and studies, that we may give ourselves with all diligence to "Prayers," and the "reading of the Scriptures," and to "such studies as help to the knowledge of the same." And this we must do both for the saving of our own souls, and for the guidance and instruction of the souls committed to

our care.

And you, my brethren, whenever you sit before the ministers of Christ to hear their words, openly take the place of learners. Try, then, to store up in your hearts the instruction in God's Word which you receive in Church. While here, listen with attention, and apply the truths read and preached to your own hearts and lives: but, above all, reflect upon them afterwards, and endeavour to realize them in your daily life.

I say, most distinctly, that if you would "abound in love yet more and more, in knowledge, and in all judgment," it is not enough that you listen to the word of God in Church. It is not enough that you kneel in prayer with your fellow-Christians, confessing your sins, beseeching mercy, and seeking grace. It is not enough that your hearts are warmed with love, or affected to tenderness, while you hear Christ preached by a fellow mortal: all this is not enough, unless you think solemnly and earnestly on these things ALONE. You must kneel before God alone, and open out your hearts to Him, that He may impart unto you the true wisdom. Alone you must confess your sins; alone you must ask for mercy and grace; alone you must meditate upon the love of Christ, and all that He has done and suffered for you; alone, beneath the eye of God,

you must lift your hearts to heaven, and think of all its glory, and its love; the majesty of the Divine Presence, the Lamb upon His throne, and the songs of perfected angels and saints, in which you hope to share. Surely, dear brethren, if we would indeed be taught of God, we must say, both ministers and people, with the prophet Habakkuk, “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved."" Then we may trust that He will impart unto us such a measure of true wisdom, that our love may be founded in knowledge and in all judgment: then the savour of His presence and the consciousness of His love may go forth with us into our social life, and by the gentleness of our ways, the kindness of our actions, the tenderness of our pity, men may take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.18

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SERMON XXVIII.

THE FACE OF AN ANGEL.

ACTS, vi. 15.

"And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel."

CHRIST has redeemed the bodies as well as the souls of men; for He took upon Himself our whole nature, "of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting," and purified it wholly in Himself—wholly, and in all its parts. It was not the mere likeness of humanity which our Saviour took unto Himself: it was the very substance. His Body was a real substance of flesh, and blood, and bones, taken (by miracle indeed, yet really taken) from the substance of His Blessed Mother. He was not, as the ancient heretics called Docetæ affirmed, a mere phantom, but real Man, subject to all the changes, sorrows, pains, and infirmities which flesh is heir to. Accordingly He was born an Infant, and gradually grew to man's estate, was subject to weakness and weariness, hunger, cold, and sickness, and truly suffered

death at last. Now this human Body which our Lord assumed was pure from all spot of sin, from all taint of defilement, as was His human Soul. He was the One Lamb of God, without blemish and without spot. And this His human Body was anointed with the Holy Ghost, which visibly came down upon Him from Heaven when John baptized Him. In this flesh He suffered; and in this very flesh He rose again from the dead, glorified and spiritualized, ascending in the same, and sitting down upon the right Hand of God.

And having ascended up, and sending down gifts upon men, He communicates to them that very life which is in Himself, that they may be re-formed in His image, and become holy as He is holy, in body as in soul.

Observe, my brethren, how strikingly this design of our redemption, viz., the sanctification of our bodies, as well as of our souls, is exemplified in God's dealings with His elect. We can neither enter into covenant with God, nor abide in communion with Him, without an outward and visible sign of which our bodies are the objects. The first entrance into life is through the Sacrament of Baptism, in which our bodies are washed with pure water, at the same time that our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience.

So likewise, in the other Sacrament, we draw near to Christ, and are made partakers of Him in a spiritual union most intimate, most holy, most awful, by means of outward elements, consecrated by His Word, which we take, and eat, and drink, in obedience

to His command, and in memory of His atoning death. And it seems as if all this were intended to come out more vividly and strikingly when we compare it with the institution of the tree of life in the time of man's innocency, of which it is said, after man had forfeited life by the fall, "And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever;' therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden." It is quite certain that the natural condition of our first parents in their innocence, was the continued life, health, uprightness, and purity of soul and body united. It seems as if the continuance of this prosperity of life were made to depend upon their partaking continually of the fruit of the tree of life. Is it not, therefore, a fact most full of meaning for us, dear brethren, that our abiding in mystic union with Christ, our new Life, should in like manner be connected with the partaking sacramentally through the consecrated bread and wine of the Body and Blood of Christ? Ought it not to teach us that the fruit of our Tree of Life, that Blessed Tree which was planted in Calvary, is for the sustenance of our bodies as well as of our souls? Surely we may most fittingly pray, in drawing towards this holy feast, "that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His Body, and our souls washed through His most precious Blood; and that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us"-in Him who, in the very substance of our flesh, abideth ever on the Right Hand of God.

Accordingly we find in Holy Scripture that the