Parochial and Plain Sermons

1o,I. viii. 34. "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, u, ho also makcth itztcrccssion for us."

HE Ascension of our Lord and Saviour is an event ever to be commemorated with joy and thanksgiving, for St.. Paul tells us in the text that He ascended to the right hand of God, and there makes intercession for us. Hence it is our comfort to knov, that "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins."  As the Jewish l[igh Priest, after the solemn sacrifice for the people on the great day of Atonement, went hto the Holy of Holies with the blood of the victim, and sprinkled it upon the Mercy-Seat, so Christ has entered into Heaven itself, to present (as it were) before the Throne that sacred Tabernacle which was the instrument of His passion,—His pierced hands and wounded side,rain token of the atonement which Ite has effected for the sins of the world. Wonder and awe must always mingle with the thankfulness which the reveMed dispensation of mercy raises in our minds. And this, indeed, is an additional cause of thankfulness, that Allnighty God has disclosed to us enough of His high Providence to raise such sacred and reverent feelings. Had He merely told us that He had pardoned us, we should have had overabundant cause for blessing" aud praising Him; lut in showing us somewhat of the means, in vouchsafing to tell what cannot wholly be told, in condescending to abase heavenly things to the weak and stammering tongues of earth, He has enlmged our gratitude, yet sobered it with fear. We are allowed with the Angels to obtain a glimpse ol the mysteries of lleaven, "to rejoice with trembling." Therefore, so far from considering the Truths of the Gospel as a burden, because they are beyond our understanding, we shall rather welcome them and exult in them, nay, and feel an antecedent stirring of heart towards them, for the very reason that they are above us. Under these feelings I will attempt to suggest to you on the present Festival some of the incentives to wonder and awe, humility, ilnplicit faith, and adoration, supplied by the Ascension of Christ. 1. First, Christ's Ascension to the right hand of God is marvellous, because it is a sure token that heaven is a certain fixed place, and not a mere state. That bodily presence of the Saviour which the Apostles handled is not here; it is elsewhere,—it is in heaven. This contradicts the notions of cultivated and speculative minds minds;not an impatience to do what is beyond our powers, to weigh evidence, sum up, balance, decide, and reconcile, to arbitrate between the two voices of God,— but a sense of the utter nothingness of worms such as we are; of our plain and absolute incapacity to contemplate things as they 'eally a'e; a perception of our emptiness, before the great Vision of God; of our "comeliness being turned into corruption, and our retaining no strength;" a conviction, that what is put before us, in nature or in grace, though true in such a full sense that we dare not tamper with it, yet is but an intimation useful for particular purposes, useful for practice, useful in its department, "until the day-break and the shadows flee away," useful in such a way that both the one and the other representation may at once be used, as two languages, as two separate approximations towards the Awful Unkuown Truth, such as will not mislead us in their respective provinces. And thus while we use the language of science, vithout jealousy, for scientific purposes, we may confine it to these; and repel and reprove its uphoklers, should they attempt to exalt it and to "stretch it beyond its measure." In its own limited round it has its use, nay, may be made to fill a higher ministry, and stand as a proselyte under the shadow of the temple; but it must not dare profane the inner courts, in which the ladder of Angels is fixed for ever, reaching even to the Throne of God, and "Jesus standing on the right hand of God." I will but remind you on this part of the subject, that our Lord is to come from heaven "in like manner" as He went; that He is to come "in clouds," that II] P

God's service, equally miuistrative to the salvation of the elect, as earthly service. Christ went to intercede with the Father: we do not know, we nmy not boldly speculate,yet, it may be, that Saints departed intercede, unknown to us, for the victo W of the Truth upon earth; and their prayers above may be as really indispeusable conditions of that victory, as the labours of those who remain amoug us. They are taken away tbr some purpose surely: their gifts are not lost to us; their soaring minds, the fire of their contemplations, the sauctity of their desires, the vigour of their faith, the sweetness and gentleness of their affections, were not given without an object. Yea, doubtless, they are keeping u 1, the perpetual chant in the shrine above, praying and praising God day and night in His Temple, like [oses upon the 3[ount, while Joshua aud his host fight with Amalek. Can they be allotted greater blessedness, than to have a station after th'e pattern of that Saviour who has deptrted hence? Has He no power in the world's movements because He is away? Aud though He is the Living and exalted Lord of all, and the government is on His shoulder, and they are lut ][is servants, without strength of themselves, laid,ap moreover apart from the conflict of good and evil in the paradise of God, yet so much light as this is giveu us by the inspired pages of the Apocalypse, that they are interested in the fortunes of the Church. We read therein of t.he iMartyrs crying with a loud  oice, "How long, O Loi'd, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" At another time, of the Eiders

]{OMANS viii. 9. " Yc are not in theflcsh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the 82irit of God dwell in yot."

OD the Son has graciously vouchsafed to reveal the Father to IIis creatures fl'om without; God the Holy Ghost, by inward communications. Who can compare these separate works of condescension, either of them being beyond our understanding? We can but silently adore the Infinite Love which encompasses us on every side. The Son of God is called the Word, as declaring His glory throughout crea.ted nature, and impressing the evidence of it on every part of it. He has given us to read it in His works of goodness, holiness, and wisdom. He is the Living and Eternal Law of Truth and Perfection, that linage of God's unapproachable Attributes, which men have ever seen by glimpses on the face of the world, felt that it was sovereign, but knew not whether to say it was a fundamental Rule and self-existing Destiny. or the Offspring' and Mi_tor of the:Divine Will. Such has tie beel from the beginning, graciously sent fin'th from the Father to reflect His glory upon all things, distinct from Ilim, while mysteriously one with tIim; and in due time visiting us with an infinitely deeper mercy, when for our redt, mption IIe humbled lIimself to take upon l lira that fallen nature which lie had originally created after ]Iis own image. The condescension of the Blessed Spirit is as incomprelwnsible as that of the Son. lie has ever been the secret Presence of God within the Creation: a sonrce o" life amid the chaos, bringing out into form and order what was at first shapeless and void, and the voice of Truth in the hearts of all rational beings, tuning them into harmony with the intimations of God's Law, which were externally made to them. Hence He is especially called the "life-giving" Sph'it; being (as it were) the Soul of universal nature, the Strength of man and beast, the Guide of faith, the Wituess against sin, the inward Light of patriarchs and prophets, the Grace abiding in the Christian and the Lord and Ruler of the Church. Therefore let us ever praise the Father Almighty, who is the first Sonree of all perfection, in and together with His Coequal Son and Spirit, through whose gracious ministrations we have been giveu to see "what nmnner of love" it is wherewith the Father has loved us. On this Festival I propose, as is suitable, to describe as scripturally as I can, the merciful office of God the Holy Ghost, towards us Christians; and I trust I may do so, with the sobriety and reverence which the subject demands.

receiving into our hearts, not the mere gifts of the Spirit., but IIis very presence, Himself, by a real not a figurative indwelling. When our Lord entered upon His Iinistry, He acted as though lie were a mere man, needing ace, and received the consecration of the Holy Spirit for our sakes, lie became the Christ, or Anointed, that the Spirit might be seen to come from God, and to pass from 11im to us. And, therefore, the heavenly Gift is not shnply called the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of Clod. but the Spirit of Christ, that we might clearly understand, that IIe comes to us from and instead of Christ. Thus St. Paul says, " God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts;" and our Lord breathed on tIis Apostles, saying, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" and He says elsewhere to them, " If I depart, I will send Him unto you. '' _Accordingly this "Holy 8piri of promise" is called "the earnest of our inheritance," "' the seal and earnest of an Unseen Saviour; '' being the present pledge of IIim who is absent,—or rather more than a pledge, for an earnest is not a mere token which will be taken from us when it is fiflfilled, as a pledge might be, but a someflfing in advance of what is one day to be given in full. This must be clearly understood; for it would seem to follow, that if so, the Comforter who has come instead of Christ, must have vouchsafed to come in the same sense in which Christ came I mean, that He has come, not merely in the way of gifts, or of  Gal. iv. 6. John xx. 22; xvi. 1.  ph. i. 14. 23or. i. 22; v..

evidence is afforded us in these texts of the Divinity of  ". the ]Io]y prt. Who can be personally present at once with every Christian, but God Himself? Who but tie, not merely rifling in the midst of the Church invisibly, as Michael might keep watch over Israel, or another Angel might be "the Prince of Persia,"but really taking up lIis abode as one and the same in many separate hearts, so as to fulfil onr Lord's words, that it was expedient that lie should depart; Christ's bodily presence, which was limited to place, being exchanged for the manifold spiritual indwelling of the Comforter within us? This consideration suggests both the dignity c,f our Sanctifier, and the infinite preciousness of His Office towards us. To proceed: The Holy Ghost, I have said, dwells in body and soul, as in a temple. Evil spirits indeed have power to possess sinners, but His indwelling is far more perfect; for He is all-knowing and omnipresent, He is able to search into all our thoughts, and penetrate into every motive of the heart. Therefore, He pervades us (if it may be so said) as light pervades a building, or as a sweet perfume the folds of some.honourable robe; so that, in Scripture language, we are said to be in Him, and He in us. It is plain that such au inhabitation brings the Christian into a state altogether new and marvellous, ikr above the possession of mere gifts, exalts him inconceivably in the scale of beings, and gives him a place and an office which he had not before. In  . Peter's forcible language, he becomes partaker of the Divine Nature," and has "power" or authority, as St. John says, " to become the son of God." Or, to use the words of St. Paul, "' he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." His rank is new; his parentage and service new. tie s "of God," and "is not his own," "a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. ''1 This wonderful change from darkness to light, through the entrance of the Spirit into the soul, is called Regeneration, or the New Birth; a blessing which, before Christ's coming, not even Prophets and righteous men possessed, but which is now conveyed to all men freely through the Sacrament of Baptism. By nature we are children of wrath; the heart is sold under sin, possegsed by evil spirits; and inherits death as its eternal portion. But by the coming of the IIoly Ghost, all guilt and pollution are burned away as by fire, the devil is driven forth, sin, original and actual, is forgiven, and the whole man is consecrated to God. _And this is the reason why He is called "the earnest" of that Savionr who died for us, and will one day give us tlm fulness of His own presence in heaven. Hence, too, He is our "seal unto the day of redemption;:' for as the potter moulds the clay, so He impresses the Divine image on us members of the household of God. And His work nmy truly be called Regeneration; for though the original nature of the sottl is not destroyed, yet its past transgressions re pardoned once and for ever, and its source of evil staunched and gradually dried up by the pervading health and purity which has set, up its abode in it.

Instead of its own bitter vaters,  spring of health and salvation is brought within it; not the mere sreams of that fountain, "clear as crystal," which is before the Throne of God,  but, as our Lord sys, " a well of water in li,," in  man's heart, '" springing up into eveflastg life." l[t,nce tie elsewhere describes the heart as oivinoforth, not receivig, the streams of grace: " Out of his belly shall flow rivers of Living Water." St. John acMs, "this spake lie of the Spirit. '' 8cI is the inhabitation of the t[oly Glmst within us, applying to us individually the precious cleansing of Christ's blood i, all its manifold benefits. Such is the great doctrine, which we hold s  matter of faith, nd without actual experience to verify it to us. Next, I nmst speak briefly concerning the mner in which the Gift of grace manifests itself in the regenerate soul; a subject which I do not willingly take up, and which no Christian perhaps is ever able to consider without some effort, feeling that he thereby endangers either his reverence towards God, or his humifity, but which the errors of this day, and the confident toxic of flaeir advoeates, oblig us to dwell upon,, lest truth should suffer by our silence. 1. The heavenly gift of the Spirit fixes the eyes of our mind upon the Divine Author of our salvation. By nature we re blind and carnal; but the tIoly Ghost by whom we are new-born, reveals t.o us the God of mercies, and bids us recognise and adore Him as our Father with a tr.e heart. He impresses on us our Heavenly Father's image, which we lost when Adam  ev. iv. 6. Ps. xlvk 4.  John iv. 14; vii. 38, 39.

fell, and disposes us to seek His presence by the very instinct of our new nature. He gives us back a portion of that freedom in willing and doing, of that uprightness and innocence, in which Adam was created. He unites us to all holy beings, as before we had relationship with evil. He restores for us that broken bond, which, proceeding from above, connects together into one blessed family all that is anywhere holy and eternal, and separates it off from the rebel world which comes to nought. Being then the sons of God, and one with Him, our souls mount up and cry to Him continually. This special characteristic of the regenerate soul is spoken of by St. Paul soon after the text. "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.":Nor are we left to utter these cries to Him, in any vague uncertain way of our own; but He who sent the Spirit to dwell in us habitually, gave us also a form of words to sanctify the separate acts of our minds. Christ left His sacred Prayer to be the peculiar possession of His people, and the voice of the Spirit.:if we examine it, we shall find in it the substance of that doctrine, to which St. Paul has given a name in the passage just quoted. We begin it by using our privilege of calling on Almighty God in express words as " Our Father." We proceed, according to this beginning, in that waiting, trusting, adoring, resigaaed temper, which children ought to feel; looking towards Him, rather than thinking of ourselves; zealous for His honour rather than fearful about our safety; resting in His present help, not with eyes timorously glancing towards the future. His name, His kingdom, His will, re the not only to the thought of God, but of Christ also. St. John says, " Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." And our Lord Himself, " If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and ]Ve will come unto him, and make our abode with him." 1 Now, not to speak of other and higher ways in which these texts are fulfilled, one surely consists in that exercise of faith and love in the thought of the Father and Son, which the Gospel, and the Spirit revealing it, furnish to the Christian. The Spirit came especially to "glorify" Christ; and vouchsafes to be a shining light within the Church and the individual Christian, reflecting the Saviour of the world in all His perfections, all His offices, all His works. He came for the purpose of unfolding what was yet hidden, whilst Christ was on earth; and speaks on the house-tops what was delivered in closets, disclosing Him in the glories of His transfiguration, who once had no comeliness in His outward form, and was but a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. First, He inspired the Holy Evangelists to record the life of Christ, and directed them which of His words and works to select, which to omit; next, He commented (as it were) upon these, and unfolded their meaning in,the Apostolic Epistles. The birth, the life, the death and resurrection of Christ, has been the text which He has illuminated. He has made history to be doctrine; telling us plainly, whether by St. John or St. Paul, that Christ's conception and birth was the ral Incarnation of the Eternal ]Vord, His life, "God manifest in the Flesh,"—His death and  1Johni. 3. Johnxiv. 23. .2 resurrection, the Atonement for sin, and the Justification of all believers. Nor was this all: he continued His sacred comment in the formation of the Church, superintending and overruling its human instruments, and bringing out our Saviour's words and works, and the Apostles' illustrations of them, into acts of obedience and l)crmanent 0rdinames, by the ministry of Saints and Martyrs. Lastly, lie completes His gracious work by conveying this system of Truth, thus varied and expanded, to the heart of each ir.dividual Christian in whom lie dwells. Thus lie vouchsafes to edify the whole man in faith and holiness: "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing ixto captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. ''x By His wonderworking grace all things tend to perfection. Every faculty of the mind, every design, pursuit, subject of thought, is hallowed in its degree by the abiding vision of Christ, as Lord, Saviour, and Judge. All solemn, reverent, thankfid, and devoted feelings, all that is noble, all that is choice in the regenerate soul, all that is selfdenying in con(luct, and zealous in tion, is drawn forth and offered up by the Spirit as a living sacrifice to the Sox of God. And, though the Christian is taught not to thik of himself above his measure, and dare not boast., yet he is also taught that the consciousness of the sin which remains in him, and infects his best services, should not separate him from God, but lead him to Him who can save. He reasons with St. Peter, " To whom should he go?" and, without daring to decide, x 2Cor. x. 5.

or being impatient to be told how far he is able to consider as his own every Gospel privilege in its fulness, he gazes on them all with deep thought as the ChurclCs possession, joins her triumphant hynms in honour of Christ, and listens wistfully to her voice in inspired Scripture, the voice of the Bride calling upon and blest in the Beloved. 3. St. John adds, after.peaking of "our fellowship with the Father and His Son:" "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." What is filness of joy but_eace? Joy is tumultuous only when it is not full; but peace is the privilege of those who are "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the vaters cover the sea." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. ''1 It is peace, springing from trust and innocence, and then overflowing in love towards all around him. XVhat is the effect of mere animal ease and enjoyment, but to make a man pleased with everything which happens? "A merry heart is a perpetual feast;" and such is peculiarly the blessing of a soul rejoicing in the faith and fear of God. He who is anxious, thinks of himself, is suspicious of danger, speaks hurriedly, and has no time for the interests of others; he who lives in peace is at leisure, wherever his lot is cast. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, whether iu Jew or Greek, bond or free. He Himself perchance in His mysterious nature, is the:Eternal Love whereby the Father and the Son have dwelt in each other, as ancient writers have believed; and what He is in heaven, that

He is abundantly on eartll. He lives in the Christian's heart, as the never-failing fount of charity, which is the very sweetness of the living waters. For where He is, "there is liberty" from the tyranny of sin, from the dread, which the natural man feels, of an offended, unreconciled Creator. Doubt, gloom, impatience have been expelled; joy in the Gospel has taken their place, the hope of heaven and the harmony of a pure heart, the triumph of self-mastery, sober thoughts, and a contented mind. How can charity towards all men fail to follow, being the mere affeetionateness of innocence and peace? Thus the Spirit of God creates in us the simplicity and warmth of heart which children have, nay, rather the perfections of His heavenly hosts, high and low being joined together in His mysterious work; for what are implicit trust, ardent love, abiding purity, but the mind both of little children and of the adoring Seraplfim! Thoughts, such as these, will,affect us rightly, if they make us fear and be watchful, vhile we rejoice. They cannot surely do otherwise; for the mind of a Christian, as I have been attempting to describe it, is not so nmch what we have, as what we ought to have. To look, indeed, after dwelling on it, upon the multitude of men who have been baptized in Christ's name, is too serious a matter, and we need not force ourselves to do so. We need not do so, further than to pray for them, and to protest and strive against what is evil among flem; for as to the higher and more solemn thought, how persons, set apart individually and collectively, as Temples of Truth and Holiness, should become what they seem to be, and what their state is in consequence in God's sight, is a question which it is a great blessing to be allowed to put from us as not our coqcern. It is our concern only to look to ourselves, and to see that, as we have received the gift, we "grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption;" remembering that "if any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy." This reflection and the recollection of our many backslidings, will ever keep us, please God, from judging others, or from priding ourselves on our privileges. Let us but consider how we have fallen from the light and grace of our Baptism. Were we now what that Holy Sacrament made us, we might ever "go on our way rejoicing;" but having sullied our heavenly garments, in one way -w other, in a greater or less degree (God knoweth! and our own consciences too in a measure), alas! the Spirit of adoption has in part receded from us, and the sense of guilt, remorse, sorrow, and penitence nmst take His place. We must renew our confession, and seek afresh our absolution day by day, before we dare call upon God as "our Father," or offer up Psalms and Intercessions to Him. And, whatever pain and affliction meets us through life, we must take it as a merciful penance imposed by a Father upon erring children, to be borne meekly and thankfully, and as intended to remind us of the weight of that infinitely greater punishment, which was our desert by nature, and which Christ bore for us on the Cross.