Parochial and Plain Sermons

T was the great prolnise of the Gospel, that the Lord of all, who had hitherto manifêsted Himself êxtèrnally to ]Iis servants, shotfld take up Itis abode in their hearts. This, as you nmst rêcollêct, is frequently the language of the Prophets; and if was thê languagê of our Saviour whên He came on earth: "I wi]l love him," He says, Sl»èaking of those who love and obèy Itim, "and will manifest Myself to him. We will corne unto him, and make out abode with him. '' Though tIê had corne in our flesh, so as to be sêen and handled, even this was not enough. Stili Ite was external and separate; but af ter ttis ascension tte descended ag'an by and in His Slirit, and then at lengfl the promise was Nlfilled. çhere must indeèd be a union between all ereatures and their Almighty Creator even for their very existence; for it is said, "In Him we live, and more, and  John xiv. 21, 23.

T/e Co.,uuio of Sails.  69 bave out being;" and in one of the Psahns, "When Thou lettest Thy ])rea,h go forth, they shail be ruade."  ]ut far higher, more intimate, and more sacred is the indweiling of God in the hearts of His elect people;— so iatimate, that compared with it, He may weil be said hot to inhabit other meu at all; His presence being specified as the characteristic privflege of His own redeemed servants. From the day of Pentecost, to fle present rime, it has been their privilege, according to the promise, " I wiil pray the Father, and He shail give you another Coinforter, that He may abide with you for over," for ever: hot like the Son of man, who ha.ring finished His gracious work went away. Then it is added, "even the 2»irit of Truth:" that is, He vho came for ever, came, ". as a,pmt, anti, so coming, did for His own that which the visible flesh and blood of the Son of man, from its very nature, could hot do, riz., He cmue into the souls of all who beileve, a.nd taldng possession of them, He, being One, knit them ail together into one. Christ, by coming in the flesh, provided an external or apparent nnity, such as had been under the Law. He formed His Apostles into a visible society; but when He came again in the Person of His Spirit, He ruade them all in a real sense one, hot in naine ofly. For they were no longer arranged merely in the form of unity, as the limbs of the dead may be, but they were parts and organs of one nnseeu power; they reaily depended npon, and were offshoots of that which was One; their separate persons were taken into a mysterious nnion with things - Psalm civ. 30.

I 7 ° Thc Coz»zztzion of Saizts. unseen, were grafted upou and zssimilated o the spiri- ul body of ChfisL, which is One, even by the Holy Ghst,, in whom Christ bas corne gain fo us. Thus Christ came, hot fo make us one, but to die for us: the Spirit ca.me to make us oae in Him who had died and was alive, that is, to ft,rm the Church. This theu is the special glory of the Christian Church, that ifs members do uot depend merely o1 wha is visible, they are n,)t mere stoaes of a building, pfled one on a.u(t.her, ud bound together from without, lut they are oue and all the lirths and manifestations of one and the sa.me unseen spiritual principle or power, "livig stones," internally connected, as brauches from a tree, hot a.s the parts of a heap. They are members of tle Body of Christ. That divine and adorable Form, which the Aposfles saw and handled, after ascending into heaven became a principle of life, a secret origin of existence to aH who believe, through the gracions mhistration of the Holy Ghost. This is the fruitfM Vine, and flae rich Olive tree upon a.nd out of which aH Sahts, though wfld and burren by nature, grow, that they may bring fooEh fruit unto God. So that in a true sense if muy be said, that from the day of Pentecost to this hour there has been in the Church but One Holy One, the King of kings, and Lord of lords Himselt; who is in aH bclievers, and through whom they are what they are; the separate persons being but  separate developments, vessels, instruments, and vorks of Him avho is invisible. Such is the difference between the Church before the Spit of Christ came, and after. efore, God's servants were as the d W bones of the Prophet's vision,

The Co»z»eztzioe of Saizts. 17  connected by profession, hot by an inward principle; but sinoe, they,re,-dl he org,'ms as if of one invisible, governing Soul, the hands, or the ongues, or the foot, or the eyes of one and the saine directing Mind, the types, tokcns, beginnings, aud glimpses of the Eternal Son of God. Hence the text, i speaking of the kingdom of Christ, enlarges upon the Slecial office of His Saints,- "Ail Thy works praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy S,iuts give thauks unto Thee: they show the glory of Thy kingdo, aud talk of Thy powr, that Thy power, Thy glory, and mightiness of Thy kingdom might be known tl]2to 1111." Such is the Christian Church, a living body, md one; uot a mere framework artificially arranged to look like oue. It.s being alive is what nmkes if one; were it dead, it would consist of as mauy parts as if bas members; but the Living Spirit of God came down upon it at Pentecost, and made it one, by giving it lire. On this great d,y then, z when we commemorate the quickening or vivifying of the Church, the birth of the spiritua.1 aud new creature out of an old world "as good as dead," it will be seasouable to consider the nature and attributes of this Church, as manifested in the elect, as invisible, one, living and spiritual; or what is otherwise cailed the doctrine of the Communion of Saits with each other, and in the Holy Trinity, in x hom their COlnmunio with each other consists. And this I the rather do, because the Communion of Saints is an article of the Creed, and therefore is hot a ma.tter of secondary importmace, of doubt or speculation.  Preached on Whitsunday.

The Church flen, properly eonsidered, is la greag eompany of the elee, which bas been separated by God's fi'ee grace, and Iiis Spirig working  due season, ri'oin this sinfifi woqd, regeneraed, and wmchsafed perseverance uno life eernal. Viewed so far as ig merely consisgs of persons now ving in this world, ig is of cuurse a visible eompany; bug in its nobler and ruer chameter ig is a body in'isible, or nearly so, as being marie up, n,, merely of he few who haplen stiH to be on fleir trial, bu of the -many who sleep in le Lord. A firs, indeed, in Lhe lifetime of the Apostles, a grea pr,pt,rtion of the vh,le lody was in this world; tbat is, hot taking into account those Saints, who had lived in Jewish rimes, and whom Christ, on His departure, ruade partakers of the pri'fleges then purchased by His death f,»r all believe. St. Stephen a.nd St. James the Greater vere the first disthguished Saints of fle New Covenant, who were gathered in to enrich fle elder conpany of Moses, Elias, and their brethren. But from tiret rime they have flowed in apace; and as years passed away, greater and greater hts become the proportion vhich the assemlly of spirits ruade perfect bears to that body militant vhich is its complenent in God's new creation. Af present., we who liv are but one generation out of fifty, which since its formation bave been new born into it, and endowèd with spiritual fe and the hope of glo W. Fifty times as many Saints are in the invisible wofld sealed for immortty, as are now struggling on upon earth towards it; unless indeed the later generations htve a greater measte of Saints than the former ones. WeH then nay the Church be caHed invisible, hot only

as regards lier vital principle, but in respect to lier Inembers. "That which is born of the Spivit is spirit;" and since God the tloly Ghost is invisible, so is His work. The Church is invisible, because the greater number of lier truc children have been perfected and removed, and because those who are still on earth cannot be ascertained by mortal eye; and had God so willed, she might have had no visfl,le tokens at all of ber existence, and 1,een as entirely and alsolutely hidden ff'oto us as the Holy Ghost is, lier Lord and Gvernor. But seeing that the Holy Ghost is our life, so that to gain lire we must approach Him, in mercy to us, His place of abode, the Church of the Living God, is hot so utterly veiled from our eyes as He is; but He bas given us certain outward signs, as tokens for knowing, and means for entering that living Shrine in which He dwells. He dwells in the hearts of His Saints, in that temple of living stones, o11 earth and in heaven, which is ever showing the glory of His kingdom, and talking of His power; but since faith and love and joy and peace cannot be seen, since the company of His people are His secret ones, He has given us something outwa.rd as a guide to what is inwaM, sonethlg visible as a guide fo what is spiritual. low, what is that outward visible guide, having the dispensation of what is unseen, but the Christian Ministry, which directs and leads us to the ve W Holy of Holies, in which Christ dwells by His Spixit? As landmarks or buoys inform the steersmmi, as the shadow on the dial is an index of the sun's coin'se; so, if we would cross the path of Christ, if we wotfld an'est His eye and engage t/is ttention, if we would ineres ourselves in he specil virtue and fulness of Uis grace, we mus join ourselves to ha linisry which, when Ue ascended up on high, He gave us as  relie, and le drop from Him as fle nmntle of Eijh, He pledge and oken f his neverfiling grace from age fo age. "Tell me, O Thou whom my sod loveth, whcre Thou feedest, wherc Thou makest Thy flock fo test af noon; for why shodd I 1)e as one that turneth aside by the flocks of Thy companions Such is the petitiou, as if were, of the sod that seeks for Christ. ]Ils aaswer is as precise as the question. " If tht,u know hot, O thou fairest among women, go way fç)rth by the footst(2s of the flock, and feed thy kids bcsidc the shc2)hcrds' t«nts." Out of the Church is no salvation;I mean fo say out of that great inx5sible company, who are one and aH incorporate  the one mystical body of Christ, and quickened by one Spirit: now, by adhering fo the visible lh6st.ry v-hich the Apostles lcft behind them, we approach unto what we see hot, fo Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, fo the spirits of the just, to the first-born elected fo suiration, fo Angels immmerable, fo Jesus the One 5Iediator, and fo Goal. This heavenly Jerusalem is the true Spouse of Christ and virgin Mother of Saints; and the visible minist on earth, the 9ishops and Pastors, together -ith Christians dependg on them, af t.h or that day is callcd the Church, though reay but a fragment of it, as beg that part of it which is seen and can be poiuted out, and as msembng it in t)q)e, and witnessing it, and leading towards it. This invisible a Cant. i. 7, 8.

body is the true Church, because it changes hot, though it is ever increasing. What it bas, it kecps and never loses; but what is visible is fleeting and transitory, and contimmlly passes off into the invisible. The visible is ever dying for the increase of the in»isible company, and is ever reproduced from out the mass of human corruption, by the virtue of the Spirit lodged i; the invisible, and acting upon the world. Generatiol; after generation is born, tried, sffted, strengthened, and perfected. Again and again the Apostles lire in theh" successors, and their successors in turn are gathered unto the Apostles. Such is the efficacy of tlmt inexhaustible gxace which Christ has lodged in His Church, as a 1)rinciple of life and increase, til] He cornes again. The - " " expmng breath of His Saints is but the quickening of dead souls. And now we may form a clearer notion than is commonly taken of the one Church Catholic which is in all lands. Properly it is hot on earth, except so far as heaven can be said to be on earth, or as the dead are stil] with us. It is hot on earth, except in such sense as Christ or His Spirit are on earth. I mean it is hot locally or visibly on earth. The Church is hot in tilne or place, but in the egion of spirits; it is i the Holy Ghost; and as the sotl of man is in every part of his body, yet in no part, hot here nor there, yet every where; hot so in any one part, head or heart, hands or feet, as hot to be in eve T other; so also the heavenly Jerusalera, the mother of our new birth, is in al] lands af once, fully and entirely as a spirit; in the East and in the West, in the orth and in the South,—that is, wherever ber outward instruments are to be found. The hlinistry and Sacrmnents, the bodily presence-of Bishop and people, are given us as keys and spells, by which we bring ourselves into t,he presence of the great, company of Saints; they are as much as this, but t,ley are no more; t.hey are not, identical with t.hat, company; t.hey are but. the out.skirts of it,; they are but, t,orehes to the pool of Bet.hesda, entrances into that which is indivisible and one. Baptisln admits, hot into a more visible soeiet.y, varying with t.he country in whieh it is administercd, II«)man here, and (lreek there, and English there, lmt l]rovg] the English, or t.he Greek, or the Poman porch int( the one invisible eompany of elect soMs, whieh is independent of rime and place, and untinctured with t.he imperfections or errors of that visible porch by which entrmme is ruade. And its efficacy lies in the inflowing upon the soul of the ace of God lodged in that unseen body into which it op_ens, not, in any respect, in the personal character of those who admilister or assist in if.. When a child is brought for Baptism, the Chnrch invisible claires it, begs if of God, receives it., md extends to it, as God's instrument., ber ow sanct,ity. When we praise God in Itoly Communion, we praise Hiln with the Angels and Archangels, wlo are the gua.rds, and with t.he Saints, who are the citizens of the City of (lod. Wlen we offer out Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, or 1)art,ake of t.he saered elements so offered, we s,lemnly eat and drink of the powers of the world to colne. When we read the Psalms, we use belote many wit.nesses the very words on wlficl tlose wit,nesses t.hemseNes,—I mean, all successive generat.ions of t.hat holy coml0any,—have sust.ained themselves in their own day, for thousands of years past., during their pilgrimage heavenward. When we profess the Çreed, i is no self-xxqlled, arbitrary sense, bn in the presente of those inmnueralle Saints who well remelnber what it.s words mean, and are witnesses of it belote God, in spire of the heresy or indifférence of this or that da.y. When we stand over their ga'aves, we are in the ve W vestibule of that dwelling which is " all-glorious within," flùl of light and purity, and of w»iees erying, " Lord, how long?" When we lmty in priva.te, we are hot solitary; others " are gathered together" with us " iii ç'hrist's Naine," thongh we see them not, with Christ in the midst of them. When we approach the Ministry which He has ordained, we approach the steps of His throne. When we approaeh the Bishops, who are the eentres of thag Ministry, whag have we belote us 1,ug the Twelve Apostles, present bug invisible? When we use the sacred Naine of desus, or the Sign given us in Baptism, whag do we but bid defiance to devils and evil men, and gain strengfl to resisg them? XX3mn we protest,, or confess, or suflçr in the Naine of Christ, what are we 1,u{, ourselves t.3es and symbols of the Cross of ChrisL and of the strength of Him who died on it? When we are caHed to battle for the Lord, whag are we who are seen, but. mere outpost.s, the advanced guard of a mighty host, ourselves few  nmnber and despicN»le, but bold beyond out numbers, l»eca.use supported by chariots of tire and horses of tire round a.boug the Mountah of the Lord of Hosts under which we stand? Such is the City of God, ghe Holy Church throughout the world, manested in and acting through IV]

 7 8 T/e Con¢munion of what is called in eaeh country he Church visible; which visible Church really depends solely on ig, on fl,e invisible, no on civil power, no on princes or any child of mau, hot ou its cndowments, hot on its numbers, hot on any thing that is seen, unless indeed heaven can flepend on earth, eternity on time, Angels ou men, the dead on the living. The mseen wofld through God's secret power and mercy, encroaches upç, this wofld; and the Church that is seen is just tht portion of it 1,y which it encroaches; and thus thogh the visible Churches of the Saints in this world seem rare,and scattered to and fro,like islands in the sea, fley are in truth but the tops of the everlasting hflls, high and vast and deeply-rooted, which a deluge covers. Now these thoughts are so vew ibreigu from the wofld's ordina T view of things, which walks by sight, hot by faith, and never allows any thing to exist in wha,t cornes before it, but what it can touch and handle, that it is necessary to insist and enlarge upon them. The world then makes itself the standard of perfection and the centre of all good; and when the souls of Christiaus ps from if into the place of spirits, it fancies that this is thc" loss, hot ifs own; if pities them in its way of speaking of them, and calls them by names half compassionate, half contemptuous, as if its own presence md society were some great thing. It pities them too as thinking that they do hot witness the ternnatiou of what they begau or saw beginning, that they are ignora,nt of the fortunes of their friends or of the Church, are powerless over their owu schelnes, or rather careless about them, as being insensible, and but shadows, and ghosts hot substances; as if we who lire were the real agents in the course of events, and they were attached to us only as,-t church-yard to a church, which if is decent to respect, unsuitable fo linger in. Such is its opinion of the departed; as though we were lu light and they in darkness,—we in power and influence, they in weakness,—we the living, and they the dead; yet vith the views opened on us in the Gospel, with the knowledge that the One Spirit of Christ ever abides, and that those who are made one with I[im are never parted ri'oto Him, and that those who die in lIim are irrevocably knit into Him and one with Him, shall we d,tre to think slightly of these indefectible members of Christ and vessels of fnture glory? Shall we presume to compare that greut,-tssemblage of the elect, perfected and af test, —shall we weigh in the balance that glorious Chnrch invisible, so populous in souls, so pure from sin, so rid of probation,with ourselves, poor strngglers with the flesh and the devil, who have but the earnest hot the crown of victory, whose humes are hot so written in the heavens, but they nmy be blotted ont again? Shall we doubt for a moment, though St. Paul wus martyred centm'ies upon centuries since, that he, who even while in the body was prescrit in spirit at Corinth when he vas af Ephesus, is present in the Church still, more truly alive than those who are ca.lled living, more truly and awfully an Apostle now upon a throne, than vhen he had fightings without and fears within, a thorn in his riesh, and a martyrdom in prospect? Shall we be as infidels to suppose that the Church is only what she seems to be, a poor, helpless, despised, and human institution, scorned by the wealthy, plundered by the violent, out-reasoned by the sophist, and patronized by the great, and hot rather believe that she is serving in presence ¢,f the Eternal Throne, round which are the "tirer and twenty seats, and upon the seats" are " four and twenty elders sitting, elathed in white raiment," and "on their heads crowns of gold?" » Nay shall we hot dimly recÇNnize mnid the aisles of out churches and along ,ur cloisters, about out ancient tombs, and in ruiued and desola.te 1,laces, which once were held sacred, hot in c,hl p«,etical fimcy, but by the eye of t?aith,—the spirits of out fi.thcrs and brethren of every rime, past and present, whose works have lon been "known" to (lod, and whose former dweiling-places remain among us, plcdges (as we trust) that t[e will hot utterly forsake us, and make an end? Can aught mortal and earthly, force witbout, or treachery within, the popular voice, or any will of man, aught in the whole universe, height or depth, or any other creature, aught save the decree of God, issued for out sius, chase away out lady unseen eoml,anions from us, and level us with the 'ass of the field. Can all the efforts of the children of lnen,their aecurate delineations of our outward form, their measurement af out visible territory, their smnlning up of out substance, their impairing of our civil rights, their nmn- 1,ering of out SUl,porters, eircumseribe the City of the Living God, or localize the site of Eden, and the Motmtain of the Saints? But here it may be asked, whether such a belief in the ever-abiding presence among us of the Church invisible, in that Spirit whom ail believe fo be ever present  P, ev. iv. 4.

with us to the end, does not interfem with our eomfortable assm-ance that it is at test. " Christ (it may be said) worketh hitherto as t[is Father worketh; and the Angels excel in strength; but hulnan natnre, even in its purest and more heax-enly specimens, is unequal to this incessant watchfnlness, and when it dies is said to fall asleep:—why should we hot leave to it so comfortable and gracions a portion?" Now, however we answer this question, so far is certain, for we hax'e St. Paul's authority for saying it, that in coming to the Church, we approach hot (}od alone, nor Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, nor Angels innulneral,le, but also, as he says expressly, "the spirits of the just ruade perfect." And in thus speaking, he is evidently speaking neither of saints on earth nor saints after the resurrection, were if only that he designates especially " the sl»irits of the j.st." Certainly, then, the (Jhurch, in St. l'aul's judgment, is marie up of the dead as well as of the living; and though this be so, though the dead be present, if does hot ïollow they are hot at test also. Such presence in tlae Church does hot hvolve any labour or toil, any active hterference, on the part of those who (we are told) "rest from their labours." For it is plain, though they "live unto God," and have power with Him, this does not imply that they act, or that they are conscio,zs of their power. This holds good, through God's mercy, in the case of those who labour in the flesh, who loray and preach, work righteousness, and glorify Goal. They too see none of those fruits which notwithstanding do follow them. Had zNoah, Dauiel, and Job been in any evfl city, and saved it by their righteonsness from

 82 The Comzuuion of Saçzs. destruction, would they bave knowu what they were enabled to do? We bave no reason to say they wotld; for i is oue thing fo do good, another to see we do it. ]ut again it nmy be quite true that in one sense tLey are af rest, and yet in another active promoters of the Church's wcltZare, as by prayer; though we know hot how they are active, or how they are at rest, or how they can be both at once. It is said that God "rested on the seventh day from all the work which Ho had ruade," yct nevertbeless that lIc "worketh hitherto." Surely, in llim who is eternal and all-sufiicient, is found absolutely and perfectly that incomprehensible union of Almighty power with everlasting r,Tose; and what He is in fulness, He may graciously impart in ifs degree, and according fo their capacity fo His chosen. If it is no contradiction in terres that Goal should rest and yet work, that the Son of God should die and yet have m eternal essence, that the Son of man should be in heaven while He spoke to Iqicodemus, it may be no contradiction that the soul of man should sleep in the intermediate state, and yet be awake. I say, what God bas infinitely aud by nature, tte may bestow in part fo us; and thus it may be true that though the Saints are "joyfifl with glory," and "rejoice in their beds," and "the praises of God" are "in their mouths," yet at the saine rime "a two-edged sword" is "in their hands, to be avenged of the heathen, and fo rebuke the people; fo bind their kings h chains and their nobles with links of iron; that they nmy be avenged of them, as it is written: Such honour have ail ttis Saints. ''

Lastly, while we thus think of the invisible Church, we are restrained by many reasons from such invocations of her separate members as are unhappily so coinluon in other Christian countries. First, because the practice was not prilnitive, but an addition when the world had poured into the Church; next, because we are told to pray to God only, and invocation may easily be corrupted into prayer, and then becolnes idolatrous. And further, it must be considered that though the (2hurch is represented in Scripture as a channel of God's gifts to us, yet it is only as a body and sacrameltally, hot as au agent, nor in her lnembers oue by one. St. Paul does hot say that we are brought near to this saint or that saint, but to all together, "to the spirits of just men lnade perfect;" one by one they have to nndergo the Day of Judgment, but as a body they are the City of God, the ilnmaculate Spouse of the Lamb. Let us then stand in that lot in which God has pla.ced us, and thank Hiln for what He has so mercifully, so providentially done for us. He has doue ail things weil,- neither too much nor too little. He has neither told us to neglect the faithful servants of Christ depaoEed, nor to pay them ndue honour; but to think of them, yet hot speak to them; to make much of them, but to trust solely in Him. Let us foilow His rule, neither exceeding nor wanting in out duty; but according to St. Paul's injunction, "using" His gifts "without abusing" them; hot ceasing to use, lest we shotld abuse, but abstaining t¥om the abuse, while we adhere thankfully to the use. These are inspiring thoughts for the solitary, the dejected, the harassed, the defamed, or the despised

Christian; and they belong to him, if by act and deed he unites in that Communion which he protsses. He joins the Church of God, llOç merely who speaks about it, or who dcik'lds if, or who contemplates it, hut who h,ves if. lit loves the unseen company of l_,eevers, who loves those who are seen. The test of out being j,fincd fo ('hrist is 1,ve; the test of love towards Christ and His Chureh, is loving those whom we actually see. " lit that h,veth hot his brother whom he hath seen, how can ho love l;od, whom he hath hot seen? '' As Il/en we wouhl be wort.hy to hold eolnlnunion with 1,clievers of every t.ime and place, leL us hold comlmlnion duly with those of out own day and our own lcighlourhood. Le us pray God, o each us xvha we are so dcficien¢ in, and save us ff'oin using words and cherishing fioughts which out actions pur to shame. I is a very easy thing to say fine things, which we have 11o righL to say. Le us tel tenderly affectioned towards all wl«,m ('hrist has lnade His own by Baptism. Le¢ us sylnpathize with theln, and have kind flmughts towards theln, and be warln-hearted, and loving, and silnple-minded, and gentle-tempered towards them, anti conmflg for their good, a.nd pray for their growfl iii faith and holiness. "Le us no h, ve in word, neither N tongue, bug in deed and in truth." For "God is love;" and if" we love mie another, " Goal dweHefll in us, and IIis love is perI?ced in us." r I John iv. 20.