destined to be the wives of circumcised husbands, and the mothers of circumcised sons. Lessons, Gen. xvii.; Deut. x. ver. 12; Rom. ii. ; Col. ii. THE EPIPHANY signifies Manifestation, and is always celebrated on the 6th of January, which is commonly called Twelfth Day. When the middle wall of partition was about to be broken down, Angels sang the first words of the Gospel to Jewish Shepherds; and a miraculous star guided the Eastern Magi to the place of our Lord's birth. How great must their faith have been, to have recognized, amidst so much poverty, a royalty more than human, and to fall down and offer themselves, their souls and bodies, a living sacrifice to the KING OF GLORY. Lessons, Isaiah Ix. xlix.; Luke iii. to ver. 23; John ii. to ver. 12. Epistle, Eph. iii. 1. Gospel, St. Matt. ii. 1. CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. This chosen vessel is not commemorated by his martyrdom, but by hjs Conversion, which was of the greatest benefit to the Church. St. Paul's apostleship, as well as his Conversion, was miraculous; after which his purposes were changed, but his zeal and energy remained, and were directed to a better and holier purpose. The proud Pharisee, the relentless persecutor, the blaspheming Saul, was changed, by divine grace, into the humble and gentle Paul, the Christian glorying in the Cross of Christ, and in the marks of the Lord Jesus. Lessons, Wisdom v.. vi.; Acts xxii. to verse 22, and xxvi. Gospel, St. Matt. xix. 27. THE MARTYRDOM OF CHARLES I. took place on the 30th of January, 1648; and its anniversary has been kept by the Church of England as a day of fasting and humiliation. By divine permission rebellion, which is a greater sin than witchcraft, was successful, and "blood-thirsty and unreasonable men brought the Lord's anointed to the block." It was the rebellious principles of Presbyterians, Papists, and other dissenters, that produced the national sín of the royal murder; and it is the same principles that justifies this national sin to this day. The Independents made a blasphemous jest of this mournful tragedy :-We confess that we cut off the head of Charles Stuart, when the PRESBYTERIANS had first murdered the king." It is the greatest blot in this worthy martyr's reign, that he consented to the destruction of the Episcopacy of Scotland; but of which he deeply repented, and sealed his repentance with his blood, rather than consent to a similar extirpation of the English Episcopacy. Lessons, 2 Sam. i.; St. Matt. xxvii. Epistle, I St. Peter ii. 13. Gospel, St. Matt. xxi. 33. [From STEPHENS's Short Account of the Fasts and Festivals.] 1 BAPTISMAL PRIVILEGES. CHRIST, therefore, took the customary rite of baptism, for the admission of proselytes, which He found established in the Jewish Church. But He adopted it as a mystery of His religion, the sacrament of admission to His Church or Kingdom; and for that purpose He gave it a new grace and conferred on it the efficacy of remitting sins. He made it the vehicle of conveying His Holy Spirit to the souls of men to regenerate, justify, and adopt them into His family, and so to be the sons of God and his own brethren. "He sublimed it to higher ends, and adorned it with stars of heaven; He made it to signify greater mysteries, to convey greater blessings, to consign bigger promises, to cleanse deeper than the skin, and to carry proselytes further than the gates of the institution... Without violence and noise old things became new, while He fulfilled the law, making it up in full measure of the Spirit'." IT IS THEREFORE by the outward visible sign of baptism, and by the inward spiritual grace of the Holy Ghost, that we are admitted into Christ's kingdom on earth. By the sacrament of baptism we are made partakers of the divine nature2; the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever is then sown3; and although we may for a time neglect its cultivation, yet it will spring up and grow we know not how. The heavenly seed is neither dead nor barren, though it may not yet have ripened; it cannot be destroyed, for it remaineth in us*. In due time, if the soil be properly dressed, and 1 Great Exemplar, Disc. vi., pt. i. sec. 11. 3 1 Pet. i. 2, 3. 4 1 John iii. 9. 2 2 Pet. i. 4. No. 6. G watered with the dew of God's blessing, it will bring forth fruit, first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn of holiness and obedience'. This freedom from sin which the apostle ascribes to the baptized Christian, whatever may be its extent, is owing to the infusion of the divine nature at baptism, and to his spiritual birth and consequent new nature; but it implies no more than St. Paul's prayer, that we should "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of "God." This freedom from sin is a privilege of the sons of God that may be realized; and the Church evidently thinks so when she prays in the Te Deum, " to keep us this day without sin ;" and in the morning Collect for Grace, "that this day we fall into no sin." Nevertheless we daily say, “Forgive us our trespasses ;" and the same apostle says, "If we imagine that we have ho sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Therefore the apostle means that we ought earnestly to strive to gain a freedom from sin, which may in a greater or less measure be realized by those who keep the "sealing" and "anointing" they have received in holy baptism, "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." THE SPIRITUAL seed, however, can be but once imparted; for there is but one spiritual as there is but one natural birth. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, baptism cannot be reiterated: for, he says, "it is impossible for those who were once enlightened [in baptism,] and have tasted of the heavenly gift [the divine nature-the incorruptible seed,] and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come; if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance : seeing they crucify unto themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Such are the privileges ́of baptism, and they show that to those who apostatize from the faith, and walk not worthy of their high calling, a second spiritual birth is as impossible as a second entrance into our mother's womb, and to be physically born again; because there is but one baptism, as there is but one Lord and one Faith. IN BAPTISM our bodies are made the temples of the Holy Ghost-temples of the living God, in whom He will dwell 5 Mark iv. 28. 6 Col. i. 10. 7 Hebrews vi. 4—6. and walk-the temples of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, and they ought not to be defiled or prophaned by any of the works of the flesh." Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price, [the blood of God], therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" Christian men and women are "living stones" in the spiritual house of God to offer up spiritual sacrifices, whereof Christ himself is the Chief Corner Stone, rejected by the Jewish, but precious to the Christian Church'. By haptism we have been made members of the Christian Church which is built on the truth of all the prophecies of the Old, and on the apostolical doctrines and predictions of the New Testament, of which body Jesus Christ is the Head. In whom all the members of His mystical body are united like the stones of a material building, so as to become the temple and habitation of God; in which He dwells by the gifts and graces of His Holy Spirit which were consigned to us in baptism. These expressions, "lively stones," 32 66 a spiritual house," &c., allude to the Jewish temple and the Levitical priesthood; and they are intended to show the superior excellency of the Christian to the Jewish Church and religion. Therefore, as Tertullian has well said, "Since all Christians are become the temples of God by virtue of His Holy Spirit sent into our hearts, and consecrating our bodies to His service, we should make Chastity the keeper of this sacred house, and suffer nothing unclean or prophane to enter into it, lest that God who dwelleth in it, being offended, should desert His house thus defiled." In that holy sacrament, we put off the old man or the original corruption of our nature, which we derived from the first Adam; and we put on the new man or the robe of Christ's righteousness, which is the wedding garment of love and obedience. He is our righteousness not only in having been obedient to the law for us; but also by so working in us and with us as to enable us to become holy by an inward habit of righteousness, which is as much our own as any of the Christian graces can be our own. In one sense no Christian grace can be our own, whereas in another 91 Cor. iii. 16, 17. 2 Cor. vi. 16. 10 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. 1 Peter ii. 4-7. 2 Ephes. ii. 19-22. sense the Christian graces are all our own; and accordingly the Church teaches and helps us to pray, "Stir up we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people, that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of Thee be plenteously rewarded, through Jesus Christ our Lord." HAVING BEEN, therefore, made new with Christ in baptism, we rise with Him in His resurrection, and deck ourselves in the robe of obedience to all God's commandments; and His Holy Spirit, by His vigorous power, renews our souls from the death of sin unto a life of righteousness. Having been ingrafted into Christ's resurrection, we are united to Him in His rising; "for if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” The rising from sin to a state of righteousness is the first resurrection from sin to grace; in which state we must continue if we desire to be partakers with all the saints in the second resurrection from the grave to everlasting life and glory in Jesus Christ. Whilst we live in the world our life ought to be "hid with Christ;" that is, that the lusts of the flesh ought to be dead and mortified, and our affections and conversation entirely with Him in heaven. .We are said to be “dead to sin," because we made a solemn vow of dying unto it, of mortifying all our corrupt affections and sinful lusts; and we engaged thenceforth not to serve it, "for he that is dead is freed from sin," and relieved from all slavish obedience to it. Though death with Christ be a figurative expression, yet it is at the same time of vital consequence, obliging us to live in conformity with His resurrection in piety and holiness, so that we shall not allow sin to have any dominion over us. Our baptismal death with Christ sets us free from the slavery of sin, and having been planted in the likeness of His resurrection, we ought to imitate His holiness, meekness and humility, and to be doers of the will of God, and not merely hearers of His word, thereby deceiving ourselves, for those only will be reckoned just who keep his commandments. In baptism God the Holy Spirit renews in us the original righteousness in which Adam was created3. He was created in the highest state of grace; nevertheless through disobedience he fell from perfect righteousness. Although our sins were 8 Col. iii. 10. |