of our neighbour is only a deep feeling of this unity, for a
man does not love those to whom he does not perceive and feel
himself bound. Unless sin could come through one, and through
one atonement, there could be no understanding the command
to love our neighbour." StahPs Phil, des Rechfs, quoted by
Olsliausen on Rom. v. 12.
50 CHRIST, BY NATURE
ble either of proof or of refutation. What has been
maintained has been, first, that the logical objec-
tion to Traducianism, which is built upon the sys-
tem of Nominalism, is inconclusive ; secondly, that
probability is infinitely in favour of Traducianism,
except in regard to a certain principle of Per-
sonality, which has the appearance of being a dis-
tinct and original essence. For if no reason is
known why like should produce like, the chances
are infinitely against such a result, and in certain
other cases of an analogous character, an actual
traduction can be discerned. To say that for like
to spring from like may be a law imprinted by the
Creator's will, would be to concede the point under
discussion, since what is meant by a traditive nature,
except that God has bound successive generations
to the primary pair by a law of continuity ? But
for the proof that men are really associated by this
inexplicable law, we can refer only to Holy Scrip-
ture, as being the sole document, which professes
to give us an authoritative explanation of man's
nature. Now, to what purpose is the history of the
race traced to its earliest origin a thing towards
which all heathen mythologies were tending, but
which Scripture alone attains unless its fortunes
were regarded as a whole, and it must stand or
fall together ? Again, what means the statement,
that "by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin," unless there be some real con-
nexion between the sous of men, whereby the acts
THE PATTERN MAN. 51
of one affect another ? For the Apostle expressly
observes, that his statement is not confined to those
whose voluntary acts might have been imitations
of their predecessor. This explanation might per-
haps be alleged as a ground for the sinfulness of
responsible agents. But are not sin and death in-
separably united ? And how, then, do we account
for the sufferings and death of unconscious infants?
" Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression." 12
Again, the same truth is alluded to, when the
Apostle tells us, that "as I may so say, Levi
also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham.
For he was yet in the loins of his father when
Melchisedec met him." 13 The introduction shows,
indeed, that the statement is used in way of illus-
tration. Yet there must be a reality, which it
is intended to illustrate. That reality lies in the
actual connexion, by which the parties described
were bound together. Had there been no such
actual connexion, the expression had been forced
and hyperbolical. The use of so strong a term
shows that we are dealing with the case of things
which are not only associated together, so that
we can refer them to the same class, but which
are united by some actual bond to one another.
There is set before us the case of a great family,
commencing from the earliest period of recorded
12 Romans, v. 12, 14. 13 Hebrews, vii. 9, 10.
52 CHRIST, BY NATUEE
time, and extending throughout all portions of the
earth. It has an actual reference to one common
ancestor, and its connexion is analogous to that
interdependency of structure, which unites the
different portions of an organic agent into a co-
ordinate whole. Now, into this family it was, that
Christ Our Lord was pleased to enter. When He
took man's nature, He vouchsafed to ally Himself
to all members of this extended series, by the
actual adoption of that transmitted being which
related Him to the rest. He not only became like
men, and dwelt among them, but He became man
itself an actual descendant from their first pro-
genitor. He was made man. The Heathen notions
of divine succour either looked to the elevation of
some man to a divine eminency, or to the depres-
sion of some God to the level of mankind. But it
was reserved for the Gospel to declare that God
had actually become man, that He had really
entitled Himself to a share in the hereditary cha-
racteristics of this lower being, and qualified Him-
self for copartnership with His brethren.
Now, this is the fact declared, when it is stated
that Christ took man's nature : it implies the reality
of a common humanity, and His perfect and entire
entrance into its ranks. Thus did He assume a
common relation to all mankind. This is why the
existence of human nature is a thing too precious
to be surrendered to the subtilties of logic, because
upon its existence depends that real manhood of
THE PATTERN MAN. 53
Christ, which renders Him a copartner with our-
selves. And upon the reality of this fact is built
that peculiar connexion between God and man,
which is expressed by the term Mediation. It
looks to an actual alteration in the condition of
mankind, through the admission of a member into
its ranks, in whom and through whom it attained
an unprecedented elevation. Unless we discern
this real impulse which was bestowed upon hu-
manity, the doctrines of Atonement and Sanctifica-
tion, though confessed in w r ords, become a mere
empty phraseology. That " God was in Christ
reconciling the w r orld unto Himself," implies an
actual acceptance of the children of men, on ac-
count of the merits of one of their race ; as well as
an actual change in the race itself, through the
entrance of its nobler associate. The work of
man's redemption and renewal is a real work, per-
formed by real agents. It is not only that the
Almighty was pleased to save appearances, if we
may so express it, by conceding to the representa-
tions of a third party, what He did not choose
otherwise to yield or to acknowledge (as Queen
Philippa prevailed over her harsher husband,
Edward) ; but Christ's Incarnation w T as a step in
the mighty purposes of the Most High, whereby
all the relations of heaven and earth were truly
affected. To deny, as is done by Bishop Hamp-
den, 14 "that we may attribute to God any change
14 Bampton Lecture, V. p. 252.
54 CHRIST, BY NATURE
of purpose towards man by what Christ has done,"
would be to resolve this real series of acts into
a mere technical juggle. But to the reality of this
work, the existence of that common nature is indis-
pensable, w T hereby, " as the children were partakers
of flesh and blood, He Himself took part of the
same." Else, how would the perfect assumption of
humanity have consisted with His retaining that
divine personality, which it was impossible that He
should surrender ? Since it was no new person
which He took, it can only have been the substra-
tum, in which personality has its existence. For
His Incarnation was not the " conversion of God-
head into flesh, but the taking of the manhood into
God." Or how could He have entered into a com-
mon relation to mankind in general, unless there
had existed a common nature as the medium of
union ? This nature, which exists only in indi-
vidual persons, He took for the earthly clothing of
that divine personality, in which He must ever con-
tinue to exist.
What Christ associated to Himself, therefore, was
no individual man, but that common nature of
which Adam was the first example. " It was not
any human person in particular," says Bishop Beve-
ridge, " but the human nature [which] He assumed
into His sacred person." 15 "'The Word' (saith
St. John) ' was made flesh and dwelt in us. J The
Evangelist useth the plural number, men for man-
15 On Third Article, Works 9, 115.
THE PATTERN MAN. 55
hood, us for the nature whereof we consist, even as
the Apostle, denying the assumption of angelical
nature, saith likewise in the plural number, ' He
took not angels, but the seed of Abraham.' 16 It
pleased not the Word or Wisdom of God to take
to itself some one person amongst men, for then
should that one have been advanced which was
assumed, and no more ; but Wisdom, to the end she
might save many, built her house of that nature
which is common unto all she made not this or
that man her habitation, but dwelt in us. The
seeds of herbs and plants at the first are not in act,
but in possibility, that which they afterwards grow
to be. If the Son of God had taken to Himself a
man now made and already perfected, it would of
necessity follow, that there are in Christ two per-
sons, the one assuming, and the other assumed;
whereas the Son of God did not assume a man's
person unto His own, but a man's nature to His
own person, and therefore took semen, the seed of
Abraham, the very first original element of our
o
nature, before it was come to have any personal
human subsistence." 17
16 The marginal reading, " He taketh not hold of angels, but
of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold," is no doubt the literal
rendering of the Greek original of Heb. ii. 16. The rendering
in the text, however, which is the traditional one, stands to the
literal one, as the context shows, in the relation of effect to
cause, since it was because " the children are partakers of flesh
and blood," that " He also Himself likewise took part of the
same." And, therefore, the argument of the text is not impaired
by the mistranslation. 17 Eccles. Pol. v. 52-3.
56 CHRIST, BY NATURE
II. We conclude, then, that there is such a thing
as that common nature of man which is handed
down through an innumerable series of personal in-
heritors; and further, that He who was personally
God, took His place in this series by Incarnation,
and thus assumed a common relation to all its pos-
sessors. It remains to show, in the second place,
what was that peculiarity in His manner of taking
manhood, which rendered this divine partaker of
our nature, the proper head and representative of
the rest. That He would be greater, wiser, purer,
than others is manifest; But why was He their
natural representative ? What fitted Him to answer
for the rest? The nobler member who is adopted
into an earthly fraternity, has more influence than
his brethren ; but He does not become their repre-
sentative, unless so constituted by their voluntary
act. What was there in Christ's manner of adopt-
ing our being, which marked Him out from others ;
so that when He was pleased to introduce Himself
into the family of human beings, He became at
once " the first-born of every creature," " the be-
ginning of the creation of God?" Now, this ques-
tion is answered in Holy Scripture, when the name
of " the last Adam" is bestowed upon Him. Here-
by we learn, that those circumstances which ren-
dered Adam the type and head of man's race, are
exhibited again in more perfect measure in the man
Jesus Christ. The relation of Adam to the race of
which he was the first example, is witnessed by the
THE PATTERN MAN. 57
use of his name in the Hebrew language, as a
generic title for the human family. Not only is
Adam the word employed, when it is said, " let us
make man;" but the article prefixed to his name
(in cases where our version gives no indication of
it) implies that he was the man, the head or repre-
sentative of humanity. 18 The grounds of this rela-
tion to mankind at large are twofold : First, the tie
of common parentage, on account of which "the
man called his wife's name Eve, because she was
the mother of all living ;" and secondly, that he
was the type who represented the race in its per-
fection. " The Lord fashioned the Adam who was
dust from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and the Adam became a living
soul." An ingenious writer makes it an argument
against the genuineness of the book of Genesis " as
we have it," that there is here " an obvious attempt
to biographize the protogonous and archetypal
man ;" 19 but those who are content to take Scrip-
ture as they find it, will recognize in this circum-
stance the real connexion between the archetype
and his descendants. And such a connexion is a
necessary preparation for the great antitype of our
first parent the new man Jesus Christ. And if
His relation to His brethren is to be as perfect
as that of the first Adam, it must rest on the same
conditions He must be the stock from whom all
18 Vide Genesis, ii. 19, 20, 21 ; iii. 8 ; and iv. 1.
19 Vindication of Protestant Principles, p. 140.
58 CHRIST, BY NATURE
are descended, and the new type after which they
are to be formed. Now, the first of these grounds
of connexion shall be touched upon hereafter, when
we speak of that sacramental union, whereby men
are united to Christ. " The words of Adam," says
Hooker, "may be fitly the words of Christ con-
cerning His Church, ' flesh of my flesh, and bone
of my bones,' a true native extract out of mine
own body." 20 But what is asserted in this chap-
ter is, that the new Adam was as truly the type
and pattern of the renewed, as the old Adam of
the first creation. Thus did He occupy a place
corresponding to our original father, and become,
though in a different manner, the representative
of the race. Had He been only a common man,
however remarkable, He could not be placed in
opposition to our first parent, who was both the
fountain of our being, and the perfect specimen,
on whom the rest were moulded. Hereafter we
shall trace the principle of affinity which binds
Him to all men : at present it shall be shown, that
as Adam was the type in which man was originally
made, so Our Lord, regarded according to His
human being, was the fresh type, on which was
remodelled the nature of mankind.
The first step in this inquiry is to consider more
fully how Adam was the type, in which humanity
was originally made; and thus we shall be led to
discern that corresponding place, which is occupied
20 Eccles. Pol. v. 56-7.
THE PATTERN MAN. 59
by the purer and nobler type of manhood the
man Christ Jesus. For adopting this course there
is great authority. " You may wonder," says St.
Athanasius, "why, when we have proposed to treat
of the Incarnation, we now discuss the origin of
man. Yet to do so is nowise alien from our pur-
pose. For it is necessary that, in treating of Our
Lord's appearance among us, we should first con-
sider the origin of man." 21 What w r as there pecu-
liar then in Adam ? Wherein did the Protoplast,
as Bishop Bull calls him, after St. Irenaeus, differ
from us all ? His constitution, like ours, consisted
of body, soul, and spirit. The first and second of
these were the seat of appetite of that capacity
of admitting material impulses, which, in itself, is
neither virtuous nor sinful. Adam eat in Paradise ;
Eve discerned what was " good for food." It was
not till an act of disobedience had separated man
from God, that appetite degenerated into concupis-
cence. Its sinfulness arises from its being ungo-
verned, as more or less it is, in all the sinful
progeny of Adam. 22 " I delight in the law of God
21 De Incarnations, sec. 4, vol. i. p. 50.
2 "Concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of
sin." Art. ix. an intermediate declaration between the state-
ments of the Council of Trent and the ordinary Protestant
Confessions.
The words of the Augustan Confession are : " Quod hie
morbus, seu vitium originis, vere sit peccatum, &c." Sylloge
Conf., p. 123.
The Westminster Confession says : " Both itself, and all the
motions thereof, are truly and properly sin."
On the other hand, the Council of Trent says : " Concupiscen-
60 CHRIST, BY NATURE
after the inward man, but I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind." 23
Again, the soul and spirit of man were the seat
of the various passions and affections, while con-
science and will belonged especially to the spirit.
Wherein lies that personality, which makes each
man a separate individual, and thus responsible
for the deeds done in the body, before the throne
of God, it is vain to conjecture. Of all our con-
stituent parts, will seems the most to resemble it;
yet even will it is not, for in Christ was one person,
yet two wills. Neither is it the same thing with
conscience, however closely they are combined.
Enough that it is a principle unlike aught besides
in the universe, except it be found in those spiritual
essences, which exist along with and around us in
the creation of God.
Now, in Adam, all these parts of our nature
were not only good in themselves, but they were
happily co-ordinated, the one to the other. 24
Appetite was not rebellious against reason, nor
passion against conscience. So that not only were
the parts of his constitution excellent, as being the
workmanship of God Himself, but the man who
resulted from their union was good also. And
this it is which is wanting in Adam's descendants,
and which is expressed by that corruption 25 of
tiam Ecclesiam nunquam intellexisse peccatum appellari, quod
vere et proprie in renatis peccatum sit, sed quia ex peccato est,
et ad peccatum inclinat." Sess. v. sec. 5.
23 Rom. vii. 22, 23. 24 Genesis, i. 81. * Psalms, li. 5.
THE PATTERN MAN. 61
nature, in which they are declared to be born.
Not, of course, that the constituents of our nature
can change their character, since they are either
indifferent, like the bodily appetites, or good, like
the moral virtues ; but they become evil in us,
because the general disorganization of our con-
stitution diverts each of them from their proper
aim and service. To eat is not sinful, nor the
appetite of hunger but gluttony, whether in will
or deed. How could the half-frozen inhabitants
of Greenland have been affected, as the Moravians
witness, at the declaration of Our Lord's sufferings
for the sins of men, unless there were some such
principle as gratitude remaining in our constitution ?
And if these principles remain, they cannot have
turned round and changed their nature; man's
fault is, not that he feels gratitude or love, but
that his love is so weak, and that his gratitude is
not proof against temptation. The corruption of
nature, then, does not lie in these separate portions
of it, but in that perversion of man, as a whole, by
which their harmony is disturbed, and their pur-
poses frustrated. Therefore, a woe 26 is denounced
in Scripture against those who deny the truth of
these constituent parts of the witness of man's con-
science. For if there be no truth in such inward
admonitions, what do we mean by speaking of good
or evil; and why are we bound to adopt the one,
and eschew the other? This was the result to
26 Isaiah v. 20.
62 CHRIST, BY NATURE
which the Manichaeans were led, by supposing
human corruption to lie, not in the actings of man
as a whole, but in the constituent parts of his
nature. The source of evil was traced back from
man to his author, and he was alleged to be the
work of that evil spirit, whose impress was sup-
posed to be visible in the elements of his nature.
Human corruption then lies in man himself, in
the compound creature, who was created good but
chose evil. Adam, on the other hand, came from
his Maker's hands in the purity of innocence. The
compound creature was good. The whole being
was in harmony with that higher part of it, which
was intended to sway; while all the propensions
and appetites moved along with it in happy subor-
dination. He needed corroboration, but not im-
provement. Yet whence was it that he had light
for the guidance of his being? Can man, who is a
creature, have light in himself? Is not the light of
the moral as well as of the physical world an
emanation from the fountain of light? The very
Heathen had a conviction that man's nature could
not be developed in its fullest proportions, without
such external aid : " Nemo sine aliquo afflatu divino
vir magnus unquam fuit." Conscience, that is, ap-
pears to tell us, that a moral being cannot attain to
perfection, without the co-operation of that Infinite
Being, in whom perfection is innate. In Adam,
therefore, there must have been superadded to
those natural qualities which have been described,
THE PATTERN MAN. 63
some supernatural gift, for the guidance of the
whole. 27 Otherwise, man would have approached
too near to such independent and self-originating
27 In affirming that original righteousness is a supernatural
gift, it seems improper not to notice the objection taken against
the assertion by so high an authority as Dr. Jackson. His
objection rests upon the belief, that supposing original righteous-
ness supernatural, " this grace or quality might have been, or
rather was, lost, without any real wound unto our nature." It
is obvious, therefore, that his objection attaches not to the idea,
that original righteousness was so high a gift that it transcended
the inherent efficacy even of unfallen nature, but to the notion
that nature was, in itself, something perfect and entire without
such addition. Such an idea was attributed to some of the
schoolmen, who are alleged by Archbishop Lawrence to have
thought supernatural grace a " superinduced ornament, the
removal of which could not prove detrimental to the native
powers." That such was the opinion which Dr. Jackson was
opposing, is obvious from his own words, " that the righteous-
ness wherein Adam was created, was a natural endowment in
respect of the essential quality produced, albeit the manner of
producing it were somewhat more than supernatural." [ B. x. 3,
1, vol. ix. p. 9.] Now, this is all which is assumed in the
present argument. The purpose of Jackson was not to exalt
the natural powers of man, but to maintain, that by the Fall he
was not only deprived of a valuable auxiliary, but that (except
so far as God should help him) he lost that which was indispen-
sable to the practice of virtue. This seems to be conveyed by the
statement of Aquinas, " homo per peccatum originale spoliatur
in gratuitis, vulneratur in natural'ibus" And it is expressed
with great clearness by a writer, to whom, when treating on
this very subject, Jackson refers with high commendation:
"that reverend and great divine, Dr. Field, then Dean of
Gloucester." Jackson, x. 13, 7, vol. ix. p. 78.
" Original righteousness is said to be a supernatural quality,
because it groweth not out of nature ; because it raiseth nature
above itself ; but it is natural, that is, required to the integrity
of nature.
" Neither should it seem strange to any man, that a quality
64 CHRIST, BY NATURE
action, as St. Athanasius 28 reminds us does not
belong even to the angels ; he would have been an
efficient cause, a sort of demi-god. " Quicquid a
Deo non pendet, ut auctore et principio, per nexus
et gradus subordinates, id loco Dei erit, et novum
principium, et Deaster quidam." 29 " Man's nature,"
said the Anti-Pelagian Fathers at the Council of
Orange (Canon 19), "even if it remained in that
entireness in which it was created, could never pre-
serve itself without its Creator's help." 30 There
must have been some divine principle in man-
some supernatural gift, superadded to the consti-
tution of his nature. And such we are told there
was. For not only did God create " man out of
the dust of the earth," thus giving him body, and
breathe " into his nostrils the breath of life,"
whereby he " became a living soul," but He also
created man in His own image " in the image of
God created He him." Now, since " God is a
not growing out of nature, should be required necessarily for
the perfecting of nature's integrity ; seeing the end and object
of man's desires, knowledge, and actions, is an infinite thing, and
without the compass and bounds of nature. And therefore the
nature of man cannot, as all other things do, by natural force,
and things bred within herself, attain to her wished end ; but
must either by supernatural grace be guided and directed to it,
or, being left to herself, fail of that perfection she is capable of,
and fill herself with infinite evils, defects, and miseries." Field
on the Church, Book iii. c. 26.
28 They are not, he says, efficient causes [H-OM/TIKOV an-toi/], so
as to be able to co-operate along with God as independent beings,
in the work of man's salvation. Or. III. cont. Arianos, sec. 14.
29 Bacon's Meditationes Sacra. "Works v. 530.
30 Harduin's Cone. 2. p. 1100.
THE PATTEEN MAN. 65
spirit," this must refer especially to the nature and
constitution of man's mind. Its essence, that is,
must be in those things which especially charac-
terize man's spirit the conscience, namely, and the
will. Yet the language of Scripture leads us to
give it a wider scope, as embracing all the excel-
lencies, both outward and inward, with which man's
nature was endowed. For, from the supremacy of
his mind proceeds the power of which even his
lower nature is possessed. Herein lies that myste-
rious principle of Will, which renders his senses and
members its instruments. So that three effects are
derived especially from the gift of God's image :
first, Lordship over the earth and lower animals ; 31
secondly, Knowledge of God's works in creation,
with which the possession of language w r as inti-
mately connected; 32 thirdly, Intercourse with God,
from whom man received direct instructions re-
specting his conduct. 33 Now, of these three things,
the last seems to have been that of which sin most
completely deprived him. Approach to God, the
true fountain of knowledge ; the opportunity of
intercourse with Him; the derivation of perfect
\visdom from His infinite into our contracted na-
ture, was the first thing which sin rendered impos-
sible. Hence did Adam hide himself from God's
immediate presence; and Cain declared that its
final loss was the consummation of his punish-
31 Genesis, i. 28. ffi Genesis, ii. 19. ffl Genesis, ii. 16.
F
66 CHRIST, BY NATURE
ment : " From Thy face shall I be hid." 34 To
this source even nature points, as the ultimate
origin of knowledge :
" Dixitque primum nascentibus auctor
Quicquid scire licet."
This it is which renders the creatures worthy of
our study; they are the handiwork of Him, in
whose knowledge is the perfection of wisdom.
The infinite extent of His kingdom leads our
thoughts to Him, who is as multiform in His
works, as He is simple in His ways. And the
restoration of this intercourse is the measure of
man's recovery, for "this is life eternal, to know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent."
This effect of God's image was lost by sin, by
which that image in general suffered detriment.
Therefore, it is declared, in a marked manner, that
"Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his
image." 35 Yet that God's image was not alto-
gether lost, is plainly declared in Scripture. For
when murder was forbidden after the Flood, the
ground of its enormity is referred to that original
construction of man in God's image, which would
have ceased to be a reason for his preservation,
if it had been altogether withdrawn. 36 The same
conclusion may be derived from the reference to
34 Genesis, iii. 8, and iv. 14.
35 Genesis, v. 3. ^ Genesis, ix. 6.
THE PATTERN MAN. 67
this principle, as an argument against detraction, 37
and as sanctioning the arrangements of domestic
life. 38 This partial loss of a principle which is not
totally forfeited, led some of the ancient writers
to discriminate between God's likejiess, which was
lost by sin, and His image, which was still re-
tained. The distinction is especially maintained
by the Alexandrian Fathers. And St. Cyril of
Jerusalem says, " God's image man received at the
Creation; but His likeness He obscured through
disobedience." 39 And so says Tertullian: "What
comes from God is not so much extinguished as
overshadowed. It can be overshadowed, because
it is not God: it cannot be extinguished, because
God gave it." 40 The image of God, therefore,
remains as that principle of conscience, which St.
Paul vindicates even for the heathen world. 41 And
"Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of
them that sought me not ; I was made manifest
unto them that asked not after me." 42 But is this
" work of the law, written in their hearts," an
implanted, or an imparted gift ; is it a power of
judging with which God endowed men, and then
left them to themselves ; or is it the result of His
remaining presence ? It must plainly have been
from the first an indwelling, not an implanted, gift,
because it is declared to have been the indwelling
of that principle of life, which is inherent in the
37 James, iii. 9. M I. Cor. xi. 7. M Catech. xiv. 10.
40 De Anima, 41. 41 Romans, ii. 15. ** Romans, x. 20.
68 CHKIST, BY NATURE
Eternal WORD. "In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men." And to be an independent,
original source of life, is an incommunicable attri-
bute of self-existent GODHEAD; for it belonged as
an especial gift to Him, in whom the Spirit dwelt
without measure. "For as the Father hath life
in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have
life in Himself." That which was bestowed then
as a peculiar attribute on the Son Incarnate, could
belong to man only as an indwelling gift by super-
natural communication. So that our first parents,
as St. Chrysostom says, " were clothed with glory
from above." 43 And St. Athanasius speaks of the
first man as " having received grace from without,
and having lost it." 44 That which guided him
was an illumination from that exhaustless foun-
tain, which has its centre in Him, before
whom the angels hide their faces, and "who
dwelleth in the light which nothing can approach
unto." 45
The guiding light then of original humanity,
was not merely that perfection of natural under-
standing, which resulted from the happy consti-
tution of man's inherent powers, but a special and
supernatural indwelling of the great author of all
knowledge. And as this results from the general
testimonies of Scripture respecting that sole source
43 De Gen. Horn. xv. Or. II. c. Arian. 68, & Or. III. 38.
45 0w9 OIKWV aTTpdffnov. The force of the term is hardly
given by "no man can approach unto." I. Tim. vi. 16.
THE PATTERN MAN. 69
of wisdom who dwells above, so it is confirmed
by what is taught respecting the subsequent gifts
bestowed upon mankind. For even the Heathen
must have derived their remaining light of con-
science, however darkened and confused, from Him
who is "the true light which lighteth every man." 46
And it is the peculiar blessing of Christians, that
by their union with Christ, they may renew that
connexion with God which Adam lost. For it was
through the intervention of the Word, or Eternal
Son, that man was originally created in the image
of his Maker. For it was by Him that "the worlds
were made." He was that Word or Wisdom,
"whose delights were with the sons of men." 47
Especially does St. John tell us, that it was
through Him that the Light or guidance of man
was given.
Now, it is set forth in numerous places of Holy
Writ, that the peculiar gift of the Holy Ghost,
which is bestowed in the Gospel, is that through
union with the Son of God, we may regain the
perfect image of the Creator. Christ " became the
head 48 of man's race," says St. Irenaeus, " that in
Him we might recover the likeness of God, which
in Adam we had lost." Inasmuch, then, as the
gift of union with Christ, which is bestowed by the
Holy Ghost, is plainly a supernatural blessing, and
46 1. John, i. 9. 47 Proverbs, viii. 31.
48 " Recapitulavit." 'AvuKefyaXaiotu was, no doubt, the original
word of St. Irenasus, iii. 18, 1, p. 209.
70 CHRIST, BY NATURE
that through it we are to recover that likeness
to God which man originally possessed, it follows
that the likeness of God must have been some
Divine presence, superadded to primitive nature.
This presence of a superior Being was what gave
perfection to that likeness of God in which man
was created. Now, that what is to be enjoyed in
the Gospel is a likeness to Christ, and thus to God,
is a truth which had been ever pressing upon the
minds of the Apostles, from the time that our
Lord vouchsafed that wondrous declaration : " The
glory, which Thou gavest Me, have I given them."
Hence St. Paul declares it the vocation of Chris-
tians, that whom God " did foreknow, He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son." 49 Hence he tells the Corinthians that "as
we have borne the image of the earthy, we must
also bear the image of the heavenly." 50 And
again he says, that Christians " have put on the
new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the
image of Him that created him." 51 And "we all
reflecting 52 like a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord." All these
passages show, that the gift of the Gospel is that
"knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
49 Romans, viii. 29. * I. Corinthians, xv. 49.
51 Colossians, iii. 10. See also Ephesians, iv. 22, 23 ; I. John,
iii. 2 ; II. Corinthians, iv. 4.
52 Vide Olshausen on II. Corinthians, iii. 18.
THE PATTERN MAN. 71
Jesus Christ," which had originally, though as the
Apostle implies in inferior measure, been designed
for the family of man. When the Eternal Word
created the first man in God's image, He bestowed
the beginning of this gift; its fulness was vouch-
safed when He gave Himself to be the second man
in the flesh.
And this may lead us to some further apprecia-
tion of what has been already stated, that birth-sin
does not lie in the depravation of those individual
principles of right and wrong, which constitute the
witness of our conscience, but in the disorder and
disarrangement which our being, regarded as a
whole, has derived from sin. This is " the fault
and corruption" of every man's nature. For the
very cause of this disorder is the withdrawal, or at
least the obscuration of that divine light, by w r hich
man was originally guided. And thence arises the
turmoil and confusion of clamorous appetites war-
ring against the law r of our mind, and bringing us
into captivity to the law of sin, which is in our
members. We must be careful indeed not to limit
this rebellion of the inferior nature to that material
being, which has been united in our constitution to
an intelligent soul. This is the heresy of Manes,
which is for ever appearing under various forms,
and which merges the deformity of sin in the
impotence of matter. The inheritance of man's
sin extends both to his body and his mind. It
follows from the lack of that divine light which
72 CHRIST, BY NATURE
man lost through sin, and which is not less need-
ful for the guidance of his intellect, than for the
subjugation of his material clay. So that man's
corruption 53 consists first, in the deprivation of the
divine guidance which he has rejected, for "the
light shined in darkness, and the darkness compre-
hended it not;" and secondly, in the consequent
rebellion of the lower principles of his body and his
soul. Now, that this is the real nature of man's
sinfulness is evidenced by the fact that Christ our
Lord took our common nature ; and it may also be
shown to be most accordant with those principles
of justice, which the Most High has sanctioned in
Holy Scripture. That Christ should have taken
man's nature, shows that its corruption was not in
such wise inherent in its existence, that to assume
the nature, was to adopt the sin. On this subject
we may quote a remarkable admission in Baur's
reply to Mohler's work on Symbolism. Certain
expressions of some of the German Reformers tend,
according to Mohler, to the Manichaean heresy;
53 " If we speak of original sin formally, it is the privation
of those excellent gifts of divine grace, enabling us to know,
love, fear, serve, honour, and trust in God, and to do the
things He delighteth in, which Adam had and lost. If mate-
rially, it is that habitual inclination that is found in men
averse from God, carrying them to the love and desire of
finite things more than of God, and this also is properly sin,
making guilty of condemnation the nature and person in which
it is found. This habitual inclination to desire finite things
inordinately is named concupiscence." Field on the Church,
Appendix to Book 3, Chap. 5.
THE PATTERN MAN. 73
because, by making man's hereditary sin a positive
part of his constitution, they exempt man himself,
regarded as a whole, from its guilt, and refer it
back in reality to the being by whom this part of
his constitution was created. Baur replies, that
whatever may be alleged against the expressions in
question, such could not have been their intention,
because the German Reformers affirm Christ to
have become by Incarnation consubstantial with
mankind. " That Christ's manhood was consub-
stantial with the nature even of fallen man, was
never denied by the Protestants ; all that was
affirmed was, that He was free from original sin.
But had the true meaning of the Protestant teach-
ing respecting original sin been, as Mohler sup-
poses, to reduce man to the condition of a beast,
it would have been impossible that Christ should
have been consubstantial with mankind." 54 Thus
then are we led to the conclusion, that original sin
arises from the absence of that guiding light, the
lack of which was followed by general confusion in
man's inner nature. By this means was a door
opened to that hostile power of evil, which had no
place in man's original being. And though it is
not for us to explain the principle of God's deci-
sions, yet it may be observed, that to represent
original sin as resulting from the withdrawal of a
divine light, and as a consequent transmitted dis-
organization of the lower appetites and powers,
54 Baurs Gegensatz, &c., p. 78.
74 CHRIST, BY NATURE
consists well with St. Paul's statement respecting
the dealings of the Almighty. He " endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for
destruction." Now, however difficult it may be for
us to discern the nature of man's trial, it will doubt-
less appear at last, that every one is tried and
judged according to his opportunities. But that it
should have pleased God to withdraw the specific
gift of guidance, which was originally conferred
upon Adam, is in itself not more inconsistent with
the principles of justice, than the removal of any
other endowment which man could not challenge
as a right, though it had been mercifully bestowed
upon him. All that is necessary is, that we should
not so wholly identify the sinfulness of man with
that loss of guidance on which it followed, as to
destroy the individual responsibility of Adam's
children. And one circumstance, which must, of
course, greatly affect this whole question, is the
perfect parallel which exists between the first man
and the second between the type and the anti-
type him in whom humanity fell, and Him in
whom it rose again ; between Adam, in whom a
divine spirit was united only for a season to our
mortal being, and Christ, in whom the same spirit
dwelt permanently and without measure. " For if
through the offence of one, many be dead, much
more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which
is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many."
THE PATTERN MAX. 75
For that Adam should be the type and head
of man's race, leads us to appreciate the character
which was assumed lyy that new head of our
race, Christ Jesus. The fact, however it be
accounted for, that man's race has been dealt
with as an organic whole, 65 which was represented
by the one, makes it more natural that it should
be in like manner associated with the other. For
it may be shown, that the peculiar constitution of
nature, which existed in Adam, and w T hereby he
was especially qualified to be the representative of
his race, re-appeared for the first time, but in a far
higher measure, in the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
So that one was fitted by His nature for that office,
which the other had in fact discharged. For what
was His conception in the Virgin's womb, save a
55 On this subject, the following passage occurs in the
able work of Giinther [Vorschule zur Speculativen Theo-
logie] : " The Idea of man, as originally conceived in the
mind of the Creator, is not merely that of an individual or
person, but at the same time that of a race. This, when pro-
perly understood, does not imply merely a collective, but an
organic being. By this Idea, as being His original thought,
God's acts of creation for the support of the race are directed.
If therefore the first man, as the representative of the race
because its father, broke off the connexion between his spirit
and the Godhead, the Creative Impulse on the part of God
could not renew that connexion and take away that breach,
which He had allowed to be produced in the case of the
solitary first man. And why could it not ? Because, by
such an act of alteration and renewal, God would have been
at variance with Himself, by reason of that Idea which He
had originally formed of mankind as a race." Letter 7,
vol. ii. p. 161.
76 CHRIST, BY NATURE
taking of the original elements of our being, which
He moulded into a perfect manhood, through the
power of the Holy Ghost ? For the Word was
made flesh ; He clothed Himself in man's whole
nature ; He took the very same composition of
parts, which remained to Adam after the likeness
of God was lost. " Because the children were par-
takers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took
part of the same." And this He did, not by the
creation of materials which did not before exist ;
the materials were drawn from that stock for which
the benefit was designed. He was " made of a
woman." The materials, therefore, which were
employed were weak and disorganized, because they
were taken of one who was heir to Adam's de-
fects. 56 But then He who took them was the Word
of God. Into those weak and poor elements of our
nature, there flowed the very might, wisdom, and
purity of Deity itself. Thus was their weakness
from the first corrected ; from the first moment that
His nature existed, its disorder was counteracted
by the perfect order and harmony of God's spirit,
and though made of a woman, He was made
without sin. Therefore, when the tempter assailed
Him, He did it not, as Damascene remarks,
through the medium of His inward thoughts, but,
>6 " Quod (de B. Virgine) assumpsit, id profecto aut sus-
cipiendum mundavit, aut suscipiendo mundavit." S. Aug. de
Pecc. Meritis, ii. 24. If the Blessed Virgin had not been an
inheritor of our common nature, she would have been less suit-
able for that service which it was her privilege to discharge.
THE PATTERN MAX. 77
as in Adam's case, by external aggression. 57 For
in His constitution there were the elements of
Adam's being, together with the perfect presence
of that Wisdom of God, which had vouchsafed His
influence as an indwelling gift to our first parent.
So exactly did the constitution of the one accord
with the constitution of the other. " For when the
Son of God was made man, He took the ancient
mould upon Himself." 58 For He had Himself, as
Methodius observes, been the very model upon
which it had been fashioned. For " God made
man after the pattern of His image Jesus Christ." 59
In Adam was humanity, and the presence of the
Word superadded as a guiding light. In Christ,
was God the Word by personal presence, who for
our sakes had added to Himself human flesh. Thus
is attained that perfection of man's nature, which,
in the case of our first parent was only transiently
set forth. For that perfection lay in the intercourse
with God, which Adam so soon renounced. But in
Christ is this intercourse restored permanently and
in its completeness. So that so far as He is truly
imitated, the greatest gift of primeval nature is
given back. "Although we were made after God's
image," says St. Athanasius, " and are called God's
image and glory, yet we are not called so on our
own account ; but it is by reason of the true image
and glory of God which dwelt in us, namely His
57 De Fide Orthod. iii. 20.
58 S. Irenasus, iv. 33-4, p. 271. 59 Method. Symposium.
78 CHRIST, BY NATURE
WORD, which afterwards for our sakes became flesh,
that we have the gift of this appellation." 60 Thus,
as Adam was a type of humanity in his constitu-
tion, so also is Christ. True it is, that men are not
united to the second man by that actual paternity,
by which they are all bound to the first. But the
pattern form is perfectly developed ; it remains only
to find some no less real means of union, whereby
they may enjoy the blessing of this higher descent.
For " the first man is of the earth, earthy, the se-
cond man is the Lord from heaven." The first is
the original form on which humanity was moulded,
and with which all its inheritors have been con-
nected by natural descent. The second is the pat-
tern form on which it was remodelled, and which
was designed as a principle of union to those who
should be joined to it by grace. With Adam
all men are actually connected, for they are
born his children ; and all men who will, may
by the new birth of regeneration be united to
Christ. " For the first man Adam was made
a living soul, the last Adam w^as made a quicken-
ing spirit."
Thus is that object attained for which man's
heart had always longed the union of our inferior
with that superior nature, by which its weakness
might be redressed, and its ignorance enlightened.
And here it is impossible not to observe the con-
60 Orat. III. contra Arian. sec. 10.
THE PATTERN MAN. 79
trast between that gift which was bestowed by the
God of Truth, and those idle dreams in which the
vain imagination of men had embodied their hopes.
If the gods, says Aristotle, take interest in human
affairs, they may be expected to look with most
satisfaction on what is most akin to their own na-
ture. 61 On this principle have man's natural con-
ceptions of Divine interference proceeded. Taking
that notion which his corrupt heart suggested of the
Deity, he has reasoned from it to the probable mani-
festations of Divine help. Hence with the Greeks,
in w r hom strength 62 and beauty were the idolized
qualities of our nature, the manifestations of the
Deity w r ere
" Too fair to worship, too divine to love."
The favoured ^Eneas was u os humerosque Deo
similis." On the other hand, the notions of im-
mensity of power and stature which floated before
the dreamy minds of the Orientals, when they
thought of the Incarnation of God, are such as
Southey delights to express, though they want the
61 Eth. Nic. x. 8.
62 So in Habakkuk, the description of a lawless warrior is (in
the Hebrew), one "to whom his might is his God," cap. i. v. 11 ;
and in Job, xii. 6 (according to Gesenius), "he bears his God in
his hand," i. e. his sword is his God.
It would be unjust not to notice the remarkable exception
afforded by Plato. " The temperate man," he says, " is dear to
God, for he is like Him." " Likeness to God consists in jus-
tice, holiness, and prudence." Vide Petamus de Opificio Sex
Dierum, ii. 2, 10.
80 CHKIST, BY NATURE
deep moral tone which is given to them by that
truly Christian poet :
" I take my grant, the Incarnate Power replies,
With his first step he measured o'er the earth,
The second spann'd the skies."
Or again,
" In form a fiery column did he tower,
Whose head above the highest height extended,
Whose base below the deepest depth descended."
Contrast these, then, with Him, whose " visage was
marred more than any man, and His form more
than the sons of men." 63 The glory of His pre-
sence lies in the revelation of that image of God,
which addresses itself to our inner nature : " The
new man is after God created in righteousness and
true holiness." 64 Therefore, though no doubt the
interior must have cast some beams of its lustre
on the outer man " the unpolluted temple of the
mind" yet it was no splendour of external fea-
tures by which the Son of God revealed Himself :
" He hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we
shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should
desire Him." 65 He was in truth "the brightness of
His" Father's "glory, and the express image of His
person," but mortal eyes required to be purged be-
fore they could appreciate the divine excellence.
" He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not. But as many as received Him, to them
63 Isaiah, Hi. 14. w Ephesians, iv. 24. w Isaiah, liii. 2.
THE PATTERN MAN. 81
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on His name." Thus was there
exhibited a true Pattern for the children of men, in
whom was set forth that gift, of which all may have
participation. For here is restored the true consti-
tution of our being, and man renewed takes the
place of man fallen. 66
And further, we see here the great evil of Idola-
try, as being a perversion of the grand principle of
man's being. For it is to lose sight of what is truly
divine and noble, that original image of God, the
traces whereof had not been altogether effaced from
the consciences of mankind. For " He left not
Himself without witness," not only in that "He
did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruit-
ful seasons," but also in that men's conscience bore
witness, and their thoughts accused or excused one
another. 67 Now, for this inward approach to that
Word which was the true image of the Father, men
substituted the worship of images made like to cor-
ruptible men, and to birds, and beasts, and creeping
things. But what depraved their judgment was the
corruption of their will. It was " because they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge," that God
gave them over to a reprobate mind.
And no less may be said of that more disguised
idolatry of polished times, which gives to intellec-
tual strength or beauty the worship which was once
66 Neque enim mole sed virtute magnus est Deus. & jlug.
Ep. 137. 67 Acts, xiv. 17 ; Romans, ii. 15.
G
82 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN.
paid to physical powers. To search after God by
the exertion of understanding to realize Him by
the powers of abstract meditation to satisfy our-
selves that we are secure of His favour, because we
have on our side the witness of our private will, in-
stead of seeking for union with that Pattern Man,
whom He has set forth as the way, the truth, and
the life what is this but a more subtile idolatry
than that of old? God's likeness must be first re-
stored, before we can truly draw near to our Creator.
It lies not in strength of intellect, more than in
strength of limb, but in that divine gift, which, hav-
ing been forfeited by the first Adam, was more than
given back by the second. We must draw near to
God, therefore, " through that new and living way,
which He has consecrated for us through the veil,
that is to say, His flesh." " For not by intervals of
space," says St. Augustin, " but by likeness do we
draw near to God, and by unlikeness do we depart
from Him." 68 And those who would seek Him
otherwise, in truth " worship and serve the creature
more than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore."
68 De Trin. vii. 10.
83
CHAPTER IV.
CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN IN SYMPATHY.
IT has been shown that the office of the Son of
Man, was to be the Pattern of our race. For
this He was marked out by ancient prophecy ;
and as such He is described in later Scripture.
Again, He has been shown to have been fitted
for His office by the constitution of His nature.
He vouchsafed actually to introduce Himself into
the line of transmitted humanity, so as to gain
a real relationship to all its inheritors ; and the
character in which this was effected corresponded
so exactly with that original type in which our
nature was moulded, as to make Him a new Head
to mankind. Regarded according to His human
nature, He was truly the second Adam; a fresh,
but glorified specimen of that primitive type, in
which humanity was formed. One thing remains,
before He is exhibited on the other and higher
side of His being ; it must be shown that the
conditions of His earthly character were such, that
His sympathies were truly those which His office
implied, and His nature warranted.
84 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
The present inquiry does not respect those
single acts which Christ wrought for our benefit,
especially that crowning act, by which He paid
the price of our redemption. For these, though
wrought through the intervention of that nature,
which He took that He might be capable of suf-
fering and death, were yet wrought by one who
was truly God by unity of personal subsistence.
And therefore His acts of mercy to mankind will
be considered, when He has been set forth as
" God over all, blessed for ever." For whatsoever
He did was done by the same person it was God
who w r as born His Virgin Mother was the Mother
of God; it was God who was crucified God who
purchased His flock " with His own blood." " By
the Lord of Glory, w r e must needs understand the
whole person 1 of Christ, who, being Lord of Glory
was indeed crucified, but not in that nature for
which He is termed the Lord of Glory." " Cyril
contendeth, that whosoever will deny very God to
have suffered death, doth forsake the faith. Which
notwithstanding to hold were heresy, if the name
of God in this assertion did not impart, as it doth,
the person of Christ, who being verily God suffered
death, but in the flesh, and not in that substance
for which the name of God is given Him." 2
1 All properties or attributes, which belong either to the
human or divine nature, may be predicated in the concrete of
Christ, both God and Man : but those which belong to the one
nature, cannot be predicated in the abstract of the other.
2 Eccles. Polity, v. 53, vid. Vigilius c. Eutych. iv. 5.
IX SYMPATHY. 85
The acts of Christ, then, as they were performed
by the co-operation, or at least association of His
two natures, do not come, except by way of illus-
tration, into our present inquiry, which concerns
His manhood considered in itself. What we are
examining is, that power of doing or suffering, by
which His manhood contributed to the acts or
passions of that Divine Person who was manifest
in the flesh. What is to be shown is, first, that
there was a true human character in Christ our
master ; and secondly, that His manner of par-
ticipating it, corresponded with that pattern or
representative function, which it was His pleasure
to discharge. And this must be shown both as
respects the body of the Son of Man, and as
respects His mind.
I. That there was a true human character in
Our Lord's body, is too obvious to require proof;
since Scripture shows us that it was, in fact, sub-
jected to hunger, pain, weariness, and death. We
have evidence that food sustained, and sleep re-
freshed it. As in Our Lord's immaterial nature,
what needs most attention is, to discern that what
is human was not wholly effaced by personal
union with Deity; so since Our Lord's body was
obviously consubstantial with ours, our principal
aim in considering it must be to discern the con-
sequences of that Godhead by which it was never
forsaken. For even the earthly body which was
taken by Christ Our Lord in the Virgin's womb,
86 CHKIST, THE PATTERN MAN
afforded indications of His peculiar character. It
was not, so far as we read, assaulted by sickness;
man's ancient mastery over the brute creation ap-
pears to have been given back; it derived such
a principle of vitality from union with Godhead,
that not only was its own subjection to death a
voluntary act, but it was a source of life and health
to others. These things pertained to Our Lord's
human body, by reason of that peculiar constitu-
tion of nature, which fitted Him to be the Head
and Pattern of man's race.
That Our Lord would actually suffer under
human sickness, might perhaps be expected from
St. Matthew's words : " Himself took our infir-
mities and bare our sicknesses." 3 That no such
event is recorded, has been made a ground for
questioning the vicarious nature of those acts, by
which He remedied the sins of men, as well as
their sorrows. For the two benefits are introduced
together in the words of Isaiah 4 to w r hich St.
Matthew refers ; and St. Peter speaks of Christ as
bearing "our sins," 5 as St. Matthew of His bearing
our sicknesses. If the second, it is said, implies
only that sickness was cured, the first need not
imply any real sacrifice of atonement. Hence it is
argued that there was no mystery in Our Lord's
sufferings, nor any relation between us and Him,
except that between a benefactor and those who
profit by his services. To avoid so monstrous a
3 St. Matt. viii. 17. 4 Isaiah, liii. 4. 5. 5 1. Pet. ii. 24.
IN SYMPATHY. 87
conclusion, we seek some real mode in which
Christ can be said to have borne our sicknesses.
And what is commonly suggested is, that His per-
fect sympathy with man's nature enabled Him to
participate perfectly in all its griefs. This is to
transfer Our Lord's participation in mortal ills from
His body to His soul. But that this explanation
may be complete, we must show that Our Lord's
actual immunity (so far as we read) from sickness,
was compensated for in some other manner ; so that
any defalcation in His acquaintance with human
sufferings on the side of the body, was made up
by that greater fulness with which the gift of
sympathy possessed His mind. It is commonly
said, that whatever be men's kindness of dispo-
sition, they cannot realize bodily pain, unless they
have experienced it. Was it so with Christ ?
Would He have entered more fully into human
sickness, if He had Himself made trial of its bitter-
ness ? The reason why such a circumstance would
not have enhanced His sympathy is, that it is
excluded by that very condition from which His
sympathy is derived. For His sympathy resulted
from His being the Pattern Man, the very repre-
sentative of our common being, who was able to
enter into all its wants, and had fellow-feeling with
all its SOITOWS. This subject shall be taken up
again, when we have spoken of the mental charac-
teristics of the Son of Man : at present His body
only is spoken of. Xow, by virtue of that Head-
88 CHKIST, THE PATTERN MAN
ship, which made Him the representative of man-
kind, it belonged to His body to exhibit whatever
pertained to man's race at large, and constituted
its generic qualifications. Therefore, He submitted
to fear, because it belongs to humanity; to pain,
because none escape it ; to death, because it is
appointed for all. But when He tasted " death for
all men," it was not necessary that He should
make trial of every kind of death by w T hich the
tribes of man return to the dust. These are the
accidental circumstances of that event, whose com-
mon elements only He came to share. And so
may it be said respecting sicknesses, which are all
summed up in death as their common end. But
their individual conditions arise commonly from
intemperance, or from some original defect in the
attempering of the elements of our being. These
causes could not exist in Him, w r ho was the Head
and type of man's nature. 6 For when He intro-
duced Himself into the series of human being, He
assumed that perfect form of manhood w r hich was
free from the varieties of individual eccentricity.
This was w r hat qualified Him for relationship to
collective humanity. So that the very circum-
6 "Illos defectus Christus assumere debuit, qui consequuntur
ex peccato communi totius naturse. Quidam autem defectus
sunt, qui non consequuntur communiter totam humanam natu-
ram, propter peccatum primi Parentis, sed causantur in aliquibus
hominibus. Qui quidem defectus quandoque causantur ex culpa
hominis, puta ex inordinate victu ; quandoque autem ex defectu
virtutis formativae. Quorum neutrum convenit Christo."
Summa TJieol. iii. 14, 4.
IN SYMPATHY. 89
stance which rendered His sympathy so perfect,
precluded participation in the accidental parti-
culars of human sicknesses. Yet He bore their
collective burthen when He put on that earthly
body, of whose nature they are the individual
developments. And we know not how far He
may have tasted all their bitterness in that season
of temptation, in which He was proof against the
solicitations of the body, as well as against the
Seducer of the mind :
" A thousand ways frail mortals lead
To the cold tomb, and dreadful all to tread ;
But dreadful most, when, by a slow decay,
Pale hunger wastes the manly strength away."
And finally, He sustained them all, not only
by His inward sympathy with His brethren, but in
that actual death, wherein He summed up all the
pains and evils which afflict humanity at large.
Unless this fact be discerned, we form but an
imperfect estimate of the sufferings of Him, who
truly sustained the weight of afflicted humanity.
He bore that collective load, which none but the
God-man could undergo, and in His single burthen
supported all the woes of His fellows.
Again, the nature of the Pattern Type of man-
hood is indicated by some occasional allusions to
Our Lord's intercourse with the inferior creatures.
A supremacy over them had been the result of
Adam's likeness to their Creator. The perfect
90 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
restoration of this likeness in the Son of Man
must have given Him that complete control, which
humanity in general is not so far fallen as alto-
gether to have lost. Such may perhaps have been
one lesson which the Gadarenes were intended to
learn from the miracle of the swine. And so much
seems indicated to us, when we read that Our Lord
was " with the wild beasts," 7 in that solitary region
where He triumphed 8 over the foe, by whom
Adam, in presence of the same spectators, had
been worsted.
Again, That the earthly body of Our Lord was
the medium through which life and health was
conveyed to other bodies, is expressly recorded in
Holy Writ. It is not our purpose to speak of the
acts of healing which were thus wrought, because
His Divine mind and will must not be excluded
from participation in the miracles of which His
body was the medium. Yet, when we consider the
nature of His body in itself, when we inquire
whether the conditions of its existence answer to
the character of Him who assumed it, we see
peculiar reasons why virtue should flow, as we are
assured it did, 9 out of this body into the bodies of
others. Something of the same kind is said to
have happened occasionally, and by God's 10 peculiar
7 St. Mark, i. 13.
8 Fe'iyoi/e ffap ui>0pu>7ros f a/a TO vncrjOev viKi^a^. Damasc. de
Fide Orth. iii. 18.
9 St. Mark, v. 30. 10 Acts, xix. 11, 12.
IX SYMPATHY. 91
appointment, in the case of others : in the case of
Christ no such external actor is referred to, as
though the effect was a natural consequence of
His character. 11 Now, since Christ as the second
Adam is that seed of life, through whom the
"spiritual body" 12 is to be quickened at the last
day, that " virtue should go out of Him" 13 when
He was upon earth, is nowise inconsistent with
what Scripture leads us to expect. For it speaks
of some mysterious change as incident to the
bodies of men, and of His body as the type of
their new creation. He " shall change our vile
body, that it may be like unto His glorious body." 14
Whether the influence exerted when He were upon
earth were material or immaterial, it is needless to
ask. The miracle must appear equally great to
those who believe the statement of the Apostle,
that the virtue which proceeded from Christ "healed
them all." And that " the whole multitude sought
to touch Him," shows that His body was the
instrument through which the gift was bestowed.
Bishop Hampden thinks it necessary to offer a sort
of apology for Our Lord's statement, that " virtue
11 It is impossible not to be struck by the contrast which, in
this particular, is presented by the Apostles and Prophets to
the Son of Man ; the conferring of a derived life seemed to task
their powers to the utmost, while this gift flowed forth at a
word or a touch, from His majestic manhood. The opposition
is strikingly brought out on the day when the Church reads a
miracle of Elisha, and another of Christ, for the two Morning
Lessons [May 11 II. Kings, iv ; St. Matthew, ix.]
l - 1 Cor. xv. 44. 13 St. Luke, vi. 19. u Philip, iii. 21.
92 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
had gone out of Him," as being " a mode of speak-
ing, characteristic of the prevalent idea concerning
the operation of Divine influence, as of something
passing from one body to another." 15 But the
words of Him who spake as never man spake, could
not be infected by human errors. Now without
stating the manner in which virtue proceeded from
His man's body, Our Lord reveals, as a fact, that
it was the medium through which virtue was be-
stowed. He sets it forth as possessed of an in-
strumental efficacy in that work of renovating
the race of man, which extends to the restoration
of their bodies, as well as the renewal of their
souls. 16
Lastly, That Our Lord's body has some especial
effect in this work of regeneration, follows from the
peculiar attribute of an innate life, with which itself
is declared to have been invested. This rendered
it the type and pattern of innumerable partakers in
Adam's race, of whom its resurrection is declared
to be the first fruits. For the oneness with God-
head which it possessed by nature, corrected that
tendency to decay which belonged to all other
descendants of Adam. Life natural would have
been maintained in our first parents by that tree of
15 Bamp. Lect. vii. p. 316.
16 " Since the life-giving Word of God dwelt in the flesh, He
transformed it into that excellence, which belongs to Himself,
i. e. into Life, and by His intimate and unspeakable union with
it, He rendered it life-giving as He is Himself." S. Cyr.
Alex. iv. 354.
IN SYMPATHY. 93
life, which to eat was to " live for ever. 17 There-
fore, death temporal would not have befallen them,
save as the effect of that death spiritual, which was
the result of sin. And so in Christ, who was Him-
self the very source of life 18 by virtue of His God-
head, this Divine influence made it impossible that
His body should decay. Therefore, when His body
entered the mansions of death, " it was not possible
that He should be holden of it." 19 The spiritual
immutability, which belonged to Him by nature,
was a perpetual antidote to His body's death. So
that when this event befell Him, it was by His own
consent : " Xo man taketh My life from Me, but I
lay it down of Myself ; I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again." 20 All these
things show that Christ's body is the Type and
Pattern of those innumerable frames, with whom
He consented to become consubstantial both in
body and soul, " for since by man came death, by
man came also the resurrection of the dead." 21
II. That which has been proved respecting the
body of Christ, is not less true respecting the facul-
ties of His mind. In this respect also was He in
character, not less than in nature and by office, the
Pattern of mankind. There are two main parts of
man's mental constitution the will and the under-
standing. Each of these was assumed by Christ
17 Genesis, iii. 22, vid. S. Aug. de Pecc. Mer. i. 3, De Civ.
Dei, xiii. 23. 18 St. John, v. 27.
19 Acts, ii. 24. * St. John, x. 17. 21 1 Cor. xv. 21.
94 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
according to the fulness of man's being ; and in
respect of each, it may be shown that the character
under which He displayed it, expressed the perfect
type of the nature which He had adopted.
An inquiry into Our Lord's human will is facili-
tated, by the consideration that w r e are ourselves
conscious of a multiform action in this part of
our nature. Besides the " video meliora proboque,
deteriora sequor" of the heathen, we have St. Paul's
declaration, " I delight in the law of God after the
inward man, but I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind." Thus are
we conscious of being approached on two sides, if
we may express a mental process physically ; we
can fancy opposing powers to hold one another in
such exact counterpoise, that without a self-deter-
mining will, there would be no means of settling
the preponderancy. These thoughts prepare us for
the declaration of Scripture, that Our Lord " was
in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin." 22 The perfection of His man's nature implies
the complete development both of body and mind,
so far as they were consistent with personal union
with the nature of God. Not only was He subject
to those sensations which approach us through the
body hunger, thirst, weariness, faintness, fear
but likewise to those which especially assault the
mind : " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death." And to His disciples He says in
general, " ye are they that have continued with Me
22 Hebrews, iv. 15.
IN SYMPATHY. 95
in My temptations." Further, we have a peculiar
means of discerning what Our Lord endured on the
human side of His character, by observing what is
said of those who typified Him. For it was of
Christ, as a man, that their lives were an acted
prophecy. David was a type of his great descen-
dant, because Christ's humanity was exalted to
royal honour. For the Incarnation was as great
a debasement of Divine as it was an exaltation of
human nature; and it must have been in reference
therefore to the last, that the Psalmist expressed
himself : " The Lord said unto My Lord, sit Thou
on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies
Thy footstool." The trials, therefore, of Our
Lord, considered according to His earthly nature,
are set forth in the twenty-second Psalm : " O go
not from Me, for trouble is hard at hand, and
there is none to help Me." And when all the
Disciples forsook Him and fled, we see how " they
of Mine acquaintance were afraid of Me, and they
that did see me without, conveyed themselves
from Me."
Thus truly did Our Lord make trial of those
assaults to which man's will is incident ; and espe-
cially in that last great act of His earthly course,
whereby He made atonement for the sins of men.
For then it was that He exclaimed : " My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" This
burthen of deprivation He endured through His
man's nature, when in some manner, to us un-
96 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
known, He withdrew from it for a time the suc-
cours of Deity. It may be that it was impossible
that perfect sympathy for man's weakness should
exist, w r here man's temptations had not been
actually undergone. For " we have not an High
Priest w r hich cannot be touched with a feeling of
our infirmities;" and "in that He Himself hath suf-
fered, being tempted, He is able to succour them
that are tempted." 23 Thus completely, as regards
the province of the will, did Our Lord submit to
the conditions of Humanity. But wherein did He
exhibit Himself as the Pattern Man of the race?
Because in Him, first of all descendants of Adam,
was will exhibited in that complete freedom, w T hich
was its normal condition and perfect state. By
will is meant, the power of choice or of refusal.
Its existence, therefore, implies freedom from ex-
ternal constraint. But it is compatible with the
influence of inward motives, which cannot fail to
appeal to it, according to their proper powers of
attraction. To suppose, indeed, that motives pos-
sess such irresistible power, that it is impossible
for will to offer resistance, is practically to deny
its reality, and thus to exonerate its possessors
from responsibility. But though will must be sup-
posed to be so far free, that men are accountable
for their actions, yet it has never been perfectly
free in any of the fallen descendants of Adam.
This perfect liberty it gained only in Him, in
23 Hebrews, iv. 15, and ii. 18.
IN SYMPATHY. 97
whom the unlimited presence of God's Spirit 24
supplied the place of that Divine guidance which
had been given to our first parent; and counte-
racted the concupiscence which had been trans-
mitted to his progeny. Thus did the Son of Man
allay the inner storm of human passion, saying,
"peace, be still." And thus did He set forth in
its perfection that state of freedom, for which man
was originally designed. This is the gift which,
by union with Him, He bestows upon His brethren.
The liberty, sought by worldly men in exemption
from external restraints, can be realized only by
union with that Pattern Man, who attained the
true freedom. The conformity of man's will to the
will of Him, in whose pattern man was moulded,
is that normal state of tranquillity and happiness
after which unregenerate humanity is vainly yearn-
ing. For God's " service is perfect freedom," and
" if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed."
We approach a more difficult subject, when we
speak of Our Lord's participation in human igno-
rance. But as He was perfect man, He must have
made acquaintance not only with the infirmities
of our will, but with the weakness of our under-
standing. This participation however could not
have deprived Godhead of that infinite knowledge,
which everywhere and always is its inalienable
84 " Inclinationem solus ille immutare potest, qui virtutem
volendi creatune contulit." Summa. i. Q. 106, 2.
H
98 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
portion. Yet, since knowledge and ignorance are
incompatible, we understand not how in the same
person they could dwell together. Conflicting
impulses may strive in the same mind, but it is
the very character of knowledge, that by its ap-
proach, ignorance is banished. How then could
there be ignorance in that human mind, which was
personally united to Omniscience ?
There are not wanting expressions in the
writings of the earlier Fathers, which would imply
that a belief of the actual ignorance of Our Lord,
regarded as man, if not positively received, was
yet not always distinctly rejected. Thus St.
Athanasius tells us, that Our Lord " shows that
He knows the end of all things as the Word, but
as man is ignorant of it. For it belongs to man
to be ignorant, especially of such things as these,
So that this expression arises from His goodness
towards man's nature, inasmuch as becoming man
He is not ashamed, so far as His ignorant flesh
goes, to say 'I know not.'" 25 And again, "We
who reverence Christ are assured that He did not
say He was ignorant, in that He was the Word,
for in that relation He knew well; but showing
His human nature, because it belongs to humanity
to be ignorant, and He had put on ignorant flesh
speaking in reference to this He said, that as a
man, He was ignorant." 26 A similar statement
25 Oral. III. c. Arian. xliii. vol. i. p. 593.
26 Orat. III. c. Arian. xlv. vol. i. p. 594.
IN SYMPATHY. 99
occurs in St. Ambrose, in reference to Our Lord's
increase in wisdom. " There was increase," he
says, " of age, and increase of wisdom, but it was
of human wisdom." " If He advanced as a man in
age, He must have advanced as a man in wisdom ;
the advance in wisdom must have been propor-
tionate to that in perception, from which it is de-
rived." 27 "And in like manner," says St. Irenaeus,
" the Son of God assigned a knowledge of the day
and hour of the Day of Judgment to the Father
only, saying plainly, 'of that day and hour know T eth
no man, no, not the Son, but the Father.'" 28
On a closer examination, however, these pas-
sages at least those in both the later writers ap-
pear to mean nothing but that, by virtue of His
Humanity, Our Lord was not conversant with that
which, as matter of fact, was never hidden even
from His human mind. The expressions of St.
Athanasius allow ignorance in Christ, not so much
in that He was a man, but in so far as knowledge
came through His manhood. When he proceeds to
treat of Our Lord's increase in knowledge, though
he allows His Humanity to have admitted of acces-
sions, yet he explains it mainly by "an inward
revelation or unveiling of the Deity to those who
beheld Him." 29 And St. Ambrose declares still
27 De Incarnatione, vii. sec. 72, vol. ii. p. 720.
28 St. Mark, xiii. 32. Vide Iren. II. xxviii. 6, p. 158.
29 He speaks of i] (j)avf.ptaai<3 r^s 0eoTiyTos rot's opfaaiv. atria e
) 0eoT7/s aireicaXvTne-To K.T.\. Orat. III. contra Avian. 52,
vol. i. p. 601.
100 CHKIST, THE PATTERN MAN
more positively his dissent from those (of whom he
say there were many) "who say confidently that
Our Lord could not be ignorant so far as His
Deity was concerned, but that so far as He shared
our nature, He was ignorant before His cruci-
fixion." " He took our affections," replies St.
Ambrose, "that He might speak of Himself as
sharing in our ignorance; He was not positively
ignorant." 30 And the same seems to have been
the feeling of St. Ambrose's greater disciple : " I
would by no means suppose," says St. Augustin,
" that there was the ignorance of infancy in that
infant, in whom the Word was made flesh to dwell
in us, nor would I attribute the weakness of the
mind of children to the childhood of Christ." 31
And the same thing was still more strongly stated
by St. John Damascene, when the Nestorian con-
troversy had opened men's eyes to the possible
consequences of the opposite alternative : " Those
who maintain that Christ advanced in wisdom and
grace, as though there was a positive addition of
them, cannot maintain the conjunction between
Godhead and His flesh to have commenced from
its first existence, and therefore do not really hold
the hypostatical union, but, inclining to the teach-
ing of the vain Nestorius, they are deceived by
30 Nostrum adsumsit affectum, ut nostra ignoratione nescire
se diceret, non quia aliquid ipse nesciret. S. Ambrose de
Fide. v. 18, sec. 221, 222, vol. ii. p. 592.
31 De Pecc. Mer. ii. sec. 48, vol. x. p. 65.
IN SYMPATHY. 101
the notion of a mere union of relations, and a bare
indwelling." " For if the flesh was truly united to
God the Word from its first origin, or rather if it
had its origin in Him, and belonged to the same
person with Him, how could it but be filled full
with all knowledge and grace?" 32 And this, ac-
cordingly, has since been the received opinion in the
Church. "As there was no sinful concupiscence
in Christ through the fulness of grace, so through
the perfection of wisdom, which was in Him, was
there no ignorance." " For the nature which Christ
assumed may be considered in two ways : one, as
it is in itself, and in this respect it is ignorant and
slavish for man is his Maker's servant, and has no
knowledge of the future ; the other, as it is united
to the person of Him who, as St. John witnesses,
was full of grace and truth." 33 This statement of
the Apostle is the more important, since it indicates
the condition of Our Lord's being, even when He
was manifest among men. The assertion that in
Him " are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge," 34 may be assigned to the period since
the Godhead has dwelt in His glorified body.
But St. John's words refer to what the disciples
"beheld." 35 And they speak of Him as having
upon earth that fulness of truth, which excludes
ignorance.
And therefore, since it would be impious to sup-
32 De Fide Orthodox, iii. 22, vol. i. p. 246.
33 Sumina Theologia;, iii. xv. 3. w Col. ii. 3, 9. B St. John, i. 14.
102 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
pose that Our Lord had pretended an ignorance
which He did not experience, we are led to the
conclusion, that what He partook, as man, was not
actual ignorance, but such deficiency in the means
of arriving at truth, as belongs to mankind. With-
out asserting that the man, Christ Jesus, Avas igno-
rant, it may be said that He was ignorant, as man, of
that which by His other nature was known to Him.
His growth then was no delusion, but a real one;
but the advance w^as in those means of intercourse,
by which the human mind communicates with the
external world. He made trial of those channels
of communication w r hereby the children of men are
furnished with knowledge; He tested their uncer-
tainty ; He is able to pity those who are in like
manner " compassed with infirmity." And so much
seems distinctly asserted in that remarkable text,
which tells us that "though He were a Son, yet
learned He obedience by the things which He suf-
fered." 36 Learning is plainly relevant to know-
ledge, and the especial difficulties which are inci-
dent to man may, for what we know, have been
inappreciable, save by experience. 37 Therefore, He
36 Hebrews, v. 8.
37 This appears to be the meaning of Aquinas, who, while
denying that Christ could be said, even as man, to be positively
ignorant, admits, as Le Grand expresses it, "quod multa jam
sibi per scientiam infusam cognita, rursus novo modo, nempe
experiendo, secundem varia astatis SUJE incrementa, didicerit."
Le Grand de Incarnation?, diss. ix. cap. ii.
St. Thomas's words are : " Quod scientia Christi profecit
secundum experientiam." iii. 12, 2.
IN SYMPATHY. 103
who was above the Angels, even as man, in His
knowledge itself, consented to stoop below them in
His manner of acquiring it. Xot of course that
His human soul can be partaker in itself of that
Omniscience which belongs only to the Godhead.
Of this Christ partakes in that He is God; but in
that He is man, He can receive it only so far as
His human nature is its fit recipient. His know-
ledge, says St. Thomas, extends " to all things
which are in the power of a creature." 38 And this,
according to Bishop Bull, 39 is the reason w r hy St.
Irenseus supposes Our Lord, as man, to have been
ignorant of the Day of Judgment : " The Divine
Wisdom produced its impression on Our Lord's
human soul according to the occasion, and there-
fore there is no absurdity in supposing that Our
Lord, during the time of his mission on earth, w r hen
such knowledge was needless for Him, was igno-
rant of the Day of Judgment." 40
Now, by w r hat means Our Lord should on the
one hand have partaken at once of all creaturly
knowledge, and, on the other, have trodden the
tedious path of observation and inference, is be-
yond our comprehension. Not but that we can
discern how a thing which is already known can be
38 Summa Theolog. iii. x. 3.
39 Massuet, in his preface to St. Irenseus, p. cxxxiii., asserts
that Our Lord's expressions are only a species of hypothesis
that He professes to have no knowledge by Himself, but only as
derived from the Godhead.
40 Defensio Fidei Nic. ii. 5, sec. 8, p. 82.
104 CHKIST, THE PATTERN MAX
subsequently demonstrated. A man might deter-
mine, by admeasurement of parts, that the square
of the hypothenuse was equal in area to the squares
of the sides, and yet afterwards come to the same
conclusion by reasoning. But in Our Lord there
is something far beyond this : for every step which
He gained by those means which acquaint us with
the external world, must have been long before
familiar to Him by way of intuition. But as He
saw by outward light, as well as by the inward
glory of the Godhead, and was sustained by food
as well as by Omnipotence, so He condescended to
reason on things outward, as well as to guide Him-
self by inward inspiration. Therefore, St. Augustin
refers the statement, that " the riches of Damascus
shall be taken before the child shall have knowledge
to cry, My Father and My Mother," 41 to the offering,
by the Magi, of the wealth of the East to our infant
Lord. The two kinds of knowledge are brought
together when Our Lord " lifted up His eyes, and
saw Nathaniel coming to Him," yet told Him after-
wards that "before that Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." 42
The increase then of Our Lord's " wisdom"
was but the further development of those human
powers, which are the means whereby we acquire
knowledge. There may probably have been stages
in their growth, and His entrance into the Temple
in His twelfth year may have been a crisis in the
41 Isaiah, viii. 4. John, i. 47, 51.
IN SYMPATHY. 105
capacity which was gained by His human faculties.
They may then have so far opened, as to cor-
respond to the largeness of those truths, which by
direct intuition had already flowed into His mind.
And if these statements seem to border on a con-
tradiction, let it be remembered how often we our-
selves can scarcely tell whether we know a thing
or are ignorant of it ; what has been told may be
stored up in our mind and forgotten, till some new
occasion calls it to light. Much of our knowledge
consists of deductions from principles, which we
either possess by the constitution of our nature, or
have received so early, that we never noted their
approach; and yet these things, which w r e learn
afterwards to be conclusions furnished from within
ourselves, address themselves to us at first as un-
expected communications. Why do we allow
things, save from discerning them to be true? How
do we know them to be true, save that the elements
of judgment are laid up within us ? Whence were
these originally derived? Such thoughts may pre-
pare us for receiving what is stated concerning Our
Lord with the less difficulty. He truly " increased
in wisdom as in stature;" and yet, looked at ac-
cording to the actual attainments of His mind,
He was full of truth.
So much respecting our Lord's actual partici-
pation in the infirmities of man's understanding.
Further, it was in Him that the understanding as
well as the will of man attained its perfection.
106 CHRIST, THE PATTEKX MAX
For man's reason cannot attain its full propor-
tions, till it is shaped according to that primitive
type in which it originated. Now, the excellence
of its normal state lay in that complete reflection
of God's image, the very condition of which was
uninterrupted intercourse with the Creator. For
" God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." 4
By being a fit subject for the reception of God's
glory, was man distinguished from the beasts of
the field. But by seeking after knowledge in his
own way, he lost that true knowledge which
cometh from God only. He forgot that " the
knowledge of The Holy is understanding." 44 Thus
was man's understanding obscured, till " God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness,"
gave back "the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 45 In
Him was the understanding of man restored to its
perfect state, because in Him intercourse with God
was perfectly re-opened. He became " the way,"
and " the truth." In those who are conformed to
His likeness, understanding regains its proper rights,
and attains that perfection, which intercourse with
God can alone produce. Thus does His character
set forth in all respects the true type and pattern
of man's nature, and by imitating Him, even His
erring brethren may be seen to have " been with
Jesus."
43 I. John, i. 5. Proverbs, ix. 10.
45 II. Corinthians, iv. 6.
IN SYMPATHY. 107
This view of Our Lord's character, as the true
Pattern of Humanity, is further illustrated by two
circumstances : First, the perfectness of His sym-
pathy; secondly, the universality of His mind.
And first, of the Sympathy of Christ.
It has been already mentioned, that to interpret
the statements of Scripture by a reference to Our
Lord's sympathy, is to transfer His participation
in human griefs from His body to His mind.
Not but that He made bodily trial of them, so
far as consisted with that character of the perfect
Pattern of Humanity, in which He was manifested.
And in the exercise of His mental sympathy we
see in like manner its human origin, and yet that it
was checked and controlled by those perfect con-
ditions of will and understanding, which belonged
to Him as the Son of Man. His acts of mercy,
when He was in the flesh, were performed in
accordance with that law of human sympathy,
which He took upon Him as part of the nature
in which He became Incarnate. In His hands, so
far as His Godhead was concerned, w r as lodged
even at that season all power in heaven and earth.
All sicknesses, which afflicted any of the sons of
men, might have been healed by Him in a moment.
All the pains of humanity might have been as-
suaged. But He exercised no such universal
power of healing. His benefits w^ere confined to
those who came before Him in the flesh. These
He cured through that divine power, which was
108 CHKIST, THE PATTEEN MAN
present with His manhood. And why were not
others benefited by it? Because He allowed it to
act according to that law of sympathy which be-
longs to man's nature, which time, place, presence
affect, and which could not, regarded as a mere
human feeling, be equally moved by the mere ab-
stract knowledge of the existence of suffering. He
gave scope, therefore, to the actings of this human
principle, whether it led as by the grave of Lazarus
to tears, or at the gates of Nain to pity. These
were indications how truly He had adopted that
common nature, which He shared with His breth-
ren. But then His sympathy was controlled and
rendered stable by that guiding light which has
been wanting both to the will and the understand-
ing of man ever since the Fall. Without such
guidance, sympathy is vague, unmeaning, or even
mischievous. So that, missing the designed end of
its operation, it falls back not seldom into the
opposite extreme of misanthropy. Let it be given
to the mere creature of human impulse to stay
all sicknesses, or to feed thronging multitudes by
miraculous support, and the consequence would be
an inversion of the ordinary laws of God's provi-
dence, as mischievous for its immediate objects, as
for those who would rely on its prospective help.
What would be the sure consequence, but the
growth of those still greater moral evils, which are
in a measure kept in control by physical wants?
This tendency is seen in such alleged miracles of
IN SYMPATHY. 109
the middle ages, as are founded on an exaggerated
application of what was permitted to the prophets
of the Theocracy.
Xow, this unlimited power Our Lord possessed ;
but because it was under the control of that inward
light which guided His spirit, it led in Him to no
such results. His eye indeed saw man's miseries
and pitied them. But His true perception of the
real evils of man's nature, His estimate of the ef-
fect of guilt, His discernment that pain was an evil
so much lighter than sin this guided the general
course of His sympathy. He gave therefore to
His human nature what was its due. He wept
when grief overflowed its banks He succoured
those whom the providence of the Great Disposer
of all brought near Him. In His path through
this world He scattered round Him His favours ;
but He allowed them not to interfere with His
great mission for the common benefit of the race,
which He had come to represent : He " did not
commit Himself to any man, for He knew what
was in man."
Again, the same principle is witnessed by the
universality of our Master's earthly mind. When
we turn to the greatest models of human genius,
we find in their thoughts an all-adapting power,
which makes them the interpreters of our common
nature. They seem to be built upon the deepest
basis of man's general being, because there is no
feeling or condition of life, which does not find its
110 CHRIST, THE PATTERN MAN
reflection in their writings. Thus does human ge-
nius render its possessors a sort of type of their
race, by concentrating in them those characteris-
tics, which are dispersed through the ordinary spe-
cimens of mortality. Now, that which is given in
its measure even to human genius, belonged in per-
fection only to Him who by nature was one with
God. From Him all earthly excellence is derived ;
of Him it is typical. In Him that wisdom has its
personal abode, which " in every people and nation
got a possession." 46 Therefore do His words con-
tain such deep and unsearchable meaning, as shows
them to be the sayings of One who discerned all
the mysteries of man's nature. They are equally
fitted, therefore, for every nation ; they suit every
climate, age, or condition. And again, in His cha-
racter is such " largeness of heart," as exceeds the
compass of mortal thought. Compare this perfect
Pattern of our being with those various ministers
who attended or preceded His approach, and how
partial appear the several conditions which discri-
minate their nature, when compared with that all-
embracing universality which is characteristic of
His. This is why those many types which pre-
saged His coming, were unable to exhaust the
infinite multifariousness of His character. For in
them the choicest individual endowments were
perfected by the gift of inspiration, but in Him
humanity at large was elevated by the actual
46 Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 6.
IN SYMPATHY. Ill
indwelling of God. That exaltation which was
offered to man's whole race, through the power
of the Holy Ghost but of which the examples
are only scattered, approximate, incomplete, ac-
cording as men " are made partakers of the Divine
image" was at once exhibited without measure
and in perfect type, in the great Pattern of our
being. For in others we see the single colours of
a reflected lustre ; but in Him the concentrated
glory of an original radiance is all that we can
discern. How different, for example, was the
practical earnestness of St. Peter and St. Paul,
from the deep contemplativeness of the Beloved
Apostle. How far removed are the plaintive
breathings of Jeremiah, and the picturesque visions
of Ezekiel, from the loftiness of the Evangelical
Prophet. What a contrast is there between the
fervent devoutness of the Psalmist, and the senten-
tious majesty of his son. But who can venture to
assign earthly limits to the universality of His
character, of whom it is enough to declare that
He " spake as never man spake ?" For this reason
should His simplest acts and words be treated with
the reverence, with which in ancient times were
regarded the lineaments of His outward form. For
every thing is great which comes out of the depth
of His unfathomable knowledge. Regarded only
as a man, He is the Pattern whom the residue
of His race are to adopt as their standard. For
through Him is renewed that intercourse with
112 CHRIST, THE PATTEEN MAN IN SYMPATHY.
God, which is our life. When we meditate upon
His character, that door is opened which admits
us to the Almighty. With what awe should we
contemplate our near approach ! " Draw not nigh
hither : put off thy shoes from off thy feet ; for the
place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
113
CHAPTER V.
OUR LORD IS GOD THE WORD, VERY GOD
OF VERY GOD.
OUR LORD'S Human character has been set forth
in the preceding Chapters. It remains to show,
that He who was thus manifest in the flesh was
in truth " over all, God blessed for ever." 1
Now, this statement implies so unutterable an
amount of condescension, as to have been often
received either with open dissent or with con-
cealed dissatisfaction. And yet more frequently,
perhaps, have men adopted the still less reasonable
course of yielding it only a half credence, and thus
have made their doubts a ground for questioning
the opinions and practices, which, if the doctrine
be admitted at all, are its necessary consequence.
" How can I believe," said a politician of leading
eminence in the last century to the late Mr. Wil-
berforce, when he opened his mind in the privacy
of domestic converse, " that the Almighty Creator
of all things should have become a wailing infant,
and submitted to the weakness of our nature ?
1 Romans, ix. 5.
I
114 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Surely, it is utterly impossible." " I should be
ready to enter into your feeling," was the reply,
" if I viewed this truth in the abstract way that
you do, and did not consider what difficulties there
are in disbelieving it." Among these difficulties
must be ranked, in the first place, the circum-
stances of Our Lord's Human character, the prepa-
ration which had marked Him out as the Pattern
Man, and the events in His life by which that
character is indicated. How was it that a Jewish
peasant, untaught even in the simple lore of Syrian
literature, 2 should have conceived those truths,
which have enlarged the sphere of man's know-
ledge, and made the one grand revolution in the
history of his race? How could his designs have
been developed, with a power which shook the
mightiest kingdoms, overthrew all preceding forms
either of faith or philosophy, and have finally cast
into a new mould the most distant countries and
generations of the earth? How was it that one
who spoke no language, save a dialect of the bar-
barous East, could triumph over the pride of the
Porch and the subtilty of the Academy ? How
came the might of thirty legions to yield to the
staff and sling of the Son of David ? What com-
pelled men to admit the paradox of the fervid
African, and allow the very strangeness of this
truth to stamp it with the character of being
Divine? " Cruxifixus est Dei filius : non pudet,
2 St. John, vii. 15.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 115
quia pudendum est ; et mortuus est Dei films :
prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est : et sepultus
resurrexit : certum est, quia impossible est." 3
Such are some of the considerations, which are
suggested by that Human side of Our Lord's cha-
racter, which it has been the purpose of the pre-
ceding pages to set forth. And if we turn to its
other or Divine side, we shall find that this also
allies itself with a whole world of thoughts, to
which the coming of God in the flesh conducts us,
and of which that event was the appointed result.
To this subject we now approach. For, first, the
doctrine of an Incarnate God has an immediate
relation to that ultimate nature of Deity, in which
lies the beginning of all being, and the end of all
truth on which all knowledge is dependent which
exists in and by itself, as the parent of all action,
and the basis of all thought ; and secondly, through
this doctrine only has the Godhead been revealed
to us under that nobler character, in which we have
learned to recognize Him. For it is this truth
which has made that mighty alteration in the opi-
nions of men, on which our noblest intellectual
attainments are dependent. It is the Incarnation
of Christ Our Lord, which has raised us as well
above the carnal anthropology of the Greeks, as
above the grotesque speculations of the Brahmins.
This principle it is, which has so blended justice,
mercy, and truth, with the omnipotence, omni-
3 Tertull. de Carne Christi, sec. v.
116 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
science, and eternity of God, as to enable man
to respond to the best aspirations of his nature.
If it be true, as the philosophic Cudworth ex-
presses it, that " we have all of us by nature
/lav-revfia TI (as both Plato and Aristotle call it), a
certain divination, presage, and parturient vatici-
nation in our minds, of some higher good and per-
fection than either power or knowledge," 4 yet was
this but uncertain and glimmering, till " God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the know-
ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ." 5 For " no man hath seen God at any time ;
the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath revealed Him." 6
The moulding together of those mighty elements
of moral and intellectual truth, which had been
revealed through the Gospel, was the task of the
Christian Church during the first five centuries of
her age-long existence a task more arduous far
than her other work of remodelling the barbarian
hordes, which occupied the next five centuries.
Her principle of action in both cases was that
indwelling power of the Holy Ghost, by which
the Body of Christ was never forsaken. Thus,
by an inward and an outward work, did the
Church prepare the way for the subsequent dawn
of European civilization. The result of this process
4 Intellectual System, cap. iv. sec. 9.
* II. Corinthians, iv. 6. 6 John, i. 18.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 117
has been handed down to us in our present Creeds,
for the perfection of which the Providence of God
made wonderful provision in that mighty outspread
of the Fourth Empire, by which communication
was first widely extended, and an opening made
for the progress of Christian truth. For subtile
as some statements of Our Creeds at first sight
appear, the whole amount of their varied instruc-
tion may be shown to have been held in solution,
if the phrase may be employed, in that great
central truth, which was made known respecting
Jesus Christ Our Lord, when He " was declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to
the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from
the dead." Those parts in them which reach
highest, have been attained only by following the
ascending line of Scriptural doctrine, as it reversed
that wonderful process by which the Son of God
left His Father's glory to clothe Himself in mortal
flesh. And this circumstance suggests a different
course of proceeding from that which was adopted
in the preceding Chapters. In treating the nature
and acts of man, even though that man be Christ
Our Lord, we are dealing with that which is pro-
jected before us, as it were on a level surface
which may be described therefore, and measured,
as we actually discern it. But w T hen we turn from
the Human to the Divine side of Our Lord's cha-
racter, we have to do with realities which we can-
not estimate, till we have viewed them in various
118 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
relations, and ascertained, as it were, the exact
shape of those multiform bodies, of which at first
we can form no accurate conception. Here then
it will not be enough to take the simple inti-
mations of Scripture by themselves ; we must
combine them together, as was done in the early
age of the Gospel; we must see their reference to
the acts of Our Lord's life, and build them up into
that harmonious whole which they were intended
to present. And how can this be done so effec-
tually as by tracing the process which was actually
adopted, when, under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost, the Church's system was originally matured?
We shall thus see the relation of its several parts,
and how the central fact of Our Lord's Incar-
nation led to the full expression of all Christian
doctrines.
The early Church, when she was deprived of
the guidance of her inspired teachers, had not
reduced the truths which she inherited into that
harmonious and connected order, which was sub-
sequently attained. A sufficient evidence is, that
the word Trinity, which afterwards assumed so
important a place in her system of belief, was first
introduced into her service by Theophilus of
Antioch, near the end of the second century. Not
that the holy Apostles had been wanting in a
complete view of the Gospel, any more than in a
knowledge of its individual truths. But their light
had not come from learning, but from Revelation.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 119
The process of learning is first to accumulate
individual facts, and then, by observing the varying
relations which they bear to one another, to gain
a connected view of the whole field of mental
observation. But Revelation, through the mys-
terious communication of God's Spirit, brings the
mind into the same immediate contact with things
unseen, which we have with things visible through
the organs of the body. Thus is the inner man
endowed with the gift of intuition. So was St.
Paul " caught up into the third heaven, and
heard unspeakable words, which it was not lawful
for a man to utter." Thus St. John the Divine
saw a door opened into Heaven. For Our Lord's
promise was, that the Spirit of Truth should guide
His disciples " into all truth :" " He will show
you things to come." Truth, therefore, properly
speaking, belongs to a system or book Inspiration
to its teacher or author. And thus possessing
" the mind of Christ," the holy Apostles had that
complete insight into the unseen world, which en-
abled them to comprehend the relations of things,
as fully as their individual nature. But it was
otherwise, when the truths which they had held in
the earthen vessels of perishable mortality were
handed over to their successors. To pass from
St. Paul to Clement, or to Ignatius from his
master, St. John, is to descend at a step to earthly
ground from heavenly. The detached writings of
the Apostles and Evangelists were in men's hands,
120 CHKIST IS GOD THE WORD.
but the pregnant relations which their inspired say-
ings revealed, were but imperfectly apprehended.
The simple facts indeed are there : Christ is wor-
shipped, His sacrifice is the sole ground of pardon,
union with Him is the only means of grace, the
nature and offices of the Third Person in the
Blessed Trinity are recognized, but the rich exu-
berance of those whose eyes were opened is de-
parted. It was only by gradual steps that the
Christian mind gained such practical mastery over
its spiritual inheritance, that there arose an Athana-
sius to contend for " the proportion of faith," and
an Augustin to be its exponent. Why it did not
please God that the full gifts of the Apostles were
continued to their successors, it is not for us to
say. But it is plain that the Christian community
grew from an infant to a mature state ; that the
truths, which from the first it firmly held, assumed
an ever-increasing consequence and meaning, as
discerned by its various generations ; that the
mind of the Church appeared to advance towards
"the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ;" and that the course which it has pleased
God to adopt respecting natural knowledge and
individual minds, was not abandoned in the case of
that collective body, which was divinely instructed.
The process may be illustrated by what befalls
every young student, when he becomes acquainted
with that systematic view of Our Lord's nature 7
7 Eccl. Pol. v. c. 51-56.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 121
which is given by Hooker. At first probably he
admires the majestic and harmonious flow of those
weighty sentences, their prodigious grasp of Scrip-
tural truth, and the deep reverence with which
they touch things sacred. But though there is
nothing which he does not seem to understand,
there is in some points a copiousness which he is
at a loss to account for. And it is only after
repeated perusals, and in many years, that he
discerns the full meaning of what had at first fallen
idly on his incurious ear, and finds how far this
great writer has entered into the deep things
of God.
If this happens even when we peruse the
writings of an earthly thinker, how much more,
when the mysteries of the kingdom of God were
proclaimed in the words of Revelation ! Hence
the numerous heresies which sprung up in the
early age of the Church, among those who had
the letter of Scripture in their hands ; and hence
likewise, the incapacity of entering into Gospel
truth, so often visible in those who have been
brought up in error. These things show us the
infinite importance of that gradual schooling of the
Christian community in the truths of the Gospel,
which was completed by the publication and
general reception of the Creeds. The mere pub-
lication of these documents indeed had been little,
but they were not published till every statement
which they contain had first been verified; till the
122 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
various relations of each had been appreciated; till
all had been shown to stand in reality on Scrip-
tural authority; till the Christian mind had been
prepared by the teaching of the Holy Ghost for
their reception; and thus, till a foundation had
been laid at once in man's nature and God's truth,
on which stands the accumulated weight of our
present Christianity.
And here we must carefully distinguish between
two things of a very different nature the authority
of the early Christian Church as a witness to
facts, and as the propounder of doctrines. Our
Article, by speaking of the Church as not only
"a witness and keeper of Holy Writ," but also
as having " authority in controversies of faith,
suggests to us clearly this twofold relation. The
early Church was a witness to facts, not only in
that she received certain books as inspired, but in
that she testified to certain practices. When dis-
putes arose respecting the doctrine of Our Lord's
Divinity, not only were certain statements to be
found in Scripture, but it was an admitted fact,
that worship had been paid to Him in all Christian
congregations. Thus the Fathers who opposed
Paul of Samosata at Antioch, witness to the
singing of hymns to Christ as a God, as an
acknowledged custom. 8 Again, a second fact,
which was witnessed by the Church, was the use
of Sacraments. " At the head of the ancient
8 Eusebius, vii. 31.
CHEIST IS GOD THE WORD. 123
Christian worship," says Professor Dorner, " must
be placed the Eucharist, in which the congregation
celebrates its at-onement with God in Christ, the
Mediator between God and mankind; and in the
perpetual celebration of this feast is seen the first
proof of the belief of Christendom in Christ's
Divinity." " The second proof," he adds, " is the
practice of Holy Baptism." 9 A third fact of the
same nature, is the existence of those early
Creeds to which the Church required men to
give their assent in Baptism. For though less
detailed than was subsequently required, they
all witness a belief in Our Lord's Divinity. A
fourth thing is the existence of Doxologies, in
which glory was wont to be assigned to Him, in
conjunction with the Father and the Holy Ghost.
A fifth, is the setting apart of Holy Seasons, in
commemoration of His Birth, Death, and Resur-
rection. A sixth, is the use of Emblems, by which
the import of His passion was impressed upon the
mind. Here are six several particulars, indepen-
dently of the preservation of Holy Scripture, in
which the early Church witnessed to facts of great
importance in the determination of Our Lord's
character. But independently of her historical
testimony, she possessed an authority in respect
to the conclusions to which these facts conducted.
9 Dorner's " Lehre von der Person Christi," cap. i. vol. i.
p. 274 (a work of which great use has been made in the present
Chapter).
124 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
That not only are there three Persons in one God,
but that the Son is " very God of very God," " of
one substance with the Father ;" the Church, when
stating this at Nice, was discharging a different
function from that which she fulfilled, when wit-
nessing to the facts which have previously been
noticed. In the one case, she was only doing
what, in his degree, was performed by the heathen
Pliny, when he related that the Christians sang
hymns to Christ as a God. In the other, she was
certainly exercising some " authority in contro-
versies of faith." In the former case, her claim to
respect is to be tested by the ordinary rules of
evidence. But what is it in the latter? It stands
on the validity of that promise, which assures us
that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her,
and which assumes therefore that the Body of
Christ will never be deserted by that guiding
Spirit, which is as necessary for truth as for obe-
dience. The help of the Holy Ghost is no doubt
an abiding succour, which is given according to
the wants and circumstances of the inheritance of
God. In one age it speaks by physical miracles, in
another through that moral influence which renews
the life. And so too did it display itself in the
Church's guidance. In the Apostles there was
that original communication of all truth, which
was given once for all, for the instruction of man-
kind. The subsequent direction of God's Spirit
was for the purpose only of interpreting what had
C HEIST IS GOD THE WORD. 125
already been delivered. Thus was it always re-
garded in ancient times, and unless thus restrained
the Spirit's guidance might be a warrant for
Neology on one side, or Mahometanism on the
other. Whereas the Christian covenant was from
the first understood to be God's final dispensation
with man. " There have been two changes in
man's life," says St. Gregory Xazianzen, "which
accompanied the two Testaments, and which from
their greatness, might be called shakings of the
earth. And a third earth-shaking does Scripture
tell us of, when this earthly state namely shall
yield to that which is unshaken and eternal." 10
The Church's " authority in controversies of
faith," requires therefore, as its constant counter-
poise, the paramount authority of Holy Writ. To
adjust such varying claims, may in some cases be
difficult. But no such difficulty displayed itself in
that early age, in which the system of her belief
was embodied in the Creeds. For since no division
as yet impaired her unity, the promise of Christ's
presence was with her in its fulness, and the weight
of her decision was without abatement. Had her
interpretation of the fundamentals of the Gospel
been erroneous, how had Christ's promise in her
favour been fulfilled? This circumstance invests
her judgment on these momentous subjects with
an importance superadded to that which the fact
of her testimony naturally commands. There are
10 Oratio 37, sec. 58.
126 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
those, indeed, who seem as though they would be
glad to divest themselves of the advantage of such
decisions. They would rather fall back on the
unreflecting simplicity of that early faith, which
rested only on the single facts of the Gospel. But
this is to be ignorant, that the gradual expansion
of Christian doctrines was only the growth of the
religious mind, as under the moulding power of the
Holy Ghost, it compared the individual truths with
which it had been entrusted. Those truths must
have resolved themselves into wrong combinations,
if they had not been resolved into right ones. The
Body of Christ must have grown up in an un-
natural and distorted shape, if the informing Spirit
had not fulfilled its appointed function of guiding
it into all truth. In the earnest obedience of the
early age, when the warmth of love dispensed with
the maturity of knowledge, there was a moment
indeed, when the outward growth of the Church
scarce left time to embody what was believed in
abstract formularies. But this infant security de-
pended either on the personal guidance of the
inspired Apostles, or on the witness of men, to
whom, as to St. Ignatius, long habits of intercourse
with the first leaders had given such confidence
respecting their decisions, both in faith and in prac-
tice, that a reference to the general principles of
the Church's existence was not yet required. And
those who seek to regain it by throwing away what
was earned by the religious impulse then given to
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 127
the age, do but restore the imbecility of childhood
without its innocence.
The work, then, at present before us, is to con-
sider by what gradual steps the testimony of Scrip-
ture, illustrated by the practice of the Apostles,
led to that matured statement of the doctrine of
Our Lord's Divinity, to which the Church was
directed by the Holy Ghost. For though the doc-
trine itself had been understood from the first,
yet its expression became more comprehensive, as
through the Spirit's guidance its full relations were
more adequately appreciated. To trace the actual
progress of thought is the best exhibition, there-
fore, of the truth of Our Lord's Divinity, since it
shows how indissolubly this doctrine is bound up
with the whole system of the Divine nature ; and
since it likewise illustrates its influence as the basis
of all the religious instincts of Christendom. For
in this manner it will appear, that the whole system
of the Church's faith was elicited in the defence of
this its one cardinal principle : that the vindication
of Christian piety led to those deep inquiries which
enlarged and exalted the conceptions of mankind.
Indeed, the primary importance of the worship of
the God-man, is as manifest from the conduct of
the Church's assailants, as from that of her chil-
dren : for during the earlier ages of her existence,
no enemies assaulted her, by whom the doctrine of
His sacred Person was not assailed as the first and
128 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
most prominent part of her system. Their assaults
may be referred in general to three classes. In the
second century, they were grounded chiefly on a
view of the nature of man, and of the impossibility
of an union between him and his Maker. During
the third and fourth centuries, on the other hand,
the prevalent heresies arose from speculations on
the Divine nature, and on the want of coherence
between belief in Christ, and the unity of the God-
head. And this brings us in the fifth century to a
third class of disputes. Our Lord being admitted
to be both God and man, the question which
remained was as to the manner in which these two
natures were united.
Confining ourselves in this Chapter to disputes
of the first and second kind, we may observe that
the argument advanced through the first into the
second. It was when the difficulties which had
been suggested by the thought of Christ's man-
hood had been in a measure overcome, that they
awoke again in relation to the Unity of the God-
head. Thus did they rise from the lower to the
higher nature. And in each age the assailants
might be resolved generally into two classes, those
who questioned the Deity, and those who ques-
tioned the Humanity of Christ. The Arians were
in some sort the successors of the Ebionites, and
the Gnostics were precursors of the Sabellian and
Apollinarian school. The Ebionites were among
the first antagonists by whom the Christian mind
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 129
was called forth to the survey and defence of the
truths entrusted to it. They formed the small and
unimportant party, rather arising from the Church
than in it, which questioned the Divine character
of Our Lord. Their influence was so slight in early
times, that they would be lost sight of, but for the
diligence of Eusebius, 11 and a few other ancient
authors. They rose probably out of the Jewish
Christians, and had retained the notion, attributed
by Justin to that nation, that Christ would be only
a man, and born of men. 12 Hence perhaps their
name (poor), from their entertaining, says Euse-
bius, poor and low notions of Christ ; unless it was
derived from the meanness and want of instruction
which characterized their party. They are re-
markable only for affording the original example of
that error, which afterwards displayed itself in a
more dangerous shape.
The popular error of the second century lay on
the opposite side, and consisted in a denial of Our
Lord's Humanity. The works which He had
wrought had been so marvellous, and His worship
was so universal among His disciples, that those
who left the middle way of truth, were generally
inclined to deny that there could be any human
nature in one whose Godhead was so manifest.
This error of the Gnostics was encouraged by the
prevalent philosophy of the East, where it espe-
cially extended itself ; according to which all cor-
11 Eusebius, iii. 27. 12 Dial, cum Tryph. sec. 49.
K
130 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
ruption lay in the fleshy part of man, and spirit was
confounded with purity. Supposing matter there-
fore to be the sole principle of evil, and ignorant
that defilement lies in reality in sin, whether of
body or mind, the Gnostics supposed Our Lord
to be a Divine Spirit who came only in the form
of man, without being really united to manhood.
This was the other extreme of error ; and its
earlier growth and greater popularity is shown
by the testimony which is borne against it by the
Beloved Disciple : " Every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God; and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof
ye have heard that it should come, and even now
already is it in the world." 13
Either of these heretical opinions was subversive
of the Christian faith ; since the one represented
the object of our hope to be a mere creature, and
the other denied Him that participation with our-
selves, on which rests our salvation. Those who
adopted them were, of course, excluded from the
Church's communion ; yet, though merely hovering
on the verge of the faith, they chose to call them-
selves Christians. But, since they were not con-
stituent parts of the Christian body, it was not ne-
cessary to meet their errors by any official degree
of the Church's rulers; it was left to single writers
at their will to oppose and confute them. Two of
great consideration arose in the middle and latter
13 I. John, iv. 3.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 131
part of the second century, Justin Martyr, and St.
Irenaeus. The former may be referred perhaps to
the school of St. Paul, the latter to that of St.
John, though Irenaeus keeps far closer to his guide,
and enters far more deeply into the spirit of the
Gospel, than the philosophic Justin. 14
In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, Justin
Martyr sets forth the ground upon which the
Ebionite denial of our Lord's Divinity was to be
confuted. His arguments rest upon a review of
those predictions of the Old Testament respecting
the character of Messiah, which are inconsistent
with the notion, that He who bore it was merely
a human being. From the argument of prophecy,
he passes to Our Lord's title of the Word ; main-
taining Him to be as closely bound, as its very
attributes, to Godhead itself. " I will give you
Scripture proof," he says, " that God begot from
Himself a certain intellectual form, as a beginning
which preceded all creation, which is sometimes
called by the Holy Ghost God's glory, some-
times His Son, sometimes Wisdom, sometimes His
Angel, sometimes God, sometimes the Lord and
the Word" 1 * And again, speaking of His pre-
sence among men; "the 16 omnipotent and invisible
God from Heaven has Himself placed among men
14 Mohler's Einheit der Kirche, sec. 35.
10 Dialogus cum Tryphone, sec. 61, p. 157.
16 Ad Diognet. sec. 7. Whether this letter be Justin's or
not, it is, the Benedictine editors say, " S. Martyre dig-
nissirnum ."
132 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
His truth and Holy Word not as one might
suppose sending a minister or an angel but the
very Artificer and Maker of all things." " As a
King, sending His royal Son, has He despatched
Him." This Being, Justin speaks of as containing
in Himself, as a source and centre, all the light
and reason, of which faint adumbrations are to be
met with among men. " Whatever has been well
spoken or discovered by philosophers or legislators,
has been owing to that partial discovery and
observation of the Word, to which their labours
conducted them. But because they had no com-
plete knowledge of the Word, who is Christ, they
fell into many contradictions. "" Thus would
he account for the fact, that Plato's teaching is
in so far "not contrary to that of Christ," 18 that
he likewise believed in " those three divine hypos-
tases, that have the nature of principles in the
Universe, viz., monad, mind, and soul." 19 Indeed,
if in the secret abyss of infinite Being we recognize
the mysterious Three as the primal source of all
existence, what more natural, to say nothing of an
original revelation, than that man's heart should
have such natural affinity to this belief, as to lead
deep thinkers to anticipate it ? " Each one, there-
fore," says Justin, " spoke well, according as
through the seminal principle of the Divine Word,
he discried something which was akin to his
17 Apol. II. sec. x. p. 95.
18 Apol. II. sec. xiii. p. 97. 19 Cudworth's Intell. Sys. iv. 36.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 133
nature." "And whatever they said well belongs
to us Christians. For the Word of the unbegotten
and ineffable God, we worship and love together
with God, since for our sakes He became man,
that being partaker of our sufferings He might
cure them." 20
Having thus declared Christ to be God's
Wisdom or Word in its completeness, 21 he shows
His pre-existence, 22 and that He shared the coun-
sels 23 of the Father before the world was. Finally,
he points out that Our Lord had an inherent and
independent, not merely a conditional and rela-
tionary existence, both as regards the works of
Creation, and the Father Himself. For He was
" the Son of God, the only real Son, who was
with God before all creation." 24 "And He it is,
who was seen by Abraham, Jacob, and Moses,
and who is called God other than the God who
is the original of all things ; that is, other in
number [i. e. person], not in mind." 25
The writings of St. Irenaeus against the Gnostics
are built upon the same doctrine of " the Incarnate
Word," which is brought forward by Justin, but
St. Irenaeus is far fuller and deeper in his view
of Gospel truth, and his solutions of the errors
he refutes are far more satisfactory. On one
side he has a truer view of the character of God,
20 Apol. II. sec. xiii. p. 98. 21 Apol. II. sec. viii. p. 94.
" Apol. I. sec. Ixiii. p. 81. ^ Ep. ad Diog. viii. p. 238.
34 Apol. H. sec. vi. p. 92. Cum Trypho, Ivi. p. 152.
134 CHEIST IS GOD THE WORD.
on the other a profounder sense of the wants of
humanity. The teaching of Justin shows signs of
a more recent conversion from Heathenism; and
the tendency which had been derived from the
schools of philosophy, is not so completely sub-
ordinated to the principles of the new Revelation.
According to his system, we should be in danger
of resting the Godhead upon the mere heathen
ground of intellectual greatness, and the Word
who manifests Him, though His goodness is not
left unnoticed, would be regarded too exclusively
in His character of the "Light of men." But
St. Irenaeus discerns that what constitutes the
Godhead is neither mere immensity nor abstract
substance, but that ultimate self-originating per-
sonal existence, of which the characteristic is Love.
The words of the Beloved Apostle are thus a
guiding star to him who had sat at the feet of
his disciple. The Word of God therefore, by
whom the Divine character is manifested, is in
like manner distinguished by that attribute which
is proper to Deity. " The one God, who made
and arranged every thing by His Word and
Wisdom, is the real Creator, who assigned this
world to the human race, who, in regard to His
greatness, is unknown to all His creatures (for His
depths, none either of past or present men have
sounded); but as respects His love, He is known
by Him, through whom He made all things. For
this is His Word, Jesus Christ Our Lord, who in
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 135
these last times was made a man among men,
that He might join the end to the beginning
that is, man to God." 26 And in another place he
says, that "the immensity of God and His sub-
stance are things beyond human estimation, for
no man has ever measured nor handled them; but
what falls within man's perception is His love." 27
This is his mode of answering the Gnostic spe-
culators, whose effort was to resolve Christianity
into a sort of Theogony, and thus to ally it to
Oriental fables. And Irenaeus, after showing them
the true source in which they should seek for the
knowledge of God, declares all other inquiries
respecting Him to be vain and unsatisfactory,
since He is an ultimate Personality, and not
resolvable into fate 28 or any higher law. "Non
enim excogitabis." 29 "Canst thou by searching
find out God ?" " He 30 who seeks it, unless he
repent, will float about for ever in the ocean of
incomprehensibility." 31
Having thus shown that the basis of the Gnostic
errors was an imperfect estimate of the nature of
God, he passes to that particular heresy in which
these opinions manifested their effect; their de-
nial namely of the Humanity of Christ. To sup-
pose Immensity to be the essence of Deity, was
26 S. Irenaeus, iv. 20, 4, p. 254 [Massuet].
27 Ibid. iii. 24, 2, p. 223. * Ibid. ii. 5, 4, p. 121.
29 Ibid. ii. 25, 4, p. 153. " Ibid. iv. 9, 3, p. 238.
31 " Quemadmodum poterit quis intelligere aut cognoscere in
corde tarn magnum Deum ?" Ibid. iv. 19, 3, p. 252.
136 CHRIST IS GOD THE WOKD.
nearly connected with supposing what was tangible
and material to be its direct opponent. Hence
the feeling that it was impossible that the Supreme
Mind should manifest itself in the flesh. Against
this opinion St. Irenseus puts the declaration of
Scripture, and the constant belief of the Church,
that " Our Lord redeemed us by His own blood,
and gave His life for our life, and His flesh for
our flesh." 32 He discriminates between mere natural
limitation, which belongs to material being, and
that moral corruption, which is the consequence of
sin. Without the removal of the last, he says,
there was some natural impossibility in man's sal-
vation; 33 whereas the admixture of material
elements in man's nature was only a part of that
perfect 34 construction in which he was originally
made. And that Christ Our Lord participated in
them, was shown by abundant individual indica-
tions. Why else should He have been hungry
after His fast, or weary after His journey? Why
should He have wept at the tomb of Lazarus,
or in His Passion have shed drops of blood r 35
But Irenaeus goes deeper than this, and is not
satisfied by such mere incidental notices of Our
Lord's Humanity. He seems to have feared lest
these signs of sympathy in one who was also a
32 S. Iren. v. 1, 1, p. 292.
33 " Impossibile erat ut salutem perciperet qui sub peccato
ceciderat." S. Irenceus, iii. 18, 2, p. 209.
34 S. Iren. v. 6, 1. p. 299.
36 S. Iren. iii. 22, 2, p. 219. S. Leo, Ep. xxiv. 4.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 137
Divine Being, should be looked upon only as
individual instances of gratuitous condescension;
as an assumed conformity to our lot, rather than
an actual copartnership in our nature. This was
exactly what was afterwards maintained by the
Aphthartodocetae, 36 a sect of Eutychians ; and thus
was Christ's sympathy with ourselves divested of
its reality. To guard against such an error,
Irenaeus insists on that relation between Christ
and humanity at large, which is revealed in Scrip-
ture ; and thus lays a foundation for the apparent
facts of His life, in the principles which were
essential to its object. " For if He had not of
man taken the substance of flesh, He would not
have been man or the Son of Man ; and if He had
not been made what we were, He would not have
done so great a thing in His sufferings." 37 This
relation of Christ to man, he grounds on those
passages of Holy Scripture which speak of Christ
as the antitype of Adam, " whence also, by St.
Paul, Adam is called the type of Him who was to
come;" 38 and likewise on the declarations which it
contains of a real unity of nature between Christ
and His ransomed brethren. In this system he
seems to have discerned that peculiar fitness and
harmony to which Hooker apparently refers, when
36 " Oportebat non solum velle, sed fecisse Deum aliquid erga
nos." Leonthis, c. Nest, ct Eutych. Bib. Max. Pat. ix. 688.
vid. Pet. de Inc. x. 3.
37 S. Iren. iii. 22, 1, p. 218. * Ibid. iii. 22, 3, p. 219.
138 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
he says that " Christ's Incarnation and Passion can
be available to no man's good, which is not made
partaker of Christ, neither can we participate Him
without His presence;" 39 but his conclusions do
not rest on mere natural arguments, but on the
inspired sayings of the Apostles. And to these
no one could refer with greater confidence, than
one who professes to have learnt the general pur-
pose of their teaching from their immediate dis-
ciples. " It was necessary that He who began to
destroy sin, and to redeem men who deserved
death, should Himself be made partaker of that
nature, which by sin had been brought into ser-
vitude, and was enthralled by death, that so sin
might be destroyed by man, and man might be
delivered from death. ' For as by the disobe-
dience of one man,' who was formed originally out
of the virgin earth, ' many were made sinners,'
and lost their life, ' so by the obedience of One'
who from a virgin had His origin, many have been
justified and obtained salvation. Thus therefore
was the Word of God made man. In the words
of Moses, it was truly God's work. For if He had
only obeyed as flesh, and not become flesh, it had
been no real work. He became that which was
obedient: God, by taking the elements of man-
hood, became Himself a new Head to man's
original race, that He might destroy sin, deprive
death of its sting, and give mankind life."
39 Eccl. Pol. v. 55, 1. S. Irenseus, Hi. 18, 7, p. 211.
CHEIST IS GOU THE WORD. 139
There are two particular points to which
Irenaeus refers, as evidencing the reality of the
relation, which has been thus described; the one,
Our Lord's sacrifice upon the Cross ; the other,
that real communion with Himself, which He
vouchsafes in the Lord's Supper. " If the flesh
is not saved, then did not Christ redeem us with
His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the
communion of His blood, nor is the bread which
we break, the communion of His body. It could
not be blood, unless there were flesh, veins, and
whatever else belongs to man's substance; yet all
this the Word must truly have taken, for He
redeemed us with His blood, as the Apostle says,
' in whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins.'" 41 In referring to the
Holy Communion as evidencing the truth of Our
Lord's humanity, St. Irenseus appeals to the testi-
mony of the early Church, that the gifts of grace
are obtained through union with the man Jesus
Christ, in as real a manner as forgiveness of sins
was purchased by His blood. Is it, then, that as
His earthly body was nailed upon the Cross, so it
is divided into morsels, and eaten as natural food
by men? Such was the notion of the Capharnaites ;
and the same opinion, with the addition that Our
Lord's material body is capable of being dis-
tributed in portions, without limit and without
destruction, and also that men's senses are super-
41 S. Irenaeus, v. 2, 2, p. 293. S. Leo, Ep. 24, 5.
140 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
naturally withheld from discerning it, is denied
by our Church under the name of Transubstan-
tiation. What other interpretations may be given
to a word unknown to antiquity, and how far,
considering the technical nature of the term sub-
stance, a more refined construction of it may
harmonize with the decrees of the Council of
Trent, is a question for those who have to sub-
scribe its formularies. The Capharnaite notion,
however, must imply that some supernatural effect
is connected with the eating of Our Lord's body,
since naturally it would act only as common food.
And such supernatural effect is attributed to it by
all who, without holding a carnal presence, believe
with our Church that "the inward part or thing
signified" in the Holy Communion is "the body
and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed
taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's
Supper." Now this is all which is requisite, to
give its force to the argument of St. Irenaeus.
That argument turns on the belief that Our Lord's
Humanity, through spiritual supernatural influence,
is in the Holy Communion the consecrating prin-
ciple of ours. It implies, of course, that the
participation of Our Lord's body in the Holy
Communion is not merely figurative, that it is not
a mere memorial of His death, an acted sermon on
His sufferings ; and it is a point of no little mo-
ment, that one who had been nurtured in the faith
by St. John's disciple, and who lived within half
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 141
a century of the writing of his Gospel, should have
thought this assertion so clear, that the reality of
the Atonement and the Resurrection could be built
upon it. For he reasons back from the reality of
the gift bestowed, to the reality of the source from
which it emanates ; and considers it a sufficient
argument against the Docetae, that Christ must be
truly man, since we are truly benefited by union
with His manhood. Whereas the heretical party,
believing Christ's Incarnation and Death to be only
a representation, supposed, naturally enough, that
His presence in the Eucharist was only a figurative
process, by which our imagination was strongly im-
pressed, and that neither was there in Christ any
real body to produce an effect upon us, nor w r ere
the bodies of mankind to be quickened at the
resurrection. The renewal of " body, soul, and
spirit," to which the Apostle refers, was lost sight
of with the belief in Our Lord's Body. On the
reality then of the human body of Our Lord,
stands, according to Irenseus, the certainty of man-
kind's resurrection. That he supposes the media
through which its sanctifying agency extends itself
to the Christian, to continue to be actual elements
of bread and w r ine, is shown by his repeated
reference to their earthly character, 42 subject,
as the Gnostics supposed, to the Demiurgus or
Lord of this world, whose gifts they thought
could not be made subservient to the purposes of
42 S. Iren. IV. 33, 2, p. 270, & iv. 18, 4, p. 251.
142 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
God. This opinion he refutes, by showing that
they are the means of communicating that mys-
terious union, whereby men are bound to the
second, as by nature they were to the first Adam.
It follows, since our whole union with the second
Adam is not by natural descent, but by super-
natural alliance, that His presence therefore in the
Eucharist, however true and real, must not be by
carnal interpenetration, but by spiritual power.
" The mixture of [Christ's] bodily substance with
ours, is a thing which the ancient Fathers disclaim.
Yet the mixture of His flesh with ours they speak
of, to signify what our very bodies, through mys-
tical conjunction, receive from that vital efficacy
which we know to be in His, and from bodily
mixtures they borrow divers similitudes, rather to
declare the truth, than the manner of coherence
between His sacred and the sanctified bodies of
Saints." 43 Accordingly Irenaeus says, "when the
mixed cup, and the bread which results from
growth, receives 44 the word of God, the Eucharist
becomes the body of Christ, and from them the
substance of our flesh receives increase and cor-
roboration. How then can they say that there is
no capacity for that gift of God, which is eternal
life, in the flesh which is nourished by the body
and blood of the Lord, and becomes a part of
43 Eccl. Pol. v. 56, 9.
44 " Accedit verbum [z*. e. of consecration] ad elementum, et
fit Sacramentum." S. Aug. in Joan. Ixxx. 3.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 143
Him? as the blessed Paul says in his Epistle to
the Ephesians, ' we are members of His body : of
His flesh, and of His bones.' ' ?45
Other passages would illustrate the same deep
view of Christ's relation to Humanity, as, for
instance, the striking one in the Fourth Book
[xviii. 4], which is cited by Hooker. But what has
been adduced is sufficient proof that St. Irenseus,
with the rest of the early Church, maintained
Our Lord's Manhood as certainly as His Godhead.
The two natures were believed to be absolutely
joined together in one Person. Was there any
thing which belonged of necessary right to the
nature of man, it might certainly be attributed to
Him ; was there anything which could not be sepa-
rated from Godhead, it could not be denied Him.
These two widely-separated characters in one single
person made up His Being. As God He was the
object of all honour and worship : as man He had
offered His body on the Cross, and was still pre-
senting it in heaven as the ground of intercession
and the source of graces.
Thus did the first assaults upon the cardinal
principle of the Christian faith, lead to a clear
and full assertion that in Christ Our Lord, two
natures, Godhead and Manhood, were perfectly
manifested. The time however was now come,
when the influx of educated and thoughtful men
into the Church, made it necessary to give this
45 S. Irenaeus, v. 2, 3, p. 294.
144 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
great truth a more adequate expression. In the
third century of the Christian aara, to the con-
sideration of which we now come, there arose a
new set of objectors, to try men's allegiance to the
Gospel. These were no longer external to the
Church, like the Ebionites and Gnostics : they had
passed within it. Their assaults were not directed,
like the errors of the second century, against the
avowed principle of Christianity, that man was
God and God man; they had learned the more
subtile and dangerous policy of amending rather
than disputing it. They were ready to admit the
Church's doctrine in name, if in reality they might
reject it. They claimed to interpret it in such
wise as should not clash with another leading doc-
trine of the Scripture revelation, the Unity of God.
For whereas the objections of the preceding age
had been built on a regard to the constitution of
man's nature, those which now arose were derived
rather from the nature of God. The Unity of the
Divine Being was one essential point which the new
Revelation had to maintain against Polytheism.
With this fundamental principle of Christianity,
the real belief in Christ as God was asserted to be
inconsistent. " They charge us with setting forth
two Gods or three," reports Tertullian, "while
they assert themselves to be worshippers of but
one. We hold, they say, to the monarchy." 46
There was plainly this difficulty, that Christ as
46 Adv. Praxeam, 3.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 145
man, was one individual in a class containing many
members. If His other nature could be dealt with
in a corresponding manner if His Divine Being
could be spoken of as, in like manner, one out of
many what difference would there be between
Christianity and the religion of the Heathen ?
Hence the various attempts which were made in the
third century, to explain away the Christian doc-
trines without absolutely rejecting them. These
attempts were met by no less strenuous efforts on
the part of more enlightened believers, to guard
the ancient deposit of Christian truth, by insisting
on the real reception of the very same belief which
had originally existed. Hence the introduction of
new forms of expression, to negative those several
misconceptions by which the ingenuity of men
would have perverted the great facts of revelation.
"Just as the Heathen make gods with their hands,"
says Tertullian, " so do the heretics by their words,
while they introduce a different God and a different
Christ." 47 "It was in maintaining, therefore, the
character of Christ, that there rose all those dis-
putes respecting the Doctrine of the Trinity, which
existed in the early Church." 48 To assert Our
Lord to be merely the Divine Wisdom, as had
been done by Justin Martyr, and thus to assign
Him a place among the attributes of God, was
soon found to be insufficient. On this showing,
47 Adv. Praxeam, sec. 18.
48 Dorner's Person Christi, vol. i. p. 940.
L
146 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
was there not a danger lest His personality should
be wholly lost in the infinite perfection of the one
God ? But suppose that to escape this difficulty,
His mission to create the world was insisted on,
and He was thus exhibited as invested plainly with
a personal character. Yet such a personality was
merely drawn from God's works; it depended on
the visible creation; it was not deep enough to
serve for the personal identification of an Eternal
Being. So that two conditions which belonged
plainly to the great object of the Church's worship,
that He was the Word or Wisdom of the Father,
and that by Him the worlds were made, were not
only insufficient, when taken in themselves, as the
determining characteristics of His character, but,
in fact, became the very germinant principles of
the great heresies of the age. For what was this
denial of the real personality of the Son of God,
but the heresy which afterwards became so fatal
under the names of Sabellian, Patripassian, or
Apollinarian ? while to rest Our Lord's Being on
His relation to the external world, was that more
consistent heresy of Arius to which the others con-
ducted. If it pleased God to embody the abstract
attribute of His wisdom in a personal substance for
the creation of the world, the Being so employed
was only a creature, distinguished by greater re-
sponsibility from the things which He created.
"Refer Our Lord's Godhead only to His resem-
blance to the Divine attributes, and His personality
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 147
was lost in the Unity of God; prove His per-
sonality by His activity in creation, and His God-
head was lost in the created universe. If God be
not personally distinguished from God, the prin-
ciple of discrimination is not founded in the inner
nature of God, but depends only on His relation
to the world. And thus the Son becomes only a
secondary, accidental, contingent thing, like the
world of creation. So that unless the conditions
which discriminate the Son's personality are sought
for in God Himself, Arianism must of necessity
follow." 49
It was essential then to meet the inquiring spirit
of the age, by laying down the precise limits of
that idea under which the worship of the God-man
had existed from the foundation of the Church.
The right course had been marked out by St.
Irenseus, in a manner sufficient for the require-
ments of the second century. For first he dis-
tinguishes between the Creator and the creation,
pointing out that Our Lord was not only in Him-
self an invisible 50 power, ever present 51 with the
Father, but that His Being was not dependent
on the world's existence, the world having been
created in subsequent time to show forth God's
glory. 52 This supplies him not only with a safe-
guard against the danger of a general Pantheism,
the principle of which is to merge the personality
49 Dorner's Person Christi, i. 449.
50 S. Irenteus, iv. 24, 2, p. 260. " Ibid. iv. 20, 1, p. 253.
52 Ibid, iv. 14, 1, p. 243.
148 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
of the moral Governor in the circle of His works,
but it is a protest by anticipation against the
Arian heresy, the essential feature of which was
to represent the existence of the Son as relative
only to creation. On the other hand, Irenaeus
makes provision against Sabellian misrepresenta-
tions, by discriminating the person of the Word
from that of the Father. He disclaims such esti-
mate of the nature of the Word, as might be
drawn from the application of the same terms to
man. "When you explain His generation from
the Father, and transfer to the Word of God
ideas drawn from the utterance of words from
the tongue of man, you are clearly detected to
be ignorant of what is human as well as what
is Divine." 53
These explanations were sufficient, so long as
the tendency which it was necessary to oppose,
showed itself in the shape of Ebionism and
Gnosticism. But more was required when they
ripened into the Arian and Sabellian heresies.
That they are the very same tendencies are
obvious ; for while Arianism is the professed
denial of Our Lord's real Divinity, the Sabellian
notion, that the Son is not personally distinct
from the Father, but merely one side or phase
of the Father's character, is an obvious revival
of the notion of an emanation from the Godhead,
and is fatal therefore to the real permanent
53 S. Irenajus, ii. 28, 5, p. 157.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 149
coherence of God and man in the one Person of
Christ. So that while Arianism tends directly
towards creature worship, the Sabellian heresy im-
plies the denial of any real intervention of the Son
of God as the Saviour of mankind.
There was no want of opponents to these errors,
when they began to display themselves within
the Church. The course indicated by Irenasus
was followed by Tertullian, who marked out more
carefully the Son's independence of the external
world, by observing that He was one in sub-
stance with the Father. Thus was He taken
altogether out of the class of created beings.
The explanations of Origen were still more com-
plete. 55 He introduced the phrase of the " Son's
eternal generation," which was at once adopted by
the whole Church, as expressing the exact view
of Our Lord's relation to the Godhead, which had
always been delivered to them. Thus was secured
the notion of a perpetual generation, in which
time had no part ; and since the discriminating
considerations of the Son's personality were thus
laid in the nature of the Deity itself, the Sabellian
confusion was escaped, and yet the Deity was not
rendered dependent upon His works.
It is not to be supposed indeed, that the early
54 Adv. Praxeam, sec. 4.
55 " Est namque ita seterna ac sempiterna generatio sicut
splendor generatus ex luce. Non enim per adoptionem spi-
ritus Filius fit extrinsecus, sed natura Filius est." De Prin-
cipiis, 1, 2, 4.
150 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
writers could always use expressions incapable of
being taken in a partial and erroneous sense.
While the relations of the great truths they handed
down were imperfectly apprehended, it was impos-
sible to foresee of what further enlargement
either words or ideas were susceptible. And
this is the ground of those complaints against
them, which have been made by Petavius, and
more recently by Mr. Newman. It is not
alleged that the ideas which they entertained
were incorrect, but that in comprehending their
relations, and clothing them in language, they did
not go beyond the wants of their generation.
But it is only when taken out of their place,
and applied in a sense in which they were not
intended, that the expressions of these ancient
writers can be said to be erroneous. Take them
in reference to that particular stage in the pro-
gress of opinion to which they were adapted,
and the imputation is ungrounded. The traveller
who inclines to the right to-day, is not deviating
from his course because he will incline to the
left to-morrow. It must not be supposed, there-
fore, that the holy men of the three first cen-
turies were in error respecting any of the great
truths of the Gospel ; though the Church's mind
was gradually led on by the Holy Ghost to a more
complete appreciation of all their multiform rela-
tions. And one resource was resorted to in the
third century, which in the second had been
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 151
found needless the authority of Councils. This
had not been needful, while the enemy lay with-
out the Church. It was enough for the Bishops
to exclude those from the communion of the
faithful, who opposed her acknowledged doctrines.
Marcion was first excommunicated by his own
father, the Bishop of Synope, and when he sought
the Capital, he was again sentenced by the Bishop
of Rome, as the common father of its citizens.
But in the third century, w 7 e find no less than
three local Councils, which opened the way for
that great assembly at Nice, in which the Catholic
doctrines were fully vindicated. The first two
of these were directed against Sabellian tenets,
which were propagated in the one case by the
disciples of Xoetus of Smyrna; 56 in the other by
the Arabian Bishop Beryllus. In the latter in-
stance, Beryllus, the author of the error, was him-
self reclaimed by the arguments of Origen. 57 We
learn from Socrates, 58 that the Synod which op-
posed Beryllus dwelt especially on the existence
of Christ's human soul, a fact, which though
plainly implied by earlier writers (as Irenaeus and
Tertullian), for they speak of Our Lord as ignorant
according to His manhood, had been first put in a
clear light by Origen. The errors of Beryllus had
been those which are commonly maintained by
56 His opinions are recorded by S. Hippolytus Contra Noe-
tum, i. 5. Vide Routh's Rel. Sac. ii. p. 374. [1st Ed.]
57 Eus. Eccl. Hist. vi. 33. M Hist. iii. 7.
152 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Sabellians, that Our Lord, before His Incarnation,
was not really discriminated by any personal dis-
tinction from the Father, and that when He came
upon earth, it was not His own, but the Father's
Deity which dwelt in Him. 69 The effect of this
theory was to represent the Blessed Trinity as a
mere set of relations or characters, under which
the same individual displayed himself; and these
relations were supposed therefore to be increased,
when the work of creation brought the Deity in
contact with a new set of objects. Two objec-
tions may be made to it, independently of its
inconsistency with the statements of revelation:
first, that the Godhead might as readily have
assumed any number of Persons as those three,
in which it has been its will to be revealed ;
and secondly (as will shortly be proved), that
to explain away Our Lord's personality was
inconsistent with the reality of His Incarnation.
It was on this side that Sabellianism was most
plainly inconsistent with that first principle of
the Christian Church its reverence for Christ
Our Lord ; and, therefore, it was by a perception
of this danger, that Beryllus was reclaimed from
his errors. For when he had learnt, through
the teaching of Origen, to form a deeper estimate
of Our Lord's real and separate existence as the
God-man (endowed not only with human flesh but
a reasonable soul), he saw that it was essential
59 Eusebius, u. s.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 153
to seek for the distinguishing conditions of His
personality, within the sacred precincts of Deity
itself.
The third Council held in this century, against
Paul of Samosata, had no such prosperous issue;
but it was not less important, as a precautionary
guard against what was afterwards the Arian
heresy. Paul was condemned for denying that
first principle of the faith, Our Lord's real Divinity,
just as Arius was condemned afterwards. And as
the Fathers who opposed Xoetus declared that
they were not introducing any new theory, but
only maintaining the truths which had been de-
livered to them "we say that which we have
learnt" so the Council at Antioch, after affirming
the reality of Our Lord's Godhead against Paul,
concludes with an assertion that " all the Catholic
Churches agree with us." 60 This Council carries us
on to that celebrated assembly at Nice, A. D. 325,
for the celebration of which such providential
preparation had been made by the ascendency of
Constantino. Its creed contains the broadest pos-
sible assertion of Our Lord's real Divinity. The
second General Council, held during this century
at Constantinople, followed likewise in the same
track, and filled in certain particulars of the outline
which had already been delineated. Besides its
main work, the assertion of the Deity of the Holy
Ghost, it condemned the Apollinarian heresy, by
60 Eus. Ecc. Hist. vii. 30.
154 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
which Our Lord's Humanity was called in ques-
tion. In neither of these Councils however was
anything concluded, except what all the Fathers
declared to have been received from the beginning
in their several Churches. For the ascending line
of Christian truth was only the prolongation of
that first principle of the Gospel, that Christ was
perfect God and perfect man, in the full complete-
ness of both these relations. And as it has pleased
God that His Church has never been without a
champion in its hour of need; as the expounder
and indomitable advocate of the creed of Nice,
there was raised up the great Athanasim.
From his teaching did this momentous Doctrine
of our religion receive that full elucidation, which
showed the relation of its various parts, and vin-
dicated for revealed religion its proper superiority.
His four Orations against the Arians have re-
mained as a rich mine of truth for all subsequent
generations. The Trinity in Unity we must re-
ceive, according to him, as a real mystery in the
eternal Godhead, which has partially been revealed
to mankind. There are those who deny that we
are taught anything of God's nature, and allege
religion to consist only in our relation to some
Being who is incomprehensible. That our ideas
must be infinitely inadequate is obvious ; but unless
there be an object without us, to which to direct
our thoughts, relative is as impossible as positive
knowledge. Unless we have some objective know-
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 155
ledge of the Deity, our subjective knowledge of
Him is only a dream. " He that cometh to God
must believe that He is, and that He is the re-
warder of them that diligently seek Him." 61 " He
who comes to God, or enters himself in the Church
of God, must first believe that there is a God in
some intelligible sense; and not only that there is
something in general without any proper notion,
though never so inadequate, of any of its qualities
or attributes for this may be fate, or chaos, or
plastic nature, or anything else as w r ell as a God."
" AVe may say," indeed, " that as God is infinitely
above men, so is the knowledge of God infinitely
above the knowledge of men. And after this same
analogy, we must understand all those attributes
to belong to the Deity, which in themselves simply
and as such denote perfection." 62 But unless our
faith have a counterpart in some external reality,
it is but a delusive imagination. All explanations
therefore respecting the Divine nature must begin
with the fact, of which revelation has assured us,
that in the Unity of the Godhead there are Three
61 " Moral infinity as well as mathematical ; moral modes in
their highest degree, as well as modes of quantity in its un-
limited extent ; are subject to some rules of discourse, when we
discourse of them at all ; and one rule is, that in passing up
the scale of the finite subject, in order to approach the pro-
perties of the infinite, we must pursue the enlarged idea taken
from the properties of the first, and not adopt the contradictory
or any alien idea, to make the approximation to the infinite in
question." Damson on Prophecy, p. 548.
62 Minute Philosopher, Dial. iv. 18, 21.
156 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Now, the first and most essential condition of be-
lief in this fact, is to acknowledge that it is a mys-
tery. For the Apostles speak of the nature of
God and of His relation to mankind as mysteries.
The first is the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, the
second the mystery of the Incarnation. These
two are necessarily linked together, inasmuch as
the first is approached through the second ; and
the second can never be really accepted without
the admission of the first. They form between
them " the mystery of God, and of the Father, and
of Christ." 63 It is not meant, of course, that they
involve a contradiction in terms, for did they do
so, we might deny, with as much truth as we can
affirm them. But, by asserting them to be mys-
teries, the Apostles teach us that it has pleased
God to give us an actual external object in His own
nature, consisting of features and characteristics,
which in our present state we are unable to harmo-
nize ; but which faith in Him, who bestows them,
assures us will eventually resolve themselves into
one consistent whole. Such has been the case
already in a great measure respecting the world
of matter; such will no doubt be the case here-
after respecting the world of mind. Various incon-
gruities in the external universe, which perplexed
Lucretius, have been cleared up by Newton and
Davy : and those incompatibilities which were sug-
63 Colossians, ii. 2.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WOKD. 157
gested by Arius and Sabellius, will prove hereafter
to be equally illusory. The individual truths re-
specting God which we learn from revelation, must
therefore be held as firmly as the individual phe-
nomena which we learn from observation. We
cannot expect that in our present state we can
perfectly harmonize them. What we should aim
at is, to discern the limits which have been laid
down on either side, without endeavouring to draw
them together forcibly by the bond of a logical
connexion.
In respect to the Blessed Trinity, for example,
the peculiar difficulty which is experienced in its
real reception, by those who do not discern that
its transcendent nature raises it above our ordinary
laws of thought, is that our common notion of
spiritual beings is derived from that internal prin-
ciple which we call Personality. This indivisible
principle in our nature, with which consciousness is
intimately connected, is what gives us the power
of speaking of ourselves. It is the " ego" the
" /c/i," of our being. Here then there is some
fixed principle, whereby our own consciousness
assures us, that we are dissevered from all other
being's. So that if earthly faculties are adequate
to the complete resolution of heavenly questions,
we may go on, and deal with the principles of per-
sonality and individuality as being always identical.
We may say further, that to attribute this prin-
ciple of individuality to Godhead at large, would
158 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
be to deny its applicability to the Three Persons ;
or to assert that it was absolutely identical with
that which might be attributed to the Three sepa-
rate Persons, would be to deny that it had any
relevancy to Godhead at large. And yet to deny
its applicability to either of them, would seem on
the one hand, to detract too much from the one-
ness of the Supreme Being; 64 and on the other, to
derogate from the actual existence of the Three
Blessed Persons. 65 Of course, a solution of the
perplexity may be found, if it be admitted that the
finite individuality which supplies our standard, is
no adequate measure of the infinite. To the Infi-
nite and Absolute Being must be ascribed an indi-
.viduality of His own, which is above our thought ;
and on the same principle there may exist some
other than that limited and relative personality,
by which each man is divided from all connatural
substances. But those who deny that anything
is told us respecting the Godhead, which our
present powers are unable to harmonize, must
choose one side or other of the difficulty. Both
they cannot adopt, without such contradiction in
terms as would be to affirm an untruth. But
64 " Cur ergo non hsec tria simul unam personam dicimus, sicut
unam essentiam et unum Deum, sed tres dicimus personas, cum
tres deos aut tres essentias non dicamus, nisi volumus vel unum
aliquod vocabulum servire huic signification}, qua intelligitur
Trinitas," &c. S. Aug. de Tr'm. vii. 11.
65 " Quaesivit quid tria diceret : et dixit substantias sive per-
sonas, quibus nominibus non diversitatem intelligi voluit, sed
singularitatem noluit," &c. S. Aug. de Trin. vii. 9.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 159
what is the Catholic course, as it was explained
in ancient times, and is still maintained in all
Churches of the Saints ? Neither is one of these
alternatives affirmed nor the other. 66 For no
attempt is made to explain the nature of the
Divine Being. Since Revelation is assumed to be
the entrance of Divine realities into this lower
world, it is not supposed that human conceptions
can give them adequate expression. 67 The Church
does not aim, therefore, at such logical complete-
ness on this subject, as may be required from those
who consider that every thing is brought down to
the level of their faculties. She is content to state
that the Supreme Being is one in some true and
real sense. For this is revealed as the original law
of God's nature. Such is the doctrine of the
Unity in Trinity. On the other hand, the Church
teaches that in the Blessed Trinity are Three Per-
66 "Ut, quia in deitate Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti nee
singularitas est nee divcrsitas cogitanda, vera Unitas et vera
Trinitas possit quidam mente simul sentiri, sed non possit ore
simul proferri." *S*. Leo adversus Eutych.
" Timuit dicere Tres essentias, ne intelligeretur in ilia summa
nequalitate ulla diversitas. Rursus non esse tria quasdam non
poterat dicere, quod Sabellius quia dixit, in haeresim lapsus est."
S. Aug. de Trin. vii. 9.
67 " Conveniens est ut hoc nomen (persona) de Deo dicatur ;
non tamen eodem modo, quo dicitur de creaturis, sed excellen-
tiori modo." Summa Tlieol. i. 29, 3.
"All these expressions resolve themselves into the original
mystery of the Holy Trinity, that Person and Individuum are
not equivalent terms, and we understand them neither more nor
less than we understand it." Note on St. Atlianasius ' s Select
Treatises ; Oxford Library of the Fathers, vol. viii. p. 155.
160 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
sons. In neither case does she affirm that the
principle of existence which belongs to the Supreme
Being, is identical with that which we call perso-
nality in mankind, or that our consciousness of our
own being qualifies us to fathom the depths of that
Being which is Infinite. But that the Three Per-
sons in the Blessed Trinity have a real existence in
themselves that in the Deity there is an original,
objective triplicity, independently of us, and of the
world of creation she grounds on the declarations
of Holy Writ. And this is the mystery of the
Trinity in Unity.
These two then are the starting points from
which we must proceed : and the firm reception
of both of them maintains the reality of our belief
in God. It supplies a guard against those assaults
which are made on either side, in the attempt to
explain what is inexplicable. Such explanations
are plausible enough, when viewed in relation to
either of these truths singly, but they invariably
fail when we attempt to apply the theory which
has been framed with a view to one, to the eluci-
dation of the other. It matters not whether they
begin with the Three Persons in the Blessed God-
head, or with the Unity of Deity at large. In
the first case, the separate existence of different
Persons is seen to consist readily enough with
unity of nature. Peter, James, and John were
three persons ; but they shared in that human
nature which was common to them all. But such
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 161
a mode of accounting for the existence of the
Blessed Persons in the Deity is inconsistent with
the other side of the mystery ; for it is compatible
with Polytheism; it does not recognize the Unity
of God. It is at variance therefore with the whole
teaching of the Old Testament, and has in con-
sequence been formally condemned, as heretical. 68
The same will be found to be the result if we
begin with the other side of the doctrine. That a
single being might display himself under various
characters, as he came into relation to various
parties, is intelligible enough. Cicero speaks of
himself, when practising for the bar, as discharging
the part of three persons the plaintiff, the judge,
and the accused. Here again is another expla-
nation, which would maintain the Unity of the
Supreme Being, and yet render the existence of
different Persons intelligible. But as the previous
solution offends against the Unity of the God-
head, so does this against the reality of the Three
Blessed Persons which constitute it. That which
is essential to their reality that which constitutes
them real Persons, and not a mere fictitious repre-
sentation, is, that the characteristic conditions
which mark their divergency should lie in the
68 The notion of the Abbot Joachim, that the Unity of Per-
sons in the Blessed Trinity was only like that which binds
together different men, was censured by the Fourth Lateran
Council. According to him, it was an " unitas collectiva et
similitudinaria, quemadmodum dicuntur multi homines unus
populus." Hard. vol. vii. p. 18.
if
162 CHRIST IS GOD THE
eternal nature of Godhead itself, and not in any
relation to the surrounding world of Creation.
For otherwise, why should the Persons in the
Blessed Godhead be limited to Three ? Why
should not their number be unbounded ? And
the consequence of explaining away the actual
Being of the Blessed Three, would be to destroy
the possibility of the Incarnation, and the reality
of the Mediation of Christ. The Three Persons
therefore in the Blessed Trinity, have something
more than a mere relationary existence dependent
on external things. They have a necessary Being,
dependent on that eternal law by which the God-
head exists. As it would be impossible for Deity
to be other than holy and just these being pri-
mary conditions of its nature so to exist in Three
Persons is the law of Godhead. Such is the
barrier which the Personal Being of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, opposes to all
Sabellian deductions from the Unity of the Su-
preme Being; and thus are we turned back again
to that unfathomable mystery of the Holy Trinity,
which is revealed.
These are the two principles, by whose firm
maintenance the Christian mind is restrained from
error on this cardinal article of our faith. " In all
things, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in
Unity is to be worshipped." The reception of the
first secures us against Polytheism ; a barren Deism
is excluded by the second. The former error, at
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 163
least in its avowed form, is at present to be little
apprehended. The only popular shape which it
assumes, is that Pantheistic adoration of all exist-
ing powers, which excludes the action of any moral
Ruler. For the worship of many Gods is rejected
by the reason of the age; and its inconsistency
with revealed truth is indelibly impressed on the
whole system of the Old Testament. The more
dangerous error is to be found on the other side,
in that surrender of the Personal reality of the
Blessed Three, which results from an exclusive
regard to the truth of the Divine Unity. The
Unity of the Divine nature is a doctrine so true,
simple, and important it has such strong hold in
our nature, and is so forcibly recommended to us
in ancient Scripture, that it naturally overbears
any antagonist principle. To this circumstance is
owing the popular tendency of the day to an
unconscious Sabellianism. Men construct their
notion of the Three Blessed Persons on the prin-
ciple of a logical consistency with that system
of interdependence, of which the Unity of the
Godhead is the basis. So that the prevalent mis-
conceptions show the natural tendency of the mind
to harmonize the whole scheme of the Trinity with
this central idea. And if this error was guarded
against in early days, it was because the whole
system of the Church was in continual antagonism
against it. For, starting from the fact of Our
Lord's Incarnation, having His worship, as its first
164 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
object, the support of His true objective reality as
its primary function, the Church's system as it
traced its way upwards towards the doctrine of
the Blessed Trinity, was occupied all along in
making good the other side of the alternative, and
in maintaining the true existence of its Incarnate
Head. The vindication of His worship had led it
to those deep mysteries, which it was found neces-
sary to explore ; and this side therefore of the
doctrine, it was impossible that it should abandon.
So that while the reaction against Heathenism was
a sufficient guarantee that the Unity of the God-
head would never be surrendered, the opposite
truth the real existence of the Ever-Blessed
Three was no less deeply rooted in the instinct
of Christian piety. For the existence of the
Eternal Son, as a separate Person in the Ever-
Blessed Trinity, was linked by inevitable sequence
to that manifestation of God in the flesh, which
was the first starting point for the religious mind
of the Church. From the single fact of the wor-
ship of Christ as very God, are "vve carried back
by necessary connexion to His personal indwelling
in the bosom of Eternal Godhead. And for this
reason it is, that those who either openly or un-
consciously are betrayed into Sabellian doctrines,
cannot receive the truth of Our Lord's Incarnation
in its fulness. For they are deprived of the sub-
stratum on which it must rest the existence,
namely, of an Eternal Father of the Eternal Son.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 165
The one of these notions is of necessity implied in
the other. " As the Father always existed," says
St. Athanasius, "His image must have had the
same co-eternal being. For God's image is not
something which is delineated externally to Him-
self, but God Himself is the parent of that image,
in which His pleasure is to contemplate Himself."
" Was there ever a time, then, in which the Father
did not contemplate Himself in His own image ?
Was there ever a time in which it was not His
pleasure thus to contemplate Himself?" 69
The relation then between the two Persons is,
that as one is ever Son, so is the other ever Father.
As the one therefore is eternal, so is the other.
" Such as is the Father Himself, such is His
image." 70 And this likeness is not a mere matter of
appointment, as the Heathen set up idols to represent
their Gods. The Arians could allow the worship
of Christ, as being authorized to represent God; 71
63 S. Ath. contra Arian. i. 20. ro S. Ath. u. s.
71 On this ground it is, that Archbishop Whately justifies the
worship of Christ. " We differ from the Avorshippers of any
mere man, whether an impostor, as Mahomet for instance, or a
Saint, as Moses or Peter ; or of a graven image, or a fire, or of
anything else that they have set up for themselves ; we differ
from them I say in this, the essential circumstance, that their
worship is unauthorized, presumptuous, and vain, while ours is
divinely appointed." Whatebjs Sermons [1835], p. 53.
"If any one should choose, instead of looking to common
usage, to turn to the strict etymological sense of the word
' Idolater,' and to ask whether we are or are not ' worshippers
of an image,' we ought without hesitation to say that we
are. "We worship God in His beloved Son Jesus Christ."
Ibid. p. 52.
166 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
but this was to degrade Him into the region of
created beings, and to forget that He was in Him-
self and by nature the " brightness of His Father's
glory, and the express image of His Person."
And, except through Him whose office is to reveal
Him, is the Father invisible and unapproached.
For He is not only " the King invisible," but who
" dwelleth in the light, which nothing can approach
unto." Scripture, says Tertullian, points out the
difference between the Persons of the Godhead,
" by discriminating between the one which is visible
and the one which is invisible." For though " the
Son regarded as God, as the Word, and as a
Spirit, is in His nature invisible, yet He mani-
fested Himself even before He took our flesh."
So that "the Father is invisible, the Son visible." 72
Whether this be the real distinction between these
two Blessed Persons or not, the writer who makes
it must have fully recognized the fact, that not-
withstanding the oneness of their nature, they are
personally distinct. Now the reality of their Per-
sonal distinction is the material point; and that
it does not depend only on the fact of their being
revealed, but is essential, primary, archetypal. For
it lies in the nature of the Trinity itself, antecedent
to its relation to any created substance. It was not
that the Son was a name which the Godhead bore
for a time, in place of bearing the name of Father
as though for the purposes of creation or govern-
72 Tert. adv. Praxeam, sec. 14, vide S. Ath. contra Arian. i. 6.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 167
ment, it displayed itself in various characters but
the two titles imply a real co-existence of discrimi-
nated Persons, and " though God had never seen fit
to make things created, yet the Word would not the
less have been with God, and the Father in Him." 73
Now such real diversity of Persons it is, which
is a necessary preliminary to the Incarnation of
Christ. This circumstance is suggested in a well
known letter of St. Augustin. " How," it had
been asked him, " could the Lord and Ruler of the
world, endure the prison of the Virgin's womb ?"
" How could He lie concealed in the narrow limits
of infancy, for whom the universe is not sufficiently
extensive ? The Ruler of all things leaves His
own abode, and He who has care of the whole
world, transfers Himself into one little body" n St.
Augustin replies by distinguishing between things
material and immaterial ; maintaining that the con-
ditions which are applicable to the one, cannot be
transferred to the other. " It is not true that God
is so infused into flesh, that He has abandoned the
care of the world's government." And then he
adds that, " The Word of God has not put off His
eternity, nor abated His power, nor abandoned the
world's government, nor departed from the Father's
bosom, from the secret place, where He is with
Him and in Him." 75 In this last circumstance lies
the explanation of those passages of Holy Writ,
73 S. Ath. contra Arian. ii. 31.
74 S. Aug. Ep. cxxxv. sec. 2. 75 Ib. cxxxvii. sec. 4, 6.
168 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
which speak of God as really united to manhood,
and which yet deal with the Father's Personality,
as though unaffected by the event. For it was
the Word which was made flesh, but not the Father
or the Holy Ghost. It was not the whole Trinity 76
which was personally united to our nature. Those
who lose sight of this circumstance, cannot pos-
sibly give its due weight to the reality of that
union which was effected between God and man.
For either they must esteem what was united to
manhood in Christ to be an inferior or delegated
Deity, which is the Arian side of the dilemma, or
else they must look upon the Union as partial and
transitory as an indwelling, not an impersonation
as the gift to manhood of such power and presence,
as was bestowed in their measure on the Prophets.
Without the belief in a diversity of Persons, more
than this could not be supposed, without entrench-
ing too far on the self-existent and indivisible Unity
of God. Now this last, which is the Sabellian
alternative, is as plain a denial of Our Lord's
Human, as the Arian hypothesis of His Divine
nature. Those who receive it cannot believe that
really and permanently God is man, and man God.
This is why a demonstration of the truth and
completeness of Our Lord's Human nature, as evi-
denced by the existence of His man's soul, was
found so effectual a means (vid. p. 151) of re-
leasing Beryllus from Sabellian errors. The full
76 Damasc. de Fid. Orth. iii. 6.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 169
admission of Christ's manhood, in those who do
not suppose that personally He was a mere man,
implies that there must be some Personality in the
Blessed Trinity, other than that of the Father and
of the Holy Ghost, on which this abiding and com-
plete Union may be dependent. Xot, of course,
that what is Human can be so completely iden-
tified with what is Divine, as to be its measure or
limit : even when Godhead and manhood were so
intimately allied as to make up one Person, the
Finite nature was not lost, but comprehended, in
the Infinite. But, by admitting the permanence of
Christ's lower nature, we are driven to find some-
thing which shall discriminate His Divine Perso-
nality in Deity itself. And since such discrimi-
nating circumstances cannot be drawn from His
relation to the creatures ; since then He would
either be a creature Himself, or else not truly
other than the Father, from whom He is personally
discriminated; therefore it must be by some rela-
tion within Deity itself that the distinction must
be maintained. And therefore it must be an eter-
nal relation a relation in the nature .of things
self-originating, primary, archetypal.
The Eternal Son then it was, who in the fulness
of time became man for our sakes. " The Word
was made flesh." Having been the Eternal Son,
He became the Incarnate Son also. Even accord-
ing to His man's nature, He was not, properly
speaking, a creature, though consisting of created
170 CHRIST IS GOD THE WOKI).
elements ; for whereas all creation was His own
work, He Himself was moulded according to His
manhood, out of the created substance which He
had made, by the informing power of the Holy
Ghost. 77 Not as though He had not been the
Son previous to the existence of any created intel-
ligences ; nor yet as though to send Him had
been merely to bestow Sonship upon some inferior
nature, which God had first created. For "what
was called His mission, was the uniting the God-
head to manhood, that the Invisible nature might
be discerned by man through the Visible." 78 And
His name of Son is not derived from His gracious
Advent, but His Advent was consequent on those
discriminating characteristics in the Godhead, which
are referred to when He is called the Eternal Son.
For it must be borne in mind, as St. Basil 79 reminds
us, that earth and things human are borrowed and
derivative; that which is self-existent and primary
being those heavenly realities, from which things
worldly have their origin. And Holy Scripture re-
fers us to the fact, that it was by Him who was the
" appointed heir of all things," that the " worlds
were made;" and likewise, that it was "after His
77 "Nee ab eo genitus, sed creatus." Paschas. de Spir,
Sonet, i. 2. So the ancient Creed, which is preserved among
the documents of the Council of Ephesus : " oXov UKTISOV KOI
fiera TOV cra'^aTos, aXV ov 1 )^ Kara TO trwfia UKTI^OV Harduin, i.
p. 1639. But vide also S. Ath. c. Ar. ii. 45, 47, with the notes
to the Oxford Translation.
78 S. Ath. c Arian. iv. 36. * S. Basil. Adv. Eunomium, ii. 23.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 171
likeness," who was "the express image of the
Father," that man had been created as being the
reason, why, to the gracious condescension of this
especial Person in the Blessed Trinity, we are in-
debted for the economy of our salvation. For
" He was in the world, and the world was made by
Him." " He came unto His own." " The true
light which lighteth every man was coming into
the world." For as Hooker observes, " it seemeth
a thing unconsonant that the world should honour
any other as the Saviour, but Him whom it honour-
eth as the Creator." 80 " And as God's wisdom had
been pleased to humble itself to the creatures, and
to give them the impress and semblance of its
image, 81 so does He expressly declare in the Book
of Proverbs, " My delights were with the sons of
men." 82 So that "it could be no other Person of
the Deity who conversed with men on earth in
ancient times, but the Word, who was afterwards
to become flesh." 83 Thus was there a peculiar
adaptation for the work of man's regeneration in
Him, after whose pattern man had been originally
created. For whatsoever God was going to make
in the creatures, existed beforehand in the Word,
and could not have existed in things below, had it
not been previously in the Word." 84
It is from some natural law therefore of His
80 Eccl. Pol. v. 51, 3. 81 S. Ath. contra Arian. ii. 78.
82 Proverbs, viii. 31. ffl Tertull. adv. Praxeam, 16.
84 S. Aug. on Psalm xliv. 5.
172 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Divine Being, not from a mere temporary economy,
and in reference to things created, that the Son is
the image and representative of the Father. For
" the substance of God, with the property to be of
none, doth make the Person of the Father; the
very self-same 85 substance in number, with this
property to be of the Father, maketh the Person of
the Son." 86 So that the distinction between them,
of which the work of redemption is an effect, did
not arise from that work of mercy, but lay in their
own Being, the \vorlds being yet unbuilt. Neither
was it merely the result of the Father's will, by
which He commissioned an inferior being to under-
take what He designed to be performed, for this
would be only to fall back again upon what has
already been negatived, and to make the Son's
Being depend upon the works which He was
raised up to discharge. Whereas, He repre-
sents the Father as being His equal. " Such
as is the Father Himself, such is His image." 87
" He is God from God, Light from Light, Very
God from Very God." 88 And on this depends
that higher notion of Divine character, which
has been communicated to mankind by the Gospel
of Christ. For, mounting up from that which has
85 Hebrews, i. 3, would be more correctly rendered " the
express image of His substance." It is the Father's Godhead,
not His Paternity, of which the Son is the image.
86 Eccles. Pol. v. 51, 1. 87 S. Ath. Or. contra Arian. i. 20.
88 " o TraT>ip pi'^d- KCII Tnjryrj TQV vlou KO.I TOV a n /iov Tri/etyiaTOS."
S. Bas. Horn. 27. c. Sabell. vid. Def. Fid. JYic. iv. 1. 7.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 173
been taught us by the natural representative and
true image of Godhead, we may attain to heights
which the weakness of humanity had been unable
to reach. This it is which first raises us above
those carnal notions of Deity, which Grecian fable
had built upon the more splendid vices of cor-
rupted man. And one effectual manner, in which
the early Church witnessed to that higher ideal,
under which the Godhead had been exhibited by
its true Pattern-Image, was to give the first lesson
to mankind of universal love. The acts of mercy
showed by Christians to the indigent Heathen in
time of public distress, are recorded 89 to have been
one main circumstance which inclined the world to
the general acceptance of Christianity. For " by
this shall all men know that ye are My Disciples,
if ye have love one to another." And, in like
manner, is there a truth as well as dignity given to
our conceptions, which the grander mysticism of
the East could not attain. For so long as Infinity
alone was supposed the essence of Deity, there was
no communing with any thing that could represent
its nature, and bring home its greatness to our
thoughts. But the acts, not less than the com-
munications of Him, who is " the express Image of
His Father's Person," have taught us that the
moral attributes of Godhead make up the true
"Brightness of its Glory." Therefore can we say,
in the sublime words of Anselm: "I ask not,
89 Eusebius, Hist. vii. 22, and ix. 8.
174 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Lord, to attain to Thy height, with which my
understanding is not compatible, but I desire in
some measure to understand Thy truth, which my
heart believes and loves" M For as it was under
this aspect that the Godhead has been manifested
by the Eternal Son, so is it revealed respecting
the self-existent Father also, that the character-
istic essence of His Being is Love. And this leads
on to that further consideration of the Coinherence
of the Three Persons in the Godhead, by which
the mystery of the Trinity in Unity is distin-
guished, as well from the mixture which is pro-
duced by the material union of different bodies, as
from the mere harmony which attends the moral
union of different minds. In this fact probably, if
we may presume to judge respecting such a mys-
tery, lies the secret which reconciles the existence
of Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity with the
Unity of that nature which is common to them all.
" For how," asks St. Cyril, " can there be Unity in
Godhead, if each Person is separated by a perfect
individuality; and the name of God is given to
each Person, without community of nature and
substantial inherence in the others?" 91 But that
which was declared to us by Our Blessed Lord,
was the fact that He "is in the bosom of the
Father." " The Father therefore is in the Son,
and the Son in Him, They both in the Spirit, and
90 Proslogion, i.
91 St. Cyril, as cited by Petavius de Trinit. iv. 16, 10.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 175
the Spirit in both of Them. The Son in the
Father, as light in that light out of which it
floweth without separation ; the Father in the Son,
as light in that light which it causeth and leaveth
not." 92 On this subject Athanasius refers to the
words of Dionysius of Rome (in the third cen-
tury), that "with the God of the Universe the
Divine Word is one, and the Holy Ghost has in
the same its resort and converse." 93 And the
same truth seems to have been aimed at in a
fragment of St. Irenseus, in which the Son is said
to be " the measure of the Father." Inasmuch as
there is one nature in the Divine Three, while by
personal difference they are really discriminated,
therefore, by mutual indwelling and coinherence,
they are to one another an object of contem-
plation, and, if it may be so expressed, "a place
of abode." 94 To this it is then that Our Lord
refers, when he says that " I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me;" and this is "the glory
which He had with" the Father " before the world
was." 95 And on the other hand, thus it was that
He was the " beloved Son," in whom the Father
was " well pleased." For how should He be truty
a Father, asks St. Hilary, except by contem-
plating Flis own substance as it existed in His
92 Eccl. Pol. v. 56, 2. 93 De Decretis Nic. Sjn. 26.
94 " Filius locus est Patris, sicut et Pater locus est Filii."
Jerome in Ezec. iii. 12.
95 St. John, xvii. 5.
176 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Son?" 96 And so says Athanasius, that as "the
Son is the subject of the Father's pleasure, so is
the Father the subject of the Son's love, pleasure,
and honour." 97 Let this thought be coupled with
what has before been noticed of the nature of
the Godhead, and we may discern how the eternal
Sabbath of Divine self-contemplation enhances our
conception of the Moral Attributes of God. For
it does not lead to a mere Brahminical dream of
never-ending forgetfulness, but it sets forth the
Eternal Godhead as having, in its own self-existent
harmony, the most perfect object of thought and
of affection. " The essential happiness of God
consists in the knowledge and love of Himself;
and this reflected perfectly from one Person of
the Godhead to another." 98 And hence can it
dispense with such lower objects of interest as are
supplied to inferior beings by the material world.
For "I am in the Father and the Father in Me"
speaks an eternal relation ; it shows that the Word
was not dependent on our Being ; that " He was
not brought into being for us, but that we were
brought into being for Him." 99 And on this
topic Athanasius enlarges in the very striking
passage, in which he comments on the declaration
concerning Our Lord in the Book of Proverbs :
" For the knowledge of the Father which is by
96 De Trinit. ii. 3. 97 Orat. contra Arian. iii. 66.
98 Leslie's Socinian Controversy, Dialogue I. vii. p. 236.
99 S. Ath. contra Arian. iv. 12.
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 177
the Son, and that of the Son which is by the
Father, is all one, and the Father delights in Him;
and with the same joy the Son delights in the
Father, saying, ' I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him.' This shows that the Son
is not something foreign, but proper to the
Father's substance. For He did not come into
existence on our account, nor was He made out
of nothing ; for it was not from any external
source that God procured to Himself a cause of
rejoicing, but He is set forth as being proper to
God and like Him. When could it be then that
the Father rejoiced not ? And if He always
rejoiced, then the cause of His rejoicing must
have had an eternal, existence. And wherein does
the Father rejoice, save by beholding Himself in
His proper image that is, His Word? And if,
after the world was made, He rejoiced also in the
sons of men, as the Proverbs witness, yet this
comes to the same thing. For this delight was
not from any joy which was additional to His
nature, but He rejoiced at seeing that the works
were created after His own image. So that His
own image was here too the cause of the Divine
joy. And how again does the Son rejoice, save
as beholding Himself in His Father ; for this is
the meaning of His saying, 'He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father, and I am in My Father,
and My Father in Me.'" 100
100 Orat. contra Arian. ii. 82, vol. 1, p. 549.
N
178 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
Thus have we been led on then to recognize
in the Divine nature what is at once the highest
object of contemplation, and the primary source
of being. For since God is the last of these, He
must plainly be the first likewise. And whatever
is real and self-existent must be found in Him.
IK AIDS a/>xVe<r6>a. Our notions therefore of things
human, and the conceptions of mankind, are rather
to be measured by this standard, than to measure
it. For "this is life eternal, to know Thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent." As the doctrine of the Trinity, therefore,
has been shown to be essential to the development
of that first movement of piety, whereby the Son
of Man was reverenced by those who had been
admitted to His knowledge, so will all higher
branches of truth be found to rest on this reality.
When men attempt therefore, as was done by Plato
of old, and has been done with less excuse by the
thinkers of modern Germany, to invent an intel-
lectual Theogony out of their own conceptions, the
attempt is so far useful, as it is looked upon as an
illustration only and shadow of those great realities,
which exist around and above us, and by Revela-
tion have been made known to our minds. In this
view, the intellectual schemes, which have been
put forth by a series of German writers from Kant
to Hegel, are not without interest. The last of
them has carried further the notion of his pre-
decessors, and given shape to the idea which is
CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD. 179
thrown out by an ancient Father : " The Monad
moving forth originally into Duality, 101 at length
rested in the Trinity." 102 No doubt this thought
is capable of wide development, and since man was
originally created after His maker's image, there
will be some appetency to admit those truths,
which have their original in Him. But all specu-
lations on the Godhead proceed on a fallacious
ground, if they rest only on human conceptions,
and on the requirements of man's mind. For
neither is this our sole means of knowledge, nor
in it consists that ultimate object after which we
seek. What were this but to "worship and serve
the creature more than the Creator ?" Unless the
reality and original of all things be fixed in the
actual Being of the self-existent Godhead, there
can be no basis on which to ground our thoughts.
The real existence of the Ever-Blessed Trinity
must be received as before all creation, and as
underlying all knowledge. The mystery of its
Sacred Persons must be the beginning of our
thoughts. 103 And this it is which Revelation dis-
closes to us. "For there is one Person of the
Father, another of the Son, and another of the
Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father,
101 This notion is enlarged upon by Leslie ; Socinian Contro-
versy, the First Dialogue, viii. 1.
102 Dorner, vol. i. p. 904.
103 n j n jn a Xrinitate summa origo est rerum omnium, et per-
fectissima pulchritude et beatissima delectatio." S. Augustin
de Trin. vi. 12.
180 CHRIST IS GOD THE WORD.
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all
One, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such
is the Holy Ghost. And in this Trinity none is
afore or after other none is greater or less than
another ; but the whole Three Persons are co-
eternal together, and co-equal. So that in all
things the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in
Unity is to be worshipped."
181
CHAPTER VI.
THP; UNITY OF PERSON BETWEEN GOD THE WORD
AND THE SON OF MAN.
OUR LORD'S character has now been considered
under its two aspects : first, as the Son of Man ;
and secondly, as God the Word, " who is over all
blessed for ever." To complete this part of the
subject it is essential to establish a third point,
which is no less necessary than the reality of each
of Our Lord's natures, namely, that they were
truly joined together. For " although He be God
and Man, yet He is not two, but one Christ."
This truth is as plainly demanded by the re-
quirements of Christian piety, as any which have
preceded it. For since Our Lord is the link be-
tween heaven and earth the true Jacob's ladder,
whereon the angels of God ascended and descended ;
since our salvation rests on the fact that He who
is con substantial with the Father, is also consub-
stantial with His brethren a sufficient advocate
because He is God, a sympathetic advocate because
He is flesh ; since this is the manner in which the
182 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
higher being was brought down to the lower, and
the nature which was pure and holy entered as a
renovating principle into the corrupted line of
Adam's race therefore, unless the actual personal
unity of Our Lord's two natures is held as fast as
the reality of each, we may find ourselves unex-
pectedly deprived of that which seemed to be most
surely established. This feeling of the infinite
importance of Our Lord's Mediation, has led the
Church to exercise such scrupulous watchfulness
against all theories, which break that golden chain
by which God and man are bound together. For
though that which hazards the real Unity of the
two natures in Christ may seem at first sight to be
only an explanation, or a dislike of explaining, as
the case may be, yet further consideration shows it
to be fatal to the very existence of Godliness, of
which the truth that the same Person is both God
and man forms the very foundation.
This fact it is then which must now be con-
sidered, and its reality depends plainly on the two
following conditions: first, that there should be a
true union of Godhead and manhood in Christ ;
and secondly, that the mode of union should be
such, that neither nature should be destroyed in
the conjunction. The consideration of which sub-
ject will lead to the further inquiry, how each
nature is affected by the union, and what prepara-
tion is thereby made for that work of Christ, which
both as God and man it has been His pleasure to
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 183
undertake. For this work depends in truth upon
both His natures, and upon that peculiar con-
stitution of each, of which its union with the other
is the cause: inasmuch as no part of that won-
derful mystery of Incarnation, to which He gra-
ciously submitted for the sake of man, is without
its influence on our welfare.
Xow, in considering the real union of the Divine
and Human natures in Christ, it will be best, per-
haps, to follow the course which was marked out
in the last Chapter ; to inquire what were the
actual steps by which God's Providence secured
for this doctrine its full statement and perfect ap-
preciation, and what were the individual errors by
which it was hazarded. For the history of the
three first centuries has been shown to be a witness,
that the detailed statements of the Creeds respect-
ing the Trinity in Unity are not refinements en-
grafted by men's subtilty on the simplicity of
Scripture, but that they are only the complete ex-
pression of that august truth, which was enshrined
in the pious veneration of the first Disciples. The
facts of the case show that nothing less than their
plenary acceptance can either save us from fatal
errors, or do justice to the fulness of those commu-
nications, which were made to the Apostles by the
Holy Ghost. And the same may be said respect-
ing the doctrine which is now to be considered
the Real Union of Natures in Christ. For it will
be found, that there was one specific period of the
184 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
Church's history, when it was brought forward with
peculiar prominence, because then it was especially
hazarded ; and as the two first General Councils
were engaged in maintaining the truth of those
natures which were present in Christ, so was it the
no less necessary task of the two next (at Ephesus
and Chalcedon), to maintain the reality of their
union. It has been pointed out, how the doctrine
of Our Lord's Divine nature was witnessed both at
Nice and Constantinople, and how it was illustrated
by the great Athanasius. The primary truth of
the Ever-Blessed Trinity was shown by him not
only to be involved in the words of Scripture,
but to be demanded by the requirements of the
Christian mind. Unless the Word or Eternal Son
existed really as a separate Person in the glorious
Godhead, neither could Christ be the proper object
of worship, nor could the redemption of mankind
be truly effected. But the existence of the Eternal
Word can not be really admitted, unless that view
and those relations of the sacred objects of our
worship, which we call the Trinity in Unity, are
taken as the beginning of our knowledge and basis
of our thoughts.
It has been stated how this doctrine was op-
posed in the second century, by those who main-
tained that man's nature could not be united to
God ; and who therefore, like the Ebionites, denied
the Godhead or like the Gnostics, the manhood
of Christ. Again, it has been shown how in the
SOX OF .MAX ONE PERSON. 185
following ages the controversy rose to a higher
level how it was transferred from the human to
the Divine nature, and what arguments were de-
rived from the Unity of the Godhead against the
presence of Deity in Christ. In this period, too,
the Arian school came to the conclusion that in
Christ there was no real Godhead, while the reality
of His manhood was explained away by the Sa-
bellians. " These mists," as Hooker expresses it,
though dispelled by " the light of the Xicene
Council," yet returned in the fifth century under
that different form which must now be considered.
For though Our Lord had been recognized as both
O O
God and man, yet it was found possible to intro-
duce such misconceptions respecting the manner in
which these two natures were united, as in reality
to deny what in profession was admitted. Through
which process we fall back again upon the very
same alternative, which has before been exhibited;
so that while the Xestorian theory issues in the
conclusion, that the Son of Man was not God, His
manhood was on the other hand destroyed by the
Eutychians. It was essential therefore for the satis-
faction of Christian piety, that this part also of the
truth should be firmly established, and it is an in-
stance of that Providential government by which the
Great Head has provided for His people, that the
question was decided by the voice of two of those
General Synods, which have always been allowed
to express the collective judgment of the Church,
186 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
and which cany with them therefore all the weight,
whether of testimony or authority, which belongs
to the Body of Christ.
It was not denied by Nestorius that Christ might
be called both God and man ; his error was the
denial that these two natures were really united
in one Person, and the supposition that they dwelt
only by inhabitation, and (as it were) by vicinity
in the same mortal frame. The Son of God, there-
fore, and the Son of Man, were looked upon by
him as being in reality two Beings, who were
linked together in amity, because the higher had
condescended to make His dwelling in the body of
the lower. What led Nestorius to this conclusion,
seems to have been the confusion of man's perso-
nality with his nature, and his incapacity to per-
ceive that there are parts of their constitution
which men share in common, while to every indi-
vidual there is something peculiar to himself. He
was a victim to that spurious sort of Nominalism,
which asserts, that because men are able by ab-
straction to class things together, which have no
real connexion, therefore there can be no such
common entity as nature in the creations of God
(vide p. 43, 44). This error has already been
noticed; it has been shown that in all those crea-
tures which God has endowed either with animal
or vegetable life, one condition of that life is a
mysterious principle of combination which is called
their nature. Its existence may be tested by
SON OF MAX ONE PERSON. 187
those singular laws which govern reproduction, and
w r hich lead to the perpetual re-appearance of the
same type in successive generations. There is
something in the simplest vegetable, which the
most perfect imitation of its parts is unable to
supply. But from age to age, the innumerable
classes of organized beings go on transmitting the
impress which was bestowed upon them by the
Creator. And it is unphilosophical to deny the
existence of a principle, of which we see such ob-
vious effects, because our modes of analysis are
not subtile enough to discover on what it is de-
pendent. Let the principles of Nominalism, there-
fore, be confined to their proper ground the ab-
stractions namely of men, which are connected
together merely in our own thoughts but let us
not attempt to break the chain, by which God's
Providence has united the varying classes of His
organized works. This was the error of Nestorius,
and by this speculation was he led to the fearful
result of denying in fact the reality of Our Lord's
sacrifice, and of the Christian covenant of grace.
And it was the truth of these doctrines, which the
Church Catholic vindicated against him. " What
leads to the mistake of the heretics," says Dama-
scene, " is that they confound substance w r ith per-
son." And the ground of his objecting to what
might seem only a philosophical error is, that he
might assert that "the union" of two natures in
Christ " is substantial, by which," he says, " I mean
GOD THE W011I), AND THE
true, and not merely imaginary." 1 Now it is plain,
that unless the Son of God and the Son of Man were
really and not merely by profession one, those things
which were done by the one could not truly be
participated by the other. In the sufferings then,
which were borne for us by the one, the other
j
would have no proper share ; nor would the in-
ferior person participate really in the glory of the
superior. And more than this, since the Son of
Man must first be a complete Person in Himself,
and then be joined to the Son of God, it could not
be anything which pertained to our nature at large,
but this single individual, who was so highly
favoured. " The Word (saith St. John) was made
flesh and dwelt in us. The Evangelist useth the
plural number, men for manhood, us for the nature
whereof we consist, even as the Apostle, denying
the assumption of Angelical nature, saith likewise
in the plural number, 'He took not Angels, but
the seed of Abraham.' It pleased not the Word
or Wisdom of God to take to itself some one
person among men, for then should that one have
been advanced, which was assumed, and no more;
but Wisdom, to the end she might save many,
built her house of that nature which is common
unto all ; she made not this or that man her habita-
tion, but dwelt in us" 2 "For He took my whole
nature upon Him, and in the fulness of Godhead
was united to it all, that the whole might obtain
1 De Fid. Orth. iii. 3. 2 Eccles. Pol. v. 52, 3.
SON OF MAX ONE PERSON. 189
salvation . For if there were anything which He
did not take upon Him, it would have no part in
His saving power." 3
Such was the Church's faith, therefore, as put
forward in the Anathemas of Cyril, 4 which were
adopted by the Third General Council of Ephesus.
It is not built upon any system or school of philo-
sophy, but aims only at maintaining what had been
asserted from the first, that the same Person Jesus
Christ was truly God and truly man also. But it
may be asked, can a point so intricate be really
necessary, or is it possible that the poor of Christ's
flock, who form its most cherished portion, should
be able to thread the mazes of so subtile a con-
troversy ? Doubtless they can not. And yet the
truth which is thus set forth, is no less necessary
3 Greg. Naz. et Cyril in Damasc. de Fide Orthod. iii. 6.
4 His opposition to Xestorianism led St. Cyril to the repeated
employment of such statements as the following : " The Body
of Christ is life-giving, because it is the temple and dwelling-
place of that living God, the Word," &c. Vol. iv. C02 [In
Joann.] "Because He made that Body, which was taken of
the pure Virgin His own, He rendered it life-giving, and very
naturally, for it is the Body of that Life, which is the parent of
life to all things." De recta Fide, c. 56, 5, part 2. 177.
St. Cyril is spoken of by Dr. Jackson, as generally ac-
knowledged to be " the fittest umpire" in a controversy
respecting the Real Presence. If his statements are true
and they were countenanced by the universal Church, as
represented by the Third General Council it follows that
any school, which denies the Humanity of the Mediator to be
the medium through which Divine gifts are communicated to
mankind (and such is the error of all Rationalists), is theo-
logically allied either to Nestorianism, or to Deism, in which
Nestorianism results.
190 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
to them than to the great and noble, nor are any
persons better prepared to accept it to the saving
of their souls. For even as our merciful Saviour,
in the days of His flesh, while the covetous Pha-
risees derided, was ministered to by the poor
women of Galilee, so are none more ready than
the poor of this world to trust in Christ as their
present God, and yet to look to the perpetual
sympathy of Him who in His poverty was their
brother. But how is this lesson to be taught
them ? A means has been appointed for bringing
it before their minds, which, while open to the
observation of all, yet raises their thoughts at once
to the most momentous mysteries of Our Lord's
nature. That means is the Holy Communion 5 a
rite which is not less fitted than in the days of
St. Irenaeus to teach men that Our Lord is God,
since He can make earthly instruments answer a
heavenly purpose, and that He is man also, since
it is His Body and Blood which He gives as our
spiritual food in that holy feast. The Sacraments
have been, from the first, the natural outwork of
the Doctrine of the Incarnation; and from recog-
nizing a true presence of Christ in these ordinances,
6 " As there is a recapitulation of all in heaven and earth in
Christ, so there is a recapitulation of all in Christ in the Holy
Sacrament. You may see it clearly : There is in Christ the
Word Eternal, for things in heaven ; there is also flesh, for
things on earth. Semblably the Sacrament consisteth of a
heavenly, and of a terrene part." Bishop ^.ndrews's six-
teenth Sermon of the Nativity.
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 191
in which He communicates Himself both as God
and Man, are we carried on to a genuine belief,
that two natures are really united in His adorable
Person. For if Godhead and Manhood are truly
united in Christ, both must co-operate in those
offices which He discharges towards mankind. To
this truth many are unwilling to listen, because
they suppose that the efficacy of Christ's manhood
can mean only the natural efficacy of His material
body. And this induces unbelief respecting the
supernatural efficacy of that manhood of Christ,
which is the principle of regeneration to all His
brethren. Now, that the Holy Communion must
in some way or other be connected with the man-
hood of Christ is manifest, since but for His taking
our flesh, body and blood could not in any wise have
been conditions of His nature. To declare Christ's
real presence therefore by spiritual power in the
Holy Communion, is the simplest method of re-
minding men that the one of Our Lord's natures is
modified and advanced by the other. For that
which renders the manhood of Christ a fountain of
graces that which gives it glory, power, and wis-
dom which makes it the source of life for " as
the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given
to the Son to have life in Himself" this is that
hypostatical union in Christ Our Lord, which brings
the Divine into such close union with the Human
nature. To believe then in this mysterious union
in Christ Our Lord, it is not needful that men
192 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
should be conversant with the errors of the Nes-
torian theory, but only that they receive what the
Catechism teaches, that while the benefit of the
Lord's Supper is that " strengthening and refresh-
ing of our souls," which can be bestowed only
through the divine power of the Saviour, the in-
ward part or thing signified is as plainly that which
is connected with Christ's manhood, the " Body
and Blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed
taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's
Supper."
Such is the manner in which this great Doctrine
addresses itself to simple minds, who will be found
not less ready than the educated to believe the
truth of an event, the manner of which no intellect
is able to divine. For the mode in which Godhead
and Manhood are united in Christ, is like the con-
junction of soul and body in man as impossible to
explain as to deny. And the Creed, therefore,
contents itself with paralleling the two together ;
not as though they were exactly alike, but as
though they must both be referred to the class of
things, the manner of which is beyond mortal com-
prehension : " For as the body and soul is one man,
so God and man is one Christ." Now, this union
cannot take place by the mixing together of two
natures so as to form a third, for then the result
would neither be God nor man, but some com-
pound nature ; it must be the conjunction of one
personality with two natures. Christ is " one not
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 193
by confusion of substance, but by unity of person."
Xow, since personality is plainly one and indivi-
sible, it must pertain originally to one of these
natures, unless, which was far otherwise, they had
been in their origin contemporaneous ; and it could
not therefore be equally related to each of them.
For though personality has been shown by Butler 6
and Berkeley 7 to be a primary principle, not resolv-
able into mere consciousness, yet consciousness is
so intimately allied with its actings, that since
unity is the very essence of the one, it must plainly
be a condition of the other. In which, then, of His
two natures did the Personality of Christ Our Lord
originally reside ? Plainly in His Godhead. For
He Himself refers to its actings, before His human
nature was assumed: "Before Abraham was I am."
Let the foundation of the hypostatic union be laid
in the Doctrine of the Trinity, and the Personality
of Christ is comprehended in that of the Eternal
Son. " Christ is a Person Divine, because He is
personally the Son of God ; human, because He
hath really the nature of the children of men." 8
The Word was already in existence as a Person,
before He " was made flesh." " For the manhood
of Christ did not assume the Godhead, but the
Godhead of the Word assumed the human na-
ture." 9 Christ was " one not by conversion of the
6 Appendix to the Analogy.
7 The Minute Philosopher, Dial. vii. sec. 11.
8 Eccles. Pol. v. 53, 3. 9 Gennadius in Suicer, i. p. 358.
O
194 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood
into God."
And yet it is not meant that two unconnected
natures, continuing in themselves wholly unrelated,
were joined together by some third substance,
namely, the Personality of Christ. For though
what we call nature is some mysterious law which
we observe to bind together many individuals, yet
it is only in individuals that it has its being, and
personality is that in which it subsists. Though
personality and nature may be conceived of apart,
yet they are not things which in act can be sepa-
rated from one another ; inasmuch as the one can-
not exist, except in and through the other. We
cannot, indeed, attribute to Christ a human per-
sonality distinct from His Divine, because this
would be to deny His Unity, and thus to relapse
into the heresy of Nestorius ; nor yet, in speaking
of His Divine Personality, can we undertake to
limit that infinite existence of which we have only
a partial knowledge, and to affirm that it is strictly
identical with what our experience enables us to
call Personality among men. But Our Lord's own
sayings 10 justify the assertion, that His Divine Per-
sonality is so far identical with that with which we
are conversant, as to comprehend and discharge its
functions. So that we may affirm, even of Our
Lord's human nature, that it never existed except
10 St. John, viii. 18.
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 195
in a Personal relation. 11 If Christ had not a human
Person, it was because " the Personal Being, which
the Son of God already had, suffered not the sub-
stance to be personal which He took ; although,
together with the nature which He had, the nature
also which He took continueth." 12 Now, of two
natures thus manifested in the same Person, by that
law of their constitution whereby their existence is
identical with their inherence in one individual
being, it is impossible to suppose that the one is
not in some degree affected by the other. For in
its relation to His Divine nature, the Personality of
Christ continues no other than it was before the
world began. And therefore since His other and
inferior nature has been attached by Personal pro-
priety to Himself, this union of Godhead and Man-
hood in one Person must have involved intimate
action of the one nature upon the other. So that
when it is said that Godhead and Manhood were
joined together, it is plainly meant that the two
natures were not only allied, in that they belonged
to the same person, but that they were closely
united the one to the other. And this is the great
truth which Revelation discloses to us. For its
purpose is to declare a way, by which God and
man may be joined together. Now, if this had
happened only by the accidental assigning of two
11 " Natura quippe nostra non sic assumpta est ut prius creata,
post assumeretur ; sed ut ipsa assumptione crearetur." S. Leo,
Ep. 25, 3.
12 Eccles. Pol. v. 52, 3.
196 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
unconnected natures to one common possessor,
what benefit had it been to mankind at large ?
There needed such union, that between Godhead
and Manhood there should be a permanent alliance.
That as God mercifully condescended to become
man, so might man be truly God. And in conse-
sequence of this great event, as the whole Trinity
condescended to participate by interest and sym-
pathy 13 in that being which was taken by the Eter-
nal Son into co-partnership with His own, so was
there a channel opened to the whole race of man,
through regeneration and grace, for communion
with God. There flowed forth into the lower na-
ture of the Mediator such streams of grace, as
sufficed to enrich the whole generation 14 of His
brethren. The alliance of the elder brother enno-
bled the whole household from which His kindred
was derived.
Now, if it be asked what were the particular
effects which resulted to each nature in Christ
from its union with the other, it is plain that to
the superior nature there could accrue no proper
alteration, seeing that to be unalterable is the
very nature of God. All, therefore, which can be
attributed in this respect to Christ's Godhead is,
that its Will was, by union with man's nature in
13 Damasc. de Fid. Orth. 3, 6.
14 " Se totum toti Adas immiscuit, vita mortuo, ut eum ser-
varet, in eum totum penetrans cui unitus erat, sicut anima
magni corporis, totum animans, et toti vitam impartiens."
Anast. Sinaita, Or. 3, Bib. Max. Pair. 9. 932.
SUN OF MAX OXE PERSOX. 197
His one Person, to exercise some new manner of
sympathy with that being with which it was per-
sonally associated. And in this the whole glorious
Trinity is declared to have co-operated. For " he
that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father." 15
And "the Father Himself loveth you, because
ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came
out from God." 16 And, therefore, was "God in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 17 But
if it be asked, on the other hand, what effects were
produced by personal union with Deity upon man's
nature, we are assured that gifts greater than
tongue can utter or heart conceive, were bestowed
upon it. For this is the very meeting-place of
heaven and earth, the union of glory and humili-
ation ; herein the two worlds of the infinite and the
finite touch upon one another; by this we see what
God can bestow, and of what man is susceptible.
Surely the very comprehension of man is incapable
of enlarging itself to such conceptions. His ear
cannot drink in the intensity of the angelic har-
mony, " Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good- will towards men." With this
subject does even the fulness of Holy Scripture
overflow. Those who do not discern it, are un-
taught in " the whole counsel of God." To put
it aside as an unnecessary portion of our faith,
would be like Esau to despise our birthright. For
through this event it is, that the gifts of regene-
15 St. John, xiv. 21. l6 St. John, xvi. 27. 17 II. Cor. v. 19.
198 GOD THE WORD, AXD THE
ration and grace have found their way into the
progeny of fallen Adam. On this circumstance
depends the truth, that salvation rests on the
supernatural gift of God, and not on the self-
dependent exertions of human excellence. For
this is the very promise which was made to Abra-
ham, that in his seed should all the families of the
earth be blessed. Their common nature was to be
exalted through Him who sanctified humanity by
being born into the world, as by His death He
redeemed it. For this was the true Son of David,
of whom God spake by the Psalmist : "I will
make Him My first-born, higher than the kings of
the earth." His kingdom had been beheld in
vision by Daniel, when " one like the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
Ancient of Days, and there was given Him
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom His domi-
nion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed." 18 And if it
be asked when He was anointed to this kingly
office, this likewise is declared in Scripture :
" The 19 Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;
therefore, also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee, shall be called the Son of God."
" And the Lord God shall give unto Him the
throne of His Father David, and of His kingdom
there shall be no end." It was when the Divine
18 Daniel, vii. 13, 14. 19 St. Luke, i. 35, 32, 33.
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 199
then came in contact with the human nature, that
there were bestowed upon the latter those gifts of
grace, by reason whereof it is declared, that
" God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with
the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." 5 For the
anointing was the presence of that " spirit and
power," which dwelt in Christ " without measure." 21
And thus " Christ Himself," says Damascene,
" anointed Himself. As God He anointed His
body with Deity, as Man He was the anointed
One. For He was at once both God and Man.
And the Godhead was the unction of the Man-
hood." 22 " The gift whereby God hath made
Christ a fountain of life, is that conjunction of the
nature of God with the nature of man in the Per-
son of Christ, which gift (saith Christ to the
woman of Samaria) if thou didst know, and in
that respect understand who it is which asketh
water of thee, thou wouldest ask of Him, that He
might give thee living water." 23
Xow, it is no diminution of the reality of this
gift, that during Our Lord's sojourn upon earth
it was so imperfectly apprehended. For the sea-
son was not yet arrived when He had " taken" to
Him His "great power, and had reigned." 24 For
after that He had been "found in fashion as a
man, He humbled Himself and became obedient
unto death." As His Incarnation was the humili-
- Hebrews, i. 9. 21 Acts, x. 38 ; John, iii. 34.
22 De Fide Orthod. iii. 3, p. 206. Vid. Vigilius, c. Eutych. iv. 5.
23 Eccles. Polity, v. 54, 3. 24 Revelations, xi. 17.
200 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
ation of His Godhead, so was His death the
humiliation of His earthly nature. For He con-
sented to serve like Jacob for His hire, and His
hire was the Church, which He purchased with
His own blood. And on His humiliation did there
follow the exalting of His man's nature. For
" being made perfect, He became the author of
eternal salvation to all them that obey Him." 25
" Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him,
and given Him a name which is above every
name; that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven and things in
earth and things under the earth." 26 And "we
see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the
Angels that He might taste death for every man,
crowned through the suffering of death with glory
and honour." 27 And thus is He made " the Head
of the body, the Church, the beginning, the first-
born from the dead, that in all things He might
have the pre-eminence." 28 But all this is some-
what different from that exaltation of man's na-
ture, which is now in question. The present sub-
ject is not the glory which Christ gained for man's
nature by His Obedience, but that which He con-
ferred upon it by His Incarnation. For by that
act were Godhead and manhood brought into
contact with one another. The question, there-
fore, is not what was gained for man's nature by
25 Heb. v. 9. 26 Phil. ii. 9. v Heb. ii. 9.
29 Colossians, i. 18 ; vide also Eph. i. 21 ; I. Peter, iii. 22.
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 201
Christ's Obedience; but of what it was made
capable by His coming in the flesh. For from
this capacity did all His acts as man result.
Adam's nature, even had it retained its early
purity, had been incompetent to support them.
They were something for which the genius of
Isaiah or the love of St. John would not have
sufficed. They showed the natural exaltation of
that humanity, with which Godhead had been
personally united. For first, all power had been
bestowed upon it : " For it pleased the Father
that in Him all fulness should dwell." And " the
Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into His hand." 29 And secondly, in Him "were
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 30
For He was " the Power of God and the Wisdom
of God." 31 Even in His humanity He was an
object of worship to the hosts of heaven. 32 Though
He was crucified, yet He was " the Lord of
Glory." 33 And when He somewhat withdrew the
veil, in which He commonly shrouded His lustre,
" His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment
was white as the light." 34
And by reason hereof there was conferred as
a gift upon the man Jesus Christ, that quickening
power which pertained to His Godhead by nature. 35
29 St. John, iii. 35 ; xvii. 2 ; St. Matt. xi. 27. * Col. ii. 3.
31 I. Cor. i. 24. ^Heb.i. 6. w I. Cor. ii. 8. 34 St. Matt. xvii. 2.
35 " Quicquid in tempore accepit Christus, secundum hominein
accepit, cui quse non habuit conferuntur." *S*. Leo, Ep. 97, 7.
202 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
For "as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself." 36
And so did He declare when addressing the Father
as Mediator for His brethren : " Thou hast given
Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." 37
Thus was there bestowed upon what was human
in Him such living energy, as was evidenced while
He was upon earth, when " there went virtue out
of Him and healed them all." 38 So that it became
that "quickening spirit" 39 which is able to bestow
a new life on the progeny of Adam, and that
" bread" of life, " which cometh down from heaven,
that a man may eat thereof and not die." 40 All
these are indications of Divine powers bestowed
upon the Manhood of Christ, through its union
with the Eternal Word; and we witness our belief
in their permanent connexion with it, when it is
through "His body' H1 that we seek to profit by
their presence. For so much has been bestowed
36 St. John, v. 26. 37 St. John, xvii. 2. * St. Luke, vi. 19.
39 1. Cor. xv. 45. * St. John. vi. 50.
41 " Si quis non confitetur camera Domini vivificatricem esse,
tanquam propriara ipsius Dei Verbi quia facta est propria
Verbi Dei, cui omnia vivificare possibile est ; anathema esto."
This is the Eleventh of St. Cyril's Anathemas (Harduin's Cone.
vol. i. p. 1294) ; and in defence of it he adds : Eireicr) te ^wrf
KOTO, (j)vaiv esiv CK 6eov TTOT/JO? Ao^yo?, ^WOTTOIOV a7re(fir]i>e T^J/
eavrov ac'ipxa. -ravrrj Tot ryefyoj/ej/ y/niv V\ojt'a ^WOTTOIOS. Contra
Orient, ad Anath. 11. p. 192.
"Est enim hsec caro, quia est filii Dei, sic et sanguis gwoTroids,
ut D. Cyrillus contra Nestorium pulchre explicat." JBuceri
Scrip. Ang. p. 473.
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 203
upon the manhood through its union in one Person
with the Godhead of Christ. Thus has the one
nature received by gift, what the other had by
inheritance. And the only limit which can be
assigned to their perfect union is, that the proper-
ties of each are not so transferred as to destroy
the reality of either. For " the glory of the God-
head, which dwelleth bodily in Christ, is infinite.
But it is not communicated to Christ's human
body according to its infinity; the communication
of it, or the glory communicated, is created, and
therefore finite." 42 "As the Son of God is now
in the association of flesh, no alteration thereby
accruing to the nature of God; so neither are the
properties of man's nature in the person of Christ
by force and virtue of the same conjunction so
much altered, as not to stay within those limits
which our substance is bordered withal." 43
Now this was the very point which was main-
tained against Eutyches by the Fourth General
Council of Chalcedon. His error arose from the
very same misconception, which lay at the root of
the speculations of Xestorius. Since it was clear
that Christ was one determinate Person, performing
all which He did with the unity of one single
consciousness, it followed, if nature and person are
of necessity the same, that He must have but one
nature also. This result might be brought about
42 Jackson's works, Book xi. c. 3, vol. x. p. 31.
43 Eccles. Pol. v. 54, 5.
204 GOD THE WOltD, AND THE
either by the swallowing up of one nature in the
other, or by the coalition of both in something
compounded of the two. In the latter case, both
natures would be extinguished, and Christ would
neither be God nor Man; in the former case, one
nature would perish, and either the Godhead or
the Manhood would be wanting. The notion of
Eutyches was, that the Manhood was lost in the
Godhead. But this, just as much as the theory
of the Nestorians, was fatal to the reality of our
oneness with Christ. For it was in reality to
revive that opinion of the Docetae, which had been
abandoned in name. Our Lord's sufferings and
death w T ould thus become only a figurative repre-
sentation, and He would have no proper copartner-
ship in man's trials. So that here again the truth
of Our Lord's Being was what the Church Catholic
maintained. And its vindication was the purpose
of all that was stated respecting His nature. This
it was, no doubt, which made His descent into hell
a point of sufficient moment to be introduced as a
constituent Article into the Creed. For it sets
forth the reality of that human soul, which is a
specific part of man's nature. " The true Doctrine
of the Incarnation against all the enemies thereof,
Apollinarians, Nestorians, Eutychians, and the like,
w r as generally expressed by declaring the unity of
the soul of Christ 44 really present in hell, and the
44 This action of Our Lord's human soul, when separate from
His Body, is one of the most satisfactory arguments against that
SON OF MAX ONE PERSON. 205
unity of His Body at the same time really present
in the grave." 45 The truth of these assertions was
virtually involved in the statement which had been
received from the beginning, that Christ was truly
and in all respects man, even in the Article of His
death. For it belongs to man's body to rest in
the grave, and to his soul to visit the unknown
abode of the departed. And such an entrance of
Christ into the unseen world, had been especially
predicted by David, as contemporaneous with the
deposition of His body in the grave. " He seeing
this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that
His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did
see corruption." 46 Thus did the Church's testi-
mony respecting Christ, supply the explanation of
St. Peter's words, that Christ preached after His
death to the spirits who were "in safe keeping;" 47
to those, it must be supposed, among the ante-
diluvian Patriarchs, who having been disobedient in
slighting Noah's warning, were yet not so far im-
penitent as to be altogether cast away.
The confession of faith therefore which was put
forth at Chalcedon, was only designed to guard the
reality of those individual points of Christian belief,
opinion of the sleep of the soul between death and judgment,
which is built upon the material notion that the soul cannot act
without the body. Since Our Lord was the type of man's
nature, the certainty of the soul's separate action in His case
implies its possibility in ours.
45 Pearson on the Creed, Art. v. ^ Acts, ii. 31.
47 " tv 0u\a/c>/ does not in itself imply a place of punishment,
but of detention." I. Pet. iii. 19.
206 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
which were declared in the express words of Scrip-
ture, and which had been enshrined in the devout
affection of the Apostolic age. The Church had
been brought under the guidance of God's spirit
to such ripeness of judgment, as "by reason of
use" to discern the full meaning of various truths,
which had been revealed at once to her inspired
founders. " Following therefore the holy Fathers,"
said the six hundred Bishops at Chalcedon, "we
agree unanimously to set forth one and the same
Jesus Christ to be perfect God and perfect Man,
without confusion and without division/' 48 This
was the work which was completed by what
Hooker terms the "four most famous ancient
General Councils." The question which subse-
quently arose, whether there was one Will or two
in Christ, was in reality involved in what was
already decided. For since to will belongs to the
completeness of man's nature, had not this part of
our being been taken, Our Lord would not have
been that perfect man which He consented to
become for our salvation. This single point, there-
fore, if traced into its results, would have vitiated
all which had been before effected. And therefore
the Monothelites, as they were called, were in truth
only a section of the Monophysites : to deny Our
Lord's two wills was in reality to deny one of His
natures. Yet it is remarkable, that while the
heretical parties, by which the truth of either of
48 Actio V. Harduin's Con. ii. p. 455.
SOX OF MAX OXE PERSON. 207
Our Lord's natures was directly denied, were of
the most variable and transient nature, either dying
out altogether after a few years, or else passing
into some other form of heresy; those which were
built on errors respecting the manner of their con-
junction have been most settled and lasting, and
continue to have their place among the Oriental
Churches even to this very day. The reasons
appear to be; first, that errors of this last sort do
not lie so near the beginning of the system of
Christianity, as immediately to discover their con-
sequences ; and secondly, that they do not destroy
the belief of that union with Christ, on which all
external Church-coherence is dependent. For faith
in Christ, as shown in the last Chapter, requires,
as a pre-requisite, belief in the existence of the
Eternal Son as a separate Person in the Ever-
Blessed Trinity. If this be wanting, there is no
opening for the permanent Incarnation of the Son
of God. And, on the other hand, when Our
Lord's manhood is lost sight of, the permanent
union of mankind under Him, as its new head,
has nothing to stand upon. These errors, there-
fore, prevent the formation of any abiding party,
because they destroy in its beginning the very
ground of the faith the union, namely, between
God and man. Whereas errors respecting the
nature of that union itself, however fatal, have yet
their termination in themselves, and rather benumb
and deaden belief, than directly destroy it. What-
208 GOD THE WORD, AND THE
soever separates men indeed from actual union with
Christ, must be fatal to that inward life, which can
result only from the gift of an external blessing;
and such seems to have been the result with those
bodies by which the Nestorian and Eutychian
heresies have severally been adopted : their pro-
tracted existence has been marked by a perpetual
decay, which has witnessed to the viciousness of
their original constitution.
The faith of the Church Catholic, on the other
hand, sets forth each part of the mystery of the
Incarnation in its completeness. It begins with
the real existence of the Eternal Son, as a true
Person in the Ever-Blessed Trinity ; not a work
of creation, nor owing His being to the Father's
will, but "begotten of the Father before all
worlds," by some eternal and mysterious law of
necessary derivation. This is the foundation of
the Doctrine of the Incarnation ; and its super-
structure is that this same Being, when He took
flesh, continued to be "perfect God," but became
likewise "perfect man," possessing "a reasonable
soul and human flesh." The first of these is the
Doctrine of the Trinity; the second, that of the
hypostatical [or personal] union. Both are neces-
sary parts in a belief in the Incarnation of Our
Lord. Both were fully present, doubtless, to the
minds of the inspired Apostles. But it was only
through the gradual growth of the Church's mind,
and by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, that their
SON OF MAN ONE PERSON. 209
full relations and mutual interdependence were seen
to be involved in the individual statements of
Scripture concerning the Son of God.
And here, then, this survey of Our Lord's nature
may terminate. Let it be observed only, that by
this union with Deity there has been conferred
upon our whole race the greatest honour of which
created substance is susceptible. For that man-
hood should thus have been taken into God-
head, shows that there was between them such
compatibility and accordance, as stamps the
lower nature with that truth which belongs to
the very essence of the higher. It has sometimes
been disputed, whether the decisions of reason
and the decrees of conscience have any proper
authority, or have only such semblance of reality
as belongs to our transitory state. That they
should have been present in Him in whom they
were matured, purified, exalted, and should thus
have harmonized with those perfect lines of truth
which radiate from the throne of God, is the best
evidence of their reality. For had God been
pleased to employ the organs of some inferior
animal, as is once recorded in Holy Writ, for the
expression of His will, such nature had not been
susceptible of that personal union with Him
which is set forth in the Incarnation of Christ.
But that man was found susceptible of it that
his faculties required to be exalted, not destroyed
shows that the traces of that image in which He
210 GOD THE WOKD, ETC.
was first created, had not been obliterated from
his soul." 49 And thus does the Incarnation, more
than aught beside, witness to the reality of
that objective system of belief, which it has
pleased the All-Wise to reveal to His reasonable
creatures.
49 "Rectissime dicitur homo factus ad imaginem et simili-
tudinem Dei : non enim aliter incommutabilem veritatem posset
mente conspicere." S. JLug. de vera Relig. sec. 44.
211
CHAPTER VII.
OUR LORD'S MEDIATION THE CONSEQUENCE OF
HIS INCARNATION.
HITHERTO the inquiry has respected Our Lord's na-
ture : we have seen that He is both God and Man
" the seed of David according to the flesh," and
likewise, " the Son of God with power." More than
this, it has been shown that He is the Pattern Man,
the second Adam, the representative of humanity ;
and again, that He is the "Eternal Son," the co-
equal participator of self-existent Godhead, of one
substance with that Almighty Father, from whom
He is personally distinct. Finally, it has been
shown, that these two natures are so truly joined
together in the one Person of Christ Our Lord,
that, while continuing to be what they were, they
are yet each influenced the one by the other.
The second part of the subject proposed, was the
effect which has been produced upon the condition
of mankind by our Lord's Incarnation. This, in
other words, is the Doctrine of Our Lord's Media-
tion. For His name of Mediator is not bestowed
by reason of any work in which He was occasion-
212 OUR LORD'S MEDIATION
ally or partially occupied ; it sets forth that office,
which resulted from the permanent union in one
person of God and Man. For the benefits which
He bestows upon man's nature result from His be-
ing the link which binds it to Deity. The salva-
tion of Adam's race depends upon the influence of
that higher nature, which has been introduced into
it from above. This gift was first bestowed upon
humanity in the Person of Christ, that from Him
it might afterwards be extended in degree to all
His brethren. 1 Before considering the course
through which these benefits have been dispensed,
it will be necessary to state to what heads they
may severally be referred, and what is the exact
nature of that office of mediation, through which
they are conferred upon us.
I. By Our Lord's Mediation, then, is meant that
He is not a Mediator, but the Mediator between
God and man. This is the meaning of St. Paul's
assertion : " There is one God, and one Mediator
between God and Men." 2 The expression is equi-
valent to an assertion that there is one only. And
herein lies the distinction between the Christian
Church, and those who, without adopting her whole
belief, profess faith in Our Lord. For Our Lord
might be a Divine Person raised up to teach He
1 " Since sure it is that the Son of God is made the Son of
Man, it is not incredible but that the sons of men may be made
the sons of God." Bishop j4ndreivs's Sixth Sermon on the
Nativity, " Filius hominis est factus, ut nos filii Dei esse pos-
simus." S. Leo, Ser. xxv. 2. " I. Tim. ii. 5.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS INCARNATION. 213
might be a perfect example He might be the me-
dium through which gifts of grace were bestowed,
and pardon of sins conferred on men ; and yet there
might be other channels opened, through whom the
Godhead might bestow its blessings, and other per-
sons who might be its intermediate ministers. The
Arians do not seem to have generally rejected the
Doctrine of Our Lord's Atonement ; nor need it be
rejected even by Socinians ; though they are un-
likely to attach importance to a doctrine, the true
grounds whereof they have abandoned. Again, the
Mahometans universally allow Christ to have been
a Mediator between God and man, so that He is
one among those, through faith in whom they hope
to be justified. But the Christian faith is, that
Christ is not a Mediator, one out of many, but the
Mediator the real bond by which Godhead and
manhood are united. And this arises not from any
technical and artificial appointment ; He bears this
name, because He is 3 what it expresses. His title
follows from His nature, as effect from cause, as
consequent from antecedent. He truly is what no
other is, or can be beside Him, the Pattern Man,
the second Adam ; therefore no other can take His
place among the generations of mankind. And
again, He alone is fitted to represent the Father,
for " no man hath ascended up into heaven, but He
3 " Officium Mediatoris, nisi ex veritate naturae carnis, quara
ex nobis habuit, implere non potuit, quoniam per ipsam inter
Deum et homines medius apparuit." Vigil, c. Eutych. v. 15.
214 OUR LORD'S MEDIATION
that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man
which is in heaven." The blessing which is to rege-
nerate man's nature must have an external source,
and it cannot be obtained, therefore, except through
one who is a real channel of intercourse with God.
This is what we speak of then as Our Lord's Media-
tion. We speak of an office which belongs to Him
by nature, and results from the constitution of His
Being. For this cause the Son of God consented
to become the Son of Man : " When Thou tookest
upon thee to deliver man, Thou didst not abhor the
Virgin's womb." Moses acted as mediator, Christ
became one.
II. And this, doubtless, is the reason why the
universal Church, acting under the guidance of
God's Spirit, has set forth as the distinguishing cri-
teria of belief, not the mere acts of Our Lord, but
those conditions of His character on which their
value is dependent. It has sometimes been asked
why Our Lord's Atonement is not inserted in the
Creed in such express words as is His Incarnation.
The reason is, that Our Lord's Atonement may be
admitted in words, although those who use them
attach no Christian sense to the doctrine which they
acknowledge; whereas if the Doctrine of Our Lord's
Incarnation is once truly accepted, His Mediation
follows as its necessary result. So that the Church
was guided by Divine Wisdom, to make this Article
of Our Lord's real nature the criterion of her belief,
the " Articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesise :" it
THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS INCARNATION. 215
holds a leading place in the profession which in all
ages has been required at Baptism ; and the early
believers gave a token of their reverence when, on
declaring that He "was made man," they were wont,
with one consent, to bow the knee and \vorship.
III. It must be observed, then, that the very es-
sence of this office is, that all functions which are
discharged on God's part towards man, or on man's
part towards God, are gathered together in His
single Person. In this respect was Joseph His type
in the prison, as well as upon his seat of power, in-
asmuch as " whatsoever they did there, he was the
doer of it." He is the sole channel of all which is
done by God towards man, or man towards God,
under the Christian covenant. For He is the one
only Mediator who unites both. He is the sole
channel through whom the graces of the new dispen-
sation are bestowed by God upon mankind. There-
fore, He said, when promising the gift of the Holy
Ghost : " He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it
unto you." 4 And so, likewise, is He the only me-
dium through whom our prayers can ascend to God,
for " no man cometh unto the Father but by Me."
This is the place wherein heaven and earth are con-
nected; the bridge which joins them together. He
is "the door," 5 "the way, the truth, and the life." 6
IV. Again, the Office of Mediator which is thus
undertaken by Our Lord, is not a transitory, but
an enduring one. It lasts as long as the Gospel
4 St. John, xvi. 14. 5 St. John, x. 9. 6 St. John, xiv. 6.
216 OUK LORD'S MEDIATION
kingdom. It was not merely discharged while He
was upon earth, and resigned so soon as He had
founded the Church, and commissioned His Apos-
tles : He continues " Head over all things to the
Church ;" 7 and as He now bears the office of re-
gency, so does that of Judge await Him at the
Great Day. For the Father " hath given Him au-
thority to execute judgment also, because He is
the Son of Man." 8 This is part of His office, who
is God's perfect representative towards mankind ;
and meantime, He acts perpetually on behalf of
mankind towards God : " He ever liveth to make
intercession for them." 9 For He is present conti-
nually in heaven according to that human nature,
whereby He is the "Lamb that was slain ;" 10 while
in earth also He is present through His power, for
" Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the world." 11 What may happen in these respects
in another state of things we know not. " Then
cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up
the kingdom to God, even the Father." " Then
shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him
that put all things under Hun, that God may be
all in all." 12 The authority which the Mediator
now possesses, as Incarnate Son by gift, may then
perhaps be merged in that which He possessed
before all worlds, as only-begotten Son by nature.
But till then, u all power is given to" Him "in
7 Eph. i. 22. 8 St. John, v. 27. 9 Heb. vii. 25.
10 Rev. v. 12. " St. Matt, xxviii. 20. I2 1. Cor. xv. 24, 28.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS INCARNATION. 217
heaven and in earth;" 13 "and He is the Head of
the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the
first-born from the dead." 14
V. And yet since Our Lord's Mediation de-
pended upon His man's nature, and since that man's
nature was capable of being perfected, He must
plainly have entered upon it by degrees. This it
is which enables us to consider it in its several
parts, and to trace those different stages into which
it was divided. The acts of Godhead are in them-
selves eternal, like the nature of that Infinite Being,
with whom is " no variableness, neither shadow of
turning." It is only on man, to whom succession
is the law of life, and whose endurance is measured
out by time, that successive events impress their
several impulses. " Known unto God are all His
works from the beginning of the world." 15 It is
because manhood, therefore, has been united to
Godhead in Our Lord's Person, that His acts can
be arranged according to those conditions of time,
by which man's nature is limited. In the counsels
of God, Our Lord's acts were ever present ; He
was " the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world." 16 So far as His death contributed to the
purposes of mercy, it might ever equally be taken
account of. But since He was made "perfect" as
a man " through sufferings ;" 17 since His work,
that is, was provided for by the growth of His
13 St. Matt, xxviii. 18. " Col. i. 18. 15 Acts, xv. 18.
16 Revelations, xiii. 8. 17 Hebrews, ii. 10.
218 OUR LORD'S MEDIATION, ETC.
body and the preparation of His mind so that
" being made perfect, He became the author of
eternal salvation to all them that obey Him" 18
therefore His Mediation may be referred to different
periods, and considered under those several condi-
tions, in which He successively displayed Himself.
Now, that which made the most marked difference
in His human character, was His ascension into
glory. For then was the obedience of His earthly
life rewarded by a heavenly crown. To this He
directed the attention of the Jew r s, as that which
would render His man's nature the source of graces
to His brethren : " What and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before." 1
Therefore, " when He ascended up on high, he led
captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." 5 The
consummation of His resurrection was His session
at the right hand of God. The interval was a tran-
sition state, when He was neither present carnally,
as among the Jewish multitudes, nor, as in the
ordinances of the Church, by spiritual power :
" Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My
Father." 21 Thus is this event the dividing epoch
in Our Lord's history. So that His acts of Media-
tion may be conveniently divided into those which
preceded, and those which followed, His Ascension
into Heaven.
18 Heb. v. 9. 19 St. John, vi. 62. Ephes. iv. 8.
21 St. John, xx. 17.
219
CHAPTER VIII.
OUR LORD S ACTS OF MEDIATION PREVIOUSLY TO HIS
ASCENSION ; OR HIS TEACHING, HIS EXAMPLE, AND
HIS SACRIFICE.
SINCE Our Lord's Mediation was the natural result
of that twofold nature in which He was manifest
among men, it implies plainly a twofold action, as
its relation towards man is considered, or its rela-
tion towards God. For to man He was manifested
as a teacher and an example, while He offered to
God the perfect sacrifice of our redemption.
I. And first to consider Him in His relation to-
wards man. To detail at all His actions on this
side of His character, would far exceed the limits
of the present volume, since it would be to state at
large the whole lesson which is exhibited by the
Evangelists. The life of Christ, as Bishop Taylor
has shown us, is the best channel for communi-
cating the precepts of the Gospel. In this place it
is enough to refer in general to God's goodness, in
having bestowed such a medium of instruction upon
men. For hereby reason has its employment, and
220 THE TEACHING OF CHRIST.
love its pattern. Thus are all parts of our nature
called into exercise, and the understanding learns
to assent to that which the will is to perform.
Through the instructions which Our Lord be-
stowed, we gain that gradual ascent from earthly
things to heavenly, whereby He conducted His
Disciples, and through them all subsequent gene-
rations, towards that higher world, with which
Himself was familiar. And then in the more ex-
alted communications which followed His Resur-
rection, did He open the understandings of His
Disciples to " things pertaining to the kingdom of
God." 1 These they afterwards unfolded at large
through the teaching of the Spirit. Meanwhile
their affections were no less elevated than their
reason, and the Being, before whose majesty they
trembled, they learned to love. For He who was
the true Pattern Man, " the chiefest among ten
thousand," "altogether lovely," 2 submitted to be
"heard" and "seen" with their eyes, and "looked
upon." 3
Such was the peculiar privilege of those, who
were the first to profit by that great event, where-
by God and man were brought together. And
thus has the blessing been extended to all genera-
tions of mankind. For through the teaching of
the Gospels have all nations been made conscious
of those deep mysteries, of which man's nature is
susceptible. The cold, selfish, isolated, grovelling
1 Acts, i. 3. 2 Sol. Song, v. 10, 16. 3 1. John, i. 1.
THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. 221
spirit, which bound all men to party, race, or
language, and, still more, which centred each man's
thoughts in his own private ends, have yielded in
a measure to that more generous and exalted feel-
ing, which the Pattern Man exhibited upon earth.
Here is that in which all men have a common
interest to which all men's sympathy responds
alike which all must admire, love, seek, cherish
which they discern to contain the real secret of
their happiness and object of their being. Thus
is man's life made capable of higher ends his race
is discerned to be the depository of nobler prin-
ciples he is compelled to allow the supremacy of
better maxims, and the wisdom of rules, by which
his own practice is too often condemned. How
many have prayed for their murderers, now that
the Pattern Man has enabled our hearts to feel
what, but for His example, might have been for
ever hidden in the undeveloped capacities of man's
nature that revenge is less noble than forgiveness.
Thus has He set forth the perfect type of manhood,
and through the example of the elder brother, the
lineaments of truth may be discerned even in the
corrupted nature of His brethren.
And further, by enshrining these truths in that
one book, which has thus become the common
standard of all civilized nations, literature has in
some sort been made catholic, and art been made
divine; so that they are no longer limited to indi-
vidual races, but esteemed the common property of
222 THE TEACHING OF CHRIST.
every child of Adam ; and again, that their noblest
subjects are felt to rest no longer on mere beauty
of form or strength of conception, but to depend
on that moral greatness, which, once exhibited in
its perfection upon earth, can never cease to be
regarded as the true ideal of human excellence.
II. But it is when we turn from Our Lord's
actings towards men, and consider the part which
He discharged towards God, that we approach the
most wonderful side of His Mediation. And here
we must expect that our reason will speedily be
left behind by the greatness of the subject, since
what we consider is the function which was per-
formed towards the Everlasting Father by Him,
who, His equal by nature, had consented to be-
come the representative of mankind. His sayings
too to His brethren are given to us in abundance;
of His words to His Eternal Father but a few
occasional specimens are recorded in Holy "Writ.
A few expressions occur at different periods of His
ministry, and one remarkable chapter (St. John,
xvii.) which declares its completion. These all
reveal the same truth respecting Our Lord's rela-
tion to the Father, that its single characteristic was
Obedience. Thus did the Pattern Man render ex-
actly that service, in which all His brethren had
been wanting. " Submission to the will of God,"
says Butler, " may be said to be the whole of
religion." And disobedience is the very condition
of our sin. Now, Our Lord declares the fulfilment
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 223
of His Father's will to have been the very purpose
of His being : "I have glorified Thee on the earth ;
I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me
to do." 4 Or again: "What shall I say? Father
save Me from this hour: but for this cause came
I unto this hour." 5 And once more, even in His
hour of agony did He exclaim : " Nevertheless,
not My will, but Thine be done." 6 This lesson of
" obedience" it is declared in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, that Our Lord "learned." 7 Everything
else was communicated to His man's soul by way
of inspiration. This thing only it was essential
that He should acquire through the perfect road of
experience. In its complete mastery lay the signal
excellence of His man's soul. The two wills which
dwelt within Him moved together in perfect and
unalterable harmony. What the Divine will pre-
scribed, the human will completely responded to:
" For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." 8
And " therefore doth My Father love Me, because
I lay down My life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of
Myself : I have power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it again. This commandment have
I received from My Father." 9
The life of the Pattern Man, then, may be said
to have been a continual setting forth of that duty
4 John, xvii. 4. 5 John, xii. 27. 6 Luke, xxii. 42.
7 Hebrews, v. 8. 8 John, vi. 38. 9 John, x. 18.
224 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
of Obedience, which His brethren, the children of
Adam, had failed to render. He appeared once
for all as the representative of mankind, and was
obedient : " Lo, I come (in the volume of the book
it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God." 10
This it is which He exhibited from first to last
from His conception in the womb until He was
buried in the earth. In all parts of life in child-
hood, youth, and ripeness of years as member of
a family or a single worshipper in solitude or in
company in the wilderness or the city in the
shop or the temple in honour or contempt in
penury or at feasts His "meat" was "to do the
will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." 11
Yet there remained one thing still greater; for all
mortal pangs are gathered together in that last and
most fearful one, the tearing asunder of soul and
body in death. Now, from this trial also Our
Lord did not shrink. He was " obedient unto
death." 12 And in this part of His course lie those
especial circumstances, which are declared in Holy
Scripture to be the causes of man's redemption.
For though He is said in general to be the "last
Adam," the " second Man," 13 yet it is with His
Death and Passion that His sacrifice for sin is ex-
pressly connected. For " we 14 have redemption
through His blood," says the Apostle tw r ice over,
" the forgiveness of sins." He has " made peace
10 Heb. x. 7. " John, iv. 34. 12 Phil. ii. 8.
13 1. Cor. xv. 45, 47. " Ephes. i. 7 ; Col. i. 14.
THE SACEIFICE OF CHRIST. 225
through the blood of His cross," 15 and He came
"to give His life a ransom instead of many." 16
This offering of Himself on behalf of man was
the true sacrifice, which all the sacrifices of the
Ancient Law served to introduce. Not that Our
Lord's offering was built upon them ; that it
pleased God merely to give His sanction to an
ancient usage, and to hallow it by the sacrifice of
Christ. That which happened was exactly the
reverse; the offerings of the Law were built upon
the offering of Christ ; they were the type of a
future reality, which cast its shadow beforehand
on the Jewish nation. For all the Jewish ordi-
nances " serve unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God,
when he was about to make the tabernacle."
" It was therefore necessary that the patterns of
things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these." 17 How the practice
first began of presenting flocks and herds as an
offering to God is not recorded, though it seems
most natural to attribute it to a Divine appoint-
ment; but when it was made a part of the Jewish
Law, its meaning was explained to that chosen
people. For while they were allowed to retain the
old custom of presenting Burnt- Offerings as the
expression of their piety, two especial kinds of
sacrifice were added, Peace- Offerings and Sin-
15 Colossians, i. 20. 16 Matthew, xx. 28. 17 Heb. viii. 5 ; ix. 23.
Q
226 THE SACEIFICE OF CHEIST.
Offerings, as expressive of those particular rela-
tions to God, of which they were the depositories.
These three species of sacrifices are described in
the commencement of Leviticus. The Burnt- Of-
fering, as the representative of piety at large, had
in it some circumstances which belonged specifi-
cally to each of the others. It was an atonement, 18
like the Sin-offering a sweet savour, 19 like the
Peace-Offering. For these are the characteristics
of the two other sorts of sacrifice. The Peace-
Offering typified the general duties of worship
the Sin-offering the application for forgiveness.
That which was indicative of the first, was " a
sweet savour unto the Lord;" 20 that which was
characteristic of the last, was first, the prohibition
of frankincense, 21 with a view of preventing it from
being a sweet savour ; secondly, the burning of
the beasts so offered without the camp; 22 and
thirdly, the consequent defilement of the man 23
who burnt them. These circumstances indicated
that the "blood" of the Sin-Offerings was
"brought in to make atonement." 24 And yet the
very circumstance, that for legal impurities there
was in each case provided a special purification,
while the greater faults which burthened men's
conscience, except in a few cases which might lead
to social disorder, 25 were not remitted, was sum-
18 Leviticus, i. 4. lfl Ibid. i. 17. Ibid. iii. 5. 21 Ibid. v. 11.
22 Ibid. iv. 12, viii. 17; Heb. xiii. 11. 23 Lev. xvi. 28.
24 Leviticus, xvi. 27. M Leviticus, v. 1-6; xix. 21.
THE SACKIFICE OF CHRIST. 227
cient to suggest what was subsequently declared,
that " it is not possible that the blood of bulls and
of goats should take away sins." 26 What these
sacrifices effected, then, was to maintain for those
who offered them, a title to participate in the privi-
leges of the chosen nation ; and in that collective
worship, whereby it kept its hold on the true
Sacrifice, which once in the fulness of time was to
be offered on the Altar of the Cross. The Peace-
Offering set forth man's allegiance to God when he
was forgiven, and the Sin-Offering showed that
forgiveness was not to be obtained through his own
deserts, but by the substitution of some interme-
diate victim; while both together witnessed that
the sacrifices of men were to be offered, not like
the Burnt-Offerings of old, by each man or house-
hold for itself, but by an appointed servant of
God, whom He had anointed to be Priest : " No
man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that
is called of God, as was Aaron." 27
Now, Christ Our Lord is the one centre in which
all these lines have their meeting. He is the true
Peace-Offering, who " hath given Himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-
smelling savour." 28 And He is the only effectual
Sin-Offering, who, " that He might sanctify the
people with His own blood, suffered without the
gate." 29 For this very purpose it was that He
26 Hebrews, x. 4. v Hebrews, v. 4.
28 Eph. v. 2. Heb. xiii. 12.
228 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
clothed Himself with a mortal body ; He took that
common nature which He shares with mankind,
that He might "have somewhat also to offer." 30
" Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He
saith, sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but
a body hast Thou prepared 31 Me." So " that we
are sanctified through the Body of Jesus Christ
once for all." 32
Now, since this is the crisis of that great work
which Christ came to perform, its groundwork must
have been laid in both of His natures. Their
separate action, indeed, is not now before us, but
that work wliich He wrought as God-man by their
perfect co-operation [0eai>fy t /n} eW/^eta.] But this
may be better appreciated, if it be observed how
exactly He was fitted by the wisdom of God for
the service of mercy which He discharged. So
that we may look first to the Divine and then to
the human side of His character, and see why this
was the only real sacrifice which could be pre-
sented on man's behalf to God. For by reason
30 Heb. viii. 3.
31 The quotation in the Epistle to the Hebrews is from the
Septuagint; the Hebrew giving "mine ears hast thou opened."
" Why," asks Tholuck, " has the translator rendered ' ears ' by
' body?' If he thought that in the original a part was put for
the whole, the ground of his translation was obvious. If he
looked at the phrase as the Chaldean Paraphrasts, the Rabbins,
and most modern interpreters, have done, he expressed the effect
in place of the cause, in his translation:" i. e. a body was
essential for that obedience, which the Hebrew expresses that
Our Lord rendered. Tholuck on Hebrews, x. 5.
32 Hebrews, x. 10.
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 229
of His Divine nature, had the sacrifice of Himself
such intrinsic value, that the representative of
mankind could offer it effectually in mediation for
our race. For, from Christ's Divinity there flowed
such consecrating virtue, as made Him a fitting
Priest, and such atoning efficacy as made Him a
sufficient Victim.
A Priest is explained in the Epistle to the He-
brews, to be some one " ordained for men in things
pertaining to God ;" his office being to " offer gifts
and sacrifices." 33 And such is the origin of the
word in primitive languages, 34 in which the notion
of the setting apart those who should act on man's
behalf towards God, is everywhere visible. For
some peculiar sacredness seemed to be needed for
the office, so soon as any thing of a public Ritual
arose. Hence, while common worship was that of
single hearths, the father of each household was its
Priest ; and hence the identifying of the office with
that of the chief 35 in simple times. All these cir-
cumstances look to some peculiar consecration for
the Priestly office. Yet where shah 1 such be found?
Who is pure enough to be Priest on behalf of his
brethren? The one Mediator between God and
33 Hebrews, v. 1.
34 From the verb fro to be a mediator or middle person
- T .
[Gesenius], comes the substantive p3 Priest. So iepevs
from iepos, sacred. Sacerdos, from sacrare, to set apart. In
the Gothic of Ulphilas, Gudja is used for Priest, from Guth,
God.
35 Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phtebique sacerdos.
230 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
man is plainly the only being who is capable of
being Priest for fallen humanity : " For such an
High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, un-
defiled." For since He is a Mediator by nature,
He is by nature fitted to be Priest. For a Priest
is a Mediator in action. So that our Lord's Priest-
hood does not arise only from His having an offer-
ing to make on our behalf; it lies in His constitu-
tion ; it is the result of that personal union which
binds man to God. A Priest is consecrated, and
Christ's consecration, as Damascene reminds us,
was that uniting of His Divine to His human na-
ture, whereby He was anointed the Son of God:
" Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High
Priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art My
Son, this day have I begotten Thee." So that He
who was the Pattern Man and representative of
humanity, was qualified to execute the office of a
Priest in and by His man's nature for His breth-
ren of mankind.
But that the Mediator for men might act as
a Priest, He must "have somewhat also to offer."
And what was there which He could offer on man's
behalf, which was of value before God ? Plainly
nothing, but that humanity of His own, which He
had rendered of infinite value by joining it in His
own Person to the infinite. For this is the only
thing pertaining to mankind, which, regarded in
itself, is of intrinsic value. Of what value are all
things which are possessed by men, whether in
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 231
body or in mind ? Not to mention that they are
God's already, there is the further consideration
that through sin they have been defiled. Now,
"the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to
the Lord." So that no other possession or work is
in itself worth offering. We cannot go too far in
detracting from the value of all other works, if
spoken of as an offering to God, independently of
the perfect work of Christ our Saviour. It is not
too much to say, that viewed as an independent
sacrifice from man to God, all other works are
unnecessary. For if they were necessary, no flesh
could be saved. For He is the sole Mediator
between God and man. What He pleads, is the
sacrifice of His crucified humanity. He stands
alone. The elder brother does all ; His brethren
do nothing. 30 He bears the burthen of all offences.
He offers Himself "a ransom for all." And this
ransom is of infinite value. For we were "not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and
gold," "but with the precious blood of Christ." 37
" The Church of God" " He has purchased with
His own blood." And " worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
36 " Acceperunt justi non dederunt coronas ; et de fortitudine
fidelium exempla nata sunt patientite, non dona justitite. Fides
vera justificans impios et creans justos in illo acquirit
salutem, in quo solo homo se invenit innocentem." S. Leo,
Ep. 97, 4.
37 1. Peter, i. 19 ; Acts, xx. 28 ; Revelations, v. 12.
232 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
Herein then is concentrated that service of Obe-
dience, which Christ rendered to the Father. He
" needeth not daily as those High Priests to offer
up sacrifices," "for this He did once, when He
offered up Himself." How far this act of sacrifice
lay in the tearing asunder of soul and body, and
how far in those sufferings of body and mind,
which prepared for that event, it is needless to
inquire. That Our Lord's trial did not arise merely
from His bodily pains, but that He suffered also
through those more subtile avenues, through which
grief assaults the soul, is manifest. For it was
during His agony in the garden, that " His sweat
was as great drops of blood." This could not arise
merely from the expectation of those bodily pains
under which He suffered. We see in it, probably,
the effect of His sustaining as our representative
that burthen of God's wrath, of which all man-
kind was deserving. For though guilt cannot be
transferred, yet its punishment may be. " Now,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him." 38
" He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin;" 39 and "Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the Law, being made a curse for us." 40
For "God sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful man, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh." 41 In the unknown agonies then of Our
Lord's Passion, is seen the awful struggle of the
38 Isaiah, liii. 5. II. Cor. v. 21.
40 Galatians, iii. 13. 4I Romans, viii. 3.
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 233
infinite victim, when making compensation for the
offences of a world.
Such is that sacrifice, by which the Pattern Man
consummated His work of Obedience. He had
been "made a little lower than the Angels, that
He, by the grace of God, should taste death for
every man." For this purpose it was, that He had
become incarnate : " A body hast Thou prepared
Me." And when this work was over, He could
exclaim, "It is finished." It was a real work,
then; not a mere compliance with the notions of
men, as represented by Socinian writers, but an
actual change in the position of mankind, effected
through the unspeakable sufferings of its Infinite
Head. Therefore did the convulsions of external
nature bear witness to that mighty work, w r hich
before heaven and earth was achieved. Thus was
" God in Christ reconciling the world unto Him-
self, not imputing unto them their trespasses."
The work was not merely a change on man's
part: The Divine reconciliation was the basis of
his regeneration. For though God's nature be
love, yet He is also " of purer eyes than to behold
evil, and cannot look on iniquity." 42 Therefore,
" blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not
impute sin." Now, this blessedness it is which
Christ came upon earth to bestow : " He came to
give His life a ransom instead of many." 43 On
Him, first of the children of Adam, could the
42 Habak. i. 13. Matt. xx. 28.
234 THE SACRIFICE OF CHKIST.
Father look with perfect satisfaction. For the
first time since the Fall could He say, " This is
My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 44
The Mediator was fitted for His work. Through
the indwelling of Deity, the representative of man-
kind was beheld with favour.
And this leads us to the other side of Our Lord's
character. What did His manhood contribute to
this great work ? For we still seem to need some-
thing, not indeed to show the value of this sacrifice,
for of that His Deity was the only cause, since
it made Him at once a fitting Priest and a suf-
ficient Victim ; but to show the participation of
mankind in its saving power. For man would not
have an especial interest in this work, unless He
who wrought it was the representative of huma-
nity. The promise was, that salvation should be
wrought through the woman's seed. What was
there then in Christ's manhood, which made His
sacrifice effectual ?
Now, this question leads somewhat further into
the inquiry, wherein lay the efficacy of Our Lord's
Atonement. But if it be asked whether it was a
necessary part of the counsels of God, the ques-
tion is one which we are plainly incompetent to
answer. In inquiring into the counsels of God,
our wisdom is not to go beyond what is written.
It has been asserted indeed by St. Anselm, the
great founder of the scholastic philosophy, that
44 Matt. iii. 17.
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 235
"it is not fitting that God should forgive sins
without punishment." 45 But so far as this posi-
tion is grounded on a priori views of the Divine
attributes, it is combated by later schoolmen, and
it is not sanctioned by those earlier writers, to
which the English Church is accustomed to refer.
Keither does it rest on any direct testimony of
Scripture. Looking, indeed, to the place which
is occupied by Christ's Atonement in the counsels
of God, and considering that His recorded acts are
built upon His infinite perfections, there is a plau-
sibility in the opinion, that what God has been
pleased to do, must have been prescribed by the
necessary laws of His unalterable nature. And
yet, perhaps, the more reverent course is to confine
ourselves to the mere consideration of what He
has revealed, without venturing to fathom His un-
searchable counsels. When St. Athanasius there-
fore notices the supposition, that even without
Christ's having had His dwelling among us, God
might by His mere word have freed us from the
curse, his objections to it are not founded upon a
priori considerations of what was required by God's
character, but upon His observed dealings in good-
ness and truth. " We must look," he says, " at
what was beneficial for man, and not calculate only
what was in the power of God." 46 And in his
work on Our Lord's Incarnation, he refers us not
45 Cur Deus Homo, i. 12.
46 Or. ii. con. Arian. sec. 68, vol. i. p. 536.
236 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
to the abstract justice of God, but to His adhe-
rence to His revealed declarations. " For it was
impossible that God should lie; and that when He
had made it a law that man should die if he trans-
gressed, He should afterwards allow His word to
be vain, and man to escape death, though he were
a transgressor." 47 "Whether God could have
saved the world by other means than the death of
Christ, consistently with the general laws of His
government, is a question," says Bishop Butler, 48
" rashly determined, and perhaps with equal rash-
ness contrary ways." 49 But while abstaining from
such rash conjectures, we may with confidence
47 De Incarn. vi. vol. i. p. 52.
48 Butler has been censured for this statement ; and it has been
stated, that independently of God's actual appointment, we
could be sure from our abstract notions of God's justice, that
except through Christ's sacrifice man could not be forgiven.
The only Scriptural evidence adduced for this assertion is St.
Paul's statement, "that He might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus." The interpretation, however,
which it is designed to give to this verse is highly questionable.
For, first, The inferential particle should be KatTrep and not ical :
That He might be just, although the justifier of him that be-
lieveth, &c. Accordingly, one of the writers who attempts to
put this meaning on the passage, renders it, " that He might be
just, and yet the justifier," &c. Secondly, The opposition
between just and justifier, evidently implies them to have a
correlative meaning. But "justifier of him which believeth,"
plainly implies, that holiness at large is either given or ascribed
to the believer. " Just" therefore, must refer to God's holiness
at large, and not merely to distributive justice. The passage
must mean, that as God is holy, so He will give or impute the
same character to the believer.
49 Analogy, p. ii. c. 5.
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 237
assert the wisdom of what it has pleased God to
do, and find in His appointment a ground for admi-
ration and thankfulness. "For what Christ does,
this is what is best for mankind, and what could
happen in no other manner so suitable. And. what
is suitable and fitting, for this His providence
makes preparation." 50 So that we may safely
assert with Hooker, " The world's salvation was
without the Incarnation of the Son of God a thing
impossible; not simply impossible, but impossible,
it being presupposed that the will of God was no
otherwise to have it saved, than by the death of
His own Son." 51 This is not to say "what God
could or could not have done ;" but " what God
declares He has done, that only it asserts." 52 For
this is what the Angelic Song revealed ; that in
Christ God's glory and man's peace is united.
Here, therefore, is fulfilled the prophecy of the
Psalmist : " Mercy and truth are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Truth shall nourish out of the earth, and righ-
teousness hath looked down from heaven." 53 For
this was to be accomplished only through His
coming, through whom the Lord has " forgiven the
offence" of His "people, and covered all their sins." 54
AVithout pretending, therefore, to decide what ab-
stract justice might make necessary in the eternal
50 S. Athan. contra Arian. ii. 68. 51 Eccles. Pol. v. 51, 3.
5 - Magee on Atonement, note 17, vol. i. p. 176.
53 Psalin, Ixxxv. 10, 11. M Psalm, Ixxxv. 2.
238 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
counsels of the Most High, we may accept with
reverence the expression of His will. For we have
His own assurance that " it became Him in bring-
ing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of
their salvation perfect through sufferings."
But how is it that by this act God's hatred for
sin is made so manifest ? Wherein is the sacrifice
of Our Lord such an illustration of it ? Why does
His obtaining forgiveness for us set forth the
Divine justice ? What meeting place is there be-
tween God's mercy and His truth ? This depends
plainly on the connexion between Christ and man-
kind. It is because He pleads for a race of which
He is the natural representative. He is not only
mediator on God's behalf towards men, but also as
man is He advocate for His brethren. He is the
"one Mediator between God and men, the Man
Christ Jesus." To be man at all, would give Him
an interest in our race; but that He is TJie Man,
the pattern of our race, the new type on which
it is founded, the second Adam this makes Him
the " one Mediator" for His brethren. " For since
by man came death, by man came also the resur-
rection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive." The univer-
sality of death, shows that in some way we all
share the consequences of Adam's sin ; what pecu-
liar fitness were there in our forgiveness through
Christ, unless in a manner no less real we par-
ticipated in His nature ? For the application of
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 239
this gift, there needs indeed some mode of union
between every individual and Christ, as real as
that actual paternity, by which Adam acts on all
his children; and such a bond shall hereafter be
shown to exist in sacramental grace and Church
union. But the gift itself was purchased for hu-
manity at large, when its Head suffered in our
common nature : " For as by one man's disobe-
dience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous." 55
The force of Our Lord's Atonement is grounded,
according to these passages of Scripture, upon His
being the representative of man's nature. We pre-
tend not to conjecture whether the Divine justice
might have been otherwise satisfied: it is enough
that the course which it pleased God to adopt,
was to accept the satisfaction of one of Adam's
progeny. Therefore, not only was it essential to
Our Lord's Atonement that He should be clothed
in "a body," 56 but it was necessary that this
body should be the body of man. He not only
became flesh, but our flesh: "Forasmuch as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also
Himself took part of the same." 67 So that we
may adopt St. Anselm's words, not grounding
them however on abstract reasoning, but on the
appointment of God. " If God had made a new
man, who was not of Adam's race, he would not
belong to that humanity which was born of Adam,
55 Romans, v. 19. * Heb. x. 5. 57 Heb. ii. 14.
240 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
and could not suitably satisfy for that nature to
which he did not belong. For since it was right
[i. e. God's ordinance] that man should satisfy for
man's fault, therefore he who satisfied must either
be the same with the sinner, or of the same race
with him." 58 But then it was not enough that He
should be a mere common specimen of the race,
for which He made expiation. Some persons speak
of Our Lord's death, as if it were a mere arbitrary
substitution ; 59 or as we read in history of royal in-
tercessors, who have succeeded in begging off con-
demned parties with whom they had no peculiar
connexion. But this is to lose sight of those
especial characteristics of the Son of Man, which
rendered Him the natural Mediator for His breth-
ren. If He had not been the Head of our race, in
58 Cur Deus Homo, ii. 8.
89 " I find myself more and more attracted towards the Divines
who occupy themselves much in setting forth the depth and
extent of sin, as a fact of human nature ; though, as you may
suppose, far from satisfied with the Calvinistic theories, as to the
divine purposes and the process of redemption. I do not find
Tholuck as full or satisfactory as I could wish on this last
matter : the Doctrine of Substitution appearing in him with too
much nakedness. But I am in hopes it may be shown that the
Doctrine of Substitution, when connected with the cycle of ideas
relating to Christ's Headship, and to the unity of our nature as
common to Him and us, issues in the one radical and com-
prehensive truth which man requires, and which Revelation on
so many sides sets forth ; and so to justify and interpret the
stupendous emotions, the prodigious revolutions of character,
the altered aspect of the world, and all the oracular breathings
of the Spirit, which are found in connexion with the doctrines
of Guilt and Atonement." Hare's Life of Sterling, p. 75.
O, si sic omnia!
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 241
whom Manhood was set forth in its widest and
most universal character, He would not have been
so exactly fitted to be that perfect sacrifice, in
which humanity at large finds its propitiation. A
story is sometimes adduced, as illustrating Our
Lord's Atonement, of a King who sacrificed one of
his own eyes to save his son from the threatened
penalty of blindness. The cases are not exactly
analogous ; since the penalty denounced was not
merely the pain of present mutilation, but the be-
reavement of permanent blindness. But its force
depends plainly on the voluntary submission of a
party, who by natural law was qualified to repre-
sent the offender. A parent is naturally fitted to
answer for his child. For where had been the
justice of the case, if the King had by bribe or
violence obtained some substitute, with whom his
son had no natural connexion ? It was because
Christ, therefore, was the Head and Father of man's
race, that He bore in like manner not part, but all
its punishment. For "He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins
of the whole world." He is " the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world." And
that, because " He is the first-born of every crea-
ture," 60 "the beginning of the creation of God." 61
For " if there had been anything in our nature
which He did not take upon Him, it would not
have been redeemed." 62
60 Col. i. 15. 61 Rev. iii. 14. Damasc. de Fid. Orth. vol. i. p. 212.
R
242 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.
This truth may be illustrated by a singular
suggestion of St. Anselm, 63 as to the reason why
the fallen Angels could not be redeemed. Man-
kind, he says, though consisting of many indi-
viduals, are bound together by that common tie of
nature, which connects all with a general parent.
So that there was room for the introduction of that
nobler member into their common family, by whom
compensation has been made for the deficiencies of
the rest. But the Angels, though of one general
nature, have no such common bond as could enable
one individual to save others. Whatever may be
thought of this theory, it is at all events asserted,
that Our Lord became incarnate in our nature,
because it was not Angels but mankind that He
came to save. 64 His taking our flesh is stated to
be the essential preparative for His saving our
nature. " He was made a little lower than the
Angels, that He might taste death for every man."
So that we may conclude, in the words of Dean
Field, "as all fell in Adam, the root and be-
ginning of natural being, who received the trea-
sures of righteousness and holiness for himself,
and those that by propagation were to come of
him ; so their restoration could not be wrought
but by Him that should be the root, fountain,
and beginning of supernatural and spiritual being,
in whom the whole nature of mankind should be
found in a more eminent sort than it was in Adam ;
63 Cur Deus Homo, ii. 21. 64 Hebrews, ii. 16, 17.
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 243
as, indeed, it was in the second Adam, ' of whose
fulness all men receive grace for grace.' And this
surely was the reason, why it was no injustice in
God to lay upon Him the punishments due to
our sins, and why His sufferings do free us from
the same." 65
65 Field on the Church, v. 11.
244
CHAPTER IX.
OF OUR LORD'S ACTS OF MEDIATION SUBSEQUENTLY TO
HIS ASCENSION, AND FIRST OF HIS INTERCESSION.
OUR LORD'S acts of Mediation subsequently to His
Ascension may be considered, according to the
division employed in the previous Chapter, as they
regard God and as they regard man. On those
who share His lower nature He is ever acting by
His Presence and His Grace, while towards God
the Father He acts as their Mediator by His Inter-
cession. This last office is the subject of inquiry
in the present Chapter.
But before entering upon it, the writer would fain
express that deepening awe with which every step
in this sacred inquiry impresses his own mind.
For when, leaving that higher nature of the Ever-
Blessed Trinity, and those separate parts of Our
Lord's character which were first considered, we ap-
proach the application of these great realities to
the salvation of mankind, the subject in reality to
be contemplated is that wonderful chain, by which
God's goodness has united Heaven and Earth
that condescension which could stoop from the
CHRIST AN ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 245
height of Heaven to the manger and the Cross
and that marvellous interdependency which can
bind together the eternal nature of self-existent
Godhead and the daily actions of man's common
life, and make the one of these assist and be essen-
tial to the other. Who can meditate on this stu-
pendous example of power and mercy, and not
exclaim with the Patriarch, to whom in vision it
was once presented : " Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I knew it not?" 1 Who is there but
must desire to share in the admiration and reve-
rence of the Angelic Hosts ; seeing that " God
created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent
that now unto the principalities and powers in
heavenly places, might be known by the Church
the manifold Wisdom of God?" 2
Now, it is an essential part of this great work,
that He who first bore our nature during His
sojourn upon earth, was afterwards exalted with
the same man's being into heaven : " Thou sittest
at the right hand of God in the glory of the
Father." " This same Jesus," who was our Me-
diator upon earth, "is taken up into Heaven." 3
By this means it is that we have a Mediator
above that our nature 4 has been introduced into
God's higher courts that as the Son of God is
interested in our doings upon earth, so are we
1 Genesis, xxviii. 16. 2 Ephesians, iii. 10. 3 Acts, i. 11.
4 " Unde ergo ibi sederaus, si naturam nostrum in Christo non
ibi habemus." Vigil, c. Eut. iv. 9.
246 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
concerned^ in the actings of the Son of Man in
heaven. Such a consequence did Our Lord de-
clare would follow from His Ascension : " I go to
prepare a place for you." 6 " 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." 6 And the efficacy of His inter-
ference on man's behalf is grounded on the perma-
nency of the office which He discharges above :
" He is able to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to
make intercession for them." 7 This is the function,
then, which our great Mediator performs in heaven :
" we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous." 8 And this was the completion of
that work, for which He had been marked out by
ancient prophecy ; for after having borne the " sin
of many" He "made intercession for the trans-
gressors." 9
Now, since Our Lord's Intercession is part of
His work as Mediator, both of those natures which
pertain to Him must be engaged in this service of
mercy for mankind. For that He was Mediator,
was shown not to be the mere exercise of an office
which any could undertake, but to result from that
real conjoining of man to God, which arose from
His uniting in one person the nature of each. For
there is " one Mediator between God and men."
5 John, xiv. 2. 6 John, xvii. 24. 7 Hebrews, vii. 25.
8 1. John, ii. 1. 9 Isaiah, liii. 12.
AN ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 247
What the manhood contributes to this work is to
speak on our behalf, to be the representative of our
nature, inasmuch as " 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." Thus does Our Lord fulfil
the office of the Pattern Man, because, by the con-
stitution of His nature, He was really the Pattern
of our race. Now, to act on our behalf towards
God is to discharge a Priest's 10 function, and a
Priest implies an offering ; but it is still His man's
nature which furnishes forth the victim which is
presented, as well as the Priest who offers it. For
what He pleads before God is that perfect sacrifice
of His own body, which He offered once for all
upon the Cross for the transgressions of a world.
And with these functions of His man's nature does
His Godhead perpetually co-operate, by conse-
crating His man's nature to be a perpetual Priest,
and by rendering His sacrifice an inestimable offer-
ing. For He is an " High Priest, separate from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens," be-
cause He is " the Son, who is consecrated for ever-
more;" 11 and because "through the Eternal Spirit
He offered Himself without spot to God" He
" entered in once into the holy place, having ob-
tained eternal redemption for us." 1 Thus then
He who is personally God and man, acts through
His manhood as the perpetual High Priest for His
10 Heb. v. 1. " Heb. vii. 26, 28. 12 Heb. ix. 12, 14.
248 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
brethren, and for ever pleads that perfect sacrifice
of Himself, which He shared our nature to offer.
And thus is He represented in the Book of Reve-
lations, where "a Lamb as it had been slain" 13 is
described as standing before God's throne, and as
the perpetual object of worship to the ransomed in
heaven. So that Our Lord's Incarnation sets forth
Heaven and Earth as being the real counterpart of
that which was dimly shadowed out by the Jewish
Ritual. For " of the things which we have spoken,
this is the sum ; we have such an High Priest, who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the Ma-
jesty in the heavens" who " hath obtained a more
excellent ministry, by how much also He is the
Mediator of a better covenant ;" and who " for this
cause is the Mediator of the Xew Testament."
" For Christ is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the pre-
sence of God for us." 14
But however clearly these truths are stated in
Scripture, there is peculiar difficulty in bringing
them as an existing reality before the mind. Past
and Future are great words, and the changes which
they necessarily involve are so strange and event-
ful, that it seems not inconceivable that the great
work of our Redemption should have been wrought
in the one, and that the awful hour of Judgment
should await us in the other. That events, in
13 Revelations, v. 6. 14 Hebrews, viii. 1, 6 ; ix. 15, 24.
AX ABIDING INTERCESSOK. 249
themselves improbable, will occur at some time or
other in the infinite lapse of time, is readily ad-
mitted. But that now, at this very moment, while
the tide of events is pursuing its uninterrupted
course, there should be such great things trans-
acting in which we have a present part, it is almost
impossible to realise. This is one of those cases, in
which to look at things invisible as an actual ob-
ject, external to the mind, is so difficult. When
we see the ordinary frivolity of man's life, we can
hardly feel his condition and interests to be in
reality of such serious import. To connect his
doings with those wonders of the world unseen,
which Scripture tells us are going on at the same
moment, is like dovetailing the games of childhood
into the serious business of life. Our reason revolts
at a process which " the course of this world" so
plainly contradicts. Thus does the Atheism of
practical life re-act against our Doctrinal Confes-
sions. If prayers were offered daily in all our
churches, and if the perpetual ministration of holy
things witnessed to a living belief in the nation's
mind, men's feelings might be more in accordance
with the declarations of Scripture ; but at present
they look at the actings of Christ Our Lord as
exerted either at the beginning or the end of the
system they live in. His present interference they
limit to that communication with man's inner
thoughts, which seems the natural manner in which
a Spiritual Being acts upon us ; and that things are
250 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
daily going on around us, by which our position
and interests are actually affected that Christ's
Intercession is truly taking place above, and that
the ordinances of the Church are our means of par-
ticipating in it they cannot bring their imagination
to admit. Christ's interference they suppose must
respect something larger and more important than
the ordinary wants of man. It belongs to those
days of wonder when heaven and earth shall be
confounded, as when His feet stood formerly on
the Mount of Olives, and when all nations shall
behold Him at the crack of doom.
When the ancient philosophers contemplated
this material firmament, its matchless beauty, its
unvarying laws, its incalculable extent, they felt
unable to subordinate things so majestic to the
impotence of mankind. And their feeling certainly
was not unnatural, for "one in a certain place
testified, saying, What is man that Thou art mind-
ful of him, or the Son of Man that Thou visitest
him?" 15 Hence does Aristotle rate that knowledge
which concerns the external world, " cselique vias
ac sidera monstrat," more highly than what relates
to man, because the subject of this last is so in-
ferior. This is in reality much the same feeling
which has rolled back upon us in modern days,
through the practical Heathenism of civilized life.
And its only antidote is that which once dashed
to pieces the Dagon of ancient Idolatry, when it
15 Hebrews, ii. 6.
AN ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 251
was enshrined in all the glory of earthly pomp in
the great temple of the Roman Empire. For that
which shows the real dignity of man's nature, and
corrects those opinions of his insignificance which
unaided reason not unfitly suggests, is the Incar-
nation of Christ. And thus does it prepare us for
that truth of Our Lord's Intercession, which other-
wise our imagination could hardly accept. For
thus is heaven and earth set before us as one
mighty temple, wherein the Son of Man is dis-
charging His work of Advocacy for our race. And
low as men may be fallen through sin, yet since
the Son of God did not disdain to take our nature,
there is no other thing which we may not believe
that He will effect for our sakes. Thus is Christ's
work of Mediation grounded upon that self-origi-
nating nature of the Ever-Blessed Godhead, which
(p. 177) is the basis of all existence. For this
world, with its diversified contrivances and never-
ending activity, is but the shadow and reflection of
that Divine Being by whose will it exists. And in
this Blessed Godhead is there truly that diversity
of Persons, on which the functions of Mediation
and Intercession depend. And for their exercise
was the world created. For " the Lord hath made
all things for Himself." And especially was this
the object of man's being, "forasmuch as he is the
image and glory of God." 16 For "this people
have I formed for Myself they shall show forth
16 I. Corinthians, xi. 7.
252 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
My praise." That He might exercise, then, this
His Sacred Office, did the Son take our nature.
And, therefore, that the universe should be built
upon this principle that the Eternal Son should
be for ever discharging this work that man should
be thought worthy of so much consideration that
the Second Person in the Ever-Blessed Trinity
should first sacrifice Himself for our sakes, and
then for ever act the part of our Intercessor all
this is to be attributed not to man's deserts, but to
" the depth of the riches of the wisdom and know-
ledge of God: how unsearchable are His judg-
ments, and His ways past finding out." 17
The only true reality, therefore that which at
this moment all men ought to remember the fact
in which the whole world has a common interest
on which those who read and he who writes are
alike dependent which affects every age, state,
and country which obtains for all an interval of
trial and a hope of pardon is that the Son of God
is even at this very moment at the right hand of
the Father, pleading the merits of His death as the
prevailing Intercessor for His brethren. And yet
the transitory affairs of life appear to us of over-
whelming importance; the achievements of indi-
viduals and the prosperity of nations occupy every
thought ; and the tide of corrupt passion flows on
in the very sight of heaven. The reason of course
is, that our weak faith is insufficient to master our
17 Romans, xi. 33.
AN ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 253
corrupt nature. Yet something must be attributed
also to the erroneousness as well as to the weak-
ness of faith ; and those two classes of error, which
re-appeared continually in ancient times as abstract
misconceptions of Our Lord's nature, will be found
to re-assert their influence in that practical unbe-
lief which is characteristic of modern times. The
heresies which in ancient days interfered with the
true belief in Christ were founded on a forgetful-
ness of one or other of those natures, on which
His Mediation depended; so that Jesus was not
truly God according to the Arian, or the Christ
not really man, according to the Sabellian hypo-
thesis. Just the same alternation of errors may
be found in the present day, either contrasted
with one another, if we consider their speculative
origin, or agreeing, if we regard their practical
effect, as a denial of that real work of Our Lord's
Mediation, to which both are equally opposed.
The Socinian or Arian tendency of modern days
either looks upon Our Lord as having been always
a mere man, or supposes, at all events, that though
intrusted formerly with a Divine power for that
work of Atonement which He descended to effect,
yet that His Godhead is now swallowed up again
in the Father's glory, that His work of Mediation is
over, and that our sole relation to Him at present
is to depend, and reflect with gratitude, on His
past work, to believe that it is our ground of
salvation, and to contemplate those lessons and
254 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
that example whereby He lives among us as a
man upon earth. This last species of Arianism, as
entertained by those who call themselves Chris-
tians, is nearly identical with that Sabellian heresy
which is attained by moving in an opposite direc-
tion, from a denial of the real Manhood of Christ.
So that it was truly remarked by the late Mr.
Blanco White, who made unhappy trial of both
these errors, under that practical form in which
they are at present predominant, that Sabellianism
is only Socinianism in disguise. For the Sabellian
theory is, that there exists no real diversity of
Persons in the Ever-Blessed Trinity; but that for
the sake of a temporary economy, and during the
season of His acting towards men upon earth, it
pleased HIM who commonly calls Himself the Eter-
nal Father, to be known under the names of the Son
and of Christ. His presence upon earth therefore,
however its particular events may be explained,
must have arisen from the mere indwelling of
Divine power in some fleshly habitation, and could
not be that personal and permanent 18 union between
God and man, which is witnessed by the Church
(p. 167). Now this notion is manifestly incon-
sistent with a belief, that at this present moment
man is God and God is man, and therefore, that
our Mediator is for ever pleading the merits of that
18 One of the heresies condemned by S. Greg. Naz. (Ep. i. ad
Cledonium, p. 739) is, " sanctam carnem nunc depositam esse,
nudamque ac corpore vacuam divinitatem esse, &c."
AN ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 255
sacrifice, which in His own identical Person He
effected on the Cross. For in truth, according to
this theory, there is no pleading of man's nature
with God: the Son is merely a title substituted
for His Father's name during the mediatorial
government of the Church the reality of His acts
is evaporated and a practical unbelief in His opera-
tions is justified by His real non-existence in the
world of external realities. So necessary is the
true Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity to the real
acceptance of the Mediation of Christ. And what
countenances the practical unbelief of the age, is
a too prevalent doctrinal unsoundness. Where the
reality of Our Lord's Mediation is firmly held, and
He is believed to be an actual Person other than
the Eternal Father, yet of one nature with Him,
who is truly making Intercession for His brethren
by the perpetual pleading of His crucified body at
the right hand of God, there is a ground-work for
men's belief in the objective existence of things un-
seen, which cannot be altogether inefficacious.
It is for the setting forth of this truth, that the
Scripture statements respecting Our Lord's present
work as God and Man in His seen and unseen
kingdom have been provided. For not only has
He been beheld by mortal eyes in His place of
glory for St. Stephen saw the " Son of Man,"
Christ according to His human nature, " standing
on the right hand of God;" 19 not only did St. Paul
19 Acts, vii. 56.
256 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
hear Him declare His identity with that body of
the Church with which His manhood unites Him
" why persecutest thou Me ;" but in the Book
of Revelations is displayed at large that Christian
Ritual which unites heaven and earth. For what-
ever interpretation be adopted of that part of the
Book of Revelations which relates to events on
earth whether with the school of Mede it be sup-
posed a continuous narrative of the future or
whether it be regarded as a set of pictures, re-
peatedly fulfilled in the successive relations of the
Church and the world its description of things
above is plainly a vision of the same truth which
in the Epistle to the Hebrews is set forth argu-
mentatively, that the whole Jewish Ritual was an
"example and shadow of heavenly things." 20 Its
fourth chapter, therefore, discovers to us the hea-
venly state, exactly as it was typified by the pre-
sence of Jehovah in the wilderness with the camp
of Israel. The Living Beings who represent the
whole Christian congregation are described as sur-
rounding the Throne of God, just as the tribes of
Israel, with their corresponding emblems, encircled
the Tabernacle of the congregation. In front of
the Throne, where was placed the altar on which
the lamb of the daily sacrifice was perpetually pre-
sented, "stood a Lamb as it had been slain." 21
Within the Jewish Tabernacle, as afterwards within
the Temple, the first compartment was the Holy
20 Heb. viii. 5. 21 Rev. iv. 6 ; v. 6.
AN ABIDING INTEKCESSOE. 257
Place, where incense was perpetually offered. It
was separated only by a veil from the most Holy
Place, of which the main characteristic was the
Mercy-seat, the especial place where the Shekinah
appeared. And so too we have in heaven for the
offering of incense, " the golden altar which was
before the Throne," 22 The Mercy-seat, indeed,
was separated from the altar of incense which
stood before it, by the veil of the Temple. But
the omission of this veil in the description of the
heavenly Temple in the Book of Revelations, is
exactly accordant with its general explanation of
the Jewish Ritual. For it separated between the
outer Tabernacle, which was a symbol of God's
dwelling among men, and the inner, which typified
His heavenly presence. So they are explained in
the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the first is said
to be " a figure for the time then present," that is,
a type of God's presence, as it was vouchsafed to
the nation which was appointed to serve Him ;
while the second was a type of "heaven itself," 23
whither Christ entered through the sacrifice of
Himself. Now, the breaking down of the separa-
tion between heaven and earth was the very thing
which was effected by Christ's death, whereby we
have " boldness to enter into the holiest by a new
and living way, which He hath consecrated for
us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh."
Therefore, not only was the veil of the Temple
22 Revelations, viii. 3. a Hebrews, ix. 9, 24.
258 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
rent at the hour of His sacrifice, as a sign of what
was passing, but the graves w r ere opened, and many
bodies of Saints which slept, arose and attended
upon His Resurrection, as a proof that when He
had "overcome the sharpness of death," He had
opened " the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers."
Thus was exhibited in fact, what in the Book of
Revelations is shown in figure, that the prayers
which are offered on earth can ascend to heaven,
through the path which has been opened for them
by Christ their Intercessor. And, therefore, when
" the prayers of all Saints" were offered upon " the
golden altar which was before the Throne," no
veil 24 obstructed their access, but "the smoke of
24 Here we see the explanation of what has sometimes been
alleged to be an error in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the
altar of incense is not spoken of as connected with the Holy
Place, but is represented as appertaining to the Most Holy.
Our translators, like the Vulgate, seem to have designed to
meet the difficulty, by employing the word Censer (Heb. ix. 4)
for that which the old Italic rendered the Altar of Incense.
But Ovpiavrjptov is the word employed by St. Clement for the
Altar of Incense (Strom, v. p. 665), and it seems incredible that
all mention of the altar should be omitted. Now, to leave out
of account all higher considerations, how can it be supposed that
a writer so conversant with the Jewish Ritual as the author of
this Epistle, could either be silent or mistaken respecting one of
its most essential features ? But let it be considered that the
writer was contemplating the Jewish service through that
reality which it was intended to represent, and therefore that
he viewed the oiferings which were laid upon God's altar, as
they might be viewed after the veil was done away in Christ,
and the altar of incense would, in truth, pertain to the Mercy-
seat before which it was placed, and not to the outer sanctuary
in which it was situate.
AX ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 259
the incense which came with the prayers of the
Saints ascended up before God."
That the scene described in the Book of Reve-
lations represents the collective service of God's
people, is affirmed by St. Irenaeus, a most adequate
witness of what was understood to be the intention
of St. John's vision. " There is an altar," he says,
" in heaven, for to it our prayers and oblations are
directed; and a Temple, as John says in the Reve-
lations, ' the Temple of God was opened in heaven ;'
and there is likewise a Tabernacle, for ' the Taber-
nacle of God is with men.' " 25 And the same view
appears to have been entertained by all the earliest
writers, who everywhere supposed the Holy Place,
or outer division of the Tabernacle, to have been
symbolical of the state of God's people upon
earth first, in their Jewish form, and afterwards
in their Christian character. " Midway between
the veil and the external covering, where the
Priests only might enter, lay the altar of incense,
symbolical of this present world and its state.
This place lying midway between the most holy
place and the external court of the people, they
[i. e. the Jews] speak of as intervening between
heaven and earth." 26 Such was the view which
men would naturally take of it, while the way into
the holiest of all was not yet open, and while the
Jewish worship alone kept up the hope of allying
25 Revelations, xi. 19 ; xxi. 3. S. Irenteus, iv. 18, 6, p. 252.
26 S. Clement's Stromata, v. p. 665.
260 ' CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
earth with heaven. "But Christ being come, an
High Priest of good things to come, entered in
once into the Holy Place." So that "we have
boldness and access with confidence by the faith of
Him." And, therefore, says Origen, "that outer
sanctuary I suppose to be a type of the Church in
which we are at present placed, while we are in the
flesh." 27 So that the prayers of men are per-
petually ascending to God, not only for the sake
of that victim, who is ever set forth " a Lamb as
it had been slain" before God's throne, but like-
wise because the veil, by which heaven and earth
are naturally divided, is rent asunder in His flesh. 28
And thus a real service is continually going on, in
which our Mediator is pleading the merits of that
crucified body which He offered for our sakes.
Now, by what means we take part individually
in this offering shall be shown hereafter, and what
are the services for which the Intercession of Christ
obtains acceptance. The thing at present con-
sidered is that Intercession itself. It is a true
work going on from day to day, from which all
human supplications derive their value. " The
prayers of all Saints" are effectual, because they
are presented "upon the golden altar," which is
"before the throne." So that the Christian ser-
vice throughout the world resembles the Jewish,
in being a national Ritual. " The holy Church
throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee."
27 Origen on Levit. Horn. ix. 9, vol. ii. p. 243. * Heb. x. 20.
AX ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 261
But the Christian nation is not limited like the
Jewish by earthly pedigree; neither is the one sex
debarred from the same fulness of approach which
is conceded to the other : " There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female, but ye are all one in
Christ Jesus." 29 And this one Christian people
has likewise one mother city, where its collective
offering is presented on its behalf. But its capital
is not on earth, but in heaven, for "Jerusalem
which is above is the mother of us all." 30 And it
has one Priest, who "because He continueth ever
hath an unchangeable Priesthood." 31 And it has
a single victim, who has made " one perpetual sa-
crifice" (so should the words be rendered) "for
sins." 32 And therefore has the Church been di-
rected by His express command, to offer all prayers
for His sake. For thus is that Mediation main-
tained, which constitutes Him the real Priest and
the only victim. When He was upon earth, those
w r ho saw Him addressed to Him requests as one
man does to another. They addressed themselves
to His man's nature, as His manhood could then
be approached. But now this mode of access is
over, and yet the truth of His Mediation implies
that it is only through Him who is man that we
have access to God. Therefore we are to address
God in prayer, for God is the unseen object of our
worship, but we are to address God only through
29 Gal. iii. 28. Gal. iv. 26. 31 Heb. vii. 24. * Heb. x. 12.
262 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
Him whose Intercession as man is the ground of
our hopes. " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father
in My name, He will give it you." To approach
God in any other manner, would be to claim such
merit for our own prayers, as would imply that
the Mediation of Christ was superfluous. For if
we could approach God by ourselves, we should
not need the intervention of Him, who became man
for our sakes. Therefore, to believe in Christ's
Mediation, is to believe that through His manhood 33
alone can the Father be addressed. Even what
He Himself bestows on us as God, He bestows
for the sake of that man's nature, which gives Him
unity with our race : " Whatsoever ye shall ask in
My name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son." 34
Thus it is, then, that we give effect to Our
Lord's Mediation ; that we recognize it as an
actual work, which He is discharging for us both
as God and Man. To this all prayer is relevant
on this all worship depends. The Church's ser-
vice goes on from year to year, as His Inter-
cession is perpetually made and perpetually ac-
33 On this principle was built the practice of the African
Church, which, while addressing prayers to the Son at other
times, prescribes : " Cum Altari assistitur, semper ad Patrern
dirigatur oratio." Con. Garth. 3, Can. 23, Hard. 1, p. 963.
Mr. Maskell (Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England,
p. 32) gives the reason from Card. Bona, " quia Missa repras-
sentatio est ejus oblationis, qua Christus se Patri obtulit."
34 John, xvi. 23 ; xiv. 13.
AN ABIDING INTERCESSOR. 263
cepted. And we supplicate for it by our belief
in His present acts, and by our knowledge of
His present nature. Every prayer which we con-
clude in His name, is as much an appeal to His
man's nature, as though in Psalm or Litany we
were to number all His limbs, and recount all
the circumstances of His Passion : " By the mys-
tery of Thy Holy Incarnation ; by thy Holy
Nativity and Circumcision ; by Thy Baptism,
Fasting, and Temptation ; by Thine Agony and
Bloody Sweat ; by Thy Cross and Passion ; by
Thy precious Death and Burial ; by Thy glorious
Resurrection and Ascension; and by the Coming
of the Holy Ghost :
"GooD LORD DELIVER us."
264
CHAPTER X.
OUR LORD S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE AS MEDIATOR
WITH MEN.
OUR LORD'S acts on our behalf towards God, since
His Ascension into heaven, are comprehended in
Holy Scripture under the name of His Interces-
sion. His actions as Mediator towards man may
in like manner be summed up in the single term of
His Presence. For so He has Himself taught us
in the last words of St. Matthew's Gospel, leaving
it as a sufficient warrant and charter for those who
were commissioned to " make disciples of all na-
tions," that " I am with you always even to the
end of the world." All the blessings which Our
Mediator bestows, are comprehended in this one, or
consequent upon it. The efficacy of Christian
prayers is because He is in the midst ; so identified
is He with His people, that the prediction of the
Old Testament that He should receive gifts, is de-
clared in the New to have been fulfilled at His Ascen-
sion, because then He gave them; 1 and the pecu-
liar blessing conferred by the gift of the Holy
1 Ephesians, iv. 8; Psalm, Ixviii. 18.
OUR LORD'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE. 265
Ghost, is explained to be His own return : " I will
not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." 2
For on His Presence who is Mediator between God
and Man is our whole life dependent; the winds
may rage, the waters swell, but while He is in the
ship it cannot perish; those who are assured of
their union with Him, have the only pledge of
safety : " My Father which gave them Me is
greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand." This great truth, then,
of Our Lord's Presence with His people, we pro-
ceed in some feeble manner to set forth ; and like
the ointment which was poured upon His sacred
body, may this service be accepted, not according
to its intrinsic value, but as a token of reverence
and of worship.
Since it has been revealed to us that in Our
Lord two distinct natures have been conjoined in
one Person, to inquire what is meant by His Pre-
sence among men, of necessity involves the con-
sideration how far each nature contributes to it.
For since He is Man as well as God, there must be
a presence of the inferior as well as of the higher
nature ; and since it was for the very purpose of
Mediation that He united them, so long as either is
excluded, it is impossible to estimate the full ex-
tent of His office. So that it is necessary to ask
what is meant by that peculiar Presence of Christ,
which He exercises as the God-man. It is not
2 John, xiv. 18.
266 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
enough to say that Christ is a Divine Being, who is
present in some manner or other, since this would
not be to advance beyond the simplest truth of
natural religion. This might only be the Sabellian
custom of calling God by the name of Christ, with-
out discriminating those conditions under which the
Second Person in the Ever-Blessed Trinity has been
pleased to reveal Himself. To believe in God's ex-
istence is to believe in an Infinite Being, who must,
therefore, in some manner or other be everywhere
at hand. But this falls far short of believing in
Christ as a Mediator. The doctrines of revealed
religion are those which we seek ; and it will not
suffice, therefore, to rest in such thoughts of a Di-
vine Presence as the mere religion of nature will
supply. This might consist with a disbelief in the
reality of those external gifts of grace, on which
man's regeneration is dependent. We must pass
beyond this to " the full assurance of understand-
ing, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God,
and of the Father, and of Christ." 3 This mystery
it was the very object of Scripture to reveal, and
there will be points in it, therefore, by which the
interests of the simplest Christian will be affected.
Our object is not to settle any abstract questions
respecting Christ's nature, but only to assert that
there is such reality in His Presence, as the doc-
trine of His Mediation involves. The points to be
established are : First That according to Scrip-
3 Colossians, ii. 2.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 267
ture, Christ's predicted Presence is His Presence as
Man, as well as His Presence as God. Secondly
That the Presence of Christ, according to His
human nature, is a spiritual not a carnal Presence.
Thirdly That to be the agent whereby Christ is
thus present is the peculiar office of God the
Holy Ghost. Fourthly That hereby mankind re-
ceives those spiritual blessings, which the Head
and Pattern of the renewed race has made His
own manhood the channel for communicating to
His brethren.
I. Now, the promise of His perpetual Presence
was not given to Our Lord's Disciples after His Re-
surrection only, but it had also been communicated
previously, as St. John informs us, for their support
in His season of humiliation. The promise was,
that He who was taken from them should come
back : " I will not leave you comfortless, I will
come to you." This was the especial advantage,
which they were to receive through the influence
of the Comforter : " I will come again and receive
you unto Myself." 4 And this was a promise which
the residue of the world should not share ; it was
the peculiar privilege, as it was the peculiar hope of
Our Lord's chosen followers: "A little while and
the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me ; be-
cause I live, ye shall live also." Our Lord's decla-
ration, therefore, could not have referred to that
coining as Judge, in which all men will have an
4 John, xiv. 18, 3.
268 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
equal share. Neither could it be fulfilled during
that interval of forty days which followed His Re-
surrection, because He goes on to say, that "we
will come unto him and make our abode with him." 5
His promises look to the restoration of that which
was about to be lost to them the presence, name-
ly, of Our Lord according to His human nature.
They seem not to be adequately fulfilled by that
mere presence of Deity, of which no part of space
can ever be divested. In this sense Our Lord
never left them, 6 and could never return. That
which went away and came again must in some
way or other have had relation to the human sub-
stance, to which departure and restoration properly
belong. And, accordingly, when the promise of
perpetual Presence was given before His Ascension,
it was directly grounded on that new authority,
with which, according to His man's nature, He was
invested : " All power is given unto Me in heaven
and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples
of all nations ;" " and Lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world."
Again, that Our Lord's Presence has especial re-
ference to His human nature, may be inferred from
the limitation, which binds it to places, times, and
modes of action. It pertains to the very essence
of Deity to be everywhere ; and, therefore, when
5 John, xiv. 19, 23.
6 " Ibat per id quod homo erat, et manebat per id, quod Deus
erat." S. Aug. in Joan. 78, 1.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 269
Our Lord said, " where two or three are gathered
together in My name, there am I in the midst of
them," His words connect themselves with that
other nature, according to which alone it was pos-
sible that He should be absent.
But it will naturally occur as objections both to
this statement and to that expectation which might
have been built, as is alleged, upon the promise to
the Apostles : First, that in the gift of the Holy
Ghost the coming of a Divine Person is plainly
promised ; and secondly, that under the ancient
covenant the Almighty bestowed His help in such
particular places, times, and manners, on His chosen
people, as to justify the expression, " My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." 7
These considerations, however, will be found only
to substantiate what has been advanced. Leaving
the first for the present, it is sufficient to say in
regard to the second, that one essential condition
of the Doctrine of Mediation is, that whatever
means of access w y ere afforded men in former times,
cither by Temple, Prophet, or Angel, have all been
concentrated under the Gospel Covenant in the
manhood of Christ. For in Him as " the Son of
Man," 8 we see the true Jacob's Ladder, whereby
the Angels hold intercourse with earth ; so that
since His Incarnation, their ministrations have had
reference either to His natural body, or to His
body mystical, the Church. 9 And He is the one
7 Exodus, xxxiii. 14. 8 John, i. 51. 9 Rev. xxii. 9; Epli. iii. 10.
270 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
Prophet 10 of the New Covenant, and His flesh is
" the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and
not man." And, therefore, that God should have
spoken " at sundry times and in divers manners,"
does not interfere with the truth that in the Gospel
Covenant His promises are all centred in the Pre-
sence of that "one Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus."
It is not meant that God could not connect His
blessings with particular persons or places, but that
to do so, was to employ created media as instru-
ments of His mercy, and that all such media have
been superseded by the one Person of the Incarnate
Son. In his day was Moses a Mediator ; the Priests
were Mediators ; the Angels exercised an inter-
mediate ministry. But all these only exercised a
function by way of office, which in the fulness of
time was taken in its completeness by Him, who,
by the constitution of His nature, was the true and
real Mediator between God and Man. So that
what happened beforetime, was subordinate to that
which was actually fulfilled in the Incarnation of
Christ; and it was in His Person who could say
primarily, "the Father is in Me, and I in Him," 11
that " the Tabernacle of God" was "with men." 12
And further, it must be considered that those
interventions which were allowed in earlier times,
were through the power and agency of the same
uncreated Word, who has concentrated all the
functions of Mediation in His human body, since
10 Heb. i. 1. " John, x. 38. 12 Bevelations, xxi. 3.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 271
that day when by an Angel He announced His ap-
proach. His previous selection therefore of places,
times, and persons, is no ground for doubting, but
rather countenances that rule, which it has been
His will to adopt since He became manifest in the
flesh. It is not of moment to the general argu-
ment, whether on those earlier occasions He spoke
to men directly, or employed the intervention of
inferior beings as instruments of His will. The
first appears to have the opinion of some of the
most ancient writers ; 13 since the time of St. Au-
gustin, the assertion that the law was " received by
the disposition of Angels," 14 has been taken usually
in its literal sense. Perhaps both opinions may be
well founded, and the Uncreated Angel, who had
appeared to Moses at the Bush, may have given
place after the transgression of the Israelites to the
Created Angel, 15 who subsequently guided them.
Some such change in the manner of their direction
is expressly recorded. That it was an Angel who
subsequently appeared to Daniel 16 is manifest, since
he " speaks of Michael as his fellow," and such was
probably the leader of the Lord's Host, 17 who was
beheld by Joshua. 18 But, however this point may
be decided, it was plainly the Eternal Word who
was present, whether by vision or by His ministers,
13 Tertullian ad. Marc. ii. 27 ; ad. Prax. 14 & 16 ; Just. Dial,
cum Tryphone, 56-60. 14 Acts, vii. 53.
15 Exod. xxxiii. 2, 3. 16 Daniel, x. 5-14. 17 Josh. v. 13.
18 This is maintained by Dr. Mill, with his usual learning and
ability, in his " Christian Advocate's Publication" for 1841.
272 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
since He it was, who even in former times had His
" delights with men." And since His Incarnation,
He has concentrated in His man's nature whatever
opportunities of union with him were before pos-
sessed. To Himself, as Man, and not " unto the
Angels," did He put in subjection that coining dis-
pensation 19 of the Gospel which we now possess.
And, therefore, whereas in earlier time those minis-
tering beings were received by men with such signs
of reverent salutation, as the inferior might well
pay to the superior creature, as the examples of
Manoah, 20 and Daniel, 21 if not of Joshua 22 declare ;
yet was similar submission refused by the Angel
whom St. John beheld, because " I am thy fellow-
servant, and of thy brethren the Prophets, and of
them which keep the sayings of this book." 23 So
that now whatsoever has the character of worship
is to pass through that one channel, which through
the human nature of the Eternal Word has been
opened to mankind. By God's Presence was in-
tended in former times whatever opportunity of
intercourse was afforded through those earthly in-
struments of Mediation, which He was pleased to
adopt as His temporary representatives among men.
But now a new mode of Mediation has been sub-
stituted for all other conditions either of time or
place. And the efficacy of prayers is grounded
upon the assurance of that peculiar Presence, which
19 Ileb. ii. 5. * Judges, xiii. 20. 21 Dan. x. 15.
22 Joshua, v. 14. a Rev. xxii. 9.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 273
through His human nature Our Lord vouchsafes,
because it rests upon the reality of His Mediation :
" If two of you shall agree on earth as touching
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for
them of My Father which is in heaven. For where
two or three are gathered together in My name,
there am I in the midst of them." To refer this to
His Divine nature alone, would be to neutralize
the efficacy of His Mediation, since it is His cha-
racter as Man which has rendered Him the coun-
terpart of those means of access which before ex-
isted. And since it is as Mediator that He is
present among men, His Presence must plainly be
through that human nature which He has taken as
the means of union between heaven and earth.
II. But though Our Lord's Presence be the
Presence of His man's nature, it is yet a spiritual
and not a carnal Presence. Christ is present with
His people and present as man, but He is present
not by material contact, but by spiritual power.
Though that human nature which is material as
well as immaterial, may not be left out when we
speak of His Presence as Mediator, yet His Pre-
sence is brought about through the power of that
other nature, which is wholly immaterial and Di-
vine. For when His Incarnation joined Manhood
and Godhead together, it left the essential proper-
ties of each undestroyed. What these properties
are, we may in some measure conclude from the
experience of our own being. For from our own
T
274 CHRIST'S SPIKITUAL PKESENCE
nature 24 we gain a knowledge of two modes of ex-
istence, which we describe respectively as body and
spirit. We call that bodily which is present in
place and limited by outline ; and of this kind of
existence our senses either take note, or we feel a
conviction that, if they were subtile enough, they
would be able to take note of it. That other kind
of existence, of the reality whereof we are equally
persuaded, but which is free from such conditions,
we speak of as spiritual. And we have a convic-
tion respecting the modes of action, which belong
to each of these kinds of existence, which is not to
be called a consequence of the definition which has
been assigned to them, but is part of the original
idea, which the name either of body or spirit ex-
presses. For respecting the first, as Tucker ob-
serves, it is " an uncontroverted maxim and self-
evident truth," " that nothing can act or be acted
upon where it is not." 25 This appears to be a portion
of what is intended, when we say that bodies are
present in space. And therefore even in respect to
such influences as gravity, w r e feel a conviction that
there must be what he expresses as " some medium
passing between the agent and the patient." The
actings of spirit on the other hand, are not shackled,
so far as we know, by any such law. To suppose
them subject to it would, in fact, be to maintain
that spirit is present in place, which is contrary to
24 Vigil, c. Eutych. v. 6.
28 " Light of Nature," vol. ii. p. 1, c. 5.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 275
our whole idea of its nature. And therefore when
Our Lord by His word healed persons who were at
a distance from Him, none ever hesitated to assign
His actions to a spiritual power, because they were
obviously independent of any material medium.
There may be other qualities in each nature which
we do not discern, but this is what men commonly
mean to express by body and spirit. Our know-
ledge of either is derived from the fact, that each
man is a link between these two dissimilar king-
doms. For one is as real as the other, and though
our acquaintance with them is gained in different
ways, yet it rests ultimately on the same principle
of inward consciousness. The existence of what is
material cannot, properly speaking, be proved by
experiment, for experiment only proves that cer-
tain impressions are made upon our senses ; and
what is to assure us that these impressions have
counterparts in the external world ? The irresis-
tible conviction of our own mind is our assurance.
And from the same source, according to the saying
of Descartes, cogito ergo sum, have we the as-
surance of our spirit's existence.
In this manner it is, then, that we become con-
versant with these two worlds of matter and of
spirit, our chief knowledge of which is, in truth,
only a conviction that the one is a reality, existing
without and within our body and our mind, just as
much as the other. Now, we learn from Holy
Writ, that in Christ our Mediator there is that
276 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
man's nature in which these two principles of mat-
ter and spirit exist together, and also that nature
of God which is wholly immaterial. For " God is
a Spirit." And in Christ these two natures retain
each their perfect essence, though each co-opera-
ting towards the execution of His Will. For
though glorified, it is yet with a man's body that
He has risen and ascended. So He assured His
Disciples after His Resurrection : " Handle Me and
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye
see Me have." " We nothing doubt," says Hooker,
" but God hath many ways, above the reach of our
capacities, exalted that body, which it hath pleased
Him to make His own." 26 And what may be
within the capacity of human bodies we know not.
St. Paul was caught up into the third heaven;
whether it was in the body or out of the body, as
he knew not, others cannot affirm. The mira-
culous appearances, therefore, of Our Lord's body
to His Disciples after His Resurrection, are not
inconsistent with the reality of His corporeal frame.
But we are expressly told that at His Ascension
Our Lord's body went up into heaven, as into a place
which it will inhabit, subject to the conditions of
material existence, till the Last Day : " This same
Jesus which is taken up from you, shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."
For " the heaven must receive" Him, "until the
times of restitution of all things." In this abode
26 Eccl. Pol. v. 54, 9.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 277
accordingly was He beheld by St. Stephen in his
hour of martyrdom. To assert of this Body which
ascended into heaven, that it had no material con-
ditions different from those which belong to simple
Deity, would be the error of Eutyches, who main-
tained that the properties of Our Lord's Manhood
were altogether lost in His Godhead. Now, " there
is no proof in the world strong enough to enforce
that Christ had a true body, but by the true and
natural properties of His body. Amongst which
properties, definite or local presence is chief." For
if His material presence could be in heaven and
also upon earth, then, as Hooker expresses it,
" hath the majesty of His estate extinguished the
verity of His nature." 27 And to this our Church
refers, when she asserts that to be " in two places
at once" is against the '''truth of Christ's natural
Body." She does not enter into the metaphysical
properties of substance; but since Our Lord is de-
clared to have a natural body consubstantial with
ours, to fix the place of that body in heaven is the
same thing as to declare that its material presence
is removed from earth. 28 " Make thou no doubt or
question of it," saith St. Augustin, " but that the
Man Christ Jesus is now in that very place from
whence He shall come in the same form and sub-
stance of flesh which He carried thither, and from
27 Eccl. Pol. v. 55, 6.
28 " Quando in terra fuit caro, non eratutique in coelo. Et nunc
quiain cceloest,non estutique in terra." Vigil.c. Eutych.iv.14.
278 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
which He hath not taken nature, but given there-
unto immortality. According to this form He
spreadeth not out Himself into all places. For it
behoveth us to take great heed, lest while we go
about to maintain the glorious Deity of Him, which
is man, we leave Him not the true bodily substance
of a man." 29 Since Our Lord's body then is in
heaven, and since it belongs to the truth of His
manhood that, in regard to its material operations,
it should be subject to the conditions which dis-
criminate bodily from spiritual substance one of
which is to act where they are it follows that
though Our Lord's presence upon earth as Medi-
ator is not independent of His nature as man, yet
that it is brought about by His Divine and imma-
terial nature; that its medium of operation is not
material contact, but spiritual power.
We are assured moreover by Our Lord Himself,
that the removal of His bodily substance into heaven
would be a step which should lead to that spiritual
Presence which He has since vouchsafed. After
declaring the fact that His man's body would be
the medium through which He would convey hea-
venly gifts ("for My flesh is meat indeed, and
My blood is drink indeed;" "this is the bread which
cometh down from heaven") He proceeds to repre-
sent His spiritual Presence as consequent on His
Ascension into heaven : " What and if ye shall see
the Son of Man ascend up where He was before.
29 St. Augustin, in Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 55, 6.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 279
It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing." " When the Son of Man," says St. Leo,
" betook Himself to the glory of His Father's
Majesty, He began in some ineffable manner to be
nearer by His Divine power, for the very reason
that, according to His humanity, He was removed
further off." And therefore it was, he adds, that
Mary Magdalen might not touch Him before His
Ascension : " I would not have you come to Me
in bodily wise, nor recognize Me by carnal touch :
I put you off to something higher, I prepare for
you something greater: when I am ascended to
My Father, then you shall touch Me in a more true
and perfect manner, when you shall lay hold of
that which you do not touch, and believe that
which you do not behold." 30
Whether we look, then, to the declarations of
Scripture respecting the departure of Our Lord's
body from earth to heaven, or to what He tells us
of the source of that influence which He there
exerts, we must conclude that the Presence of Our
Mediator, though not independent of His fleshly
nature, is brought about by the intervention of that
Divine nature which is irrespective of material con-
tact and of contiguity of place. It only remains
to observe further, that such spiritual Presence is
not less real than that which is material, depending
only on another mode of existence, which has its
own being and its own laws. Some persons sup-
30 S. Leo, Sermon Ixxii. 4.
280 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
pose that nothing is real, except what is sensible ;
and, therefore, that Christ's real Presence is not
identical with His spiritual Presence that those
who assert one, deny the other. Their mistake
arises from the circumstance, that language is
founded upon terms, which are supplied to us by
our observation of the world of sense, so that the
operations of mind can only be expressed by ana-
logies and figures. But what is figurative is the
expression not the thing expressed. The word
spirit is derived from " spiro," to " breathe or
blow," in consequence of the analogy, pointed out
by Our Lord Himself, 31 between the more subtile
part of the material world, and that world which is
immaterial. But because the word " spirit" is a
metaphorical term, derived in the Latin and Greek
languages from the action of the breath, we are not
to infer that there is no such principle in man as an
immaterial soul. The necessary deficiencies of lan-
guage do not derogate from the certainty of those
existences to which our consciousness witnesses,
and which lead us up by the shortest track to the
very throne of God. " For God did not make our
spirits and depart from them, but they are of Him
and in Him." 32 And unless spirit be something
less real than body, spiritual presence is not less
real than bodily presence. All that can be as-
serted of it is, that it is of a different nature and
regulated by a different law. Bodies are present
31 St. John, iii. 8. 32 S. Aug. Con. iv. 12, 1.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 281
by contiguity of place spirits by influence or
power. When we speak, therefore, of Our Lord's
spiritual Presence, the word Presence which we
employ is a figurative term certainly, because it is
borrowed from the world of matter ; but it is not
the less a reality, that some peculiar influence or
power of our Mediator, the God-man, is exerted
through the intervention of His Deity, in those
places, times, and manners, to which His Presence
is pledged in the Kingdom of Grace.
Neither is this Presence merely that He is an
object to men's thoughts, as Jerusalem was present
to David from the Land of Hermon. The reality of
Christ's Presence depends on Himself, not on those
He visits. It had been an unmeaning promise to
His Disciples, that His Presence should return to
them through the power of the Holy Ghost, had
He designed only that through the exertion of
their mental faculties they might think of Him
who was departed. In this sense how is Christ
present more than any Angel in light ? We are
speaking not of men's actings towards Him, but
of His actings towards them, since His Ascension
into heaven. As He acts for them by intercession
with the Father, so are we assured that He acts
towards them by His Presence with power. What
is meant by His office as Mediator, unless through
the annexation of the Divine to the Human nature,
the latter has in itself some real influence inde-
pendently of our thoughts ? And this is the answer
282 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
to the assertion, that since a body must either be
present in any place, or not present in it, therefore
Christ's body must either be materially present in
the consecrated elements at the Holy Eucharist, or
we must allow that His Presence is merely figura-
tive. Doubtless it were so, if His body were a
human body alone ; but because He is Divine also,
it has likewise that other medium of communica-
tion which does not depend upon local contiguity,
but upon spiritual power. Even the sun, because
its influence is more wide than its actual limits,
while it is at rest in its place in the sky, is present
upon earth by the effluence of its beams. But
that Sacred Manhood which was created for the
service of the Mediator between God and men, in
which were stored up " the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge," that from it " grace and truth" might
flow forth into the whole race of man, has a real
medium of presence through the Deity which is
joined to it : so that it can be in all places and
with all persons not figuratively, but in truth
not by material contact, but by spiritual power.
And while its material place is among the armies
of heaven, its spiritual presence is among the inhab-
itants of the earth, when, how, and wheresoever is
pleasing to its own gracious will.
III. It has been asserted, then, that the Presence
of Christ is the Presence of His man's nature ; and
again, that this Presence is brought about not by
material contact, but by spiritual power. Now, it
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 283
was for the very purpose of uniting men in this
wise to their great Mediator the man Christ Jesus,
that the gift of the Holy Ghost was bestowed. 33
It is His especial office that those in whom He
takes up His dwelling are joined by grace to
that man's nature, which by personal union is one
with God. This point it is which must next be
considered.
The gift of the Holy Ghost is declared in Holy
Scripture to proceed directly from that Blessed
Mediator, who "when He ascended up on high,
led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."
What He received in that He was human, that
He had power to give, because He was Divine.
The consecration of His man's nature, made it the
fountain from which grace should flow forth into
His brethren. So soon as that exaltation of hu-
manity, which it gained by His Incarnation, was
perfected by His consequent Obedience, He be-
stowed as Mediator that renewing power which
the Third Person in the Ever-blessed Trinity was
the willing agent to convey. And this is why
God the Holy Ghost can be spoken of as coming
to men, who otherwise, like each Person of the
Almighty Three, leaves no portion of space or
duration of time unoccupied by His Presence.
33 " The flesh of the Lord," says St. Athanasius, meaning
thereby His Humanity, "is a quickening Spirit, because it
was engendered by the quickening Spirit ; for that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit." De Incarnat. et c. Jlrian. 16,
vol. i. p. 883.
284 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
Now this gift, as the Psalmist predicts, Christ as
Mediator was to receive, that afterwards, according
to the saying of the Apostle, He might bestow
it upon men. 34 For "being by the right hand of
God exalted, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear." And
therefore is this Blessed Person of the co-equal
Trinity spoken of as sent by the Mediator, be-
cause through His exaltation does the Mediator
participate by gift in that universal dominion,
which as the Eternal Son He participated by na-
ture : " If I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him
unto you." " He shall glorify Me, for He shall
receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All
things that the Father hath are Mine." It is as a
result therefore of Our Lord's Mediation, that we
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which He, who
shares the Eternal Godhead, bestows on those to
whom He has condescended to be a brother.
And the purpose for which this gift is bestowed
falls entirely within the limits of the Mediation of
Christ, since its object is that those whom He elects
to be His own, may be joined to that manhood
which He has consecrated. The office of the Holy
Ghost in the Gospel Kingdom is that men may be-
come the sons of God by grace by their union
with that man who is the Son of God by nature.
34 Compare Psalm Ixviii. 18, and Ephesians, iv. 8.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 285
For as we are men by natural alliance with that
first man, Adam, who by reason of His creation is
called God's son, so we are renewed men only if we
are joined by supernatural union to that second
man, the new Adam, who is God's Son by nature.
Through this means do spiritual graces descend
from God, the fountain of life, into man's being.
And in this gracious work it has been the pleasure
of God the Holy Ghost to co-operate. " Although
the Holy Ghost or Third Person in the Trinity,"
says Dr. Jackson, " doth immediately and by per-
sonal propriety work faith and other spiritual graces
in our souls, yet doth He not 'by these spiritual
graces unite our souls or spirits immediately unto -
Himself, but unto Christ's human nature." 35 And
so says St. Athanasius, that "the Spirit is the
Unction and the Seal, whereby the Word anoints
and seals all things." 36 And for this we have Our
Lord's express assurance, in that the perpetual
Presence which He promised to His servants, and
which has been shown to be the Presence of His
man's nature, is declared by Him to be the imme-
diate consequence of the coming and work of the
Holy Ghost. For this perpetual Presence is de-
clared to be the result of that departure according
to the flesh, whereby He ascended to His Father's
glory to receive gifts for men. Christ is perpetually
present, because being raised to the right hand of
power, He is perpetually conferring those spiritual
35 Jackson's Com. on Creed, xi. 3, 12. M Ep. i. ad Scrap. 23.
286 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
gifts, of which His manhood has become the foun-
tain to His brethren. And this He promised to
His Disciples as the result of His temporary de-
parture : "A little while and ye shall not see Me ;
and again a little while, and ye shall see Me, be-
cause I go to the Father." "All the best inter-
preters are decided that the reference is not to Our
Lord's bodily Resurrection, with which the words,
' because I go to My Father,' are inconsistent ; we
must rather understand the ' seeing again,' as in St.
John, xiv. 19, of the inward and spiritual working
of Christ." 37 And hence we have the interpretation
of the tenth verse of the same chapter : " When
He (the Comforter) is come, He will convince (or
instruct) 38 the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment." " Of righteousness, because I
go to My Father, and ye see Me no more." The
instruction concerning righteousness is made to
depend on that exaltation of the Mediator into
heaven, whereby His man's nature has become the
fountain of grace. Thus are the lessons of righ-
teousness conveyed to mankind by the Holy Ghost.
This Blessed Spirit becomes the agent through
which that sanctified humanity of the Son of God
exerts its renewing influence upon the defiled hu-
manity of His brethren. " The Spirit testifies as
of sin, so of righteousness, because it reveals how the
37 Olshausen on John, xvi. 16.
38 e'Xe'ty^cn/, Tholuck observes in loco, implies the allied signi-
fications of conviction, blame, instruction.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 287
Saviour, though departed in body, works unseen in
the renewal of the inner life." 3
That it should be the office of the Holy Ghost to
unite men in this manner to the humanity of Christ,
is the result therefore of His co-operating in that
Mediatorial function, which the Eternal Son became
Incarnate to undertake. To regard the actings of
the Holy Ghost as directed into any other channel,
would be to suppose that there was some other name
than that of Christ given under heaven, whereby
we might be saved. Its real tendency would be to
substitute the Holy Ghost in place of the Son, or
rather to maintain, that whereas the work of men's
government and salvation was at one time discharged
by God under the name of Christ, at a later period
there was a new title adopted, and the same Being
re-appeared under the name of the Holy Ghost.
And thus we should be led back into the same
system of Sabellianism, which has been before
exhibited, and the real existence of the Three
Persons in the Blessed Trinity would be lost sight
of. True it is that it has been the will of God
the Holy Ghost to co-operate with the Word in
the work of man's salvation, without always ex-
plaining to us what is due to one of these Blessed
Persons, and what to the other. 40 At the Incar-
nation of the Son of God, it was the Holy Ghost
who overshadowed His Virgin Mother ; and yet
39 Olshausen on John, xvi. 10.
40 Vide Preface to St. Hilary, 57-68.
288 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
" Wisdom hath builded" itself a house out of the
materials of man's nature. Again, Christ " by the
Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to
God." And there is a perpetual co-operation be-
tween these Divine Persons, in that while Christ
is the " one Mediator between God and men," the
Holy Ghost is that " one and the self-same Spirit," 41
through whom His Mediation becomes effectual.
Christ is the one " name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved." But in this
salvation men have part through "the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in My name." So that while Christ is the
Head of the body, the Holy Ghost is that living
soul by which all its parts are bound together.
" For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one
body." As Christ was "quickened by the Spirit," 42
so it is asserted of ourselves, that " if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His Death, we
shall be also in the likeness of His Eesurrection."
So that St. Austin asserts, "what our spirit or
life is to our limbs, such is the Holy Ghost to
the members of Christ, that is, to His body the
Church." 43 And therefore whether we regard the
influence of the Second Person in the Ever-Blessed
Trinity, or the co-operation of the Third, it is the
purpose alike of each to join us to that manhood
of Christ Our Lord, whereby He has become
41 I. Corinthians, xii. 11. c I. Peter, iii. 18.
43 In Preface to St. Hilary, sec. 78.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 289
Mediator for our race. And St. Gregory com-
plains of it as an error of the Apollinarians, that
they interpreted the words, " we have the mind of
Christ," as though they referred to His Deity
alone, whereas they have reference, he says, to
that purified humanity of the Son of God, which
was set forth as a model to His brethren. 44 For if
this principle of interpretation be forgotten, the
Second Person in the Blessed Trinity must needs
be confounded with the Third, as by the Sabellians
both the Second and the Third are confounded
with the First. Xow, the distinction between the
offices of these two Blessed Persons is real, and not
merely technical or artificial, because it proceeds
from that Personal diversity, by which they are
really distinguished. And therefore to neglect it,
as St. Athanasius 45 complains, would be to make
the Blessed Trinity a mere trick \_u\pi 7ratms], a
system of names without truth. And since the
44 Ep. II. to Cledonius, sec. 6.
45 " For the name of the Son and of the Spirit would be put
an end to, when their purpose was fulfilled. And the whole
system of the Gospel would be a mere trick, exhibited in name
and not in truth. And since according to this theory the name
of the Son would be lost, the grace of Baptism would be lost
along with it. For it is a Baptism in the name of the Son.
And what will follow but the destruction of the whole creation ?
For the "Word came forth that we might be created, and through
His coming forth we exist. And, therefore, if He is lost again
in the Father, as the Sabellians represent, we too shall cease to
be. For on this principle all is to return to its original estate,
and with the office of the Son, they must annihilate His Crea-
tion." Or. iv. c. Arian. 25.
U
290 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
proper diversity of Persons in the glorious God-
head is the real beginning of all creaturly existence,
and the basis of all thought, the final result of this
error would be to resolve everything into a mere
abstract Theism, and to absorb all existence into
its primary source.
IV. We come now to that point on which this
whole Chapter is dependent What is the especial
end and purpose of that union with the man's
nature of the Son of God, which it is the office of
the Holy Ghost to bestow ? Such union has been
shown to be the real meaning of that Presence with
men, which was promised as the result of Our
Lord's Ascension to the Father. For this Pre-
sence is not irrespective of His man's nature ; yet
not a Presence in place or by material contact ; its
medium of operation is that spiritual power, which
the manhood derives from personal union with
Deity. But yet the question recurs, what is the
object of this Presence ? And unless this point be
clearly understood, every other part of the inquiry
is useless. The mere technical assertion of such a
dogma, irrespective of any influence upon man's
condition and conduct, would be arbitrary and
artificial. So that it would partake of the repul-
siveness which naturally attaches to all doctrinal
assertions, when they are put forth merely for the
purpose of completing a theological system, or of
supporting established institutions. In a case so
serious as this, men cannot yield their assent to
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 291
the mere child's-play of logical subtilty ; and still
more are they indignant, if sacred considerations
are made subservient to mere worldly ends. Con-
science and the unseen world ought not to be dealt
with as legal fictions. Man's individual account is
so much more important than the mere perpetua-
tion of the best scheme of government, that if this
be all which is aimed at in authorized formularies,
they are of trivial moment when put in competition
with the realities of grace and holiness. Men are
perfectly right in feeling more interest in what con-
cerns personal religion than in any doctrinal con-
siderations, so long as our salvation depends upon
the first, and the second only contributes to the
quiet administration of the Church and the country.
Such is the case respecting many disputes which
unhappily divide Christians. And this it is which
makes what are called Church and State questions
offensive to serious minds. They are naturally
averse to sacrifice the eternal interests of Christ's
Kingdom to its mere temporal organization. No
doctrines, therefore, or usages can be felt to be
really important, which do not rest immediately
upon what is sacred and Divine. And if the truth
of our union with the manhood of Christ Our Lord
be worth attending to, it must be in consequence
of its connexion with the individual hopes and in-
terests of men.
Now, this connexion depends upon that leading
feature in Our Lord's human character, that He
292 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
was not a man, but the man ; the Son of Man, that
is, in whom the collective character of the race
found its representative ; the Pattern of our Being ;
its new Head ; who came once in the fulness of
time "to gather together all things" in Himself.
For through Him was that higher nature 46 intro-
duced into our fallen race, by which its ancient
deterioration may be corrected. From which cir-
cumstance it follows, that salvation is not attained
by human efforts, but by the gift of God. For it
was not only that Christ exhibited the natural qua-
lities of manhood in their most perfect state, but
that He conferred upon it a power which was above
nature. Through the union of Godhead and Man-
hood in His single Person, there was infused into
that humanity, which He shared with us, such grace
as sufficed for the whole generation of His kindred.
That so we might be " made the sons of God, as
He the Son of Man ; we made partakers of His
Divine, as He of our human nature." 47 For this
reason the work of Mediation depends upon that
union with the Manhood of Christ, to which " by
one spirit" we are admitted. For the union of
mankind with Christ is not a mere imitation the
following a good model the fixing our thoughts
upon One who has shown in the clearest manner,
46 " Non enim superare possemus peccati et mortis auctorem,
nisi naturam nostram ille susciperet, et suam faceret, quern nee
peccatum contaminare, nee mors potuit detinere." S. Leo,
Ep. 24, 2.
47 Bishop Andrews's Fourth Sermon on the Nativity.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 293
how God may be served and men benefited it is
an actual and a real union, whereby all renewed
men are joined to the second, as they were by
nature to the first Adam. This union cannot be
explained away in the kingdom of grace, unless it
is first explained away in the kingdom of nature.
Unless " sin standeth" only " in the following of
Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk," holiness
must involve not the mere imitation, but the put-
ting on, of the man Christ Jesus. By what means
the relation is maintained, is in each case an inex-
plicable mystery ; the natural alliance which takes
place by descent being not less wonderful than that
supernatural alliance which is brought about by re-
generation. To analyze the law of family affinity
is as much beyond our powers, as to understand
how " as many as have been baptized into Christ,
have put on Christ." The first is that transmission
of the nature of our common ancestor which causes
us to be what we are ; the second is that spiritual
Presence of the manhood of Christ, by union with
which we become what it is given to us to be. The
one of these is in Holy Writ set against the other,
" for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive." As the one has its influence both
on soul and body, so has the other. The pheno-
menon which is presented by nature is, that it has
pleased God to make the race of mankind depen-
dent on the maintenance of a perpetual succession
of beings, in each of whom the original type re-
294 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
appears under one or other of innumerable modifi-
cations, while yet that normal limit is never over-
passed, by which the race is separated from other
organized forms of existence. This unity of form
we refer to that law of descent from a single parent,
which appears to extend throughout the whole
animal kingdom. That it applies to mankind we
are assured on Scriptural authority, since we read
that " God has made of one blood all nations of
the earth." And that principle on which depends
the sameness of forms in transmitted life we call
nature. It is not meant that in the individuals of
the series there is anything distinct from that which
makes up their separate personality ; but whereas
in the artificial combinations of human thought,
" all classifications," as Dugald Stewart 48 observes,
" are to a certain degree arbitrary ;" the forms of
organized life on the other hand, are fixed by an
unvarying external rule, and their classification
therefore is not arbitrary. The Nominalists appear
to be right in asserting respecting the mere results
of human abstraction, that " it does not follow that
the distinctive quality of a class is more essential
to the existence of each individual, than various
other qualities which we are accustomed to regard
as accidental." In the case of those things which
possess organized life on the contrary, that which
gives [or ought to give] its distinctive name to the
48 " Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind." P. i.
c. 4, sec. 2 ; vide supra, p. 43 & 186.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. . 295
class is really essential to the existence of each in-
dividual. Our ignorance of the hidden nature of
being may render it impossible for us to pronounce
what this characteristic condition is ; but we can
at least go so far as to refer it to that law of
descent, which preserves the uninterrupted succes-
sion of every primary pair. So that the principle
of nature owes its existence to the fact that every
tribe is set forth in its leader, that all races have
their type, that the limits of the class are expressed
in its model, and that throughout God's world
there is a law of hereditary transmission and family
headship.
Xow, this rule which God has made the law of
nature, is transferred by Revelation to the Kingdom
of grace. For here too we see a Pattern Man, who
comes in as the type of restored, as our earthly
father of fallen manhood. He brings with Him
from above a pure and perfect, as the other trans-
nutted a corrupt and debilitated nature. And in
this case likewise, the character of the race is de-
pendent upon its Head. For He is "the first-
begotten of the dead," " the first-born of every
creature." For " the first man Adam was made a
living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit." "As is the earthy, such are they also that
are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they
also that are heavenly." Through Him is given
back that perfect image of God, wherein man was
originally made. " As we have borne the image of
296 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly." " For the form of God," says St. Basil,
" is not like that of man ; it is a living form, a
truly moulding form, and it fashions every thing
which receives it into the image of God." 49 Our
salvation therefore does not depend merely on our
own efforts, on the self-dependent exertions of men
to cure their inherent evils, but on the external
influence of that Head of our race, who mercifully
conforms His brethren to His own likeness. So
that it is only by a real union with this New Man,
that we can eradicate those evils which attached
themselves to our race, through the transgression
of the old. As true, certain, and extensive as our
inherence in the one, must be our adherence to
the other. Upon this union depends our right as
well in that work of redemption which He effected
on the Cross, as in that work of Intercession which
He is performing in heaven. For though Christ's
death sufficed for the sins of the whole world, yet
what right can we claim in Him, unless we are of
the number of those for whom He shall hereafter
say, " behold I and the children whom God hath
given Me." For however widely the benefits of
His death may be extended, yet "they who are
called received the promise of eternal inheritance."
It is for His sheep that " the Good Shepherd giveth
His life." There may be unknown effects upon
the whole race of man, which may attend this great
49 Ad. Eun. v. p. 302 [Gamier].
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 297
event, but that which is revealed looks especially
to those who are fashioned into a new race, through
the overflowing- into their nature of that inexhaus-
tible stream of grace, which wells forth from the
humanity of Christ their Head. For " of His ful-
ness have all we received, and grace for grace."
Now, this reality of union with Christ is further
evidenced, because He not only " was delivered for
our offences," but "was raised again for our jus-
tification." Our salvation, that is, depends upon
the gifts which He bestowed, and the Intercession
which He has ascended on high to present. And
this Intercession is especially offered for His people.
So it was expressly declared just before He entered
upon this part of His work of Mediation. " I pray
for them : I pray not for the world, but for them
which Thou hast given Me." " Neither pray I
for these alone, but for them also, which shall be-
lieve on Me through their word." And therefore
Christ's acts of Mediation are connected through-
out the Epistles with " the Church, which is His
body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."
For He " loved the Church, and gave Himself for
it," and He is " the Saviour of the body." These
passages indicate that our share in the benefits
which Christ attained, depends on that union with
Himself which He has bestowed upon us. And
this union does not mean merely the union which
He has with our nature, but the union which we
have with His. It depends not merely upon His
298 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
being a man, but the Head of that family of men,
who are joined to Him by grace. It does not arise
from His having enabled humanity to put forth all
its strength, but from His having endowed it with
those higher powers w r hich Deity bestowed. The
whole seed of man had fallen, when He came into
it with that pure and perfect being, which by
reason of His being God He never tarnished, and
thus formed a new race out of the ruins of the old.
So that when He declares Himself to be the vine, 60
He speaks of that human nature into which all
Christian men are engrafted.
The assertion then of Our Lord's Presence ac-
cording to His human nature, and of our real
union with the manhood of Christ, is no technical
or unnecessary dogma, but that pregnant fact on
which is built our present regeneration and our
future hope. Herein is revealed to us the mys-
40 Vide S. Athan. Sermo Major de Fide. Mont. Coll. Nova,
ii. 18. S. Aug. in Joan. 80, 2. " St. Cyril reproveth their
speeches, which taught that only the Deity of Christ is the vine,
whereupon we by faith do depend as branches, and that neither
His flesh nor our bodies are comprised in this resemblance.
For doth any man doubt but that even from the flesh of Christ
our very bodies do receive that life, which shall make them
glorious at the latter day, and for which they are already ac-
counted parts of His blessed body ? 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 ours as a cause of immortality a cause by removing
through the death and merit of His own flesh, that which hin-
dered the life of ours. Christ is therefore both as God and as
man that true vine, whereof we both spiritually and corporally
are branches." Eccles. Pol. v. 56, 9.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 299
terious truth, that He whose counsels were un-
alterably fixed before the worlds began, has been
pleased in the kingdom of grace to adopt that pre-
cedent, which His wisdom had sanctioned in the
kingdom of nature. For as the creation of the
sons of men was not simultaneous or immediate,
but one was chosen to be their common parent, so
is the world's renewal committed to a common
Head, into whom all the children of grace must,
one after another, be incorporated. Thus, as St.
Paul expresses it, was Adam " the figure of Him
that was to come." And as the perfection of na-
ture was displayed in the one, so was the perfec-
tion of grace exhibited in the other. For " the
first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is
the Lord from heaven." The principle of such
mode of action is, that in the model or type those
things should be displayed in their completeness,
which are afterwards to be transferred in their de-
gree to the transmitted forms which are derived
from it. Therefore, in Christ's manhood dwelt the
fulness of grace, as the plenitude of nature in
Adam. For what reach of observation could be
wanting to him, to w T hom the knowledge of all
animal life w r as intuitive ; and what power of intel-
lect could be deficient in him, in whom the gift of
language was an original endowment? The \vords
of the poet do but go along with our natural
feeling
" Adam the goodliest of his sons since born."
300 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
And the records of antiquity express the same con-
conviction, for " Seth and Sem were in great hon-
our among men, and so was Adam above every
living thing in the creation." 51 If we look accord-
ingly to the mere gift of physical strength, we find
him to have withstood, longer than any other who
is on record, the approach of bodily decay. Taking
sixty-five as the period of that ripeness of age in
which Adam was created and none of the ante-
diluvian Patriarchs became more early a father
Adam's life would be equivalent to nearly one
thousand years. Thus was nature set forth in its
perfectness in a single type, before it was multi-
plied in its feeble possessors.
But far more is the same principle exhibited in
the Kingdom of Grace. " For if through the of-
fence of one many be dead; much more the grace
of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." It was
to set forth a perfect pattern of renewed humanity
that Our Lord became incarnate, " for with power
He created the w r orld, but restored it by obedience."
By this means was perfected that example of human
nature, which from the time of its conception was
without weakness or defilement. But this perfec-
tion it had, not like Adam from the mere absence of
guilt, but from the presence of that Deity with
which it was personally one. That exhaustless
grace, which was to be the principle of life to the
81 Ecclesiasticus, xlix. 16.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 301
whole renewed family, had its fountain and well-
head in the manhood of the Son of God, before it
was portioned out to the innumerable generations
of His spiritual progeny. And thus " being made
perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey Him." To this end was
His man's nature so sorely exercised, that it might
be the seed of life to all His members. So much
He Himself tells us respecting His human nature,
declaring that He purified it, that it might be a
fit source of grace for all men : " For their sakes
I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth." And this sanctifying truth
is no other than that Divine Being, who applies
the virtue of His own manhood to His servants :
" Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is
truth." So that by union with His humanity does
He bestow upon all the members in their degree,
that which pertains perfectly to the Head of the
body by nature. As St. Athanasius expresses it,
the Eternal " Word was not weakened by taking
a body, as though for Himself He needed to re-
ceive grace, but rather He deified that which He
put on nay, He graciously bestowed it upon the
family of men." 52 Thus did His humanity become
" the leaven of the whole lump," that through itself
it might "sanctify the whole race of man." 53 It
w T as the city set on a hill, 54 in which all the kindred
52 Con. Arian. i. 42. M S. Gregor. Naz. Horn, xxxvi. 89.
* St. Hilary, on Matt. iv. 12.
302 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
of the renewed are inhabitants. For this reason is
" the fellowship of the Holy Ghost" the very con-
summation of the Church's blessing, as implying
that through His power all renewed men have
communion with the body of Christ and with one
another. " Through spiritual food," says St. Leo,
" is this blessing received and taken, so that by
that heavenly nourishment we are transformed into
the very flesh of Him, who by His Incarnation
adopted ours." 55 It seems scarcely needful to put
in the caution, that the benefits of election to be
one with Christ, are forfeited by those whose indi-
vidual will is not conformed to the influence of the
Divine nature. The caution however is well ex-
pressed in a passage ascribed [unduly] to St. Cy-
prian : " The Sacraments in themselves cannot lose
their virtue, nor does the Divine majesty withdraw
itself in any way from its mysteries. But though
the Sacraments allow themselves to be taken and
handled by unworthy men, yet such persons can-
not be partakers of the Spirit. Therefore, are
these gifts the savour of life to one, of death to
another." 56 What is needful therefore is expressed
by the holy Apostle : seeing that " our life is hid
with Christ in God," let us "kill our members which
are upon the earth," that "when Christ which is"
our " life shall appear," we " also may appear with
Him in glory."
55 St. Leo, quoted in Poynet's Diallect. p. 101.
56 De Casna Domini.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 303
The necessity then of Christ's Presence accord-
ing to His humanity, rests upon His being that
Pattern Man, in whom renewed manhood shone
forth in its brightest colours, by reason of those
supernatural endowments with which it was in-
vested. So that it is essential that we should be
as truly united to Him by grace, as we were to the
first Adam by nature. And this supernatural per-
fection of the human character was set forth in His
whole earthly pilgrimage. If Adam showed the
strength of our nature by multitude of days, the
new man " in a few years fulfilled a long life." His
childhood was " wiser than His teachers ;" as He
passed through every age, He sanctified each; 57 He
glorified every relation of man's life ; and purified
that material world which man had polluted. 58
Was there in Adam the undiminished strength of
natural life in the Man Christ there was the gift
" to have life in Himself," even for the quickening
57 S. Iren. ii. 22, 4 ; iii. 18, 7. S. Greg. vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 6.
58 " Our conception being the root, (as it were) the very
groundsill of our nature that He might go to the root, and
repair our nature from the very foundation, thither He went :
that what had been there defiled and decayed by the first Adam,
might by the second be cleansed and set right again. He was
not idle all the nine months He was in the womb ; but then and
there He even eat out the core of corruption, that cleft to our
nature and us, and made both us and it an unpleasing object in
the sight of God. And what came of this ? We that were ab-
horred by God were by this means made beloved in Him. He
cannot, we may be sure, account evil of that nature, that is now
become the nature of His own Son His now no less than
ours." Bishop Andrews, Sermon ix. on the Nativity.
304 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
of others. His miracles were but the outbreak of
that innate vitality, which will quicken the bodies
of all men at the Last Day. Diseases, those mimic
likenesses of death, fled before Him even in His
passage through the world : " I must do cures to-
day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be
perfected." This mastery over the enemies of life
was a natural indication that in Him was its prin-
ciple of conservation. And even more wide than
the rational kingdom was His exercise of power, as
though, perhaps, to harmonize with that myste-
rious law which has bound man to the inferior as
well as the superior creation, and which shows the
relation which matter has to mind. Those mira-
cles which are least accordant with our expectation,
such as affected the animal or vegetable world, 89
may have been designed to prove that, as corrup-
tion can spread upwards from the lower forms of
being, even till it mingle itself with the life of
man, so in Him was there a contrary principle,
which could spread downwards from its seat of
empire into the lowest stages of existence, and
which (though used indeed for purposes of punish-
ment) would not be less powerful to preserve than
to destroy.
And now, therefore, may we draw the conclu-
sion to which this whole Chapter conducts us, and
affirm that Our Lord's acts of Mediation towards
men, as well as -His Intercession with the Father,
59 St. Matthew, viii. 32 ; xxi. 19.
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEX. 305
are a present fact in the world of life, and not a
mere fictitious representation. To be accounted
the bond of union between different natures is to
discharge the part of a Mediator to be their real
bond of union is to be one. Now, Christ did not
undertake this office as a legal fiction ; He is the
" One Mediator," because in Him Godhead and
Manhood were really united. And if He has still
the same character, it must be in fact and not in
name Godhead and Manhood must still be con-
nected by His actual intervention. While He is
one by nature with the Everlasting Father, He
must be one also by grace with those inferior
members to whom He has vouchsafed to become
Head, that He might be the " Saviour of the
body." For the gifts of grace do not become less
necessary through the lapse of ages : every gene-
ration of Adam's children has equal need of that
external principle of supernatural renewal, which
flows from the humanity of the Son of God into
His brethren. The acts of His human, must con-
tinue therefore as certainly as those of His Divine
nature, and consequently that Presence of His
manhood, whereby " we are members of His body,
of His flesh, and of His bones." Thus does the
truth of His Mediation imply our actual union
with His man's nature. We may employ the
argument by which St. Paul shows that the intru-
sion of the Jewish Law could not supersede the
more comprehensive Covenant which had been
x
306 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
already pledged to Abraham. " A mediator is
not a mediator of one, but God is one." Media-
tion i. e. implies of necessity the presence of two
parties ; if God's holy nature consents to be joined
to ours, the very terms imply that the actual union
of our inferior being must be included. So that
if Christ be still Mediator, there must be the per-
petual presence among us of His man's nature,
whereby He who is one with the Father becomes
one also with His brethren. The chain is not
complete, unless as certain as His union with the
one, is His communion with the other. And if
this truth be forgotten, there awaits us the danger
of those two alternate heresies, between which, no
less than in ancient days, the Church's doctrine is
our road of safety. For if Christ's manhood be not
truly present with us, then does our reference to
Him become a mere union with Deity at large, and
not a specific relation to Him who was crucified.
And why can it be thought, that He whom we
serve does not now employ towards us the inter-
vention of man's nature, save because it is main-
tained that He does not now net as man is not as
really man, as He was in the days of His humilia-
tion? His manhood is supposed to be something
which we read of in books, and remember as a
proof of His condescension, but which is not now
acting upon us through the world of spirit. And
what then must be thought of that body which
suffered on the Cross, but that either it was a ere-
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 307
ated substance, invested by God's mercy with more
than mortal power and goodness, that it might
accomplish that sacrifice which was needed for man-
kind which is the Arian hypothesis or else that
the Father of all displayed Himself in man's form
by a transient and occasional manifestation, and
(that work being over) has again retreated into the
abyss of His unapproachable Godhead? And this
is the more subtile heresy of Sabellius. On either
hypothesis Christ might, indeed, be nominally an
object of worship, because set forth by the Eternal
Father as an image (p. 165) in which man might
reverence His perfections, as the Heathen adored
the representations of their gods. But the worship
which on the Arian or Sabellian supposition is due
to Christ, would only be that secondary honour
which was assigned Him by the will and appoint-
ment of the Father not such primary allegiance as
is due by nature to the co-equal image of God.
So that He who in the body of a man suffered on
the Cross, would not be the very same Being who
reigns by His own right in heaven. And thus the
reality of our Lord's Mediation would be lost.
For this depends on that personal diversity in
the Ever-Blessed Trinity which allows of a per-
sonal union between God and man. Unless this
be conceded, He who died for us on the Cross
is not truly the self-same Being who makes inter-
cession for us in heaven. "It is Christ that died,
yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the
308 CHRIST'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us." This truth is our only safeguard, as well
against the refined infidelity of an intellectual
heathenism, as against the superstition of a vulgar
idolatry. For to what would the Arian suppo-
sition lead men, save to trust in the Mediation of a
created being, and thus to reverence the creature
rather than the Creator. And this was the very
stain of Pagan worship. And what is the tendency
of Sabellian error, save to lose sight of any mode
of Mediation, and in the pride of intellect to betake
itself to the abstract contemplation of God? And
the result in this case would be the bare Theism of
the philosophic, or the dreamy Pantheism of the
poetic mind. Against such errors, then, the Church
opposes that truth of Christ's Presence as man,
which results from the reality of a Divine Mediator.
Christ is truly present with His people both as God
and man : the Presence of the one nature is secured
by the power of the other. Thus has man's nature
been raised above itself, because endowed in His
Person with a grace which is supernatural. And,
therefore, can the child of the Church Catholic look
with confidence in the hour of trial to the Presence
of its Head. His supplications are not offered to
any created Mediator, nor yet to any mere Spirit of
the Universe an indefinite abstraction of fancy
for God is in Christ, reconciling to Himself the
world. To Him can prayer ascend with confi-
dence : Come, Thou Lord of life, Thou lover of
AS MEDIATOR AMONG MEN. 309
souls, in the truth of Thy man's nature, with the
perfectness of Thy man's sympathy, come and join
Thyself to my soul, that I also may be joined for
ever to Thee. " As for me, I will behold Thy pre-
sence in righteousness, and when I awake up after
Thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it."
310
CHAPTER XL
CHRIST IS PRESENT WITH MEN IN HIS CHURCH
OR BODY MYSTICAL.
THE nature and importance of Christ's Presence
has been exhibited in the preceding Chapter. He
is present with His people through His man's na-
ture; not however by material contact, but by
spiritual power. And through this Presence does
He act as the Head of the renewed race as the
second Adam of restored humanity. The question
which next suggests itself is, by what means man
may profit through this great blessing; how each
individual may obtain a part in that work of Medi-
ation, which was wrought in Expiation on the
Cross ; which is still discharged by Intercession in
heaven ; and whose sphere of operation is as ex-
tensive as that Presence upon earth, which the
God-man vouchsafes through spiritual power. For
this end something is wanting plainly on our part,
as well as something on the part of God. But the
qualifications which are required on our part the
efficacy of faith, the importance of love will not
be touched upon in this place, because they belong
to a different inquiry. For these pertain to man,
CHKIST PRESENT IX HIS CHURCH. 311
who is the subject in whom religious feelings exist;
though they be God's gift, yet they are a gift
which exists within and not without us; their na-
ture and importance follow from consideration of
our inward constitution. On the circumstance that
each man has a true personal existence, and that to
each is committed the awful power of choosing or
refusing Christ, depends the necessity of individual
faith and love for each man's salvation. But on
this question we are not at present occupied : what
is said here refers to what is done without, not to
what is done within us; to Christ as a real being
external to our thoughts, as the object of our faith
who exists outside of our minds. For it was at
first proposed to treat the objective not the subjec-
tive part of religion ; not to inquire what changes
were necessary in man, who is the subject of re-
ligion, but to show that there was an object above
and around man, the reality of whose existence it
was essential to believe. This object is Christ Our
Lord : " Christ who died, yea, rather who is risen
from the dead, who is also at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us." And
since His Intercession and the Presence of His
man's nature are realities existing outside of our-
selves not mere fancies, but actual objects ex-
ternal to us it is necessary to ask in what way
these general advantages are so consigned to in-
dividuals, that they may be the separate portion
of single souls. The question is, not what is ne-
312 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
cessary on our part, whether faith or love, but what
is the condition or quality in these external realities
themselves, which renders them available for our
individual apprehension.
Now, on this subject it may be said in general,
that our union with the manhood of Christ, or our
participation in His Presence, is brought about in
our union with the Church, which is His body
mystical. It is not that one of these is a means
or channel through which we approach the other,
but that since the two processes are identical, it is
impossible to divide them. For that which joins
men to Christ's mystical body the Church, is their
union with His man's nature ; and their means of
union with His man's nature is bestowed in His
Church or body mystical. This will become more
evident, when it is shown that the Sacraments,
which are the means of binding us to the mystical
body of Christ, derive their efficacy from the in-
fluence of His body natural. And hence the im-
possibility of answering a question which is some-
times asked, whether men are joined to Christ by
being joined to His Church, or joined to His
Church by being joined to Him. It would be a
parallel question to ask, whether we were sharers
in Adam's nature because we were men, or men
because we were sharers in Adam's nature. The
two relations hang inseparably together. By the
mystical body of Christ, is meant the whole family
of those who by the Holy Ghost are united in
CHURCH OK BODY MYSTICAL. 313
Church ordinances to His man's nature. Our real
union with each is what gives us a part in the
other.
This intimacy of union between Christ and the
Church may be gathered in the first place from the
direct words of Scripture. Why should the Church
be called a body, and especially why should it be
called the body of Christ, did not some relation
bind it to that body of Christ, which came into ex-
istence at His Incarnation? It may be answered,
that the Church is spoken of as a body, because
thought of as a whole through the abstracting
power of reason. Yet why should it be called the
body of the Lord ? The subjects of an earthly
Prince might be spoken of as making up together
the body of his realm, but who would call them
the body of their King ? Yet such language is
repeatedly employed, and under various forms, re-
specting Christians in Holy Scripture. The very
harmony of its metaphorical expressions implies,
that they rest upon some real relation. When
Christ declares Himself the vine, and His people
the branches, this is because the trees of the field
have an organized life. If the Church is His bride,
this is because the marriage bond savours so
strongly of an actual union. So that a real, and
not merely a metaphorical conjunction must be de-
signed, w r hen we read, " ye are the body of Christ,
and members in particular."
NOW T , since the mention of " body " leads us
314 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
plainly to the human part of Our Lord's being (for
God is a spirit), therefore whatever relation is im-
plied in the application of this term to the Church,
must plainly connect it with Our Lord's human
nature. And the manner in which St. Paul trans-
fers what is applicable to Our Lord's actual body
to His body mystical, implies that the one of these
is truly dependent on the other. Thus does the
natural affection which each man bears to himself,
pass on into Our Lord's affection to His people :
" No man ever yet hated His own flesh, but nou-
risheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the
Church. For we are members of His body ; of
His flesh, and of His bones." " This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the
Church." And, therefore, He is " the Head, from
w r hich all the body by joints and bands" has " nou-
rishment ministered." And so identified is the
man Christ Jesus and His spiritual members, that
the name which belongs individually to Him, is
used for them in their collective character. Hence
He who, as the Apostle tells us, " gave gifts unto
men," was Himself, as the Psalmist expresses it,
their receiver. When St. Paul is arguing that the
promise to Abraham was not pledged to all the
races which descended from him, but to one only
of the families of which he was parent, he compre-
hends the spiritual progeny of Abraham under the
name of Christ : l " For as the body is one and hath
1 Vide supra, p. 23. The same interpretation is given to
Galatianc, iii. 16, by St. Augustin on Psalm cxlii. 3.
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 315
many members, and all the members of that one
body being many are one body, so also is Christ."
It seems unquestionable, therefore, that some real
relation must bind together that body natural which
He took by His Incarnation, and His body mys-
tical the Church, so that our union with the one
must be a ground of union with the other. 2
The intimate connexion by which the natural
body of Christ is bound to His body mystical, be-
comes still more evident if we advert to one pecu-
liar characteristic, which the one derives from the
other. What is the cause and import of that unity
of the Church, which is directly asserted in Holy
Writ, and which has been delivered to us as so
fundamental a doctrine of our faith, as to be made
an Article of the Creed ? " There is one body and
one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling." Unless St. Paul's words are to go for
nothing, there must plainly be some reason why
2 " The Church is in Christ, as Eve was in Adam. Yea by
grace we are every of us in Christ and in His Church, as by
nature we are in those our first parents. God made Eve of the
rib of Adam. And His Church He frameth out of the very
flesh, the very wounded and bleeding side of the Son of Man.
His body crucified and His blood shed for the life of the world,
are the true elements of that heavenly being, which maketh us
such as Himself is, of whom we come. For which cause the
words of Adam may be fitly the words of Christ concerning His
Church, ' flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones,' a true native
extract out of mine own body. So that in Him, even according
to His manhood, we, according to our heavenly being, are as
branches in that root out of which they grow." Eccles. Pol.
v. 56. 7.
316 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
this unity in the Church's external form is put forth
in so emphatic a manner. Or again, " we, being
many, are one body in Christ." And this unity of
the Church's body has in all ages been esteemed
essential to Christian belief. The assertion of it,
as an original Article of the Creed, is the testimony
of that universal community, which Christ Our
Lord promised to guard from fatal error. It would
have been to corrupt the principles of the Gospel,
if the collective voice of Christians had proclaimed
among its fundamental verities what was either
false or futile. Yet if the unity of the Church
were nothing but that those who bear the same
name may be classed together, as we bestow the
name of Platonists on those who followed the dis-
ciple of Socrates, its assertion as a doctrine would
be altogether unmeaning. But suppose that some-
thing further is designed: on what can it be de-
pendent ? Was it merely an arbitrary rule, im-
posed as a technical restraint upon the extension
of the Christian body ? Could it be meant to
shackle its advance by subjecting it to such re-
stricting conditions as at present interfere with the
growth of the Church of Christ, in many countries
where it receives State assistance ? If such a thing
could be thought possible, yet the absence of any
original rules for the Church's general government,
shows that it was not attempted. By a noiseless
and simultaneous growth did it spring up like Solo-
mon's temple in the beauty of holiness, till it filled
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 317
the mighty precincts of the Roman Empire. For
three centuries at least, there was no reference for
purposes of government to any earthly head, while
yet the Church's body seemed as though it were in-
stinct with a single soul. From whence could come
this marvellous co-operation? Its inconsistency with
the acts of men bespeaks at once its Divine pa-
rentage. The Church is one because it is the body
of Christ, and because it is quickened by His Spi-
ritual Presence. Through spiritual life does His
Body natural act upon mankind, and become ger-
minant of that which is called His Body Mystical,
from its relation to Himself. It was predicted that
u He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His
hand. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and
shall be satisfied." In this manner it was that He
should " divide the spoil with the strong." Thus
has God made Him u the first-born among many
brethren." Christ's Humanity, that stone cut out
of the mine of man's nature without his co-opera-
tion, has swelled up into a mountain. Its cement-
ing principle is that quickening influence of the
second man, by which He lives in all His members.
Thus do they trace to Christ's manhood their spi-
ritual life, as to Adam their natural parentage. 3
3 " The only sure anchor of all our hopes for a joyful resur-
rection unto the life of glory, is the mystical union which must
be wrought here on earth betwixt Christ's human nature, glo-
rified, and our mortal and dissoluble nature. The Divine
nature, indeed, is the prime fountain of life to all, but though
318 CHRIST IS PRESENT IX HIS
We need not wonder then that the Church's
unity is declared to be a fact, and that its confession
is a fundamental doctrine. That the Church is one
body results from organization, not from enactment ;
it is Christ's body, wrought out through the sacrifice
of that manhood, which he offered on the Cross.
From the oneness of His body which is slain, re-
sults the oneness of His body which is sanctified.
Neither is the profession of the Church's unity the
mere admission of an external appearance, but the
belief in an inward verity. It is to recognize the
presence of that spiritual power, which spreads
itself from Christ Our Lord throughout all mem-
bers of His mystical body. In this presence con-
sists their life : "If any man have not the spirit of
Christ, he is none of His." " But if the Spirit of
Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you." From this central source, then,
flows all the life of renewed humanity. And that
its being and harmony might have their origin in
the highest of all perfections, and be truly the re-
flection upon earth of w r hat is heavenly and divine,
therefore its principle of connexion is a counterpart
here below of that primary union, which existed
before all creation, and which is the grand type
inexhaustible in itself, yet a fountain whereof we cannot drink,
save as it is derived unto us through the human nature of
Christ." Jackson's Comment, on Creed, xi. 3, 10.
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 319
and cause of concord and law. For the Mediator
promised to be in His servants, even as He Himself
is the seat of that mysterious indwelling of the
Eternal Father, whereby the w r hole Blessed Trinity
is united in the never-ending perfection of an actual
oneness : " I in them, and Thou in Me, that they
may be made perfect in one." And again, " that
they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us."
Not, of course, that we can speak of that union in
which men partake, as the same with that ineffable
union which binds together those Three Blessed
Persons who are numerically one. 4 We can affirm
only that the union in Christ which exists among
men, has borrowed something from the ineffable
union of the Divine nature. 5 As the perfection of
God's Being is the true cause and source of every-
thing perfect which the world exhibits, so in the
oneness of the renewed family in Christ we discern
traces of that mysterious unity which underlies all
things. " At that day ye shall know that I am in
My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." And
therefore "our fellowship is with the Father, and
with His Son Jesus Christ." For the whole Three
Persons of the Blessed Godhead take part in that
work of mercy for which the Mediator became
Incarnate. For the Holy Ghost, as St. Augustin
expresses it, " acts through the whole Church, as
4 Vide Fourth Lateran Council, Can. ii. Hard, vol. vii. p. 18.
5 St. Ambrose de Fide, iv. 10, 128.
320 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
the soul in all the members of one body." 6 And
" the Father Himself loveth you ;" while the Son
is " Head over all things to the Church, which is
His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."
Thus does unity stoop down from the higher to
the lower nature, and the Church on Earth is the
true and real manifestation of the Kingdom of
Heaven. Not that our union in spirit with God
has superseded or taken the place of that personal
oneness, whereby in Christ Our Lord the manhood
is united to God. This were the Sabellian heresy,
which would represent the Deity as manifesting
Himself only in three relations, whereof each suc-
ceeded and superseded its predecessor. For the
union of Godhead with manhood in Christ is a real,
perfect, and lasting union, of which the union of
Christ with men is the appointed effect. So that
these mysterious relations are cumulative and not
consequent only, leading down by successive steps
to things on earth from things in heaven. 7
6 Sermo cclxvii. 4.
7 This wonderful chain of connexion is set forth by Lord
Bacon in his Confession of Faith : " The Word did not only
take flesh, or was joined to flesh, but was made flesh, though
without confusion of substance or nature : so as the Eternal Son
of God and the Ever-Blessed Son of Mary was one Person so
one, as the Blessed Virgin may be truly and catholically called
Dcipara, the Mother of God so one, as there is no unity in
universal nature, not that of the soul and body of man so per-
fect ; for the Three Heavenly Unities, whereof that is the
second, exceed all natural unities ; that is, the unity of the
Three Persons in the Godhead ; the unity of God and man in
Christ ; and the unity of Christ and the Church the Holy
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 321
Thus does the impulsive wave of heavenly con-
cord extend itself to the race of man, from its
primary source in the bosom of incommunicable
Godhead. To assert the truth of Christ's Pre-
sence the reality of that union which binds the
whole mystic body of His Church to the manhood
of the Incarnate Word is to maintain the reality
of His Mediation, and the absolute necessity of
that bond by which heaven and earth are united.
For it is a necessary result of the cardinal truth
of the Christian system the truth, i. ., that all
gifts and blessings are introduced into our race
through the intervention of that nobler member,
who connects it with the Almighty. And herein
is the Christian scheme of Mediation opposed to
that theory of Eationalism, which rests upon the
capacities of nature. The principle of Eational-
ism is, that man's improvement may be effected
through those gifts which God bestowed upon him
by creation, inasmuch as sufficient means of inter-
course with the Supreme Spirit were provided by
the law of his nature. Whereas the Church deals
with man as a fallen race, whose original means of
intercourse with God have been obstructed, and
which needs a new and supernatural channel for
the entrance of heavenly gifts. And this channel
Ghost being the worker of both these latter unities ; for by the
Holy Ghost was Christ Incarnate, and quickened in flesh ; and
by the Holy Ghost was man regenerated, and quickened in the
spirit." Work*, vol. iii. p. 123.
Y
322 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
has been provided through the Man Jesus Christ.
In His person did Godhead enter manhood, that
through this one perfect type of humanity, it might
" leaven the whole lump." Thus does the law of
grace supersede the law of nature. If man had
never fallen, to inherit the nature of the first Adam
had been a sufficient means of communion with
God. But because the natural means of commu-
nication have been cut off, that supernatural union
is requisite which we obtain by participating the
nature of the second Adam. Now, it is for the
diffusion of this renewed and renewing manhood,
that those media have been provided, whereby the
Son of Man communicates Himself to His bre-
thren. All the ordinances of the Church, its hal-
lowed things, places, and persons its worship and
sacraments are a series of instruments whereby
the sanctified manhood of the Mediator diffuses
itself as a life-giving seed through the mass of hu-
manity. Thus does He continue to effect that
work through His man's nature, which He avowed
to be the very object of His earthly being : " for
their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might
be sanctified through the truth." And for this
office are external media as requisite, as were body
and limbs to the truth of His human being. As
He could not be a man without that substantial
existence which revealed Him to the senses of
mankind, so He could not be the Head of the
Body Mystical, without the use of those actual
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 323
media of intercourse, whereby He unites His living
members to Himself.
The importance, then, of external ordinances re-
sults from that fact on which Christianity is depen-
dent, that through the Incarnation of the Mediator,
the corrupted race of man has been regenerated by
a heavenly nature. Yet this gracious provision is
often received with repugnance by those for whose
benefit it is intended. Many who are called Chris-
tians, and who profess to value above all things
the Mediation of Christ, consider themselves ac-
tually injured, because this "new and living way"
has been opened to them " through the veil, that is
to say His flesh." The opportunity of approach-
ing God through the Man Christ Jesus, which is
given to them through the ordinances of His mys-
tic body, seems an encroachment on that right of
access which they before had, through the free ex-
ercise of their own thoughts. Before a country is
marked out by roads, any one may make his own
way through w r oods and over commons to the royal
dwelling ; but the institution of highways abridges
the previous liberty of approach. This seems to
be the feeling of many in regard to the Mediation
of Christ. They wish to approach God in their
own way, as mind speaks to mind, without resort-
ing to that circuitous method, which requires their
union with the Church. But the appointment of a
Mediator with the Father does not diminish men's
means of access, unless the opportunity of ap-
324 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
proach, which existed before, is denied them. Now,
since the Gospel is offered only to those to whom
it is communicated [for " how shall they hear with-
out a preacher,"], the condition of persons to whom
Mediation is unknown remains unaffected by its an-
nouncement. Wherever graces appear in the chil-
dren of men, we know that they come down only
from the " Father of Lights," and we rejoice that
" Light can find its way
To regions furthest from the fount of day."
Such influence was visible in former times among
men who were blinded by ignorance, and it may
be found at present among men who are blinded
by prejudice. And yet it is impossible to deny
that those who reject the Doctrine of Mediation,
now that it is revealed, are in danger of rejecting
Christ. For what is their conduct in reality, but
the very crime which is forbidden in the Second
Commandment ? The First Commandment inhi-
bited the substitution of other Gods, Baal or Ash-
taroth, in place of Jehovah. The Second forbade
to worship Jehovah in other ways than that which
was " ordained by Angels in the hand of a Me-
diator." It was the place of this Mediator, Moses,
which the Golden Calf was intended to supply.
The crime of Israel was, that when the Most High
had appointed a mode of access, men thought that
they could approach Him better through their own
inventions. And what else is the result, when men
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 325
think that they can reach over the God-man, the
one channel of intercourse between earth and hea-
ven, and address themselves by a shorter and more
direct approach to God ? This course may be
adopted without professed disbelief in Christ, if
men neglect that channel of approach which He
has opened to the Father. For the notion of com-
muning with God, the Eternal and Infinite Spirit,
through the immediate action of our own spirits,
independently of that mode of coming to Him
which has been provided through the manhood of
Christ, tends to a denial of the whole principle of
His Mediation. What does it matter whether men
call the object of their worship Christ, and profess
belief in Him, if the only thing to which they
direct their thoughts, is the ultimate and incom-
municable Godhead ? What more remarkably dis-
tinguishes the Mediator from the Father and the
Holy Ghost than that they are not, whereas He is,
personally united to manhood. So that in ap-
proaching Him, we cannot overpass His man's
nature it is our natural channel of communion
with Him. What is addressed directly by man's
spirit to the Ultimate Spirit of the Universe, is not
addressed to Christ, or if addressed to Him in
name, it is not addressed to Him as Mediator, but
only through His general participation in the na-
ture of Godhead.
Here then lies the error of those who, like the
Quakers, reject or at least undervalue those exter-
326 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
nal means, whereby the Son of Man unites Himself
to His spiritual members. The disuse of Sacra-
ments is only one point in that general system,
which looks rather to the actings of our own mind
than to the agency of an Incarnate Mediator.
Now, without judging individuals, who must stand
or fall to their own master, it may safely be affirmed
that the ultimate tendency of this system, however
it may retain the phraseology of the Gospel, is
to substitute natural religion for revealed. Our
irresistible conviction respecting the acting of
spirits leads us to conclude that the thought,
wish, and conviction of our own minds is at all
times present as an object to the all-wise Spirit
of God. Do our souls then desire to hold inter-
course with the great primary Spirit of the Uni-
verse, there needs, so far as nature tells us, no
intervening link : what exists as an intellectual
reality in us, is a real object to the knowledge
of the Most High. But to build on such inter-
course as this, is to rest only on those principles
which belong to us by creation. It is to employ
mere natural means for intercourse with God. So
that to make it an objection against the Church
system, that its media of communion are not sim-
ple, natural, and immediate that they do not
commend themselves to human judgment, but tax
our faith, and introduce something external be-
tween us and God is in reality to complain that
the system of nature has been superseded by the
CHURCH OK BODY MYSTICAL. 327
system of Mediation. For when Christ's manhood
was made a bridge 8 between heaven and earth,
whereby the purity and exaltation of the Divine
nature might be brought into contact with the in-
firmity and defilement of ours, an external channel
of communication was substituted for the imme-
diate intercourse of mind with mind. So long as
man's mind speaks immediately to the Universal
Mind which pervades all things, its inner actions
are realities in themselves, which are contemplated
at once by the Supreme Essence ; but if there be a
Being external to us, through whom all intercourse
must pass a single Being, characterized by all
the reality which depends on material existence
then must something be superadded to those mere
inward actions of faith and love, which are all that
nature could point out as the means of intercourse
between one spirit and another. This new medium
of intercourse, this channel of communication be-
tween earth and heaven, has been provided exclu-
sively by His gift, who of His free mercy undertook
to be Mediator between God and man. The road
of access which is opened to us in the system of
the Church's ordinances is not in any degree of our
making : we need to use, but we do not contribute
at all to prepare it. The work of Mediation is
Christ's work from beginning to end : when He
took our nature, He did it by actual union when
8 " 2i>, o rrjv ryrjv icat TOV ovpavov rye(j)vpwaas TW cvytu) aov aw[j.<ni. n
S. Greg. Thaum. in Pet. de Inc. ii. 9, 3.
328 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
He joins His members to Himself, they are really,
though by immaterial and spiritual influence, en-
grafted into His purified humanity. His members
have actually "put on the new man," and "as
many as have been baptized into Jesus Christ have
put on Christ."
It would be unjust, of course, to attribute to the
whole body of Quakers any conscious design of
rejecting Christ : their notion no doubt is that He
is present to their thoughts, and in this way they
suppose that they make Him their means of access.
But this is to forget that the principle of His
Mediation is not that His man's nature is the ulti-
mate object of worship, but that it is the sole road
of approach to the Father. His Manhood is " the
door" through which we are admitted to His God-
head. When the Church system is opposed to
that of Eationalism, the actions of His manhood
are in reality opposed to those of our own spirits.
The channel of union which has been provided
through grace is opposed to that which existed by
nature. What is needed, therefore, is some real
agency on His part, whereby this merciful inter-
vention may be effected. He must actually stretch
forth the hand of His humanity towards us, before
we can effectually stretch forth the hand of faith
towards Him. Adam is not merely an object to
men's thoughts, like the Angels of God ; he is
bound to his descendants by the true but unknown
tie of paternity : if Christ our Mediator be the
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 329
second Adam, there must be as real an influence,
by which all His members must hold to His man's
nature. And if this union is not brought about,
as Bationalists suppose, through those means which
had their existence through Creation, it must be
effected through media which are beside and foreign
to nature. That spiritual power, whereby His
humanity becomes the seminal principle of His
body mystical, must act through such supernatural
agency as it pleases Him to adopt. So that the
ancient writers, as Bishop Taylor says, speak of
" the Blessed Sacrament" as " the extension of the
Incarnation." No wonder, then, that in the palmy
days of the Quaker sect, when its principles were
fully developed, their denial of those ordinances
whereby the God-man discharges His office of
Mediation should have led them into expressions 9
inconsistent with any belief in His real existence.
The characteristic doctrine of the Gospel, that God
and man were permanently made one in the Person
of Christ, was superseded by a dreamy notion of
the abstract intercourse between the minds of faith-
ful men, and the governing Mind of the Universe.
The tendency of such a system is to substitute
Rationalism for the Gospel; in place, that is, of
the Revelation through a Mediator, to fall back
9 " George Fox says that if there be any other Christ but He
that was crucified within, He is the false Christ. This Christ
that was risen and crucified within devils and reprobates make
a talk of Him without." Leslie's Snake in the Grass, Sfc.,
sec. 10, p. 67.
330 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
upon the universal revelation of nature. And since
the Doctrine of the Incarnation for the first time
revealed the personal character of God, Ration-
alism itself is but the entrance to that deeper abyss
of Pantheism, towards which the rejection of the
sacramental system has a tendency to conduct.
The custom, therefore, of putting inward acts
of faith and love in place of those external means
whereby Christ vouchsafes to join men to His
manhood, is in reality to make these the channel
of mediation instead of Him ; it is to set up idols
in our hearts, and thank them for our deliverance
from the house of bondage. Those who do not
go so far as directly to abandon the appointed
means of grace, must be on their guard lest a
measure of the same evil should be incurred by
undervaluing them. 10 For whatever derogates from
10 An instance may be afforded by the ordinance of Confir-
mation. Among its benefits must be ranked the opportunity
afforded, at a most critical period of life, for confirming the
promises of childhood. Such an act, conscientiously discharged
in the presence of many witnesses, has no little tendency to
strengthen good resolutions ; and since all good acts must be
suggested as well as favoured by God, we may safely speak
of the inward resolution as dependent on His spiritual succour.
Now, this account of Confirmation, if regarded as a partial view
of the service, would be fitting enough ; but if considered to be
the whole of its benefits, it would resolve an ordinance of the
Gospel into a mere Rationalistic act. For, according to this
view of things, the candidates come to confirm themselves in the
Bishop's presence [or, perhaps, to confirm the Bishop in the
belief of their good intentions], instead of being brought, as the
Prayer-book directs, "to lie confirmed by him" The sole
object is the ratification of their vows ; the added assurance of
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 331
the sacramental system, has the effect of depre-
cating that union with God which we have by
grace, and therefore of casting us on that union
which existed by nature. This is the virtual
tendency, when inward seriousness the necessity
of w r hich in itself cannot be too earnestly main-
tained is supposed to dispense with those external
means, whereby Christ allies Himself to His mem-
bers. The remark applies of course not to those
who are debarred the use of such means, but to
those by whom they are deemed superfluous. It
was a sublime exhortation of the ancient Platouist,
" to fly to the solitary Deity in the solitude of
our own spirit." But that which in a Heathen
was a pious reaching forth after light, would be
an impious rejection of it in a Christian. For
their intention to perform what at Baptism was promised. The
efficacy of the service rests altogether upon the acceptableness
of their previous prayers, and the sincerity of their present pur-
pose, which, according to God's natural mode of dealing with
men, are met by a corresponding blessing. What converts this
act of natural religion into a Christian rite is, that through the
instrumentality of His minister, the New Head of man's race
receives His younger members into closer union, and confirms
those graces, which at Baptism have already flowed into them
from Himself. Thus is a natural mode of converse with God
exalted into a means of supernatural union. Unless this truth
be admitted, unless Christ be discerned to be truly present
through the agency of His servants, to bless in the laying on of
hands, and to communicate through external means that super-
natural life, of which His humanity is the source, wherein does
this act differ from any other, whereby responsible agents pledge
themselves to serve God, and what especial benefit is there in
Christian Confirmation ?
332 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
what renders man's responsibility so great, is the
greatness of the gift which is offered to his accept-
ance. To careless men this is the great argument
against the Church-system : they would rather
live at a lower stage of accountableness they
shrink with horror from the real indwelling of this
Holy God. But it will be otherwise with devout
minds. Let them once feel the reality of Christ's
Presence, and they will not again take up with a
religion of shadows. All which is needful for such
persons, is to understand that to admit the Church
or Sacramental system, is only to believe the
reality of those acts whereby the God-man dis-
charges His work of Mediation. However jealous
they are of the formalism of their own hearts,
and however watchful against spiritual careless-
ness, they cannot be afraid of resting too much on
the Mediation of Christ, and of esteeming too highly
His Presence by the Spirit. For the Holy Ghost,
as He came at Pentecost with power, and as His
dealings by grace are discriminated from the
general actings of the Great Spirit of the Uni-
verse, has a peculiar function and office in the
Gospel Covenant. And since it has been His will
that those gracious strivings whereby He renews
all hearts should be consequent on the Mediation
of Christ, therefore to leave out of account that
perfect manhood whereby the new Head of our
race acts upon His members, is to dispense also
with the specific operations of the Blessed Com-
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 333
forter. So that the whole system of Mediation
would be passed by in this method of approach,
as though the spirit of man could by direct, self-
originating, immediate impulse commune with the
Almighty. If men say, that what they trust is
not their own spirit, but something bestowed upon
them by God, yet still it is something within them-
selves something,
" Which if heaven gave it, may be termed their own."
For they look to some chain of intercourse, which,
starting from themselves, communicates directly
with the Most High. What is this in truth but
to fall back upon those endowments of man's spirit
which he has by creation upon the natural powers
of the soul and thus to pass by Christ the Me-
diator in our access to God ? " There were of the
old Valentinian Heretics," says Hooker, " some,
wiiich had knowledge in such admiration, that to it
they ascribed all, and so despised the sacraments
of Christ, pretending that as ignorance had made
us subject to all misery, so the full redemption of
the inward man, and the work of our restoration,
must needs belong unto knowledge only. They
draw very near unto this error who, fixing wholly
their minds on the known necessity of faith, imagine
that nothing but faith is necessary for the attain-
ment of all grace." 11 " We are to believe and ac-
11 Eccles. Pol. v. 60, 4.
334 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
knowledge that as God the Father doth neither
forgive nor vouchsafe reconciliation, but for the
merits and satisfaction of His only Son ; so neither
will He vouchsafe to convey this or any other
blessing unto us, which His 'Son hath purchased
for us, but only through His Son : not only through
Him as our Advocate or Intercessor, but through
Him as our Mediator that is, through His Hu-
manity, as the organ or conduit, or as the only
bond by which we are united and reconciled unto
the Divine nature." 1
The views of these two great writers, always
esteemed among the highest authorities in the
English Church, have been strikingly illustrated
since they wrote, by some circumstances in the
history of the sect which has been referred to. In
the case of the Quakers, whose opinions were
avowed with greater consistency than is found in
many of their partizans, may be seen by what sure
steps a forgetfulness of Our Lord's office as Me-
diator, and of those sacramental ordinances, where-
by He unites men to Himself, leads persons who
least design it to errors respecting His nature. If
this result is not always reached, it is because those
who live in the atmosphere of a Christian country,
derive a large portion of their opinions from the
standard which obtains around them. No one
seems to have less anticipated such consequences
than George Fox, when he first yielded to the im-
12 Jackson's Comm. on the Creed, xi. 3, 12.
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 335
pulse to head a party. It was among the fermen-
tations which issued in the Great Rebellion, when,
as he complained in his last moments, " the out-
ward Christians " were " broken up into many
sects," 13 that he was impelled to look within himself
for the principle of unity. The times peculiarly
inclined earnest men to such a course. Never was
religion more overlaid by hypocrisy, or truth more
lost in contentiousness. The Puritan Divines had
explained away the meaning of Gospel ordinances,
while they insisted zealously on their formal ob-
servance. Now, it is so contrary to the genius of
Christianity, to attach primary weight to what is
purely technical, that Fox 14 can hardly be censured
13 Sewel's History of Friends, vol. ii. p. 492.
"Fox's mode of argument was the same with that of all
persons who deny that God's grace is a guide to the collective
Body of Christ a firm persuasion, namely, that it was vouch-
safed to himself in preference to others. " As he was walking
in a field on a First-day morning, it was discovered unto his
understanding, that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was
not enough to make a man to be a minister of Christ. At
this he wondered, because it was the common belief of
people ; but for all this, he took this to be a Divine revelation,
and he admired the goodness of the Lord, believing now the
ordinary ministers not to be such as they pretended to be.
This made him unwilling to go any more to Church." SeneVs
History, i. p. 17. He now threw himself with effect on that
principle of sympathy, which is equally conducive to the growth
of truth, or the extension of error ; and which renders earnest-
ness and confidence no less contagious than bodily diseases.
At Sedberg " he preached for several hours, showing that the
Lord was come to teach His people Himself, and to bring them
off from all the world's ways and teachers to Christ, the true
teacher and the true way to God. Moreover, he showed the
336 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
for supposing that if the Sacraments and public
worship were merely forms, they could not be
essentials of the Gospel. Is it less unlikely that
the command to observe the Eucharist should be
metaphorical, than the ordinance itself? Doubt-
less this earnest man did not discern that his
teaching would turn men away from Christ, or
interfere with the " one Mediator between God and
men." Yet that such was the real tendency of his
system is apparent even from the report of his
friendly historian, whose object is to show that he
maintained the common truths, which are received
among Christians. The basis of his instruction is
stated to have been, "that every man is enlight-
ened with the Divine light." 15 And in corrobora-
tion of this assertion (though their real proof could
be only their own inward consciousness), he and
his followers perpetually referred to the declara-
declining state of the modern doctors and teachers, and ex-
horted the people to come off from the temples made with
hands, and wait to receive the Spirit of the Lord, that they
might know themselves to be the temples of God." " Having
refreshed himself at noon with a little water out of a brook, he
went and sat down on the top of a rock hard by the chapel,
intending to have a meeting there. At this people wondered,
because they looked upon the Church as a holy place, requisite
for worship. But George Fox told them afterwards, that the
ground whereon he stood was as good as that of the steeple-
house ; besides, we find that Christ Himself did preach on a
mountain, and also at the sea-side. In the afternoon, he spoke
about three hours, directing all to the Spirit of God in them-
selves." Sewel's History, vol. i. p. 88, 89.
15 Sewel's History, ii. 575.
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 337
tion, " that was the true light, which lighteth every
man, that cometh into the world." 16 This passage,
which refers in reality to the Incarnation of Christ,
and consequently to the gifts bestowed upon His
brethren through participation in Him as Mediator,
they interpreted of an immediate indwelling of
Godhead in the whole body of mankind. But the
true light, which at the creation of man's race had
bestowed on Adam the perfect light of His own
image, the faint remains of which make up that
light of nature which has shone since in every
man's bosom, had, in the fulness of time, come
Personally into the world, the Son of God. To
confound this peculiar gift, which was bestowed on
humanity through the Incarnation of Christ, with
that general influence of the Divine Spirit, which
all men inherit from their creation, is virtually a
form of Rationalism. For it is to merge the gifts
16 St. Augustin shows that such an interpretation of St. John,
i. 9 (as maintained by the Pelagians), interferes with the reality
of Christ's Mediation. The Greek, he observes, might be ren-
dered : " That was the true light, which lighteth every man by
coming into the world." De Pecc. Mer. i. 25. The trans-
lation of Tholuck and Olshausen is equivalent in effect, but less
exact perhaps ; " the true light, which lighteth every man, was
coming into the world."
The erroneous interpretation of Fox was approved by Blanco
"White, when a Socinian. "Christianity must carry its own
proof in its reasonableness, in its agreement with the light within
us, as the original Quakers very properly asserted This
light of the conscience is what Christ and the original Apostles
called the Spirit, which was to lead the Disciples into all the
truth." Life, vol. ii. p. 230.
338 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
of grace in the gifts of nature. But suppose that
to escape this danger the name of the Holy Ghost
is introduced; that His present influence is repre-
sented as the fulfilment of God's general promises
to humanity. Yet even then, unless the manhood
of the one Mediator is regarded as the fountain
and well-head of those gifts, which the Comforter
distributes to Christ's members, Rationalism is only
disguised under the kindred heresy of Sabellianism.
For in this case the work of the Holy Ghost is
represented as something which supersedes the
work of Christ, as though the same Being, who
once dwelt in Christ's manhood, dwells instead
thereof in the manhood of individual Christians.
The Doctrine of Our Lord's Mediation is, that
through the communication of His human nature,
its quickening gifts are bestowed according to their
measure upon His members below : to suppose
these gifts therefore to be obtained by God's im-
mediate indwelling, without such communication,
is to pass Him by in our approach to God. This
is the exact result of the Sabellian heresy, which
usually represents the Almighty as having had
three successive modes of dwelling upon earth:
first, in His ancient worship, then in the Humanity
of Christ, and, that mode of dwelling being termi-
nated, in the minds of men. These are supposed
by the Sabellians to be three successive economies ;
three several temples, as it were, in which the same
Person has been pleased to display Himself. Thus
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 339
is the real action of the Three Persons in the
Blessed Trinity explained away, and the mystery
of the Godhead evaporates in three successive rela-
tions of the same Being towards mankind. On
this principle, the Sacraments, as Fox asserted,
may well be dispensed with, " because Christ the
substance" is "come:" 17 the purpose, that is, of
His Incarnation, is supposed to be completed, and
the dispensation of the Spirit is alleged to leave
nothing for His man's nature to perform. Xeither
need we wonder at what otherwise would seem the
strange delusion, that James Naylor should declare
himself to be actually Christ, and that many of
his brethren should so regard him. There seems
little reason for doubting that the opinions, a few-
years later attributed to them by Leslie, were
not uncommon among the early Quakers. " The
Quakers," he asserts, "say Christ took flesh, but
no otherwise, as they explain it, than as angels
assumed bodies, or as He (Christ or the Word)
did inspire or dwell in Prophets or holy men of
old ; though they allow (not always) that Christ
did inspire the person of that man Jesus in a higher
measure than other men. But they deny any
proper Incarnation of Christ, that is, that He was
made flesh, or that He and Jesus w r ere one Person.
Yet they allow Jesus to be called Christ, from the
dwelling of Christ in Him ; but for the same reason
they take the name of Christ to themselves, and
17 Sewel's History, ii. p. 580.
340 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
say that it belongs to them as well as to Jesus." 18
These statements show that the Quakers had
already adopted the Sabellian 19 hypothesis re-
specting Our Lord's nature ; and the prevalence
of avowed Socinianism among them in later days
is a still more manifest indication of the result
which attends the abandonment of the Sacramental
system. 20
The example of the Quakers shows by what in-
evitable sequence the neglect of Our Lord's office
as Mediator, leads to heresies respecting His nature.
Two writers of the present age, each the head of
a theological school, may be cited as an evidence
that inadequate views respecting His nature, have
a corresponding connexion with a low estimate of
the gifts of grace. The sentiments of Professor
Schleiermacher are apparent from a statement, for
which its antithetical form probably has gained the
wider acceptance, that " Catholicism is that system
which represents the relation of the individual to
Christ to be dependent on his relation to the
18 " The Snake in the Grass," sec. x. Leslie's Works,
vol. ii. p. 67.
19 Mr. Clarkson attributes direct Sabellianism to the Quakers.
After stating what are the offices of the Holy Ghost, he says,
as the result of their hypothesis : " Christ, as He held the
offices contained in the proposition, was the Spirit of God."
History of Quakerism, ii. 224.
20 That Socinian opinions predominated among the Quakers
was commonly affirmed by the late Mr. Gurney, himself a
member of their body, though an able and zealous opponent of
that form of error.
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 341
Church ; Protestantism that which represents the
relation of the individual to the Church to be de-
pendent on his relation to Christ." 21 This contrast
is put forward by Schleiermacher as containing the
characteristic distinction between the two leading
parties who call themselves Christians. But the
very statement of such a contrast involves a vir-
tual denial of the spiritual nature of the Church.
For if the Church be really Christ's "body, the
fulness of Him, that filleth all in all," then its spi-
ritual or invisible action is inseparable from the
right use of its visible ordinances, and it becomes
impossible to contrast things, which are actually
identical. It would be an analogous question, as
was observed, to ask whether we were men by
being joined to Adam, or were joined to Adam by
being men. It is Christ's manhood which binds
men through sacraments to His mystic body. So
that to give effect to this contrast, the Church
must be supposed to be only a human system,
devised for the more convenient working of reli-
gion among men, and not the presence of Christ's
manhood, acting spiritually on all who are en-
grafted into Himself. How is it then that a writer
who enters so deeply into some parts of the Chris-
tian system, and is regarded as their chief authority
by a large portion of what are considered the more
orthodox Germans, should have adopted a prin-
ciple, which implies a complete denial of the spi-
21 Der Christliche Glaube, i. 24, p. 132.
342 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
ritual life of the Church ? The answer may be
learned from the account of Schleiermacher's opi-
nions given by his countryman, Dorner. Schleier-
macher, he says, finds fault with the expression,
that the Son of God has taken man's nature into
the unity of His Person. For this would be to
make the Personality of Christ dependent on the
Personality of the Second Person in the Divine
Godhead, and consequently on the Doctrine of the
Trinity. Such a notion accordingly would be in-
consistent with the Sabellian theory. 22
Here, then, we see clearly to what we must attri-
bute Schleiermacher's low estimate of the spiritual
nature of the Church. He could not suppose it to
be the mystical body of the Eternal Son, united by
spiritual presence to His glorified humanity, be-
cause there was wanting in his system that sub-
stratum for such a doctrine, which the truth of the
Trinity could alone supply (p. 164). If the same
22 " The Christians' inward consciousness" (for this, and not
the presence of the Holy Ghost with the body of the Church,
is Schleiermacher's criterion, whether for proving the truth of
Scripture, or for explaining it) "this inward consciousness,"
he says, "does not compel us to think of the acting of the
Redeemer in any other way, than as His Spirit more and more,
by organizing and influencing humanity, diffuses in an ever-
increasing sphere its action and its life. Christ, as a historical
person, has, according to his view, no other significance, than as
His example is the means of propagating that spirit which He
has infused into the community." "In this manner, then, the
personal existence in which Christ appeared, loses all its impor-
tance so soon as it has transplanted itself into others." Darner's
Person Christi, first ed. p. 508, 523.
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 343
tendency is to be found in the teaching of Arch-
bishop Whately, his probity and public spirit, as
well as his high station, are a sufficient guarantee
that it is not from any intentional rejection of the
authorized declarations of the Church. Neither
does the writer pretend to conjecture how far the
Archbishop may be conscious of the tendency of
that system, the results of which are visible in his
works. But though it would be unfair to charge
individuals with holding the logical consequence of
their assertions, there can be no injustice in showing
how one peculiarity in a school or writer involves
another as its natural complement. This may be
seen in the case of Archbishop Whately, whose
views of the Church are in exact accordance with
what might be anticipated from his opinions respect-
ing the Blessed Trinity, 23 and respecting Christ Our
23 God, says the Archbishop, is " revealed to us in three cha-
racters (which was anciently the ordinary sense in our language
of the word ' person') as standing in three relations to us."
Sernwns on Various Subjects, 1835, p. 203.
" The Latin word ' persona' signified originally a mask,
which actors wore on the stage ; the word came to signify the
character itself, which the actor played; and afterwards any
character, real or assumed, which any one sustained : as, e. g. in
a passage of Cicero, where he is describing the process by which
he composed his pleadings, by imagining himself in the place of
his opponent, and of the judge, as well as his own : ' Tres per-
sonas unus suscipio meam, adversarii, judicis.' We should
render this by saying, ' I assume these three characters,' or ' I
place myself in these three situations.' " " Persona, in its clas-
sical sense, was naturally adopted by Theologians to distinguish
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Trinity,
so as to imply the unity of the Divine Being, who is all and
344 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
Lord. For the word Person, as used in respect to
the Blessed Trinity, means merely, according to
the Archbishop, some new relation or character as-
sumed by the same Being. He says, accordingly,
that " in respect of the sacrifice of Christ, and of
the spiritual gifts poured out on the Disciples, it
was the same thing in relation to them as if there
had been really three distinct Beings." 24 And
again, " Our Lord took care to indicate that the
Comforter the Disciples are to expect is no other
than Himself under another character." 25
It is not here inquired how far these assertions
accord with the statements of Scripture, or the
teaching of the Church of England." 26 But they ac-
each of these ; and the word Person was adopted by our Divines
in the same sense. In this sense its difference from Person as
commonly employed is most important. Whatcly's Logic, first
ed. 1826, p. 292.
In later editions this note is considerably lengthened, so that
its statements appear in a less concentrated and naked form.
But nothing indicates that Archbishop Whately designs to recall
his previous assertions, which indeed he has virtually repeated
in subsequent sermons.
24 Sermons, 1835, p. 202. * Ditto, p. 197.
26 The sentiments of Sabellius are recorded by Theodoret,
Dial, ii., on Heretical Fables (cited in Radcliffe's Creed of St.
Athanasius Illustrated, p. 85) : " Sabellius the African, of Pen-
tapolis, introduced this heresy. He said that the Father and
the Son and the Holy Ghost were one Person, and one Person
bearing three names ; and he calls on the same, sometimes as
the Father, sometimes as the Son, and sometimes as the Holy
Spirit ; and that in the Old Testament, He gave laws as the
Father ; but in the New, He was incarnated as the Son ; and
that as the Holy Spirit he sat upon the Apostles."
The Sabellian tenets are not only denied in the Athanasian
CHURCH Oil BODY MYSTICAL. 345
count clearly enough for the view which is adopted
by Archbishop Whately respecting the Church of
Christ. His respect for the declarations of Scrip-
ture leads him to assert strongly its claim to au-
O /
thority : what is wanting in his system is a due
estimate of its ordinances as means of grace. Xow,
if God's Presence as Mediator has been succeeded
by His Presence as the Holy Ghost, the Church
can no longer be characterized by its relation to
Christ, as His mystic body united by the spiritual
action of His man's nature to Himself. So that
those who do not, as did the Quakers, deny its ex-
istence, are thrown upon the fact that it is a social
system for the advance of religion, established
under God's sanction, and conducive in various
ways to those purposes of improvement, for which
God bestows His help on individuals among men.
Thus is the present action of the one common
Mediator lost sight of, and the Church, instead of
being a means of grace, becomes simply a scheme
of government. The consequence when men are
led, like Archbishop Whately, by the plain words
of Scripture to take a high view of Church autho-
rity, 27 is to infuse harshness and technicality into
the Gospel system. The Kingdom of Christ seems
Creed, but are censured by name in the first Canon of the
Council of Constantinople, one of the four General Councils,
whose decrees by our present law (1 Eliz. c. 1, s. 3G) afford a
criterion of heresy.
27 Vide the passages quoted from Whately's " Kingdom of
Christ" in the next Chapter.
346 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
as though it was designed to limit the gifts of His
grace rather than to extend them. The Church as-
sumes the austerity of a Sabine mother rather than
the affectionate loving-kindness of the daughter of
Zion. Since its ordinances are not coincident with
the means of grace, but something besides and be-
yond them, the question naturally arises, "is not
the life more than meat and the body than rai-
ment?" So that men's natural instinct testifies
against the maintenance of authority, while the
precepts of Scripture forbid its abolition.
Such are some of the evils of forgetting the real
nature of the Church's being our union, namely,
with the manhood of Christ in His mystic body,
together with His true Presence and continued
Mediation. These doctrines, it may be observed
in conclusion, are also our right security against
substituting the Church as a formal system in place
of its Head ; and they afford the best answer to the
intricate questions respecting Church communion
and Church obedience. So long as the Church is
regarded as an external system, based on certain
laws and administered by certain leaders, it can
never fail to enlist a measure of that party spirit
which belongs to man's nature, and thus to draw
away attention from the holy purposes for which it
was instituted. The only safeguard against this
danger is the due subordination of its external
framework to its internal principle; and the con-
stant recognition that its life depends, not on the
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 347
gifts of government but on the gifts of grace. If the
essence of the Church's existence be that certain
men have a right to rule, and teach, and minister,
whether they be chosen by the free voice of the
congregation, imposed by government, or delegated
by the Apostles, there is such large opening for
cabal and dispute, that love and peace and Christ's
presence will soon be lost in the din of party strife.
The Presbyterian platform offers as good footing
to the spirit of partizanship as the system of Epis-
copacy ; and the Pilgrim Fathers of Massachusetts
were as ready to persecute as Boniface or Hilde-
brand. But let the essence of the Church's exist-
ence be felt to be Christ's presence let it be
remembered that His manhood is the true seed of
the renewed race, and that through spiritual pre-
sence it bestows its life-giving power on all the
members of His mystic body let every other
question be dependent upon these let them take
their place, as of subordinate importance, and as
merely contributing to this great result and what
room is there for discord between Christ and the
Church, when the Church is Christ Himself mani-
fest in His mystic body? "For no man ever yet
hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the Church." The theorist
may be unvisited by the sun's warmth while he
discusses its nature, or the poet while he describes
its brilliancy; but how can we lose sight of his
glorious beams by going forth to walk in the sun-
348 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
shine? And so long as this Divine principle is
kept fully in view, it can hardly fail to soften and
elevate those whom it influences. So that if the
harshness of party-spirit be not cured, it may at
least be abated.
There are those indeed who forget that by Christ
is meant that " one Mediator between God and
men," who unites these two natures, and is to be
approached therefore through that manhood, where-
by He allies Himself to our race. Their wish is for
such communing with the Spirit of the Universe as
may be maintained by each individual spirit in the
separate temple of the heart. To set forth Christ
the Mediator as our only road of access to the Most
High, is supposed by them to encumber our ap-
proach. This is to renounce Christianity for Ra-
tionalism, and to prefer the system of nature to the
system of grace. For if the doctrine of Mediation
be accepted at all, the results which it involves
must be accepted also. And, therefore, to main-
tain that the outward means of grace, whereby we
are united to the manhood of Christ, are not less
necessary than those emotions of our own, which
have their seat within, is not to put the Church in
stead of Christ, but to protest against men's putting
themselves in the place of their Redeemer. To
speak of inward seriousness as necessary, is only to
testify the truth of each man's separate responsi-
bility ; but to speak of it as superseding outward
means, is to do away with the office of the " one
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 349
Mediator." The individual life of each man's spirit,
as opposed to the carelessness of a thoughtless
walk, is the very treading down of Satan under our
feet ; but to contrast it with the value of Gospel
ordinances is to deny Christ to depose Him from
His office of a Mediator and to set up idols of
intercession in our own hearts.
Again, the recollection that Christ's Spiritual
Presence is the Church's life, is the answer to all
questions respecting Church Communion. For the
Church's being depends on union with Him ; its
well-being on union with all His members. The
latter is as essential to its perfect state as that holi-
ness of life, which Christ likewise entreated for all
His members ; the Church's completeness, there-
fore, cannot be attained without both the one and
the other. But as we see holiness of life to be too
often wanting in its present season of warfare, so
also is the perfect unity of the whole Christian
body. That which cannot be dispensed with the
loss of which would be its death is that union
with Christ on which depends its claim to be the
Lord's Body. While this continues, the several
members of Christ are in truth united to one
another, whether they discern it or no ; because
they are united to the common Head of the Body.
So that " if one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it ; and if one member rejoice, all the
members rejoice with it." And the same principle
must be our guide respecting all questions of
350 CHRIST IS PRESENT IN HIS
Church-obedience. For Church-obedience depends
on the authority to bless, not on the power to
govern. Its rule is not coercive, but parental ; it
stands on the communication of gifts, not the
enactment of penalties. This is what makes per-
secution alien to its nature ; so that such harshness
is abhorred by men's instinct, even if their reason
does not condemn it. Thus in the world of grace,
as in that of nature, is affection the root of duty ;
and men's relation to the Church of their Baptism
is built on that fundamental law, which is the basis
of social life. Our Catechism, therefore, rests re-
ligious as well as temporal authority on the Fifth
Commandment, and deduces from it the obligation
to obey spiritual as well as temporal masters. For
" Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all."
Hence the rule of Church-obedience is limited only
by that original duty of obedience to God, which
cannot be superseded by any subsequent obliga-
tion. Such considerations suggest at once what
are men's relations to Christ's body in that state or
place where God's Providence has fixed them, and
also what they owe to the more extended system,
in which it is their blessing to have an individual
share. Towards their own mother Church they
owe not only obedience in things lawful, but also
reverence and thankfulness. So long as she con-
tinues to bless, they may not cease to obey. There
are those who speak of themselves as the Church's
friends, forgetting that a term, which might be ap-
CHURCH OR BODY MYSTICAL. 351
propriate if employed by the holy Angels, is the
extreme of irreverence, when employed by sinful
men respecting the Mystical Body of Christ their
Saviour. For it implies ignorance of their filial re-
lation to the Church of Christ. Hence the com-
mon opinion that men are at liberty to join any
religious community, where statements are pro-
pounded, and where practices are pursued, which
harmonize with their feelings. And hence men's
attachment to their own part of the Church's body
is measured less by their obedience to its rules,
than by their professed aversion to other systems.
All these errors result from a forgetfulness of the
central truth, that the Church of Christ is His
Body ; His Presence its life ; its blessing the gift
of spiritual union with His man's nature. Where
this is given, there is opened for men the gift of
life, and state of salvation. Our duty towards that
portion of it, in which our lot is cast, arises from
love to itself, not from hatred to others ; the lines
of our heritage are marked out by affection and not
by antipathy. For in it lies our actual participa-
tion in the Mediation of Christ. Through Him
only who is both God and man is there access to
the Father. For such has been the appointment of
His sovereign wisdom, " that so in the person of a
Mediator the true ladder might be fixed, whereby
God might descend to His creatures, and His crea-
tures might ascend to God." 28
28 Bacon's Confession of Faith, u. s.
352
CHAPTER XII.
OF COMMON WORSIIir AS A MEANS OF UNION WITH
THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST.
THE actings of Christ Our Lord since His Ascen-
sion have been stated to be : first, His Intercession
on man's behalf with God the Father, and secondly,
His Spiritual Presence through His man's nature
with His brethren. And this Spiritual Presence of
the man Christ Jesus has been shown to be vouch-
safed in His Church, whereby " we are members of
His body; of His flesh, and of His bones." For
men are joined to His body natural which was
slain, in His body mystical which is sanctified.
The question which next arises respects the means
of union with that mystical body in which men
have title to the privileges of the Gospel. Of these
the first and most comprehensive is common wor-
ship. This point must now be established. The
considerations which lead to it are :
First The nature of common worship.
Secondly The grounds of its necessity.
Thirdly The place which it occupied in the
Jewish system.
WORSHIP A MEANS OF UNION. 353
Fourthly Its connexion with the Doctrine of
Mediation. And hence follows,
Fifthly the necessity of an ordained Ministry
and public Ritual.
I. The very nature of common worship shows
its efficacy in maintaining our connexion with the
mystical body of Christ. For what is it but the
voice and action of the Christian Community,
which, if it has life, must by such symptoms show
that it lives? Every organized body has some
mode of giving expression to that pervading prin-
ciple, which renders it a whole. A tree puts forth
leaves; animal life discovers itself by sound and
motion. This is that simple method of rendering
homage to God, which the Psalmist ascribes to the
whole visible creation. And if the Church be not
a mere aggregation of men, who meet by accident
within the same precincts, but the living exponent
of a spiritual power, which renders it Christ's mys-
tical body, then that quickening energy, with
which it is instinct, must have some means of
utterance. And since its office is not only towards
men whom it gathers for their own benefit into
its fostering bosom but likewise towards Him,
whose " praise is in the great congregation ;" there-
fore its first object must be that the inhabitants of
this lower world, " with Angels and Archangels, and
with all the company of heaven" should "laud and
magnify His glorious name, saying Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of
Aa
354 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
Thy glory." Now, if this be the Church's chosen
function, to partake in it must be our first means
of exercising our Christian privilege, and of claim-
ing our portion in that Mystical Body of Christ
wherein we are members.
II. How deeply this feeling was implanted from
the first in the Christian community, appears from
the grounds on which the importance of public
worhip has always rested. Its indispensable neces-
sity must have arisen from the nature of the case,
inasmuch as it did not arise from positive enact-
ment. No positive command to meet for united
worship occurs in the New Testament, except that
incidental one in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which
cannot have been relied upon in the Western
Church, by which in early times the Epistle to the
Hebrews was not received ; and yet the first Chris-
tians not only encountered every danger, but, what
was a still a stronger proof of their conviction, they
violated those civil laws to which they usually paid
such prompt obedience, rather than forego the
privilege of that common worship, whereby each
man maintained his part in the fellowship of his
Saviour. How could they be justified in disobey-
ing Caesar, unless their duty to God had been
peremptory and unquestioned? But it stood on no
direct command of Scripture. It must have rested,
therefore, on the very nature of the case on the
connexion of this service with those general duties
and privileges, which are set forth as the first prin-
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 355
ciple of the Christian life on the necessity of
union with Christ, as the new Head of the re-
deemed race on the common obligation to honour
God more than man it must have been the very
act by which men professed themselves Christ's
servants, and claimed membership in the mystical
body of the Crucified. The very publicity and
danger of the deed makes the weight which was
attached to it the more manifest. Instruction could
be given by books or by single conference. The
consecrated elements might be carried round singly
to those who desired to partake them. But when
the Roman Law 1 had expressly forbidden the
meetings of religious bodies, the common worship
of the Christians became, as Pliny expresses it, the
very "sum of their crime." 2 It was forbidden
therefore during the Dioclesian persecution, even
under the mild rule of Constantius; 3 and its per-
mission is the main point expressed in the tolera-
ting edict issued by Galerius 4 just before his death.
Yet in the face of all this opposition, the Christian
Church never intermitted its united worship; the
duties which it could not perform in public and
during the day, were discharged secretly and during
the hours of darkness ; it retreated into the heart of
the earth, and maintained itself in catacombs and
1 The proofs are collected by Gieseler, i. 12, notes C & D,
vol. i. p. 31, 32. Trajan renewed the law against e-raipeiat,
A. D. 99. 2 Epis. Lib. x. 97.
3 Lactantius de morte Persecutorum, c. 15. 4 Ibid. c. 34.
356 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
the abodes of the dead, that it might issue forth
when its season was come, and publish in the face
of the sun those benedictions in which it calls on
heaven and earth to partake.
III. The importance of common worship as our
means of union with the body of Christ is further
manifested, if we consider wherein lay the peculiar
privileges, which were enjoyed by the Jews. Their
peculiar blessing was plainly that covenanted access
to God, which was allowed to them alone of an-
cient nations. " What nation is there," said Moses,
" who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord
our God is in all things that we call upon Him
for." The wide distance which separates man from
his Maker, was not bridged over indeed so effec-
tually as since God has become man and man God,
but a foundation was laid for this wonderful bond
of union. For the first time in God's dealings with
mankind was there a nation chosen to receive the
privilege of accepted prayer. Private prayer there
had been, doubtless, from the first: the instinct
which leads men to pray in time of distress seems
a sufficient sanction for it. And family prayer
had probably commenced in the household of Seth,
when " men began to call on the name of the
Lord," and had since continued in the tents of the
Patriarchs. But this usage had rested on natural
instinct or individual communication; it was per-
sonal or family ; it was not relevant to any peculiar
promise, or any public institutions ; it belonged to
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 357
that Patriarchal state, in which the Most High was
pleased to favour His dutiful followers by single
and especial manifestations. Under this rule did
Enoch, Job, and Abraham, walk with God. But
this rule waxed insufficient when, with the in-
creasing extension of mankind, those lights which
they possessed in early times were withdrawn.
Hence the censure passed by Our Lord upon the
Samaritans, who thought their practice justified
because their " fathers worshipped upon this moun-
tain :" " Ye worship ye know not what ; we know
what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." It
was not in the doctrines of a pure Monotheism that
the Samaritans of that age were wanting. Their
habit was to address themselves to the Father of
all, through the unaided service of their own devo-
tion. But they worshipped they knew not what,
because they had no certainty of acceptance.
" Salvation is of the Jews." To them only belongs
the assurance that the Father of all will hear them.
This means of access no other nation possessed.
They had the "lively oracles" which afforded an
intercourse with the Almighty.
Xow, on what was this intercourse dependent?
It could not rest only on a conviction of the exist-
ence of Jehovah ; in this respect they were not
superior to their Fathers, the Patriarchs, even if
they surpassed their contemporaries. That which
marked them out as God's people was the national
Ritual, by which they were assured of access to
358 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
Him. The road indeed was narrow, painful, and
circuitous ; and yet it was a road of approach to
God. All right of drawing near Him was through
their nation. Their family union conferred on each
individual in their tribes a pre-eminence which was
enjoyed by no other people. " All the earth is
mine," declared Jehovah, but "ye shall be unto
Me a kingdom of Priests, and an holy nation."
Royalty lies in high descent, and Priesthood in
that peculiar consecration, which marks men out
to draw near to the presence of God ; and both
these qualities centred in that whole society, all
whose members were so much more favoured than
the residue of mankind. The consciousness of this
pre-eminence was felt, when the High Priest was
observed to bear on him the symbols of the whole
world, when he entered into the holy place, because
he was the representative of the whole creation. 5
If this were so, he was the type of Him who
stretched out His sacrificing arms upon the Cross,
that He might in truth embrace the Universe. In
this wise were the Jews favoured above the rest of
men. And this privilege they enjoyed through
their participation in those public acts, which were
the especial privilege and work of their nation. It
was not that each individual Jew found his way
to God through his individual excellency; but he
had a claim to participate in that public service
by which His nation was brought nigh to the
5 Philo quoted in Dorner's Person Christi, vol. i. p. 48.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 359
Almighty. The national Ritual was a bond of
union which gave the individual a vantage ground
in his approach to God. That general communing
of his spirit with the Great Author of the universe,
which was all that the Heathen man enjoyed, was
sanctioned and exalted by the mediatorial charac-
ter of the public Ritual, in which the Jewish nation
had a common interest. The priesthood of Aaron
did not derogate from the general privilege, which
made Israel at large a royal Priesthood ; it was the
very basis on which their blessing rested it was
the provisional appointment of that mediatorial
office, by which God and man were bound toge-
ther ; the typical representation of that true High
Priest, who is the perfect Mediator between earth
and heaven. Therefore to reject the Jewish Ritual
during that period, when it was the appointed
means of foreshowing Him who was to come,
would have been in reality to reject Christ, and
to slight the efficacy of His Mediation. So that
when Korah maintained that the separate priest-
hood of every individual Israelite dispensed with
the necessity of that national Ritual, which antici-
pated the Mediation of Christ, it pleased God by
immediate judgments to show who should " come
near to offer incense before the Lord." Thus was
it plainly seen what was that channel of Mediation,
through which individual prayers should ascend to
heaven. And as such the holiest and most spiri-
tual Israelites used it. Their ardent aspirations to
360 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
God were grounded always on that peculiar privi-
lege of approach, which had its central and conse-
crating point in their national Ritual. Such as vo-
luntarily neglected those means of confederation,
whereby men maintained their portion in the pub-
lic service, were cut off from God's people. But
those who by involuntary hindrances were pre-
cluded from actual association with their brethren,
were not left to that mere feeling after an unknown
helper, which was all that the Heathen possessed ;
their thoughts travelled to their native land, they
associated themselves in spirit to that national wor-
ship which God had made the channel of heavenly
gifts, and thus they claimed their part in the col-
lective privilege of the nation. Thus did David in
spirit go " with the multitude" from the " land of
Jordan and the hill Mizar." Thus did Daniel pray,
"his windows being open in his chamber towards
Jerusalem." This was the very principle of the
Jewish service, which extended to those who were
in distant lands, as well as to those who, being
gathered in the Temple's courts, "were praying
without at the time of incense." " They knew
much better than the Heathen that God's throne
of Majesty was in heaven, and yet were to tender
their devotions unto Him as extraordinarily present
in His temple or sanctuary." 6 For the principle of
a public Ritual does not depend on the actual pre-
sence of men, which may be interrupted by the
6 Jackson's Works, xi. 3, 11.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 361
accidents of our weakness, but on that actual pre-
sence of God, which He vouchsafes through His
appointed means of intervention. The voluntary
neglect of such opportunities on our part would be
to despise the privilege of intercourse with God.
It would be to prefer our own means of access to
those which the appointed Mediator bestows. If
we have a true belief that the privilege of union
with God is bestowed through those especial chan-
nels of intercourse which He has Himself ordained,
we shall make such efforts as were made by the
early Christians to use them. For the whole value
of such a service depends on the reality of those
blessings which God bestows, as He unquestionably
bestowed them in former times on those who wor-
shipped towards His mercy-seat, and as since the
Incarnation of Christ, they have been pledged in
fuller measure to those who make up together the
mystical body of the Lord.
IV. Now, this leads us to discern why such
especial importance should be attached to common
worship in the Church of God. For since Christ
Incarnate is the real priest, through whom all
Jewish service was effectual His body the real
victim, His members the true temple therefore
to suppose that individual piety dispenses with the
necessity of participation in the Church's collective
acts, is the same thing as if a Jew had maintained
that it superseded the necessity of participation in
the ancient Ritual. Communion with the Church
362 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
in its united acts of worship brings men into the
same relation to Christ, the one true and abiding
Mediator, which was gained in their degree for the
men of old time, by participation in that typical
and imperfect service, which was maintained through
the continual offering of the Levitical sacrifices.
As a Jew could not approach God save through
the intervention of the expected Messiah, so cannot
a Christian save through the mediation of the Mes-
siah who has been manifested. The single prayers
which were offered by the pious Jew in the solitary
temple of his heart, ascended to God because,
through the privilege of the nation, heaven and
earth were bound together. And the solitary wor-
ship of the fervent Christian is not effectual through
its private merit, but by virtue only of that inter-
cession which is offered for the elect at large, and
of that sacrifice, in which the whole Christian Body
has common interest. To rest therefore on the
mere separate intercourse of man with his Maker,
on the private aspirations of the individual soul,
would be to pass by the intervention of Christ as
something unnecessary, and to set up our own spirit
as the Mediator through whom the Father of all
could be approached. And this would be an idol-
atry which all Christian men would abhor. Yet is
this virtually the effect when personal devotion, the
importance of which cannot in itself be too much
enforced, is represented as a rival to that participa-
tion in the public ordinances of His Church, whereby
OF UXIOX WITH CHRIST. 363
God is approached through Christ. True it is that
all Christian men are Kings and Priests, and thus
have immediate access to God. But then this ac-
cess must be in Christ it depends on their charac-
ter as members of His body it is because that Me-
diation is complete which in Jewish times was im-
perfect because God and man have been made one
in Christ. The Jews likewise were all a royal priest-
hood, but this did not neutralize the necessity of
that public Ritual, whereby every individual had
privilege of approach. Neither does the privilege of
single Christians interfere with the necessity of that
Mediation of Christ, on which it is dependent.
"Albeit the temple of Jerusalem, wherein God's
people only were to worship, were long since de-
molished ; yet the sanctuary, wherein they were to
worship God, is rather translated or advanced from
earth to heaven than destroyed ; for it was God's
presence that made the temple, and that is more
extraordinary in Christ's body, than ever it had
been in Solomon's temple." 7
But then the question recurs, why is this refe-
rence to Christ Our Lord especially connected
with His public service ? Why is it not satisfied
by that mere regard which is paid to Him singly,
by those who do not choose to associate them-
selves with their fellow-creatures ? Cannot men's
hearts travel forth towards Him as their God in
privacy and seclusion ? There have been many
7 Jackson's Works, u. s.
364 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
who have professed to worship Christ singly,
through the mere exercise of their private faith ;
and this is the real principle of all those Separa-
tists, who, like the Quakers, have no sacramental
union, and by whom common worship has been
exchanged for simple teaching. Now, the reason
why such a system is a disparagement of Our
Lord's Mediation, is because His Mediation does
not depend merely on our calling ourselves by
His name, or on our entertaining certain feelings
towards Him ; but results from that actual rela-
tion, which He condescended to assume towards
us, when He took our nature into abiding union
with His own. His Mediation is a reality, external
to ourselves, and not a mere matter of our own
imagination. It is not enough to say that we gain
certain blessings by resorting to that Divine Being,
who happened once to be upon earth as though
He accidentally undertook the office of speaking in
our favour ; but His Mediation is the consequence
of that permanent character, which He was pleased
to adopt by assuming manhood. He thus became
the Head of the renewed family, who offered Him-
self a sacrifice on behalf of the whole, and through
whom all graces devolve upon the rest ; and, there-
fore, by a certain singular fitness was He marked
out to be the representative of His brethren. So
that towards the completeness of His work, it was
essential that those for whom He spoke should be
as truly bound to His manhood, as by descent they
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 365
were to their original parent. For this work was
expressly declared to be undertaken on behalf of
His mystical body. It is for those who believe on
Him through His Apostles' words, and who are
" one as we are one," that He intercedes with His
Father. His advocacy results from His being
" Head over all things to the Church, which is His
body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."
Would we have part, then, in His Intercession as
Mediator, we must be members in that " family in
heaven and earth," which is called after His name.
This membership involves federal union with the
collective Church : to be a member is to be a part
of a body, because the existence of parts implies
the existence of a whole. And, therefore, the
notion of a mere individual relation to Our Lord,
independently of that social tie which binds us to
Him as a part of His mystic body, would lead,
when followed into its results, to the virtual denial
of that office, which He discharges as man : Christ
would be viewed, according to the Sabellian theory,
as a mere name or relation, under which in this
present Dispensation the Father of all has pleased
to reveal Himself; and His actual intervention as
a Person, other than the Father and the Holy
Ghost, and as co-operating through that nature
which He took of the Virgin, in the great work of
bringing many sons unto salvation, would be prac-
tically forgotten.
The permanency, therefore, of Christ's Mediation,
366 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
together with the importance of His present inter-
ference, is the true point which is asserted when
the necessity of the Church's office is maintained.
But if a present work is transacted on our behalf
in the Gospel Kingdom, through the merit of
Christ's ascended manhood, some means must be
appointed, through which His brethren may par-
take its benefits. A system of worship upon earth
is the necessary correlative to a work of interces-
sion in heaven. The one implies the other. And,
therefore, in that early age of the Church, when
Our Lord's Mediation was felt to be the life of the
Christian community, there was an universal and
unqualified assertion, that as certainly as Christ's
sacrifice was pleaded effectually above, it was like-
wise truly participated in Gospel ordinances, and
that those things which were done on earth in the
Church's united acts, made part of that grand sac-
rifice which has its consummation in heaven. So
that while all other parts of the Christian Ritual
were spoken of as sacrificial in their character, that
service by which men especially participated in the
Mediation of Christ, because they are most truly
bound by it to His mystic body, i. e. the Eucharist
or Lord's Supper, was called emphatically the
Christian sacrifice. And this is an act which, by
its federal character, involves the necessity of that
united worship, whereby men partake in the collec-
tive privileges of the Church of God. "Irenseus 8
8 S. Irenaeus, iv. 18, 2.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 367
tells me," says our own Mede, 9 "there were offer-
ings there, i. e. in the Old Testament ; there are
also offerings here, i. e. in the New Testament ;
there were sacrifices among the people, i. e. the
Jews ; there are sacrifices also in the Church."
And after mentioning that the Holy Communion
was commonly called a sacrifice, " it would be in-
finite," he adds, " to note all the places and authors
where and by whom it is thus called.'' He con-
tents himself therefore with citing those authors,
by whom it was so described in the life-time of the
Apostles. In justification of this mode of speaking,
St. Irenaeus adduces that prophetic description,
which had been given by Malachi of the services
of the Christian Church : " From the rising of the
sun even unto the going down of the same, My
name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in
every place incense shall be offered unto My name,
and a pure offering." Now, the one of these things,
incense, is explained by St. John to typify the
prayers of Saints ; the pure offering, therefore,
must on its part have something to indicate.
Accordingly, it was understood to be the "new
oblation of the New Testament, which the Church
receiving from the Apostles offers throughout the
whole world to God." 11 An oblation which is
9 " That the Christian Service is an Oblation proved by the
Fathers." Mede's Works, B. ii. c. iv. p. 361.
10 Rev. v. 8. St. Augustin calls the Lord's Prayer " quotidi-
anum spiritale quodam modo incensum." De Nat. et Grat. 33.
11 S. Iren. iv. 17, 5.
368 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
thus explained by Mede : " We are wont to con-
clude our prayers with, Through Jesus Christ Our
Lord. And this is the specification, whereby the
worship of a Christian is distinguished from that of
the Jew. Now, that which we in all our prayers
and thanksgivings do vocally, when we say through
Jesus Christ Our Lord, the Ancient Church in her
public and solemn service did visibly, by represent-
ing Him, according as He commanded, in the sym-
bols of His body and blood. AVhat time, then, so
fit and seasonable to commend our devotions unto
God, as when the Lamb of God lies slain upon the
holy table; and we receive visibly, though mysti-
cally, those gracious pledges of His blessed body
and blood? This was that sacrifice of the ancient
Church the Fathers so much ring in our ears the
sacrifice of Praise and Prayer through Jesus Christ,
mystically represented in the creatures of bread and
wine." 12 *
These assertions respecting the Holy Communion
involve the two following conditions: First, that
this ordinance should be allowed to be as truly a
sacrifice as any of those ancient rites to which that
tenn was commonly applied either in Scripture or
by men ; secondly, that its efficacy should be rested
wholly upon that sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross
once for all, which forms the basis of His Media-
tion. The first of these conditions is implied in
the language of the early Church respecting the
12 Mede, ubi sup. ii. 2, p. 357.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 369
Blessed Eucharist : it follows from the fact that
"we have an altar," 13 and that "this" is "our
sacrifice." 14 The second results from the reality of
that system of Mediation, whereby man is recon-
ciled to God. The principle of this Mediation was,
that He who undertook it partook truly of both
natures, so that He was at once God's representa-
tive among men, and man's advocate with the
Creator. And in this character, what valuable
thing could He offer to God but the sacrifice of
Himself? His sanctified humanity was the only
pure thing which could be gathered out of the mass
of corrupted mortality. And, therefore, no earthly
accessions could increase its amount or enhance its
value. If its value were not infinite, it would not
suffice to atone for all sins ; if its amount were not
unbounded, it would not take in all offenders. To
this sacrifice, therefore, no acts of ours can con-
tribute anything; our hundred pence, if we could
offer them, would add nothing to the value of His
ten thousand talents. So that the only ground on
which the Holy Communion can have that cha-
racter of a sacrifice, which has been assigned to it,
must be through its participation in the central
work of Mediation, the offering, i. e. of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.
But how can the Eucharist or Christian sacrifice
be an "offering of the body of Jesus Christ;" since
" Christ dieth no more," but " hath entered in once
13 Hebrews, xiii. 10. u Communion Service.
Bb
370 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
into the holy place, having obtained eternal re-
demption for us?" So that the body of Jesus
Christ which He took of the Virgin, that through
its sanctification 15 He might sanctify the mass of
humanity, has its material place in heaven, " until
the restitution of all things." This body, there-
fore, cannot die again, nor can its material place
be other than at God's right hand: yet must this
be the very body which we present to the Father ;
for were it aught besides, our dependence would
not be on that anointed first-fruit 16 of man's nature
which, that it might be the instrument of Media-
tion, was made personally one with God. The
offering must be made, then, in a manner not
incompatible with the truth that the thing offered
"ever liveth;" and again, that according to its ma-
terial place, it " is ever at the right hand of God."
Now, this is the exact manner in which the sacri-
fice of Christ is declared to be presented before
God : as in reference to time past He was " the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," so
there "stood a Lamb as it had been slain" before
the throne, in the vision of the utmost future. So
that our offerings derive their value from the same
source which gave their efficacy to the ancient
sacrifices. For thus is Christ consecrated " a Priest
for ever," and His offering is "a perpetual sacri-
15 John, xvii. 19.
16 " Totam nostram massam assumpsit, factus primitite
nostrse naturae." Anas. Sin. Or. 3. Bib. Max. Pat. ix. 932.
Vide S. Athan. de Inc. et c. AT. 12, vol. i. 879.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 371
fice." 17 " The substance or matter of the sacrifice"
of Christ, says Dr. Jackson, " is of the same force
at this day to remit sins, that it was of whilst it
was offered ; for His human nature was consecrated
by death and by His bloody passion, to be a sacri-
fice of everlasting virtue, to be the continual pro-
pitiation for our sins." 18
Now, it is because what is pleaded above as the
ground of our acceptance is that true manhood
which was taken for the purpose of Mediation by
the Son of God, that the Eucharist, rather than
any other part of the Church's Ritual, is declared
to be the Christian sacrifice. For " as often as ye
eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the
Lord's death till he come." Through its character
of a Sacrament, as shown in the next Chapter, does
the Holy Communion connect us with that slain
Humanity of the Incarnate Word, which is present
by spiritual power in holy ordinances. Through
this bread and this cup, that which is offered as a
true sacrifice in heaven, is present as a real though
immaterial agent in the Church's ministrations. So
that what is done by Christ's ministers below, is a
constituent part of that general work which the
one great High Priest performs in heaven : through
the intervention of His heavenly Head, the earthly
sacrificer truly exhibits to the Father that body of
Christ, which is the one only sacrifice for sins;
each visible act has its efficacy through those in-
17 Hebrews, x. 12. 18 Works, x. 55, 6.
372 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
visible acts of which it is the earthly expression ;
and things done on earth are one with those done
in heaven.
But though the body of Jesus Christ, present
materially in heaven, and present in holy ordi-
nances through spiritual power, supplies the Chris-
tian sacrifice with its whole intrinsic value, yet
those things which are contributed by His brethren
obtain acceptance by union with Him. To this
circumstance the prayer and praise of Christians
owe all their right to be admitted as a portion of
the Christian sacrifice. 19 For the virtue of the
Mediator's service extends itself to that of all His
brethren. And so is it likewise with those elements
of bread and wine, which are presented to God as
a sample and first-fruits of His creation, that they
may afterwards be set apart by consecration to be
the means whereby that Mediator who has sanc-
tified this whole defiled universe, may distribute
Himself to men. These elements, therefore, like
the prayers of men, cannot be an acceptable offer-
19 The only way in which men can make part of a valuable sa-
crifice is, that they are regarded as parts of Him, through whom
only they are accepted. On this ground does St. Augustin speak
of the Christian sacrifice as consisting of " multi unum corpus
in Christo." But then it is because the Church is a part of that
victim which is truly acceptable : " quod in ea re quam offert
ipsa oiferatur." And this offering is presented by our High
Priest above, as a part of His continual Intercession : " Efficitur,
ut tota ipsa redempta civitas, hoc est congregatio societasque
sanctorum, universale sacrificium offeratur Deo per sacerdotem
magnum, qui etiam se ipsum obtulit in passione pro nobis, ut
tanti capitis corpus essenius." De Civitate Dei, x. 6.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 373
ing, except so far as they have received His hal-
lowing presence, who corrects the evils of the Fall.
But when Malachi described the sacrifice of the
Christian Church, he looked plainly to some higher
object than the mere material value of these pre-
liminary offerings. For as incense typifies, but is
not prayer, so the " pure offering" could not be the
literal Mincha, or meat-offering, but that true sacri-
fice of which it was typical. And to what did all
Jewish rites refer but the one real Mediator ? So
that the oblation which Malachi contemplated,
must have been that true Mincha, that hidden
Manna, the body of Jesus Christ which was offered
once for all. This it was which He declared should
be presented in every place from the rising to the
setting of the sun, by those Priests and Levites
whom the Gentile 20 Church should substitute for
the ancient ministrants.
The account which has been given of the Eu-
charist will seem to some to make it too real a
sacrifice, while to others it will seem wanting in
reality. The latter will say that if the efficacious
part of the Eucharistic offering is performed by our
great Mediator in heaven if the thing of value
which is presented before God has already been
brought into the heavenly temple then that which
remains to be done upon earth can only be a sym-
bolical, and not a real offering. And they fear,
therefore, that no great importance will be attached
20 Malachi, i. 11 ; Isaiah, Ixvi. 21.
374 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
to that portion of the work, in which Christ's
earthly servants are ministrants. But the state-
ments which have been made are involved imme-
diately by the central fact of the Doctrine of
Mediation, that no perfect offering can be found
among men except that manhood which was per-
sonally united to God. And that Christ's human
body should have its material place in heaven, does
not interfere with that influence which it has by
spiritual power ; or diminish therefore the sacred-
ness of those elements or means whereby men par-
ticipate its presence. For if to rest its efficacy on
Christ's work above, is incompatible with the opi-
nion that the Eucharist is a true sacrifice, then must
this name be denied to the Passover also. What
was the real virtue of the Passover, but that
through its participation men had part in that ac-
ceptance which the Mediator effected ? The lamb
slain upon earth was not of intrinsic value, but that
" Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," in
whose effectual atonement it gave Israel partici-
pation. To the heavenly temple, therefore, do
those ancient writers direct our thoughts, who
speak most strongly of the reality of the Christian
sacrifice. " There is an altar in heaven," says St.
Irenaeus, " for to it our prayers and oblations are
directed." 21 And therefore he speaks of " the
Word" 22 Christ, according to His man's nature
as the oblation which is offered to God. A similar
21 S. Iren. iv. 18, 6. ffl S. Iren. iv. 18, 4.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 375
statement is made by St. Ambrose : "On one side
is the shadow, on another the representation, on a
third the truth. The shadow is in the Law, the
representation in the Gospel, the truth in heaven.
In former times sacrifices consisted of lambs and
calves : now Christ is offered, but He is offered ac-
cording to His man's nature, according to that
being in which He is receptive of suffering ; and as
Priest He offers up Himself as the ransom of our
offences ; He does it here in representation, He
does it in truth there, where He mediates in the
Father's presence as our Intercessor." 23
The real point in dispute, therefore, supposing all
verbal questions excluded, is whether that which
is done in common worship, and especially in its
crowning act, the Holy Communion, is done merely
within man himself, in the region of his own feel-
ings and intellect, or whether, besides this, it be
something which belongs to the whole Church,
which extends not only to earth but to heaven,
of which the agent is not only the man who sup-
plicates on earth, but the Church's Head who
supplicates in heaven. And this turns on the
point whether man's salvation depends on a real
work, external to ourselves, which our great Advo-
cate is still carrying on by His Intercession, and
through the pleading of His slain humanity. 24 So
23 S. Arabros. de Officiis Ministrorum, i. 48, 248.
24 " Besides the infinite value, we are to acknowledge," says Dr.
Jackson, " the infinite or everlasting efficacy or operative virtue
376 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
that we fall back upon the original matter of
controversy, whether we are to accept the Church's
Doctrine, that Our Lord's Incarnation is a truth,
or the Sabellian opinion, that it is a fictitious repre-
sentation. Let Christ be believed to be truly
God and man, pleading for us the merits of that
human nature, which He has consecrated through
His Godhead, and there must be reality in those
means whereby we are continually associated to
that sanctified humanity, in union with which is all
our hope. It is the certainty of this communion
the truth that on its media is our life dependent,
because the thing with which we are thus con-
nected is our life itself which was so zealously
contended for by those contemporaries of the
Apostles, to whom Mede refers, when they asserted
the reality of a sacrifice and therefore of a priest-
hood in the Church of Christ. For if there be
such importance and reality in the work which is
done by Christ, then the means whereby we par-
ticipate it must be real and important. Through
of this bloody sacrifice of the Son of God. Suppose the Son
of God, immediately after He had paid the ransom for our sins,
or in that instant in which He said Consummatum est, ' all is
finished,' had deposed or laid aside the human nature, in which
He was conceived and born to the end and purpose that He
might die in it (or according to it), His offering or sacrifice had
been of value infinite, in that it could purchase so universal a
pardon at God's hands for all sinners, and for all sins. Yet if
He had laid aside the human nature immediately after His
suffering, the everlasting efficacy of this infinite sacrifice had
been cut off." iWorks, x. 55, 6.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 377
fear of a different error, many persons in later
times, who never doubted the reality of this work,
have used different language. 25 Their anxiety has
been merely to exclude the notion, that human
acts have any value, except through the sacrifice
of Christ. But this truth is so far from being
incompatible with the assertion of a priesthood and
a sacrifice by the primitive Fathers, that it is the
very ground upon which they based its impor-
tance. They maintained the reality of those means,
whereby we are joined to Christ, for the purpose
of showing that we cannot be saved, except through
His " perpetual sacrifice." Now, since Christ's
work is the work of the Great Head of renewed
humanity for all His brethren, therefore the means
whereby we hold to Him are an actual participation
in His sacrifice. A sacrifice is not participated
only by the sacrificing Priest, but by all those who
have a right in the action 26 which is performed, and
a hope through the offering which is accepted.
" Behold Israel after the flesh : are not they which
25 This is TVaterland's explanation of the fact, that Hooker
says " sacrifice is now no part of the Christian ministry," and
that we have " properly now no sacrifice." " I presume he
meant by proper sacrifice, propitiatory. In such a sense as
that he might justly say, that sacrifice is no part of the Church
ministry, or that the Christian Church has no sacrifice. But I
commend not the use of such new language, be the meaning
ever so right: the Fathers never used it." The Christian
Sacrifice Explained IVaterlantfs TVorks, viii. 169.
26 " Indubitatum est .... ipsos fideles praesentes una cum sa-
cerdote offerre." Van Espen, quoted bg JlfaskeU, Ancient
Liturgy, p. 69.
378 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?" Both
laity, therefore, and priesthood 27 have a share in the
Christian sacrifice the one as participating in the
virtue of the gift, the other as further contributing
by their ministry to its common participation.
Therefore, though it be a necessary result of our
acceptance through the work of a Mediator, that
the same party should be both Priest and Victim 28
though looking at that meritorious act, on which
man's acceptance is dependent, there is but one
Priest and one sacrifice in Heaven and Earth we
yet may fitly apply the name both of Priests and
sacrifices to those media, whereby that act which is
continually pleaded in the Heavenly sanctuary is
participated by surrounding multitudes. Neither
can we speak too highly of the value of what is
effected by Christ's earthly ministers, provided we
render them subservient to that perfect sacrifice of
Himself which can receive no augmentation.
Why then is it that the existence of a Christian
Priesthood, and a Christian sacrifice, have been
questioned by those who never doubted the reality
of Christ's Intercession and Atonement as an actual
work external to ourselves ? Two things have
been principally alleged : first, that their assertion
27 " As Christ, in virtue of His sacrifice on the Cross, inter-
cedes for us with the Father so does the minister of Christ's
priesthood here ; that the virtue of the eternal sacrifice may be
salutary and effectual to all the needs of the Church, both for
things temporal and eternal." Taylor's Worthy Communi-
cant, i. iv. 4. M S. Aug. de Trin. iv. 14.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 379
is inconsistent with the privilege of Christians;
and secondly, that it is incompatible with the pre-
rogative of Christ. These objections shall be con-
sidered in their order.
To be " Kings and Priests" has been declared in
Scripture to be the privilege of individual Christians.
For to them more signally than to Israel of old has
been given that right of access to God, which is at
once a royal privilege and a priestly function.
This is the meaning of that " sacerdotium lai-
corum" which was claimed in primitive times for
all Christians. But on what does this title depend?
It results solely from the fact that all members of
the family of Christ are associated in their degree
in those privileges, of which the Pattern Man was
perfectly possessed. The abundance of super-
natural grace which belonged to Him by right was
sufficient to ennoble all His brethren. Their title,
therefore, is no individual birthright no natural
superiority to the residue of mankind but that
those privileges, which belong to the Head of the
Church by right, belong to His members by favour.
On this ground similar titles were bestowed even
upon the Jewish people, because their prospective
participation in the promised Mediator gave them
some portion in His honours. Now, if this be the
ground of that claim which is made for individual
Christians, how can it be interfered with by that
medium of intercourse with Christ, on which its
very existence is dependent? For it is to Christ,
380 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
as man, that the title belongs of right, in which all
Christians claim to participate. Now, it is for the
very end of providing a channel of intercourse with
the man's nature of Christ, that all Church ordi-
nances have been provided. Their professed pur-
pose is to add members to His body. So long,
then, as the Christian Sacrifice and Priesthood are
merely made a means of union with the manhood
of Christ, they cannot interfere with the privilege
of individual Christians. As the same terms of
royalty and priesthood, when applied in their de-
gree to the Jewish nation, were rendered available
through the efficacy of that national Ritual, where-
by the whole people was united to God, so the
existence of such common worship as involves the
reality of a Christian Priesthood, is the very means
of their maintenance in the Church of Christ. The
simple name of a Christian Priesthood cannot be
objected to, as incompatible with the right of
Christians, for otherwise, to monopolize the title of
king would be equally inconsistent with their
kingly honour. So that such Priesthood and such
sacrifices in the Church of Christ as are the means
of maintaining the connexion between Christ and His
brethren, are no disparagement to their birthright,
but supply the very basis on which it is dependent.
We come then to the other objection. Is the
continuance of a sacerdotal system incompatible
with the prerogative of Christ? Those who deny
that a priesthood and sacrifice exist under the
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 381
Gospel, suppose that they interfere in some way
with the propitiatory office, which is admitted on
all hands to belong exclusively to Christ. But why
are they supposed to interfere with it? If, indeed,
Christ's work was entirely concluded when He was
upon earth if when he had removed certain dis-
abilities which attached to man's position, He left
men to find their way to heaven as they could,
with the help perhaps of that general influence of
the Great Spirit of the Universe, in which all ages
and nations have believed then indeed no place
is left for the present action of a sacerdotal system.
But this would be to renounce belief in Christ's
" continual sacrifice" to explain away the reality
of His Intercession, and the truth of His nature
and to forget that He retains that manhood where-
by He has become the new Head of our race.
Now, if Christ is still maintaining a real intercession
if He still pleads that sacrifice, in the merit
whereof we must partake if we would be truly
joined to His man's nature then is there ample
place for that sacerdotal system, by which some
actual thing is to be still effected, and in which
some agents must be still employed. Now, this it is
which is asserted by St. Ignatius and St. Irenaeus,
when they maintain that there exists an altar and a
sacrifice in the Church of Christ. They maintain
the reality of those acts of Christ, in which we par-
ticipate through the intervention of His ministers.
So that the real dispute is whether anything is still
382 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
done by the God-man in His Gospel Kingdom ; or
whether, as the Sabellians maintain, His work is
over, and His office at an end. For if anything is
still transacted, so that for its participation there
need certain acts, and the service of certain agents,
we have an exact precedent in the Jewish system
for bestowing the name of sacrifice and priesthood
upon the media which are thus employed.
Now, to this it may be replied, that the Jewish
system was a temporary provision, which was
superseded by the Gospel. The High Priest, it
may be said, stood formerly in the place of Christ ;
and therefore now that the true Priest is come, a
typical Priest would not only be superfluous but
intrusive. Such is the common argument ; but
such is not the argument employed by the writer
to the Hebrews. His assertion is, not that the
Levitical Priesthood was so real and efficacious,
that had it continued, the Priesthood of Christ
would have been supererogatory ; but on the con-
trary, that had Christ's Priesthood, like the Leviti-
cal, been only earthly and typical, there would have
been no use in the transition from the one system
to the other. " If He were upon earth He should
not be a Priest, seeing that there are Priests, that
offer gifts according to the law." Christ is asserted,
therefore, to be a Priest not after the order of
Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedec. And
the reason why the Jewish Ritual has passed away,
is because now that the True Sacrifice is offered,
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 383
the media of commemoration have taken the place
of the media of prediction. Had there been more
than this in the Jewish Ritual, how could the
Apostles have continued to observe it ? Had it in-
terfered with the work of Christ, it would not have
been enough to leave it to die away under the light
of the Gospel. It would not have been sufficient
for St. Paul to teach men not to trust ; he must
have forbidden any to practice it. But every privi-
lege, which has been bestowed in God's two great
Dispensations, has flowed into them from that
central fact of the Mediation of Christ, which has
been the quickening principle of both. For on it
alone both the Old and New Testament were de-
pendent, and in its blessings the old and new Elec-
tion, though in different degrees, have been par-
takers. Neither could inferior officers or means in
either Covenant supersede that Mediation of Christ,
to which they were subordinate. Their sole purpose
was to carry it out, to turn men to it, to unite them
into such system and harmony, that they might
profit by the blessings which it conveys. This is
all which can be done by the ministers of Christ's
Church ; and all which could be done by the min-
isters of God's temple. And the very reason why
we put the priestly office under the Law in a line
with the ministerial office under the Gospel why
we assert that if the title of Priest could be given
fitly to the first, it belongs also to the second is,
that otherwise we should place men on the same
384 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
level with Christ, and derogate from His peculiar
character. For to allow this distinction would be to
assign too little to the Mediation of Christ, and too
much to the priesthood of men. It were to assign
too little to Christ to say merely, that when earthly
Priests had been long offering their insufficient
sacrifices, He appeared in the fulness of time to
offer that which was perfective and complete.
Christ's office as Priest is the consequence of His
nature : it differs in kind from the same work or
title as discharged by others ; it cannot be referred
to the same rank, or compared with things which
are incommensurable with it. Any persons who
discharge an office which has reference to God, and
who present to Him what is offered by men, may
be called Priests (as was Melchizedec, because a
type of Christ), but this no more places them in
the same class with Christ, than the title of Son as
bestowed upon Him, assimilates Him to the par-
takers in earthly sonship. That He is called Son
and Priest in Scripture is no reason for degrading
Him to the class of earthly Priests, or earthly
children. For His priestly office flows directly
from that conjunction of two natures, whereby He
is Mediator between God and man. This rendered
Him by nature such a real representative of our
race towards God, as earthly Priests can be only
by office and appointment. Except for this true
conjunction of Godhead and manhood, no accept-
able offering could be rendered by man to God.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 385
As He is the only channel through whom graces
flow from God to man, so is He the only medium
through which worship ascends from man to his
Maker. This is the very cause for that system of
the Church, whereby men are truly united to Him,
and have a real share in His Intercession. Now,
to assert that if Priests existed under the second as
under the first Covenant, His sole and inalienable
office would be impaired, is to allow that the Aaronic
Priests are to be put in the same class with Him,
and that they executed a function, which He after-
wards discharged. The perpetuation of a corre-
sponding office could not interfere with the work of
Christ, unless the priesthood of the sons of Aaron
would have interfered with Him. And thus is He
degraded to a mere functionary who exercised a
certain work by appointment, instead of being that
great High Priest, who is our Mediator by nature.
And as this is to assign too little to Christ, so it
is to assign too much to men. For if the Aaronic
Priesthood is looked at in itself, and independently
of Him, how could it do anything towards man's
salvation ? It is a general declaration that it is
" not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should cake away sins." The importance then
which was assigned to the Jewish law, and the
benefits which were derived from it, show that it
was only relevant to Christ that its force de-
pended on the constant application of Christ's
merits that its object was to bring men into union
c c
386 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
with Him and that except with this reference it
was a splendid fiction. 29 This assertion is as true
respecting those media of communion which were
used before the time of Christ, as respecting those
which have been employed since His Advent; for
it is only through " the Lamb slain from the foun-
dation of the world," that the offerings of men,
whether before or since, could be acceptable. If
it be said therefore that a Christian priesthood is
needless, because the work of Mediation is dis-
charged by Christ alone; the answer is, that such
an argument proves a Jewish priesthood to have
been useless also. If it be added that a Christian
priesthood interferes with the sole merits of Christ,
by providing another way of approaching God,
why then did not the Jewish priesthood the same ?
29 The contrary notion has led to the opinion adopted by
some German Rationalists, in order to get rid of the predictions
of Christ in the Old Testament, that all which the Prophets
had in their minds in their description of the Christian cove-
nant, was that the purer system of Monotheism was to be dif-
fused among the Heathen by the Jewish nation. "Rosen-
miiller," says Gesenius^ on Isaiah, xlix., "finds here the ex-
pansion of the idea that the people of Israel was hereafter to be
the Instructor of the Heathen, and to spread true religion in
the earth. He cites Isaiah, Ixi. 5, 6, according to which all
Israelites were hereafter to be Priests, and Joel, iii. 1, which im-
plies that in the golden age, they were all to be Prophets." Com-
ment, vol. iii. p. 123. The mistake has arisen from forgetting
that the office of Prophet or Priest whether under the old or
new Covenant, is not distinct from the true exercise of these
offices by the Pattern Man, but is included in it, and is its
earthly expression. All Priests and Prophets are mediators by
office so long as HE acts and speaks in them, who is Mediator
by nature.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 387
If men answer that the latter was specially ap-
pointed to show beforehand the Lord's death, is
not a system of ministering equally required to
fulfil the allotted office of showing "the Lord's
death till He come." 30 But in truth, neither the
one nor the other office has any tendency, when
rightly viewed, to lead men away from Christ,
their only object being to conduct men to Him.
The Manichees indeed, who thought the ancient
law a mischievous obstruction, which shut men out
from the Good Spirit of the Universe, might enter-
tain similar notions of the system whereby men are
united to the body of Christ. 31 But those w r ho
30 Sacrifice, " as practised before the time of Christ, may
justly be considered as a sacramental memorial, showing forth
the Lord's death till He came ; and when accompanied with a
due faith in the promises made to the early believers, may rea-
sonably be judged to have been equally acceptable with that
sacramental memorial, which has been enjoined by Our Lord
Himself to His followers for the shorting forth His death until
His coming again" Magee on Atonement, i. 61. This state-
ment is no doubt correct, in that it puts the sacrificial system
under the law in the same line with that under the Gospel ; but
to speak of the former as " equally acceptable" with the latter
is to forget " that they without us" w r ere " not made perfect."
" The ministration written and engraven in stones" was not so
favoured doubtless as " the ministration of the Spirit."
31 That which Rationalists dislike in the Old Testament is
that it represents the system of Mediation as an advance on the
system of nature. Now, if man had access to God through the
natural intercourse of mind with mind, as Adam had before the
Fall, any step towards the system of Mediation would be a
derogation from the prerogative of nature. For what would
Priest and Altar be, but an intrusion which obstructed the
natural intercourse of the mind with its unembodied Creator ?
Hence, Socinians represent the Law, together with the whole
388 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
admit the divine authorship of that law under
which the ancient Priests ministered to Christ by
type and sacrifice, need not doubt that the minis-
tration of public officers in His Church, may in
like manner enable men to profit by His Media-
tion. There is nothing in the privilege of Chris-
tians, nor in the work of Christ Our Lord, incon-
sistent with such intervention. It is an intervention
which unites, and does not separate. For it is
obviously essential to that common and united
worship, which has been shown to be the appointed
means of union with the mystical body of Christ.
So that an ordained ministry and public Ritual
may be concluded to be required of necessity in
the Church of God.
V. It has been shown that it is nowise incon-
sistent with the Doctrine of our Lord's Mediation,
that the Christian ministry should equally with
the Jewish be called a priesthood, and that its
service should equally be styled a sacrifice. And
it has been stated what is that true and only
system of Mediation to which it conducted, as a concession to
the infirmities of an uncivilized age, which could not rise to the
level of an intellectual religion. And even those Christian
writers who reject the sacramental system of the Church, are
led to speak of " the Law and Levitical arrangement" as " in-
troduced in God's anger" [Bunsen's Kirche der Zukunft, p. 77],
as though it were a diminution of that means of intercourse
with God, which men before possessed. For since the sacra-
mental system is the complete and full expression of that pre-
sence of an Incarnate Mediator, of which the Levitical scheme
was the preliminary shadow, it is impossible that those who
reject the one should do justice to the other.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 389
sacrifice, on the pleading whereof depends the office
of both systems; the one by typical representa-
tion the other by sacramental union. As yet,
however, nothing has been adduced but reasons
for expecting a Christian ministry to exist; it is
necessary to show further the fact of its existence.
Now, it is essential to notice what it is which
Scripture declares on this subject, and on what it
is silent. The existence of a public Ritual and
Ministry it declares either expressly or by impli-
cation: their nature, order, and mode of appoint-
ment are less clearly expressed. The existence of
a public ministry follows (independently of various
historical and incidental statements in Scripture)
from that central portion of the Christian Revela-
tion, with which we are particularly engaged.
For the Doctrine of Our Lord's Incarnation, which
is the beginning and end of the Gospel, declares
to us that the renewal of man's nature is effected
through union with the manhood of Christ. All
the supernatural gifts of grace were first concen-
trated in this representative of the human race
and Head of the Christian family [vide cap. 10],
that from His manhood they might afterwards
flow forth for the replenishment of His brethren.
Again, this union is declared to be vouchsafed to
us in that mystical body of Christ Our Lord, in
which all Christians are engrafted [vide cap. 11].
Again, our mean of partaking in the mystical body
of Christ, has been shown (in the present Chapter)
390 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
to be participation in its common actions. Those
common actions, therefore, are essential to the
effect of the Incarnation of Christ. And if there
be public acts, there must be public agents: a
ministry or system of some sort or other must be
essential to the existence of that collective order,
whereby individuals become members of the body
of Christ. What is asserted then as a Scriptural
truth and necessary doctrine is, that some public
order and worship, with all \vhich it implies, must
for ever exist in the Church of God. And by
common worship is not to be understood that
Christians have the right of meeting together, and
those who please the right of uttering their minds
(a thing which here is neither affirmed nor denied),
but that the Church of Christ, regarded as a whole,
has certain duties incumbent on it towards God
that those duties involve united worship, common
action, a public service, and arise from that col-
lective character, which is stamped on the whole
Christian community by its spiritual union with the
body of its Incarnate God. To forego this re-
lation is to leave the high ground of the Christian
Revelation, and to descend to the uncertainty of
mere natural religion. It is to rest on that imme-
diate relation to God through the intercourse of
mind with mind, which belonged to unfallen man,
but which since the Fall can only be restored
through the intervention of a Mediator. So that
to suppose the individual duties of religion to be
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 391
anterior to common worship or independent of it,
is virtually to abandon the Mediation of Christ.
For all the private prayers, thoughts, actions of
Christians, depend on that union with Christ Our
Lord, which is attained through the communica-
tion of His man's nature. And He communicates
it through those public acts, whereby the Great
Head of the Christian body joins all its members
to Himself.
Now, when it is further demanded by whom are
these public acts done, in what circumstances,
under whose presidence and authority, we can only
refer to the practice of the Church, as she has been
guided "into all truth" by the Holy Ghost, and
to the example which was set by the Apostles. It
has been God's will that in this as in many other
cases, the New Testament should not comprise
such an exact code of laws as was afforded by the
Old. That the several Books which compose the
New Testament are inspired, and that they con-
tain the rule of our faith, are facts of which we are
assured, because it was always so held by the
Apostles and their successors, although no such
statement occurs in Holy Writ. That worship
should be solemnized especially on the first day of
the week, so that we are authorized to depart from
the letter of the Fourth Commandment, rests on
the same authority. We have no other proof that
children are fit partakers of the one, or women of
the other sacrament. In all these cases we take as our
392 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
guide the example of the Apostles. In like man-
ner must we act in regard to the nature and mode
of that public agency, whereby the united acts of
the Christian community have their expression.
That such united action exists, and that there
must be a public system of worship, we believe on
the authority of Scripture, and because they are
indissolubly bound to the highest doctrines of
religion. And the existence of such a system,
even in the opinion of those who are least inclined
to rest the Church's being on any doctrinal basis,
involves the necessity of agents, by whom it may
be conducted. " Any one who sanctions a so-
ciety," says Archbishop Whately, " gives in so
doing his sanction to those essentials of a society,
its government, its officers, its regulations. Ac-
cordingly if Our Lord had not expressly said any-
thing about ' binding and loosing,' still the very
circumstance of His sanctioning a Christian com-
munity, would necessarily have implied His sanc-
tion of the institutions, ministers, and government
of a Christian Church." 32 Since the existence,
then, of a system of common worship is a truth of
Scripture, and since it implies the existence of a
ministry, all that remains is to ask the nature and
constitution of that ministry ; and if on this sub-
ject Scripture has given us no express rule, yet as
in the other cases mentioned, some guidance may
be derived from the example of the Apostles.
32 " Kingdom of Christ," p. 151.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 393
This accordingly has been the course adopted
by the English Church. She prefaces her enforce-
ment of the rule of Episcopacy by declaring that
" it is evident unto all men diligently reading the
Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from
the Apostles' time there have been these orders of
ministers in Christ's Church : Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons." As we trace back from the present
time, we find this rale to have universally prevailed
among the spiritual predecessors of our present
ministry. Each generation has professed to receive
its commission from Christ through the interven-
tion of the preceding one. Even Archbishop
Whately allows, that " The existence of such an
order of men as Christian ministers, continuously
from the time of the Apostles to this day, is per-
haps as complete a moral certainty as any historical
fact can be." M And when we draw near its foun-
tain, we have the direct testimony of Tertullian,
who lived shortly after St. John, that its first rank
had its commission handed on to it by that Apostle
of Christ j 34 and St. Ignatius, St. John's contem-
porary, declares its intervention essential to the
validity of sacred ordinances. This is sufficient
ground for justifying the English Church in her
assertion of the Apostolical descent of the three
orders of ministers. It is a further question
whether this Apostolical successsion is essential,
and whether any break in it would impair the
33 " Kingdom of Christ," p. 222. M Tert. adv. Marcionem, iv. 5.
394 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
validity of sacred rites. Such a question, however,
seems as needless as to ask whether the Church
could safely reverse the appointment of the Lord's
Day, or unsettle the observance of infant Baptism.
In all such cases to follow the Apostolic example is
plainly the right, because it is the safest course.
Since the purpose of a ministry is to keep up that
public order, whereby we hold perpetual com-
munion with the Lord's Body, any departure from
its constituted usage is a needless risk. It is
alleged, indeed, that to rest anything on the per-
petuation of a chain, which contains so many links,
is to subject our religious hopes to a painful un-
certainty. This is to forget that the Apostolical
succession only supplies those who believe it with
an additional security, over and above what others
possess. Since each Bishop has commission from
three of his brethren, its effect if traced back a few
generations, is to identify his individual authority
with that of the whole Episcopate of the Church.
Were it not that the same parties repeatedly con-
secrate, every Bishop would have two hundred and
sixteen spiritual predecessors in the fifth degree;
and it can scarcely be doubted, therefore, that by
going back a few years, his commission must have
been transmitted by the whole body of his fore-
runners. The feeling thus engendered may be
illustrated by that which prevailed among pious
Israelites, from the hope that Our Lord would
descend from them according to the flesh. Con-
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 395
sidering the vast number of ancestors which each
individual had in the twenty-seventh generation,
there can scarcely have been a Jewish parent in the
time of David, if we except those whose progeny
became absolutely extinct, who was not, according
to the flesh, a predecessor of Our Lord. So truly
was He the heir of the nation. And in like man-
ner there can scarcely have been a Bishop in the
Primitive Church much less could there be one
among the Apostles through whom every in-
dividual inheritor of the Episcopal office may not
trace his commission. Surely such a fact is not
calculated to weaken the feeling of the Church's
unity, or to relax that bond whereby all the members
of the Lord's Body are united to Himself. And if
it be said that there may in some case have been a
secret failure, which may have impaired some one
of the many parallel threads by which this bond is
rendered continuous, such a circumstance, instead
of being fatal to the general law, seems the very
exception for which some great Divines have con-
tended that an involuntary breach of this Apos-
tolical rule is not fatal to the Church's existence.
If we saw persons whose descent we were unable
to trace to Adam, but whose acts and character
showed an exact congruity with those of his
children, we should suppose that it had pleased
God in some way to us unknown, to amalga-
mate them with mankind. It would not be an
unnatural exercise of faith, to believe that God is
396 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
pleased in like manner to supply the involuntary
deficiencies of those who desire to be identified
with His Church's existence.
But why, it may be asked, do we refer to this
Apostolical commission, if it be not expressly
affirmed to be essential? For the same reason that
we assert Christian ministers to be as truly Priests
as those of the first Temple, and that their offering
is as truly a sacrifice. It is possible that these
particulars might not be essential to the existence
of worship, and therefore to the reality of those
acts, whereby Christians claim their part in the
Body of Christ Our Lord. But, independently of
the fact that we have good authority for their asser-
tion, they contribute to a reverent estimate of those
public acts of the Christian Body, from which the
contrary tendency proportionably detracts. The
thing of moment is that common worship is a real
work, whereby the whole Christian community pre-
serves its right as the collective body of the Lord.
Its claim to a true life in Him is thereby asserted,
just as the privileges of Israel belonged to all who
had a part in its united Ritual. By this means are
we led to appreciate those external actions of the
God-man, on which His character of Mediator is
dependent. Nothing hinders, indeed, but that the
like results might have attended common worship,
though it had been God's pleasure that the public
officers, by whom it is directed, instead of being set
apart for their work, had been chosen out of the
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 397
mass for the occasion. But if common worship be
really of the moment which has been described,
such manner of selecting those who guide it could
not be esteemed so suitable as that which has been
handed down from the Apostles. Accordingly,
those who have adopted such an expedient, have
either begun or ended by depreciating the work
itself. Instead of being an office which has refe-
rence to God, and may therefore be properly called
sacred or divine, the task of ministering has before
long been looked upon only in its reference to man,
and as little else than that of an instructor. Thus
the notion of common worship passes away. The
collective sacrifice of the people's prayers is lost
sight of. So that beginning by neglecting the ex-
ample of the Apostles, men have ended by disbeliev-
ing their doctrines. The life of the Christian com-
munity as the Body of Christ, has been destroyed.
His Mediation, whereby God and man are united,
has been explained away into a mere natural re-
ligion. The necessity of being joined to His man's
nature has been forgotten. Such has been the
actual result in very many of those communities,
where the line of a living ministry has been broken.
And to add to this tendency, where the ancient
system of the ministry has been abandoned, the
ancient Ritual and Liturgy have commonly been
renounced. Here too the practice of early times,
so far as it can be attained, affords an useful ex-
ample ; especially in points of such leading moment
398 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
as the ministering of Sacraments. But the material
point is that such form of service should be main-
tained as may testify to the collective character of
the Church's supplications. This is the very pur-
pose of a public Liturgy, which, by calling on the
people to bear their part, finds place for the service
of the whole community. Where this responsive
system of worship is lost, the nature of a public
service will soon be forgotten. Instead of regard-
ing the minister as a public servant, whose office is
to provide a centre of union for their collective
prayers, men will look to him mainly as a teacher,
whose office is not to address God but themselves.
The very place of assemblage, instead of being
known as God's " House of Prayer," will be as-
sociated with the recollection of some favoured
preacher. And the sure consequence will be a
forgetfulness of the peculiar relation which men
gain in common worship to Christ the Mediator, to
whom at that moment they should address them-
selves as members of the one mystical body in
heaven and earth, for which He is interceding at
His Father's right hand. 35
35 It must have been because this united system of worship
witnesses in so striking a manner to the collective existence of
Christ's body, that it was so early complained of by the enemies
of the English Church. Witness the objection made at Frank-
fort to the system of responding. The Church people, it was
said, "began to break that order which was agreed upon, in
answering aloud after the minister." Phenix, vol. ii. 72. See
also the irreverent remarks of Knox on the affecting appeals to
the man Christ Jesus in our Litany. Vide Letter to Calvin,
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 399
Nothing has more contributed to the growth of
that unbelief which has overspread many parts of
the Continent, than the evil which has been de-
scribed. For with the collective character of wor-
ship, that real life of the Church has been lost,
which depends on Christ's presence. The preser-
vation of this among ourselves has not been owing
merely to our attachment to great names or ortho-
dox expressions, however important ; for Christ
only can maintain that quickening spirit, which
He bestows through the ordinances of His grace.
From Himself must come the power which is
sought through those federal acts which unite men
in His mystical body. A neglect of those especial
means by which this union is effected, issues in a
practical undervaluing of the union itself. The
Incarnation of Christ ceases to be looked upon as
the source of His continual presence among men,
Plienix, ii. 65. The evil of yielding to such objections is set
forth by the Lutheran Olshausen. " The worship of the
Church," he says, " is an enduring sacrifice of thanks, which,
for His enduring sacrifice of atonement, is offered to Our Lord.
To this element of Prayer, the Romish Church had unduly
given an exclusive predominance : the Lutheran Church has as
unduly made it subordinate to the personal acts of the preacher,
and to his sermon, whereas the minister ought not to be con-
sidered merely as a preacher, but also as a real Liturgist, i. e.
as the organ through which the devotion of the congregation
is conveyed. Public worship accordingly consists of two dif-
ferent parts, the preaching of the Gospel, whether to convert
the unbeliever or instruct the Christian ; and the service of
supplication, the crowning act whereof is the Holy Eucharist,
the Church's great thank-offering, in which Christ's sacrifice of
Mediation is symbolically set forth."
400 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
and a system of self-mediation grows up in its
place. The glowing words in which Scripture de-
scribes the privileges of Christians, are regarded as
something bestowed on them as individuals, as a
re-assertion of the claims of nature, and as though
by themselves they had access to God; whereas it
is only through their great Head that these bless-
ings devolve on them. The royal and priestly
nature has been shown not to belong to them in
themselves, but by union with Him who by His
Mediation has joined them to God. As fallen
humanity was first re-consecrated by union with
the divine nature in Christ our Head, so all con-
secrating virtue is bestowed upon His servants
through that union with Him, which belongs to
them as members of His mystical body. So that
to abandon the connexion which is maintained by
the public ordinances of His grace, is to renounce
that highest birthright of man's race, which is be-
stowed upon it through the Mediation of Christ.
It is a bold statement of Dr. Bisse, in relation to
the importance of daily service, that the "mother
Churches, the sure resting-place for the Ark of the
Covenant, before which the daily offering never
ceaseth to be offered morning and evening these
are our strength and salvation, and are of far greater
use and security to our people and to our land,
than all the watchfulness of our senators, or policy
of our ambassadors, or valour of our mighty men." 36
36 Rationale on Cathedral Worship, p. 53, 54.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 401
What was present to his mind was, that by this
collective service is maintained our connexion with
that Mediation of the Son of God, from which flow
the highest privileges of humanity. This no doubt
is the Church's reason for requiring the public min-
istration of daily service, except when " reasonably
hindered," of all her clergy. And well were it if
all who take part in public prayer, and especially
all who worship in those central Churches, wherein
the whole diocese has a common interest, would
remember how high and responsible is the office
which they undertake. For not only those who
officiate, but all who take part in public prayer, are
thereby uniting themselves to that great work, of
which the Head and Leader is the Sou of God
Himself. This belongs to the laymen who present
prayers, as well as to the Priest whose office is to
give them united voice and utterance. If the High
Priest in ancient times bore with him into God's
presence the symbols of the whole world, and
claimed to be its common minister, much more
so does the Christian, the heir of the world, for
whose sake were the dispensations which are past,
and on whom the " ends of the world have come."
On this account is man emphatically called " the
creature" 37 in Holy Writ, because he is the heir
37 When God made the world He impressed the seal of
Creation upon man, as on a scrap of parchment one writes the
name and number of a whole year. Therefore is man called in
God's words " all Creation." St. Hildegard, as quoted in
Olshausen on St. Mark, xvi. 15.
Dd-
402 COMMON WORSHIP A MEANS
and representative of God's creation. A lofty
title, but which One Only Individual bears in
Himself, and which, if others attempt to claim it
for themselves, will but minister to their more
signal overthrow. Those who seek to rule the
world by themselves, or who claim for themselves
its possession, do but demonstrate the imbecility
of worldly talents, and the instability of worldly
success. The heir of the world, the ruler of the
creation of God, is that Man only, whom a nature
which was above humanity marked out to be the
" first-born of every creature.'' In the elder son,
all the prerogatives of birthright were exclusively
inherent. To Him only do those titles belong of
right, which He bestows upon all His brethren
by favour. He is the sole King, the only Priest ;
but they are all heirs, so far as they are one with
Him, in a Kingly and Priestly line. That sacer-
dotal system, whereby we maintain communion
with His man's nature, instead of derogating, as
some have imagined, from the privilege of indi-
vidual Christians, is the very circumstance on
which their tenure rests. On the maintenance of
their federal union with Him depends their pre-
eminence. To let go this connexion, is to fall
back into the imbecility of their natural state.
Those public ordinances, therefore, through which
as Mediator He unites them to His own man-
hood, are the very life of theirs. To be found in
Him their representative is to share His honour,
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 403
because it is to share His nature. "For Thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo-
ple, and nation. And hast made us unto our God
Kings and Priests, and we shall reign on the
earth."
404
CHAPTER XIII.
OF SACRAMENTS, AS MEANS OF UNION WITH THE
MANHOOD OF CHRIST.
THE actions of Christ towards men since His As-
cension, have been said to be involved in the truth
of His Presence. His Presence has been explained
to be that spiritual presence of His manhood,
whereon all the functions of His Mediation depend.
It is vouchsafed in His body mystical, the Church ;
and the offices of common worship, speaking com-
prehensively, are the means whereby men partake
it. But there is one means of partaking it, so
specific, peculiar, and signal, as to need separate
notice namely, sacramental grace.
Something has already been said respecting the
Holy Communion as a sacrifice, a view, however,
of this sacred ordinance, of which its character as
a sacrament is the root. For it is by virtue of the
connexion into which it brings men with Christ,
that it forms the leading feature of our public
service, so that its relation to worship arises from
that which is the characteristic and original dis-
tinction of both Sacraments. There are other pur-
SACRAMENTS A MEANS, ETC. 405
poses which they serve, and other views which may
be taken of them, but that circumstance on which
all the rest depend, and which especially connects
itself with the present inquiry, is that Sacraments
are " the extension of the Incarnation," 1 that
through these means we are united to the man's
nature of Christ. Other particulars which dis-
tinguish them are, First, that in Sacraments there
is the performance of a definite and peculiar act,
which is likely to engender in us peculiar prepara-
tion. Hence as our Article observes, they are
" badges or tokens of Christian men's profession."
Christian burial consequently is not allowed except
to those who have been partakers of the one, and
who have not been formally excluded from the
other Sacrament. Now, this circumstance may
not unfitly suggest the cautious preparation with
which we should approach rites, by which we are
especially dedicated to God's service. But this is
only a first, and as our Article is careful to observe,
only a partial estimate of Sacraments ; it rests their
use on our act only, not on that of God; it is
merely subjective, human, tentative, and though
useful as a direction to ourselves, falls far short of
the sublime views which Scripture opens respect-
ing these " holy mysteries." It is such conception
as a Socinian might entertain, but with which the
Christian mind could never be satisfied.
We pass on then to the second purpose which
1 Taylor's Worthy Communicant, i. 2.
406 SACRAMENTS A MEAXS
our Article assigns to Sacraments, i. e. that they
are " not only badges of profession," " but rather"
" certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of
grace." Here, then, we have a divine, as before a
mere human meaning in these sacred ordinances.
They are not only subjective, as implying a feeling
in ourselves, but objective likewise, as implying
an act external to us on the part of the Almighty.
" Christ and His Holy Spirit with all their blessed
effects, though entering into the soul of man we
are not able to apprehend or express how, do
notwithstanding give notice of the times when they
use to make their access, because it pleaseth Al-
mighty God to communicate by sensible means
those blessings which are incomprehensible." 2 This
then is no doubt the peculiar end of Sacraments,
that they are channels to the faithful of those
supernatural gifts, whereby God renews the soul.
And herein their tangible nature has this peculiar
advantage, that it turns men's minds more com-
pletely to their Almighty Author, so that in times
of doubt they are a stable comfort, and yet in
times of steadfastness do not minister to pride.
Their advantage in time of doubt is, that their
ground is God's promise and not man's confidence :
so that they supply some fixed external standing-
place in those hours of dejection, when men's own
feelings are in most need of succour. In such
seasons comfort must come from without, for how
2 Ecclcs. Pol. v. 57, 3.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 407
are inward doubts to be solved by the mind, whose
very complaint is doubtfulness ? In such mo-
ments, then, how inestimable that gift, whereby
" Thou dost assure us of Thy favour and goodness
towards us." And vet such succour contains this
v
antidote to pride, that whereas all inward move-
ments of man's soul, even though we admit them
to be God's works, may yet blend and confuse
themselves with our own agency ; on the contrary,
" where God doth work and use these outward
means, wherein He neither findeth nor planteth force
and aptness towards His intended purpose, such
means are but signs to bring men to the considera-
tion of His own omnipotent power, which without
the use of things sensible would not be marked." 3
This then being the main purpose of Sacraments,
and there being some peculiar advantages in the
very simplicity of the vehicles which God has
chosen for the communication of His gifts, we
may yet go further, and inquire how far they con-
nect themselves with His general dealings with
mankind, and whether this connexion supplies any
circumstances which explain what appears at first
sight their anomalous nature. For what indisposes
the minds of many to the doctrine of sacramental
grace, is that it seems so completely a matter of
arbitrary appointment. They require to discern
greater congruity between the effect attained and
the means of attaining it. We are used to see
3 Eccles. Pol. vi. 6, 11.
408 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
cause and effect linked together by a chain of inter-
dependent circumstances ; and the gap between a
slight external act and a momentous internal alte-
ration is intolerable to our fancy. Say what men
will, the judgment revolts at it; man's faith is not
strong enough for such a trial. This is why all
the learned works which have been written on the
Sacraments fail to give confidence in their efficacy :
the unbelief which is vanquished in the study re-
appears in the world, and men acquiesce in the
formularies of the Church, but their reason remains
unsatisfied. What they need, as Hooker expresses
it after St. Augustin, is some "answer, such as
not only may press them with the bare authority
of custom, but also instruct them in the cause
thereof."
Now such a cause seems to be supplied by that
particular subject, with which we are at present
occupied. The importance of Sacraments rests on
the Incarnation of Christ, and on their being the
means through which His man's nature is com-
municated to His brethren. Let this be appre-
hended, and what offends men in their arbitrary
appointment will pass away. For since this is a
wholly supernatural work, we could not expect to
see it effected, except through some means specifi-
cally provided by God's peculiar appointment; and
the visible means employed are so far from ap-
pearing to be less suitable than any other, with
which the wisdom of God could have connected
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 409
the secret working of His power, that in several
respects we can discern them to be singularly
appropriate. If man's connexion with the Supreme
Being were the mere natural intercourse of mind
with mind if man were still, as Adam was before
the Fall, the perfect image of his Maker, then
indeed to introduce such media of communication
at all would be superfluous. And on this account
the Sacramental system is inconsistent with that
Rationalistic theory, which supposes that the divine
principle of holiness and truth is sufficiently pos-
sessed by nature. But allow the scheme of Media-
tion to be essential to man's recovery, let it depend
on union with that Personal Being in whom holi-
ness and truth became incarnate, and the Sacra-
mental system follows of course. In the mere
intercourse of mind with mind, Sacraments would
be an unnatural interruption : but they are exactly
suited to effect that union whereby the Divine
Head of man's race is bound to His fellows. Since
this union is itself foreign to the course of nature,
so must the media be by which it is effected; the
work cannot depend on their natural influence, but
on that influence with which they are superna-
turally endowed. And that those outward means
which we call Sacraments, are truly attended by
an inward effect, that what is done on earth in
holy mysteries, effects a real change in the whole
nature of those who are acted upon, is known to
us by the distinct declarations of God's word. We
410 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
are told in plain and indubitable terms that Bap-
tism and the Lord's Supper are the means by
which men are joined to the body of Christ, and
therefore by which Christ Our Lord joins Himself
to that renewed race, of which He has become the
Head. So that, as St. Leo expresses it, " He that
is received by Christ, and that receives Christ, is
not the same after the laver of baptism as he was
before it, because the body of the regenerate person
becomes the flesh of the crucified one"* Xow, these
facts w T e learn from the express statements of St.
Paul. " For by one spirit are we all baptized into
one body." 5 And again, "we being many are one
bread and one body, for we are all partakers of
that one bread." 6 Herein it is expressly declared
that the one and the other of these Sacraments are
the peculiar means by which union with the body
of Christ is bestowed upon men. They are the
"joints and bands" whereby the whole body in its
dependence on its Head has nourishment minis-
tered. So that it is in the Church that union
takes place with Christ, the new Adam or repre-
sentative of our race, and it is by this actual union
with the new Adam, that the whole family of re-
newed men have that collective being, whereby is
derived to them their spiritual life.
And this, then, is the circumstance which puts
the main difference between Sacraments and those
4 S. Leo, Serm. xiv. de Pass. Dom. c. 6.
5 I. Corinthians, xii. 13. 6 I. Corinthians, x. 17.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 411
other means of grace, wherein also we draw near
to God. The profit of all other means of grace
depends on that right of access to God, which
Christ the Mediator has dispensed. But the pur-
pose of Sacraments is to bind us to Him on whom
this right of access is dependent. Our prayers
and praises avail not, unless we are part of that
renewed race, which our great High Priest has
been pleased to identify with Himself, covering the
infirmity of their actions with the perfection of His
own. But it is through that union of His man's
nature with ours, which is compacted through the
Sacraments of His grace, that the Head of the
body is identified with its members. Thus it is
that the whole body is " fitly joined together, and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth."
So that Sacraments differ from all other means of
grace, in that whereas other things result from
union with Christ, they on the contrary conduct to
it. 7 Their pre-eminence depends on a real diversity
between their office and that of any other things
appertaining to divine service, because through
them Christ, the Head of mankind, joins Himself
to His brethren.
' Sacraments, therefore, are not merely an acted prayer ;
neither is it their main function to teach by example, in which
case " where the word of God may be heard, which teacheth
with much more expedition and more full explication anything
we have to learn, if all the benefit we reap by Sacraments be
instruction, they which at all times have opportunity of using
the better mean to that purpose, will surelv hold the worse in
less estimation." Eccles. Pol. \. 57, 1.
412 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
Sacraments, then, differ in purpose from other
means of grace, in that through them the Head
is united to its members. But why are they
especially employed for such an office? What is
that congruity which fits them for the work, and
what the suitableness which may be found in such
external portions of them, as address themselves to
our sense ? It is not for us, of course, to lay down
rules for the Omniscient, and yet we may contem-
plate with reverence what it has been His pleasure
to appoint. Now, since the peculiarity of Sacra-
ments is that they are not merely inward actions,
but that they touch likewise upon the external
world that they have, in fact, both " an outward
visible sign," and " an inward spiritual grace "-
this compound nature marks them out as a singu-
larly appropriate medium of intercourse between
things, which are themselves compound, i. e. man
who is to be renewed, and the Mediator whose
presence renews him. For thus it is that all
graces are communicated to mankind, flowing into
them from that manhood, which has been made the
fountain of grace through its personal oneness with
Deity. Now, man consists of a material as well as
an immaterial nature, and in body, soul, and spirit,
does he require to be renewed after the image of
Him that created him. It has not been an uncom-
mon feeling, that in the material clay of man's
composition lies all his vileness ; let him be eman-
cipated only from this, and the pure spirit would
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 413
expatiate in the freedom of its native refinement.
This was the inherent vice of the Gnostic system
[p. 135] ; it resulted from that erroneous phi-
losophy, which represented simple immensity as
the essence of Godhead, forgetful of those moral
conditions, whereby both through conscience and
revelation the Father of all has been pleased to
declare that His character is most adequately ex-
pressed. Thus are men blinded to the deformity
of sin, and to the hatefulness of that rebellion
against an holy God, which is the real degeneracy
of our state. An error this, which is best cor-
rected by remembering that Christ Our Lord took
our whole nature, and that our whole nature is to
be renovated in Him. " For if our flesh had not
admitted of redemption, the Word of God would
not have become flesh." 8 And because the terms
which are to be united are of this complex charac-
ter, it is not unnatural that the Sacraments, which
are appointed to unite them, should show by their
very constitution that even the material part of
manhood is not to be forgotten. " Hadst thou
been incorporeal," says St. Chrysostom, " God
would have given thee His gifts in a naked and
incorporeal manner. But since thy soul is joined
to thy body, the garb of sense is used in con-
veying a gift to thy mind." 9 Therefore does our
Church remind us, that by the baptism of Christ
" in Jordan," water was consecrated " to the mys-
8 S. Irenaeus, v. 14, 1. g Horn. 83, on St. Matt. xxvi.
414 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
tical washing away of sin." The whole element,
in all its multiform variety, was freed by this sin-
gle use of it from the imputation of being naturally
impure. So does Irenaeus 10 maintain that all the
simple ingredients of man's life were purified
through their employment by that Head of our
race, who could not be defiled. To esteem man's
spirit something so much purer than his animal
nature, that its acts may in themselves find an
access to the Deity, which his material nature is
unworthy to share, is not very unlike the fanciful
heresy of the Gnostic Valentinus. The man Christ,
he supposed, having been moulded by the Demi-
urgus, or maker of the world, with his utmost
skill, had received, unknown to his Creator, the
seeds of a superior nature from the ultimate author
of all, which discovered themselves as he grew up
to the astonishment of the being who had pro-
duced him, and supplied the point of contact with
that divine spirit which descended upon Him at
His baptism. 11 There is something almost analo-
gous to this conception, in the belief that a part
of our nature has in itself a right of access to the
holy God, independently of that means of ap-
proach, which He has bestowed through Christ
upon the whole of it. For Christ Our Lord
vouchsafed to come in the perfection of our nature,
that all might be renewed. The representative of
10 S. Iren. iii. 11, 5.
11 Dorner's Person Christi, i. p. 377.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 415
our race took our being in its completeness, that
it might be wholly sanctified. " For we could
not taste of incorruption and immortality, unless
we had first been united to that which is immortal
and incorruptible. But how should we be united
to that which was incorruptible and immortal,
unless He who was personally incorruption and
immortality had first been made the same with
ourselves, that so what was corruptible might be
swallowed up by incorruption, and what was
mortal by immortality, that we might receive the
adoption of sons ?" 12 The course then which God's
infinite wisdom was pleased to adopt was, that
since "the children were partakers of flesh and
blood, He also Himself" (in the Person of the
Eternal Son) " took part of the same." " He
summed up the lengthened series of mankind in
Himself, affording us salvation in that epitome
of our being ; that what we had lost in Adam, i. e.
to be after God's image and likeness, we might
recover in Christ." 13 Thus then was there "one
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus." There was one common bond by which
these two infinitely distant parties might be united.
And this common term of union required to be
truly and really joined to each of the extremes,
which it was to couple to one another. It was
truly joined to Godhead by that Personal union
whereby Christ Our Lord was very God, of very
12 S. Iren. iii. 19, 1. 13 S. Iren. iii. 18, 1.
416 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
God. The very nature of Godhead whole God
was in the Person of the Son of Mary united to
our flesh. " God was manifest in the flesh." All
glory, purity, perfection, power, of which Godhead
could not be emptied, were enshrined in a human
frame. Thus was there sown a seed of life and
immortality, which was to interpenetrate and per-
vade the whole nature of mankind. For this end,
as the man Christ Jesus was joined to Deity by
Personal union, so is He allied to His brethren of
mankind by sacramental grace. For " we are
members of His body ; of His flesh, and of His
bones." " This is a great mystery, but I speak
concerning Christ and the Church." Now, this
union of the Mediator with men, whereby are
transmitted to them those beams of glory which
were centred in His flesh, needs to be as true and
certain as that other union which He has with
Godhead, whereby its self-originating excellencies
were transferred into Himself. As the fountain has
its source in those unknown waters which issue
from the throne of God, so from the fountain do
the streams descend to water the earth. In the
union, then, of God's nature with manhood in the
Person of Christ, lies the cause of our union with
the man Christ Jesus by sacramental grace. If
the first be received as a true, real, abiding fact,
such as can be founded on that diversity of Persons
in the Ever-Blessed Trinity, which forms the basis
of the Christian system, the second also will be
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 417
looked at not as a mere figurative expression, but
as an actual operation. But let the first be denied,
as by Socinians, or by Sabellians be resolved into
a mere nominal transaction, and the reality of the
second must evaporate. Therefore does St. Atha-
nasius observe, that a denial of the Personality of
God the Son, of necessity involves a denial of the
grace of Baptism. 14 Or on the other hand, let our
hold on that union which couples men with Christ
be forgotten, and the functions of the Mediator
will become an office discharged by some manifes-
tation of the Divine Power, rather than the result
of God's actual oneness with our nature. So es-
sential is each link in this golden chain to the
integrity of the rest. 1 *
14 Or. iv. in Arian. c. 25.
15 The intimate connexion between Our Lord's humanity and
the sacramental system has been repeatedly evidenced by the
inclination of those who disparage the one to explain away the
other. So that in a belief of the sacramental system lies the
guard against that Rationalistic tendency, which was so solemnly
denounced by the beloved Apostle, as characteristic of Anti-
christ : " Every spirit that confessetb not that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh is not of God." For it was long ago observed
by St. Irenseus, that the reality of the Mediator's influence in
the Holy Communion involved the reality of that manhood,
which it has been His gracious pleasure to share with ourselves.
Thus did he answer the Docetas, who, with the reality of Our
Lord's body, denied not only the truth of His sacrifice and
efficacy of His atonement, but also the future resurrection of
mankind. The line of argument adopted by St. Irena3us has
lately been employed by Archbishop Whately, but his contrary
premises land him unhappily in a contrary result. In the
passage alluded to, the Archbishop makes no reference to the
actions of Our Lord in time past ; he refers only to that present
E e
418 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
Now, as the mean of this union between Chris-
tians and Christ, the wisdom of God has employed
the system of Sacraments. Visible things have
been taken, that with them might be associated
that inward power and grace, which is the living
principle whereby the one of these is bound to the
other. The union of the outward and visible sign
and the inward and spiritual grace make up the
Sacrament. " Neither is it ordinarily" God's " will
to bestow the grace of Sacraments on any but by
influence of the God-man, which no one can be expected to
admit, who resolves the mystery of the Blessed Trinity into mere
terms of relation. [Compare p. 168 and p. 343.] In speaking
of this present influence of the God-man, Archbishop Whately
mounts up from a denial of His efficacy to a denial of His ex-
istence. If the Sacraments be merely signs of spiritual power
at large, then, he argues, those things on which their peculiar
influence as Sacraments is grounded, are only emblematic of the
general efficacy of that Being on whom all spiritual action is
dependent. Therefore he says, " the bread and wine not only
are merely a sign, but are a sign of a sign ,- that is, they repre-
sent Our Lord's flesh and blood, and His flesh and blood again
are a sign of something else" (Sermons, p. 265). So that Our
Lord's flesh and blood, even if they existed formerly, have now
at all events no real existence. His actions as a partaker of our
nature have been suspended ; He is no longer the " one Me-
diator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." And the
Spirit is spoken of as that " of which His flesh and blood are
themselves the sign" (Id. p. 250). So that the especial efficacy
of that nature, which He assumed with a view to the work of
Mediation, is resolved into the mere general influence of the
Great Unembodied Spirit. Such is the result of denying the
efficacy of that sacramental system, through which the Humanity
of the Incarnate Son is the medium of bestowing spiritual gifts.
As its belief led the disciple of Polycarp to maintain the truth
of Christ's nature, so does its rejection involve those errors
against which Polycarp's instructor testified.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 419
the Sacraments.'' 16 And besides other advantages
which have been stated to accrue from this ap-
pointment, there results from it this peculiar conse-
quence, that the intervention of a means of grace
which borrows its vehicle or organ from the external
world, is adopted in a case where that which consists
both of body and soul, namely, each individual of
the family of men, is to be joined to that Head or
Representative, who consists both of soul and
body. Now, because the first effect of union with
Christ is the removal of that defilement of our
whole being which sin had engendered, this process
commences with a rite, which speaks to the out-
ward eye of cleansing and purification. Again, be-
cause our subsequent life results from the continual
influx of grace from Him whose manhood has be-
come its storehouse, therefore our further acts of
union are through a means whereby our souls are
strengthened and refreshed " by the body and
blood of Christ, as our bodies are by bread and
wine." Thus significant is the sensible part of that
process, which having its beginning in the truth,
" The Word was made flesh," has for its con-
clusion, " that we might be made partakers of the
divine nature." Not that the connecting principle
which binds together mankind and their Head is
any material derivation. The things united, in-
deed, are on one side the whole constitution of man
as it exists in each individual, and whole Christ on
16 Eccles. Pol. v. 57, 4.
420 SACEAMENTS A MEANS
the other. But that whereby they are joined is
the spiritual power by which it has been shown
that Christ acts upon His brethren. This power
has been shown to be immaterial, both by reference
to what it is, and by reference to what it is not.
(Cap. x.) For it was to be the mysterious agent
in this union, that the Third Person in the Ever-
Blessed Trinity vouchsafed His gracious concur-
rence on man's behalf. He came to join men to
Christ, to supply the loss which would else have
attended Our Lord's Ascension, that He who was
withdrawn according to His carnal propinquity,
might be brought more near by spiritual presence.
And the same thing follows from considering what
it has been shown, that Our Lord's mystical or
sacramental presence is not. It is not that local
presence of a material body which He maintains
in heaven. " Christ as man according to the body
is in a place and goes from a place, and w r hen He
comes to another place, is not in the place from
whence He came." 17 That this local presence,
therefore, of Christ's material frame is not upon
earth, is the very thing which is asserted, when it
is stated to be in heaven.
Here, then, it may be well to pause for a mo-
ment, in order to notice what is the exact point
which is, and what that which is not stated re-
specting the blessed Sacraments. I. It is not
affirmed then that their external or sensible parts
17 St. Aust. in Taylor's Real Presence of Christ, xi. 15.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 421
are so raised above their natural nothingness, as by
their own. efficacy to produce a spiritual result.
In each Sacrament the outward sign is produced
by combining an appointed matter with certain
chosen words. Unless the words and matter are
properly combined (and hence arises the occa-
sion for such caution and needfulness 18 in their
ministration), there is no Sacrament. But neither
are these things aught by themselves but sounds
or elements, nor when duly combined, though of
course hallowed by being consecrated to a holy
use, do they cease to be in themselves elements
and sounds. For " Sacraments are not physical
but moral instruments of salvation." 19 This is
more readily admitted, perhaps, in the Sacrament
of Baptism than in that of the Lord's Supper.
Yet "the orthodoxal ancients use the same lan-
guage for expressing Christ's Presence 20 in Baptism
and in the Eucharist : they stick not to say that
Christ is present or latent in the water, as well as
18 Baptism requires that the element of water should be ap-
plied at tlie same time with the words of administration.
" Detrahe verbum, et quid est aqua nisi aqua." S. *Aug. in
Joan, 80, 3. Vide MaskelFs Holy Baptism, p. 136. The same
principle may be extended to the ordinance of Confirmation ;
the validity of which depends on the simultaneous concurrence
of certain words and of a certain action.
19 Eccles. Pol. v. 57, 4.
20 Fulgentius quotes a sermon of St. Augustin, Sermo. 272, as
proving " tune unumquemque fidelium corporis sanguinisque Do-
minici participem fieri, quando in Baptismate membrum corporis
Christi efficitur." Bib. Max. Patr. ix. 178.
422 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
in the elements of bread and wine. Their meaning-
is, that neither of these elements or sensible sub-
stances can directly cleanse us from our sins, by
any virtue communicated into them or inherent in
them, but only as they are pledges or assurances
of Christ's peculiar presence in them, and of our
true investiture in Christ by them." 21 And as the
element in Baptism is on all hands allowed to con-
tinue water, so the element in the Holy Eucharist
is expressly called bread by St. Paul, even when
its sacramental use is referred to. And, indeed,
why should aught else be expected? The only
ground for questioning it must be, that Holy
Scripture declares the body and blood of Christ to
be our food in the Lord's Supper. Now, when we
speak of our Lord's body and blood, the very
words lead us of necessity to His manhood, to
that same bodily substance which w r as born of
the Virgin, and ascended into heaven after its
sufferings on the Cross. It being admitted, then,
by all believers that this body is present after
some real manner in the Holy Eucharist, those
who deny that the consecrated elements continue
to be materially bread and wine, must do so under
the idea that without derogating from the local
21 Jackson's Works, x. 55, 9. " It may suffice to believe,"
says Dr. Jackson, in reference to the water of Baptism, " that
this sacramental pledge hath a virtual presence of Christ's blood,
or some real influence from His Body, concomitant, though not
consubstantiated to it, which is prefigured or signified by the
washing or sprinkling the body with water." Ibid. x. 50, 4.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. * 423
presence of our Lord's body in heaven, the ele-
ments when consecrated become a part of His
material body and blood. Their reason for main-
taining it, if such an opinion is ever really main-
tained, must be first, the letter of Scripture, which
however all believers accept ; and secondly, an
impression that unless such transmutation is ad-
mitted, there can be no true belief in the efficacy
of Sacraments. But it follows from what has been
already stated respecting the nature of Our Lord's
presence First, that the consecrated elements, even
if they undergo a material change, have no more
tendency than without such change to produce
the real end which results from Sacraments ; and
secondly, that to rest on such a change is incom-
patible with a reference to Our Lord's ascended
manhood as that Head of the renewed race, with
whom it is the purpose of Sacraments to unite
us. For in the first place, suppose the conse-
crated elements to undergo some such change,
that they should be found to be, we know not
how, the material body of Christ. This would
no doubt give them great sacredness ; but how
would it minister towards the purpose of a Sacra-
ment? Why should we be the better for the
carnal devouring of Our Lord's body? What spi-
ritual efficacy would result from such a feast?
A spiritual efficacy, indeed, Our Lord's body has
on all those with whom according to its proper
laws of action it is brought into connexion ; but
424 * SACRAMENTS A MEANS
would this action attend its material consumption?
Is there any relevance between union with the flesh
of the Son of Man and the carnal devouring Him ?
We are united to Adam by one means, to Christ
by another. The first is by the law of paternity,
the second by that of regeneration. Why should
we increase our relation to Christ by this carnal
banquet, any more than we should to Adam by
the eating of his flesh ? " As is our eating," says
Taylor, "so is the nourishing, because that is in
order to this." 2 * A spiritual effect of the manhood
of our Great Head must proceed through spiritual
action from His purified humanity. Sacraments
have been appointed as its medium of communi-
cation ; but if Baptism does not depend on the
natural effect of the elements which it employs,
why should the Lord's Supper ? Such a suppo-
sition at all events is not essential to a belief in the
sacramental system, and to a true acceptance of its
divine results.
But further it may be observed in the second
place, that to rest on a material transmutation in
the consecrated elements is, so far forth, to detract
from the influence of Our Lord's ascended man-
hood as Head of the renewed race. For its conse-
quence would be to turn our minds to the natural
effect of those sacred elements which we partake,
instead of building on the supernatural presence of
that ascended manhood, with which it should be
22 Of the real Presence of Christ, vii. 8.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 425
our object to be united. The blessing in the one
case would be to be fed with heavenly food hi
the other to be united to a Divine person. 23 The
first of these would, according to the supposition,
be a blessing in itself, independently of the other.
So that the main object of Sacraments, their real
life, that which separates them from all other
means of grace that in and through them we are
joined to the true Head of man's race, and receive
those blessings which through a spiritual medium
He communicates in holy mysteries to all His
members would become a secondary considera-
tion. Accordingly, those ancient writers who most
insist on the real presence and action of Christ's
manhood in holy mysteries, declare plainly that
the human body and blood which are ascended
into heaven are not carnally consumed. And a
single definite denial of this kind is more decisive
in such a controversy, than a hundred passages
in which Our Lord's Real Presence in His Supper
is asserted; because these last consist as well with
the spiritual, while the first is incompatible with
the carnal presence of Christ. Such are two quo-
tations made by Bishop Poynet from St. Jerome
and St. Augustin. 24 The celebrated letter of the
a " "We are really joined to our common divine principle,
Jesus Christ Our Lord ; and from Him we do communicate in
all the blessings of His grace and the fruits of His passion."
Taylor's Worthy Communicant, i. 4, 2.
24 " Of this victim, which is offered in a wonderful manner
in commemoration of Christ, men may eat ; but of that which
426 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
latter to Dardanus has already been cited, (p.
278.)
This reference to the real manhood of Christ, as
opposed to the conception that Sacraments produce
their effect through any efficacy inherent in their
elements, is warmly supported by our own Hooker :
" For of Sacraments the very same is true, which
Solomon's wisdom observeth in the brazen ser-
pent ' He that turned towards it was not healed
by the thing he saw, but by Thee, O Saviour of
all.' ' That which we commonly discern in the
course of nature, is a certain orderly series, wherein
Christ offered on the altar of the Cross in itself no man can eat "
(St. Hierom. in Poyncfs Diallacticon, p. 28). And again, St.
Augustin says, " it seemed to them a hard saying, except a man
eat My flesh, he shall not have eternal life. They took it fool-
ishly, they understood it carnally, and supposed that Our Lord
was going to cut off some portion of His flesh and give it them.
Therefore they said it is a hard saying. But if their hearts had
not been hard, they would have said, this cannot be uttered
without reason, there must be in it some secret mystery ; they
would have stayed with docility with Him, and have learned
what was learnt by those who remained. For when His twelve
Disciples had remained with Him after their departure, they
suggested to Him, as though grieving at the fate of the others,
that they were offended at His words, and were gone away.
But He instructed them, and said, it is the Spirit that quick-
eneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words which I have
spoken to you are Spirit and life. Understand spiritually what
I have spoken. This Body which you see you are not to eat,
nor to drink that blood, which shall be shed by those who
shall crucify Me. I have entrusted you with a certain mystery.
Understood spiritually it will give you life. Its celebration
indeed will be manifest to the senses, but its meaning will
address itself to the inner mind" (St. Aug. in Psalm 98).
25 Eccles. Pol. v. 57, 4 ; vi. 6, 9.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 427
like results follow habitually from like premises.
Hence arises the instinctive belief, that in the con-
struction of this material universe, the Author of
our being works in constant reference to the laws
which He has Himself ordained. Thus we say
that food has a natural tendency to support life;
not that we understand the secret mechanism by
which it does so, but from observation of the facts,
we discern that the Almighty Dispenser has been
pleased to connect certain material agents with
certain physical effects. This is what we mean by
the course of nature. But we have no right to
assume that material substances when once created
are left to themselves, or that their action is the
effect of their inherent principles. All that we
can affirm is, that for material agents to produce
material effects is the natural order of things.
And on the same principle, that material agents
should be attended by spiritual effects belongs to
an order of things which must be supernatural.
But why should any one assert that in this case
the result is the effect of the agent itself, seeing
that even in that class of subjects which are most
strictly natural, no such assertion can be safely
made ? To affirm the truth of Christ's real pre-
sence, at all events, is not to attribute the efficacy
of Sacraments to the effect produced by the ele-
ments which are employed, in themselves, but to
trace it to the immediate power of that Divine Being,
with whom Sacraments bring us into connexion.
428 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
II. The other of the two questions which have
been raised, requires to be no less guarded than
that which has been considered. We must remem-
ber not only what is not asserted respecting Sacra-
ments, but what is. That there is in them some
real influence and immediate power, results from
the actual presence of that Divine Being, who in
these sacred ordinances binds men by holy instru-
ments to Himself. This is the very reason for
asserting that the benefit of the Holy Communion
does not result from the natural fruitfulness of the
means employed, but from the actual presence of
the Being, with whom those means unite us. Much
less can we rest in the belief that these ordinances
are merely a lesson addressed to the senses, or that
the expressions used respecting them are only
metaphorical. For they rest on a basis external
to ourselves they depend on that which has a
real, tangible, objective, existence, i. e. Christ Our
Lord, as He has been exalted into heaven, and
by spiritual agency has become the Head of the
redeemed race.
For when spiritual presence is spoken of, there
are two notions which may suggest themselves.
Such presence may either be supposed to result
from the action of the mind, which receives an
impression, or from the action of the being who
produces it. The first would be a subjective and
metaphorical, the second is an objective and real
presence. We might think of a spectacle in Greece
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 429
or Asia, and lay hold of it by internal impulse,
as though it were present to our sight. But this
would only be a figurative and visionary presence,
because the movement would come altogether from
within, and would be wholly irrespective of any
action on the part of the object thought of. A
real presence on the contrary, is when there is
some object external to ourselves, which produces
upon us those effects, which result from its pro-
pinquity (vide p. 279). And such presence may
be said to be spiritual as well as real, when the
medium of communication, by which this external
object affects, or is present with us, is not material
contact, but spiritual power. Our reason, there-
fore, for asserting that spiritual presence in Sacra-
ments is a presence of the second and not of the
first kind; that it is actual not metaphorical real
not visionary is because it is the presence of
Christ, and results from what is revealed as the
result of His Incarnation. For though the two
natures, which dwell in Him, remain within those
limits, by which they are severally bordered, yet
they so far concur in His actings towards mankind,
that the inferior has received from the superior
that property of having " life in itself," which ren-
ders it the source of life to others. And this life
results from that spiritual presence of Our Lord's
manhood, which has its medium of communication
in the power of the Holy Ghost. When we speak,
therefore, of spiritual presence in Sacraments, what
430 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
we refer to is not the vivacity of our spirits, which
are able to fancy what is not truly near, but that
spiritual power which was bestowed upon Christ's
manhood, when it was Personally united to God.
And therefore to disbelieve this spiritual presence,
to resolve it into a figure of speech, to transfer it
to the action of our own minds, would be equiva-
lent to the denial of Our Lord's real manhood; it
would be to explain away His existence, and sub-
stitute a Sabellian fancy instead of the Catholic
truth. And what would be the result, but that
the life-giving principle of holiness must have its
seat, not in Christ, but in our own minds ; and
therefore in effect that we should be our own
Saviours ? It may be asserted then respecting
both Sacraments, that their efficacy results from
that spiritual power by which Christ's manhood is
truly present; that in both of them some real ex-
ternal gift is bestowed upon mankind. That such
is the teaching of Scripture shall be shown by
what is said respecting each of them, as well as by
reference to their common character.
Baptism, then, is " a Sacrament which God hath
instituted in His Church, to the end that they
which receive the same might thereby be incor-
porated into Christ, and so through His most
precious merit obtain as well that saving grace
of imputation which taketh away all former guilti-
ness, as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy
Ghost, which giveth to the powers of the soul
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 431
their first disposition towards future newness of
life." 26 So that it is the especial purpose of Bap-
tism, that from that perfect fountain of grace and
holiness which is vouchsafed in the manhood of
Christ Our Lord, the blessings of forgiveness and
strength should be attained by every individual.
Thus by conjunction with the purity of the second
Adam, may be regained what was lost by the
transmitted defilement of the first. How should
this be sought for, but by union with Him from
whom was derived the guiding principle, which
shone originally in man's breast ? The image of
God, in which man was made, and which was
impaired by sin, has been shown to have resulted
from that illuminating power of God the Word,
which in fulness of time took up its personal
dwelling in our flesh. What means are there then
of recovering that which was lost, save by union
with Him, in whom the light which was intended
for each man in his degree has its perfect inhabi-
tation? We come to the fountain-head of light,
that our extinguished lamps may each one be
replenished. 27 The soul's regeneration, like the
26 Eccles. Pol. v. 60, 2.
27 " As the first man Adam was made a living soul, so the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit; a spirit of life to revive
the relics of God's image in men's souls, and by the reviving of
them to expel or blot out the expressions of Satan's image in
them. All this He doth in part even in this life in such as fear
and love Him. And in these two, to wit in the reviving of
God's image in us, and in the expunction and wiping out the
stain of sin (which is no other than the image of Satan), doth
our regeneration consist." Jackson's Works, xi. 21, 10.
432 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
body's growth, is of course a protracted process,
which the whole of life is not too long to com-
plete. But what gives to Baptism its especial
character is, that in that holy rite this process is
begun. For then are men joined by heavenly
agency to Christ, that the life of their souls may
from that day forth have its development. Holy
Scripture speaks every where of union with Christ,
as that new creation in man's being, whereby the
forfeited likeness of the Word is given back. For
" if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature."
And " in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails
nor uncircumcision, but the new creation." " In
Christ, that is in His Communion or Church,"
says Olshausen, " the ancient divisions are unim-
portant; every thing there depends on the new
creation, upon that true regeneration, whereby
Christ the New Man is born within us." There-
fore St. Paul tells the Ephesians, " that ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man,
and that ye put on the New Man, which, after
God, is created in righteousness and true holi-
ness." 28 To be created after God, is further ex-
plained to the recovery of the impaired image
of Christ : " Ye have put off the old man with
his deeds and have put on the New Man, which
is renewed in knowlege after the image of Him
that created him." 29 This perfect recovery of
Christ's image, is stated to be the very purpose of
28 Eph. iv. 22, 24. Col. iii. 10.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 433
God's dealings with men in His Church : " For
whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son." 30 And
" we all are changed into the same image." 31
But how is this restoration to be effected ? How
can God's image be created anew in the soul? If
man had never fallen, it had been sufficient to
inherit it: fallen as he is, there must be the gift
of a new life. 32 And this new life had its com-
mencement in the fact of the Incarnation. For by
it was a beginning made in the person of Him,
who was to be " the first-born among many bre-
thren." Then did Divine gifts take up their abode
in humanity, that from the Head they might be
distributed to all His brethren. For in the new
as in the old creation is He " the first-born of
every creature," " the beginning of the creation of
God." 33 All its subsequent ramifications are but
the result of the impulse which in His Incarnation
was bestowed. For, " He is the Head even Christ,
from whom the whole Body fitly joined together,
maketh increase to the edifying of itself in love."
30 Romans, viii. 29. 31 II. Cor. iii. 18
32 " That every thing in the process of salvation depends
ultimately on God's operation, which man on his part can only
in faith receive, depends on the very nature of the process of
regeneration. It is like a new creation; the regenerate are
God's making, created in Christ Jesus." Olshausen on
Ephesians, ii. 10.
33 So far as such terms refer to Our Lord's Godhead, they do
not relate to priority of time, as though He were a created being,
but they set forth the truth that He was Himself the type and
Ff
434 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
Whereof, that men "might be made partakers of
the divine nature," is the wonderful result. This
work therefore, follows from union with Him, in
whom originated 34 the new creation of God. It
began with the Head, it extends itself to His mem-
bers; it began with the new Adam, it reaches on
to all His brethren. Thus is He in truth "made
a quickening spirit." Thus are we all " complete
in Him." 35 To suppose, then, that such a work
could commence from a spontaneous, inherent ac-
tion, would be the very heresy of Pelagius. The
flame requires to be kindled from without, that it
may burn within. There must be an external
action to which the inward movement must re-
spond. Renovation must have its root in Regene-
ration. There must be a gift antecedent to our
efforts. This gift is that first union with Christ,
whereon all communication of graces from Him to
us depends. Out of this beginning arises the whole
system of the Christian life. And this heavenly
pattern of the beings which He created. And so too when His
human nature is spoken of as the beginning of the new creation,
the order of causation, rather than the order of time, is the con-
dition contemplated.
U/5OS i][ia<3 ?y dei'a KarafBefttjKe ^apts, v^ovaa Kai a^ia^ovaa KUI
Soga^ovrra Kai OeoTroiovaa TIJV (frvaiv eV irpWTW ~XpiffTw. S. Cl/Tll
Thesaurus, xx. vol. v. p. 197.
Yifsoinai KO.I xpierai KUI a<yiaeTai Si' ijjias, iva Si' UVTOV Tpe~X"i]
e/s iravra'i ?y yapus, ws tjSi) boOciaa TIJ (pvaei, /cat \onrov okia
au)oju.evr) TW <yei/et. Id.
34 " Originem quam sumsit in utero Virginis posuit in fonte
baptismatis : dedit aquae, quod dedit matri," &c. S. Leo. Serm.
xxiv. 4. * Col. ii. 10.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 435
impulse is expressly declared in Scripture to be
extended to us in Baptism : " As many of you as
have been baptized into Christ," says St. Paul,
"have put on Christ." 36 For "by one spirit are
we all baptized into one Body." 37 And in Baptism,
as the Apostle asserts twice over, that death to the
old nature takes place, whereby the new creation
in Christ is commenced. " We are buried with
Him by Baptism into death," 38 "wherein also ye
are risen with Him." 39 So that St. Peter says, 40
that " Baptism doth also now save us." 41 For Our
Lord Himself had taught that in this ordinance
lies the beginning of the spiritual life " except a
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God:" a passage
whereof Hooker reminds us, " that of all the an-
cient, there is not one to be named, that ever did
otherwise either expound or allege the place than
as implying external Baptism." 42
Since the statements of Scripture on this subject
are so precise, how comes it then that any persons
should have dissented from this universal opinion
of Our Lord's first disciples? The grounds of men's
objection appear to be two : First, an attachment
36 Gal. iii. 27. 37 1. Cor. xii. 13. * Romans, vi. 4.
39 Col. ii. 12. * I. Peter, iii. 21.
41 It is not of course, says Dr. Jackson, " the virtue or
efficacy of the consecrated water in which we were washed,
but the virtue of His blood, which was once shed for us, and
which by baptism is sprinkled upon us, or communicated
unto us, which immediately cleanseth us from all our sins."
Works, x. 55, 8. <* Eccles. Pol. v. 59, 3.
436 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
to the idea introduced, or at least systematized by
Calvin, that grace is not given to any except those
who will finally be saved ; and secondly, the asser-
tion that no visible results attend on Baptism. The
difficulties which these considerations involve, in-
duce men to refer to such passages 43 of Scripture,
as express the full effect and ultimate consequence
of regeneration, i. e. victory over sin, and final per-
severance; and they infer that no gift has really
been bestowed in Baptism, unless these ultimate
consequences are discerned to be its effect. They
deny in effect that any seed has been sown, where
fruit is not brought forth. They deny that there
can be dead branches in the Christian vine. And
the language in which Scripture and the Church
speak of something as actually done in Baptism,
they consider to be merely a charitable hope that
something will be done hereafter a hope which, in
the majority of instances, they say is not borne out
by the result. Now, the passages of Scripture
which they cite, have in themselves no tendency to
show that in Baptism occurs no real work : for
they only speak of this work as one, the completion
whereof is the extinction of sin ; and which must
therefore spread itself through man's whole life.
But all that is asserted of Baptism is that since it
is our first means of union with the manhood of
Christ, the basis of our spiritual growth must be
laid in it. " Baptism doth challenge to itself but
43 I. John, iii. 9 ; v. 18.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 437
the indication of those graces, the consummation
whereof dependeth on mysteries ensuing." 44 The
denial therefore that in Baptism, as rightly and
worthily participated, there is any real change made
in the recipient of the ordinance the assertion,
that the benefits ascribed to it are merely figura-
tive, contingent, occasional that they are spoken of
prospectively as something to be hereafter attained,
and not positively as something actually possessed
all this does not follow from any scriptural au-
thority ; the grounds for supposing it are men's
antecedent difficulties. And as to the first of them,
it is surely matter of surprise, that any traditional
attachment to the opinions of Calvin should inter-
fere with the direct assurances of God's word. For
it has been shown by Bishop Butler that the pre-
destinarian theory is never carried out so rigidly as
to preclude all the practical inferences to which it
is intellectually opposed. This is far from being-
undesirable, considering how imperfect an instru-
ment is man's understanding, and how much safer
in many cases is the appeal to conscience than to
argument. But those who can reconcile the doc-
trine of arbitrary decrees with the general invita-
tions of Scripture to repentance and faith, need not
object surely to allow that the gifts of grace may
be co-extensive with the ordinances of the Gospel.
For do not faith and repentance need grace as an
unavoidable pre-requisite ? Why, then, should men
" Eccles. Pol. v. 57, 6.
438 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
deny the reality of Baptism, even if on their theory
it be " a seal perhaps to the grace of election before
received," seeing it is declared to be " to our sancti-
fication here a step that hath not any before it." 45
Neither is there reason why men should ground
their disbelief in the reality of Baptism on the small
results which they see it effect. The very prin-
ciple of faith is to admit that which sense does not
discern : " Blessed are they that have not seen, and
yet have believed." And it is hard to say how
much of the inefficacy of Baptism is due to the
popular unbelief, which prevents men from doing
justice to it. When children are not instructed in
the nature of the gift which they have received,
we cannot w r onder if it be allowed to be inoperative.
Its result might be very different if they were ac-
customed to expect those effects, which St. Cyprian
assures us resulted from his own baptism. He
speaks of his former difficulties ; and how powerless
he felt to escape those evil habits, which adhered
to his nature. " But," he says, " after that the
stain of former sins being washed away through
the water of the new birth, a light from above in-
fused itself into my acquitted and purified bosom ;
and after that, through a spirit drawn from above,
a new birth had made me a new man what was
doubtful began immediately in a wonderful manner
to receive confirmation ; what was shut to be
opened ; what was dark to be enlightened ; what
45 Eccles. Pol. v. 60, 3.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 439
was impossible to be attainable." 46 But with this
disbelief in the reality of Baptism is joined an un-
reasonable estimate of the results, which, if real,
it might be expected to effect. For the gifts of
grace do not in any case supersede the respon-
sibility of mankind. Those who think most highly
of Baptism regard it only as the appointed means
for that union with Christ, whereby men may ob-
tain strength to serve Him. Baptism neither
exempts devout men from the necessity of a
watchful life, nor careless men from the necessity
of conversion. It is a reason why the watchfulness
of the one should be more unvaried, and the con-
version of the other more complete. To receive
gifts of grace is in itself no security against losing
them. In Adam himself, the image of God did not
preclude the possibility of disobedience. Much less
can this be expected in his descendants, on whom
the concupiscence of the will has been entailed by
his failure. It is sometimes forgotten that Baptism
does not determine what shall be men's future state,
but what is their present position. And herein
lies the defect of all hypothetical interpretations of
the language used respecting this holy ordinance.
For their purpose is to transform that, which is
essentially an assertion respecting a present fact,
into a supposition about the future. It is asserted,
for example, respecting every child who is re-
ceived into the Church after private Baptism,
46 Ep. ad Donatum, statim a Baptismo conscripta, Ed. Rigalt. p. 2.
440 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
" that this child is by Baptism regenerate" As in
such cases no sponsors have been employed, the
validity of the ordinance cannot be attributable, as
has sometimes been imagined, to their faith. The
Church, of course, supposes it to result from that
reality of union with Christ's 47 manhood, whereby
those who were heirs of Adam's sinfulness become
heirs of grace. But what signification is assigned
to the words by those who deny that Baptism is
the appointed channel of grace? Some children,
say the parties in question, are no doubt regene-
rated at Baptism; it may be so in any individual
instance, and it is charitable to affirm that which it
is impossible to deny. And this, they observe, is
the course adopted by the Church respecting the
departed, concerning whose future condition, be-
cause unable to predict it, we express a charitable
hope. But to confound conjecture with assertion,
is to destroy the whole meaning of speech. Things
future, being from their nature uncertain to us, do
not admit of a positive affirmation. And in the
case of such present things as we feel to be dubious,
we cannot do more than express a hope, leaving it
to the result to clear up what is uncertain. Since
hope, then, is in its nature conversant with things
which are future or contingent, its expression is
compatible with the highest degree of uncertainty.
47 " Take the case of any child: if it is one with Christ already,
why is it baptized ? But if (as really happens) it is baptized
that it may be one with Christ, therefore until baptized it was
not one with Christ." S. Aug. de Pecc. Mer. i. 28.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 441
In the most unpromising morning we may hope
that the sun will shine at noon. And respecting
the departed, supposing them to die in the Church's
communion, we can hardly do less than declare them
our brethren, and express hope that they sleep in
Jesus. And this, with thanks for their deliverance
from this world's miseries, is all that is expressed
by our service. What countenance is there here
for the positive assertion of a present fact, concern-
ing which we have no knowledge? It is obvious
what would be said respecting a man who asserted
unequivocally that the sun was shining at present,
and who afterwards justified himself on the ground
that he hoped it was, but possessed no means of
informing himself. And what else can be thought
of those who assert respecting every baptized child,
that " this child is regenerate," when they believe
in their consciences that in all probability it is not?
But to leave the Church's language, and come to
the positive effect of this system. It rests plainly
on the notion that the benefits of Baptism do not
depend upon the present act, but on the future
results which attend a devotion to God's service.
These no doubt are many and great. They asso-
ciate the party with Christians they suggest such
feelings as should attend an early dedication to
God, and thus lead to those efforts on the part of
man, which God's grace will doubtless meet with a
proportionable blessing. But in all this there is
one radical defect the need of some predisposing
442 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
grace on the part of God, whereby the first move-
ment may be made towards holiness. For this the
Church refers us to Baptism. It considers this
first gift of life to be derived from that union with
Christ, which He originally bestows. What was
said to the disciples, not excluding the one on
whom the gift was conferred ineffectually, is in
Baptism uttered to all Christians : " Ye have not
chosen Me, but I have chosen you." The enslaved
will of man was first restored to its perfect freedom
in that great representative of our race, in whom
the concupiscence which Adam entailed upon his
descendants, was counteracted by the full influx of
God's spirit. The first of Adam's progeny, who
possessed that perfect liberty in which our original
parent was created, was the second Adam Jesus
Christ. Now, it is only through union with our
disenthralled representative, that we also can escape
bondage. " If the Son shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed." Unless the beginnings of
the spiritual life are laid in this antecedent gift of
union with Christ, we pass over of necessity to the
Rationalistic principle which would attribute them
to that natural relation of the soul to God, which
it had by creation. A new birth, then, is needed
as preliminary to the first actings of the will, be-
cause upon it depends our admission into "the
glorious liberty of the children of God." And,
therefore, regeneration does not merely imply the
second birth of every individual, as opposed to his
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 443
primary birth by nature (though this doubtless is
referred to) ; but it also points to that state of
freedom in which man was originally created, but
into which every heir of Adam's sin requires to be
readmitted. This birth back again into the con-
dition in which man was made when he was
fashioned after God's likeness, is not complete till
his will has laid full hold on that freedom, into
which he was admitted by God's grace. There-
fore, the complete and general development of the
Christian Covenant is described by Our Lord as
" the Regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit
upon the throne of His glory." For then shall the
ancient state be again perfectly possessed by those,
who "being made free from sin" have become
" servants of righteousness." But the beginning
of this work in every individual must be through
God's act, and not through the act of man, because
its very object is to give man the power of acting,
by the enfranchisement of the will from its heredi-
tary bondage. And the act whereby God bestows
this blessing is especially connected by St. Paul
with that Sacrament of Baptism, which Our Lord
Himself appointed : " According to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and re-
newing of the Holy Ghost." But such a prelimi-
nary act on the part of God is negatived, when the
real, objective influence of Baptism is denied, and
it is asserted not to be the appointed channel of
grace. Hereby everything is thrown on man's
444 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
part; and thus the Pelagian 48 doctrine is in reality
introduced, and man's salvation is made to depend
originally upon his own exertions. This is not the
meaning of many who deny that a new birth is
conferred in Baptism ; their intention is to refer
regeneration to the immediate act of God, and they
exhort the young to ask and desire it. But on
what are prayers and good desires to be built? To
say that it is on natural goodness were Pelagianism.
Yet if we are referred to God's grace, by what
event except Baptism 49 are those who are born in
sin entitled to it, previously to the first actings of
their understanding? What we are speaking of is
the case of those, who have not yet been able, by
any act of their own, to take part in that which is
necessary to their will's freedom. Yet what Chris-
tian parent but would associate prayers to God with
the very first lispings of infant speech? 50 Either
men must be prepared, then, to adopt the Pelagian
48 " Every mother hastening piously up with her infant son
says, 'Let it be baptized, that it may be saved.' Pelagius ob-
jects, ' How should it be saved ? There is nothing in it which
needs salvation.' " St. Jlug. Serm. clxxxiii. 8.
49 " Quod" (i. e. illuminari) " per sacramentum baptismatis in
parvulis fieri non dubitat mater Ecclesia, quse cor et os mater-
num eis praestat, ut sacris mysteriis imbuantur, quia nondum
possunt corde proprio credere ad justitiam, nee ore proprio con-
fiteri ad salutem." S. Aug. de Pecc. Mer. i. 25.
50 " The freedom of the will, which suffered detriment in the
first man," say the Fathers at Orange in their decrees against
Semi-Pelagianism, " cannot be repaired, except by the grace of
Baptism ; what was lost cannot be restored, except by Him who
was able to bestow it." Harduin, ii. 1099.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 445
hypothesis, or their conduct to the young assumes
the presence of that very gift, which Baptism has
been appointed to convey. And the only alterna-
tive is such rigid adherence to the Calvinistic theory
as, by declaring Christian education needless and
impossible, would go counter to the instincts of
nature and the Word of God.
But it may be objected, are not the Heathen ex-
horted to prayer, as a preliminary to Baptism.
They doubtless are ; and in their case the appeal
rests upon that universal presence of the Word,
by which every man is in a measure enlightened.
Unless there were some remnant of that original
influence, which the Word exercised over His crea-
tures, no basis would exist for their first conversion
[vide p. 131-3]. But their prayers and efforts are
not built upon that union with Christ, which is the
principle assumed in Christian education. To deal
with Christians as heathen men should be dealt
with, is to shut our eyes to the freedom and ful-
ness of the Gospel ; it is to treat the "joint-heirs
with Christ" as though they were bondmen. The
principle of Christian education is avowed in the
Church Catechism, wherein every child is taught
to declare at the outset that in Baptism it was
made " a member of Christ." And after praying
for them that they "may ever remain in the num-
ber of" God's "elect children," we teach every
child to affirm that the Holy Ghost "sanctifieth
me, and all the elect people of God." This prin-
446 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
ciple is consistently carried out by the Church,
for she limits the use of Christian burial to those
children, whose bodies have been consecrated in
Baptism by union with the Body of Christ. And
even those who have not the advantage of her
guidance proceed usually upon an analogous sys-
tem. For their plan of education is professedly
built on the plan of the Gospel, and on the
expected succour of the Comforter. And yet
how are men entitled to His Help, save by virtue
of the Mediation of Christ? And what right have
we to Christ's Mediation, unless we have been
brought into the same relation to the new man,
into which our birth brings us to the old one? It
were contrary to the whole theory of the Gospel,
to assume the existence in man of Christian graces
antecedently to their participating in the Media-
tion of Christ. And yet that Christian principles
are to be acted upon is the very foundation of the
Gospel scheme, seeing that it begins by assuming
a belief, the practical effect whereof is afterwards
to be developed. The existence, therefore, of an
external and objective mean, whereby we may in
the first instance be united to Christ, is the very
basis of subsequent obedience. And this is why
its denial is more plainly inconsistent with our
Ritual and Catechism, than with the Articles, in
which doctrines are abstractedly exhibited. For
the evil to which it leads is a practical denial of
the Gospel an undervaluing of that union with
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 447
Christ Our Lord, which is consequent upon His
Incarnation an over-estimate of human efforts
and such a tendency will conflict more plainly with
those parts of our established formularies, in which
our dependence upon Christ Our Lord and our con-
stant adherence to Him are actually exhibited.
In respect to the Lord's Supper, it may be
doubted whether the same amount of belief is
entertained on all hands as in Hooker's days was
universally prevalent. "It is on all sides," he
says, "plainly confessed, first, that this Sacrament
is a true and a real participation of Christ, who
thereby imparteth Himself, even His whole entire
Person, as a mystical head unto every soul that
receiveth Him, and that every such receiver doth
thereby incorporate or unite himself unto Christ as
a mystical member of Him; and secondly, that to
whom the person of Christ is thus communicated, to
them He giveth by the same Sacrament His Holy
Spirit to sanctify them, as it sanctifieth Him, which
is their Head." 51 In these words the union with
Christ's manhood by mystical participation is put
forth as the leading characteristic of this holy or-
dinance. But since the time of Hoadley a dif-
ferent system has become prevalent. The mere
human side of this Sacrament has been mainly
thought of: it has been considered to be a sermon
preached to the senses an act whereby we com-
memorate the death of Christ, and testify our reve-
51 Eccles. Pol. v. 67, 7.
448 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
rence for His memory. This account of its uses,
to the exclusion of that deeper view, which is
founded on the application of Our Lord's Incarna-
tion to the wants of men, and on the necessity of
external grace, having been introduced by Socinian
writers, has since found advocates in the Church.
As Baptism is explained away into the mere ex-
pression of a charitable expectation, so the Lord's
Supper into a simple commemoration. How are
we to decide whether this holy service is to be
considered a divine rite or a human ordinance ;
whether it is the supernatural means, by which
whole Christ gives Himself to His people, or a
mere accommodation to the taste for acted ser-
vices ? The letter of Scripture surely represents
the eating and drinking of Christ's Body and Blood
to be a mystical means of obtaining heavenly bene-
fits. But those who question the apparent mean-
ing of such passages of Scripture, deny that the
sixth chapter of St. John can refer to an ordinance
which was instituted after the narrative which it
records. It is not here affirmed that the spiritual
communion of His members with Our Lord's man-
hood is confined to that holy feast, which is the
signal and peculiar means of maintaining it; but if
the participation of Christ in His Holy Supper be
not at all referred to in the sixth chapter of St.
John, then it is hard to see how Holy Scripture
could be intended for the instruction of ordinary
readers. For surely no simple persons, whose
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 449
minds were not pre-occupied by some theory, could
ever read that chapter without the most palpable
misconception. And how could St. John have de-
livered it to the Church, when the Holy Com-
munion had been habitually celebrated for half a
century, without taking care to guard it from such
obvious misapprehension ? But, in fact, that this
dialogue should have been prophetic of what was
to come is so far from an objection, that it is in
exact consistency with other parts of Our Lord's
instruction. How much did it contain, which even
" His Disciples understood not at the first ?" He
spoke of being "lifted up from the earth" He
promised "living water" He declared the neces-
sity of taking up the Cross and following Him: in
all these cases His prophetic words received their
interpretation from the event. 52 And the sixth
chapter of St. John contains a direct assurance
52 It is the especial characteristic of St. John's Gospel, that
with a pious care it gathers up those remaining fragments of
Divine teaching, which inspired Mediation revealed to be the
most real and pregnant secrets of that Gospel Kingdom, the
mysterious treasures whereof he had longer time upon earth
than his fellows to survey. Take, for instance, the repeated
declarations that lie who came in " fashion as a man," because
the Personal Word of God, was the " true light" of man's
nature a fact which Our Lord's hearers can hardly have
understood at the time, but which opens to us the secret things
of His kingdom in a manner which adds wonderfully to the
view supplied by the other Evangelists. For it connects itself
with that whole system of truths respecting the Incarnate
Word, which is the peculiar revelation of the Theological
Gospel. Vide St. John, i. 4, 5, 9 ; iii. 19 ; viii. 12 ; ix. 5 ;
xii. 35, 36, 46.
450 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
that its meaning would not be apparent till Our
Lord's Ascension. " What and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before." So
that we have express authority for interpreting it
by events which were to come. Hooker accordingly
points out to us how exactly what the Apostles
had " learned before that Christ's flesh and blood
are the true cause of eternal life" 53 was explained
by Our Lord's institution of the Holy Communion.
And as this is the natural conclusion which would
be adopted by untaught readers of Scripture, so is
it supported by the unanimous testimony of early
writers. "Both the Greek and Latin Fathers,"
says Bishop Poynet, " refer the words of Our Lord
in the sixth chapter of St. John with great una-
nimity to the Sacrament of the Eucharist." 54 Our
Church sanctions the same interpretation in her
Ritual " then we eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, then we dwell in Christ and
Christ in us." As Dr. Jackson expresses it, " this
present efficacy of Christ's body and blood upon
our souls, or real communication of both, I find
as a truth unquestionable amongst the ancient
Fathers, and as a Catholic confession. They all
agree that we are immediately cleansed and puri-
fied from our sins by the blood of Christ ; that His
human nature, by the inhabitation of the Deity, is
made to us the inexhaustible fountain of life." 55
53 Eccles. Pol. v. 77, 4.
84 Diallacticon, p. 9. By J. Poynet, Bishop of Winchester, and
Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer. ss Works, Book x. 55, 12.
OF UXIOX WITH CHRIST. 451
One further argument for the reality of that
union with the body of Christ which is bestowed
in the Holy Eucharist, is supplied by the circum-
stances under which its observance was commenced.
On Our Lord's Ascension, His Disciples returned
to Jerusalem to wait for that gift of the Holy
Ghost, which was shortly to be dispensed. It had
been declared to be the work of the Blessed Com-
forter to provide some new and closer means of
union with that manhood of the Son, which was to
be withdrawn from mortal sense. By this means
He who in appearance departed, was in reality to
be brought more near. The new Head of the
renewed race, the second Adam of reformed hu-
manity, was about to provide that principle of
supernatural union, whereby all His members were
to be engrafted into Himself. Now, it is through
the Holy Communion that this connexion is espe-
cially maintained. Its great purpose is to bring
the members of Christ into mystic union with their
Head. Thereby does the manhood of Christ act
upon His brethren. In this circumstance surely
we have the reason why, during that first assem-
blage at Jerusalem, no mention is made of an
observance, which so soon as the Holy Ghost had
bestowed the fulness of His gifts, became the main
act of Christian worship. " These all continued in
one accord with prayer and supplication." But
no sooner had the life-giving medium been be-
stowed, than "they continued in breaking of bread,
452 SACRAMENTS A MEANS
and in prayer." The Holy Communion, it seems,
could not have effect, till the pouring out of that
quickening spirit, 56 by which the members of Christ
mystical are attached to their Head. " The one
Holy Catholic Church and Communion of Saints,
did not begin to be in esse or bear true fruit, until
the effusion of the Holy Ghost, which is the soul
of the one Holy Catholic Church, or of the mys-
tical body of Christ." 57 But how different had it
been, if the Communion of Saints were only a
figurative expression, and the Holy Communion a
mere commemoration. When were the Disciples
more united by natural bonds than in this hour of
their desertion ? When were they more likely to
commemorate their Lord, than while His departure
was so fresh ? The Holy Eucharist cannot, there-
fore, have been a merely human rite ; its force was
not that it addressed their senses, and set forth
what they had lost; it depended for its efficacy on
that new gift of the Holy Ghost, whereby Christ
56 It may be alleged that the two disciples at Emmaus were
admitted to the full participation of that Eucharistic presence,
which is here affirmed to have been consequent upon the gift of
the Holy Ghost. But whatever it was to which they were
admitted, the case is plainly an excepted one, since it was the
act of Him, in whom the same gift dwelt personally, which was
about to possess a new medium of presence through the power
of the Holy Ghost. Before Our Lord's death, He told His
Disciples that the same presence had already been bestowed
through the Incarnation of the Word, which was afterwards to
be maintained through the Advent of the Comforter. "He
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
57 Jackson's Works, ix. 41, 3.
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 453
their Head came back to them with power; it was
their perpetual means of union with His glorified
humanity, their souls' food, the medium of the
body's immortality.
It remains only to recall that which has been
already stated, as applicable to both the sacred
ordinances which have been considered. The
reality of both of them has been maintained : it
has been affirmed that Baptism is not merely the
expression of a charitable hope ; that the Lord's
Supper is not a bare act of pious recollection.
The essential principle of each of them has been
shown to be union with the perfect manhood of
Christ Our Lord. Let it be remembered only in
conclusion, that to deny their reality is to assail
the great principle of the Mediation of Christ. For
the Doctrine of Our Lord's Mediation does not rest
only on the Divine power of Christ, as a partaker
in the nature of self-existent Godhead; it implies
also that, by associating man's nature to His own,
He has made created being the channel of His
gifts. Now, as the media through which these
gifts are dispensed to His brethren; as the ramifi-
cations, whereby His Divine nature distributes itself
on the right hand and the left, these two Sacra-
ments go together their importance is equal
their effect alike and to disparage them is to
derogate from that principle of action which the
wisdom of God has seen fitting to adopt. Every
attempt to explain them aw r ay, every contrivance
454 SACKAMENTS A MEANS
for extenuating the real import of what they effect,
is a virtual detracting from the reality of that
objective and actual influence, which Christ the
Mediator is pleased to exert. Its tendency is to
resolve His actions into a metaphor, and His ex-
istence into a figure of speech. His specific and
personal agency as the Eternal Son, who in the
fulness of time conjoined Himself to man's nature
for the recovery of a fallen race, is merged in the
general action of that ultimate Spirit, whom none
but Atheists professedly reject. For the real ob-
jection against the Sacramental system does not
arise from any deficiency in its Scriptural authority,
which has been shown to be ample, but from the
abstract improbability that external ordinances can
be the means of obtaining internal gifts. Now,
this improbability rests on the circumstance that
the natural mean of connexion with God is the
intercourse of mind with mind, and consequently
that the intercourse through Sacraments is super-
natural. The connexion with God i. e. which man
received by creation, and which Rationalism affirms
to be sufficient for his wants, is more compatible
with men's natural position, than that new system
of Mediation which has been revealed in the Gos-
pel. But let the Doctrine of Mediation be admitted,
and it ceases to be an argument against the Sacra-
mental system that it does not accord with that
scheme of nature, which the Gospel professes to
supersede. And the Rationalistic argument against
OF UNION WITH CHRIST. 455
these means of grace, is of equal avail against that
whole scheme of Mediation upon which they are
dependent. If the natural intercourse of mind with
the unembodied mind of the Creator supersedes
the necessity of Sacramental ordinances, does it not
supersede equally the humanity of Christ ? If man
has still that immediate communion with God, of
which Scripture affirms that the Fall deprived him,
what need is there of a Mediator between them ?
Thus does the objection mount up from earth to
heaven from Christ feeding men below through
Sacraments, to Christ mediating above by His
Atonement and Intercession. For " if we have
told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how
shall ye believe if we tell you of heavenly things?"
If the Sacraments be thus emptied of their mean-
ing, it is because the present actings of Christ as
the Son of Man are not appreciated; and the pur-
poses of His Incarnation are forgotten. And this
forgetfulness again may be traced to unbelief in
that real diversity of Persons in the Blessed Trinity,
in which all creaturly existence has its ultimate
root. Thus does a practical Sabellianism respect-
ing Christ's Person coincide with that Rationalistic
theory, by which the reality of His Sacraments is
disputed. And their surrender is fatal to the true
doctrine concerning Himself, even as the true doc-
trine of His nature sets the importance of these
instruments in a proper light.
456
CHAPTER XIV.
CHRIST AS MEDIATOR THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS
AND KNOWLEDGE TO MANKIND.
WE have now surveyed two stages in the wonder-
ful economy of man's salvation. The first was that
God became man ; the second, that the God-man
became one with His brethren. The first was the
union of two widely different natures by personal
alliance ; the second, the union of many brethren
with their connatural head by sacramental grace.
" God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself"- here is the first; and the second is
" Christ in us the hope of glory." It remains only
to notice some consequences entailed on mankind
at large by this great event. Its full effects would
be too wide to speak of, and they blend themselves
with that subjective part of religion on which it is
not designed to enter in this place. For what is
meant by all personal and individual religion, but
that men receive, lay hold of, and rest upon that
Mediation of Christ, which has been set forth as the
central truth of the Gospel as an actual object
external to our souls. Here then nothing further
CHRIST AS MEDIATOR, ETC. 457
can be done than to touch upon that common in-
fluence of this fact upon mankind at large, which
may in some sort be regarded also as an objective
and external truth ; since, like Mediation itself, it
assumes a collective character, and reacts, as an
outward mean of efficacy, upon individual minds.
Looking then at the effect of Christ's Mediation
on mankind at large, it may be affirmed to be the
producing principle of holiness and of knowledge.
These blessings might be bestowed upon men by
individual gift, as Abraham was called by peculiar
summons to be Father of the Faithful, or St. Paul
to be the Apostle of the Gentiles ; or they might
come like the Apostleship of St. Matthias, or the
royalty of Solomon, through the instrumentality of
others. Now the second of these is the mode which
is adopted respecting the gifts of the Gospel. They
come from the Head 1 to the members : they are
procured by Christ Our Lord for His earthly bre-
thren ; they are the privileges which He purchased
through the infinite desert of His perfect obedience.
We have no original right in them ; but by virtue
of our being engrafted into the Body of Christ, we
participate in them from Him. And since it is by
aggregation to the body of the faithful that we be-
come members of Christ, therefore our personal
blessedness is the result of that family union, which
gives us a share in its collective rights. "If
1 " Uluminatio quippe nostra participatio Verbi est, illius scili-
cet vitae, qme lux est hominum." iS. Aug. de Trin. iv. 4.
458 CHEIST AS MEDIATOR
children, then heirs : heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ." Thus do Gospel blessings proceed
from that which is general to that which is parti-
cular: first in the series is Christ the Mediator
then that family of mankind whom He associates
to Himself and lastly, each individual claimant of
those infinite privileges, which having been pur-
chased by our representative on behalf of manhood
at large, have become the right of its meanest par-
ticipators. The three stages in this wonderful pro-
cess are summed up in those mysterious words
wherein the Mediator, as the Head of mankind,
addresses Himself to the Almighty : " I in them,
and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect
in one." God's presence in Christ is the beginning
of our regeneration : the union of all believers in the
one Body of Christ is its second stage : the third is
that influence of the Word on every individual heart,
which is bestowed through the public ordinances of
the Gospel. This process is not set down, of course,
according to the order of time, but according to the
order of causation. God calls individuals to enter
His Church before they are members of it ; but
when they are thus called, His gifts proceed down-
ward from that which is collective to that which is
individual : " Thou bearest not the root, but the
root thee."
And here, therefore, we have an example, how
"the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God." For
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 459
what is this but the fulfilment of those darling ex-
pectations of man's heart, which were noticed at the
beginning of this inquiry ? What has man been
reaching after, ever since his history commenced,
but such a regeneration ? He has looked for it on
the side of this world and on the side of the next
in politics and in religion in the social reconstruc-
tion of civil communities, and in the formation of
societies affecting the divine life ; and if he has
failed to find it, the ground of his disappointment
has not been want of earnestness or of intelligence,
but because from God only can descend power to
renew the earth. He only who made the world is
able to restore it. Yet these successive attempts
witness man's conviction, that collective must ever
be the basis of individual improvement that as
each man owes the gift of speech, the fruits of ex-
perience, the softening influences of civilization, and
all the other lights of this world, to the race of which
he is a coheir so the higher blessings of a perfect
existence are not to be acquired by individuals
through their single strength, but are God's gift to
His chosen family throughout the earth.
1. Those who reject revelation have often antici-
pated such results from the mere development of
civil society. Its growth and advancement promise,
as they say, such unlimited improvements, that its
prospective state may be regarded as that blissful
condition of mankind, which has been anticipated
by prophets, and recorded by chroniclers. Here,
460 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
they allege, is the Millennium of the one, and the
Golden Age of the other. And from this reformed
and exalted society there will flow to individuals
every blessing which their heart desires. Thus
does Strauss maintain that " the union of the divine
and human nature has its completion in the collec-
tive race of mankind." " This," he says, " is the
key of the whole Christian system ; and as the sub-
ject of all its assertions we must take not an indi-
vidual, i. e. Christ, but an idea a realized and
actual idea." 2 " This idea is humanity viewed col-
lectively : humanity is the union of two natures, it
is God incarnate." 3 " The history of man," says a
writer of our own, "is truly the Word of God." 4
This is but a more strong expression of that error
which lies at the root of every system, in which the
regeneration of mankind is expected from mere so-
cial attempts. For since God only can effect man's
regeneration, to look for it from human efforts, is
to suppose that in man himself lies the principle of
Deity. Such an opinion is closely allied to the
characteristic feature of Rationalism, the substitu-
tion namely of that relation to God, which we have
by creation and nature, in place of that which is
given to us through Mediation and Grace. Thus
are men looked upon as able to hold intercourse
2 Strauss Leben Jesu, sec. 149, vol. ii. p. 767.
3 On the other hand, says St. Austin : " Deus natura non
sumus ; homines natura sumus." " Deus itaque factus homo
Justus, intercessit Deo pro homine peccatore." De Trin. iv. 4.
4 Martineau's " Eastern Life," iii. 72.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 461
with God through the mere communing of mind
with mind ; and the Sacramental system, whereby
the Mediator associates man to Himself, is alleged
to be a needless interruption. But with what suc-
cess has the system of Rationalism been tried ?
Has not one experiment miscarried after another?
Are not social renovations of mankind invariably
defeated by the corruption of man's heart ? A de-
fective, disappointing, uncertain condition is proved
to be the necessary state of every society, which
is made up of those who are heirs to Adam's sin.
There is a barrier between them and perfection
which cannot be displaced ; and " though they toss
themselves yet can they not prevail ; though they
roar, yet can they not pass over it." For man
natural cannot get beyond that head and type of
his nature, in whom were summed up its virtues
and defects. In all forms of thought and action,
under every condition and sky, he is still but the
old Adam, and bears the burthen of his parent's
deficiencies and faults. And how then shall he
go beyond the normal representative of his race ?
He was born in Adam's image how shall he escape
it? How shall he rise to a higher nature than that
in which he was begotten ? Every race of animals
admits of improvement within its natural limits,
but the limits of the race may not be overleaped.
Adam must still reproduce himself in those who
are born his children. Only by the intervention of
some new nature could there be an exaltation of
462 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
the old one. And therefore all attempts at a social
regeneration of mankind have but witnessed to
man's wants, but not redressed them.
2. There seems more reason in the expectation,
that the religious associations of men might effect
the improvement of their race. For this is a testi-
mony to the conviction, to which false as well as
true systems of religion witness, that from God
alone must come man's recovery. Hence the con-
secration of a peculiar class of men to the especial
service of God, that thereby they might exercise a
purifying and hallowing influence on their worldly
brethren. This system, which prevailed among
most heathen nations, found its true expression in
that favoured family, which was selected by God
Himself to be to Him " a kingdom of Priests and
an holy nation." But favoured as the Jewish
people really were, they over-rated their privilege,
and over-estimated what it was given them to
effect. Their grand object was to witness to Him
w T ho was to come, and to keep up the memory of
His approach. But they supposed the object of
their calling to be those services which themselves
should render in the earth ; and Isaiah's predictions
respecting Gospel times, they interpreted of the
future glories of their own nation. Herein they
did but fall into the error by which many Chris-
tians are still possessed, who, in opposition to St.
Paul's w r ords, interpret the predicted supremacy of
Israel of some future exaltation of the carnal seed
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 463
of Abraham, and not of that true Israel of the new
election the members of Christ. Such a notion,
prevalent in ancient as well as recent times, led
the Jews to apply the prophecies of the Old
Testament to their collective nation, and not to
Christ. 5 This error is mentioned by Origen : the
prophecies of Isaiah, a learned Jew assured him,
" did not refer to one individual, but to the whole
people." 6 The fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah was
interpreted to mean, that " Israel was not punished
for its own offences, but for the faults of the rest
of the world, and that the sins of all other nations
were laid upon it." 7 And the benefit which this
much-enduring people was expected to effect, was,
that at some future day, " Monotheism should by
its means gain a glorious victory over the Heathen,
and the knowledge of the one God should be
spread abroad by Israel and its inspired prophets." 8
5 Perhaps some countenance for the notion has been derived,
however unreasonably, from the Book of Ecclesiasticus ? Com-
pare, for example, Ecclesiasticus, chap, xxiv., with Proverbs,
chap. viii. Wisdom, which in the Book of Proverbs is a
Personal attribute of Deity, is set forth in Ecclesiasticus, as
embodied in His chosen people : " Let thy dwelling be in Jacob,
and thine inheritance in Israel ;" " I took root in an honour-
able people, even in the portion of the Lord's inheritance."
And we look vainly for impersonal manifestation of the Word,
when it is said of wisdom : " The first man knew her not per-
fectly; no more shall the last find her out" (S, 12, 28).
Susceptible as this beautiful Chapter is of a sound interpretation,
it may yet have been associated in the minds of Jews with their
popular error.
6 Orig. Cont. Celsum. 1. in Gesen. on Isaiah, vol. iii. 165.
7 Vide Kimchi and Jarchi, as cited by Gesenius, iii. 166.
8 Gesenius, iii. p. 164.
464 CHKIST AS MEDIATOR
Thus did a work, which the nation at large was to
effect, absorb every thought. Israel was to achieve
a regeneration in the popular religions of the earth. 9
Thus did they forget the Great Head and Re-
presentative of Mankind, to whom it was the true
honour of Israel to minister. They looked to the
influence of their own tribes for a result which was
to follow only when that Shiloh came, to whom
should be the gathering of the nations. All in-
struments were in truth to be gathered together in
Him ; His people's honour was but to be a part of
Him : the privilege of Israel was that of it, accord-
ing to the flesh, " Christ came who is over all, God
blessed for ever."
And herein also lay the distinction of that race
of Prophets, to whom some later sceptics 10 would
9 To this expectation, though prepared, of course, to rest it on
its proper basis, St. Peter probably referred, when he exhorted
the Jews to repent in hope that the anticipated glories of their
nation might be realized, and " that the times of refreshing may
come from the presence of the Lord." d.cts, iii. 19.
10 Isaiah, according to Gesenius, speaks in the name of that
class of men to whom he belonged, and the commentator alleges
it as a striking indication of the truth of his interpretation, that
the Hebrew word which expresses the persecuted object in the
important passage, " for the transgression of my people was he
stricken," is neither singular nor plural, but a poetical form, em-
ployed usually to express some collective object. He would
translate the passage, therefore, "for the transgression of my
people was the stroke upon them" i.e. the prophets. "The
word lob for on 1 ? I refer," he says, " to the Servant of the Lord,
T VT
as a collective application, and consider it as a fingermark for
this interpretation, mh is usually employed with collective
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 465
apply those declarations, which the carnal Israelites
interpreted of their nation. For the office of Pro-
phets, like that of Priests, derives its importance
from the influence of that real Mediator, who for-
merly as now was present with and for His people,
through the intervention of His earthly ministers.
And it was as shadows of Him, and as united to
Him, that all the Prophets " testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow. Unto whom it was revealed that not unto
themselves, but unto us they did minister the
things which are now reported." Thus was grace
to descend from the Mediator upon the collective
race. In Him alone were " all families of the earth"
to be blessed. The fulfilment of the ancient pro-
mise to Abraham was reserved for Him. What-
ever renovation was expected for society at large
was not to be attained through the religious in-
fluence of any priestly caste, any more than through
the natural influence of any civil institutions. In
Him and through Him only could it arise, in whom
words." Gesenius on Isaiah, liii. 8, vol. iii. p. 183. But why
was Isaiah a representative of the prophetic race more than any
of his brethren ? Or how was his death an atonement for the
transgression of others ? If this word is significant of anything,
it surely points out how the real representative of mankind was
to die on behalf of all His brethren. In Him, whether for life
or death, are all gathered together. He was by nature that
" anointed servant" of God, which others were only in type and
by office. He is Abraham's " seed," by whose single name the
collective race is designated : " For as the body is one, and hath
many members, And all the members of that one body being
many, are one body ; so also is Christ."
nh
466 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
God and man were united; who succoured our
race, by the infusion of a new and higher principle ;
who was the "one Mediator" to bring down to us
a divine life, and thereby to revivify the putrid
mass of corrupted mortality.
Only in Christ the Mediator, therefore, can be
fulfilled the hope of men's regeneration; and the
failure of all other attempts, whether on the side
of polity or of religion, leads us back finally to
Him. From Him proceed all the blessings of the
Gospel covenant : for " Grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ." The gifts, i. e. of holiness and
knowledge the first resulting from His grace, the
second from the communication of that truth which
has its fountain in Him are through His Media-
tion imparted to His brethren : " For this cause,"
He says, " came I into the world that I should bear
witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the
truth heareth My voice." And communion with
Him is the very gift of righteousness, for " if Christ
be in you, the body is dead, because of sin ; but the
spirit is life, because of righteousness." These then
are the two gifts, proceeding from the Mediator, which
are the renewing principles of human society; so
far as they go, they effect the regeneration of man,
and accomplish those ends for which nature is
yearning. How far these gifts of Holiness and
Truth extend themselves, through what media, and
with what result, must be shortly noticed.
I. In God only is Holiness. To be the Holy
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 467
One is emphatically His name. "Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God of Hosts," is what Angels and
Saints especially declare Him. From this natal
source does the principle of holiness extend itself
through the creation. " Ye shall be holy," is the
command addressed to Israel, " for I the Lord your
God am holy." But this blessing descends from
heaven to earth through Him alone, by whom
everything which is good is communicated from
the one to the other. " He that spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all
things." Therefore, " as by one man's disobedi-
ence many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous." Thus
from its primary fountain in eternal Godhead does
the blessing of holiness flow forth through the
"one Mediator" into the Mystical Body of Christ.
It diffuses itself as widely as the subjects of that
mediatorial empire, which He came to establish in
the earth. All have the promise of sharing it, who
belong to that spiritual kingdom, for which we
daily entreat Him in the words of His own prayer.
Here, then, is the real regeneration of man's so-
ciety. Thus is planted the root of happiness, be-
cause thus is gained the favour of God. Here is
the " kingdom of God among men ;" " the days of
heaven upon the earth." Thus is fulfilled the
Blessed Virgin's promise : " He shall reign over
the House of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom
468 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
there shall be no end." This is no earthly king-
dom, because its principle of combination is the
invisible though living power of grace : yet there
results from it a real, lasting, operative, indivisible
society in part visible here on earth, though
reaching also into the unseen world extending
through all countries, though subject to none-
indifferent as to lineage, speech, or political insti-
tutions its sole means of union being that the
Manhood of Christ Our Lord makes one body of
all His members. For God " hath made Him to
be Head over all things to the Church, which is
His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all
in all."
The effect of this work is as wide as the family
of Christians, to say nothing of those innumerable
ways in which the stream of God's mercy may
overflow and extend beyond the appointed channel
of His promises. For as Sodom would have been
saved by fifty righteous, so do we hear of a time,
when " but for the elect's sake," " no flesh should
be saved." Yet what is the merit of the elect save
their inherence in Him, whose perpetual Mediation
delays the execution of the sentence passed on our
common progenitor, which, by undertaking the
office of Mediator, He interfered to arrest? For
all the holiness of His Saints depends upon Him.
But though the effects of Our Lord's Mediation
are wide enough to take in all inheritors of the
nature to which He united Himself, its proper
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 469
reference is to those who are united to Him. The
work of His Mediation has been shown to consist
first of that Sacrifice and Intercession, whereby
He once suffered on man's behalf, and whereby
He continually pleads for His people. On these
acts depends that holiness of the Body of Christ,
on account whereof the name of the Holy Church
especially belongs to it. For that holiness which
is perfect must be the imparted holiness of Christ
Our Lord, whereby He is " the Saviour of the
Body." Whereas the infused holiness of grace,
though perfect in itself, is a " treasure in earthen
vessels." But Christ "loved the Church, and
gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word :
that He might present it to Himself a glorious
Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish." This, then, is that perfect righteousness
of Christ's Atonement, which He imparts to His
Body. To this only St. Paul trusted, praying
that he might " win Christ and be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ." But a further gift is needed to render
men " meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the Saints in light." For to retain an unbelieving
heart and impure affections in the midst of this
holy brotherhood, would be to defile the temple
of the living God. Its proper members are those
470 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
who are " rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom which
God hath promised to them that love Him." To
what purpose are men " translated into the king-
dom of His dear Son," if they are found at last to
be of those " children of the kingdom," who " shall
be cast out into outer darkness?"
Besides, therefore, the imparted holiness, which
belongs to true members of the Mystical Body of
Christ, through His Intercession and Death, there
needs that infused holiness which is produced in it
by His Presence through the Spirit. For as the
first part of Our Lord's Mediation depends upon
the reality of His Death and Intercession, so does
the second upon the reality of His Presence. In
this manner does the Mediator work upon man-
kind : indwelling in the Church by grace through
His Sacraments. As an imparted holiness is the
indispensable cause of our acceptance, so is an in-
dwelling holiness also needed, because, without its
influence, none profit by the former. As the im-
parted holiness of Christ obtains for men that
"feast of fat things," which was the predicted
blessing of the Gospel, so is His indwelling holiness
that " wedding garment," without which they are
not worthy guests. The first, therefore, is in every
sense an external or objective blessing : the second
is an internal or subjective qualification of the
Body of Christ, which requires to be participated
by all its members. For thus it is that the whole
Church as a " building fitly framed together, grow-
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 471
eth unto an holy temple in the Lord." And the
reason why the Baptism of Infants has ever been
esteemed so signal and indispensable a blessing is,
that it is God's appointed means for their first ad-
mission to the privileges of this mystic body. Its
virtue does not depend on the prayers of the spon-
sors, whose attendance in private Baptism is not
required, but on the life of that portion of Christ's
Church, into which they are admitted. For no
men, however faithful, can obtain salvation for
others through the merits of their prayers : " no
man can deliver his brother;" but the merits of
Christ are large enough to extend saving efficacy
through every living portion of His mystical body.
These two, then, an imparted and an infused ho-
liness, are communicated 11 " through the appointed
means and channels of grace," as Bishop Andrews
expresses it, to every living Christian, who, by
" holding the head," " by joints and bands, has
nourishment ministered." The first is that, in
which all the ransomed trust, saying, " Thou hast
redeemed us by Thy blood;" the second is that,
by which they obtain such "hope" as " maketh
not ashamed." To follow out the last, as it be-
comes the internal and subjective life of every
individual believer, would exceed the limits of this
11 "Legimus justificari in Christo qui credunt in eum, propteo
occultam communicationem et inspirationem gratice spiritalis,
qua quisquis haeret Domino unus spiritus est." S. Aug. de
Pecc. Mer. i. 10.
472 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
inquiry, to show how it assumes the forms of
faith and obedience faith which is "given" 12 to
us, and "obedience" to which men are "chosen
through the Spirit." 13 But that which gives such
importance to the agency of these inward prin-
ciples; the reason why they contribute, each in
their degree, to our salvation, is not their inherent
excellence, but that they are exalted through the
holiness of Him, to whom they unite us. From
Him alone flows all the indwelling as well as all
the imparted holiness which pervades His mys-
tical body. When we offer Him the service of
faith, obedience, and love, we offer that which is
not only derived from HimselfJ but is only pure,
if it is absorbed in the infinite amount of His per-
fect sacrifice. This union the Holy Ghost secures
by maintaining our fellowship with Him. There-
fore did the Apostle desire " that the offering up
of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sancti-
fied by the Holy Ghost." 14 For our actions have
their consecrating virtue from Him: our prayers
are hallowed by Him: "all things come of Thee,
and of Thine own have we given Thee."
II. As God is the source of holiness, so is He
likewise the fountain of knowledge. To be the
simple and original depository of all truth is among
the mysterious laws of His inscrutable existence.
Therefore, did He declare Himself to His ancient
people as "a God of Truth." By this character
12 Philip, i. 29. 13 I. Peter, i. 2. " Rom. xv. 16.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 473
do the Prophets describe Him : " Thy counsels of
old are faithfulness and truth." And in like man-
ner has He been pleased to reveal Himself in the
Gospel Covenant, for " this is the message which
we have heard of Him, that God is light and in
Him is no darkness at all." And this light it
pleased God to introduce into our lower world,
when He created man as the image of His own
perfections. The very chiefest excellence of which
character was that immediate intercourse which
man's mind possessed with the Divine Unembodied
Mind, of which it was the earthly reflection (p. 65).
The loss of this direct irradiation from the fountain
of light, was the greatest of those evils, which be-
fell men through the Fall an evil which could not
have been remedied, save through the mercy of
that Being, who restored our forfeited inheritance,
by bestowing it on us again in Himself. For " this
is life eternal to know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Thus
hath " God, who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God" that glori-
ous light of Deity, which God bestowed through
the image of it, which is reflected " in the face of
Jesus Christ." When God, therefore, mercifully re-
vealed Himself to fallen man, it was through that
same Mediator, through whom the gift of holiness
had originally been bestowed upon His creatures.
The one Mediator, who had been the primary cause
474 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
of all Divine light to humanity, by whom, and in
whose image mankind was made, condescended to
become their instructor. u The true light, which
lighteth every man, was coming into the world."
For this purpose it was necessary that He should
first receive as man what He afterwards transmitted
to His brethren. " My doctrine," He says, " is not
Mine, but His that sent Me." Thus does the In-
carnation form the basis of every portion of the
Mediator's office. The unbounded store of Divine
truth was transfused into His man's nature : in
Him were "hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge." This belonged to Him by reason of
His oneness with that centre of light, wherein truth
has its fountain. And it was bestowed upon Him,
that He might be a light to man's nature; that
His body mystical might be filled with that light,
through grace, which belonged to Himself by na-
ture. " I am come a light into the world, that
whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in
darkness."
This gift of knowledge, like that of holiness, is
both an imparted and an infused or "engrafted"
gift: bestowed from without upon the faithful, as
an object of contemplation ; and communicated like-
wise to the body of the Church, as an internal prin-
ciple of teaching and guidance. With both these
is the mystical Body of Christ filled that as man's
acceptance is through that holiness which he has by
15 St. James, i. 21.
THE SOURCE O HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 475
union with the Head, so from the same source may
he be "renewed in knowledge after the image of
Him that created him." For Divine knowledge is
the impress and reflection of Him who is personally
" the truth." The imparted knowledge which the
Son of God has bestowed upon His Church is that
whole system of the Gospel, which formed the sub-
ject matter " of all that Jesus began both to do and
teach." This " Gospel of the kingdom of God"
"the Gospel" which St. Paul afterwards "received
not after men, nor of men, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ," which he declares so irrevocable, that
what was contrary to it might not be admitted,
though it was avouched by himself, " or an angel
from heaven" was not any of those four written
histories which now bear the name of Gospels.
For none of these documents were in existence,
until after that system was fully matured, which is
at present conveyed to us through all of them.
" The Gospel" then, which St. Paul affirms that
he "received" and "preached," is that complete
system of the Christian faith, respecting which he
reminds the Thessalonians, that "ye received it
not as the word of men, but as it is, in truth, the
Word of God." This is the external, objective,
imparted knowledge, "the Mystery of the King-
dom of God," which it has pleased the Mediator to
make known either by His own immediate agency,
or through the intervention of His servants. The
infinite and unsearchable Truth which had its ori-
476 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
ginal being in the Person of the Word, was set
forth for the contemplation of mortals. By those
who " know in part and prophecy in part," such an
object must of course be imperfectly understood
and thought of defectively. Yet is this the only
means whereby the unattainable glory of the
Great King can be communicated to His creatures.
" The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath revealed Him." It is as a
Personal Being, therefore, communicating with us
through those functions of soul and body, which
He has vouchsafed to share with ourselves, that
the Eternal Word discovers Himself. But so far as
the knowledge which He communicates is clothed
in earthly words, it is as capable of being conveyed
to those to whom it comes in books, as it was to
those to whom it addressed itself through their
hearing. Therefore were men who "had perfect
understanding of all things from the very first"
moved " to write in order," that subsequent gene-
rations might " know the certainty of those things,
wherein" they had "been instructed." Thus did
it please Him, who made Himself visible only to
the men of one generation, to " pour out doctrine
as prophecy, and leave it to all ages for ever."
The fact, that this treasure of objective truth is
enshrined in Holy Writ, is proved, independently
of internal witness, by the same evidence which
assures us of the existence of such persons as Our
Lord's Apostles. For those who speak of them as
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 477
the witnesses from whom they received the Chris-
tian faith, and as their guides to its practices and
institutions, refer also to the written depository of
their sentiments, as containing that body of Divine
truth for which they contended. A consecutive
line of testimonies might be adduced, in proof that
Holy Scripture was understood to have been handed
down by Our Lord's Disciples to their successors,
as that complete system of external truth, which
through the one Mediator was delivered from God
to man. It thus contains the objective body of
Divine teaching, and the final 16 scheme of Reve-
lation.
16 A single testimony only shall be cited out of the innu-
merable list, botli on account of its distinctness, and because it
occurs in an author, whose words have been sometimes supposed
to have a different tendency. " It has been a matter of grave
dispute," says St. Optatus to the Donatists, " whether Baptism
in the name of the Trinity, admits of being repeated. You say
it may ; we say it may not : between your may, and our may
not, the minds of men waver and are at sea. Let no one pin
his faith on you or on us : we are both partizans. Let us refer
to a judge. And yet if the judge be a Christian, he will not be
free from partiality. We must look abroad, then, for a judge ;
but if we take a Pagan, he will not be conversant with Chris-
tian mysteries ; if we take a Jew, he will be an enemy to
Christian Baptism : we shall hardly find a judge, therefore,
upon earth we must look to heaven. And yet why should we
knock at the gates of heaven, when we have a testament in
the Gospel ? For in this instance we may rightly illustrate
heavenly by earthly things : the case is like that of a person
who has several sons ; as long as the father is present, he him-
self gives directions to each of them ; as yet no testament is
necessary. So Christ, as long as He was present upon earth
(although there is a sense in which He is still present), gave
every necessary command, according to the occasion, to His
478 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
Thus has the permanent deposit of Christian truth
been consigned to us by Him, who brought it to us
from heaven. Having concentrated all knowledge
in His own manhood, He afterwards diffused it
among His brethren. Thus were the striking words
of Ecclesiasticus illustrated ; the " brook became a
river," and the "river became a sea." He who
took our nature was mercifully pleased to impart
that knowledge of which He was the well-head.
He might say in its fullest sense, respecting the
merciful labours of His human economy, " behold
that I have not laboured for Myself only, but for
all them that seek wisdom." Those holy words,
which we know by the name of Scripture, were
either spoken directly by Himself, in that body
which He took to be one of ourselves, or they were
uttered by men whose faculties were exalted through
that spiritual power, which by His mediation He
procured from God for man. So that He is both
"the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
Those secret depths of the Divine wisdom, which
Apostles. But [it happens now] as though the earthly father,
when he felt himself on the verge of death, fearing lest after his
removal disputes should arise between the brothers, should call
for witnesses, and transfer his will from his dying breast to
enduring tablets : then if a dispute should arise among the
brethren, there would be no need of going to his tomb, but
the testament would be referred to ; he who lay tranquil in the
grave would speak without voice from his tablets. The living
Father, whose disposition we are inquiring after, is in heaven ;
therefore as you would learn a man's will from his testament,
so let His be sought for from the Gospel." St. Optatus de
Schis. Donat. v. 3.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 479
are unfathomable to finite thought, were always
within the range of His personal knowledge. " And
of His fulness have all we received, and grace for
grace." By virtue, therefore, of His Mediation,
have those Divine truths, which were present to the
mind of God, been presented through the medium
of speech to the minds of mortals. This they still
are, since they have been written in a book, just as
much as when they sounded in men's ears. So
" the Fathers of Nice," says St. Leo, " live through-
out the world in their constitutions." 17 Much more
then is He, through whom Divine Truth came down
among men, to be looked upon as the present
source of that external, objective system of know-
ledge, to which His inspired Prophets and Disciples
have given expression in Holy Writ.
But His gift of knowledge was not confined to
an external truth : truth, like holiness, required
also to be infused into the inner nature of mankind.
Not only was the body of Christ enriched with that
imparted treasure of truth, the Holy Scriptures ;
but likewise with the engrafted principle whereby
it was able to comprehend them. The first was an
object committed from without to the Church's
keeping : the second was a gift of wisdom, bestowed
along with other graces on that collective body,
which the Head of the renewed race enlightened by
His presence. The first, therefore, was an objective
gift : something offered to the Church's contempla-
17 St. Leo, Ep. Ixxx. p. 299.
480 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
tion, which it has to maintain, defend, and treat
about; the second is a subjective gift to the Church,
that internal and guiding principle of understanding,
which it has to exercise upon the external truth
committed to its care. And these two gifts must
never be separated from one another. For they
come from the same source, and each of them is
essential to the full life of the other. Without the
external system of truth in Holy Writ, the Church's
mind would not have the advantages which are de-
rived from a written authority : without the internal
Word which enlightens the Body of the Church,
the sayings of Scripture would not be fully com-
prehended. Both kinds of knowledge are the result
of that economy of Mediation, whereby the Incar-
nate Son has exalted humanity, by uniting it into
one Body in Himself; and they contribute between
them to the complete acquisition of whatsover man's
nature has capacity to attain.
This close connection between the external gift
of God's Word, and the inward gift of a spiritual
discernment between the Word, that is, as pre-
sented objectively in Holy Writ, and as acting
subjectively throughout the Body of Christ is
evidenced as well by the name bestowed upon the
Mediator in Scripture as by the account of His of-
fice. For why should he be called the Word, save
with a view of showing how intimate is the relation
between those written oracles, in which God's will
is declared to us, and that Personal Word which
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 481
abideth 18 in us? Thus do we learn that the Word
by which believers are "born again" is identical
with that, "which by the Gospel is preached." 19
When we read that " the Word of God is quick and
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,"
"a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart," we are not unnaturally reminded of that
mysterious depth of Holy Scripture, which adapts
it to all circumstances and times, so that none can
read it without perceiving how it searches the con-
science. And yet the meaning of the passage is
not exhausted by such an interpretation : it passes
on into the Personal acting of the great Being,
whose spiritual presence enlightens men respecting
the purpose of His own sayings, and reminds us,
that there is no " creature that is not manifest in
His sight, for all things are naked and opened unto
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
The same truth is discernible if we turn from the
name of Mediator to the consideration of His office.
For why has Holy Scripture its peculiar adapta-
tion to man's nature, save because it is His Word,
after whose image man was originally fashioned,
and who is Himself the " true light, which lighteth
every man?" Therefore, when we read it, we re-
cognize the higher rule of our original composition.
And His present office is declared in Holy Writ to
be the extension of that informing and enlightening
power, which He originally bestowed upon our
18 1. John, ii. 14. 19 1. Peter, i. 23, 25.
i i
482 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
nature. Thus only may man become capable of
comprehending God's truth. The perpetual agency
of the Living Word is needed to give effect to His
written declarations. "I am come," He says, "a
light into the world, that whosoever believeth in
Me should not abide in darkness." " As long as I
am in the world, I am the light of the world."
This enlightening office the Word was to exercise
in perpetuity through the power of the Holy Ghost.
" The Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth :"
" for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it
unto you." And, therefore, writes St. John, " the
anointing which ye have received of Him abideth
in you, and ye need not that any one teach you:
but as the same anointing teacheth you of all
things, and is truth, and is no lie." Here, then,
we have a part of that Mediatorial function, which
belongs to Him who condescended to take our
nature. And since His office of Mediator has im-
mediate reference to His mystical Body, to those
whom, through the spiritual presence of His man's
nature, He unites to Himself; to them, therefore,
and for their benefit, must be this enlightening
influence : the inward or subjective principle of
perception, which is derived from Him who is " the
way, the truth, and the life," must be infused into
that collective society, through which individuals
are associated to the manhood of Christ ; and their
portion in this inward teaching of the Word must
be brought about through their inherence in His
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 483
Body. And so does St. Paul teach us, referring
the growth, stability, and knowledge of individual
Christians, to their adherence to that Body of
Christ, whereby the engrafted Word attains its
maturity. " He gave some, Apostles ; and some,
Prophets; and some, Evangelists; and some, Pas-
tors and Teachers ; 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 ; that we henceforth be no
more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about
with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive ; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow
up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even
Christ^ It is the same Eternal Word, whose
Spirit inspired the Apostles and spake by the Pro-
phets, who still condescends to guide into truth
the whole Body of the Church; He dwells in it
subjectively through grace to renew and purify its
spiritual perceptions ; He infuses an engrafted prin-
ciple of knowledge, so that His written word
becomes a real light to its else darkened under-
standing. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the
root of David, prevails to open the Book and to
loose the seals. Thus is an engrafted brought to
bear upon an imparted knowledge both derived to
us from that Mediator whose immediate presence
484 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
supplies the one, as through the ministry of His
servants He has bestowed upon us the other.
Though the view which has been taken is fully
set forth in God's Word, it may, to some minds,
seem open to objection. That the external and
imparted Word of Scripture may be duly under-
stood, there needs, it is said, that infused influence
of its Divine author, which He communicates to
the Body of His Church. Scripture, therefore,
cannot be understood without a divine light : that
divine light is obtained for individuals through
their inherence in the Christian community. Now,
the privileges of reason may, perhaps, be alleged
to be infringed by the first assertion : those of in-
dividual enlightenment by the second. To assert
the necessity of a divine guidance may be thought
to derogate from reason; to suppose that its light
is communicated through Christ's collective Body
may be supposed fatal to the liberty of individuals.
Such are the two objections which may be adduced.
It will be seen in each case how dangerous is their
tendency if admitted without limitation, and that
their legitimate admission is not inconsistent with
the truth which has been asserted. And first to
consider the claims of reason. It is alleged, that
since Scripture consists of words and propositions,
its interpretation falls of necessity within the do-
main of reason. When we speak of Our Lord's
body as a material substance, we mean that it was
THE SOURCE OF HOLINE.SS AND KNOWLEDGE. 485
an object to the senses of men : it might be seen
and handled: and to express the will of God in
language, is to submit it in like manner, it is con-
tended, to the reasoning faculties of mankind. So
that it is represented to be a sort of contradiction
in terms, to speak of a revelation which does not
appeal to the faculty of reason as the judge of its
contents. Let us first observe how far this prin-
ciple will lead, with a view of discerning, secondly,
by what limitations it is necessary to guard it.
1. To admit the exclusive authority of human
reason will be found to be fatal to the claims of
revelation : so that along with the inward and sub-
jective influence of an engrafted principle of divine
guidance, the imparted and objective truth of Scrip-
ture would also be overthrown. That some such
guide as reason must always be employed, follows
of necessity from the fact, that men are liable to
various impulses, which need, therefore, the direc-
tion of a controlling principle. Hence arises the
duty of private judgment the obligation, that is,
of weighing seriously the contending impulses, by
which the will is affected. Without such restraint,
men would be perpetually vacillating between con-
science and appetite. And their judgment of Holy
Scripture would be decided by the principle which
at the moment preponderated in themselves. To
maintain the due authority of reason, therefore, is
identical with an assertion of the responsibility of
mankind. But such authority as this is, on all
486 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
hands, attributed to reason. The Ultramontane
who disobeys his sovereign's law, or the soldier
who slays his brethren at its bidding, act in con-
formity with the results, to which their judgments
of Holy Scripture severally conduct: the latter
looks to the order to obey the King, whereas the
former supposes that he is commanded to obey the
successor of St. Peter. Whether their interpreta-
tions of Scripture be good or bad, they are at least
commended to each of them by their individual
reason. To respect the Church's authority, in like
manner, does not imply any rejection of the claims
of reason ; all which it assumes is, that men sup-
pose the Church's judgment of truth to be entitled
to their confidence. 20 The notion of reason then,
with which the admission of Church-authority is
inconsistent, must be something beyond this
something which not only assigns to each the duty
of judging, but asserts his absolute independence.
This is what appears to be designed by the right of
private judgment. To be free from all deference
for the opinion of others to be entitled to disre-
gard any motives or arguments, the force whereof
he does not himself appreciate to stand entirely
alone, an individual essence, responsible only for
such conclusions as find their way to him through
intellectual processes, which are understood and
w " Contra rationem nemo sobrius, contra Scripturas nemo
Christianus, contra Ecclesiam nemo pacificus senserit." S.
Aug. de Trin. iv. 10.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 487
approved by his own mind : this may be claimed
for each intelligent being as a right. If men's no-
tions interfere with the external security of others,
human laws will, of course, interpose for the pro-
tection of society; but mere opinions the inward
processes of the mind may be supposed to be left
so completely to each man's own discretion, that
he is not called upon to pay any attention to the
notions of others.
Xo doubt such a principle as this is inconsistent
with the admission of Church authority. For
though the Church has no earthly power of en-
forcing obedience, yet if she has " authority in
controversies of faith," there must be an authority
in her external judgments, which it must be the
duty of individuals to respect. But to what result
does the opposite system of absolute independence
conduct ? Since the office of reason is to draw
conclusions from premises, the nature of its con-
clusions must be determined by that of its pre-
mises. Whence are its premises derived ? The
school of Locke replies that they owe their exist-
ence to the senses. The simple impressions, which
the senses supply, together with the multifarious
combinations which are derived from them, make
up those complex ideas, which, when drawn out
into a series through the active power of the mind,
are called a process of reasoning. Now if this be
the origin of our knowledge, and if the mind may
discard all considerations, which its own reason
488 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
cannot appreciate, what place is left for revelation ?
As the vessel cannot be lifted above the water
which floats it, so Holy Scripture cannot consist of
things, which are above the reach of the faculty,
which is its competent judge. Such is the result
of that theory, which, matured by Locke's subtiler
and more consistent disciple, Hume, may be called
the system of Sensualism. For by what sense do
we admit the knowledge of God and things divine ?
They do not enter by touch or sight, by hearing
or smelling. It is evident that on this hypothesis,
the absolute independence of reason is fatal to re-
velation, and the attempt to subject God's Word to
man's judgment results in the denial of His exist-
ence. So that along with the inward and sub-
jective influence of an engrafted principle of divine
guidance, the imparted and objective truth of Scrip-
ture would also be overthrown.
Even the opposite system, which may be called
Intellectualism, though more promising, will con-
duct in the end to a similar result. The profounder
Leibnitz, unsatisfied with the poverty of Locke's
hypothesis, suggested that besides the ideas which
flow in upon us from the senses, we must take ac-
count of the constitution of that agent which re-
ceives them. To Locke's principle, " nihil in
intellectu nisi quod prius fuerit in sensu," he added,
" nisi ipse intellectus." On this basis rests the far
deeper and more comprehensive school of Kant.
The philosopher of Konigsberg, following in a
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 489
measure in Plato's steps, took the laws of man's
inner nature as an axiomatic foundation in his
search after truth. Yet here again the difficulty
recurs, how are we to find God and things divine?
A metaphysical proof of God's existence may no
doubt be derived from the inward laws of man's
constitution; and there is such a thing, according
to Kant, as " religion within the bounds of pure
reason." But let it be admitted that man is not
bound to believe anything which his own reason
does not apprehend, and what place remains for
revelation ? Whence is it to be derived how under-
stood in what manner authenticated? If the only
principle of truth lies within ourselves, whence shall
an outer rule approach us : if our inner powers are
supreme, how shall it supersede their action ; and
since a system of miracles lies wholly beside those
inward laws of thought which are the ultimate cri-
terion, how is it to be believed ? 21 It is not neces-
sary to trace the effects of this system in Kant and
his successors, or to refer to the well-known fact,
that they reduce revelation to the statement of such
truths as man's reason admits on other grounds:
21 Mr. Trench, on the Miracles of Our Lord, pp. 66, 68, 2nd
edition, has shown that there can be no satisfactory evidence for
them, unless men possess that predisposition to believe the fit-
ness of the Gospel scheme, which is among the first gifts be-
stowed by preventing grace upon the soul. This gift is bestowed
through natural conscience in such measure as to supply the first
step towards God : its subsequent development, through union
with the true fountain of light, grows in the renewed man into
the fulness of a spiritual understanding.
490 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
the recent words of an able and earnest-minded
countryman of our own, by whom this system had
been adopted, afford a sufficient specimen. " Ima-
gine," he says, " a man pretending to survey the
world, and all its wisest men, and to reconstruct
the age, and writing down.... that external, his-
torical testimony of God's revealed will is the only
true basis of moral science. As if all science is not
within, and all morality. And as if anything ex-
ternal could be the basis of anything within." 22
The last words show the effect of this system
on one, whose national instincts must have rebelled
against the total abnegation of a fixed external
standard of belief. But let the control of indi-
vidual reason be unchecked and unconditional, and
it must necessarily involve all the results which
are deduced from it by German philosophy. Each
man's inner judgment becomes the only truth, and
the divine realities which exist externally to us
melt away. And yet this conclusion is at variance
with those convictions of man's heart of which he
cannot divest himself. For the eternal laws of
nature reassert an influence, which the subtilties of
logic in vain oppose. So that the testimony of our
nature, and the wants of society bring back upon
us those external realities, which abstract reason
would discard, and compel us to deny its unre-
stricted influence.
2. But how can we find a limit to the principle
22 Sterling's Life and Remains, vol. i. p. 158.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 491
of reason, which without doing violence to its un-
questionable authority, may yet supply an opening
for those higher truths, which itself forbids us to
reject ? For on what does reason stand but the
principles of our nature, and how can nature sanc-
tion conclusions abhorrent to itself? Xow there
can be no responding to the aspirations of humanity,
unless we have some power of going out of our-
selves. Our individual reason is not large enough
to satisfy the cravings of our hearts. Each man
must pass beyond the narrow precinct of his own
thoughts he must come forth and commune with
heaven and earth, if he would appease the true
longings of his nature. Such communion with
things external to us is called Faith. This is its
definition in Holy Scripture : " Faith is the reali-
zing things hoped for, the putting to the proof
things not seen." 23 Even our acquaintance with
the material world depends on that conviction of
the truth of our senses, which is a species of faith.
But its main function is in the regions of the moral
and of the unseen. For it is the recognition of
that external law, which has its dwelling in the
bosom of God. It is not merely the tracing out
those conclusions, which are derivable from the in-
tellectual constitution of every individual, but the
actual communing with that external truth, 24 which
23 Hebrews, xi. 1.
- 4 " Knowledge properly is but our natural desire, or im-
planted blind love restored to sight ; and nature doth as it
were first grope after that, which at length she comes to see,
492 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
was pleased to have its reflection originally in man's
mind. Now, since it was the will of Almighty
Wisdom to form the first man after the model of
Himself, some traces of this perfect truth will be
found even in his fallen descendants. But faith is
not employed merely in the discovery of these
faint resemblances ; it is that divine principle of
which man has never been wholly deprived, where-
by the great Author of our nature restores to us
communion with Himself. 25 As a mirror does not
show us outward forms, because they existed pre-
viously in itself, though they may happen to have
been originally delineated on its surface, so Faith's
office is to admit that higher light, whereby man
may again give back the Divine image. And thus
is it a principle beside and co-ordinate with rea-
son 26 a principle by which the authority of reason
is limited at the same time that the stock of its
knowledge is enlarged, because a new and inde-
pendent condition is introduced into the conclu-
sions to which reason conducts.
and having seen desires to embrace." " As the seed since the
first creation doth still in order of nature go before the tree,
so doth knowledge always presuppose instinct or desire."
Jackson's Works, v. 51, 7.
25 " Supra animam intellectivam humanam necesse est ponere
aliquem superiorem intellectum, a quo anima virtutem intelli-
gendi obtineat Plato intellectum separatum, impri-
mentem in animas nostras, comparavit soli Sed in-
tellectus separatus, secundum nostrse fidei documenta est ipse
Deus." Summa. i. Q. 79, 4.
26 " Rationale est ut fides pi-aecedat rationem." S. Aug. Ep.
120, 3.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 493
But this principle of faith must itself be under
some control. It does not justify every one in
believing as he will. Unless there be some rule
and order in its operation, it will lose itself in the
vague and changeable lawlessness of individual
eccentricity. What, then, is its criterion ? By
what ruling principle is it directed ? Its limits
must be determined by that law which gives it
birth. Now its origin is that community of our
nature, whereby it is enabled to prescribe bounds
to each man's individual reason. If it be asked,
why men are not justified in adopting those con-
clusions to which their single consciousness con-
ducts ? why they should admit more, than by pro-
cesses within themselves they can ascertain and ac-
cept ? the answer is, that they do not stand alone,
that they are parts of a race, that He who made
them has established certain laws, which find a
response in their common nature, and has thus
fixed His impress on their collective being. Let
men be instructed in this community of mankind,
and they could have no difficulty in admitting that
those results, of which Faith assured them, were
the voice of the Creator. Starting from the fact
that they were all " the offspring of him that was
first made from the earth," they must conclude
that wisdom was " the breath of the power of God,
and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the
Almighty." 27 And Revelation witnesses that men's
^ Wisdom, vii. 1, 25.
494 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
natural power of appreciating moral truth is the
gift of that Eternal Word, who never totally for-
sook the beings whom He had created. " In Him
was life, and the life was the light of men." This
is the deeper and divine cause for that community
and connexion of the souls of men, the natural and
apparent grounds of which have been already
stated (p. 46). But till this truth was revealed,
there existed only those arguments for the com-
munity of mankind, which observation suggested.
Yet these were enough to satisfy men of the ex-
istence of certain general laws, as speaking out of
the deeper recesses of a common nature. The rule
whereby each man's individual faith was to be
regulated, was prescribed by the verdict of that
collective being to which it owed its existence.
Thus did men " show the work of the law written
in their hearts, their conscience also bearing wit-
ness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing
or else excusing one another." 28
The breadth and importance of the rule thus
provided is shown by the works of heathen mo-
ralists. And yet how was the verdict of natural
conscience to be ascertained? For since men in
28 When Mr. Hume quotes approvingly the sentiment, that adul-
tery need not be considered a crime, unless it be felt to be an evil
by the party injured, the judgment of mankind condemns him
for neglecting that natural standard, which, independently of
any higher sanction, is provided by the inherent conviction of
his race. He is setting up his private judgment against a truth
which had commended itself to the faith of humanity.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AXD KNOWLEDGE. 495
general are swayed by passion rather than prin-
ciple, the conduct of the majority can be no cri-
terion of truth. The problem was to find the
perfect pattern of humanity, the representative of
those deep principles, which were imprinted in the
constitution of the race. Such an example, when
practically set forth, must command the respect
even of those against whose defects it testified.
For it is the nature of a race to put forth here
and there some peculiar type of its characteristic
qualities, to which its less distinguished examples
are gradually assimilated. In this respect the
works of genius illustrate the moral advancement
of mankind. Every man is not capable of origi-
nating those sublime conceptions, by which Xewton
unfolded the mechanism of the sky. The fervid
imagery of Milton has added thoughts, which, but
for him, might never have formed part of the intel-
lectual heritage of men. These and such prophets
of humanity have opened to us secrets, which it
belongs to ordinary faculties to comprehend, but
which they would have been unable to discover.
Xow, the same rule is applicable to man's moral
state. When Plato says that if virtue could be per-
sonally exhibited, all men must delight in her ; and
when Aristotle 29 makes it dependent on the imita-
- When Aristotle speaks of virtue in the abstract, he at-
tributes it rather to the race than to individuals, because each
individual is but an imperfect type of the principles which lie
hid in the race at large (Politics, iii. 7) ; but his practical mode
of attaining it is in every case the imitation of those, in whom the
496 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
tion of those, who have an intuitive perception of
her principles, they assume the existence of some
pattern and type of the race, which its other mem-
bers have capacity to recognize. To be conformed
to such models, to associate themselves to such
standards of excellence, is the duty of ordinary
men. Thus do they appreciate those principles of
right and wrong which they would have been un-
able to originate. But it is on Faith only that such
a rule of duty can depend. Those who will, may
always represent it as a mass of contradictions.
It presents no such distinct set of precepts as can
control the unwilling mind. It satisfies none but
those who possess that principle of belief, which
prepares them to admit the existence of an external
law. Such prepossession is a necessary condition
for the acceptance of revelation, "for He that
cometh to God must believe that He is, and that
He is the re warder of them that diligently seek
Him." But to reach forth in this manner after the
Creator's will, with an antecedent perception that
some rule of right has a real existence, is to make
Faith an original source of knowledge ; and, there-
fore, to limit the supremacy of individual reason,
by assuming the existence of higher truths than
intuitive perceptions of moral faith have been strengthened by
good conduct. &>? av 6 0/>oV*/ios opiaeie. Eth. JVic. ii. G. He
supposes the moral eye of the ypdvifio? to be an original source
of knowledge, through its inward intuition. Set Trpoae-^eiv TWI/
... (ftpovifiwf rat? avaTroF.eiKTois (fiaffeffi KO.I iiogats. Sta <yap TO
eXeiv CK riys efMreipias ofifia, opuxriv rtpxa** Eth. NtC. VI. 11.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 497
are attainable through the senses or intellect of
mankind.
The mere existence of Faith, therefore, as a neces-
sary pre-requisite to the acceptance of revelation, or
even to the admission of the moral government of
God, implies that some limit must be assigned to
individual reason. But is such natural faith, as is
our guide in unfolding the laws of Providence, a
sufficient guide also to the understanding of that
imparted Word which is communicated in the Scrip-
tures ? Is it sufficient for every one to study God's
Word by the light of his own conscience, without
the aid of that engrafted Word which is communi-
cated to the Body of the Church ?
Now, here must be borne in mind the characte-
ristic distinction between Christianity and Ration-
alism ; namely, that the second rests on that know-
ledge and those means of intercourse with God,
which we have by Creation, whereas the former
looks to the Mediation of our Incarnate Head.
For in Him we have the full expression of that
principle, after which Heathen teachers were reach-
ing in vain. He is the true pattern of our race,
the real type of humanity, the complete exemplifi-
cation of all those excellencies, which were reflected
in the pure nature of our original parent. This
perfection He exhibited, not merely, as Rationalism
would have it, through the happy tempering of His
natural qualities, but because in His Person there
entered into our race a supernatural power. For
Kk
498 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
thus was humanity made perfectly partaker of the
Divine nature ; in His Person were " hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The facul-
ties which God gives to every one in such inferior
degree as is needed for the affairs of this life, dwelt
in such sublimated intensity as our understanding
is incapable of estimating, in Him to whom God
gave the Spirit without measure. And as in Him
was the only perfect pattern of humanity, so in
union with Him is the only real source of know-
ledge. 30 For not only did He give to Faith a
higher object in the revealed truths of the Gospel,
but He exalted the principle of Faith itself through
that higher nature which He communicated to His
earthly members. " For by grace are ye saved,
through Faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God." Thus are Christian Faith and Chris-
tian Reason no longer the natural judgment of the
children of creation, but the inspired judgment of
the children of grace. Through the union of each
individual with the Pattern of Humanity, are his
natural qualities exalted. His inferior faculties are
re-moulded on the perfect type of manhood. If the
influence of natural excellencies could minister to
the first birth of Faith, and thus extend the con-
clusions of reason, what may not be expected from
real oneness with Him, in whom Faith was swal-
lowed up in sight, and reason matured into intel-
lectual intuition?
30 " Apprenons de la verite increee et incarnee notre veritable
nature." Pascal's Thoughts. [Fauffere] vol. ii. 104.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 499
And yet here too, as in the province of natural
faith, indi vidual judgments must be regulated by
some controlling principle. For even the conclu-
sions of holy and good men are liable to be in-
fluenced by private eccentricity. The Scriptures
may be misunderstood as well as the laws of Provi-
dence. Yet the truth itself is one and unalterable,
however variable and fallacious are the opinions of
men. Its reflection must be sought for, then, in
the judgment of the regenerate race, as the verdict
of natural conscience in the sentiments of collective
humanity. But since this higher reason is not built
upon the mere development of those faculties, which
by creation were imparted to our race, but on the
communication of grace from Him who is the foun-
tain upon earth of heavenly knowledge, therefore
its principle of reference is not to any human ex-
emplifications of goodness, but to that source itself,
from which man is made participant of the Divine
wisdom. So says the Apostle, referring the gift of
Christian perception to that mind of the Spirit,
which the natural man does not partake. It is be-
cause " we have the mind of Christ," that he claims
a power of " comparing spiritual things with spiri-
tual" for himself, and for those who shared with
him in the fellowship of the Lord's Mystic Body.
The Heathen had no further test for natural con-
science, than as individuals exhibited a fainter or
clearer example of that gift which had been be-
stowed originally upon man ; but the Christian
500 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
looks to that storehouse, which has been provided
in the manhood of our Divine Head, as the medium
through which wisdom must be expected, as well
as graces. It is from union, therefore, with that
collective body, through which Christ vouchsafes
His presence, that he anticipates the one as well as
the other. The gift of faith, the power of under-
standing, the inward light of a higher reason these
are among the blessings which Mediation obtains,
and which flow in perfection from Incarnate God-
head into the members of His Mystical Body. So
that we come back to the very position from which
we started, and find the proper limitation of reason,
in its exercise on things Divine, to be its subordina-
tion to that engrafted gift of heavenly guidance,
which the Mediator bestows upon the body of His
Disciples. For the authority of reason is limited
only by that principle of faith, which at the same
time enlarges its sphere of vision. The existence
of an infused, subjective gift of truth in the body of
Christ's Church, as the fit correlative and expositor
of that objective truth of God's Word, committed
to it in writing, turns out to be the exact condition
which gives full scope to individual minds. The
general action of the collective body on the ex-
ternal truth to which it witnesses, provides the
limits within, and by help of which the individual
thought can be profitably exercised. For the
security of individual judgment depends upon the
constant influence of that guiding principle which
THE SOUHCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 501
comes from a higher power ; and this influence is
derived from the efficacy of that Mediatorial system,
which extends through the collective body of Christ
into individual minds.
This is what is meant, then, when the Church
system is opposed to that of individual reason.
The ultimate reference is to the great represen-
tative of man's race, as the only channel through
whom truth descends from God to man. In Him
alone is the perfection and standard of wisdom,
which as a Divine gift can be only obtained per-
fectly from a Divine giver. And the gift of truth,
being bestowed through His Mediation, must ex-
tend itself like His other blessings, to that body
of the Church, which is the seat of His life-giving
presence. Through union with this collective
body is the benefit communicated to individuals.
The guidance thus exercised over the Church at
large, the engrafted efficacy of the Word, supplies
each man with a fixed guide, which adds intensity
and confidence to his private meditations. Were
Scripture designed to teach worldly truths, the
capacities which were bestowed on men by Crea-
tion would render them competent students of its
pages especially if they sought that wisdom from
a higher Being, which, according to the principles
of nature, must be looked for from their Creator ;
but this would be only a Rationalistic study of
Scripture, which could not be expected to open
the deeper mysteries of the Word. The higher
CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
truths of the Gospel, like its larger graces, are
among the gifts which are bestowed upon man
through Mediation; and it is only through those
means which associate us with the Body of Christ,
that we can discern and appreciate them. Thus
is man's spiritual eye opened to those fundamental
principles, which form the basis of all reasoning
respecting questions of Faith, and which occupy
the same place in the interpretation of Scripture,
which is held by the cardinal truths of morals in
respect to the practical affairs of life.
It is the absence of these primary principles
which renders so many persons incapable of dis-
cerning the beauty and reality of the Church
system, and thus leads them to wander in the
unsatisfying paths of private speculation. But
since the system of Mediation is an advance upon
that of Creation, the Church's judgment respecting
the meaning of Scripture, which is built upon the
first, must be preferred to that of private reason,
which is built upon the second. Its authority
rests upon the fact, that it is His mode of instruct-
ing us, from whom only issues true light. And yet
the Church's mind does not proceed on rules alien
to the course of private reason, but only higher and
more comprehensive. The preceding pages have
marked out the course, by which the wisdom of
God guided her from a recognition of the single
facts of revelation to " the full assurance of under-
standing, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 503
God, and of the Father and of Christ." In all this
is there an exact progress from cause to effect,
which the highest reason may admire, but which
Faith refers not to the mere process of human de-
duction, but to that infused Spirit of Truth, to
which pertains guidance as well as sanctification.
Thus does the line of truth ascend from the single
fact of our Lord's worship, till it loses itself in that
primary doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, which
is the basis of knowledge. And from this point
does it again pass downward, till the operations of
the interceding Word and sanctifying Spirit are
recognized as underlying the whole scheme of our
thoughts. This system, collected into Creeds, is
what gives fixedness and guidance to individual
minds. To enshrine such truths in Creeds is a
claim on the part of that collective body which
propounds them, to the engrafted influence of that
guiding Word by which only the Word written can
be surely elucidated. And the evils which result
from their neglect are a sufficient proof how essen-
tial is the one of these principles to the maintenance
of the other. In those parts of Christendom, and
among those individuals, by whom the Church's
judgment as expressed in Creeds is lightly thought
of, the paramount authority of God's Word as an
objective ground of truth is equally endangered.
The inspiration of Scripture, on which depends its
existence as the imparted record of objective truth,
is found to depend practically on the recognition
504 CHKIST AS MEDIATOR
of that infused principle of judgment, which has
been asserted to belong to the Mystical Body of
Christ.
A few w T ords are needed respecting this remark-
able proof of connexion between the written and
the living Word. It has been matter of observa-
tion and surprise that our formularies should dwell
so much on the importance of the Holy Scriptures,
yet say not a word respecting their inspiration.
What is meant when we speak of them as inspired?
Various theories are afloat on the subject, yet nei-
ther the collective Church, nor our own branch
of it, have thought it necessary to offer an expla-
nation. These theories moreover are found to
prevail exactly in those quarters, in which the
Church's authority as a " keeper" as well as " wit-
ness" of Holy Writ is denied; as though to invent
some scheme of inspiration was the necessary cor-
relative of denying the existence of that living
Word, which guides men through Creeds, and has
been engrafted in the body of the Church. One
theory would hold Scripture to be good authority
for things divine, but not for things human. But
by what criterion we are to discriminate between
things human and things divine, is not determined.
Another supposes that conclusions were revealed
to the Apostles, which it was left to themselves to
develop and ascertain by the uncertain resources
of human reason. But how are we to separate
between the wheat and the chaff; between the
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 505
Divine conclusions which we must believe and reve-
rence, and the human arguments, which we may
scoff at and reject ? Again, the notion that the
sacred writers were mechanical agents, whose
words were dictated by the Holy Ghost, has the
advantage at all events of promising to effect what
a theory of inspiration might be expected to attain.
Its maintainers however, besides demonstrating its
truth, should show how it harmonizes with what
history tells us of the formation of the Sacred
Canon. For since the Apostles were not always
mechanical agents, the cases in which they obeyed
so singular a law would require to be distinguished
by some unquestionable criterion from their usual
actings ; and what was thus cut off from their
common teaching, would need to be guarded by
an authority as distinct as that which originally
discriminated it. How far is this compatible with
the gradual admission of disputed books into the
Canon during a period of more than three centu-
ries ? It is not to the present purpose, however, to
question the accuracy of these theories of inspira-
tion, but to inquire why no theory at all is offered
to us by the Church. Xow the object of all such
theories is of course to maintain important truths,
which might otherwise be called in question. Some
article essential to man's salvation is rested upon a
particular text or expression, and unless this ex-
pression or text can be shown to be inspired, and
unless inspiration imply the truth of what is com-
506 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
municated, it is feared that the whole superstruc-
ture of Faith may be overthrown. When Bishop
Hampden is pressed by St. Paul's authority, "I
appeal," he says, "from Paul philosophizing to
Paul preaching." 31 Allow this principle, and since
St. Paul w T as arguing against Jews, who were
schooled in the system of atonement, why might
not his references to Our Lord's Mediation have
been only an argument ad liominem designed to
prove that on their own theory Jesus was the
Messiah ? How does this writer discriminate there-
fore between those assertions of St. Paul which we
must admit, and those which we may disbelieve?
Any logical proof then of the fundamentals of
religion requires that its basis should be laid in a
consistent theory of inspiration. Unless this foun-
dation is sound, the superstructure will be pre-
carious. If it be not fixed, equable, and coherent,
it must be bound together by such artificial con-
cretion, as may promise the solidity of a rock.
And the reason why the Church has never put
forth any theory of inspiration, is because building
on the rock itself, she stands in no need of such
factitious expedients. For when has she rested
her belief in the fundamentals of truth on any
logical deduction from individual expressions ?
Unfold the record of her public assertions, the
decrees of those four Councils of Nice, Constan-
tinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon (to say nothing
31 Bampton Lectures, 8th, p. 375.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 507
of that original one at Jerusalem), to which the
English law refers as her criterion of heresy, and in
which of them is any reference made to individual
expressions, as though the Church supposed that
the logical sequence of her doctrines was to be
demonstrated argumentatively to the intellect of
men ? To do so would have been to assign to
human reason the exact office, which has been
shown already to be inconsistent with the very
principles of revelation. Or to pass to our own
eighth Article, by which the authority of the three
Creeds is asserted. Is this article designed to be
a conclusion from admitted premises, or an appeal
to subsequent demonstration ? If it be the latter,
why is no demonstration offered ? Why are not
the passages adduced, by which the Church hopes
to conciliate the intellectual acquiescence of those
whom she desires to gain ? Her principle there-
fore is plainly the same with that of the Church
universal in all her determinations. The principles
which she lays down are accordant with Scripture ;
and her ground of confidence in her conclusions is
their consistency with that objective system of truth
which was once for all imparted to her by the
Holy Ghost. But she does not attempt to estab-
lish them by deduction from individual expressions,
because her appeal is not to human logic, but to
God's Spirit. The imparted objective truth of the
Word written, requires the engrafted subjective in-
fluence of the living Word as its expositor. Such
508 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
an endowment was always asserted for that com-
pany of faithful men, to whom was "revealed"
" the wisdom of God in a mystery," and in whose
name the Apostle asserts that " we have the mind of
Christ." We see an example of its mode of acting,
when a dispute arose whether it was expedient that
women should act as ministers. St. Paul decides
it, by referring not only to his own judgment, but
to that of the collective body, on which was be-
stowed the grace of spiritual comprehension : " If
any man seem to be contentious, we have no such
custom, neither the Churches of God." Therefore
does the Church refer to testimony, as showing
what was that view of the truths of Scripture,
which this living witness has always taken; and
to grace, as guiding the collective members of
Christ in the exposition of His Word. Not of
course that this higher medium of truth interferes
with such intellectual study of Holy Writ, as may
show its deep truth and perfect harmony. But
what supersedes the necessity of dependence on
mere human logic, is that efficacy of the Media-
tor's Presence, which alone is an adequate guide
to the comprehension of His imparted Word. So
that individuals are successful in the elucidation of
Scripture, not merely through the native shrewd-
ness with which God has blessed them, but be-
cause their natural powers are elevated by con-
nexion with that supernatural system, through
which they participate in Christ. Hence those
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 509
many writers, by whom the marvellous richness of
Scripture has been illustrated : thus are the in-
dividual testimonies to Our Lord's nature enforced
by the dialectic vigour of Athanasius and Bull,
and the deep truths respecting His presence in
Sacraments expounded by the profound sagacity
of Hooker and Augustiu. Yet these writers refer
constantly to the " Analogy of the Faith ;" they
have no confidence in mere human logic when
illustrating God's Word written : their conviction
is plainly avowed that they need that teaching of
His living Word, which dwells through grace in
the body of those who are united to Him. And
among their many rich legacies to the Church, no
theory of inspiration is included. They were con-
tented with believing Scripture to be God's im-
parted Word, leaving undetermined that which He
has not been pleased to reveal, namely, what are
the exact intellectual limitations by which we may
discriminate His indestructible truth from the pe-
rishable clay of His earthly instruments. The set-
tlement of this question, absolutely essential to
those who would build their faith on mere logical
inference from the text of Scripture, was wholly
unnecessary to men who looked to a Divine inter-
pretation of its sacred words. For all such theories
of inspiration are devices for building up a system
of Divine truth by man's reason. They are bul-
warks, erected in the well-meaning but ineffectual
hope of rendering God's Word an available aux-
510 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
iliary, in battles which are to be waged with the
mere weapons of human logic. But Scripture,
like the ark in the camp of Israel, has been found
to give small advantage to those who thus employ
it. Such bulwarks have rather prejudiced revela-
tion than secured it. For its strength rests on
another principle. The Word written implies the
Living Word as its constant correlative : the one
receives, applies, interprets the other : the settle-
ment what questions are fundamental, and on what
basis they depend, lies too deep for man's unaided
understanding, and must be referred therefore to
the teaching of that Divine power, which is the ap-
pointed guide into all truth.
And if this statement seems to any one a dispa-
ragement from the authority of Holy Writ, let it
be observed that its contrary tendency may be
shown, not by argument only, but by experience.
For by whom is Holy Scripture treated with that
reverence which belongs to a divine revelation; and
in what quarters, on the other hand, has it either
been curtailed or rejected ? Have not such at-
tempts been made in the most flagrant and perti-
nacious manner, by those very parties by whom
the Church has been denied to possess that " au-
thority in controversies of faith," which our Article
ascribes to her ? With a belief in the engrafted
Word dwelling in the Body of Christ, all fitting
reverence for the imparted Word has almost inva-
riably been abandoned. What book of Scripture
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 511
has not been rejected in some part or other of Pro-
testant Germany ? And the only bodies which
have retained that deep reverence for Holy Writ
so conspicuous in the early Church, have been
such portions of those who bear the Christian
name, as like it profess to recognize that influence
of the Living Word, which dwells in His Body
Mystical.
And here we may pass to the other objection,
which it was proposed to notice : the assertion i. e.
that God's illumination is wholly an individual gift,
and has no relevancy to that Body Mystical of
Christ Our Lord, through which its benefits are
said to be derived. But before entering upon this
subject, it will be well to pause for a moment, and
reiterate with somewhat more fulness what is the
exact point, which in the preceding pages has been
maintained. For there may be readers whom the
foregoing argument fails to convince, because it
seems at variance with their personal observation.
And when this is the case, demonstration may
silence men, but cannot satisfy them. And yet
what has been asserted is, in truth, nothing
more than is declared by St. Paul, that "the na-
tural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned." Xow, if we are to look
to grace for the gift of understanding, it must
needs flow in the channel of those blessings, which
the Mediator has brought down from heaven, and
512 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
its appointed course, therefore, will be through
that Body Mystical, which He unites to Himself
through the efficacy of His Body natural. But
against this statement rises up the philosopher on
one side, and the earnest-minded Christian on the
other ; and they point out numerous individuals,
not united, as they say, to Christ through His
Mystical Body, by whom the Word of God has
been studied, commented upon, and illustrated,
not only by their writings, but (which is far more
important) by their lives. The case of individual
enlightenment by God's Spirit shall be spoken of
shortly : at present let it only be observed, that
the existence of an infinite number of such cases is
freely admitted, and that the fact is not inconsis-
tent with what has been asserted in the foregoing
pages. To the philosopher it may be said, that
such measure of illumination as may suffice for the
first understanding of Holy Writ, was bestowed
according to the law of their creation upon all
men ; and if such great progress was made even by
Heathen moralists both in understanding and vir-
tue, how much more may be expected from those
who possess also the invaluable records of inspired
Scripture. But the Christian will look far higher
than this : he will assert, what no man can deny,
that love, faith, and obedience are found in large
measure among those who have never enjoyed the
advantage of being joined to Christ, through the
Sacraments of His Grace ; that their virtues often
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 513
put to shame the vices of those who by adoption
are members of Christ's body; and also that their
excellencies must be the result of grace, because
they are professedly referred to Christ and His
Holy Spirit. And as he will infer from this cir-
cumstance that they possess the gift of a spiritual
understanding, so he will assert that their words
and writings often exhibit it. Yet what is there in
this, with whatever latitude it is admitted, which
negatives those distinct statements of Holy Writ,
wherein Christ the Mediator is stated to bind men
to Himself in His Body Mystical, through the
efficacy of that body natural, whereby He united
Himself to us ? Is it to be denied that God has
appointed a channel for His graces, because the
flood of His mercy overflows its banks? Doubt-
less these graces flow from that One Mediator, who
is expressly declared in Holy Writ to be the one
only name through whom comes salvation. And
wheresoever they are found, we thank God for
their effect. We recognize it as well in the under-
standing, whereby such persons enter into Scrip-
ture, as in the holiness, whereby they obey it.
Xow here, probably, men's objection will turn
round: if you admit, they say, what is sufficient
for our argument, you admit what is too much for
your own. Such an admission as this, it is as-
serted, is in reality the substitution of a new prin-
ciple; it is like those collateral streams, which in
short space change the bed of the great rivers of
Ll
514 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
the West. It may be replied, in the first place,
that to object on this ground to the plain testimony
of God's Word is one of those arguments from
man's ignorance, which, as Bishop Butler has
proved, are in their nature inconclusive. Many
reasons may exist, beyond the reach of our short-
sighted vision, why God may have seen fit to
provide an appointed mean of union with Christ,
with which in cases innumerable it may please
Him to dispense. But the existence and blessing
of the Divine System, of which Scripture tells us,
may in this case be discerned, however large our
allowance of co-existent exceptions. Nothing
shall be said at present of the gift of holiness, on
account of the difficulty of finding tests indicative
of collective morality ; and because what is under
consideration is the gift of truth. Now this bless-
ing is in fact maintained even in those exceptional
cases which have been adduced, through the me-
dium of that collective Body of Christ, to which
the gift of spiritual understanding has been pro-
mised. For w r hence come that belief in God's
imparted Word, and those first notions respecting
the scheme of Christianity, with which such per-
sons start on their independent march ? They get
these things from the general Body of Christ,
though ignorance, prejudice, or the scandal of the
Church's permitted sins, unhappily prevent them
from obtaining all the benefits which it is intended
to dispense. Hence the partial, self-conflicting,
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 515
uncertain views which the best men of this class
commonly take of Scripture. That simple good-
ness is no barrier against this uncertainty, is suf-
ficiently shown by the continual conflicts in which
such men are engaged with one another. Their
conflicts differ essentially from those of Church-
men, because while the latter admit the authority
of that spiritual sense, into which the Church has
been guided by the Spirit (whatever difficulty may
exist at times in determining it), the disputes of
independent expositors of Scripture are without
umpire and without end. And yet the Church's
testimony supplies the very groundwork on which
they base their discussions; for all Christian inter-
preters must start of necessity from an admission
of Scripture's inspiration. But till it is explained
what is meant by the term Inspiration (and no
such solution has yet been found as may supply
the basis of a mere logical system of religion), all
private interpretations contain within them the in-
evitable seed of unbelief. They suffice probably
for those who, in a pious but limited view of
things, have first adopted them; but no sooner
do they pass into the hands of the next genera-
tion, than their consistency is put to the proof,
and they are found wanting in coherence. Hence
it happens almost invariably that such parties as
began by separating from the Church on one prin-
ciple, work their way to the opposite extreme of
error. The Puritan Xoncomformists who accused
516 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
the Church of not resting sufficiently on Christ,
were the ancestors of the present Socinian school,
by whom the Church is asserted to rest on Him
too exclusively. Germany, where men complained
so loudly because Scripture was not duly appre-
ciated, is the only country probably in the world,
where its authority has not only been denied, but
the very existence of its authors has been publicly
disputed. Against such errors what has made
head, but that inward belief in Scripture, and that
objective system of truth, which have lived in the
Church and through the Creeds? What a basis
have these things supplied even to those who were
least conscious of their obligation! How often
have the words of the Church sounded forth in
her public confession, while those who heard them
from the lips of the Minister knew not that the
Creeds thus promulgated were, in fact, the living
truths on which the faith of the whole land was
unconsciously dependent, and that many a private
speculator who fancied himself guided only by his
individual spirit, was thereby withheld from errors,
which would else be fatal to his peace. How much
greater has been the advance of heresy, how much
bolder the irreverent rejection of God's imparted
Word, where such testimony of His Word en-
grafted has not been a present witness. For thus
has the Church, in her raiment of sackcloth, been
testifying for centuries in the streets of that busy
and unbelieving world, which cannot bring itself
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 517
altogether to reject, what its concupiscence will not
allow it to obey. But then, it is asked, why may
not this witness be merely inward and personal?
Suppose it admitted that reason is not competent
without grace to master things divine, why has
that grace any connexion with Christ's Body ? In
this case then, as before, the full tendency of the
notion of individual enlightenment must first be
exhibited, and it must afterwards be shown under
what qualifications it may safely be admitted.
1. To assume the existence of an individual illu-
mination, has not been an unfrequent or unnatural
reaction against that unsatisfying system, which
professes to subject God's word to mere reason.
Earnest minds are disgusted by the cold, hard,
critical, irreverent manner in which Scripture is
treated. Its dogmas are drawn out as logical
deductions by human intellect, and a respect is
demanded for them, which is only due to the wis-
dom of God. This system has prevailed to a
certain extent even in our own country : for its
unchecked predominance we must look to what
was called the orthodox Lutheranism of the seven-
teenth century. Against it there rose up George
Fox in England and Semler in Germany. The
argument of Fox and of all the early Quakers, was
that the letter of God's word was nothing, without
that guiding Spirit by which it was originally in-
dited. " Writing paper and ink," said Fox to
Baxter, " is not infallible." In like manner did
518 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
Semler protest, that a body like the German Pro-
testants could recognise no paramount authority in
its original founders, which could shackle in per-
petuity the minds of men. The formulas of Luther
and Calvin might be good, but it was for every
individual to judge of their goodness. He there-
fore agreed with Fox in looking for an individual
guidance, which both expected must come from
above. But what was the result of their theory?
In both cases it led to the denial or depravation
of that objective and imparted truth of Holy
Scripture, for which both in the first instance
seemed most anxious. " The only evidence," says
Semler, " for the divinity of a book, is inward con-
viction through the truths contained in it : this is
divine faith, which, by a somewhat obscure scrip-
tural expression, is called the testimony of the Holy
Ghost in the reader's mind." " In conformity with
this rule be expunged from the Canon, Solomon's
Song, Euth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Chronicles,
&c." 32
If the conduct of the Quakers was not quite
so arbitrary, the result was nearly the same. 33
32 Tholuck's Vermischte Schriften. vol. ii. p. 56.
33 " What other sort of men that call themselves Christians,"
writes Leslie, " have abused the Scriptures by the contemptible
names of Beastly Ware, Dust, Death, Serpent's Meat, &c."
Snake in the Grass, 7, vol. ii. p. 57. And if this be said to
refer to the letter of Scriptures as opposed to their inward
meaning, yet how is any great respect for them compatible with
the statement of Barclay, recorded by their friendly historian ?
" We utterly deny," he says, " that in true Christians the Scrip-
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 519
It followed naturally from the supposition, that
Divine enlightenment did not flow forth into
humanity through that channel, which has been
opened through the Mediation of Christ, but was
bestowed immediately by God on man. Let this
be admitted to be God's ordinary mode of impart-
ing spiritual gifts (the possibility of special and
extraordinary communications has already been
admitted), and the consequences deduced by
Semler and the Quakers must inevitably follow.
The notion is akin to that which would assert
reason to be a final arbiter respecting things
Divine. Those who claim this province for reason,
consider that it is the voice of the Great Spirit of
the Universe, speaking according to that system of
natural religion, which only they allow. And indi-
vidual inspiration is in like manner an immediate
reaching forth to that ultimate Governor, between
whom and man's spirit nothing is supposed to in-
terfere. Those who call themselves Christians, it
is true, use the name of Christ, when speaking of
the Being they refer to. And their affections, we
tures, or outward history in the Scriptures, is the principal
motive, foundation, or principal rule of that historical faith,
much less of saving faith, to the producing of which the letter
of the Scripture doth very frequently (as to many of its acts, if
not all) not concern or co-operate." SciveVs Hist, of Quakers,
vol. ii. p. 350. This accords with a maxim which Leslie
attributes to them : " That which is spoken by the spirit of
truth in any, is of as great authority as the Scriptures and
Chapters are, and greater." Snake in the Grass, sec. 7,
vol. ii. p. 60.
520 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
may hope, are likely to be quickened by the narra-
tive of sufferings patiently undergone, and of graces
supernaturally predominant. But Christ the Me-
diator bestows the blessings which He confers
through union with His man's nature ; this union
is obtained through His Body Mystical ; it results
from that peculiar oneness with Himself, which
renders individual dependent on collective blessings,
and joins all the members of His Church into one
spiritual whole. If these circumstances, characte-
ristic of the Son, are left out of sight, the name of
Christ becomes a mere title of Sovereign Deity, and
the Being whom men reverence ceases to be that
Son Incarnate, who has vouchsafed to become the
Head and Representative of mankind. So that the
direct reference to the Great Spirit of the Universe,
which is independent of these considerations, har-
monizes with a Sabellian view of Christ's nature,
and not with that reality of His Mediation which is
taught by the Church. And however large the
peculiar communication to individuals of special
mercy, yet to make this the ordinary course of
Gospel graces, would be to set aside the Mediation
of Christ Our Lord. And the depreciation of
Holy Scripture is an immediate consequence. For
whether we take reason or individual inspiration as
the principle of union, what is there in either case
which can stand between God and the soul ? Ac-
cording to the Church's teaching, a scheme of me-
diation has been appointed between God and man.
. THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AXD KNOWLEDGE. 521
Christ's manhood bridges over the gulf between
them. It communicates truth objectively through
the gift of the Scriptures, and at the same time
bestows the faculty of comprehending them on
those who are united in one Body to Himself. The
one of these cannot interfere with the other, be-
cause the medium which communicates them is
the same. But of what use are such intervening
steps to those who by immediate access can draw
nigh to God ? If their own private feeling be the
test of that inspiration, which drinks at once from
the primary fountain of truth, why not when it
sets aside Scripture, as much as when it respects it ?
The same circumstance, then, which supersedes the
engrafted Word, supersedes the imparted Word
also. Every act of communication to those who
are thus favoured, is as good as Scripture. "When
Fox heard a minister at Nottingham tell the people
that " they were to try all doctrines, religions,
and opinions, by the Scripture, he felt such
mighty power and godly zeal working in him,
that he was made to cry out : ' O no, it is not
the Scripture, but it is the Holy Spirit, by
which the holy men of God gave forth the Scrip-
tures, whereby opinions, religions, and judgments
are to be tried.' ' J34 Thus, from rejecting that
living Word which is engrafted in the Body of
Christ, he passed by obvious transition to the re-
jection of the Word imparted, which is its natural
34 Sewel's History of Quakers, vol. i. p. 36.
522 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
correlative. The same process which overleaped
one barrier overleaped the other.
2. This leads us then, secondly, to the necessary
caution by which the doctrine of individual en-
lightenment requires to be guarded. True, with-
out an individual inspiration of God's Spirit we are
unable to understand His words. But this Inspi-
ration must rest upon the intervention of Christ
Incarnate, instead of being independent of it. It
is not immediate, but derivative from the Mediation
of Christ. First comes that gift which Our Lord
has purchased for collective humanity, whereby He
unites all His true members into one body in Him-
self. Dependent on this is that communication of
Himself to individual souls, whereby the blessings
of knowledge, as well as those of grace, are con-
ferred upon them. To consider these a gift which
comes from God, independently of Christ, is to
deny our participation in His office of Mediation.
We cannot speak too highly of this enlightening
blessing, so long as we maintain that due subordi-
nation, which keeps up the recollection of its
source. It is ever relevant to Christ as the en-
grafted Word dwelling in the Body of His Church,
as well as to Christ the imparted Word teaching in
His Scriptures. While we reverence the one of
these, we shall pay due deference to the other. So
long as we respect Christ teaching us by the gene-
ral guidance of His Church, we shall be in no dan-
ger of the error of those who set " their light
THE SOUECE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 523
within above the Scriptures, by refusing to let
their light within be judged by the Scriptures." 32
To maintain Church authority, then, is to assert
the empire of grace as opposed to that of nature ;
to make the gift of divine knowledge a conse-
quence and portion of the Mediation of Christ, and
Christ Incarnate the sole cause of man's enlight-
enment. It is a result of the truth that God is
wiser than man. Other views would throw men
either upon the competency of nature, or upon
gifts obtained from God independently of Christ
and His Gospel ; but the Church system is equi-
valent to the system of Christ's Mediation; know-
ledge is bestowed by Him upon His Body Mystical,
and the gift of individual enlightenment is subordi-
nate to men's general relation to Him. But are
there not difficulties, it may be asked, in this sys-
tem, and in particular, does it not give the col-
lective Church an authority inconsistent with the
ultimate supremacy of God's Word? For if the
Church be guided by the engrafted Word, is not
the imparted Word superseded by its power? Does
not the same difficulty recur which was found to
attach to individual inspiration that every act of it
was a virtual superseding of all previous communi-
cations ? Do not those who begin by idolizing
Scripture, end commonly by idolizing themselves ?
And what guarantee have we, that the Church at
35 Leslie, ibid. p. 57.
524 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
large shall not fall into the error of which expe-
rience has convicted every enthusiast from Mon-
tanus to Nay lor? Now, to this it may be replied,
in the first place, that the body for which an infused
power of guidance is claimed, is the very same
whose witness is appealed to on behalf of the Word
imparted. For what proof have we of the autho-
rity of those books, which pass by the name of
Scripture, unless some confidence can be placed in
the spiritual discernment of that Body of the
Church, by which they were at first acknowledged
to be God's Word ? And this acknowledgment
having been once made, the Church cannot decide
anything, which is inconsistent with its own decision.
It cannot supersede that imparted Word, which it
has once adopted as the truth of God. This objec-
tive body of truth, no set of men, no generation, not
the collective Church in all time, has power to dis-
pense with. It is fixed once and for ever. And if
it be asked further, what proof we have that the col-
lective Church will not attempt to get rid of it, the
answer, besides our general trust in God's Provi-
dence, is, that against this danger Christ Our Lord
has promised us protection. For such an act would
be an apostacy on the part of the Universal Church,
into which He has promised that she shall never
fall. His declaration is that the Gates of Hell shall
not prevail against her. He assures us of His pre-
sence with her to the end of the world. Such an
attempt therefore, as would endanger her witness
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 525
to the Word imparted, need never be feared, be-
cause such a desertion as would imply the removal
of the Word engrafted can never happen. Indeed,
what but this has ensured such measure of discre-
tion, amidst the innumerable collisions of eighteen
hundred years, that the Body, with which dwells
the Living Word, should still be the witness and
keeper of written Scripture ? That the Church,
therefore, will not attempt to dispense with Scrip-
ture that the collective Body of Christ will be
faithful to its trust this is matter of belief to
those to whom Christ's promise is a ground of
confidence.
There have been times, it is true, when the use
of such a guide was more apparent than at present.
The miserable divisions, which have distracted the
Church, interfere with the applicability of the prin-
ciple, and weaken its effects. We live like Israel
in a land of promise, the blessings whereof we only
partially possess. This is doubtless a punishment
for our sins, as theirs were scourged by the stub-
born lingering of what was inimical to their rest.
Yet no little benefit actually accrues to us from
that indwelling principle of knowledge, which the
presence of Christ communicates to His Church.
The assertion of any common faith, the education
of the young in any fixed principles, the correction
of individual waywardness by the public sentence
of that portion of the Church, with which we are
in communion from whence come all these bless-
526 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
ings but from the principle that through union
with the Body of the Church individuals obtain
the gift of knowledge ? How else could there be
any validity in the imposition of creeds, or how
could men pretend to set forth articles, whereby
others should be bound in their interpretation of
Scripture ? These things imply a claim to be
guided by that Divine Spirit, whose teaching is
the only source of truth. The claim may, under
present circumstances, be incomplete and provi-
sional; but there is enough of decisiveness in the
judgment of the English Church 36 to warrant the
36 To enter in detail upon the question of Church authority
would be to wander from the immediate subject. All which
has been here attempted is to show that the claim to authority
advanced by the English Church, in her 20th Article, stands upon
a Christian and not a Rationalistic basis ; that it is an appeal,
not to the wisdom of men, but to the Word of God. It may be
observed further, that since the Church's "authority in con-
troversies of faith" depends upon the relation between the Word
engrafted, and the Word imparted, its office as a "witness
and keeper" does not extend to all subjects, but only to those
points, on which it is essential to maintain the " faith once de-
livered to the Saints." The existence, therefore, of opposing
usages in the Church at different times and in different places,
however objectionable some of them may be, or the prevalence
of contradictory judgments on points which the Word imparted
has not decided, do not prove her devoid of an engrafted power
of spiritual judgment. And even if the rule of Church au-
thority should be open to a measure of the same uncertainty
with the general laws of human obligation (vid. p. 496), it may
still be a guide to the faithful on essential questions. Those
who observe how much mankind is influenced by the faith
which prevails around them how large a portion of national
character is owing to the habits and rules of life how impossible
it is even to introduce political institutions among a people
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 527
assertion that it is not abandoned. If we compare
the position of her children with that of the mem-
bers of any dissenting sect, or even with that of
the Protestants of Germany, we see the immense
difference which results from her claiming to pos-
sess a fixed principle of judgment. In the Pro-
testant bodies in all parts of the Continent, sub-
scription to Articles is always understood to be
subordinate to the principle of private interpreta-
tion : those who sign, i. e. profess to express their
accordance, so far as what they subscribe agrees
in their judgment with Scripture. The individual
interpretation of each man is the fixed principle;
the Body which requires subscription has no ex-
ternal authority. There are as many faiths,
therefore, as there are subscribers. For these
formularies, having been originally dictated only
by individuals, can have no authority to bind the
consciences of others. The words of one of the
Reformers, however learned and holy, cannot be
set up as a permanent barrier against the progress
of truth. What one man has asserted, another
may question. There can be no permanent au-
thority except from God. Subscription, therefore,
as it is required in the Church of England, im-
plies a belief in the guiding care of that Divine
which is not fitted to receive them will not attach little im-
portance to that education which it has pleased God to bestow
upon Christendom through His Church, and to those essential
principles, which His Presence has preserved through the count-
less errors of eighteen centuries.
528 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR
Spirit, to whose decisions individual consciences
are bound to defer. 37 What God has been pleased
to teach is received because He has taught it.
Without His guidance there can be no permanent
creed, and no plenary subscription. The measure
therefore of accordance, which exists in the English
Church, is a perpetual recognition of that divine
power, without which there could be neither holi-
ness nor concord. Every Minister who declares
his " unfeigned assent and consent" to the Book
of Common Prayer, is in fact ratifying the spiritual
authority which prescribes it. He is asserting that
God is wiser than man, and that through His
teaching, as conveyed through the Body of His
Church, an assurance is bestowed upon us, which
could not be attained through so weak and un-
certain an instrument as human reason. He is
affirming the principle of Christianity, as opposed
to that of Rationalism.
Thus then does a rule exist among us, which,
though it might be more complete, is yet far from
37 Those Lutheran Divines who maintain the authority of
confessions of faith, argues Kant, say to us, " draw your con-
clusions from the source itself, the Bible, whence you may
derive it pure and uncontaminated ; but take care that you do
not discover anything in the Bible, except what we find there."
*' My good friends," is his reply, " you had better tell us what
you find in the Bible, that we may not search in vain, and
be told by you at last, that what we fancied that we had found
there is our own misinterpretation." His conclusion, therefore,
is that no external standard of dogmatic truth can be main-
tained in a Church, which does not claim authority in the inter-
pretation of Scripture. Kanfs Streit der Facultaten.
THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS AND KNOWLEDGE. 529
being illusory. We can discern the track, when
looked at as a whole, and see that it really serves
as a guide amidst most of our perplexities ; though,
like travellers tracing the vestiges of an unfre-
quented path, we can scarcely detect each suc-
cessive portion as it is occupied by our footsteps.
And it belongs to the very nature of moral rules
to be subject to this uncertainty. Where the
contest is between private caprice and the public
sentence of the Christian Body, the decision must
be the same as when any single portion of the
Church opposes the collective testimony of the
Christian community. Thus is a criterion pro-
vided, which it is the duty of individuals to accept
and apply. And most of all, it is thus that we
have the inestimable benefit of those three Creeds,
for which the wisdom of God made provision before
the East and West were finally disunited. To His
Providence we doubtless owe it, that these funda-
mental questions were decided, before sin had de-
stroyed the blessing of unity. If such blessings
are to be extended, it must be through the arrival
of that more perfect condition of the Church, of
which unity is as plain a characteristic as holiness.
For its Great Head, in His dying prayer, included
the one of them as distinctly as the other. Both,
therefore, should find equal place in the petitions of
Christians. When Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not vex Ephraim, may these things
be. For knowledge and holiness, coming to us
M m
530 CHRIST AS MEDIATOR, ETC.
through Christ Our Lord, are attributes of His
Body Mystical by grace, as to His Sacred Person
they pertain by nature. Now division in this Body
is sin ; and sin being the privation of the one of
these is fatal to the other. And their blending and
commingling nature is evidenced by their perfect
union in Him, in whom alone either dwells com-
pletely. For knowledge is not perfect, save in
Him whose nature is love. And if in man it is to
be completely manifest, it can only be through the
acquisition of that state, of which man's first dwell-
ing-place was an anticipation, when the Tree of
Knowledge stands by the Tree of Life in the midst
of the Paradise of God.
531
CHAPTER XV.
CONCLUSION.
THE Doctrine of Our Lord's Incarnation has been
considered, and how it rendered Him the represen-
tative of that inferior race, whose nature in won-
drous mercy He vouchsafed to partake. 1 Again,
His method of union with the individual members
of the new family, which He redeemed from the
ruins of the Fall, has been shown to depend on
that Mediatorial character which belonged to His
compound nature ; 2 and the outline of its effects
upon humanity at large has been slightly traced. 3
The characteristic distinction between Rationalism
and Christianity has also been touched upon.
The first has been shown to rest the connexion
between God and man on that natural relation
of mind to mind, which was the law of Creation ;
and to estimate Christ, therefore, merely as an
individual, in whom the inherent powers of man-
1 Cap. 1-6. " Cap. 7-13. 3 Cap. 14.
532 CONCLUSION.
hood attained that perfect development of which
they were always capable. But Christianity starts
with the supposition that in Christ the forfeited
privileges of our race were given back, through
the supernatural presence of Godhead. Hence
arises that law of Mediation, which implies that
all the blessings which the higher Being bestows
upon the lower, were centred in the Humanity
of the Incarnate Son, that so from His manhood
they might be communicated to the successive
generations of His brethren. Thus to that old
Creation, the ends whereof were frustrated by
man's Fall, is opposed the regeneration of his
race through its new Creation in the second
Adam. It remains, in conclusion, to make some
brief inquiry, whether due importance is ascribed
to this great event ; whether the habits and opi-
nions of our age imply a consciousness where
and how our common nature was truly ennobled;
whether humanity at large has been adequately
impressed by that most momentous of all its
vicissitudes "the taking of the manhood into
God."
In the earlier age of the Church's History, the
manhood of Our Lord was often questioned by
those whose object was to reduce religion to an
abstract philosophy, and who, therefore, rejected
whatever brought it into actual contact with the
life of men. The same evil seems in the present
day to be attained in a different order: thosewho
CONCLUSION. 533
are impatient of that large influence which the
manhood of Christ must needs exercise upon the
life of men, call in the aid of a philosophical re-
ligion to justify their practical unbelief. A few
instances of this tendency shall be noticed.
1. The doctrine of a future judgment is rested
in Holy Writ upon the Incarnation of the Eternal
Son. God " hath appointed a day, in the which
He will judge the world in righteousness, by that
man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath
given assurance unto all men, in that He hath
raised Him from the dead." Now surely this great
truth is not sufficiently remembered in the present
day. It is not only forgotten in the market-place,
but it is not adequately enforced in the pulpit.
This may in part arise, because ordinary pastoral
instruction in the Church of England is not backed
by any systematic agency for the conversion of the
careless. The calm and orderly course w r hich is
required for the one, is wholly different from the
occasional and stimulating measures which are
needed for the other. Such a view of judgmcnt-
to-come as might bring it practically before the
minds of men, would need to be accompanied by
other steps, which can hardly be taken, so long
as the jealousy of the civil power deprives the
Church of those opportunities of common delibe-
ration, without which it is impossible for her to
adopt such measures as are required by the exi-
gency of the times. This may contribute to a
534 CONCLUSION.
result, which it is more easy to account for than
to justify. The tendency is greatly increased by
that loose view of human responsibility, which
supposes that repentance not only avails for the
obtaining of pardon, but that it renders all past
actions indifferent. This notion may be grateful
to careless men, but it derives no countenance
either from revelation or philosophy. The last
should remind men that their final character is the
result of all the previous impulses by which they
have been actuated, and that however hidden
from themselves, it is plainly conceivable that the
whole mysterious thread of their complicated ex-
istence may be traced by an Omniscient Judge
through all its tangled multiplicity. And the
same infallible Scriptures which declare salvation
to the penitent, through the blood of the Incarnate
Mediator, declare that God "hath given Him au-
thority to execute judgment also, because He is
the Son of Man." Except for His gracious inter-
vention in the world of created beings, our race
had perished in its birth ; it had been incapable of
trial and glory. The Incarnation of the Son of God
involves examination, and makes acquittal possible.
But then it teaches the certainty of the trial. The
very office of a judge is to examine into actions;
and to assign this function to one who is charac-
terized by participation in our material nature, if
it shows the leniency with which we may hope
that judgment will be exercised, shows also its
CONCLUSION. 535
reality and literal truth. The forgetfulness then
of an actual, certain, individual judgment the
attempt to explain it away into a mere act of
reflex thought shows a forgetfulness of our place
in that delegated Kingdom of the Son of Man,
whereby " all power in heaven and earth" has
been assigned to Him. The different feeling of
the Apostles led to their continual reference to
that day* when " we shall all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ." 5
2. The distribution of the Christian year has
the same reference to the renewal of our race
through the Incarnation of the Son of God, which
the Jewish seasons had to the Creation. As it
was the purpose of the old Covenant to vindicate
God's creative power, as a preparation for His
coming, through whom creation should re-enter
upon its forfeited inheritance, so the new Covenant
is built upon the new creation of humanity in
Christ our Lord. Xow every division of time
under the Mosaic law testified to its purpose. The
weekly observance of the Sabbath Day was a per-
petual testimony to the Creator. The feast of
Tabernacles attested the }~early bounty of His Pro-
vidence. The Passover and Feast of Weeks showed
how He had taken a single family out of the idol-
atrous world to obey His law and be the depository
of His promises. The whole Christian year is built
4 II. Tim. i. 12, 18 ; II. Thess. i. 10. 5 Rom. xiv. 10.
536 CONCLUSION.
in like manner upon the Mediation of Christ. Its
weekly day of solemn worship is the memorial of
the Redeemer's triumphant rest after the more
stupendous labours of His new Creation. In like
manner its three yearly seasons, Christmas, Easter,
and Pentecost, tell of His Birth, Sacrifice, and
Spiritual Legislation. If we follow the matter more
into detail, we find the anniversary of Our Lord's
Birth preceded by that Feast of the Annunciation,
which witnesses when He became Incarnate in the
flesh. It is followed by His Circumcision, and
Announcement to the Gentiles. Then come the
Forty Days of Humiliation, which precede His
Sufferings and Triumph. The last portion of them
is characterized by reference to His daily recorded
actions, as the Representative and Redeemer of our
race. They conclude with that Feast of Easter,
which forms the birthday of the new Creation.
Afterwards are there Forty Days of Rejoicing, while
we approach the hour when, ascending up into
Heaven, He " received gifts for men," which, on the
approaching Festival of Pentecost, He bestowed
upon them. And the whole series is closed with
the recollection of that ultimate mystery of the
Blessed Trinity in Unity, to which Our Lord's In-
carnation leads up the wondering mind a mystery
which is at once the beginning of all being, and the
end of all thought. Now, can the prevalent neglect
of such a system as this be compatible with any
practical belief in that real manhood of Christ Our
CONCLUSION. 537
Lord, which binds Him at this moment to collective
humanity ? Surely there are not wanting affections
in man's nature ; and his habits witness to the
cherished feelings of the heart. Were men duly
sensible of their nearness to Christ, their master
did they feel the reality of that man's nature,
whereby He binds Himself to all His brethren
these public birthdays of our race could not be
passed by with an indifference which is not betrayed
in the case of national solemnities, or respecting the
aeras of our private life.
It would be of little purpose to point to those
national changes, which have been ordained by
Parliament, because the Legislature has for some
years been selected on a principle of indifference to
religion, which it is safer and more honest that it
should openly avow. Otherwise those recent
changes might be instanced, which require the
opening of Courts of Justice at that solemn season
of our own deliverance, when the universal feeling
of the Christian world had pronounced it unseemly
to be passing judgment on our erring brethren.
That our Quarter Sessions should be held in the
week before Easter, is the renunciation of a public
homage to Our Lord's Humanity, which commenced
so soon as Christianity became the fame of the
empire. But it is more to the purpose to ask why
the arrangements of the Christian year are so little
regarded by those who profess reverence for the
Christian Faith? Can it be felt how trulv hu-
538 CONCLUSION.
inanity at large has been exalted in Him? Is
the place of His man's nature in the work of
Mediation and Intercession duly estimated ? Do
men perceive that a real belief in their union
with Him would give them a personal interest in
every incident which tells upon His earthly life ?
Whereas, to say nothing of the prevalent neglect
of these seasons by well-intentioned persons of
the closed doors of our Churches of the ban-
quets by which Christians can celebrate the mourn-
ing of Christ marrying and giving in marriage
besides these instances in which the love of plea-
sure preponderates over associations which cannot
but be admitted, the neglect of the great act and
principle of our new Creation shows itself in that
singular error, which degrades the weekly anni-
versary of Christ's Resurrection into a mere Jew-
ish observance. It is not, of course, disputed that
the Lord's Day is founded upon that weekly
division of time, which commemorates the original
Creation. But to call it the Sabbath, without
adding that condition of its being the Christian
Sabbath, which raises it from the old to the new
Creation, to rest it merely upon the Fourth Com-
mandment, is to derogate from its Christian cha-
racter, and to destroy its weekly testimony to
the renewal of man's nature in its regeneration
through Christ. The effect of such a Judaical
error is that the spiritual nature of this great feast
is obscured, and with it the reality of that momcn-
CONCLUSION. 539
tons change, whereby the whole family of mankind
was reconstructed.
3. Such circumstances are, of course, intimately
connected with that prevalent neglect, with which
those all-important ordinances which bind us to the
Body of Christ, and that collective union which is
bestowed upon us in Him, have come to be treated.
How can the Church's rule, that the daily service
of intercession should be offered by all her priests,
be reconciled with the closed doors of our sanc-
tuaries and their silent altars ? Is it practically
believed that the perpetual sacrifice of our great
High Priest has its operation through the Minis-
try of His earthly Servants ? What can be ex-
pected also, so long as there continue to be nume-
rous parishes in our land, where the opportunity of
fellowship with Christ through the Holy Commu-
nion is only offered quarterly to the people ? What
life can be anticipated in the Christian society
what doctrinal perception of the nature of its be-
ing while this enforced obedience to the letter of
our Canon shows that the quickening principle of
the Church's vitality is so little appreciated ? What
a departure this from that early precedent, when
the Disciples at Troas came together weekly to
break bread !
Now, how can such a defalcation be justi-
fied ? The offering of Our Kedeemer's sacri-
fice is not impaired by time. The reality of His
Intercession is not suspended. But a chilling
540 CONCLUSION.
apathy has withdrawn attention from that prin-
ciple of life in Him, which should quicken all His
members. This may be traced partly to those
interferences of the temporal power, which have
obscured men's perception of the nature and origin
of spiritual jurisdiction. The Church's power has
been grasped at and used by the State for worldly
purposes, till the very name of Church authority
stinks in men's nostrils. To this we must attri-
bute the strange jealousy expressed in the late
trivial disputes on rubrical matters, because a few
Clergymen professed themselves bound in con-
science to act according to their promises. But
surely every thing indicates that the time is
coming, when that living spirit which animates
the Body of Christ can not any longer be dis-
pensed with. The strange aspect of falling mo-
narchies, the increasing commotions of daily life,
show how perishable are the forms of natural
society. They testify then to the importance of
those binding principles, by which, out of the
mouldering ruins of the Roman Empire, was ori-
ginally reared the fabric of European civilization.
When every thing established is crumbling away,
the elements of order cannot re-adjust themselves,
save by reference to the internal laws of their
being. Yet where shall there be found a principle
which may rest not on force but on love, and yet
be strong enough to bridle the violence of indivi-
dual appetite ? It must be so comprehensive that
CONCLUSION. 541
it may teach the great the extent of their respon-
sibilities, and yet reveal to the humble the real
dignity of their state. It must preach humility
in the palace and self-respect in the lowly hovels
of the poor. In the first it must enforce such
lessons of self-denial as may mitigate the glare
of earthly splendour, while it compensates the
afflicted for the necessary privations of their lot.
It must demonstrate to philosophy the existence
of a law above its reach, yet be a guide to the
unlettered along the busy paths of practical life.
All this must come from some simple, single,
irresistible influence, such as may give peace
amidst the collisions, and oneness amidst the dis-
tractions of the public mind. Yet where in
nature may we look for such a remedy ? We
can find it only in that power whereby nature
is elevated above itself. "I if I be lifted up
from the earth will draw all men unto Me."
None save man's Creator can guide him amidst
the uncertainties of his present state. " They
will not be learned nor understand : all the foun-
dations of the earth are out of course." To Him
then, the Pattern and representative of our being,
the Xew Man, the second Adam of redeemed mor-
tality, we bring those wants and difficulties, which
we have inherited from the first. Amidst earth's
distractions we seek peace : we ask guidance
amidst the perplexities of earthly reason. So
long as we are one with Thee we are at rest.
542 CONCLUSION.
Though neither sun nor stars have for many days
appeared, and no small tempest lies upon us, yet
we have assurance that Thy presence is in our
bark.
THE END.
JOHN AND CHARLES MOZJ,EY. PRINTERS, DERBY.
By the same ~4ulhor.
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