but out of every evil to bring into manifestation some still greater good. "Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."

And there is no other manifestation of this mystery but "in the flesh -that is, the flesh of man; and it was accomplished first in Christ, in order that it may be subsequently accomplished in us therefore, he is called the first begotten from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep, and the first born among many brethren. In spirit we are said to be risen with Christ already, and are called to set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God (Col. iii.); but since our vile body is not yet fashioned like unto his glorious body (Phil. iii. 21), we are regarded as dead to the earth, and our life is hid with Christ in God. "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory" (Col. iii. 4). And the sacraments are the appointed means for enabling us to attain this our high and glorious destiny-our baptism pledging us to a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness: for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace; and the other sacrament being for the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodies are by the bread and wine: but both sacraments imply correspondent duties on our partrepentance and forsaking of sin, faith in the promises of God, especially in his mercy through Christ, and the being in charity with all men.

St. Paul is an example of the exertion which is necessary on our part that we may not fail of the grace of God. For though he was trusting solely to the righteousness which is of God by faith (Phil. iii. 9), he was minding only the one thing of forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, pressing towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: that is, if by any means he might attain the resurrection of the dead, so as to apprehend that for which also he had been apprehended of Christ Jesus. And wherever the new birth is spoken of, it is not as though we were passive subjects of some irresistible power, but we are regarded as fellow workers with God in yielding our hearts and wills to that work which he accomplishes by his grace. "Ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus; that ye put off concerning the former

conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. iv. 24). Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy; and, above all these, put on charity which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful" (Col. iii. 5, 15).

But we cannot dismiss this error of the bishop in maintaining that Christ has two bodies-the one a natural body in heaven and not here, the other a spiritual and glorified body present in all the churches-without remarking on its inconsistency with all the other statements contained in this "Pastoral Letter." For we are told throughout that the Church itself is united to "his manhood "--that is, to his natural body; and that all sacramental blessing, "all spiritual grace, is poured forth on men 'from his manhood as its source and channel; yet that his natural body is not here but in heaven; that it is a glorified body only which is present in the sacrament:"For what is in truth the Sacramental System?' It rests on the incarnation of our Lord. Through his taking our flesh, he united manhood with his Godhead. Through his own appointed instrument, Baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, he made the baptized to be baptized into his body-thus giving to them union with his Manhood, united as it is with the Godheadthus likewise giving to them a new nature and a new life: for his manhood is to us the source and the channel from and by which all spiritual grace is poured forth on men. Of his fulness we have all received, and grace for grace-grace flowing from him-the grace which was given by the Father to him as the Son of Man. As, therefore, we are made by Baptism to be in him, to live in him, so, in and by the other sacrament, the Supper of the Lord, are given to us the means to sustain us in that blessed life-the food and aliment of our new being for the bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ-the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ-of that body which is meat indeed, of that blood which is drink indeed. In a word, these two sacraments are the means one of our first union, the other of our continuing and growth, in him who is the one Mediator between God and man-himself both God and Man-perfect God and perfect Man, who made his Manhood to be a quickening, life-giving, principle to all his brethren— so he in love and mercy deigned to call us " (71).

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And we make this extract, not merely to show the inconsistency of which we have spoken, but for the more important purpose of using this authoritative statement of what are called "Church Principles" and the "Sacramental System," as a sort of text, in order to point out the radical unsoundness of the whole.

First, the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ, is confounded with the personal body of the God-Man Christ Jesus: for we are said to be in him by union with his Manhood, so as to merge the distinction between the Head of the body and the members-the Head in whom all fulness dwells, and the members to whom this fulness is distributed in measure, and severally to each according to the place it occupies in the body. "For the body is not one member, but many (1 Cor. xii. 14). Next, by confounding the personal and mystical bodies, Christ himself is robbed of his chief personal attribute by making it common to the Church-that is, the attribute of being the only God-Man-therefore, the only Mediator between God and man. It is the personal distinction of the Son that he alone of the blessed Trinity became incarnate. Though all the Godhead concurred therein, to the second Person of the blessed Trinity alone belongs the glory of becoming incarnate. He only is to be called the Mediator as laying hold of both, and uniting in his person God and Man. Hooker, quoting Damascen, says "The Father and the Holy Ghost have no communion with the incarnation of the Word otherwise than only by approbation and assent. And if some cause be likewise required why rather to this end and purpose the Son, than either the Father or the Holy Ghost, should be made man; could we, which are born the children of wrath, be adopted the sons of God through grace, any other way than by the natural Son of God being Mediator between God and us?"

And two things are to be remarked here: first, that Christ is by nature the Son of God, and we become sons of God by adoption and grace; secondly, the union of God and Man in him was an union of the two natures in one person-an union peculiar to the Son; while our union with Christ is of a totally different kind, being effected by the Holy Ghost who dwells in the mystical body of Christ, who is called another Comforter, and whose presence is made the very sign of Christ's personal absence, and the reason why it was expedient for the Church that Christ should go away (John xvi. 7); but who, being the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, unites in spirit the Church on earth with the Father

and the Son who are in heaven. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him" (John xiv. 20, 23).

The name of Christ, or the Messiah, signifies the One Person who should be filled with the Holy Ghost. John the Baptist disclaims the title in order to give it to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. "He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God" (John i. 34). And St. Peter bears witness to the accomplishment of this on the day of Pentecost, saying, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, 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" (Acts ii. 33). The promise referred to is chiefly that in John xiv., but it also includes John i. 33, as well as our Lord's final promise (Acts i. 5). John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

And this shows the error of supposing that we are first united to Christ, and then, by virtue of that union, receive from him the new nature and new life. For it is plain from Scripture that we must first receive the Holy Ghost; and, by the new life or new nature which the Holy Ghost imparts, we are united to Christ. And in this consists the difference between the divine nature, of which we are made partakers by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and Christ's divine nature; that in him it is an essential part of his being. He is God as well as Man. It were blasphemy to call the members of the Church so. He is the object of worship: they never can become so. Besides, the grace imparted to us may be forfeited or withdrawn. He is for ever unchangeably the God-Man. And again, his mediation never ceases; and mediation implies three distinct parties-God, the Church, and Christ the GodMan, who partakes of the nature of both.

Nor do we think that there is a more correct understanding of the grace we are warranted to expect in Christian baptism than there is of the agent by whom that grace is wrought in us, or of the place which baptism holds with regard to Christ. For it is evident that Christian baptism, however truly administered and however rightly received,

does not come up to all that was meant to be included in the promise of baptism with the Holy Ghost, or all that was actually bestowed on the day of Pentecost. For, first, it is not in any way indicated that those to whom the Holy Ghost was first given were ever baptized at all, which may, however, be regarded as an exceptional instance, and therefore not conclusive. But in subsequent instances we also find that the grace which is specially called the giving of the Holy Ghost, and which answers in all respects to the effusion on the day of Pentecost, is not connected with baptism, but with the laying on of hands. Philip had preached the Gospel at Samaria and baptized those who believed; and the apostles that were at Jerusalem sent Peter and John who prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost-for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 17). The miraculous powers accompanying the laying on of apostles' hands ceased when the apostles died out of the Church; but as the form of laying on of hands is retained in confirmation, we surely might expect that some analagous grace, answering to the abiding ordinance of baptism with the Holy Ghost, should accompany the rite of confirmation; and not that everything should be swallowed up in the sacrament of baptism, however important we may deem this initiatory rite to be, which we agree with the bishop in holding to be the door of entrance to the Church.

The quickening, life-giving, principle, which in this "Letter" is falsely attributed to the Manhood of Christ, is truly ascribable to the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son; and, therefore, baptism is administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to show that the Father gives to the Son, and that the Son bestows the Holy Ghost. And for this reason Christ, who hath the Spirit and bestows it on the Church, is himself called a quickening Spirit (1 Cor. xv. 45); and the Church, which is his anointed body, is called Christ (1 Cor. xii. 12), and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ (Rom. viii. 9). But he is also called the Spirit of God in the same verse; and the Spirit that maketh intercession in us and for us (23, 27). And the Spirit of God and the Holy Ghost are used interchangeably as instructing us and bringing us to the mind of Christ (1 Cor. ii. 10-16); while he is also represented as the Spirit of God dwelling in the Church as God's temple (1 Cor. iii. 16).

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