THE 
 
 MYSTERIES OPENED; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SCRIPTUKAT. VIEWS OF PEEACHING ANiD THE SACRAMENTS, 
 AS DISTINGUISHED FROM CERTAIN THE- 
 ORIES CONCERNING 
 
 BAPTISMAL REGENERATION 
 
 REAL PRESENCE, 
 
 ja E V. JOHN S. * S T O N E, D.D., 
 
 EECTOE OF CHRIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN, 
 
 N E W-YORK: 
 
 HARPER <Sc BROTHERS, 82 C L J F F-S T R E BT. 
 
 1844^ 
 
Entered^ according to Act ©f Congress, in the year 1844, by 
 
 Harper & Brothers, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-YtH-fe. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the following work, the wish, which, at the outset, 
 was sincerely felt, to abstain from controversy, and 
 to look at the subject as it lies in its own elements and 
 in its own light, has been but partially realized. Truth 
 stands opposite to Error ; and, to make their contrast 
 seen and felt, it is often necessary to present both. To 
 this the author of the present treatise has been almost 
 resistlessly led by the force of circumstances ; and it 
 will be readily perceived that the very considerations 
 which induced him to present what he conscientiously 
 believes to be erroneous views of the subjects which 
 he has treated, bound him, at the same time, to present 
 them, not in his own, but in the language of their ad- 
 vocates. He has, however, endeavoured to quote 
 fairly, and has honestly sought to put the theories of 
 the authors whom he has quoted in such a light as 
 they themselves must acknowledge to be just ; and, 
 having done so, he has busied himself with the theo- 
 ries, not with the men who hold them. Against their 
 views he may have spoken strongly, but against them 
 he has said nothing. He is glad to concede to them 
 what he is desirous may be conceded to himself — full 
 honesty and sincerity in the views embraced, and a 
 hearty solicitude to promote the best interests of the 
 everlasting Gospel, and the universal Church of Christ. 
 He can feel no pleasure in supporting even what he 
 believes to be vital truth, by so poor a prop JB13 the at-- 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 tempt to excite prejudice against those who embrace 
 even what he beheves to be dangerous error. Nor 
 has he any desire that the views which he has present- 
 ed should stand any farther than they stand on the 
 basis of Truth, as revealed in the Word of God, recog- 
 nised in the standards of our Church, and illustrated 
 by its own inward light. 
 
 The author has quoted the writers to whom he re- 
 fers only so far as was necessary to develop their pe- 
 culiar views of the points under examination. This 
 object effected, he has not attempted to follow them 
 through any extended train of reasoning, illustration, 
 or reference to authorities. There is, consequently, a 
 sense in which the present work is not controversial. 
 It does not pretend to be a special answer to any 
 other work, nor a full review of any other treatise. It 
 is rather an independent exposition of the nature of 
 the Christian sacraments ; referring for authority main- 
 ly to the Scriptures, and showing subordinately the 
 harmony between the Scriptures and our own ecclesi- 
 astical standards. 
 
 The reasons which have influenced him in bringing 
 his cause for trial before the sole tribunal of the Scrip- 
 tures, are two. 
 
 1. In the first place, while he has been desirous of 
 writing something not wholly unworthy the attention 
 of the more learned, his chief desire has been to pre- 
 sent truths, of the highest importance, to that far great- 
 er class of minds which have the power of thinking 
 justly, but which ordinarily have little leisure for fol- 
 lowing learned research beyond the Bible, and the 
 most accessible helps to its interpretation. In a word, 
 he has written, not so much for the learned divines as 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 for the intelligent laity of the Church ; while his hum- 
 ble hope is, that both will find in what he has written 
 something worthy of their serious consideration. To 
 have made the work larger, by a full quotation and 
 examination of authorities, had been easy, and per- 
 haps, to the one class, useful ; but the work has already 
 reached a size not at first intended, and needing, for 
 the other class, curtailment rather than addition. 
 
 2. But, in the second place, he has been strongly in- 
 fluenced in the course which he has taken by the in- 
 creasing prevalence of views which, to his apprehen- 
 sion, threaten the dislodgment of the Bible from its 
 true place of importance in the settlement of all ques- 
 tions involving the purity and the vital interests of the 
 Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 We see coming into distinct shape among us the 
 notions that Christ has left himself perpftnally Incar- 
 nate, through the Sacraments, in the Lv.ng Body of 
 the Visible Church ; and that He now dispenses the 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit, not by imparting them direct- 
 ly to the individual, who privately studies or publicly 
 hears the truths of the Word, or who, independently 
 of all outward ordinances, seeks those gifts in secret 
 and believing prayer, but by having, once for all, de- 
 posited those gifts in the hands of His Apostles alone, 
 to be by them handed down through successors, and 
 by successors, through Sacraments, to the Body of the 
 Church. Now these are notions which can never be 
 plausibly sustained but by aids extraneous to the 
 Scriptures themselves ; in other words, by later Tra- 
 dition. It is impossible to find adequate support for 
 such views in the Word of God. They are in conflict 
 with that Divine standard. They must virtually ap- 
 A2 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 peal from it to another Rule. It is evident, therefore, 
 that just so far as such notions prevail, the Scriptures 
 must be sinking in the practical esteem both of clergy 
 and of laity ; while Tradition simultaneously rises to 
 the rank of virtually Supreme Judge and Arbiter in 
 all the most important questions which can affect the 
 purity of the Church and the Gospel, or the destinies 
 of Christ's kingdom on earth. On the theory which 
 the above notions involve, the ministry of the Church 
 holds a prerogative, which, as our nature is constitu- 
 ted, can never be safe in human hands ; which has ever 
 proved the means of the most crushing Spiritual Des- 
 potism ; and which must always force its upholders 
 into greater and greater departures from the simplici- 
 ty of the Gospel, into the corruptions of error. 
 
 It is nothing else than the secret power of this the- 
 ory which is now driving so large a portion of the 
 English Church, and which may soon be seen driving 
 a corresponding portion of our own, into the startling 
 doctrine of ^^ Development^^ a doctrine which rests on 
 the acknowledged silence, and even repugnancy of 
 the Scriptures, and of primitive Tradition, in regard 
 to certain matters both of faith and of practice, noto- 
 riously and undeniably prevalent in the middle and la- 
 ter ages of the Church ; and which, so far as it is found 
 within our Protestant Episcopal Communion, is con- 
 fessedly derived from those modern Romish theorists, 
 De Maistre and Mohler, and was invented by them in 
 defense of the monstrous errors of the Papal Suprem- 
 acy, the Worship of Saints and Angels, of Images and 
 the Virgin Mary, Indulgences, Purgatory, and Tran- 
 substantiation itself 
 
 This doetriR^ or theory, or philosophy of " Develop' 
 
PREFACE, ^ii 
 
 mentT consists in maintaining that Christianity is a 
 progressive system ; that it existed at first in an im- 
 perfect germ only ; that it has innate tendencies to 
 growth, to gradual self-development -, and that hence, 
 those doctrines and practices of Mediaeval Christian- 
 ity, of which the Bible and primitive antiquity know 
 nothing, or which they know only to condemn, are 
 but the results of this tendency to self-development. 
 They are but the germ expanded into the tree. 
 
 Upon the frightful tendency of this theory to put ar- 
 guments into the mouth of the infidel, who contends 
 that Christianity has, in this process of development, 
 not only reached its full growth, but also passed be- 
 yond into a state of senility and decay — and upon its 
 equally frightful tendency in favor of Idolatry, Poly- 
 theism, Pantheism, and even practical Atheism, it is 
 not necessary to dwell. It is enough for present pur- 
 poses to say, that the natural inference from the doc- 
 trine is, that there never has been either Error or Cor- 
 ruption in the Church catholic ; that these are the 
 faults of heretics and schismatics alone ; that the Me- 
 diaeval Church was more perfect than the primitive ; 
 and that Rome, since the Council of Trent, is more 
 perfect than she was even before the 4th of the Lat- 
 eran. 
 
 The notions to which reference was just made, as 
 already gaining currency among us, of Christ's perpet- 
 uated Incarnation of himself through the Sacraments 
 in the living Body of the Visible Church, and of the 
 deposite of the gifts of the Spirit, once for all, in the 
 hands of the priesthood, to be dispensed by their au- 
 thoritative act alone, can no more be maintained on 
 the ground of Scripture and oi primitive antiquity than 
 
Ylll PREFACE. 
 
 the worst errors and corruptions of the MedisevaJ 
 Church. A far later Tradition is indispensable to their 
 support. Hence the tendency so perceptible to mag- 
 nify the authority of the later/a^/ters, as they are call- 
 ed ; to make citations from their writings, and to revive 
 among us the credit of their names. The system on 
 which this support of doctrines and practices rests, car- 
 ries within it, indeed, a tendency to self-development. 
 It is ceas(^lessly pushing itself, and forcing its support- 
 ers farther and farther upon the grounds of Tradi- 
 tion ; and, with every step in its movement, is more 
 and more effectually losing sight of the only true and 
 tenable ground of Scripture. Every year that this 
 movement is followed, will the study of the Bible be 
 diminished, and that of the authors of the Middle Age 
 be increased. Nor need we bo surpi-ised to find our- 
 selves, at no distant day, verging close upon a period 
 when the Bible will indeed be known in name, but in 
 little more than name, as a book which the subtle phi- 
 losophy of development has learned to construe into at 
 least a toleration of its progressively monstrous con- 
 ceptions. 
 
 In the midst of such a tendency, new at least to us, 
 and yet already sufficiently perceptible, the resort to 
 the Bible alone, as umpire in the great questions which 
 have been examined, was even peculiarly proper. Au- 
 thority and primitive tradition are good and valuable 
 in their appropriate places and for their appropriate 
 ends. But wo, wo to the Church of our affections, 
 should she ever allow a fondness for the authority and 
 traditions of later ages to allure her by degrees away 
 from her past reverence for the Bible alone as her 
 rule of faith. She will be drawn thereby into mists 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 and darkness through which her passage will be as 
 perilous as would that of a noble ship across an ocean 
 abounding every where in rocks and quicksands, and 
 under fogs so perpetually dense that neither sun nor 
 moon, nor yet the guiding polai" star, could even once 
 be seen. 
 
 As yet our perils are new, and there may be some- 
 thing even alluring in the undefinedness and excite- 
 ments of the solemn future before us. There certain- 
 ly is much that is attractive to the human heart and 
 imagination in the awful prerogatives with which it is 
 now sought to reinvest the ministerial character ; and 
 in a religion which, arraying itself in the imposing 
 forms of a dim antiquity, professes to come to us with 
 a sort of infallible guide to salvation, requiring little 
 more of its recipients than profound reverence, implic- 
 it obedience, and unquestioning submission to the pre- 
 rogatives, the prescriptions, and the persons of its au- 
 thorized dispensers. Nevertheless, in these very cir- 
 cumstances opens the great deep of our perils ; and 
 the forces which, in combination with the attractions 
 just named, are pushing us into the abyss, are the ever 
 restless evils of an age prone to excitement and tossed 
 with change. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, from the remarks just made, 
 that the author is of the number of those who love to 
 " speak evil of dignities." Office, even in civil govern- 
 ment, is a sacred thing. Its authority has source and 
 sanction in God. Much more is this true in ecclesias- 
 tical government Those who, in higher and lower 
 degree, hold commissions from Christ, hold specially 
 sacred things ; things which may never, with impuni- 
 ty, be treated with other than the most reverently re- 
 
spectful regard. Personal vices, indeed, can never be 
 justly shielded by the sanctity of office ; but, so far as 
 Christ's ministers hold their commissions in clean 
 hands, even their persons are naturally regarded with 
 somewhat of the respect which is due to their office it- 
 self. But, the more sacred is office, the more sacredly 
 should it be guarded against all stretch of prerogative, 
 and against all assumption of power ; especially when 
 prerogative and jjower put on the impressive habili- 
 ments of spiritual attributes, and stand in the awful in- 
 terspace between God and man. Then, to stretch 
 prerogative and to assume power is, either arrogant- 
 ly or with mistaken aim, to abuse office to the worst 
 of purposes ; and since men, when provoked by abu- 
 ses, are often blind to real differences, such a course 
 is sometimes to invite invasion even of what is in it- 
 self sacred. It is to step beyond the line which, with 
 a midway limit, divides that awful interspace whereon 
 are transacted the concerns of the soul and of eterni- 
 ty. It is to get nearer to God than to man, not in ho- 
 liness, but in the attempt to wield influences which are 
 never safe but in God's hands. Left in His hands, 
 these influences are, indeed, as the gentle rain and dew, 
 which distill only to fertilize. But, seized by the hand 
 of man, they are as the thunderbolt, which man can 
 not restrain, let loose to do the work of terror and of 
 death. 
 
 O for the spirit of uncommon wisdom and of un- 
 common grace, poured out upon us from on High, to 
 keep us safe from our various and thickening perils ; 
 that we may still live on, abiding quietly by the light 
 which shineth from the Word, and standing simple in 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE DESIGN AND RELATION OF PREACHING ANI> 
 THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE DESIGN AND RELATION OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. THE RESULT, THB AGENT, AND THE INSTRUMENT OF THE NEW 
 BIRTH. 
 
 Every actual Sinner must be the Subject of this Change, or he can not be saved. 
 The Holy Spirit the sole Agent of the Change. Divine Truth the sole Instrument 
 
 Page 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PREACHINO THB RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT IN WIELDINO THB SWORD OF THE 
 WORD. 
 
 In the New Testament, the main Stress in the Work of saving Men is laid on 
 Preaching, whether we look, 1. at Christ's own Ministry ; or, 2. at His various Com- 
 missions to the Twelve : or, 3. at their Action under those Commissions ; or, 4. at the 
 Language of the New Testament Writers when speaking of Preaching and the Sac- 
 raments, whether separately or in connection ... .... 32 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THB EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTSf. 
 
 The History of the Church corroborates the View given in Chap. II. 1. In Apostolic 
 Times. Bishop Bev«ridge examined. 2. In the Middle Ages. Preaching then neg- 
 lected and the Sacraments exalted. 3. During the Period of the Reformation. Arch- 
 bishop Grindal and Queen Elizabeth. Hooker. The Power of Preaching not in 
 Man, but in God. This View of Preaching discredits not the Sacraments. The true 
 relative Position and Effects of Preaching and the Sacraments assigned. 1. Preach- 
 ing, or its Equivalent, the Means of our Renewal. 2. Baptism our Introduction into 
 the Church. 3. Preaching and the Lord's Supper, joint Means of our Christian Ed- 
 ification 52 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 1. Erroneous View stated. 2. Rests on a more fundamental Error touching orig- 
 inal Righteousness and original Sin. 3. This latter Error stated and examined, in 
 the Light of Scripture and ot our Articles. 4. This fundamental Error being Refu- 
 ted, the Theory of Baptismal Regeneration, which is Built on it, falls- 5. No moral 
 Change of our Nature effected in Baptism. Testimony of the Church Catechism 81 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 NATURE OF BAPTISM CONTINUED. 
 
 Consideration of Suggestions arising from the last Chapter. 1. Though there be 
 no Change of Nature in Baptism, yet may not the Seed of the new Birth be then im- 
 planted ^ Examination of this Point. Scriptural Examples of " Sanctification from 
 the Womb :" Samuel, Jeremiah, St. Paul, Timothy, John the Baptist. Scriptural 
 Language touching the Gift of the Holy Ghost. This Language connects not the 
 Gift with Baptism. The ordinary Gift goes before Baptism in Adults. True mean- 
 ing of this Language ascertained . 105 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NATURE OF BAPTISM CONTINUED. 
 
 Consideration of Suggestions pursued. 2. Did not God at first create the Soul 
 without any Means ; and can He not, therefore, new-create it without the particular 
 Means of Divine Truth ; and, consequently, in Infant Baptism ? The Difference be- 
 tween Creation and the new Creation pointed out ; the Latter shown to require the 
 lastrumeatality of Troth. 3. Does not a Denial of the Doctrine of Baptiimal Regen- 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 eration land us either in the Heresy that Infants are bom without Sin ; or in the 
 gloomy Dogma, that no Infants dying in Infancy can be saved? Article on original 
 Sin examined. The Objection considered and answered. Difference between orig- 
 inal and actual Sin. State of those who die in Infancy. Argument against Bap- 
 tismal Regeneration concluded Page 139 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 NATURE OF BAPTISM CONTINUED. 
 
 The Scriptural Doctrine of Baptism asserted and illustrated. False Canon of In- 
 terpretation exposed, and the true one indicated. Examination of Passages usually 
 cited in Favor of the Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration. Their true Sense elic- 
 ited. The true Nature of Baptism stated. 1. A Badge of our Christian Profession. 
 2. A St/mbol of our Regeneration. 3. An Initiatory Rite. 4. A Covenanting and 
 Sealing Ordinance. Coincidence of these Views with our Articles. 5. A moral Mon- 
 ument to the Origin and the Truth of Christianity. These Views all that is essential 
 to the Beauty, Value, and Efficacy of this Sacrament. These Views compared with 
 the Language of our Liturgy and Offices. Conclusion 173 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 1. Erroneous View stated. The Doctrine of the Real Presence. 2. Examination 
 of Scripture Passages supposed to favor the Doctrine. The Seed of this Doctrine 
 planted in that of Baptismal Regeneration. Examination of John, vi. False Canon 
 of Interpretation again exposed. The Chapter refers not to Sacramental eating and 
 drinking. 1 Cor., x., 16, examined. Does not contain the Doctrine of the Real 
 Presence. Examination of the Instituting Words of Christ. False Interpretation 
 exposed. Idiom of Christ's spoken Language. Traced in the Old and iu the New 
 Testament. He taught not the Doctrine of the Real Presence .... 851 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATURE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER CONTINUED. 
 
 Remarks on the Theory of the Real.Presence. 1. This Theory rests on the Notion 
 that Salvation depends on receiving the real Body and Blood of Christ into our Bodies 
 and Souls. This Notion shown to be unreasonable as well as unscriptural. Mediae- 
 val Origin of the Doctrine of the Real Presence. 2. This Doctrine teaches that the 
 Pardon of post-baptismal Sins is conveyed in the Lord's Supper only. The Falsehood 
 and the Danger of this Teaching exposed. 3. The Real Presence of the Body and 
 Blood of Christ in this Sacrament, as now taught, is impossible. Examination of An- 
 swers to this Objection. 4. The Doctrine of the Real Presence is a prolific Error. 
 It is the Parent of, (1.) the Notion of a Sacrifice in the Eucharist ; (2.) the Doctrine 
 of Transubstantiation ; (3.) the Traffic in Masses; and, (4.) the Worship pf the 
 Host. The Connection between the Parent Error and its Offspring traced and dem- 
 onstrated. Concluding Remarks 300 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER CONTINUED. 
 
 The true Scriptural View of this Sacrament. 1. A Divinely obligatory Memorial 
 of the Death of Christ as a Sacrifice for Sin. The Scriptural Idea of a Mystery. 
 Language of our Communion Office. Reasons for the Memorial. Not Christ in 
 the Memorial, but a Memorial of Christ. 2. Faith's Mirror of the Sacrifice on the 
 Cross. Not a mere Memorial. Office of Faith in View of this Mirror of the Cross. 
 How Faith receives the Body and Blood of Christ then as at no other Time. Lan- 
 guage of our Catechism and Communion Office on this Point examined. Does not 
 teach the Doctrine of the Real Presence. Believing in Christ the only Reception of 
 Him possible. 3. A Means of Grace. False and True Idea of this Means. Lan- 
 guage of Catechism. Preaching and this Sacrament are Means of Grace on the same 
 Principle, but not with the same Extent. 4. A Test of our Obedience to Christ. 
 Scriptural Claim to this Obedience. 6. A visible Badge of our Discipleship, and one 
 of the Church's Means of Discipline. True Value of this View. 6. A moral Mon- 
 ument to the Origin and Truth of Christianity. Language of our Articles coinci- 
 dent with the foregoing Views. Conclusion. Sum of the Treatise. Office of the 
 Bible. Qrand Symbolic Mystery of Christ, Hi« Church, ^nd Hi« Word. T^ 
 'Bintimy (^ ^ Q^ujrch nu^ be the u^Idios of this ^yst£«t , . .144 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 our allegiance to the Gospel and the Faith, which that 
 Word reveals ! 
 
 Whether the work which is herewith offered has 
 been dictated by any portion of such a Spirit of Wis- 
 dom ; whether it carries with it aught of such a Spirit 
 of Grace ; or whether it is to be made tributary in any 
 degree to the promotion of such blessed results, these 
 are questions which must be referred for answer, not 
 to the too often blinded judgment of authorship, but to 
 the good providence of Him unto whose disposal the 
 work is committed, who standeth in the midst of His 
 golden candlesticks, and who holdeth in His right 
 hand not only the stars of His ministry, but also the 
 feebler lights thereof, which seek to gather and cast 
 forth their beams from Christ. 
 
 Brooklyn, December 23d, 1843. 
 
THE 
 
 MYSTERIES OPENED. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 ON THE RESULT, THE AGENT, AND THE INSTRUMENT OF 
 THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 
 
 1 Peter, i., 22, 23 : " Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the 
 truth, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye 
 love one another with a pure heart fervently ; being born again, not of cor- 
 ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth 
 and abideth forever. " 
 
 This passage teaches several important things, which 
 ought to be well weighed at the present lime. We live in a 
 period when that branch of the Church to which we be- 
 long, whether planted in the Old World or in the New, is 
 deeply affected, not only by passing political events of an 
 external character, but also by a tendency within itself to 
 re-examine and discuss anew the great principles and doc- 
 trines of the Protestant Reformation. 
 
 My object in the ensuing treatise will be, not to enter 
 with the fierceness of the common polemic into this re-ex- 
 amination and renewed discussion, but to treat directly, and, 
 as far as possible, practically, some of these fundamental 
 truths, which are widely discussed and strongly agitated 
 among us. To be well grounded in the rudiments of our 
 religion, it is not necessary that we be taught them amid 
 the din of excited controversy, or that they be held in the 
 spirit of hot disputation. I shall, indeed, refer occasionally 
 
 B2 
 
18 THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 
 
 to human writings ; but my chief resort in what I am to 
 say will be to the sacred Scriptures themselves. 
 
 I. The passage prefixed to this chapter goes to the very 
 root of all practical religion in man. " Unfeigned love for the 
 brethren," or, literally, a " love without hypocrisy,'''' " fervent 
 love for one another out of a pure heart," this is religion in 
 its fairest, most perfect development on earth. Were all that 
 claims to be religion really imbued with this spirit. Truth 
 would have a safer, as well as a warmer home than she 
 now has in this lower world. Pure, holy. Christian love 
 furnishes no soil for the roots of Error : nor does it ever 
 baptize Truth in the waters of strife. 
 
 Such love is the great result at which God aims in all 
 his spiritual discipline of his creatures. And when this re- 
 sult is fully reached, the soul is ripe for heaven ; whether 
 this result be reached in early childhood, in years of ripe- 
 ness, or in declining age. Holy love is religion itself, not 
 the process by which religion is attained. It is most un- 
 feigned and most fervent when the heart is most pure and 
 the soul most sanctified. Faithful Christians, while obey- 
 ing the truth through the Spirit, " purify their souls unto 
 unfeigned love of the brethren :" the process is sustained, 
 till, sooner or later, they " love one another with a pure 
 heart fervently :" and the more exact they are " in obeying 
 the truth," the more rapid, as well as eminent, do their at- 
 tainments become in this unfeigned and fervent, this holy 
 and heavenly LOVE. 
 
 Since, then, this love is the grand result at which God 
 aims in all his spiritual discipline of his people, and since 
 this love is itself dependent for growth on growing purity 
 of soul, it follows that the purifying of the soul is, in the 
 highest sense, necessary to our enjoyment of eternal life. 
 Without this purifying there can be no salvation. Sin de- 
 files, and reason confirms what God hath taught, that no- 
 thing defiled can enter heaven. " There shall in nowise 
 
THE christian's NEW BIRTH. IS* 
 
 enter therein any thing that defileth, or that worketh abom- 
 ination, or a lie." — Rev., xxi., 27. The soul of every man 
 guilty of actual sin must be purified, or it must spend its 
 eternity out of heaven. In other words, as every man is by 
 nature sinful, and, if he live, " commits many actual trans- 
 gressions," his moral character must be radically changed ; 
 must pass what the passage before us calls a " being born 
 again — of incorruptible seed ;" or what Christ terms a being 
 " born of water and of the Spirit ;" of water, which repre- 
 sents, and of the Spirit, which effects this inward renewing 
 of the mind : and being thus regenerate, the soul must grow 
 in its new life ; must advance in sanctification ; must gain 
 strength and stature, proportion and beauty, in all the gra- 
 ces of a pure and spotless nature. As the body has its 
 birth, growth, and beautifying, so must the soul have. In 
 its natural state, which is always a state of sin, it lies in 
 the blood and darkness of its corruption, with merely capa- 
 bilities for spiritual life. If it reach the period of moral 
 action, then, before it can actually live in holiness, it must 
 he horn of the Spirit. Its moral character must be changed 
 and made new. It must come to the light of a Divine life. 
 It must be washed from the blood of its sinfulness and of 
 its sins ; and then, " as a new-born babe" in this its better 
 life, it must " desire the sincere milk of the Word, that it 
 may grow thereby," grow strong and lofty, well-shaped and 
 beauteous, in all the purities of a new and heavenly charac- 
 ter. This must be, not because man says so, but because 
 God says so, and because he speaks but the decision of his 
 own plain, divine-eyed reason. Even we can see that it 
 must be so. The soul in its sins can not live a holy, there- 
 fore not a heavenly, life. Call its change by what name we 
 please; "repentance and faith" — "regeneration" — "the 
 new birth" — " the renewing of the mind" — a " new crea- 
 tion" — a " passing from death unto life" — a "quickening 
 from a death in trespasses and sins" — a putting " on of the 
 
20 THE CHRISTIAN S NEW BIRTH. 
 
 wedding garment" — the " making of a new heart and a 
 new spirit:" call its change by what name we will, it alters 
 not the case ; it must he changed, or it can never live with 
 God in heaven. If all the teachers on earth were to teach 
 otherwise, this would not make it otherwise. The necessi- 
 ty for this change lies in the nature of things, and the char- 
 acter of the immutable God and of his eternal truth must be 
 altered before this necessity can cease to exist. 
 
 Nor is this change, thus necessary, merely superficial. 
 The defilement of sin is not like an unclean garment, which 
 may at any time be thrown aside, and exchanged for clean 
 apparel. It is rather like impurities in the hlood, or a dis- 
 ease in the hones, or an inflammation in the heart, which 
 must be cured by strong, inworking medicine. The defile- 
 ment of sin is in the very soul itself. The soul itself, there- 
 fore, and not its mere outward dress, or habits, must be the 
 subject of this necessary change ; must be purified and made 
 whole of its inward diseases. 
 
 This work of purifying the soul is, of all others, most im- 
 portant to every individual man, since upon this depend 
 all the results of practical religion in this life, and that holy 
 love which is the essential element of eternal life itself. It 
 must never be forgotten that this " unfeigned love of the 
 brethren," this " loving one another with a pure heart fer- 
 vently," which all real Christians obtain while "purifying 
 their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit," is iden- 
 tical in nature and in origin with that pure and fervent af- 
 fection wherewith they love God, and are fitted to be for- 
 ever happy in His love. 
 
 II. I have said that this purity of soul, this holy and fer- 
 vent love out of a pure heart, is religion itself, not the pro- 
 cess by which religion is attained. The passage before 
 us, however, touches this process, as well as the result to 
 which it leads. And, before we enter into the midst of our 
 coming subject, it is of great importance that we should 
 
THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 21 
 
 have clear ideas of that process, as well as a full experi- 
 ence of this result, inasmuch as the ease with which we 
 reach any given end depends on the clearness with which 
 we see our way. The remainder of this chapter, therefore, 
 will be devoted to a brief tracing of the way, as indicated 
 in the passage before us, by which the Christian is brought 
 to that purity of nature, and to that perfectness of love, so 
 indispensable, as we have seen, to his salvation. 
 
 " Seeing that ye have purified your souls in obeying the 
 truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the breth- 
 ren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fer- 
 vently ; being born again, not of corruptible, but of incor- 
 ruptible seed, by the Word of God, which liveth and abid- 
 elh forever," or, rather, " by the Word of the living and 
 ever-enduring God." 
 
 Two things concerning the way of purifying the soul 
 unto unfeigned love are here specified : the Agent and the 
 Instrument which He uses ; in other words, the Spirit and 
 the Word of God. 
 
 1. The Agent, then, in the Christian's new birth, is the 
 Spirit of God. Christians " purify their souls in obeying 
 the truth through the Spirit." They are " born again of 
 that incorruptible seed" which He alone can implant. He 
 is the true and only efficient cause of their spiritual change. 
 
 On this point the Bible leaves no doubt. When relig- 
 ious teachers speak of other things as " sources of Divine 
 grace,"* they mean, or ought to mean, the channel through 
 which that grace flows, and not the fountain from which it 
 springs ; the visible means put into our hands, and not the 
 viewless First Cause that operates through them. Of such 
 causes there is but one, and that one the Spirit of God. 
 Our new birth is from Him, his power, his influence. Man 
 does not renew and sanctify himself. By nature he is op- 
 posed, not merely indifferent, but hostile, to the change. 
 * Tracts for the Times, N. Y. ed., vol. i., p. 6. 
 
2S THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 
 
 Left wholly to himself, to his own will, he would always 
 die unchanged. " The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
 the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one 
 to the other." — Gal., v., 17. With this repugnance to a 
 change so peculiar as that required in Scripture, nothing 
 but the Holy Spirit ever will, or can, give us a new and 
 holy nature. 
 
 On this point, I repeat, the Bible suffers us not to doubt. 
 It tells us, emphatically, that those who " believe in the 
 name" of Christ, all true Christians, " are born, not of blood, 
 nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God." — John, i., 13. It assures us of the absolute necessi- 
 ty, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, of being " born 
 of the Spirit." — John, iii.,5. It is the glory of the Christ- 
 ian dispensation that, while John baptized with water, 
 Christ was to " baptize with the Ho/y Ghost." — Matt., iii., 
 11. He specially promised to send this Divine Agent to 
 " convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- 
 ment." — John, xvi., 8. One of the most cheering prophe- 
 cies of the Old Testament is that in which God promised 
 to " pour out his Spirit upon all flesh." — Joel, ii., 28. 
 Among the most cheering facts recorded in the New, are 
 those which show that this promise has been, and is to 
 be, literally fulfilled (Acts, ii., 1-18) ; while the saddest 
 records on the sacred page are those in which the perishing 
 are described as having " resisted the Holy Ghost" (Acts, 
 vii., 51) ; and the most solemn warnings found there are 
 those which warn men " not to grieve," " not to quench" 
 that heavenly Agent. — Eph., iv., 30. 1 Thess., v., 19. 
 
 This point, then, is clear. To the follower of the Bible 
 no shadow of doubt rests upon it. The Holy Spirit is, in 
 the first instance, the only Renewer, and, through life, the 
 only Sanctifier of the soul. Were it possible for the real 
 child of God to deny this, even he would be a living proof 
 of the truth which he denied. He would carry within, 
 
THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 23 
 
 however unseen and unacknowledged by himself, signa- 
 tures in light, which nothing but the hand of that Holy One 
 could have written, of his " new name." Such a denial, 
 however, can never be made. Merely nominal Christians 
 may make it, but not those who are so in heart as well as 
 in name. 
 
 And yet, though this Spirit be the only Renewer and 
 Purifier of the soul, He acts not on merely passive sub- 
 stances. He acts by inclining living spirits to action. He 
 infuses not holiness by quantity into a motionless soul, as 
 men pour clean water into a standing vessel. He puts the 
 soul in motion toward the attainment of holiness, as a skilful 
 master teaches his pupil how to acquire useful knowledge. 
 Hence the peculiarity of the language of the passage on 
 which I am remarking : " Seeing ye have purified your 
 souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." The Chris- 
 tians thus addressed purified their own souls through the 
 Spirit, even as the Philippians were exhorted to " work out 
 their own salvation with fear and trembling ;" for the reason 
 that " it was God who wrought in them both to will and to 
 do of His good pleasure."— Phil., ii., 12, 13. The Spirit 
 wrought the work of their purification, yet the purified were 
 themselves alive and in action under his influences ; inso- 
 much that, in one sense, they purified themselves. The 
 Spirit wrought by inclining them to work. The soul be- 
 comes holy by thinking of holiness, longing for holiness, 
 and laboring for holiness ; but it is the Spirit of God that 
 moves it to think, to long, and to labor. 
 
 Thus far, then, the way of the new birth is plain. The 
 Agent in this divine change stands clearly revealed — the 
 Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 2. But there is another step in this way. The Agent 
 in the case works not without an instrument. The Spirit 
 of God does his work by " the Word of God ;" and He 
 does it by inclining and enabling the soul to " obey the 
 
24 THE christian's NEW BIKTH. 
 
 truth" of that Word. " Ye have purified your souls in 
 obeying the truth through the Spirit ;" " being born again, 
 of incorruptible seed, by the Word of God." It is " in 
 obeying the truth" that the soul is purified, and divine love 
 generated. The Spirit brings the soul to obey the truth ; 
 and, in obeying it, purifies its affections, and excites the ex- 
 ercises of holy love. Truth is the great instrument in the 
 Spirit's renewing and sanctifying work. " Sanctify them 
 through thy truth: thy Word is truth." — John, xvii., 17. 
 " The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." — 
 Eph., vi., 17. " Let the Word of Christ dwell in you 
 richly in all wisdom." — Col., iii., 16. 
 
 These passages show not only that Truth is the instru- 
 ment with which the Spirit works, but also what and where 
 that truth is. It is not mathematical truth, nor philosoph- 
 ical truth, nor physical truth, but truth revealed, divine, spir- 
 itual. It is that Holy Word which tells us the whole truth 
 about God's character, the whole truth about man's condi- 
 tion, the whole truth about the way of salvation, the whole 
 truth about our religious duties, the whole truth about all 
 that it concerns us to know as candidates for a happy eter- 
 nity. In short, as Christ is the central Sun of this whole 
 system, and has called himself " the Truth," as well as 
 " the Way and the Life," so the truth which the Spirit uses 
 in His work of renewing and purifying the soul is that 
 which makes truly and adequately known the character, 
 offices, and work of this Divine Savior, together with the 
 love, the homage, the whole duty which we owe him. And 
 when the Spirit works in the soul the power and the dispo- 
 sition to obey this truth, it is but the same thing vi^ith work- 
 ing in it repentance for sin, faith in Christ, submission of 
 the whole heart to him, and life-long love and service in 
 his cause. It is the assigned office of the Spirit to glorify 
 Christ, by exhibiting and applying to our minds the power- 
 ful truths of the Gospel. " He shall glorify me, for He 
 
THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 211 
 
 shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." — John, 
 xvi., 14. And when men pervert the Gospel, they are 
 termed ^^ false teacliers''' — " by reason of whom the Way of 
 Truth is evil spoken of." — 2 Pet., ii., 1, 2. 
 
 The truth, then, which the Spirit uses as His instrument 
 in renewing and purifying the soul, is the Gospel ; all that 
 body of spiritual light, which, centring in Christ, shines 
 out from Christ ; all that constitutes the " shining in our 
 hearts of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
 the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor., iv., 6) ; all that shows us 
 what God is, and what we are ; what Christ is, and what 
 is our need of him ; what He has done to save us, and 
 what we must do to be saved. 
 
 How the Spirit uses this truth in renewing and purifying 
 the soul is a different question, and one which I purpose 
 hereafter to examine. For the present, I am concerned 
 simply with the fact that, strictly speaking, this truth is the 
 instrument, and the only instrument, employed in his work. 
 I say, the only instrument, because the Church, her min- 
 istry, her Sabbaths, her worship, and her sacraments, are 
 not, in strictness, instruments. They are so only as they 
 hold tlie instrument in their hands. They are but the scab- 
 bard in which is sheathed that heaven-tempered " sword 
 of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," the truth of the 
 Gospel. Unsheath — not for use, but to cast away — that 
 sword ; withdraw, so as to lose, this truth ; or even, in 
 any way, virtually deprive her of the Word of God, and the 
 Church, her ministry, her Sabbaths, her worship, and her 
 sacraments, would be lifeless things. They could exert 
 no renewing and purifying power over the soul. In vain 
 would you then go to them for life and cleansing. You 
 might as well go for knowledge to a book, the covers of 
 which inclosed only hlank leaves, without the imprint of a 
 syllable or a letter. Except as channels through which 
 the Spirit pours God's truth upon the mind, the external 
 
 B 
 
26 THE christian's new kieth« 
 
 things of the Church are powerless for spiritual good. 
 Take this truth out of them, and they could make no more 
 impression on the soul than could a man's naked hand, or a 
 literal sword of steel. The soul can not feel them ; it can 
 feel only the truth, when it comes through them. 
 
 In this strict and only proper sense, truth is necessarily 
 the only instrument in our renewal and purification. So 
 far as He uses an instrument, no agent can work on the soul 
 for good without truth. Truth and Error are really the 
 only instruments which the soul can feel. 
 
 When one free spirit manifests itself to another so as to 
 move or affect it, the power with which it acts is evidently 
 that of Truth only, or that of Error. Truth and Error stand 
 to such a spirit in the stead of physical force to brute bodies. 
 Free spirits are separate and distinct beings, and can actu- 
 ate one another only by intelligible moral forces. They 
 have no physical impact, like material things. They strike 
 not ; they wield no force of sinews ; but, moving in their 
 separateness, and charged with the power of Truth only, or 
 that of Error, they pour into each other's conscious bosoms 
 the electricity of mutual thought ; till each becomes roused 
 to all the vast emotions, activities, and free shaping of its 
 nature, of which they are capable. This is their peculiar, 
 their high prerogative and power with each other. 
 
 Keep both Truth and Error from a human soul, and how 
 still and stagnant it lies ! But, tell it a great truth truthfully, 
 or whisper in its ear some glozing falsehood, and how 
 quickly and mightily it moves and acts ! Every thing that 
 makes the soul feel, or affects her nature, is but Truth or 
 Error, in some of their numberless forms. Goodness, love, 
 beauty, and all other right things, which the soul feels so 
 keenly, what are they but the truth of character, actions, and 
 objects to the eternal fitness of things in God ? And wick- 
 edness, injustice, deformity, and all other wrong things, to 
 which the soul is so sensitive, what are they but \\Le false- 
 
THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 27 
 
 hood of character, actions, and objects to that same eternal 
 fitness ? In what shape soever Truth comes, upon reaching 
 the soul it makes that soxAfeel and act ; and thus fashions 
 her nature. The same is true of Error, only with a contrary 
 effect. I repeat, then, so far as he uses an instrument, no 
 agent can act on the soul for good without Truth. That 
 agent must have Truth. Without this, in matters of religion, 
 the soul can not understand what God is, what sin is, what 
 holiness is, what duty is, what the way of salvation is, what 
 heaven is, or what is the meaning of any thing religious. 
 And, until it understand what these and kindred things are, 
 ay, and feel them too, it can not repent, can not believe, 
 can not exercise Divine love, can not perform a single holy 
 act, can not become a renewed and purified being. Even 
 the Spirit of God (with reverence is it spoken) can not 
 make the soul understand and feel these things, except 
 through the medium of Truth. If it have not written truth 
 as its instrument, it must, by direct inspiration, supply its 
 equivalent, and by an inward miracle, teach the soul to un- 
 derstand, and enable it to feel the truth, which it brings. 
 Otherwise, its renewing and purifying work must remain 
 undone. But this inward miracle, though possible with 
 God, yet He has not encouraged us to expect. He has 
 given us His revealed and written Truth ; this Truth He 
 has put into the hands of His Spirit ; and with this His 
 Spirit works in renewing and purifying the soul. Under 
 an economy of means, this is a necessary instrument in 
 His work. With this only, as resident in His Church, and 
 actually using an instniment. He enlightens, quickens, 
 changes, purifies, strengthens, comforts, and perfects the 
 soul into a likeness to His own blessed self. 
 
 Conscience has sometimes been called a Divine light, 
 and the voice of God in the soul of man ; as though this 
 could stand in the stead of revealed, or otherwise commu- 
 nicated truth. But this is false philosophy. Conscience 
 
28 THE christian's new birth. 
 
 would, more properly, be called the eye of the soul, with 
 which it sees truth ; or the ear of the soul, with which it 
 hears the voice of God ; or, more properly still, the sensi- 
 bility of the soul, with which it feels the power of His 
 Word. Strictly speaking, however, conscience is but the 
 mind itself, seeing and judging, approving or condemning 
 its own acts ; and Truth — revealed in the written Word, 
 or radiating from the works of God, or shining in the ac- 
 tions of men, or miraculously communicated by the Spirit — 
 is the light which the mind uses in thus seeing and judg- 
 ing, approving or condemning, its own acts. Truth is the 
 light in which the soul was formed to live. Truth is a uni- 
 versal language, which she can every where be taught to 
 understand. Truth is a spiritual weapon, which always 
 makes her feel, whenever it is brought so as to reach her 
 susceptibilities. And, as already intimated, the office of 
 the Spirit is to pour the light of truth around the soul, and 
 to heal her diseased eye, that she may see it ; to speak the 
 meaning of truth to the mind, and to unstop its closed ear, 
 that it may hear its meaning ; or, to bring the weapon of 
 truth home to the heart, and to take off the iron mail of 
 prejudice, that the sensibilities may feel its piercing. In 
 the plain terms of the passage on which these remarks are 
 made, the office of the Spirit is to bring the soul to " obey 
 the truth,^'' that, " in obeying," it may be " purified unto un- 
 feigned love of the brethren," and every other form of ho- 
 liness. The soul obeys truth when it perceives, feels, and 
 submits to it ; when it bows to its authority, loves its sway, 
 and joyfully gives it governance over the thoughts and feel- 
 ings, principles and purposes, motives and conduct of the 
 mind ; and truth, thus made effectual by the Spirit, thus rev- 
 erenced, loved, and followed, touches every faculty of the 
 soul, mixes remedially in all its action, brings it right with 
 God, and right with man, works off its impurities, excites 
 love, and brings back to man the lost tempers of heaven. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN S NEW BIRTH. 29 
 
 It may, indeed, be asked. How does the Holy Spirit, in 
 the process just unfolded, open the blinded eye of the soul, 
 that it may be conscious of the presence of Truth as a spir- 
 itual light ; or unstop its deafened ear, that it may hear the 
 meaning of that truth when presented ; or soften its harden- 
 ed heart, that it may feel the power of that truth when 
 urged ? Is not here a work upon the soul which the Spirit 
 must perform before it can use the instrument of truth in 
 carrying on its farther work ? And must it not, therefore, 
 do this previous work without an instrument ? 
 
 This is inquiring deeply, but not, I apprehend, beyond 
 the power of answer. I see not that this first act must be 
 performed without an instrument, but, rather, that an instru- 
 ment is actually used in performing it ; yea, that this in- 
 strument is the very Truth itself, which is afterward to be 
 still farther employed. To bring an illustration, I would 
 say, Truth is the cowc/im^-instrument, which the Spirit uses 
 in removing the film from the eye of the soul, that it may be 
 conscious of the light of Truth. Truth is the point which 
 the Spirit uses in piercing the dulness of her ear, that it 
 may hear the meaning of Truth. And Truth is the fire 
 which the Spirit applies in melting the hardness of her 
 heart, that it may feel the -power of Truth. Evidently, the 
 Divine Agent may, and, for aught that appears to the con- 
 trary, must use the instrument of Truth in this, his first act, 
 as well as in any and in every farther operation. The es- 
 sence of Truth is spiritual. Divine Truth is what the Spirit 
 utters. What He speaks is to be understood. And when 
 He speaks. He makes the deaf to hear, as well as the hear- 
 ing to understand. " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth," 
 was the language of the listening young Samuel. — 1 Sam., 
 iii., 9, 10. " When they heard this, they were pricked in 
 their heart," was the experience of the three thousand to 
 whom Peter preached the Gospel on the day of Pentecost, 
 C2 
 
30 THE christian's NEW BIRTH. 
 
 and whose hard hearts the Spirit pierced by what they 
 heard. — Acts, ii., 37. 
 
 I have thought it desirable to dwell the longer on this 
 point, because it has an important bearing on what I am 
 hereafter to say on the subjects of preaching and the sacra- 
 ments. The application of what has been said to those 
 subjects I shall not at present anticipate. I will only add, 
 in this place, that the relation which has been indicated be- 
 tween the truth of God's Word and the Holy Spirit on the one 
 hand, and the soul of man on the other, is most important. 
 It shows us why the Church is more gloriously successful 
 in one place, or at one time, than another, in saving the 
 souls of men. It is because, in such places and at such 
 times, she has more holy truth, with a less mixture of error, 
 than at others, in her preaching and sacraments, in her doc- 
 trines and worship. If truth be the only instrument with 
 which the Spirit renews and purifies the soul, then all 
 truth, so far as Revelation has made it known, is import- 
 ant, and not a ray of its light may be safely or guiltlessly 
 turned aside from the eye of the mind. The Church which 
 has Truth in her standards, yet that truth corrupted with 
 Error, or covered under a pall of darkness, can hope for 
 little, if any success in saving men. Where truth is latent, 
 or error mostly visible, the soul can receive little or nothing 
 but damage. Error is the instrument which the Spirit of 
 Evil uses in deforming and destroying the soul ; in pollu- 
 ting it, and filling it with hatred of God. Where there is 
 no holy truth, the soul lies dead in her blood and unclean- 
 ness. But where such truth prevails, where it is free from 
 mixtures of error, and is simply and adequately exhibited 
 in the ministry and services of the Church, there true con- 
 versions abound, and the souls of a great multitude are seen, 
 washed from the guilt of their transgressions, made alive 
 to God, and clothed in the garments of beautiful holiness. 
 
 Let us bear in mind, then, the points which have now 
 
THE CHRISTIAN S NEW BIRTH. 31 
 
 been reviewed. The soul of every man guilty of actual sin 
 must be morally changed and purified, or it can never be 
 happy with God. The Holy Spirit is the only Agent by 
 which this change can be effected. And Divine truth is 
 the sole instrument which He uses in this work. And let 
 us never forget that, in speaking of Divine truth, the Spirit 
 of God, and the soul of man, we are not speaking of blocks 
 and brutes, but of living and life-giving things ; and that, 
 therefore, the whole subject devolves on us the duties of 
 prayer and watchfulness, of labor and study, of thought and 
 effort, to see that these living and life-giving things be not 
 k;pt apart. It is only by keeping the truth, the Spirit, and 
 the soul in close conapauionship, that we can expect the 
 blessed result of renewed and purified natures. Indolence 
 and indifference here are as deeply mischievous, and, in 
 one sense, as deeply criminal, as dislike and opposition. 
 Though God is always first in action in the great work 
 which we have considered, yet we should always labor as 
 though first action belonged to us ; and though He will 
 ever be found to have wrought all our good in us, yet we 
 should always work as though there were a sense in which 
 all things depend on ourselves. 
 
32 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 JPREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT IN "WIELDING 
 THE SWORD OF THE WORD. 
 
 1 Pet., k, 23 : " Being born again, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible 
 seed, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." 
 
 It has been shown, in the previous chapter, that the 
 new birth, of which mention is here made, is indispensably 
 necessary to the salvation of every man as a moral agent ; 
 that the only efficient cause of this change is the Holy 
 Spirit ; and that the only instrument which this Divine 
 Agent can employ in this work is holy truth. This truth is 
 called, in the passage prefixed to the present chapter, " The 
 Word of God, that liveth and abideth forever ;" or, as it 
 should, perhaps, have been rendered, " The Word of the 
 living and ever-abiding God." In another place it is call- 
 ed " The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," 
 in reference to the use which this Divine Agent makes of it 
 in slaying the sins of the heart, and in conquering the hos- 
 tility of the world. 
 
 If the question were here asked. With what visible hand 
 does the Spirit most efficaciously wield this Sword of the 
 Word, this instrument of heavenly temper ? I presume all 
 enlightened Christians would answer, With the hand of an 
 authorized ministry of living men. This ministry unques- 
 tionably stands in the awfully honorable place of the seen 
 hand, with which the Spirit of God generally grasps and 
 wields the sword of Divine truth. And this hand is kindly 
 and wisely chosen. It is better than would have been the 
 hand of angels. Man, spiritually taught to know himself^ 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OP THE SPIRIT. 33 
 
 knows also, by analogy, V\^ fellow man, and can approach 
 him without inspiring that overwhelming awe with which 
 he would be struck by the ministry of more mysterious na- 
 tures. The ministry of living men has always been in use 
 under every dispensation of the Church, and is especially 
 characteristic of it under its Christian name. It is this 
 ministry which now appears, visibly, in filling the Sabbaths, 
 the worship, the preaching, and the Sacraments of the 
 Church with a kind of life and motion. Take this ministry 
 away, and all these channels would be empty, or filled with 
 nothing but motionless truth. Take this ministry away, 
 and the Spirit would have no commissioned, visible, and vi- 
 tal hand in bringing God's truth into action through its ap- 
 pointed channels. 
 
 But when we come to ask another question, Was this 
 visible ministry appointed to bring truth into operation 
 mainly through the administration of the Sacraments, or 
 mainly through the preaching of the Gospel ? we do not find 
 the same harmony of opinion. In speaking of these visible 
 channels, through which the instrument of truth is brought 
 into contact with the mind by the efficacious power of the 
 Spirit, there are some who teach " that the Sacraments, not 
 preaching, are the sources of Divine grace ;"* that " the 
 great work" which Christians at first " did every Lord's 
 Day," was " to administer and receive Christ's mystical 
 Body and Blood ;"t and that " this is the great means, ap- 
 pointed by our blessed Redeemer, whereby to communicate 
 himself and all the merits of His most precious death and 
 passion to us, for the pardon of all our sins, and for the pu- 
 rifying of our consciences from dead works, to serve the 
 living God."| But to others, this sounds more like the ex- 
 treme of a human theory than the teaching of the Word of 
 God. To their apprehension, this Word makes the preach- 
 
 * Tracts for the Times, N. Y. ed.,vol. i., p. 6. 
 
 t Bishop Beveridge, quoted by the Tracts, p. 175. t Ibid., p. 189, 190 
 
34 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OP THE SPIRIT. 
 
 ing of the Gospel, rather than the administration of the 
 Sacraments, the very right-hand of the Spirit in wielding 
 the sword of Truth for the salvation of men. 
 
 To ascertain which of these important views is the more 
 correct, let us go " to the law and to the testimony." 
 
 I. What, then, is the language of the New Testament in 
 speaking of the Sacraments as included in the commission 
 of Christ's ministers ? 
 
 1. As to the Sacrament of Baptism, we find it instituted, 
 enjoined, and practiced ; but. to all appearance, it is thus pre- 
 sented as an ordinance which was io follow the preaching 
 of the Gospel, and the conversion thereby of the souls of 
 men to the faith of Christ. " Preach the Gospel to every 
 creature ; he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved." 
 — Mark, xvi., 15, 16. Here, evidently, is the divinely in- 
 dicated order in the work of the ministry : 1, preaching the 
 Gospel ; 2, its effect, conversion unto faith ; 3, the outward 
 expression of this effect. Baptism. And this order the first 
 ministers of Christ appear to have uniformly followed. 
 Hence, when " Philip went down to the city of Samaria 
 and preached Christ unto them," it is said, " When they be- 
 lieved Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom 
 of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, 
 both men and women." — Acts, viii., 5, 12. Hence, in 
 the case of the eunuch, the same evangelist first " opened 
 his mouth and began at the same Scripture" which had 
 been read, " and preached unto him Jesus :" then he de- 
 manded and obtained of him a profession of his faith in 
 Christ, and finally he " baptized him." — Acts, viii., 35, 37, 
 38. Hence, too, when Peter first carried the Gospel from 
 the Jews to the Gentiles, he began with '■^preaching peace 
 by Jesus Christ," assuring them that " through his name, 
 whosoever believeth pn Him shall receive remission of sins ;" 
 and when his preaching had been blessed to their conver- 
 sion, he inquired, " Can any man forbid water, that these 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OP THE SPIRIT. 35 
 
 should not be laptized, which have received the Holy Ghost 
 as well as we ?" Then " he commanded them to be baptiz- 
 ed in the name of the Lord." — Acts, x., passim. Hence 
 Lydia of Thyatira first heard Paul and Timothy preach 
 the Gospel ; then " the Lord opened her heart to attend to 
 the things which were spoken," and, fi7ialli/, being a true 
 convert, "she was baptized." — Acts, xvi., 14, 15. Hence, 
 Paul and Silas, singing praises unto God at the midnight 
 hour in their prison, when the anxious jailer of Philippi 
 came in with the inquiry, " Sirs, what must I do to be sav- 
 ed V replied, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
 shalt be saved, and thine house." Then " spake they unto 
 him the Word of the Lord, and to all that were in his 
 house ;" and " believing in God with all his house," " he 
 was baptized, he and all his straightway." — Acts, xvi., 30- 
 34. Hence, when Peter had preached his first sermon, 
 and when the multitude, who " were pricked in their heart, 
 said -unto him and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and 
 brethren, what shall we do ?" he answered, " Repent, and 
 be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 for the remission of sins." " Then they that gladly received 
 his Word, were baptized, and the same day there were 
 added to them about three thousand souls." — Acts, ii., 37, 
 38, 41. And hence, when Saul of Tarsus had seen a vi- 
 sion of his persecuted Lord, he must needs go to Damas- 
 cus, and listen to the preaching of Annanias, before, in the 
 waters of Baptism, he visibly sealed the faith, to which he 
 had been converted, and thus openly consecrated himself 
 to the service of Jesus of Nazareth. — Acts, xxii., 10-16. 
 
 In the New Testament are many other references to the 
 practice of Baptism,* but nothing, so far as I am aware 
 which can affect the view here taken — that it is an ordi- 
 
 * See, among other passages, the following, as most important : John, 
 iii., 26; iv., 1, 2. Acts, viii., 12. Rom., vi., 3, 4. 1 Cor., xii., 13. Gal., 
 ill., 27. Eph., iv., 5. Tit., iii., 4, 5. Heb., vi., 2. 1 Peter, iii., 21. 
 
36 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT, 
 
 nance designed to follow the preaching of the Gospel, and 
 the conversion thereby of the souls of men to the faith of 
 Christ. 
 
 It must, indeed, be observed that these remarks apply to 
 the baptism of adults. That of infants is rather an ecclesi- 
 astical usage than an express Divine precept : a usage, in- 
 deed, supported by just inference from the Bible, and by 
 early Christian practice ; still, as I conceive, not affecting 
 the view which 1 have taken of the original design and 
 place of Baptism. Infants are incapable of receiving a 
 preached Gospel, of repenting and of believing in Christ. 
 To them, baptism is a token that they are the seed of a be- 
 lieving people J it admits them into the Visible Church ; 
 seals to them, conditionally, the promises of God ; places 
 them for education amid the outward privileges and means 
 of grace ; represents to them what they need, the renewing 
 and cleansing influences of the Spirit ; and binds them, 
 upon opening accountability, to seek those influences and 
 to become what their baptism teaches they should become, 
 dead unto sin and alive unto righteousness. Hence, when 
 they " come to years of discretion," the Church still " calls 
 upon them to hear sermons," the Gospel preached, and 
 " chiefly provides that they should learn the Creed, the 
 Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other 
 things which a Christian ought to know and believe to his 
 soul's health."* And hence, when effectually brought to 
 this knowledge and faith, they are called on openly to ratify 
 and confirm what was done in their name in baptism, before 
 they can be regularly received to a participation of the high- 
 er Sacrament of the Church. f The principle in question, 
 therefore, remains unafiected. The preaching of the Gos- 
 pel, or some equivalent inculcation of its truths, in riper 
 years, is as much needed in their case as it is in the case 
 of the great body of unbaptized adults in the world, to whom 
 
 * Off. Infant Baptism. -f Conf. Off. and Rub. in Catech. 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 37 
 
 Christ's ministers are commissioned to carry the Gospel. 
 In either case, the preaching of the Gospel, or some equiv- 
 alent, seems the necessary channel through which the 
 quickening influences of the Spirit flow ; and in hoth cases 
 baptism has mainly the same signification and effect, as an 
 ordinance admitting to membership in the Church, sealing 
 the promises of God, and binding to obedience of life. Even 
 in infant baptism the ministry of the Word holds priority, 
 not in point of time, but in point of efficacy, as that channel 
 through which the Spirit first pours quickening and renew- 
 ing truth upon the intelligent and conscious soul, and thus 
 brings it to a fitness openly and intelligently to confess 
 Christ before men. In the view of the Church, whatever 
 may be the effect of infant baptism, it is evidently not that 
 of a first means of that great moral change through which 
 every conscious transgressor must pass in order to salva- 
 tion. 
 
 2. Of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper less is said in 
 the New Testament than of baptism. Three of the writers 
 of the Gospels record the facts of its first institution, and of 
 its being enjoined on the disciples as a memorial of Christ, 
 and as a sacred symbol of his atoning sacrifice. — Matt., 
 xxvi. ; Mark, xiv. ; and Luke, xxii. The Apostle Paul re- 
 cords the special revelation to him of the same facts. — 
 1 Cor., xi., 23-26. He also sharply reproves the Co- 
 rinthians for their shocking abuse of this sacrament, and 
 gives them suitable instructions for its decent observance in 
 future. — 1 Cor., xi., 17-34. Moreover, he thus defines 
 the act of receiving this sacrament : " The cup of blessing 
 which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of 
 Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not the commun- 
 ion of the body of Christ? — 1 Cor., x., 16. And he shows 
 the utter inconsistency of " drinking the cup of the Lord and 
 the cup of devils, and of being partakers of the Lord's 
 Table and cf the table of devils." — 1 Cor., x., 21. In 
 D 
 
38 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 addition to this, there are three incidental allusions to the 
 observance of this sacrament during the times of the apos- 
 tles ; one, in the case of Christ and the two disciples at 
 Emmaus, if that can be called an instance of its observance ; 
 another in the case of the three thousand converted under 
 the preaching of Peter ; and another in the case of Paul 
 and the Church at Troas, in connection with the death and 
 recovery of Eutychus. 
 
 This, so far as I can collect, is the whole of what is said 
 of this sacrament in the New Testament ; enough to evince 
 the Divine origin, high obligation, and vast importance of 
 the Lord's Supper ; and to prove that, by the early Christ- 
 ians, it was an ordinance regularly, or, at least, frequently 
 observed ; and yet going mainly to show that this ordinance, 
 in its leading design, is Love's memorial of the death of 
 Christ ; that the bread and wine in the Eucharist are sym- 
 bols, ministerially set apart, of Christ's body and blood as a 
 sacrifice for sin ; and that to abuse this ordinance in a pro- 
 fane way, or without discerning by faith the Lord's body 
 which it symbolizes, is to eat and drink not with a blessing, 
 but unto condemnation. 
 
 This is not the place for entering fully into an examina- 
 tion of the sense of these important passages. Such an ex- 
 amination belon;gs to a future stage in the discussion. For 
 the present, therefore, I content myself with saying that, 
 rightly understood, they do not suggest the idea that either 
 Christ or his apostles relied on this sacrament for the con- 
 veyance of that pardon which was purchased by his death, 
 or that they relied on this sacrament mainly for giving effect 
 to his wondrous work of atonement by sacrifice. On the 
 contrary, understood in their true sense, they are full of 
 meaning to this effect : that its Institutor, and his first min- 
 isters, considered it an ordinance in which true Christians 
 only are to commune happily together in love, and profita- 
 bly together by faith, upon the consecrated symbols of their 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 39 
 
 Savior's body and blood ,- that, having previously^ by " re- 
 pentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," become participants in the pardon of sin, and in 
 the hope of eternal life, as revealed in the Gospel, such 
 Christians come together at the Lord's Supper to express 
 their love for Christ, and their faith in Him ; and, in the 
 exercise of these graces, to be refreshed and strengthened in 
 the new life mightily ; feeding in spirit on " the True Bread 
 which came down from heaven." 
 
 II. Having thus seen what is said of the sacraments, let 
 us now see what is said of the preaching of the Gospel as 
 the great work of the ministry. 
 
 \. It would seem, then, that there is something of mean- 
 ing in the fact that Christ himself is called, by emphasis, 
 " the Word." Why was this, but to intimate that truth utter- 
 ed, spoken, by himself and by his ministry, is the great 
 means by which, through the efficacious influences of His 
 Spirit, He designs to give effect to His redeeming work in 
 saving lost men ? 
 
 2. Illustrative of this, we have the fact that His own min- 
 istry was eminently a ministry of preaching the Gospel. It 
 was by this, blessed by the influences of His Spirit, that He 
 prepared His disciples to understand and receive the offer- 
 ing of Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. In 
 this act of sacrifice, indeed, lies the burden of his Gospel ; 
 and yet in this act itself He spent a few hours only ; while, 
 in preparing the disciples for it, by the preaching of the 
 Gospel of the kingdom, He consumed years. From the 
 time of His entrance on His ministry, " Jesus began to 
 preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand." — Matt., iv., 17. And it was as true of the whole 
 sphere of His ministry as it was of the particular place 
 mentioned, that " Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in 
 their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the king- 
 dom." — Matt., iv., 23. When he "departed" from one 
 
40 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OP THE SPIRIT. 
 
 place, it was "to teach and to preach in their cities." — 
 Matt., xi., 1. To His disciples He said, " Let us go into 
 the next towns, that I may preach there also ; for there- 
 fore came I forth." — Mark, i., 38. And when He came 
 into the synagogue at Nazareth, and made His hearers 
 " wonder at the gracious words which proceeded out of 
 His mouth," it was by simply commenting on that beautiful 
 prophecy of Isaiah concerning himself: " The Spirit of the 
 Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach 
 the Gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me to heal the broken 
 hearted ; to preach deliverance to the captives, and recover- 
 ing of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are 
 bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." — 
 Luke, iv., 18, 19. 
 
 3. As a farther illustration, we have the fact that the 
 twelve were chosen to be with him " from the beginning,'" 
 in order that, by listening to his preaching, and witnessing 
 His miracles and His passion, they might, when endowed 
 with the Spirit, be qualified to become themselves preachers 
 of the Gospel, which they had been taught. Hence He 
 says to them, " When the Comforter is come, whom I will 
 send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, 
 which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me ; 
 and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me 
 from the beginning." — John, xv., 26, 27. The season 
 which they spent with Him was the period of their theo- 
 logical education ; of their acquisition of knowledge, and 
 their investment with the Spirit, in order to their success- 
 ful icitnessing for Christ in their future preaching of His 
 Gospel. 
 
 4. As a still farther illustration, we have the fact that 
 the various commissions which the apostles received from 
 Christ were chiefly commissions to preach the Gospel. 
 Thus ran the high mandates under which they went forth. 
 
 First, Jesus " ordained twelve that they might be with 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 41 
 
 him, and that he might send them forth io preach, and to 
 have power to heal sickness, and to cast out devils." — 
 Mark, iii., 14, 15. Luke, vi., 13. Here, evidently, their 
 chief work was preaching. Miracles could have been but 
 an occasional incident on their way. 
 
 Their second commission, however, was still more em- 
 phatic. " Go ye to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ; 
 and, as ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at 
 hand." — Matt., x., 7. " What I tell you in darkness, that 
 speak ye in tight ; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach 
 ye on the house tops." — Matt., x., 27. " And whosoever 
 shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye de- 
 part out of that city shake off the dust of your feet. Verily 
 I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that 
 city." — Matt., x., 14, 15. In this, as in the first commis- 
 sion, was included the temporary povi^er of working mira- 
 cles. But, as in the former case, it could have been but an 
 incident by the way. Their main business must have been 
 the "preaching of the kingdom." — Luke, ix., 2. 
 
 Nor was this feature removed from its place of primacy 
 in their third and great commission from Christ ; conferred 
 after His resurrection, when He may be supposed to have 
 given it its most evangelical type. " All power is given 
 unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to 
 observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and 
 lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 — Matt., xxviii., 18-20. Or, as it is elsewhere given: 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every 
 creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
 and he that believeth not shall be damned." — Mark, xvi., 
 15, 16. To this their last, their finished commission, it is 
 immediately added, by way of historical comment, " And 
 
 D2 
 
42 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 they went forth, and preached every where ; the Lord work- 
 ing with them, and confirming the Word with signs follow- 
 ing." — Mark, xvi., 20. 
 
 5. This comment leads to the mention of still another 
 illustrative fact — that, after their Master had given their 
 commission its widest scope and most divine fullness ; after 
 He had dropped from his ascending form the broad mantle 
 of his own authority upon their office, they, with their co- 
 adjutors, immediately gave themselves to the execution of 
 their commission in the preaching of the Gospel. To this, 
 emphatically, Peter and John, Stephen and Philip, Paul and 
 Barnabas, Apollos — " mighty in the Scriptures" — and the 
 multitude dispersed by early persecution, devoted their pow- 
 ers : " Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer 
 shame for his name, they daily, in the Temple and in every 
 house, ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. ^^ — Acts, 
 v., 41, 42. Yea, "They went every where, preaching the 
 Word.'" — Acts, viii., 4. 
 
 While thus engaged, the incidents which happened to them, 
 and the manner in which they met those incidents, showed 
 the estimate in which they held their office, and the interpre- 
 tation which they put on their commission. Scarcely had 
 they entered on their work, when they were thrown into 
 prison for their boldness in preaching Christ. But the An- 
 gel of the Lord, having opened their prison door, said unto 
 them, " Go, stand and speak in the Temple to the people 
 all the words of this life." They went, and spake ! Im- 
 mediately, however, they were dragged before the coun- 
 cil, and asked, " Did we not straightly command you that 
 ye should not teach in this name 1 And, behold, ye have 
 filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." But to this their he- 
 roic reply was, " We ought to obey God rather than men ;" 
 and with that they instantly began to preach Jesus, in the 
 very audience of their persecutors. And when they had 
 been beaten for so doing, " they departed from the presence 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 43 
 
 of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to 
 suffer shame for his name. And daily, in the Temple, and 
 in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus 
 Christ." — Acts, v., passim. 
 
 Again : when the apostles found lesser duties too en- 
 grossing upon their time, they appointed subordinate min- 
 isters for such things, saying, " We will give ourselves 
 continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." — 
 Acts, vi., 4. 
 
 And again : when the multitude, " unable to resist the 
 wisdom and the Spirit, by which he spake" in his preaching, 
 had " stoned Stephen," and thus began to roll the first wave 
 of general persecution over the Infant Church, " those that 
 were scattered abroad went every where preaching the 
 Word.'''' — Acts, viii., 4. 
 
 In all these incidents, who does not see that the great 
 burden of the labors of all his first ministers was, what we 
 should naturally expect from the tenor of their commission, 
 not the administration of the Lord's Supper, but the preach- 
 ing of " Jesus Christ, and him crucified V The body of 
 their history is, in fact, found in the following brief record : 
 " And they, when they had testified and preached the Word 
 of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the Gos- 
 pel in many villages of the Samaritans." — Acts, viii., 25. 
 That " the breaking of bread," or celebration of the Lord's 
 Supper, was very frequent in the first Christian assem- 
 blies, it is needless to deny. — Acts, ii., 42. But there 
 can be no doubt that the main course of their ministry lay 
 thus : the preaching of the Gospel with a view to the all- 
 essential result of bringing men to " repentance toward God, 
 and to faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and when 
 they were thus gathered into Christian assemblies, then the 
 drawing close of the bonds of brotherly love and of holy 
 union, by frequently communing together over the hallowed 
 memorials of that crucified Master to whom they had given 
 
44 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 their faith, and whom they were determined to serve, though 
 in the face of persecution and death. By the ministry of 
 the Word, they were brought to the Savior. By the com- 
 munion of saints, they were cheered and encouraged to con- 
 stancy amid the kindling fires of persecution. 
 
 6. But, besides all these facts in illustration of the pres- 
 ent point, we have various passages, both from Christ and 
 from his apostles, which materially increase the light hith- 
 erto collected. 
 
 (1.) Thus, announcing the permanent work of his minis- 
 ters, and foretelling even the end of the world, Christ says, 
 " This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
 world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the 
 end come." — Matt., xxiv., 14. Other things, besides this 
 preaching of the Gospel, were to be done during this long 
 period, and things of great importance, too ; but, in thus 
 condensing the entire history of the Church into a single 
 sentence, this, it seems, was so much the most important 
 of all, as to be the only thing worthy of introduction into 
 such a summary. 
 
 (2.) So, too, after his resurrection, and the giving of his 
 final commission, in explaining to his disciples Moses, the 
 Prophets, and the Psalms, and in " opening their under- 
 standings, that they might understand the Scriptures," He 
 said unto them, " Thus it is written, and thus it behooved 
 Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and 
 that repentance and remission of sins should be preached m 
 his name among all nations." — Luke, xxiv., 44-47. Suf 
 fering, as a sacrifice for sin, was the great fact in his labors ; 
 giving it effect through the Spirit, by preaching in his name 
 repentance and remission of sins, was to be the great work 
 of his ministers. To this end, they were " endued with 
 power from on high," Luke, xxiv., 49 ; and to make them 
 skilful in their work, " their understandings were opened, 
 that they might understand the Scriptures," and thus know 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 45 
 
 how to preach the Savior, whom those Scriptures revealed. 
 And yet, the theory of some would have Christ to say, in 
 substance, while thus setting forth his chief act, and the 
 corresponding work of his ministers : " Offering the Jirst 
 sacrifice for sin in the death on the cross has been my great 
 work : continuing this sacrifice, in the sacrament of the 
 altar, is to be yours." It is enough to say, Christ did not 
 so interpret his own meaning. His interpretation runs thus : 
 *' My propitiatory suffering for sin is the most vital fact in 
 the Gospel system. Your main labor will be the preaching 
 of this fact, and of its dependent system, for the conversion 
 and salvation of sinners." 
 
 (3.) But, to pass from the view which Christ thus gave 
 of this point to that which his apostles took, I notice, first, 
 the address of the Apostle Paul to the elders of the Church 
 of Ephesus assembled at Miletus. This was a peculiarly 
 solemn occasion ; lying near the close of the apostle's la- 
 bors, and improved to the affecting purpose of showing that 
 he had " made full proof of his ministry ; that no one 
 could charge upon him the death of a single soul ; and that 
 the skirts of his office had been washed clean from the 
 blood of all." On such an occasion, what does he say? 
 Take a few of many pregnant expressions. " I kept back 
 nothing that was profitable, but have showed you and taught 
 you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to 
 the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, 
 and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, 
 I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the 
 things which shall befall me there, save that the Holy 
 Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and af- 
 flictions abide me. But none of these things move me ; 
 neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
 finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have re- 
 ceived of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of 
 God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I 
 
46 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my 
 face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record this day, 
 that I am pure from the blood of all men ; for I have not 
 shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." — 
 Acts. XX., 20-27. This is a specimen of his whole address, 
 in which there is not one word about his ever having ad- 
 ministered a single sacrament. And yet, he, as well as 
 others, had administered the sacraments on proper occa- 
 sions. But the truth is, he had been so mainly occupied 
 throughout his ministry with its great ordained labor, that 
 now, when standing almost at the foot of Christ's judgment 
 seat, and amid the most affecting anticipations of his final 
 account, he could only pour out his thoughts on what had 
 so long and so thoroughly possessed and occupied them, 
 " the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus to tes- 
 tify the Gospel of the grace of God .'" 
 
 (4.) Nor is his demonstration to the Romans of the ne- 
 cessity of preaching less in point. " Whosoever shall call 
 on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How, then, shall 
 they call on Him, in whom they have not believed ? And 
 how shall they believe in Him, of whom they have not 
 heard ? And how shall they hear without a preacher ? 
 And how shall they preach except they be sent ? As it is 
 written. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the 
 Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things !" 
 " So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
 Word of God:'— Rom., x., 13-15, and 17. 
 
 How different is this from the theory, that whosoever, 
 not in mortal sin, shall partake of the sacrifice of the altar, 
 with faith to believe that Christ's body is there, shall be 
 saved. The apostle's is a more evangelic scheme. " Who- 
 soever shall call on the name of the Lord, in the faith ne- 
 cessary to such a calling, shall be saved." To this prayer 
 of faith a knowledge of Christ is of course necessary ; and to 
 this knowledge the preaching of the Gospel, or some equiv- 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 47 
 
 alent inculcation of the Word of God, is essential. Here 
 is not a word of the necessity of the sacraments to salva- 
 tion. The sacraments are necessary " where they may be 
 had," and for the end designed in them, but not essentially 
 and absolutely necessary to salvation. But, so far as the 
 Gospel is concerned, ya///t in Christ, derived through the 
 Word of God, is essentially and absolutely necessary to 
 salvation. Hence the pre-eminent importance which at- 
 taches itself to the ministry of the Word. 
 
 (5.) To the same effect is the teaching of this distinguish- 
 ed apostle to the Corinthians : " To wit : that God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing 
 their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed unto us the 
 Word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for 
 Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray 
 you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God ; for He hath 
 made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might 
 be made the righteousness of God in Him." — 2 Cor., v., 
 19-21. This is one of the happiest summaries on record 
 of the true Gospel of our redemption ; one of the best state- 
 ments to be found of the true character of the ministry ; and 
 one of the most felicitous specimens to be met with of the 
 manner in which this ministry should be exercised. Ac- 
 cording to this, the Gospel is, " God in Christ, reconciling 
 the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto 
 them :" the ministry ; " ambassadors for Christ," charged 
 with " the Word of reconciliation," the terms of pardon and 
 life : the manner of exercising this ministry ; urging God's 
 beseeching call, and praying men, " for Christ's sake, to be 
 reconciled to him," as the most effectual way of bringing 
 them to realize, amid the tenderness of repentance and 
 the actings of faith, this vital truth ; that God " hath made 
 Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be 
 made the righteousness of God in Him." Precious Gos- 
 pel ! a reconciling God in Christ. Solemn ministry ! am- 
 
48 PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 bassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us. 
 Touching discharge of our high function ! pleading with 
 men, for Christ's sake, to be reconciled to Him, against 
 whom they have rebelled, but who yet seeks to cover them, 
 through faith in the Crucified, with the rich robe of His own 
 perfect righteousness. Would that all who bear the name 
 were ministers in the full spirit of this charming passage ! 
 
 (6.) Nor is His language to the Corinthians in another 
 place less in point. " Though ye have ten thousand in- 
 structors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers ; for in 
 Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." — 
 1 Cor., iv., 15. Here the whole order, work, and result 
 of the ministry are given in brief but significant summary. 
 " In Christ Jesus" who giveth the Spirit, and whom the 
 Spirit glorifieth, Paul, the living preacher, " had begotten" 
 to their new birth the Corinthian disciples, " through the 
 Gospel" as the divinely appointed instrument of their re- 
 newal, and conversion " from darkness to light, and from 
 the power of Satan unto God." 
 
 (7.) But perhaps the most remarkable language on this 
 point is that addressed to the Corinthians in another place, 
 as illustrating both the necessity and the power of preach- 
 ing, when considered as the right hand of the Spirit in wield- 
 ing the Sword of the Word. " Christ sent me not to bap' 
 iize, but to preach the Gospel." That is, administering the 
 sacraments is not the main thing for which I am sent. 
 This is the preaching of the Gospel. " Not with wisdom 
 of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none 
 effect. For the preaching of the Cross is, to them that 
 perish, foolishness : but unto us, which are saved, it is the 
 power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wis- 
 dom of the wise, and bring to naught the understanding of 
 the prudent. Where is the wise ? Where is the scribe ? 
 Where is the disputer of this world ? Hath not God made 
 foolish the wisdom of this world ? For after that, in the 
 
PKEACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 49 
 
 Wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it 
 pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them 
 that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks 
 seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified ; unto 
 the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolish- 
 ness : but unto them which are called, both Jews and 
 Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 
 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the 
 weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your 
 calling, brethren ; how that not many wise men after the 
 flesh, not many mighty, not many noble call you. But God 
 hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
 wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world 
 to confound the things which are mighty ; and base things 
 of the world, and things which are despised, hath God cho- 
 sen ; yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught 
 things that are ; that no flesh should glory in His presence. 
 But of Him are ye in Christ .lesus, who, of God, is made 
 unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 redemption. That, according as it is written, He that glori- 
 fieth, let him glory in the Lord." — 1 Cor., i., 17-31. 
 
 Now, he it remembered, the v/hole of this magnificent 
 passage is spoken of the preaching of the Cross, in distinc- 
 tion from the administration of the sacraments, or at least of 
 one of them ; and is therefore as strictly as possible to our 
 purpose. This preaching the apostle styles, in different 
 parts of the passage, " the foolishness of preaching ;" " the 
 foolish things of the world ;" " the weak things of the 
 world ;" nay, by one of the most startling of figures, he 
 terms it " the foolishness of God," and " the weakness of 
 Gcd," in reference to the estimate put upon it by the self- 
 conceited philosophers of ancient times. 
 
 I have ventured, with Macknight, to change one expres- 
 sion in the commoidy received version. I refer to the 
 words " are called,^'' in the 26th verse. These are want- 
 
 E 
 
50 PKEACHING THE RIGHT BANB OF THE SPIKIT, 
 
 ing in the original ; and in filling the blank, it is absolutely 
 required by the scope of the writer to substitute the words 
 " call you.'''' " Ye see 'ifour callings brethren ; how that not 
 many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
 jfioble, call you" or have been employed in your calling. 
 God hath not employed men of learning, men of office, and 
 men of rank, in calling you ; but rather the unlearned, the 
 obscure, and the untitled, like Peter, and James, and John ; 
 and He has done this for the very purpose of" staining the 
 pride of all glory" in man ; of showing that the preaching 
 of the Cross does not depend for success on human learn- 
 ing, office, or nobility j but on the power of God as it re- 
 sides in the mighty doctrine. 
 
 Tlius rendered, the whole passage is still more pertinent 
 to my purpose ; and, did the limits which I have assigned 
 myself allow, I should delight in putting the whole into 
 ample paraphrase. Perhaps, however, it is well that my 
 limits forbid this ; for nothing, surely, can make the general 
 sense of the apostle more plain ; and nothing can add to the 
 weight of his strong and ponderous meaning. I will sim- 
 ply add, therefore, that I have given it entire, because it 
 can not be broken without weakening its force, in demon- 
 strating the pre-eminent honor which God has put upon 
 the ordinance of preaching, and the reverential estimate in 
 which He would have us hold it, as what I must repeatedly 
 term, the right hand of His Spirit in wielding the Sword of 
 His Word far the salvation of men. 
 
 There are other passages of equal pertinency, from this, 
 and from other apostles, to the same point. But they are 
 loo numerous for citation and comment, and would merely 
 add numericalhj to the illustrations already given.* I 
 
 * See^ among other passages, the following: 1 Cor., ii., 1-7 ; ix., 16; 
 XV., 1, 2. 2 Cor., iv., 1-7. Gal., i., 6-9. Eph., vi., 19, 20. Phil., i., 14-19. 
 Col., i., 24-29. 1 Tbess., ii., 4-13. 2 Thess., iii., 1. 1 Tim., ii., 6, 7. 
 2 Tim., i., 11 ; ii., 15 ; iii., 16, 17 ; iv., 1-5. Tit., i., 9-11. James, i., 21-25. 
 1 Pet., i., 22-25. Rev., xiv., 6. 
 
PREACHING THE RIGHT HAND OF THE SPIRIT. 51 
 
 close, therefore, with a remark or two on what has been 
 said. 
 
 The principal results, then, which have now been reach- 
 ed are these two : that the sacraments were intended, not 
 for the instrumental origination of the new life in the soul, 
 and the conveyance of pardon or justifying grace, but for 
 administration to those who, through the preaching of the 
 Gospel made effectual by the Spirit, have previously been 
 brought to repentance and faith in Christ ; or who, if m- 
 fants, are in baptism placed amid the means of their subse- 
 quent renewal unto righteousness and true holiness ; but, 
 that the preaching of the Gospel of Christ crucified, in sea- 
 son and out of season, in the face of persecution and death, 
 with boldness and fidelity, in love and long suffering, was 
 the one mighty labor to which the first ministers of Christ 
 were devoted, and in which they wore out their lives for 
 the conversion and salvation of their fellow-men. 
 
 Since, therefore, the character and objects of the minis- 
 try have not since changed, it is evident that the teaching 
 which is becoming so prevalent among us, " That the sac- 
 raments, not preaching, are the sources of Divine grace," 
 is unscriptural, and can not be held consistently with the 
 Bible. In saying, moreover, that this teaching involves a 
 serious error, we detract not from the value of the sacra- 
 ments themselves, nor from that profound reverence and af- 
 fection with which they should ever be regarded as the or- 
 dinances of Christ. On this point I purpose to speak more 
 particularly at a future stage of the discussion. 
 
 For the present, let us bless God for the Gospel which 
 He has sent us, and for that ministry of living men in the 
 preaching of that Gospel through which the Holy Spirit 
 seeks to bring the power of Divine truth into action within 
 our minds. In this preaching, now as of old, holy influen- 
 ces meet men. Let us beware how we resist them, or 
 even trifle with them amid the dallying of procrastination. 
 
52 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 Sacred, though viewless, realities are about us. God, Fa- 
 ther, Son, and Spirit, is seeking the salvation of our souls. 
 And eternal life or everlasting death must be the issue 
 of the eflbrt which He is making, and of the manner in 
 which we are affected by that effort. Let us not " receive 
 this grace of God in vain," but so yield to it that "the 
 preaching of the Cross" may prove to us neither " a stum- 
 bling block" nor " foolishness," but " the power of God and 
 the wisdom of God," to the salvation of our souls. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND 
 THE SACRABIENTS. 
 
 Mark, xvi., 15, 16 : " Preach the Gospel to every creature : he that be- 
 lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved." 
 
 Luke, xxii., 19 : " This do in remembrance of me." 
 
 These passages show that the instructions which 
 Christ gave his ministers bound them to do two things : 
 to preach His Gospel, and to administer His sacraments. 
 The implication is, not that they were to do nothing 
 else, but that these they must do, whatever else was 
 either done or left undone. 
 
 I have already remarked, in substance, that the most 
 vital fact included in the Gospel is, the Sacrifice, which 
 Christ perfected on the Cross, as an atonement for sin. 
 This was that sublime consummation, without which 
 He had left the bosom of the Father in vain. " It be- 
 hooved Christ to suffer." Teaching alone would not have 
 redeemed a world. The cup, which the Father gave 
 the Son to drink, could not pass away. It was neces- 
 sary that he should exhaust it, or leave His design of 
 mercy unaccomplished. 
 
EFFECTS OP PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 53 
 
 Now, to this work of atonement by sacrifice both the 
 Christian sacraments have an admitted reference. In 
 the former^ we are represented as " baptized into His 
 death." — Rom., vi., 3. That is, baptism emblematizes 
 the death of Christ, in so far as it teaches, in emblem, 
 what Christ's sacrifice demands of us — " a death unto 
 sin, and a new birth unto righteousness." Baptism rep- 
 resents what the death of Christ requires should be 
 wrought in the sinner. 
 
 In the latter sacrament, we are represented as having 
 "the communion of the body and blood of Christ." — 
 1 Cor., X., 16. The Lord's Supper, in the fullest sense, 
 symbolizes the sacrifice of atonement. It teaches, in 
 symbol, that " without the shedding of blood is no remis- 
 sion." The Lord's Supper represents what Christ, in His 
 death, has graciously and actually donejfor the sinner. 
 Thus far all rightly instructed Christians agree. Dif- 
 ference arises on another point. Did Christ intend to 
 give effect to his work of atonement, to communicate 
 the benefits of His passion, to generate the principle of 
 a new and holy life in the soul, and to bring us to the 
 actual enjoyment of pardon, justification, adoption, by 
 the gift of His Spirit in the use of the sacraments, or by 
 the influences of His Spirit through the preaching of the 
 Gospel ? 
 
 In discussing this important point, I have thus far 
 been led to the view, which sees, not in the sacraments, 
 but in the preaching of the Gospel, the very right hand 
 of the Spirit in wielding the Sword of Truth ; not be- 
 cause such is the view taken by multitudes of learned 
 as well as pious divines of the Church, but because 
 such appears to be the view given by the Bible itself. 
 I have shown that, in the New Testament, the only part 
 of the Bible which furnishes testimony on this point, 
 the main stress, in the work of saving men, is laid on 
 
 E2 
 
54 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS). 
 
 preaching : whether we look at Christ's own ministry, 
 at His various comnnissions to the Twelve, at their ac- 
 tion under those commissions, or at the language of the 
 New Testament writers when speaking of the sacra- 
 ments and of preaching, whether separately or in con- 
 nection. As Christ's great though not solitary act was 
 the making of an atonement for sin, so the great though 
 not exclusive work of his ministers was to be, and ac- 
 tually became, the proclamation of that atonement, the 
 "preaching of the Cross" — the preaching of "Jesus 
 Christ, and Him crucified." The ministry itself is 
 termed, by the Apostle Paul, " the ministry of recon- 
 ciliation j" and then the trust committed to this minis- 
 try is termed by him " the Word of reconciliation," not 
 the sacrament of reconciliation. Ministers themselves 
 are denominated " ambassadors for Christ," not offerers 
 of sacrifice at His altar ; and their work is described as 
 consisting, not in " making the bread and wine the body 
 and blood of Christ," but in " praying men, in Christ's 
 stead, as though God did beseech us by them, to be 
 reconciled to Him." 
 
 I. But, if such be the true place of the Divine ordi- 
 nance of preaching, as assigned in the Bible, may we 
 not expect, when we come to trace the history of the 
 Church, to find a correspondence between this view 
 and the facts of the case 1 I reply, undoubtedly ; nor 
 will our expectation be disappointed. After the effu- 
 sion of the Spirit on the Church, we find that, wherever 
 the ordinance of preaching was most abundantly and 
 faithfully used, there were exhibited most of the results 
 of repentance and faith, of an effectual taking hold of 
 that eternal life, which is in Christ Jesus. To speak 
 first of apostolic times : 
 
 1. Such were the effects of Philip's labors, when he 
 " went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACBAMENTS, 55 
 
 unto them." *' They believed Philip, preaching the 
 things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name 
 of Jesus Christ, and were baptized, both men and 
 women." — Acts, viii., 5, 12. Such, too, were the effects 
 of Peter's preaching in the house of Cornelius, where 
 the first Gentile congregation were " present before 
 God, to hear all things commanded of God." " While 
 Peter yet spake^ the Holy Ghost fell on all them that 
 heard the Word.''"' — Acts, x., 33, 44. And such, more re- 
 markably, were the effects of Peter's first sermon to a 
 congregation of Jews. The Holy Ghost having been 
 silently given while Peter preached the Word, " there 
 were the same day added" to the disciples " about three 
 thousand souls." — Acts, ii., 41. 
 
 Similar facts are continually recurring in the sacred 
 records. Thus, immediately after the apostles had de- 
 cided, "It is not reason that we should leave the Word 
 ofGod,and serve tables;" and had taken the resolution, 
 " We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to 
 the ministry of the Word ;" we find that '■'■the Word of 
 God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied 
 in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests 
 were obedient to the faith." — Acts, vi., 2, 4, 7. Thus, 
 too, when, "by the space of two years," Paul had been 
 preaching the Gospel in Ephesus, " so that all they that 
 dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord Jesus^ both 
 Jews and Greeks;" when the evil spirits had refused 
 to be adjured by that ^' Jesus whom Paul preac/W," and 
 when the " many that believed came and confessed and 
 showed their deeds ;" and the " many, also, of them 
 which used curious arts, brought their books together 
 and burned them before all,'' to the value of " fifty 
 thousand pieces of silver ;" we have the strikingly illus- 
 trative comment of the sacred historian, " So mightily 
 grew the Word of God and prevailed 1" — Acts, xix., 
 1-20, passim- 
 
56 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AXD THE SACRAMENTS, 
 
 2. All the passages, thus far cited, in reference to the 
 ordinance o[ preachirrg, speak of it, more or less directly, 
 as the great instrument used by the Spirit in bringing 
 men to repentance and faith ; in generating in the soul 
 the principle of a new and spiritual life. And it is re- 
 markable thaty when speaking of this glorious, this de- 
 signed result of all Christ's labors and sufferings, as 
 practically developed, the Scriptures never once allude 
 to the sacraments as the instrument which was used. 
 It is true that Bishop Beveridge, in his '' Sermon on 
 Frequent Communion," has attempted to show that this 
 sacrament was at first administered daily, or, at least, 
 every Lord's Bay. But, in both points, he has strained 
 his proofs beyond what they are able to bear. As his 
 argument leads us to the Scriptures, it may not be 
 amiss to follow its principal steps. It rests on three 
 passages-; one from the first Epistle to the Corinthian?, 
 and two from the book of the Acts. 
 
 (1.) To the Corinthians, the apostle gives the insti- 
 tuting words of Christ, as specially revealed to him, and 
 among them, the expression, " This do, as oft as ye drink 
 it, in remembrance of me.^'^ — 1 Cor., xi., 25. Now, from 
 this, it is argued, that it was Christ''s " meaning and 
 pleasure that they should often do it, so often as they 
 met together to perform their public devotions to Him', 
 if it was possible ; or, at least, upon the Lord's Day ;"* 
 as if Christ had said, " This do (as ye are often to drink it) 
 in remembrance of me." It is needless, even ta an Eng-- 
 lish scholar, to say, that this is a mistake of the force of 
 language. Our Savior's words bear no more than this: 
 that, " as often as''' ('ocraKig), or whenever, his disciples 
 partook of His Supper, they should do so in memory of 
 Him. Whether this should be once a day, or once a 
 
 * Bishop Beveridge, quoted in tte " Tracts far the Times," New- York 
 «d., voL i, p. 176. 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 57 
 
 week, or once a month, is a question which they leave 
 wholly untouched ; unless, indeed, as the word " drink" 
 is not, in the original, followed by the pronoun " zV," we 
 take the passages thus : " This do, as oft as ye drink, in 
 remembrance of me." Then, in truth, we should have 
 the communion with sufficient frequency, as often as the 
 Christian slaked his thirst ; and, what is more, every 
 man his own administrator of the mystery ! Again : 
 
 (2.) In the book of the Acts, after recording the case 
 of the three thousand, it is said, " They continued stead- 
 fastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in 
 breaking of bread and in prayers." It is also added that, 
 "continuing daily in the Temple, and breaking bread 
 from house to house, they did eat their meat with glad- 
 ness and singleness of heart." — Acts, ii., 4-2, 46. From 
 this it is argued that, " As they continued daily in the 
 Temple, at the hours of prayer, to perform their solemn 
 devotions there, so they daily received the Holy Sacra- 
 ment, and ate this spiritual food ' with gladness and 
 singleness of heart :' this being, indeed, the chief part 
 of their devotions, whensoever they could meet together 
 to perform them."* Here, it is obvious, the premises 
 are too narrow for the conclusion which they are forced 
 to support. It must be remembered that the Jews, who 
 hated and had just crucified their Messiah, were still 
 masters of their own Temple, and kept up there the 
 daily service of their own worship. It is, therefore, 
 somewhat doubtful whether they would ViWovf persecuted 
 Christians to come there daily at the hour of that wor- 
 ship and celebrate what must have been to them the 
 odious sacrament of the death of Christ, side by side 
 with the revered rites of their own dispensation. But, 
 besides this, the text does not say, nor imply, that they 
 broke bread daily. It says, indeed, that they went daily 
 * Bishop Beveridge, quoted in the Tracts, N. Y. ed., vol. i., p. 175. 
 
58 EFFECTS OP PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 to the Temple : but this means no more than that, though 
 the Jewish dispensation was ecclesiastically at an end, 
 yet, as the Temple worship was still outwardly main- 
 tained, so the disciples, being themselves Jews, still 
 continued, as their Master had done, to frequent that 
 worship, though for the simple purpose of joining in its 
 ancient, and, as yet, undisplaced forms. As to the 
 Lord's Supper, the text says, they " continued steadfastly 
 in the breaking of bread :" but then, steadfastness implies 
 not any particular degree of frequency. They might 
 have been sufficiently steadfast in the custom, though it 
 had been but of monthly occurrence. What is said of 
 " breaking bread from house to house," and of " eating 
 their meat with gladness and singleness of heart," car- 
 ries no reference to the frequency of the sacrament in 
 the former clause, if it carry any reference to the sacra- 
 ment at all ; while the latter unquestionably refers to the 
 ordinary meals of the first Christians. To make " eating 
 their meat" here refer to the sacrament, is to introduce 
 a new and strange kind of transubstantiation. It is to 
 change the elements, not into the body and blood of 
 Christ, but into men's ordinary food ; for the word ren- 
 dered " meat" [rpocprjg), means the common and nutri- 
 tious aliment of our bodies. In truth, the whole force 
 of both these clauses is evidently this : that, as the first 
 Christians were led, by stress of circumstances, to " have 
 all things common, to sell their possessions and goods, 
 and part them to all, as every man had need," so they so- 
 cially and generously lived together, taking their food 
 sometimes in one house, and sometimes in another, and 
 sharing their common bounties, not with the dissocial, 
 thankless, and selfish spirit of those who hoard for them- 
 selves, and grudge what they have hoarded, but with 
 the joyful and single hearts of men who live not unto 
 themselves, but unto the Lord. 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 59 
 
 (3.) And, again, in the same book it is said, "Upon 
 the first day of the week, when the disciples came to- 
 gether to break bre<id^ Paul preached unto them (ready 
 to depart on the morrow), and continued his speech 
 until midnight." — Acts, xx., 7. From this it is argued 
 thus: " It is true, St. Paul, being to go away next day, 
 he took that opportunity, when they were met together 
 for that end" (the breaking of bread), " to give them a 
 sermon. But that was not the end of their meeting to- 
 gether at that time. They did not come to hear a ser- 
 mon, though St. Paul himself was to preach; but they 
 came together to administer and receive Christ's mys- 
 tical body and blood ; which plainly shows that this 
 was the great work they did every Lord's Day."* But 
 this, certainly, is quite too sudden and too long a leap 
 from premises to conclusion. The fact that they came 
 together on that particular Lord's Day to break bread, 
 no more proves that they did so every Lord's Day, than 
 the fact that some of our parishes meet for communion 
 once a month proves that they meet for that purpose 
 once a week. On the contrary, so far as the remark in 
 the text proves any thing, it proves that, as that partic- 
 ular day was mentioned as communion day, there were 
 other Sundays on which there was no communion. Had 
 the apostle said, " Upon the first day of the week, when 
 the disciples came together to break bread, as they were 
 wont to do every Lord's Day," the proof of the point 
 had been complete. But, as he adds no such interpret- 
 ing clause, he in fact leaves the question o[ frequency 
 in this sacrament still untouched. Gravely to argue, 
 therefore, from such premises, that the giving and re- 
 ceiving of the Lord's Supper was the great business of 
 every Lord's Day ; and to imply that preaching was but 
 
 * Bishop Beveridge, quoted in the "Tracts for the Times," N. Y. ed., 
 ''X. i., p. 175. 
 
60 ZFFECTa OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMEKT3, 
 
 a sort of incident by the way, the occasional partings 
 address of a journeying apostle, is not only to disre- 
 gard the main current of Scripture testimony, but to 
 strain a particular text for proof till it breaksy and leaves 
 the conclusion at an unapproachable distance from the 
 premises. 
 
 It will be remembered that I am not opposing fre- 
 quent communions. On the contrary, I incline to the 
 opinion that, in the apostles' times, they were both 
 more frequent and more simple than they are in our 
 days and in our Church. Possibly they did occur every 
 Lord's Day ', and, certainly, they were very simple cer- 
 emonies. They were called, not, in the imposing phrase 
 of later periods, " the Holy Sacrament of the altar j" 
 but, in the language of men who had learned of a sub- 
 limely simple Teacher,. " the breaking of bread.'''' Thejr 
 doubtless approached vastly nearer in simplicity than 
 they did in frequency^ to an ordinary meal. And this, 
 in connection with the possible fact that they were 
 somewhat frequent, accounts readily for the gross abuse 
 into which the still sensual Corinthians so early carried 
 the Christian's feast, by turning it into an occasion of 
 common and profane excess. In the undiscerning state 
 of their minds, they slid easily from so simple a ceremo- 
 ny into the actual excesses of commom eating and drink- 
 ing. What I have been endeavoring to show, however, 
 is this: that it is impossible to decide, either from the 
 language of Scripture, or from apostolic practice, ham 
 frequent their seasons of communion were ; whether 
 daily, weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, or whether 
 there were any statedly recurring periods for the ad- 
 ministration of this Christian ordinance. And it is now 
 to my purpose to add that, however frequent their sea- 
 sons of communion were, this does not in the least de- 
 tract from the proofs which have been given that 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 61 
 
 preaching the Gospel, not administering the sacra- 
 ments, was the main labor of the apostles' ministry, 
 and the great instrument, in the hands of the Spirit, for 
 generating the new life in the soul, and thus rendering 
 effectual to salvation the atoning sacrifice of Christ. 
 
 3. But it is time to trace this comparison into the 
 history of later periods. Look, then, at the experi- 
 ence of the Church in the Middle Ages ; that pro- 
 tracted period, when she made almost every thing of 
 the sacraments, and comparatively little of preaching. 
 What was her condition then 1 It was one of deep, 
 and almost universal spiritual death. The two simple 
 sacraments, instituted by her Divine Head, had become 
 extremely artificial and awfully corrupted. To these 
 had been added five others, fashioned out of most abu- 
 sed and perverted things. And this whole cluster of 
 corrupted and multiplied sacraments had come to be 
 regarded with most superstitious awe ; as though, by a 
 miraculous charm, they imparted saving grace, new life, 
 and holiness, to all who, not being in mortal sin, re- 
 ceived them. Meanwhile, the Scriptures were locked 
 up in dead languages, and almost unknown to the peo- 
 ple, and even to the lower orders of the clergy. Oral 
 tradition was virtually their law ; and its executor the 
 spiritual despotism of the hierarchy. The Ritual of the 
 Church was excessively cumbrous, and religion was 
 supposed to consist so wholly in a strict observance of 
 its forms, and to have so little to do with private vir- 
 tues of character, that it was an easy thing to acquire 
 the reputation of being remarkably religious., while, to 
 the knowledge of all, a man was scandalously immoral. 
 
 It is impossible, in few words, to picture the whole 
 extent and aggravation of that spiritual death which 
 then reigned over the heritage of Christ, and which 
 had seized so deeply on both people and clergy. 
 
 F 
 
62 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 I inquire not now whether the disuse of preaching 
 led to this multiplication and abuse of the sacraments, 
 or whether this multiplication and abuse of the sacra- 
 ments led to the disuse of preaching; or whether some 
 other causes had come in to corrupt the Church, and 
 to produce both the one and the other of the results 
 noticed. It is enough to know the simple fact that, 
 when sacraments were most numerous and most fre- 
 quent, when they were regarded with most awe, and 
 trusted with most confidence, then there were least 
 preaching and most ignorance, darkest superstition and 
 deepest corruption. From whatever cause, the Scrip- 
 tures and the preaching of the Cross were removed 
 from their place ; and, being removed, there was no in- 
 strument, in the use of which the Spirit of Christ and 
 the Father could restore to its pristine glory the fallen 
 and decayed body of the Redeemer. 
 
 4. This view is confirmed by following history a lit- 
 tle farther still. For, at the Reformation, when a large 
 portion of the Church was awakened from the sleep of 
 ages, the work had its very beginning in the secret 
 study of the Holy Scriptures by the Monk of Erfurt, 
 and in the public preaching of the Gospel, thus again 
 brought to the knowledge and experience of its minis- 
 ters. In the progress of the work, the Holy Scriptures 
 were unlocked from the dead languages of antiquity, 
 and given to the people in their living mother tongues; 
 and the ministers of the Word " blew the trumpet" bold- 
 ly and long in the ears of the sleepers, awakening mul- 
 titudes to life, and nerving millions to action, in de- 
 fense of the Gospel. The new soldiers of Jesus Christ 
 brought from their sacred armory the long unused, and 
 rusted, but still heaven-tempered weapons of Truth^ 
 burnished them anew, trained themselves to their use, 
 
EFFECTS OP PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 63 
 
 and skilfully wielded them in the work for which they 
 were designed. Then it again "pleased God, by the 
 foolishness of preaching, to save them that believed." 
 Then " the preaching of the Cross" was again made 
 "the power of God." Once more "the foolishness of 
 God" was shown to be " wiser than men, and the weak- 
 ness of God to be stronger than men." 
 
 Of the facts now noticed, that, during the Middle 
 Ages, preaching had been, if not unknown, at least al- 
 most unused ; and that, at the Reformation, it came 
 again into eager requisition, there is no lack of illustra- 
 tion. Perhaps as strong a one as can be given — all the 
 stronger for being of Prot^tant origin— ^is found in 
 this, that even Elizabeth, the patron queen of the Eng- 
 lish Reformation, still retained so much of the prejudi- 
 ces of earlier times, that she set herself openly against 
 what were then termed '^prophesyings,^'' or meetings of 
 the clergy for preaching several days together. Against 
 good Archbishop Grindal, the father and favorer of 
 those meetings, she was deeply incensed, and intima- 
 ted to him personally her royal pleasure that " the num- 
 ber of preachers should be abridged," and "all learned 
 conferences among the ministers of the Church utterly 
 subverted." In his written reply,* the bold bishop de- 
 clared, against the face of majesty, that her " speeches 
 had exceedingly dismayed and discomforted him." 
 Like a true man of God, in nothing daunted by the 
 voice of power, stood he up for his Master, and fear- 
 lessly said to the (in this matter) misguided queen, 
 "God forbid, madam, that you should op^n your ears 
 to any of their wicked persuasions, or in any way dimin- 
 ish the preaching of the Gospel." " Where it is thought 
 
 * Grindal's Letter to the Queen, in Fuller's History of the Church, Lon- 
 don, 1837, p. 7 to 18. Its title there is, " The most remarkable Letter of 
 Archbishop Grindal, in Defense of Prophecies and Church Jurisdiction." 
 
64 EFFECTS OP PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 that the reading of godly Homilies, set forth by pub- 
 lic authority, may suffice, the reading of Homilies hath 
 his commodities, but it is nothing comparable to the 
 office of preaching. The godly preacher is learned in 
 the Gospel, who can apply his speech to the diversity of 
 times, places, and hearers, which can not be done in Hom- 
 ilies." " I am enforced, with all humility, yet plainly, 
 to profess that I can not, with safe conscience, and with- 
 out the offi^nse of the majesty of God, give mine assent 
 to the suppressing of the said exercises ; much less can 
 I send out any injunction for the utter and universal 
 subversion of the same. I say with Paul, ' I have no 
 power to destroy, but only to edify j' and with the same 
 apostle, ' I can do nothing against the truth, but for the 
 truth.' " 
 
 How exactly is this conceived in the spirit of the 
 apostles at Jerusalem, who, when " straitly threatened 
 to speak henceforth to no man in the name" of Christ, 
 replied, " Whether it be 7-ight in the sight of God to 
 hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye 5 for 
 we cannot but speak the things which we have seen 
 and heard" (Acts, iv., 19, 20) ; and who, when farther 
 questioned for their fidelity, responded in the calm he- 
 roism of those memorable words, " We ought to obey 
 God rather than men" (Acts, v., 29) ; and then proceed- 
 ed, in the very face of their persecutors, to preach that 
 sacred name, which Jewish prejudice would fain have 
 buried in '"aduring oblivion! The Queen of England, 
 indee'', did not wish to put the name of Jesus under a 
 ban: farthest from it 5 but she had been so little accus- 
 tomed to a fearless, stirring, and frequent preaching of 
 his Gospel, that she disliked this feature in the Eefor- 
 mation ; a dislike for which her brave archbishop re- 
 proved her, with a manly and God-fearing honesty 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 65 
 
 worthy of the first days of Christianity, and the best 
 apostles of Christ.* 
 
 This comparative view might be followed much 
 farther, and made much fuller. But the limits assign- 
 ed to the discussion have, in this part, been already 
 reached. Enough, I trust, has been said to show that 
 the preaching of the Gospel of Christ is, and ever should 
 have been, the great work of all his ministers jf and 
 
 * The following extract from Hooker, who had Jewel for his patron and 
 Grindal for his contemporary, will show in what esteem preaching was held, 
 not only by that great man himself, but also by multitudes besides, whom 
 the Reformation had awakened from that slumber of ages, during which 
 the pulpit had been so nearly silent. The extract shows that preaching 
 had risen into such extravagant repute as even to require a caution lest it 
 should bring into disuse the public reading of the Scriptures in the churches : 
 
 " So worthy a part of Divine service we should greatly wrong, if we did 
 not esteem preaching as the blessed ordinance of God ; sermons as keys to 
 the kingdom of heaven, as wings to the soul, as spurs to the good affections 
 of man, unto the sound and healthy as food, as physic unto diseased minds. 
 Wherefore, how highly soever it may please them with words to extol ser- 
 mons, they shall not herein offend us. We seek not to derogate from any 
 thing which they can justly esteem, but our desire is to uphold the just es- 
 timation of that from which, it seemeth unto us, they derogate more than 
 becometh them. That which offendeth us is, first, the great disgrace which 
 they offer unto our custom of bare reading of the Word of God, and to His 
 gracious Spirit, the principal virtue whereof thereby manifesting itself for 
 the endless good of men's souls, even the virtue which it hath to convert, 
 to edify, to save souls ; this they mightily strive to obscure : and, secondly, 
 the shifts wherewith they maintain their opinion of sermons ; whereunto, 
 while they labor to appropriate the saving power of the Holy Ghost, they 
 separate from all apparent hope of life and salvation thousands whom the 
 goodness of Almighty God doth no: exclude." — Eccl. Pol., book v., (j 22, 
 London, 1825, p. 401. 
 
 That preaching rose into such repute, was proof of the mighty power 
 which it exerted. That it was carried by some to such a height of regard 
 as to be considered as enjoying the exclusive appropriation of the power of 
 the Spirit in saving the souls of men, was but its almost necessary recoil, 
 for a season, from a state of extreme depression to one of extreme exaltation. 
 
 t I cannot help inserting in this note a sentiment which I have just found 
 in examining the manuscripts of the late Bishop Griswold : 
 
 "The apostles would ' give themselves continually to prayer, and to the 
 ministry of the Word.' How different the conduct of those dignitaries of the 
 Church, in some parts of the world, who, when they have reached the apo^- 
 
 F2 
 
66 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 that it is not without reason that their high commis- 
 sion sends them, first, to " do the work o{ evangelists j^^ 
 and, second, to administer the sacraments of the Church. 
 II. And yet, it is not to be inferred that the efficacy 
 of preaching lies peculiarly in human power ; and that 
 man is to be extolled for success in this work. The 
 true view of this point has already been given. The 
 whole efficacy of ordinances, whether in preaching or 
 in the sacraments, resides in the accompanying influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit, sealing upon the mind the 
 meaning and the power of Divine truth. To make the 
 sacraments the main channels of grace, is as much to 
 exalt human power as to make preaching the main chan- 
 nel. The truth is, human power is nothing in either. 
 In the ministry of the Gospel, the man is put out of view 
 behind the commission which he bears, and the truths 
 which he presents. " We preach not ourselves, but 
 Christ Jesus, the Lord ; and ourselves your servants 
 for Jesus' sake." — 2 Cor., iv,, 5. " God, who com- 
 manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath," in- 
 deed, " shined in the hearts" of all his true ministers, 
 " to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God 
 in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor., iv., 6) ; and hath 
 thus qualified them for the great work of preaching his 
 Gospel, teaching them " to renounce the things of dis- 
 honesty ; not walking in craftiness, nor handling the 
 Word of God deceitfully ; but, by manifestation of the 
 truth, commending themselves to every man's con- 
 science in the sight of God." — 2 Cor., iv., 2. But, then, 
 " We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the 
 excellency of the power may be of God, and not of w*." 
 
 tleship, and when they ought to be the ' servants of all,' instead of giving 
 themselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word, neglect 
 both ; employing chaplains to pray for them, and settling curates to preach! 
 Well might Jewel say, ' A bishop should die preaching .'' " 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 67 
 
 — 2 Cor., iv., 7. Christ's ministers are no more than 
 earthen vessels, which derive their whole importance 
 from the preciousness of the treasure which they con- 
 tain j and this treasure has been put in such frail receiv- 
 ers for the very purpose of making it thereby the more 
 manifest that the whole excellency of the power, felt in 
 preaching the Gospel, is of God, and not of us. I re- 
 member reading somewhere the words of an English 
 preacher, on occasion of ordaining a young brother to 
 the ministry. They were to this effect : " Your work 
 will be to preach, not yourself, but Jesus Christ; and 
 in presenting him to your people, you must be like a 
 man holding up to view a picture so large as wholly 
 to conceal himself. Your great effort must be to let 
 Christ alone appear in all your ministrations. In holding 
 up his picture, you must not let so much as your little 
 finger be seen by your audience." Exactly in this spirit 
 are the w^ords of the apostle : " Who then is Paul, and 
 who is ^polios, but ministers (servants), by whom ye 
 believed even as the Lord gave to every man 1 I have 
 planted; Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 
 So, then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither 
 he that watereth ; but God, that giveth the increase." 
 — 1 Cor., iii., 5, 7. 
 
 Nor yet is it to be inferred, from what has been said, 
 that those who hold this view of preaching, do in any 
 way make light of the sacraments, or consider them of 
 small value or efficacy. This inference would do great 
 injustice to my argument. He that would detract from 
 the true solemnity and preciousness of the sacraments, 
 betrays either a sad ignorance of their nature and ob- 
 ject, or a wicked hostility to the interests of Christ's 
 religion. The true ground of regret is, not that too 
 much has been made of the sacraments ; but that they 
 have been wrongly understood, and, therefore, wrongly 
 
68 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 used. The value of a faithful preaching of the Gospel 
 may be extolled, not too highly, but too exclusively. 
 Men may err on this side as well as on the other ; and 
 in this error, the Church has had, if not an equally 
 protracted and disastrous, yet a truly sore and sad 
 experience. When ministers rely too exclusively on 
 preaching for the fruit of their labors, we have seen a 
 strong tendency to the multiplication of human artifices 
 and management for the purpose of giving to their min- 
 istry instant and enlarged effect ; and perhaps an equally 
 strong tendency to the puffing up of the vanity and 
 pride of the human heart amid the apparent evidences 
 of ministerial success ; with a proneness among hearers 
 to run after popular men and popular measures, rather 
 than to seek for the power of Christ, the Spirit of God, 
 and the simplicity of Truth, in the appointed services 
 of his Church. As, in relying on sacraments to the neg- 
 lect of preaching, there is a tendency to multiply, cor- 
 rupt, and abuse those sacraments by human additions 
 and conceits ; so, in relying on preaching, to the neg- 
 lect of sacraments, there is an opposite tendency to 
 multiply, vary, and misdirect human artifices and pop- 
 ular measures, with the view of giving that preaching 
 greater effect. On either hand, experience has taught 
 the Church an expensive, indeed, but still valuable les- 
 son ; and, in the light thus afforded, the true question 
 in the argument before us is, not which shall be ex- 
 cluded, preaching or the sacraments, but what are the 
 true place and importance of each 1 Before closing, 
 then, this branch of the subject, in order to enter on 
 the next great inquiry, that concerning the nature of the 
 sacraments, let us pursue this question a little farther. 
 
 III. What, then, are the true place and importance 
 of that Divine ordinance which we have in the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel % 
 
EFFECTS OP PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 69 
 
 1. The citations from the New Testament which 
 have been made, make it sufficiently plain that this or- 
 dinance finds its principal place and importance in its 
 character as the great instrument, in the hand of the 
 Spirit, for the conversion of men from sin to holiness ; 
 for instructing, convincing, awakening, and renewing 
 them ; for bringing them to true repentance and a living 
 faith, to fervent love and holy obedience ; for leading 
 them intelligently and unreservedly to Christ as the only 
 Savior ; and thus for bringing them to the entrance, and 
 conducting them through the gate, which open into 
 the way of life eternal. 
 
 To this its high office the ordinance is fitted on the 
 principle already stated, that Truth is the utterance, the 
 breath of the Spirit. It is the very converse of the 
 Spirit of God with the mind of man. God puts Himself 
 into the Truth, and thus, to the measure of the mind's 
 capacities, makes Himself understood, comprehended, and 
 felt. Now, preaching deals with Truth, and is Christ's 
 ordinance for dealing with it most effectually. The 
 chief office of the ministry lies in " rightly dividing the 
 Word of Truth,'''' and it is thus that the servant of Christ 
 " shows himself approved unto God, a workman that 
 needeth not to be ashamed" (2 Tim., ii., 15) ; an "able 
 minister of the New Testament ; not of the letter'''' merely, 
 " but of the Spirit'' (2 Cor., iii., 6) j a " Scribe," well 
 " instructed unto the kingdom of heaven," and " bringing 
 forth out of his treasures things new and old." — Matt., 
 xiii., 52. Divine truth is both the instrument with 
 which the Spirit quickens the soul, and the light through 
 which the soul sees God and all eternal things ; and he 
 who best knows how to divide this truth, to separate it 
 into its several offices, and to point the arrows of its 
 power with greatest wisdom and skill, is the ablest min- 
 ister of the New Testament, and the best instructed 
 
70 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 scribe in the kingdom. He will be the means of con- 
 vincing most men of sin, and of bringing most to the 
 Savior. 
 
 That such is the momentous office of preaching, 
 there can, I think, be no doubt in the mind of him who, 
 with unprejudiced care, studies the oracles of Truth on 
 this point. From those oracles, and the confirming 
 ways of God, comes a voice to this effect, loud, clear, 
 and not to be misunderstood. 
 
 2. But, though this is the principal, yet it is not the 
 only office of preaching. It is, still farther, one of the 
 necessary, and even a principal means of "building up 
 Christians in their most holy faith," after they have 
 been brought to Christ at the entrance of the way of 
 life. 
 
 Such Christians are taught of Christ to look to God's 
 Word of Truth for sanctification. " Sanctify them by 
 thy Truth : thy Word is Truth."— John, xvii., 17. They 
 are also enjoined by an apostle, " as new-born babes, to 
 desire the sincere milk of the Word, that they may grow 
 thereby" (1 Pet., ii., 2); to "let the Word of Christ 
 dwell in them richly in all wisdom" (Col., iii., 16) ; to 
 ^' be swift to hear^'' and to " receive, with meekness, that 
 ingrafted Word, which is to save their souhy — James, 
 i., 19, 21. In reference to the different strength of 
 the doctrines preached, as adapted to the different 
 progress of Christians in their new life, the apostle 
 fed some "with milk,^'' and others "with meat" (1 Cor., 
 iii., 1-3); the former, as being "yet carnal,^'' the lat- 
 ter as having become " spiritual /" the one, as retain- 
 in stillsomething of low and gross views of the Gospel 
 and of Christian character, the other as having reach- 
 ed a high degree of knowledge, purity, and perfectness 
 in the heavenly life ; the one, as being disposed to 
 " envy, strife, and divisions," the other as seeing deeply 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 71 
 
 into the generousness, love, and union which should 
 pervade the living body of Christ. All these results, too, 
 canf)e through the various degrees of thoroughness with 
 which those early Christians had received " the things 
 which were freely given to them of God ; which things 
 also" the apostles '■'■spake, not in the words which man's 
 wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; 
 comparing spiritual things with spiritual." — 1 Cor., ii., 
 12, 13. To the Hebrew Christians, some of whom had 
 probably been scribes and doctors in their law, and who 
 had been under Christian instruction long enough to 
 have become preachers of the Gospel, and yet were still 
 " dull of hearing," the apostle writes thus : " For when, 
 for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that 
 one teach you again which be the first principles of the 
 oracles of God ; and are become such as have need of 
 milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth 
 milk is unskilful in the Word of righteousness, for he is 
 a bahe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of 
 full age; to those who, by reason of use, have their 
 senses exercised to discern both good and evil." — Heb., 
 v., 12-14. What Divine skill does all this evince in so 
 " dividing the Word of Truth'''' as to build up true Christ- 
 ians from one degree of perfectness to another, in the 
 Divine life ; from the babe to the man of full age ; from 
 the carnal to the spiritual ; from the dull of hearing, to 
 those who, by reason of use, have their moral senses 
 exercised to discern both good and evil! And how re- 
 markable that, in all this work of building up Christians 
 in their most holy faith, the Word, the Word, is the only 
 instrument mentioned, as wielded by the Spirit, in the 
 hand of a living ministry ! 
 
 3. There is a farther office still to the ordinance of 
 preaching. It is that of a means by which, mainly, Er- 
 ror is to be banished from among the people of God, 
 
72 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 and the Church preserved in the purity of her heaven- 
 taught doctrines. Hence, the preachers of the Gospel 
 are required to " hold fast the faithful Word, as they 
 have been taught, that they may be able bj'^ sound doc- 
 trine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." — 
 Tit., i., 9. And though it is not exclusively, yet it is 
 most distinguishingly, the work of the ministry to 
 " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints ;" seeing there are ever those who " creep in un- 
 awares — turning the grace of our God into lascivious- 
 ness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." — Jude, 3, 4. To this work of banishing Error 
 from the Church, her ministers are now ordained, as an 
 important part of their sacred office ; and it is a work 
 which they may and must do in various ways. They 
 must preach against error from the pulpit and from the 
 press ; at one time, in " doctrine which shall drop as the 
 rain, and in speech, which shall distill as the dew" 
 (Deut., xxxii., 2) ; and at another, in that strenuous argu- 
 mentation which shall mightily confound falsehood, and 
 in that vigorous and keen, yet calm and dignified con- 
 troversy, which shall effectually sift the sophistry and 
 expose the lurking-places of error ; now in the uttered 
 homily, by which they may most quickeningly "com- 
 mend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight 
 of God ;" and now in the imprinted volume, from which, 
 "though dead," the man of Christ may "yet speak," 
 and preach the Gospel of His saving truth to genera- 
 tions long to come ; that they, too, the yet unborn, may 
 walk in truth, and be not led away of falsehood. 
 
 In a word, to sum up this whole point, it is by the 
 preaching of his Gospel, in all varying ways, that Christ, 
 through the Spirit, seeks to illumine the darkened mind, 
 and to renew the wicked heart of " the natural man ;" 
 to lay the foundations of holy character deep, and strong, 
 
EFFECl'S OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 73 
 
 and broad, in the understanding and in the affections ; 
 to build up, and garnish with heavenly graces, the struc- 
 ture of individual holiness, for which those foundations 
 are laid ; to " chase away erroneous and strange doc- 
 trines" from the Church of God j to keep truth victori- 
 ous, and to multiply the bright and blessed conquests 
 of Christ's spiritual kingdom. The preaching of the 
 Gospel is emphatically that " greater light" which Christ 
 has hung in the firmament of his Church j and accord- 
 ing as that light shines brightly or dimly, from a cloud- 
 less or an enclouded sky, this Church will walk as in 
 the day, or stumble as in darkness. 
 
 IV. But, if such be the rank held by the ordinance 
 of preachings what, in this comparison, are the true 
 place and importance of the sacraments ? The inquiry 
 now is not into their nature, but into their moral effect 
 on their recipients. 
 
 1. As to baptism^ its moral effect on the mind of infants 
 is, doubtless, not immediate^ but prospective. It brings 
 them into the visible Church, and into external covenant 
 with God, It seals, or certifies to them t'he truth of those 
 Divine promises, which are to the people of God, " and 
 to their children." — Acts, ii., 39. It gives them thus a 
 right to all the outward privileges of their relation. It 
 surrounds them with the breath of prayer, and with the 
 thoughtful solicitudes of believing and watchful Christ- 
 ians. It puts them to school, where Christ is master, 
 and the Spirit, monitor ; the Bible, text-book ; and wor-^ 
 ship, exercise ; Christians, companions ; and their way, 
 charity ; that thus their earliest faculties and first open- 
 ing reason may be educated for heaven, and, if possi- 
 ble, get light and power from God before they contract 
 more than original darkness and corruption from the 
 world. Upon all this, too, it brings God's covenanted 
 blessing, in order to throw a brighter hope, and gather 
 
 G 
 
*i4 EFFECTS OF PRfiACHlN'G AND THE SACRAMENTS'. 
 
 a more cheering encouragement into the prospects for 
 eternity of the seed of God's people. But in all this, 
 great and unspeakable as is the benefit, the moral effect 
 of baptism on the soul is necessaTily prospective ; and 
 such are the perils of this world, even to the children 
 of Christians, that the whole priceless good may be lost. 
 But on the mind of adults, if they come to it with 
 the requisite previous preparation of the heart — true 
 repentance and a lively faith — the moral effect of bap- 
 tism may be said to be immediate. And yet, this effect 
 does not come as from a sacred charm, or from the 
 Spirit indwelling with the water ; but rather, to use the 
 language of our article, to such " faith is confirmed, 
 and grace increased, by virtue of prayer to God." — Art. 
 xxvii. Coming with hearts renewed, and minds pre- 
 pared, and souls longing for fuller blessings, they feel 
 that it is good thus publicly to seal themselves Christ's, 
 and thus openly to take the plighted shield of God, to 
 keep them in their future conflict with the world. Put- 
 ting, therefore, their hearts into the ascending prayer 
 of the Church, they realize the descending grace of the 
 Spirit, and go forth from the solemn covenanting strong 
 in the faith, resolved in their purposes, and refreshed 
 as if by heavenly dews on their whole nature. 
 
 2. As to the Lord\<i Supper, in its moral effect on the 
 soul, this, to true Christians, and with the influences of 
 the Spirit filling and energizing all, is doubtless a very 
 eminent means of grace. Neither the Bible, indeed, nor 
 our Church, teaches Christians to bring their sins after 
 baptism to this sacrament for remission. On the con- 
 trary, both teach them to come with clean hands and 
 pure hearts, and sins forgiven through faith in Christ ; 
 that, thus prepared for the table of their Lord, they 
 may receive the real blessings which await them there. 
 And these blessings are, growth in true love, union, pu- 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 75 
 
 nVy, and all perfectness of Christian character. The 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper, when the Church is 
 kept pure by a faithful preaching of Christ crucified — 
 the full and uncorrupt Gospel — and when her ministra- 
 tions are blessed with the influences of the overshadow- 
 ing and life-giving Spirit, is an ordinance in which the 
 Christian comes into closest communion with his Sav- 
 ior, and feels his love for him kindling into its intensest 
 glow ; in which, too, he comes into holiest communion 
 with his /eZZoz^-Christians, of all ages and nations, and 
 feels himself most inseparably knit to them in "the 
 communion of saints," in the union of the great mysti- 
 cal body of Christ ; and in which he realizes a peculiar 
 strengthening and refreshing of his soul in all her Di- 
 vine and heavenly graces of faith and courage, humility 
 and purity, deadness to the world, and desires after 
 heaven. Through the divinely ordained symbol of the 
 sacrifice on the cross, faith feeds on all the benefits of 
 Christ's passion, enters into the depths of that union 
 which subsists between each member of the Body and 
 its Head, and draws a happy immortality from the 
 Fountain of Life. 
 
 I think it proper to repeat, that what I have here said 
 of the two sacraments refers not to their nature, but to 
 their effect, as means, in the formation and growth of 
 Christian character. What these sacraments are in 
 themselves, or, rather, in the intention of their Institutor, 
 is a question reserved for future consideration. 
 
 From the present comparative view, we have seen 
 what are the place and importance, respectively, of the 
 Divine ordinances both of preaching and of the sacra- 
 ments ; neither interfering with the other, but both 
 helping sinful man from the world into the Church, 
 and from the Church up to heaven. Their relation 
 stands thus : 
 
76 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 The preaching of the Gospel is ordained to bring 
 men, intelligently and by their own personal experience, 
 to Christ, by repentance and faith, love and an obedient 
 surrender of themselves to His service. Baptism is 
 appointed to introduce them into the Visible Church, in 
 infancy if they are the children of believing parents, 
 and in riper years if they have been converted from 
 among the unbelieving. And then, for the nourishment, 
 growth, and perfecting of their religious life, the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel, and the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
 per, are designed jow^/?/ to take up the office of means, 
 and to go hand in hand in the common work of edify- 
 ing the characters of those who are truly renewed, and 
 of ripening them for the glories of their eternal fellow- 
 ship with the saints in the immediate presence of God. 
 
 An obvious reflection, suggested by what has been 
 said, is this: While we seek, by the light of the Bible, 
 to ascertain and assign the true relation of the various 
 Christian ordinances to their great and common end, 
 the salvation of men, we should carefully regard them 
 all as originating in the same Divine authority; and 
 therefore, on one common ground, entitled to our obe- 
 dient and affectionate regard. Let each, then, that of 
 preaching and that of the sacraments, be duly rever- 
 enced, and neither be put down for the sake of exalting 
 the other into solitary eminence and single considera- 
 tion. Either extreme ends in danger. Dark supersti- 
 tion, with its misty imaginings and its debasing corrup- 
 tions, lies at the one, and at the other that cold con- 
 tempt, which human reason, vanity, and pride cast on 
 all outward though Divine symbols of our most holy 
 faith. It is at the mean between these extremes that all 
 things are united in their due proportion and harmony. 
 It is at this mean that life enters into all ordinances, 
 and that the light of reason and the superior light of 
 
EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 77 
 
 revelation blend in showing the beauty of the whole 
 body of Christ's institutions, and in commending the 
 whole to the approval of our understandings, to the love 
 of our hearts, and to the reverence of our faith. 
 
 Nor will it be useless to suggest once more, that 
 every thing which has been said about the revealed 
 Word of God, as that body of eternal truth which has 
 been given to us ; or about the preaching of the Gospel, 
 as the great work of the ministry ; or about the sacra- 
 ments of Christ, as the hallowed symbols of His reli- 
 gion, has had reference to something higher, more 
 vital and more divine than any, or than all, of these 
 things — to the necessary power and teachings of the 
 Holy Spirit — of that Divine Agent, which, using Truth 
 as His single instrument, seeks thereby the renewal, 
 sanctification, and perfection of all the children of God ; 
 and which, if He use the preaching of the Gospel as His 
 right hand in wielding the Sword of the Word for the 
 slaying of sin and error, and for conquering the en- 
 mity of the world, does also use the sacraments as His 
 left hand in holding over the Church a broad and con- 
 secrated shield of protection, and in putting to the lips 
 of our souls a full and refreshing cup of consolation. 
 It is at our worst peril that we, either theoretically or 
 practically, lose sight of this Sacred Agent, the Spirit 
 of the Father and the Son, amid that branching yet 
 united system of channels, through which he makes 
 His ordinary approaches to our understandings and our 
 hearts ; seeking thus to reach our invisible souls through 
 our bodily senses, and through those audible and visible 
 means, of preaching and the sacraments, in which those 
 senses are met. To lose sight of this Spirit, and to 
 think only, or mainly, of the Truth, its ministry, or its 
 symbols, is as unreasonable as it would be to forget 
 that the body carries a soul ; if not as dangerous as it 
 G2 
 
78 EFFECTS OF PREACHING AND THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 would be to pay to a graven image the honor due unto 
 God. 
 
 Let the Divine Spirit, the sacred Illuminator and 
 Comforter of the soul, be ever held in clear view amid 
 the surrounding institutes of the Church, and always 
 regarded as the only efficient agent in our renewal and 
 sanctification ; acting alone through all sensible chan- 
 nels, and using Truth, men, and ordinances in doing 
 His own proper work. So shall we be in least danger 
 either of misplacing, or of disproportionately valuing 
 outward things ; and most certain of finding the whole 
 body of the Church filled with Christ and with His life- 
 giving power to the salvation of our souls. 
 
PART IL 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS, 
 
 BAPTISM. 
 
PART 11. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 John, iii., 5 : "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be bom of 
 water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 I HAVE already shown that the great end which God 
 sseks in all his gracious acts toward man, is the renewal 
 and sanctification of the soul ; that this change is the work 
 of the Holy Spirit ; that the sole instrument which He uses 
 in this work is Divine Truth ; and that the constituted chan- 
 nels through which He ordinarily brings this truth into ac- 
 tion on the mind are, preaching and the sacraments. I 
 have also attempted to assign the true place and relative 
 importance of preaching and the sacraments as connected 
 with this work of the Spirit in the use of truth. 
 
 In what the ordinance of preaching consists it is not now 
 necessary to inquire ; because, in understanding it, there is 
 no great difficulty ; and because the discussions lately reviv- 
 ed in the Church, though they decidedly depreciate the val- 
 ue of this ordinance, are yet more largely devoted to the 
 nature of the sacraments, and to an undue exaltation of them, 
 as, in their language, " the sources of Divine grace." Into 
 this nature, therefore, it is more important to inquire ; and 
 upon this inquiry it is my purpose now to enter. In what 
 do the sacraments consist, or in what consist their true de- 
 sign and value 1 This is the inquiry now before us, and 
 in prosecuting it, we need the guidance of the Spirit both 
 
82 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 for writer and for reader ; a guidance which will never be 
 withheld from the true prayer of faith. 
 
 The sacraments which Christ has instituted are Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper. Baptism, like the Laver in the an- 
 cient Temple, is an ordinance which stands at the entrance 
 of the Church, the symbol of our needed purification from sin. 
 The Lord's Supper, like the mercy-seat, or place of typ- 
 ical atonement in the Holy of Holies, is an institution which 
 occupies the inner recess, the symbol of Christ's great sacri- 
 fice for sin. Baptism is administered to infants in sign of 
 the purifying which they need ; and to adults in sign of the 
 cleansing which they profess to have received ; and to both 
 as that by which they are admitted to membership in the 
 Church. The Lord's Supper is, or ought to be, administer- 
 ed to those only who, having been baptized, give evidence, 
 in their riper years, that they indeed are what their bap- 
 tism represents, the truly penitent and believing disciples of 
 the Lord Jesus, his renewed and obedient followers. 
 
 I inquire, first, into the nature of baptism, not, of course, 
 into its material and sensible part, but into its religious na- 
 ture and design. What is God's act, and what the souVs 
 experience in this ordinance ? 
 
 1. The answer to this question, as given by those who 
 have revived the present discussion, whether in England 
 or in this country, may be put down in the following terms, 
 selected from a multitude of others, equally significant and 
 strong : 
 
 " Baptism containeth the remission of sins," and " hath 
 the germ of spiritual life."* " This exposition" (that which 
 makes John, i., 12, 13, refer to baptism as the instrument 
 of the birth there mentioned) " is founded on the very notion 
 
 * Dr. Pusey's Sermon before the University of Oxford, N. Y. ed., p. 5. 
 The following references on the subject of baptism are all to the New-York 
 editions of Dr. Pusey's Sermon; and of the " Tracts for the Times," vol. ii. 
 part i. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 89 
 
 riiat the partaking of the incarnation, and the Christian rela- 
 tion of sonship to God, is imparted through baptism, and is 
 not imparled without it."* Baptism is " that mystery where- 
 by we are made partakers of the incarnation," being " bap- 
 tized into one body," the body of our Incarnate Lord."! 
 " The pardon of sins is the direct provision in baptism." 
 "Baptism gives life."| "Herein are we justified, or both 
 accounted and made righteous ;" " have a new principle of 
 life imparted to us ; since, having been made members of 
 Christ, we have a portion of His life or of Him, who is our 
 life."§ " In baptism two very diflerent causes are combin- 
 ed: the one, God himself; the other, a creature" (water) 
 " which He hath thought fit to hallow to this end."|| " Faith 
 and repentance are the conditions on which God gives it. 
 Water, sanctified by our Lord's baptism, is the womb of our 
 new birth. "TI In baptism, "the old man is laid aside, the 
 new taken ; he entereth a sinner, he ariseth justified."** 
 " Regeneration is the ' being born again of water and the 
 Spirit,' or, by God's Spirit moving again on the face of the 
 waters ; sanctifying them for our cleansing, and cleansing 
 us thereby. "ft One of the chief writers on this subject 
 calls baptism " this miracle."]:;}: The baptized, by way of 
 expressing the reality of this miracle, used to be called 
 " Christophori, Theophori," Christbearers, Godbearers.^^ 
 And, finally, " That oneness with Him in His Son," which 
 is alleged to be wrought through the sacraments, is called 
 " the perfection of eternal bliss, where will, thought, affec- 
 tions, shall be one, because we shall be, by communication 
 of His Divine nature, one."|[|j 
 
 * Tracts, vol. ii., p. 31. t Ibid., vol. ii., p. 44. 
 
 + Dr. Pusey's Sermon, p. 6. (} Tracts, vol. ii., p. 24. 
 
 I! Ibid., vol. ii., p. 26. % Ibid., vol. ii., p. 43. 
 
 ** Ibid., vol. ii., p. 47. ft Ibid., vol. ii., p. 47, 48. 
 
 XX Ibid., vol. ii., p. 68. {)() Ibid., vol. ii., p. 44. 
 
 illl Dr. Pusey's Sermons, p. 8. The following passages also contain the 
 substance of the theory : 
 
84 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM, 
 
 I would not force these expressions into a meaning no£ 
 intended, and yet it is desirable to throw them somewhat 
 more into summary, that the theory of baptism which they 
 really teach may be seen at a glance. According to this 
 theory, then, it is plain, 
 
 That in baptism, the Holy Spirit, taking residence in the 
 water, is communicated to the unconscious infant ; that 
 thus He makes the baptized a partaker of the incarnation, 
 as He at first made Christ to be incarnate in our nature ; 
 that, being " baptized into one body," means not, as usually 
 understood, initiated into the Church as the body of Christ, 
 but " baptized into the body of our incarnate Lord," as ex- 
 planatory of the phrase, " made partakers of the incarnation;" 
 
 " The view, then, here held of baptism is, that we be ingrafted into 
 Christ, and thereby receive a principle of life, afterward to be developed 
 and enlarged by fuller influxes of His grace ; so that neither is baptism 
 looked upon as an infusion of grace distinct from the incorporation into 
 Christ ; nor is that incorporation conceived of as separate from its attend- 
 ant blessings." — Tracts, vol. ii., p. 24, 25. 
 
 " No change of heart or of the aifections, no repentance, however radical, 
 no faith, no life, no love can come up to the idea of this ' birth from above ;' 
 it takes them all in, and comprehends them all, but itself is more than all ; 
 it is not only the creation of a new heart, new affections, new desires, and, 
 as it were, a new birth, but is an actual birth from above, or from God, a gift 
 coming down from God and given to faith, through baptism ; yet not the 
 work of faith, but the operation of ' water and the Holy Spirit ;' the Holy 
 Spirit giving us a new life in the fountain opened by Him, and we being 
 born therein of Him, even as our blessed and incarnate Lord was, accord- 
 ing to the flesh, born of Kim in the Virgin's womb."— Traces, vol. ii., p. 43. 
 
 " Our new birth" is " itself the gift of God," " illimitable and incompre- 
 hensible as that great mystery from which it flows, the incarnation of our 
 Redeemer." — Ibid. 
 
 " Baptismal regeneration, as connected with the incarnation of our blessed 
 Lord, gives a depth to our Christian existence, an actualness to our union 
 with Christ, a reality to our sonship to God, an interest in the presence of 
 our Lord's glorified body at God's right hand, a joyousness amid the sub- 
 duing of the flesh, an overwhelmingness to the dignity conferred on human 
 nature, a solemnity to the communion of saints, who are the fullness of 
 Him who fiUeth all in all, a substantiality to the indwelling of Christ, that 
 to those who retain this truth, the school which abandoned it must needs 
 appear to have sold its birthright." — Ibid., vol. ii., p. 16. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 85 
 
 that, in consequence of this literal ingrafting into Christ, 
 baptism gives life, the germ, the principle of spiritual life, a 
 portion of Him who is our life ; and that, being thus effica- 
 cious, it is both justifying and sanctifying, both the account- 
 ing and the making of us righteous. In short, by " this mira- 
 cle," " this communication of the Divine nature," we lay- 
 aside the old man and take the new; we enter the water 
 sinful flesh, and rise from it as from an " overwhelming mys- 
 tery," " Christophori, Theophori." 
 
 Such is the theory : the Holy Spirit imparted to the wa- 
 ter ; in that water meeting the infant, and imparting to it 
 Christ ; and then, as it leaves the font, presenting it justi- 
 fied in the twofold sense of being both accounted and made 
 righteous, the subject of a virtually miraculous communica- 
 tion of the Divine nature. 
 
 This is baptismal regeneration, as drawn from the state- 
 ments of a master of the doctrine, in distinction, he says, 
 from the system which " the moderns have formed ;" and 
 between which and " the exposition of the ancient Church," 
 he declares " the difference is radical, essential.''''* This is 
 what he terms the " overwhelming mystery,"t and of this 
 it is that he says, " It relates to no insulated point, no by 
 or incidental question which may be laid aside, or assumed 
 without affecting the rest. It lies, as is confessed, at the 
 root of the whole system, as some say, a deadening doctrine ; 
 as the old Church found it, full of life ;J but, in either case, 
 it is the point from which the two opposite systems that di- 
 vide the Church diverge. "§ 
 
 I believe that all acquainted with the subject will admit 
 that the difference between the two systems is radical and 
 essential ; and many, no doubt, will feel constrained to say 
 
 * Tracts, vol. ii., p. 47. + Ibid., vol. ii., p. 44. 
 
 X Did " the old Church" grow more vital the longer she hugged this 
 doctrine to her bosom? Alas! she gathered from it but the vitahty of 
 death ! ^ Tracts, vol. ii., p. 38 
 
 H 
 
86 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 that the theory here stated is not only unsustained by the 
 sense of Scripture, but fraught with an absurdity as great as 
 that of transubstantiation itself. 
 
 The advocates of this doctrine warn us against asking, 
 " How can these things be ?" They call all such " Nico- 
 demus questions ;" they urge us to believe that we may un- 
 derstand ; and they caution us against turning certain Scrip- 
 tures inio figures, lest we thereby justify heretics in turning 
 all other vital truths into the emptiness of mere tropes. 
 Nevertheless, as their theory is itself an attempt to interpret 
 the Scriptures, and enters rather boldly into their " Exposi- 
 tion," we must even attempt the same thing. We must 
 not be deterred from studying the Scriptures, and that, more 
 deeply than just to look upon them with the eye and believe. 
 We must seek to discover their real meaning ; and our ob- 
 ject in doing so should be, not to avoid finding figures in 
 the Bible ; but, where we do find them, to ascertain the 
 true sense which they carry. 
 
 1. The view of baptism, then, which I have presented, 
 rests for its corner-stone on this idea, that, in order to re- 
 generation and spiritual life, the baptized must be not merely 
 renewed and made holy by repentance, faith, and obedience, 
 but something higher and more miraculous than this — made 
 "partakers of the incarnation:" that the ofiice of the Holy 
 Spirit is, to work in the baptized, by the water which it 
 fills, a participation of Christ's whole nature ; " an illimita- 
 ble, incomprehensible mystery," analogous to that in which 
 He made Christ incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, when 
 He brought the Divine nature into union with the human, 
 and imparted to the latter the life of the former. The the- 
 ory understands the phrases, " born of God," " born of the 
 Spirit," as, in the strictest sense, literal ; that, as infants are 
 born not only hy, but o/" their parents, of their substance, so 
 are Christians born q/'God, ofthe Spirit ; not only by His 
 operation, but literally of Him. Its main point, however, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 87 
 
 seems to be, that the baptized participate in the incarnation ; 
 that they are, " not by any figure, or likeness, but actually, 
 sons of God, because He, in Whom and of Whom they are 
 made, is, not by any figure or likeness, but actually, the 
 Son of God ;" that they are " parts of the Second Adam, as 
 they were by nature of the first."* 
 
 But, though this is the corner-stone of the system, yet the 
 system itself, with its corner-stone, rests on something still 
 lower down. The doctrine seeks its support in something 
 still farther back ; and this something is a correlative notion 
 of what at first constituted original righteousness, and of 
 what still constitutes original sin. In order that the theory 
 of Baptismal Regeneration, as just stated, may not look too 
 like a new conceit, related to nothing in earlier Divine dis- 
 closures, its advocates go back to the creation and fall of 
 man, and impose on those gi"eat facts a character corre- 
 spondent with their own view of the means of man's recov- 
 ery from sin, and of his restoration to his primeval privi- 
 lege. Their view of these points is briefly this. 
 
 2. Original righteousness consisted, not in " actual in- 
 herent holiness'''' (the image of God), but in a " supernatural 
 clothing,''^ " over and above nature j"t and this, " agreeably 
 with the view of justification already taken, is nothing less 
 than the inward presence either of the Divine Word, or of 
 the Holy Ghost. "| Consequently, original sin consists, not 
 
 * Tracts, vol. ii., p. 44. 
 
 t " Christ clothes us with something over and above nature, which Adam 
 forfeited." — Newman on Justification, London, 1838, p. 180. 
 
 Dr. Pusey shadows forth the same idea in his Treatise on Baptism : 
 " We are first clothed upon by Him, and when we have been thus clothed, 
 the blessing is pronounced upon ' him that watcheth and keepeth his gar- 
 ments, lest he walk naked.' Our shame, which we contracted in Adam's 
 fall, is first hidden, and our garment of immortality and righteousness more 
 than restored, by being made members of Christ ; and then we are bidden, 
 ' Buy of me white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame 
 of thy nakedness do not appear.'" — [Tract 67, p. 91.] 
 
 t Newman on Justification, p. 180. 
 
 To show how distinct this alleged original, or justifying righteousness, 
 
88 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 in the loss of " actual inherent holiness," or the image of 
 God, but in the deprivation or forfeiture of this supernatural 
 clothing, this extra endowment of Divinity. In other words, 
 God at first created, not a mere perfect man — a man in 
 the Divine image, because of a moral and rational nature, 
 and perfect in his kind ; but a perfect man with a Divino 
 addition to his perfection ; a literal Theophorus — a created 
 being with an endowment uncreated. And then, by the 
 fall, man not only lost his " actual inherent holiness," but 
 also forfeited his supernatural i7ivestment ; in which for- 
 feiture — not in the loss of holiness — consists original sin. 
 
 lost at the fall and regained under the Gospel, is from any thing in man or 
 of man, as the result of God's agency, I give a few other extracts. 
 
 " Justifying righteousness consists in the coming and presence of the 
 Holy Ghost within us" — p. 153. 
 
 "It is not any mere quality of mind, whether faith or holiness" — p. 
 154, 155. 
 
 " Justification" (and, of course, the righteousness in which it consists) 
 "is not a mere change of slate in us, or a liberty, privilege, or (as it may 
 be called) citizenship ; but a something lodged within us" — p. 157. 
 
 " The righteousness, on which we are called righteous, though within us, 
 as it must be, if it is to separate us from the world, yet is not of us, nor in ns, 
 nor any quality or act of our minds, not faith, not renovation, not obedience, 
 not any thing cognizable by man, but a certain Divine gift, in which all 
 these qualitications are included" — p. 159. 
 
 " The Divine Presence vouchsafed to us, besides being that of the Holy 
 Trinity, is specially said to be the presence of Christ ; vihich would seem 
 to imply that ' The Word made flesh' is, in some mysterious manner, be- 
 stowed upon us" — p. 164. This is said in explanation of " the Gift of 
 Righteousness." 
 
 " Christ is our Righteousness, by dwelling in us by the Spirit. He justi- 
 fies us by entering into us ; He continues to justify us by remaining in us. 
 This is really and truly our justification, not faith, not holiness, not a mere 
 imputation ; but, through God's mercy, the very presence of Christ" — 
 p. 167. 
 
 " Christians are justified by the communication of an inward, most sa- 
 cred, and most mysterious gift. From the very time of baptism they are 
 temples of the Holy Ghost." — Ibid. 
 
 The difference between Old and New Testament saints in the matter of 
 justification is said to be this : that the former were not, while the latter 
 were, " partakers in the body and blood of the Incarnate Son" — p. 225. In 
 short, the lectures abound in traces of the above train of thought. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 8& 
 
 Now from this im-Bible-like notion (to fashion a word 
 for the place), from this apparent forethought, which is yet 
 an afterthought, from this seeming parent, which is yet an 
 offspring, the theory of baptismal regeneration now in view, 
 appears naturally to follow. The added supernatural invest- 
 ment which, by the theory, was forfeited at the fall, is, by 
 the power of the Holy Ghost in baptism, graciously re- 
 stored ; and thus the baptized becomes, as at first, more 
 than man, " a partaker in the incarnation, a literal Theo- 
 phorus," " not by any figure, or likeness, but actually, a Son 
 of God ;" " a part of the Second Adam." 
 
 (1.) From this, it is evident that, in pursuing the present 
 argument, the first step is, to show the baselessness of the 
 foregoing theory of original righteousness and original sin. 
 To do this fully would require a volume ; but for the pres- 
 ent much less must suffice. 
 
 What foundation, then, has that theory ? Scripturally, 
 none at all. It is a pure figment. The Bible contains an 
 account of the creation and endowment of no such being as 
 the theory supposes. " Let us make man in our image, 
 after our likeness." " So God created man in his own 
 image." — Gen., i., 26, 27. " And the Lord God formed 
 man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 
 the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." — Gen., 
 ii., 7. This is the whole of the simply sublime account 
 which the Bible gives of the origin of our race ; an event, 
 in view of which God pronounced His whole created Work, 
 not only " good" as He saw it before, but " very good" now 
 that one in His own image stood up to understand, admire, 
 and enjoy the magnificent whole. 
 
 But where, in this account, do we find the original of the 
 idea, that man was not only created in the image of God, 
 but also gifted with an additional supernatural investment, 
 " the inward presence of the Divine Word, or of the Holy 
 Ghost ?" We find, indeed, that as to his rational and mor- 
 H 2 
 
90 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 al part, he was not formed, but " created ;" brought into be- 
 ing by that mysterious energy which speaks existence out 
 of non-existence ; and that, as to his material and corrupti- 
 ble part, he was — not created — but '^^ formed," fashioned out 
 of already existing materials, " the dust of the ground."* 
 We find, also, that after his lifeless body had been thus 
 fashioned, God " breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 life ;" and that thus the created and the formed taking 
 union, " man became a living soul," a simply perfect man, 
 new from his Maker's hand, and bright in his Maker's im- 
 age. But in all this we find no place for an additional 
 supernatural investment. The only point at which this 
 can be supposed to have been given, is that closing act, in 
 which God breathed into the yet unbreathing nostrils the 
 literal and common breath of life. To suppose, however, 
 that at the same moment, and in the same act. He inspired 
 the supernatural grace, " the inward presence of the Divine 
 Word, or of the Holy Ghost," would be to indulge a gratui- 
 tous and baseless assumption. Such a notion, however it 
 might live in the imagining of the theorist, liveth not in the 
 sober Word of God. So far as Scriptural testimony goes, 
 this theory of original righteousness and, of course, of original 
 sin, is, I repeat, without foundation. It is a pure figment. 
 It can not but be seen that, if the notion of baptismal regen- 
 eration, as it has been stated, had never been entertained, 
 this figment would never have been conceived. A sane, 
 sober student of the ancient Bible, mindless of modern theo- 
 ries, would never have dreamed of such a thing. 
 
 (2.) Besides, the whole idea, when imbodied into consist- 
 ency, savors not only of the improbable, but also of the im- 
 possible. It supposes that God created a perfect man, who 
 was yet more than man. To illustrate this, it must be re- 
 
 * The difference here indicated between " created" and "formed" is, by 
 some, supposed to be implied in the diiferent meanings of the two He- 
 brew words, K13i and TW^p- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 91 
 
 membered that, according to the theory of baptismal regen- 
 eration under this system, the baptized become " partakers 
 of the incarnation," "parts of the Second Adam ;" existing 
 in the same intimate and mysterious union with the nature 
 of Christ, which was effected between the human and the 
 Divine, when He was made incarnate by the Holy Ghost 
 in the womb of the Virgin ; and that the original counter- 
 part to this restored mystery in man is found in that super- 
 natural investment, which was added to his nature at crea- 
 tion. To make the latter idea consistent, therefore, this 
 supernatural investment, or original righteousness, must be, 
 not the mere presence of God among his children, but that 
 same intimate and mysterious union of the Divine Word 
 with their natures by the power of the Holy Ghost, which 
 is alleged to be restoringly effected in baptism. And this 
 seems to be the true idea as entertained by the advocates of 
 the system. I repeat, then, this supposes that God created 
 a perfect man, who was yet more than man ; which is re- 
 ally the figment of an impossibility. God may be in man 
 by an image, a likeness of Himself ; but not by an actual 
 irapartation of Himself, of His substance. His moral and 
 rational attributes are communicable, in the sense of being 
 imitable ; but his nature itself is zVi-communicable. In this 
 sense, He neither " will" nor can, " give His glory to 
 another." The heavens, it is said, may be imaged in a 
 dew-drop : certainly ; but they can not bs in a dew-drop, 
 with their very substance. So God may be imaged in the 
 soul ; He may have His likeness there : but He can not be 
 in the soul by a literal impartation and commingling of 
 Himself with its substance. I do not deny the possibility 
 of a miraculous union of the human nature with the Divine. 
 This union has been once effected in the mysterious person 
 of our glorious " Immanuel." But I do deny its possi- 
 bility consistently with its subject's continuing a mere man. 
 Such a union can not be effected without rendering every 
 
92 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 Christian literally a true Christ ; and thus rendering the 
 work of atonement practically needless : a consequence 
 which, in truth, would seem to follow from this whole 
 system. But no such consequence flows from the true 
 statement of this subject. Originally, man was created, 
 simply and perfectly, man ; in the likeness of God, in so far 
 as he was of a moral and rational nature, and perfectly holy. 
 He was not a being compounded of this perfect man, and 
 an added supernatural investment with the Divine nature. 
 And by the fall, he lost, not what had never been given, but 
 what he had received — his holiness, his likeness to God ; 
 his original righteousness, in the true Scriptural sense of 
 the term. 
 
 (3.) After this view, it may seem needless to add, that 
 such a union as is here denied, would evidently have been 
 a strange departure from the whole analogy of God's cre- 
 ating work. When He created the inferior orders of being, 
 He formed them, as we are told, each " after his kind," and 
 perfect in his kind ; dependent on many other things, and 
 yet perfectly distinct from all other things. So, when He 
 created angels, or superior orders, those " sons of God," 
 those " morning stars" that " sang together and shouted for 
 joy" when the " corner stone" of the world was laid ; we 
 have not the slightest intimation that He created them 
 otherwise than " after their kind," and perfect in their 
 kind ; mere angels ; dependent on God, indeed, and yet not 
 God, nor any fart of Him, but perfectly distinct beings. It 
 is unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that man was an 
 anomaly, an exception to this evidently general, and other- 
 wise universal rule of creation. He also was created 
 " after his kind," and perfect in his kind ; mere man ; de- 
 pendent on God, and yet not God, nor any part of God, but 
 a perfectly distinct being ; conformed in every respect to all 
 our conceptions of distinct genus and species. 
 
 (4.) Moreover, if it were possible and rational to origi- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 93 
 
 nate a being such as the theory makes the first man, how 
 mightily would this embarrass the already profoundly diffi- 
 cult question of the origin of evil in our world ! For what 
 purpose could his added supernatural investment, if possi- 
 ble, have been given to man, when withheld from angels, 
 except to keep man from such a fall as that into which an- 
 gels had plunged ? And where was the inward Deity when 
 the subtle tempter glozed in the ear of the primal mother 
 that artful falsehood, " Eat, and ye shall not die ; but be as 
 gods, knowing good and evil ?" Supposing man so singu- 
 larly endowed, of what use was then the awful gift ? On 
 the Scriptural ground that man was simply man, made strong 
 to stand, yet left free to fall, we can conceive of the mode, 
 though we may not of the reason, of the origin of evil in our 
 world. But on the ground of this theory, the question loses 
 us in utter darkness ; yea, amid the awfulness of a reluct- 
 ant, yet unavoidable arraignment of God ! The difficulties 
 of unquestionable Scripture on this point are sufficiently 
 great. But those of this theory are infinitely greater ; and 
 we come with increased satisfaction to the conclusion that 
 the Bible is an utter stranger to the idea of original right- 
 eousness and original sin, which has now been examined. 
 
 (5.) This theory derives as little support from the Script- 
 ural account of the fall as it does from that of the creation 
 of man. 
 
 The account of the creation in the second chapter of Gen- 
 esis closes with the remark, that " they were both naked, and 
 not ashamed." That of the fall in the third chapter con- 
 cludes with this : " The eyes of both of them were opened, 
 and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed 
 fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons." — Gen , 
 ii., 25 ; iii., 7. And after the sad catastrophe, when they 
 had " hid themselves among the trees of the garden," and 
 when Adam " heard the voice of the Lord," calling, •' Where 
 art thou ?" he replied, " I heard thy voice in the garden, and 
 
94 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 I was afraid, because I was naked." — Gen., iii., 8-10. 
 Now it is undeniable that the nakedness here mentioned in 
 the second chapter, and that discovered in the third, are 
 identical. \i ihe former were bodily, so was the latter ; and 
 if the latter were spiritual, so was the former. And yet, 
 with plain reference to these primeval scenes, and by way 
 of supporting the theory of original righteousness and orig- 
 inal sin, one of its advocates, in part conjecturally, and in 
 part positively, argues thus : " Whereas we have gained, 
 under the Gospel, what we lost in Adam, and justification 
 is a reversing of our forfeiture, and a robe of righteousness 
 is what Christ gives, perchance a robe is what Adam lost." 
 " Of this he was stripped, by sinning, as of a covering, 
 and shrank from the sight of himself."* This, it must be 
 
 * Newman on Justification, p. 179. The whole sentence stands thus : 
 " Whereas we have gained under the Gospel what we lost in Adam, and 
 justification is a reversing of our forfeiture, and a robe of righteousness is 
 what Christ gives, perchance a robe is what Adam lost. If so, what is told 
 us of what he lost will explain what it is we gain. Now the peculiar gift 
 which Adam lost is told us in the Book of Genesis ; and it certainly seems 
 to have been a supernatural clothing. He was stripped of it by sinning, as 
 of a covering, and shrank from the sight of himself." 
 
 It may be well to add the following extracts from the same work, as far- 
 ther illustrations of the view here given of original righteousness and origi- 
 nal sin : 
 
 " The Catholic fathers, as Bishop Bull has collected their testimony, 
 teach that the principle of sanctity in Adam, to which was attached the 
 gift of immortality, was something distinct from and above his human nature. 
 That nature, indeed, did look toward such a perfection, but could not in 
 itself reach it. Without this heavenly possession, man was not able to 
 keep the law according to the covenant of life, but ivith it he could serve 
 God acceptably, and gain the reward set before him" — p. 182. 
 
 " Whatever else Adam had by creation, this seems to have been one 
 main gift, or, rather, that in which all others were included, the presence 
 of God, the Holy Ghost in him," &c. " This was his clothing ; this he lost 
 by disobedience ; this Christ has regained for us" — p. 183. 
 
 " It is an angelic glory, which good spirits honor, which devils tremble 
 at, and which we are bound reverently to cherish, with a careful abstinence 
 from sin, and with the sacrifice of good works. Well, then, may prophets 
 and apostles exult in it as the great gift of Divine Mercy, as the rich gar- 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 96 
 
 remembered, is spoken, not of our loss of holiness, or the 
 image of God, and of our recovery of that holiness, or like- 
 ness to Him ; but of an alleged forfeiture and restitution of 
 something " over and above nature,'" of a supernatural invest- 
 ment ; in the possession of which consisted original right- 
 eousness, and in the forfeiture of which stood original sin, 
 in the sense contended for by the theory. Let us see what 
 this will make of the account of the fall. 
 
 Upon his disobedience, according to the theory, Adam 
 found himself" stripped, as of a covering," not of " actual in- 
 herent holiness," but of the " something over and above na- 
 ture," wherewith God had clothed his soul ; and being thus 
 stripped, he discovered his nakedness, " and shrank from the 
 sight of himself." The nakedness which he discovered, and 
 which made him " afraid," was, it seems, not bodily, hut sniril- 
 ual ; it was his fallen humanity left without the robe of divnily, 
 as that which had constituted his original righteousness. 
 But, as was this discovered nakedness after the fall, such also 
 was the wndiscovered nakedness before the fall. The cer- 
 tainty of this is indisputable. Before the fall, " they were na- 
 ked, and not ashamed ;" after it, " they knew they were naked, 
 and were afraid." Of the identity of the nakedness in these 
 two scenes, common sense knows no doubt. Thus, then, 
 we have it. Man was equally, and in the same sense, 
 naked both before and after the fall. If this nakedness 
 were spiritual, consisting in the absence of the alleged Di- 
 vine robe, original righteousness, then have we mzn, forfeit- 
 ing, at the fall, a righteousness which he never posssessed, 
 " stripfed" of a robe in which God had never clothed him. 
 But if his nakedness were bodily, consisting in the absence 
 
 ment of salvation, and the enjeweled robe of righteousness, &c., as ' Christ 
 in us,' and 'upon us,' and around us, as if it were a light streaming from 
 our hearts, pervading the whole man, inwrapping and hiding the lineaments 
 and members of our fallen nature, circling round US, and returning inward to 
 the centre from which it issues" — p. 184. 
 
96 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 of literal clothing (and who doubts that this is the true 
 sense ?), then again is the theory convicted of a gratuitous 
 and baseless assumption, while engaged in the solemn work 
 of attempting to interpret the oracles of God ; turning the 
 actually literal into the figurative, whenever it suits its pur- 
 pose, as easily as, for the same reason, it can turn the truly 
 figurative into the literal. The nakedness for which holy 
 innocence cared not, but which made conscious guilt afraid, 
 and seek an artificial covering, is here, by a mere fiction in 
 theology converted into the stripping of Adam's inner man 
 of its Divine robe, its supernatural investment ! The mere 
 statement of the absurdity is its best refutation. 
 
 (6.) After what has thus been said, we shall expect to find 
 ilie Articles of our Church as much a stranger to this theory 
 as are the Scriptures themselves. And such is the case. 
 Turn to the standards and read. 
 
 " Original sin standeth, not in the following of Adam (as 
 the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the fault and corrup- 
 tion of the nature of every man, that naturally is engender- 
 ed of the offspring of Adam ; whereby man is very far gone 
 from original righteousness, and is, of his own nature, incli- 
 ned to evil ; so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the 
 Spirit." " And this infection of nature doth remain ; yea, 
 in them that are regenerated."* 
 
 This article is, indeed, directed against the Pelagians by 
 name, but it is not, therefore, the less fatal to the theory 
 which I am examining. Original righteousness and origi- 
 nal sin, as mentioned in this article, are moral opposites. 
 Its actual definition of the one is, therefore, a virtual defini- 
 tion of the other. How, then, does the article define original 
 sin, the state in which man is very far gone from its opposite, 
 original righteousness ? Does it say that this sin stands in 
 the loss of a supernatural investment, of a mysterious Divine 
 gift infused into man ? No ; but that it consists in the loss 
 ♦ See Art. ix. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 97 
 
 of man's own holiness ; it " standeth in the fauh and cor- 
 ruption of our nature" itself; it is " an infection of nature 
 which remains even in the regenerate." Such being its 
 definition of original sin, the direct ojiposite is its definition 
 of original righteousness. For the two states — either of 
 them being defined — mutually define each other. As, there- 
 fore, " original sin standeth in the fault and corruption, or 
 infection of our nature'^ itself, " inclining us to evil," so orig- 
 inal righteousness stood in the faultlessness and purity, or 
 soundness of our nature itself, inclining the first man to 
 good ; and this original righteousness is but another name 
 for that perfect holiness, that image and likeness of God, 
 in which man was at first created. Thus, the theory and 
 the article are at war ! Let us draw distinctly into view 
 the points in the conflict. 
 
 The theory says, Original Righteousness stood, not in 
 *' actual, inherent holiness,'" or the likeness of God ; but in an 
 added supernatural investment. The article says, It stood, 
 not in this added supernatural investment, lut in " actual, 
 inherent holiness," or the likeness of God. The theory 
 proclaims. Original sin standeth, not in " the fault and cor- 
 ruption of our nature," but in the forfeiture of an original 
 Divine gift superadded to nature. The article proclaims. It 
 standeth, not in the forfeiture of this additional gift, but in 
 the very fault and corruption of our nature itself. So open- 
 ly and fatally do the two clash ! 
 
 This, however, is not the whole of the conflict. If, ac- 
 cording to the theory, original sin stand in the alleged for- 
 feiture, then, when the forfeit is recovered in Baptism, orig- 
 inal sin no longer remains. By the theory, original sin 
 and the gift in Baptism are opposites. Where the one is 
 the other is not. But the article teaches that original sin 
 does remain, " even in them that are regenerated." It re- 
 mains identical with that lingernig " infection of nature," 
 the deep power of which renders our sanctification progres- 
 I 
 
9B THE NATURE G¥ BAPTISBir. 
 
 &ive ; the often slov/, and the too often interrupted moYemeni 
 of our lives. That there is such a thing as this progressi/e 
 sanctitication, the advocates of the theory admit, though 
 they miscall it " progressive justification^ But the theory 
 itself deities what the article affirms^ that original sin itself 
 remains after baptism. In truth, the theory is at irrecon- 
 cilable war both with the standards of the Church, and with 
 the Bible, on which those standards are planted. There is 
 no such original righteousness, nor any such original sin, 
 as is here feigned. While the theory admits what we un- 
 derstand by the image af God, or his likeness in man (an 
 admission, however, which is rather tacit than much talked 
 of), it adds to the Bible doctrine its own peculiarities, which 
 are yet not mere additions, but in truth irreconcilable differ- 
 ences ; nay, virtual contradictions ! 
 
 I have dwelt thus long on this notion of original right- 
 eousness and original sin, because it is really the imagi- 
 nary foundation, on which the theory of baptismal regener- 
 ation now in view seeks to rest itself; and because, to 
 demonstrate that this foundation is imaginary, is at the same 
 time to demonstrate that the theory, which seeks to rest on 
 it, is unscriptural. This theory has no o^Aer foundation. It 
 is bound to a baseless idea of original righteousness and 
 original sin ; and, with the unsettling of this idea, it Jails. 
 As there was no such supernatural gift as that alleged to 
 have been forfeited at the fall, so there is no such supernat- 
 ural grace to be restored in baptism. This holds true, how- 
 ever you may fashion, and vary, and modify the notion of 
 that supernatural gift, so long as you keep it distinct aiKj 
 difi'erent from that original holiness, the image of God, in 
 which man was created. And the moment you bring it 
 down so as to make it no longer a Divine thing added to the 
 mere perfect man, but identical with his perfection, his orig- 
 inal holiness, the likeness of God in him, that moment you 
 come upon a different foundation, and the whole system of 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 99 
 
 Biblical Theology receives a different shaping. The moment 
 you cease modifying the notion which I have examined, and 
 adopt the idea that original righteousness was indeed 
 nothing else than " actual inherent holiness," the moral like- 
 ness of God in man, that moment you step from a founda- 
 tion of fiction to a foundation of fact ; you leave the imagi- 
 nary for the real ; you leave that fountain-Error, whose dark 
 stream flows on in a religion of miracle in sacraments, and 
 of superstition in ceremonies ; and come to the spring-head 
 of Truth, whose living waters descend to us in a religion of 
 Bible doctrine in the understanding, and of Bible holiness in 
 the heart. 
 
 The simple, yet grand truth on this point is. that man was 
 created " in the image of God," without any additional su- 
 pernatural investment ; " in the likeness of God," without any 
 added impartation of God. By creation he was a truly and 
 a merely perfect man. By the fall, his nature became changed 
 from perfect to imperfect, from holy to sinful, from the likeness 
 of God to a loss of that likeness. And now, what Christ 
 seeks, in coming into the world, surrounded with the lights 
 of revelation and the teachings of the Spirit, is to restore 
 man to the state from which he is fallen ; to change his na- 
 ture, with a reverse movement, from imperfect to perfect, 
 from sinful to holy, from the loss to the repossession of 
 likeness to God. We do not need a mysterious reinvesti- 
 ture with the Divine nature, but a Scriptural restoration to 
 the perfection of our own nature. We need, not a virtually 
 miraculous addition, but a spiritual, though intelligible 
 change ; a change inscrutable in its mode, but most intelli- 
 gible in its effects ; wrought by the Spirit of God in the se- 
 crecy of His goings, yet distinctly cognizable by us in the 
 results of His workings : still, a mere change, and not an ad- 
 dition. This change is all that we can have ; and it is 
 enough, as well as all that is possible. As the issue of our 
 literal resurrection will be to " fashion our vile bodies into 
 
100 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 a likeness to Christ's glorious body ;" so the issue of this 
 spiritual resurrection is, to refashion our fallen souls into a 
 likeness to his more glorious Godhead. What more than 
 this can we have ? What more than this can we desire ? 
 
 II. The way being thus opened, I advance toward the 
 direct subject of this part of the treatise, the true nature of 
 baptism. 
 
 1. The first consideration which I submit, after what 
 has been said, is this. The notion of original righteous- 
 ness and original sin, which has been examined, as the 
 foundation of a correlative theory of baptismal regeneration, 
 having been shown to be unscriptural, a mere figment of the 
 imagination, we are left, not only at liberty, but under obli- 
 gation, to interpret John, iii., 5, and other passages on the 
 subject of baptism, into a correspondence with that other 
 great system of Biblical Theology, which the advocates for 
 the one examined pronounce to be *' radically and essentially 
 different" from theirs. Having shown their notion of orig- 
 inal righteousness and sin to be without foundation, I con- 
 ceive we are not at liberty to reject that notion, and yet 
 cling to its correlative theory of baptismal regeneration. We 
 are boimd, as consistent interpreters of the Bible, to reject 
 both or neither ; for they are tied inseparably together, and to- 
 gether they both stand or fall. Next to the abstract being of 
 a God, all doctrinal theology originates in the account which 
 the Bible gives of the creation and fall of man. Hence, of 
 necessity, the theory of baptismal regeneration, which has 
 been mentioned, pushes itself back to that spring of doc- 
 trines, and feels among the great facts, that lie gushing 
 there, for some opening to which it may trace up its own 
 stream : it goes back to that beginning of systems, and feels 
 among those great foundation-stones for some basis on 
 which it may rest its own theory. And the very fact that, 
 in thus going back, it has found a spring-head, of which the 
 Bible knows nothing ; that it has discovered a foundation- 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 101 
 
 Stone, which lies, not among the hills that circle Eden, the 
 cradle of theology as well as of man, but in the land of 
 dreams, as it spreads somewhere beyond ; the very fact 
 that this theory, in thus going back, has traced itself to fic- 
 tion, and based itself on error, proves that, in itself, it is but 
 a figment of error. The true system of Biblical Theology, 
 in thus carrying itself back to its origin, can make no mis- 
 take in finding its true spring-head, its real corner-stone. 
 To suppose the possibility of such a mistake is to suppose 
 as great an absurdity as that, in tracing the sacred Jordan 
 to its source, you might find it in the fabled mountain, 
 which is said to pour down the infant Ganges toward the 
 scene of his awful deification ! As great an absurdity as 
 that, in seeking for the corner-stone of God's holy Temple, 
 you might find it under the gorgeous Pagoda that houses 
 the hideous Juggernauth ! The spiritual affinities of truth 
 are with the true ; those of error only are with the false. 
 
 Is it not true, then, that the notion of original righteous- 
 ness and sin to which this theory of baptismal regeneration 
 traces itself back is a fictitious and unreal thing 1 Is it not 
 true that not only our article, but the Bible, Go(Vs Word, 
 knows nothing of such notion ; and that this notion is not 
 only a stranger, but a foreigner, and a foe, to the simple, 
 though sublime truths of Revelation ? If these things are 
 too palpable to be hidden from the open eye, then we claim 
 the right, ay, and feel the bond, to set aside from our faith, 
 not only this notion itself, but also its legitimate correlative, 
 baptismal regeneration, as here understood. They both be- 
 long to the same system, a system of covering, obscuring, 
 and corrupting additions to the true system of the Bible ; 
 they belong to a system which is " radically and essentially 
 different" from this of the Bible, not so much by denying as 
 by overlaying, crushing, and killing it with its ponderous 
 masses of addition. The whole, therefore, must be heaved 
 12 
 
102 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 off together, or this system will find no relief; its free activ- 
 ities will be perpetually laboring under a mountain. 
 
 2. The next consideration which I submit, in approach- 
 ing the true idea of the nature of baptism, is this : As the 
 great end which Christ seeks in his work of redemption is, 
 not a Divine addition to our nature, but a Scriptural change 
 of our nature ; not a participation in the whole nature of 
 Christ, " body, soul, and Divinity," but a being morally 
 " conformed to the image of Christ," in all holy and spiritual 
 perfectness ; so, whatever else may be God^s act and the 
 souVs experience in baptism, it can not he the working and 
 undergoing of this great needed change. This is undenia- 
 ble. For, in the case of all adults, this change is required 
 in order to baptism (see Acts, viii., 37 ; also the Church 
 Catechism on Sacraments), and if they have not this change 
 hefore baptism, they receive this sacrament " unworthily" 
 and so, in the language of our article, " purchase to them- 
 selves," not a blessing, but "damnation." — Article xxv. 
 While, in the case of infants, this change can not be wrought. 
 It is a change, the steps in which are, " repentance toward 
 God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ;" leading us 
 out into the life of holy love and holy obedience, with every 
 other affection of a sanctified nature. We can have no oth- 
 er idea than this of the change required in us. But how 
 can we repent of sin till we understand and feel what sin is, 
 and that we are its perpetrators ? Or how can we helieve, 
 till we know and approve that in which we are to believe, 
 or Him in whom we are to repose our faith 1 And how can 
 we feel holy love, or render holy obedience, or exercise any 
 other affection of a holy nature, till the springs of these 
 things are reopened within us ? All this is clearly impos- 
 sible, and therefore it is that this change, whatever else 
 may be wrought in infant baptism, ca7i not be wrought. 
 
 This point is not presented magisterially. The Church, in 
 her Catechism, that system of rudiments with which she 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 103 
 
 imbues the opening minds of her children, has so decided. 
 Having stated that " repentance, whereby they forsake sin, 
 and faith, wh-ereby they steadfastly believe the promises of 
 Ood," are " required" as prerequisites in those who come 
 to baptism, she asks, " Why, then, are infants baptized, 
 when, by reason of their tender age, they can not perform 
 them ;" can not feel the repentance, nor exercise the faith, 
 which are required ? And her answer is, " Because they 
 promise them both by their sureties ; which promise, when 
 they come to age, themselves are bound to perform." Their 
 natural guardians answer for them ; and this lays them, 
 with increased solemnity, under a blessed obligation to do 
 what is required the moment they become capaVh of it. 
 Of it, in ififancy, they are not capable. This decision of 
 the Church is based, undeniably, in the veiy reason and 
 nature of things. In the baptized infant, the mind takes no 
 cognizance of what is sacramentally passing. It is utterly 
 incapable of understanding what is done for it, or of com- 
 prehending a single truth uttered over it. And it is impos- 
 sible to conceive that the moral nature, or character of the 
 soul, should be changed, or in any way remedially affected, 
 except as, in accordance with the principle laid down in 
 the first chapter, it is put intelligently in motion ; made to 
 act, to think, to understand, to feel, to repent, to believe, to 
 pray, to strive, to love^ to hope, or, in some way, put forth 
 its powers in the apprehension of those truths in which the 
 Spirit comes, and which bring to view God and the reali- 
 ties of the spiritual world. This point, then, needs no far- 
 ther argument. The great change required in every actual 
 sinner, in order to salvation, can not be wrought in baptism, 
 whatever else be passing there. 
 
 We should now be prepared for entering on an examina- 
 tion of the principal texts that relate to the sacrament of 
 baptism, were it not that, having dealt thus far with the 
 great principles of the case, without turning aside to notice 
 
104 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 objections, or matters incidental to the subject, it may be 
 well to spend some time, before proceeding to such an ex- 
 amination, in disposing of some suggestions arising from 
 what has been said. But for this we shall require the time 
 and space of subsequent chapters. Here, therefore, the 
 present is closed. With our views of original righteous- 
 ness and sin clearly defined and well settled, with the two 
 great and essentially diverse systems of theology, to which 
 different theories on those points have given rise, distinctly 
 before our minds, and with principles to guide us in look- 
 ing into the Scriptures for the true idea of baptism, we may 
 well feel that we have enough for present thought and di- 
 gestion. It is of infinite importance that we feel the prac- 
 tical relations of what has been advanced. If it all termi- 
 nated in mere speculation ; if the views which have been 
 discussed could have no influence on our real characters, 
 and on our daily religion ; on the character of the Church,, 
 and on the progress of the Gospel, I would not spend a 
 breath in giving my thoughts vent. But it is not so. The 
 very reason why I have said so much, and spoken so ear- 
 nestly, is, because the topics which have occupied our 
 thoughts are most vital in their influence, and affect most 
 vitally the whole state and destiny of our religion, whether 
 in the individual or in the mass. These topics, indeed, 
 lie remote from e very-day thought ; but they send down 
 their influences upon us with an ever-living energy. They 
 are like the sources of a great stream, which lie among dis- 
 tant, and, perhaps, to many, inaccessible mountains; but 
 whose waters reach us for all that, either to delight and 
 bless us, or to overwhelm and sweep us away. According 
 to the views which we adopt of these topics, the Gospel 
 and the Church will prove to us full, either of simple beau- 
 ty and perennial life, or of turgid splendor and unsaying 
 show. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 105 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 John, iii., 5 : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be bom of 
 water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 Before proceeding to a direct examination of this and 
 Other texts on the subject of baptism, I have promised to 
 consider certain suggestions which may arise out of what 
 was said in the last chapter. We there saw that the two 
 correlative ideas of man's fall and recovery, which make 
 these facts consist in the forfeiture and restoration of a mys- 
 terious something of and from God, " over and above nature," 
 or added to that perfect nature which was created in the 
 image of God, are unscriptural, based on mischievous error, 
 and lead to a great system of theology, which is full of mir- 
 acle in sacraments, and of superstition in ceremonies. We 
 also saw that the true view of these points, as given in the 
 Bible, is, that our fall and recovery consist in the loss and 
 restoration of the very image of God wherein we were cre- 
 ated ; in a change of our nature itself, first from holiness to 
 sin, and then, with a reverse movement, from sin to holi- 
 ness ; and that this view leads to another great and " radi- 
 cally different" system of theology, a religion of Bible doc- 
 trine in the understanding, and of Bible holiness in the 
 heart. And, finally, we saw that the change now required 
 in us, in order to a recovery of the lost image of God, is 
 one which is not wrought in the baptism of adults, and 
 which, whatever else is transacted there, can not be wrought 
 in the baptism of infants. 
 
 I. The first suggestion, then, which may arise from these 
 views is this. Although that great change which every 
 
106 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 actual sinner needs, can not he fully wrought on unconscious 
 and unthinking infancy, yet may not the principle, the seed 
 of this change, the germ, as it were, of the new life, be then 
 implanted in baptism ; to be afterward developed and 
 brought into growth when the infant becomes capable of 
 understanding and feeling truth, and of exercising intelli- 
 gently repentance and faith ? 
 
 1. In order to answer this suggestion, I must inquire, m 
 turn, What is meant by this principle, this seed, this germ, of 
 which so much is said 1 Are we to understand by it the 
 substance of the Divine nature, so communicated in baptism 
 as to become incorporate with the substance of the soul, 
 though only in future years of intelligence to be developed 1 
 If so, what is this but the very theory already examined, and 
 shown to be unscriptural ; the theory which supposes that 
 a Divine addition to our nature is what we have forfeited, 
 and that this addition, therefore, is what we are to regain 1 
 The very terms, principle, seed, germ, used in this connec- 
 tion, run into that unscriptural theology, and are calculated 
 to lead astray from the theology of the Bible. What is 
 such a principle, or germ, when implanted ? Nothing more 
 nor less than the literal Divine nature itself. And what 
 must it become by future development and growth, if we 
 may suppose such a thing as that the Divine nature is sus- 
 ceptible of development and growth ? Nothing more nor less 
 than itself enlarged. A seed, when it grows, a germ, when 
 it germinates, produces, not a different substance, but sim- 
 ply its unfolded self, the full-grown plant, which, perfect in 
 all its parts, lay in wondrous miniature within the yet un- 
 germinating seed. In like manner, this Divine seed, or 
 germ, supposed to be implanted at baptism, of and from God, 
 must become, by subsequent development, not a renewed 
 human mind, but simply its own unfolding self, the fuller 
 expanding of that mysterious Divine embryo. Hence, the 
 unscriptural theology adverted to, when speaking of justifi- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 107 
 
 cation as given in baptism, calls it, among other names, 
 " Christ in us" (not changing our sinful natures, and making 
 them holy, but), " as if it were a light streaming from our 
 hearts, pervading the whole man, inwrapping and hiding the 
 lineaments and members of our fallen nature, circling round 
 us and returning inward to the centre from which it issues."* 
 And hence, the terms principle, seed, germ, are so frequent- 
 ly used in that theology, when making the higher sacra- 
 ment of the Eucharist consist mainly in developing the mys- 
 tery implanted at baptism, by communicating to the recipi- 
 ent the body and blood of Christ, inseparably united, as these 
 are held to be, with His soul and Divinity .f 
 
 But if this seed or germ be not an actual impartation of 
 the Divine nature, is it a mysterious something intermedi- 
 ate between the Divine nature and the human, and the 
 cause of a sanctifying change in the latter; a something in 
 the soul, yet not o/the soul ? if so, how is this to be put 
 into subsequent action ? Do you say by religious instruc- 
 tion, by the influences of the Spirit in the future use of 
 
 * Newman on Justification, p. ISi. 
 
 t See Dr. Pusey's Sermon, passim ; also on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 216, 
 238, 239, 253. 
 
 It is true that these writers speak much of this gift, ihongh originally 
 neither a part of us, nor a change in us, yet as " tending to become part of 
 us ;" as " first hiding our deformity, and then removing it" (Newman on 
 Just., p. 197) ; as "casting out, or absorbing into itself our natural mortal- 
 ity, and death, and corruption" (Dr. Pusey's Sermon, p. 7) ; and as finally 
 "recreating the Spirit in us to newness of life, and making us ' partakers 
 of the Divine nature.' " — Sermon, p. 9. But here are both the absurdity 
 and the perniciousness of their system. The Spirit of God, through the 
 truth of God, may change our natures into a likeness to the Divine. But 
 how can that which is no part of us tend to become a part of us ? How can 
 our clothing, to use Mr. Newman's idea, become our flesh? Besides, to 
 speak of a Divine gift, which, at one time, is said to be increased by fuller 
 influxes of itself (Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, N. Y. ed., p. 24), and, at an- 
 other, is supposed to conform or absorb us into the Divine nature, is to 
 introduce into theology a confused mystery, at once the spring of perplexi- 
 ties and the parent of superstitions. 
 
108 THE NATURE OF BAPTISiM. 
 
 truth ? But how can this be ? By the use of truth in riper 
 years, the Spirit may affect, move, and change the soul it- 
 self. But how can it animate and put in growth an inter- 
 mediate principle, which is neither the soul itself, nor yet 
 an impartation of the Divine nature 1 
 
 If you say that this principle is the germ of new and holy 
 affections in the soul, this must mean either the germ ol 
 new and holy affections added to those which are original, 
 or the germ of a renewal of these original affections them- 
 selves. If it mean the former, it is evidently false ; for the 
 work of the Spirit, whether at baptism or subsequently, does 
 not consist in adding even the gerin of new affections to those 
 which belong originally to the soul ; but in changing these 
 original ones themselves, that they may become new or holy. 
 And if it mean this Za^/er, then it implies the commencement of 
 that very change, which, as we have seen, our Church in her 
 Catechism, and reason in her sanctions, pronounce impossi- 
 ble in infancy ; because the steps in this change are that re- 
 pentance and that faith which infants, " by reason of their 
 tender age, can not perform." I say, it implies the com- 
 mencement of this change ; for the germ of a change, if you 
 pass from the cause which produces it, can he nothing but 
 the change itself begun. And if this change may be begun, 
 so also may it be completed, in infancy ; so far, at least, 
 as the repentance and faith are concerned ; and thus we 
 should have, what our Catechism, speaking in the clear 
 tones of reason, pronounces impossible in infancy, repent- 
 ance, without knowing what is to be repented of ; and faith, 
 without knowing what is to be believed ! 
 
 There is, then, to the terms principle, seed, germ, of life, 
 no sense intermediate between that of an addition and incor 
 poralion of the Divine nature to and ivith the human, and that 
 of a change of our nature itself by the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit ; a change, through repentance and faith, from sin 
 to holiness ; a change, which must be wrought by the Spirit 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 109 
 
 in the use of Truth ; a change, which can be wrought ia 
 those years only of opening intelligence and accountability, 
 that lie forward on the course of life at a greater or less re- 
 move from the moment of infant dedication to God. And 
 to invest those terras with this idea is, of course, to abandon 
 that modified form of the theory of baptismal regeneration, 
 designed to be presented by the suggestion now under con- 
 sideration. 
 
 2. But, clinging still to the form of the suggestion, some 
 may ask. Is the renovation of our nature in infancy literal- 
 ly impossible ? Have we not at least some examples of not 
 only its possibility, but its actual realization ■? Was not 
 Samuel made holy from a child ? Was not Jeremiah " sanc- 
 tified from the womb ?" Did it not " please God" to make 
 the Apostle Paul, even " from his mother's womb," a" sepa- 
 rated," or holy child ? Was not Timothy an instance of this 
 early sanctification 1 And, more specially still, was it not 
 prophesied that John the Baptist should " he filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb V 
 
 (1.) To these inquiries I answer, first, the examples addu- 
 ced do not strictly affect the case before us. Neither Samuel 
 nor Jeremiah, neither Paul nor John the Baptist, was bap- 
 tized in infancy. Like other Jewish children, they were 
 " circumcised the eighth day ;" but this does not prove ei- 
 ther that infants may be renewed, or that their renovation 
 takes place in baptism. 
 
 (2.) But, not to stand on this, I answer, second, the Scrip- 
 tural idea of being " sanctified from the womb" is not that 
 implied in the inquiries just made, touching the possible re- 
 newal of our nature in infancy. But it is that in which 
 so many things among the Hebrews were made relatively 
 holy ; as the persons of prophets, priests, and kings ; the 
 Sabbath and the Temple ; the instruments and vessels of 
 the Sanctuary ; and even houses, fields, and animals. — Lev., 
 xxvii., 14, ad fin. This sanctification, according to one of 
 
110 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 the most common senses of the Hebrew term, consisted in 
 being separated, set apart, devoted, from common to sacred 
 uses ; from our own use to God's ; as when a priest was set 
 apart and consecrated to his office ; or a farm, to the sup- 
 port of God's ministry and worship. 
 
 Now it was in this sense that Samuel was set apart and 
 devoted to the Lord even before he was conceived (1 Sam., 
 i., 10, 11); that Jeremiah was " sanctified before he came 
 forth of the womb" (Jer., i., 5) ; and that Paul was " separa- 
 ted" unto the apostleship " from his mother's womb" (Gal., 
 i., 15) ; in all which there was nothing implied but a rel- 
 ative, ojficial devotement to the great future calling of their 
 lives. As to their inward, real sanctification, Samuel, we 
 may well believe, received his while spending his young, 
 but intelligent years in the Temple, hearing the truths of 
 God from aged Eli, when " the Word of the Lord was j)re- 
 cious," because " in those days there was no open vision ;" 
 and while living there amid the lights of a freshly-dawning 
 revelation, as they streamed around his own opening, but 
 well-instructed mind. — 1 Sam., iii., 1-14. Jeremiah possi- 
 bly and probably received his when " the Lord put forth 
 his hand and touched his mouth, and said, ' Behold, I have 
 put my words into thy mouth ;' " thus, while furnishing him 
 with his messages as " a prophet unto the nations," curing 
 him also of his just expressed childish fears, and giving him 
 the heart of a true man of God, and of a courageous servant 
 of the Lord. — Jer., i., 5—9. And Paul doubtless received his 
 when Jesus met the persecutor on his wrathful embassy to 
 Damascus, threw back the curtain of common light which 
 had concealed his form, shone out in all the dazzling bright- 
 ness of " the Sun of Righteousness," and talked with the 
 stricken man in those mighty words which, rendered 
 quickening by the Spirit, made Inm feel that it was "hard 
 to kick against the pricks." — Acts., xxvi,, 12-18. 
 
 The case of Timothy has in it nothing even unusual. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. Ill 
 
 Being a semi-Gentile, with a Greek father and a Jewish 
 mother, the latter of whom believed in Christ, he may have 
 been baptized in infancy ; though this is far from probable. 
 But, be this as it may, the secret of his early piety is 
 clearly revealed. His " mother Eunice and his grandmother 
 Lois," being women of " unfeigned faith," had, as the apos- 
 tle intimates, " from a child taught him those Holy Scrip- 
 tures, which are able to make wise unto salvation, through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus" — 2 Tim., iii., 14, 15 ; comp. 
 2 Tim., i., 5. Thus, as is often the case, God by his Spirit 
 early " sanctified him through the Truth." 
 
 The case of John the Baptist seems to be more in point ; 
 for, though not himself baptized, but brought into the an- 
 cient Church by the seal of circumcision, yet there was a 
 foregoing promise to his father that he should " be Jilled 
 with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb." — Luke, i., 15. 
 But the pertinency of this case is, I apprehend, only seeming ; 
 for, when we consider the force existing in the use of lan- 
 guage, which, among the Hebrews, had made the phrase 
 " separated, or sanctified from the womb," simply express- 
 ive of this idea, " designated, or set apart, by God, to some 
 sacred office or special work ;" and when we remember 
 that the father of John was of the priestly line, and that John 
 himself, being born a priest, was still farther designated in 
 the high counsels of God to an office which made him 
 greater than the greatest of the ancient prophets, the office 
 of immediate herald to the Son of God, it will appear but 
 reasonable to attribute the increased strength of the expres- 
 sion " filled with the Holy Ghost" to the semi-miraculous 
 character of his conception, to the superior dignity of the 
 station to which he was separated, and to the fact that he 
 was to be, at a very early period, inspired in that sense in 
 which all o//ier prophets were inspired. Taking this as the 
 true force of the expression, we know very well that such 
 inspiration had no connection with the renewing and sancti- 
 
112; THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 fying influences of the Holy Spirit in his ordinary work of 
 changing the heart from sin to holiness, except as they 
 both proceeded from the same agent. Doubtless John was 
 separated, " or sanctified from the womb," to his singularly 
 high office, in the same sense in which Samuel, Jeremiah, 
 and Paul were to theirs ; though possibly, earlier and more 
 amply than they, inspired as the great heralding prophet of 
 the Messiah. But the work which made him, like all oth- 
 er saints, renewed and holy in heart, fashioned into the re- 
 newed image of God within him, was, we may well believe, 
 wrought in the ordinary way, amid the early teachings of 
 the sanctuary, and the faithful instructions and prayers of 
 his holy parents : blessed, as such means usually are, by 
 the quickening and hallowing influences of the Spirit. This, 
 too, accounts for the difference of language which we find 
 between the prophecy before his conception, that he should 
 " be Jilled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's 
 womb ;" and the historical remark after his circumcision, 
 that " the child grew and waxed strong in spirit." — Luke, 
 i., 80. The former was evidently spoken of his prophetic 
 inspiration, which was to be at once full, incapable of jcax- 
 ing or increase ; the latter was as evidently said of the re- 
 sult of God's blessing on the early religious training which 
 he doubtless received, and which was capable of being in- 
 creasingly eflfectual. 
 
 That I have given the true meaning of the prophecy, that 
 the infant .John should " be filled with the Holy Ghost," 
 &c., receives confirmation from the language immediately 
 applied to his parents, as compared with that applied to the 
 twelve on the day of Pentecost. Of his mother, when re- 
 ceiving the visit of Mary, it is said, " And Elizabeth was 
 filed with the Holy Ghost" (Luke, i., 41); as a proof of 
 which, she instantly fell into the sublime utterances of 
 prophecy. And of his father, when, at the circumcision of 
 the child, his mysteriously bound "tongue was loosed," it 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 113 
 
 is said, " Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost^' (Luke, 
 i., 67) ; as a proof of which, he also was forthwith rapt away 
 into the loftiness of the pro'pket's song. Compare now what 
 was said of the Twelve on the day of Pentecost. When 
 " suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing, 
 mighty wind," and when " cloven tongues like as of fire ap- 
 peared and sat on each of them," it is added, "And they were 
 all filled with the Holy Ghost ,-" in proof of which, they, too, 
 immediately " began to speak with other tongues, as the Spir- 
 it gave them utterance." — Acts, ii., 2-4. The phraseology 
 is in all the cases identical, and evidently expressive of the 
 one idea of being " set apart" to the execution of a sacred 
 ojfice, and filled with the impulses of a Divine inspiration. 
 And this inspiration, though generally felt by such as were 
 also true saints, was yet sometimes felt by wicked men, and 
 therefore had no connection, save in its source, with the 
 quickening and sanctifying influences of the Spirit, in His 
 ordinary work in the heart. John was thus set apart and 
 filled as the greatest of prophets for life ; Zacharias and 
 Elizabeth, as the prophets of a grand yet transient occasion ; 
 and the Twelve, as both the chief evangelists and prophets 
 of the then opening Christian dispensation. 
 
 It may, indeed, be inquired, If John's gift were like that 
 of Zacharias and Elizabeth, or like that of the Twelve, as 
 the language in which it is expressed would seem to indi- 
 cate, why did he not, like them, in proof of his gift, fall at 
 once into the utterances of prophecy, or into the use of 
 tongues? I answer, for two reasons. 1. The prophet- 
 child is not the prophet-man. Though we were to allow, 
 therefore, that his full inspiration came very early, yet we 
 should not look for very early exercises of the gift. To a 
 great extent, God, even in His extraordinary bestowments, 
 observes ordinary rules. The favored child, while others 
 wondered in their hearts what lay within him, must still re- 
 main a child, and repress his awful gift, till retirement and 
 K 2 
 
114 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 manhood had given him natural and customary authority 
 over his cotemporaries. 2. But it is not certain that in- 
 spiration was bestowed so early as the inquiry supposes. 
 The language used, when rightly understood, fixes not the 
 date of the gift. From the analogy of persons " separated 
 or sanctified from the womb," it is evident that the individ- 
 uals thus signalized were exceptions from ordinary cases, 
 that they were to be born for an end, special to themselves, 
 in connection with the Divine purposes of grace ; and that 
 this end was to furnish the great pursuit and business of 
 their lives. The phrases, ^'■separated, sanctified, filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, from the womb," may therefore mean no 
 more than that God thus early signified a special Divine 
 purpose in the birth of the individuals thus distinguished, 
 without tying Himself to time, in the actual bestowment of 
 their miraculous endowments. It was '■'■from the womV 
 that their special designation to one great purpose was made 
 known. The actual impulses of inspiration or of other gifts 
 may have been, and doubtless were, bestowed only as occa- 
 sion demanded their exercise. Facts in the other cases bear 
 out this view : why, then, should they not weigh in judging 
 of the case of John 7 His case evidently belongs to their 
 class. It is a class which comprehends but a few individ- 
 uals named in the Bible. In their general characteristics, 
 their cases conform to common rules, and they should there- 
 fore be all judged by the rules which are common to them 
 all. John's special designation to his peculiarly high and 
 honored destiny was, like that of the others of his class, 
 made known, or intimated, " even from the womb," and from 
 the first he was probably a remarkable child ; but we have 
 no constraining reason for supposing that the fullness of the 
 promised inspiration came upon him till near the time when 
 Christ himself, after His own period of withdrawment from 
 the world and quiet abiding the arrival of the customary 
 term of authorized manhood, was preparing to come forth 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 115 
 
 before that world, the glorious Teacher, and Messiah of the 
 nations. 
 
 Such being the circumstances which mark the case of 
 John, I can not repress my surprise that some commenta- 
 tors cite it as a proof that, for the purpose of changing our 
 sinful nature, the Holy Ghost may be communicated to the 
 infant, even while in its mother's womb : thus, in fact, 
 giving it its second birth before it has received its first ! 
 The truth is, if this case has been studied rightly and under 
 right teaching, it has nothing to do with the point now be- 
 fore us. It is as irrelevant thereto as were those of Samuel 
 and Jeremiah, Paul and Timothy ; and the inference urged 
 on us by these, the strongest of all cases on record, is, that 
 the Bible, so far as it teaches by example, teaches nothing 
 of the renewing and sanctifying work of the Spirit, as 
 wrought in infancy, and as dissevered from that instrument- 
 ality, which is found in the light and power of Divine 
 Truth. 
 
 3. Still, the advocates of the suggestion under consider- 
 ation may press a farther inquiry. Does not the Bible 
 teach, if not by example, yet in doctrine, that that work may 
 be done without this instrumentality, and, therefore, in in- 
 fancy ■? This will lead me to an examination of a class of 
 passages which it is desirable rightly to understand in con- 
 nection with this subject. Much of that theology which is 
 shadowed in the suggestion before us is traceable to what 
 the Bible says of " the gift of the Holy Ghost," of Christ 
 being in the Christian, in short, of God dwelling in the 
 heart of every true believer. 
 
 Before enumerating any of the passages in which this 
 leading idea occurs, it is proper to set aside all those in 
 which the gift of the Spirit implies simply extraordinary 
 inspiration, or other miraculous endowment. These belong 
 not to our subject, because they have no connection with 
 the renovating change of our sinful nature. If, therefore, I 
 
116 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 occasionally refer to some of them, it will not be for the 
 purpose of disproving such a connection, but for that of pre- 
 paring for a right understanding of those which properly 
 belong to the subject ; in which the gift of the Spirit means 
 unquestionably an ordinary gift ; and in which union with 
 Christ and participation in a Divine nature imply the com- 
 mon privilege of all true Christians. 
 
 Scattered through the Bible, then, are numerous texts, in 
 which all the persons in the Godhead are represented as 
 being, or dwelling in the children of God; or in which 
 these children are represented as in union with God in all 
 his persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; and this in- 
 dwelling, or union, must in all these cases be considered 
 as the peculiar gift of the Spirit. The following are the 
 most prominent of these passages : 
 
 " Thus saith the High and Lofty One, I dwell with 
 Mm that is of a contrite and humble Spirit." — Isa.,lvii., 15. 
 " Ye are the temples of the living God, as God hath said, 
 I will dwell in them, and walk in them." — 2 Cor., vi., 16. 
 " Precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of 
 the Divine nature." — 2 Pet., i., 4. 
 
 " Abide in me, and I in you." — John, xv., 4. " As many 
 of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
 Christ." — Gal., iii., 27. " Know ye not your own selves, 
 how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?" 
 —2 Cor., xiii., 5. " This mystery among the Gentiles ; 
 which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." — Col., i., 27. 
 " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until 
 Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you," 
 &c.— Gal., iv., 19, 20. 
 
 " This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe 
 on him should receive." — John, vii., 39. " The Spirit of 
 Truth — He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." — John, 
 xiv., 17. " Know ye not that your body is the temple of 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. ll*t 
 
 the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" — 1 Cor., vi., 19. " Be 
 filled with the Spirit." — Eph., v., 18. 
 
 Now the great theme of these and similar passages is, 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit, whereby, as Christians, we have 
 all that is meant by the indwelling of God, Father, Son, and 
 Spirit, in all His true children. And the question which 
 they present is this : What is their import ? They certainly 
 mean something very serious and vitally important. What 
 is their meaning ? What is the inresidence of which they 
 speak ? 
 
 In seeking an answer to this inquiry, it is obvious that, 
 however differently in different phrases the idea may be 
 expressed, it is, in all cases, one and the same thing. If we 
 suppose it possible that the gift may be communicated to 
 infants, still, it will not be conceived of as one thing in 
 them, and another in adults ; nor as one thing before bap- 
 tism, and another after baptism. It must be, in all cases 
 and at all times, one and the same. With this remark, I 
 proceed to the inquiry. What is the meaning of the pas- 
 sages cited ? What is the inresidence of which they speak ? 
 
 (1.) In the first place, I reply, that whatever they may 
 mean, they do not connect the gift of the Spirit with baptism 
 as its instrument. There is, indeed, one passage which I 
 have not yet recited, and one of those which I have, that 
 seem to connect this gift with baptism ; but the connection, 
 I apprehend, is only seeming. 
 
 (a.) The former of these two passages is a part of the ad- 
 dress of Peter to his countrymen on the day of Pentecost ; 
 that day of wondrous effusion on the Church of the amazing 
 gifts of the Spirit, in miracle and inspiration. When those 
 to whom the bold apostle had been preaching the Gospel 
 " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, were pricked 
 in their heart," and began to cry out, " What shall we do 1" 
 Peter replied, " Repent, and be baptized every one of you 
 in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ; and 
 
118 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." — Acts, 
 ii., 38. 
 
 Now to understand what is meant by the gift promised in 
 this case, it is necessary to mark, what is too often over- 
 looked in explaining this gift, the order of events, as here 
 recorded. Peter, then, had been preaching to them the 
 Gospel of " Jesus Christ, and him crucified." This 
 preaching was unquestionably accompanied by the silent, 
 convincing, and quickening influences of the Holy Spirit in 
 His ordinary gifts of grace. As a consequence of this, and 
 while the preacher was yet speaking, " they were pricked 
 in their hearts :" they felt the first deep and secret move- 
 ments of a new life, and were constrained to inquire, 
 " What shall we do ?" To this inquiry the preacher re- 
 plied, " Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins." This direction they 
 forthwith obeyed. Under the silent influences of the Spirit, 
 accompanying the spoken Word, their hearts were already 
 pierced with a sense of their heinous sins, and already 
 convinced that He whom they had crucified was none 
 other than their own true Christ. They did, therefore, re- 
 pent; they did believe in the name of Jesus Christ; and in 
 this faith they were then baptized, in seal of the promise of 
 forgiven sin. Hence it is added, " They that gladly re- 
 ceived his Word were baptized." Why did they gladly 
 receive it? Because the Spirit inclined their hearts. And 
 why were they baptized ? Because, being moved by the 
 Spirit, they felt that true repentance and faith in Christ, 
 which, as we learn from the case of Philip and the Eunuch 
 (Acts, viii., 37), were indispensable prerequisites to their 
 baptism. 
 
 We are now ready for the inquiry. If they were already 
 under the influence of the Spirit, what means the added 
 promise, that, upon being baptized, " they should receive 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost ? I answer, it means that they 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 119 
 
 also should become sharers in those amazing endowments, 
 with which they had just seen the apostles miraculously in- 
 vested. The ordinary grace of the Spirit is ever silent and 
 unfelt ; that is, it links itself with the truth, and so enters 
 the mind in the unnoticed form of the mind's own opera- 
 tions. This grace they had already effectually received, 
 though as yet they stopped not to reflect on its workings. 
 Now they were to receive something remarkable — their 
 share in the miraculous endowments of the Spirit. Hence, 
 as the ground of his promise, the apostle refers to the 
 prophecy of Joel, which had already begun to be fulfilled 
 amid the opening marvels of the Pentecost ; and adds, 
 "The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all 
 that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call." 
 The promise was to them first ; they, therefore, might well 
 expect to be among the earliest sharers in its most august 
 fulfillment. — Comp. Joel, ii., 28-32, with Acts, ii., 17-21, 
 and 39. 
 
 This prophecy by Joel was unquestionably, in its mam 
 features, a prediction of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost as actually shed upon the Church at this Pentecostal 
 season ; for it is so quoted and applied by the inspired 
 apostle himself. It may, indeed, be urged that it predicted 
 the ordinary as well as the extraordinary influences of the 
 Spirit ; that it is a special promise to the Christian Church 
 of the abiding influences of the Spirit in measures before 
 unknown ; that it is, in fact, the charter by which this 
 Church now holds her permanent endowment, in all its full- 
 ness and richness, of the never-departing presence of the 
 Illuminator, Sanctifier, and Comforter. And this view I 
 am by no means disposed to controvert. What I contend 
 for is this : that the ordinary influences which it promises 
 were actually shed on those whom Peter was addressing, 
 before they were baptized. Without those previous ordinary 
 influences, they could not have had, what we are sure they 
 
120 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 felt, in order to their baptism, " repentance toward God, and 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and, therefore, the 
 additional " gift of the Holy Ghost," which Peter assured 
 them should, on that occasion, folloiv their baptism, may 
 well be understood of those miraculous endowments which 
 also Joel predicted, and for which that Pentecost was so 
 memorable. The ordinary grace, as we see, was not, either 
 by the prophecy, or by its fulfillment, tied to baptism as its 
 effect ; for it unquestionably preceded that ordinance. The 
 extraordinary gift was, on this occasion, promised by the 
 apostle as a bestowment, which should yo//oi«, though even 
 this was not promised to follow as the effect of, baptism. 
 
 Thus, by looking carefully at this passage, we see that it 
 yields no support to the theory which teaches that the or- 
 dinary gift of the Spirit, and the consequent in-residence of 
 God with his children as their common privilege, are com- 
 municated in baptism. Here, unquestionably, they were 
 communicated before baptism. 
 
 (b.) The latter of the two passages to which I have re- 
 ferred is a part of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians ; and 
 what I have just said will help us to its true sense. 
 
 After having spoken of the Law, as " our schoolmaster 
 to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith," 
 by the operation of which law, and its accompanying influ- 
 ences, those whom he addressed had become " the children 
 of God by faith in Jesus Christ," he adds, " As many of 
 you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.^* 
 — Gal., iii., 24-27. The meaning of this whole passage 
 is plainly this. The law having been, of course through 
 the preaching of the Gospel and the accompanying influ- 
 ences of the Spirit, the means of bringing the Galatians to 
 Christ for justification by faith, they had, in this faith, been 
 baptized into Christ, or into his name. More fully ex- 
 pressed, they had been baptized into the one great name, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; or with a profession of true 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 121 
 
 faith in the Trinity ; and the result of their ^remoMs blessed 
 change had been, that they had become, as the apostle styles 
 them, " the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." As 
 the result of that change, a change professed and sealed at 
 their baptism, they had "put on Christy" or, as the same 
 apostle expresses the idea in another epistle, they had be- 
 come " conformed to the image" of Christ. — Rom., viii., 29. 
 The advocates of baptismal regeneration, as that term is 
 here understood, argue from this passage, that the Gala- 
 tians had " put on Christ" by a literal incorporation of His 
 incarnate nature with their own, effected by the Spirit and 
 the water at and in baptism. But taking, as we have done, 
 the whole passage in its connection, it not only gives no 
 support to this strange dogma, but furnishes no proof of any 
 spiritual change effected at and in baptism as its instrument. 
 *' Putting on Christ" means, being made like Christ ; having 
 the same " mind which was also in Him" (Phil., ii., 5) ; be- 
 ing " conformed to His image f made " children of God hy 
 faith in Him ;" and this was effected by the Holy Ghost, 
 using tlie law and its accompanying injluences in bringing the 
 Galatians to Christ for justification by faith, and in thus 
 making them God's believing children. " As many of you" 
 says the apostle, " as have been baptized into Christ, have 
 fut on Christ." As a general thing, those of them who had 
 been brought to baptism, were thus brought because they 
 had previously been truly converted and conformed to their 
 Savior. In some things they might have been backsliders 
 from their original soundness and constancy in the faith ; 
 but, on the whole, they were true Christians. Such was 
 the power of persecution and opposition at that time raging 
 against Christ, that few indeed could be brought to confess 
 their faith in Him, unless they had been previously and 
 thoroughly penetrated with the power of His Gospel, and, 
 in strongly encouraging measures, conformed to his image. 
 This, evidently, is the full meaning of the passage ; and it 
 
 L 
 
122 THE NATUKE OF BAPTISiVf, 
 
 is a weighty and a precious meaning : it comes np fully tc 
 the dignity of the connected discourse : it has in it no frigid- 
 ness, but is warm with all the vital meaning of the Gospel. 
 
 If, then, these passages, which at first sight seem to con- 
 nect the gift of the Spirit, and the consequent indwelling 
 of God, with baptism, do, on closer examination, virtually 
 disprove such connection, much more strongly must all the 
 other passages, which I have cited, tend the same way ; 
 for they carry not the remotest allusion to baptism. 
 
 (2.) In the next place, to the inquiry. What is the true 
 meaning of those passages ? I reply that, be it what it 
 may, not only the passages just examined, but tJie main 
 teaching of the New Testament, show that the ordinary grace 
 of the Spirit, that which quickens the dead in trespasses 
 and sins, brings them to repentance and faith in Christ, and 
 fills them with the indwelling of God, is uniformly exerted 
 hefore baptism. 
 
 This, I apprehend, was conclusively shown in a previous 
 chapter.* We there saw that the uniform order, in the 
 work of the ministry and its fruits, was, 1. Preaching the 
 Gospel ; 2. Conversion to Christ by repentance and faith ; 
 3. Baptism. Tliis last, we know, was not administered to 
 adults but on evidence, or profession o^ foregoing repent- 
 ance and faith ; and these graces, these spiritual passages 
 in the inner life of the soul, constitute the elements of our 
 great change from sin to holiness. Unless, therefore, one 
 be bold enough to say that this change may be wrought 
 without the agency of the Holy Spirit, he must admit that 
 this agency and its result prexecled baptism. 
 
 In one instance, we find that both the ordinary and the 
 extraordinary gifts of the Spirit preceded baptism. It was 
 that of Peter's preaching in the house of Cornelius. " While 
 Peter yet spake these words," says the inspired historian, 
 
 * Chapter ii., on Preaching, p, 34, 35, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 123 
 
 "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word." 
 — Acts, X., 44. In this gift we know were included both 
 the ordinary and the extraordinary : the ordinary, because 
 its recipients were straightway baptized ; which could 
 not have been but on evidence of that repentance and faith 
 which come through the influences of the Spirit : the extra- 
 ordinary, because, before their baptism, they " were heard to 
 speak with tongues," or in languages taught by immediate 
 inspiration, as at the Pentecost. 
 
 In two other instances, we find that the ordinary and silent, 
 the quickening and renewing grace of the Spirit, preceded 
 baptism : while his extraordinary and sensible, his special 
 and miraculous gihs, followed that ordinance. 
 
 (a.) The one of these instances occurs in the account of 
 Philip's ministry at Samaria. The Holy Spirit having frst, 
 by his quickening grace, blessed the preaching of the evan- 
 gelist in the conversion of the Samaritans to the true faith, 
 they were then baptized. Here was the ordinary gift before 
 baptism. After their baptism, two of the apostles went 
 down and " laid their hands on them, and they received the 
 Holy Ghost." That this was the extraordinary gift, we 
 know, because Simon Magus, " seeing that the Holy Ghost 
 was given, offered money," in the impious hope of purchas- 
 ing the power to convey so splendid a " gift of God," and 
 of thereby winning for himself higher fortune or fame than 
 he had yet acquired by his sorceries. — Acts, viii., 4-20. 
 
 (J.) The other of these instances occurs in the account of 
 Paul's preaching at Ephesus, when he had passed thither 
 "through the upper coasts." He found there "about 
 twelve" believing disciples, and said, " Have ye received 
 the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?"* Their reply, as we 
 have it translated, was, " We have not so much as heard 
 whether there be any Holy Ghost." They had only been 
 
 * Literally translated, " Did ye receive the Holy Ghost, having be- 
 .ieved?" 
 
124 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 baptized by the herald, John. Being now, therefore, " bap- 
 tized in the name of the Lord Jesus," " Paul laid his hands 
 on them ; and the Holy Ghost came on them, and they 
 spake with tongues and prophesied." — Acts, xix., 1-7. 
 Here the extraordinary gift was bestowed after baptism, as 
 the ordinary grace had evidently been before. I say evi- 
 dently, because, though hitherto unbaptized in the name of 
 Christ, they were yet believing disciples (Acts, xix., 2) ; 
 and their faith was " the gift of God" by the Spirit. — Eph., 
 ii., 8. 
 
 What, then, some may ask in surprise, what is meant by 
 their own declaration, " We have not so much as heard 
 whether there be any Holy Ghost?" Let us endeavor to 
 ascertain. 
 
 Their history, as connected with this transaction, seems 
 to have been briefly this. Soon after receiving from John 
 that baptism, which we find required repentance and faith 
 in Jesus as then at hand, they had retired from Jerusa- 
 lem to Ephesus, that distant corner of the Lesser Asia ; 
 probably in pursuit of the objects of their calling : and 
 there, remote, secluded, and engrossed by their toils, had 
 never, till this meeting with the apostle, heard whether the 
 Holy Ghost, in his promised wonderful eff'usion, had yet 
 come upon the Church. 
 
 That this is the true import of their language, we shall, 
 I think, be satisfied on closer inspection. It can not, then, 
 by any but a superficial reader, be supposed that they, who 
 had been baptized by John, the inspired herald of Christ, 
 had literally never heard of the existence of the Holy 
 Ghost. What, persons who were themselves Jews, who 
 were doubtless acquainted with the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament, in all their promises both of the Messiah and of 
 the Spirit, and yet actually ignorant of the existence of that 
 Spirit 1 Was not their great master, who taught, as well as 
 baptized them, himself a partaker of the Holy Ghost, in his 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 125 
 
 fullness both of ordinary and of extraordinary gifts ? And 
 being so, would he tell his pupils nothing of his Divine in- 
 spirer ? Was he not wont, as Jesus passed by, at the 
 opening of his ministry, not only to point to him with this 
 very finger of the Gospel : " Behold the Lamb of God, that 
 taketh away the sin of the world" (John, i., 29) ; but also 
 to say to his disciples, " I indeed baptize you with water 
 unto repentance ; but he shall baptize you with the Holy 
 Ghost, and with fire ?" Is not this language of John an ad- 
 mitted prophecy of the Pentecostal wonder ; and did it not 
 probably lead his disciples to look out for what then hap- 
 pened ? Is not this specimen of John's teaching the founda- 
 tion of what Paul said to these very disciples at Ephesus : 
 " John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance," or 
 unto repentance ; " saying unto the people that they should 
 believe on Him, who should come after him, that is, on 
 Christ Jesus 1" — Acts, xix., 4. And is it possible, after 
 this view of John's manner of teaching, to suppose that 
 these disciples, even though far and long removed from 
 Jerusalem, had literally never before heard of the Holy 
 Ghost ? No. Nor do their words, rightly rendered, im- 
 port any such thing. They are similar in meaning to the 
 words of the other John in his Gospel, when interpreting 
 the language of his Savior about " Rivers of living Water." 
 " This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on 
 him should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet 
 given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." — John, 
 vii., 39. In this passage, as it stands in our translation, 
 the word "given" is an addition. It is not in the original. 
 The expression is, " The Holy Ghost was not yet." Nor 
 are the two passages similar in meaning only ; but, so far 
 as the point of comparison goes, in phraseology also. With 
 the simple difference between past and present time, the 
 main words are the same. Literally rendered, the phrase 
 L2 
 
12Q THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 in the Gospel is, " for not yet the Holy Ghost was ;"* while 
 that in the passage before us stands in the original thus : 
 " Whether the Holy Ghost zs."t And the true force of the 
 passages is this. In his Gospel, the Evangelist says, " As 
 yet, the Holy Ghost was not;" historically interpreted, 
 " was not yet given ;" not yet Pentecostally poured forth 
 on the Church. In the dialogue at Ephesus, the disciples 
 say, " We have not heard whether the Holy Ghost is ;" in 
 like manner interpreted, " We have not heard whether He 
 has yet been shed forth in his promised gifts of power." 
 
 It is not true, therefore, that these disciples knew not of 
 the existence of the Holy Spirit. They were, however 
 imperfectly, still really the subjects of his renewing grace. 
 He had made them, under the Baptist's teaching, believing 
 disciples, with that repentance and faith in Christ which, 
 as we have seen, their Master taught. But, ever since they 
 left his early ministry, they had been far away at Ephesus ; 
 and so, had never enjoyed an opportunity of being baptized 
 in the name of Christ, nor even heard of the glorious efiu- 
 sion of the Holy Spirit, which had taken place at the Pen- 
 tecost ; much less, been sharers in its wonders. It was 
 not John, who first baptized them, but Jesus, in whose name 
 they were now baptized, that gave forth the marvels of that 
 awful day : not their first, therefore, but their second bap- 
 tism, which was immediately followed by their being made 
 sharers in its rich and special gifts. Such is evidently the 
 true force of the passage ; and thus understood, it is one of 
 those which show that, at first, the phrases, " Gift of the 
 Holy Ghost," " The Holy Ghost came," " The Holy Ghost 
 fell," &c., were used to designate his strictly extraordinary 
 endowments, in miracle and in inspiration. 
 
 With the extraordinary gift of the Spirit, however, my 
 argument, as I have already remarked, has no concern. It 
 
 * Ovnu> yaf) rjv jrvcvfia aytov. — John, vii., 39. 
 + olie d nv&ita ayi6v eanv. — Acts, xix., 8. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 127 
 
 is busied wholly with his ordinary grace ; that by which 
 He renews and sanctifies the sinful soul, and makes it a 
 partaker of the indwelling of God, as the common privilege 
 of his children. This, as we have seen, in one of the re- 
 marks which I have offered, is, by none of the strong pas- 
 sages first cited, connected with baptism ; v/hile, as we 
 have seen in the other of those remarks, numerous equally 
 strong passages either impliedly or expressly disconnect it 
 from baptism. The urgent inference, thus far, would be, 
 that, with the Bible as our authority, we have no reason for 
 saying or supposing that it is ever connected with baptism. 
 
 4. Having thus disconnected this whole class of passages 
 from baptism, or, rather, shown that they have no sucli con- 
 nection as is claimed, let us now proceed to a point not yet 
 touched, the true meaning of the Scriptures quoted. 
 
 (1.) They all speak, then, of the simple gift of the Holy 
 Ghost, without saying any thing of the mode, or means, by 
 which this gift is bestowed. To illustrate this point, there- 
 fore, I refer to another class of texts, which give a view of 
 this mode or means. I regard this as a legitimate resort 4 
 for even indirect statements of doctrine, explanatory of oth- 
 ers, may be as valuable for proof as the direct ones which 
 they explain. 
 
 (a.) The Apostle Paul, then, speaks of " the new man" as 
 being " renewed in knoioledge after the image of Him that 
 created him." — Col., iii., 10. Here, the new man, or the soul 
 restored to the image of God, is the result; renewal, the 
 process ; the Holy Spirit, the implied agent ; and knowledge, 
 the means employed in the Divine work before us. It is 
 true, the expression " in knowledge" might be rendered 
 " unto knowledge," making this one of the results of re- 
 newal. But it is also true that it may, with strict propriet)'-, 
 be rendered " hy knowledge," making it the vieans ; and 
 this rendering is confirmed by what the same apostle says 
 elsewhere^ '' In Christ Jesus^ I have begotten you through 
 
128 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 the Gospel." — 1 Cor., iv., 15. Here are summarily involved 
 the very same things : the new man ; his renewal, or new 
 birth ; the implied agency of the Spirit ; and the instrument- 
 ality of knoxvledge, called, in this place, " the Gospel" This, 
 then, unfolds the whole work before us. The gift of the 
 Spirit, which results in that " new man" wherein dwelletk 
 God, whether as the Father, or as Christ, or as the Holy 
 Ghost, is communicated through, or by, the Gospel, by means 
 of knowledge or of Divine Truth, On this point there can, 
 it seems to me, be no possible doubt. The very new man, 
 or new life, claimed as the gift of the Spirit in baptism alone, 
 is the result of his influences through the preaching of the 
 Gospel, or some equivalent inculcation of Divine Truth. 
 
 (&.) Even the Old Testament prophets took this view. 
 Says Jeremiah, speaking of the "^new Covenant," or gracious 
 relation between God and his people, and uttering the very 
 words of God, " I will put my law in their inward parts, 
 and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and 
 they shall be my people." — Jer., xxxi., 33. This relation 
 between God and his people is identical with his dwelling in 
 them., as the gift of his Spirit, and He produces this rela- 
 tion by putting his law in their inward parts, and by writing 
 it in their hearts. The law here evidently means a knowl- 
 edge of God and his will. The writing it in their hearts is 
 the work of the Spirit, giving inward effect to the truth: 
 and the resulting relation between God and his people is 
 all they need or can have of Him, save the sacred peace, 
 the holy delight, the Divine communings which fblkjw on 
 that relation. 
 
 (c.) A part of this subject, the process and agent of our 
 renewal, is strikingly exhibited by the apostle to the Corin- 
 thians : " We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the 
 glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from 
 glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." — 2 Cor., iii.> 
 18. What is " the glory of the Lord," here said to be mir- 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 129 
 
 rored to our " open face" or unveiled minds 1 If we look 
 back upon the apostle's discourse, we find it to be his re- 
 vealed glory, or the glory of his character, purposes, and 
 works of grace, as made known in the Bible. The Jews, 
 when Moses and the Old Testament were read, saw not 
 this glory. " Their minds were blinded." There was " a 
 veil upon their heart." This veil consisted partly in their 
 own prejudices, and partly in the typical, shadowy charac- 
 ter of their law and dispensation. But " in Christ this veil 
 is done away." By his coming, light is poured on the page 
 of Revelation, and the perversions of Jewish prejudice are 
 swept away. Now, therefore, we can look upon the mirror 
 of the Word " with open face," that is, without a veil ; and, 
 beholding there the glory of the Lord, we are changed into 
 the same image from glory to glory, by the quickening and 
 enlightening power of his Spirit. Here we have the full 
 gift of the Spirit, changing our sinful natures into the renew- 
 ed image of God through that Word of truth, in which He 
 has mirrored his best glories to our view ; especially that 
 *' light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of 
 Jesus Christ," whereby He " shines in our hearts," and 
 makes us truly " light in the Lord." — 2 Cor., iv., 6. 
 
 (d.) Again : by one of the most persuasive arguments ever 
 urged, our blessed Savior teaches us that the gift of the 
 Spirit is to be sought and obtained in prayer. " If ye, then, 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
 how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 Spirit to them that ask him V — Luke, xi., 13. But prayer 
 for the Spirit implies a knowledge of God, and of his way 
 of salvation ; in opening which, and leading us along it, the 
 Spirit is concerned. Prayer for the Spirit is the sighing of 
 a heart that is feeling after a God revealed ; not the asking 
 of a mind that gropes for a God unknown. And though this 
 prayer generally goes up from hearts that are already re- 
 newed, and " the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination 
 
130 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 to the Lord," yet, doubtless, when God, by his Word and 
 providence, has set the heart of one before unchanged long- 
 ing for himself, the utterance of its longings will draw down 
 the unspeakable gift of the Spirit in its fullness, even though 
 no other outward rite be witness to ilie prayer, and it be ut- 
 tered alone amid the silence of the soul. 
 
 (c.) Farther : our Savior teaches that " manifesling him- 
 self" to the Christian, and dwelling with him, are identical 
 in meaning ; and that this high favor is vouchsafed to the 
 heart oilove — to him that knows and obeys the truth. " Lord, 
 how is it that thou wilt iiianifest thyself unXo us, and not unto 
 the world ? Jesus answered, ' 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., 22, 23. Here is an inquiry into the mode of the Di- 
 vine manifestation, or indwelling ; and the answer to the 
 querist's " HOW ?" is, " by mutual love between the Christ- 
 ian and God, leading to a keeping of the words of Christ, or 
 obedience to his truth." He who thus keeps his Savior's 
 words because he loves him, shall know that he in turn is 
 loved of the Father ; while, in the secret of this mutual love, 
 and in the path of this intelligent obedience, he shall realize 
 that both the Father and the Son are with him of a truth, 
 dwelling in him, and manifesting themselves to him as they 
 do not to the world. This passage not only explains the 
 mode of the Divine manifestation, but still farther intimates 
 in what this manifestation itself consists : in mutual love, 
 and the evidence which this love and its fruits do furnish of 
 that gracious and happy relation which subsists between the 
 true Christian and God ; a relation which is sealed in Christ, 
 and witnessed by the Spirit, wherever the heart, in the ex- 
 ercise of true repentance and living faith, yields itself to 
 God, though it be but in its first secret consentings to His 
 blessed covenant of life. And this inward sealing and wit- 
 nessing would doubtless stand good forever, though its sub- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 131 
 
 ject were never to enjoy the desired opportunity of publicly 
 imbodijing that covenant in the appropriate solemnities of 
 the Church. 
 
 {f.) And, once more : the great Apostle to the Gentiles 
 spreads out this whole subject into still more ample expres- 
 sion. " For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heav- 
 en and earth is named, that He would grant you, according 
 to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by 
 His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your 
 hearts hy faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded m love, 
 may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the 
 breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and to know 
 the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge ; that ye might 
 he filled with all the fullness of God." — Eph., iii., 14-19. 
 
 This passage gathers all the particulars of our subject 
 into a single sentence. Here is the great " gift of the 
 Spirit," in all its depth and power, working " according to 
 the riches of God's glory in the inner man ;" here, too, is 
 " Christ, dwelling in the Christian's heart;" here, in short, 
 is the Christian ^'filled with all the fullness of God:" and 
 all this, in less or greater measure, the common privilege of 
 " a// the saints" — of" the whole family in heaven and earth" 
 — of all the children of God who have gone from the olden 
 dispensation,* as well as of those who are gathering thither 
 
 ■* Mr. Newman contends that there is a great difference between the Old 
 and the New Testament saints in regard to what is conveyed in this gift of 
 the Spirit : that the latter have it, but the former had it not. " Whatever 
 they were," he writes, "however high in God's favor, however influenced 
 by God's secret aids, they could not be partakers of that which did not as 
 yet exist, the body and blood of the Incarnate Son." They had a sort of 
 piety, he allows, " the fruit, too, of Divine assistance." Still, it was " but 
 the poor effort after that righteousness which it never could really reach, 
 and which He (Christ) is. Its services" "did not tend to the perfection, 
 which they testified. "^ — " They could not rise out of their feeble selves, and 
 claim to be His works, not man's." 
 
 He puts a corresponding difference between Jewish and Christian sacra- 
 
1 32 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 from the new. This, then, is not the extraordinary gift of 
 which I have spoken. It is, questionless, the ordinary 
 grace ; the common heritage of all God's faithful people. 
 It is, therefore, in the strictest sense, pertinent to the sub- 
 ject of oar inquiry. 
 
 Does this passage, then, say aught of the means by which 
 this gift is obtained, or of the medium through which it is 
 received, or of the exercises in which it is realized and en- 
 joyed 1 Certainly it does. And what, does it say 1 That 
 the gift is a supernatural investment, of and from God, over 
 and above nature ? That it is neither renovation nor any 
 of its fruits, but a mysterious endowment distinct from them, 
 superior to them, and inclusive of them all ? And that it is 
 miraculously communicated in baptism, and as miraculously 
 increased in the Eucharist ? Not a word of all this, or of 
 aught cognate with it in theology. It speaks, indeed, of 
 the imvard strengthenings of the Spirit, of the indwelling of 
 Christ, and of the accompanying fullness of the Father. 
 But, then, this great gift is, in the first place, sought in an- 
 swer to prayer ; it is received, when it comes, by faith ; 
 and it is enjoyed, when realized, by that holy love which 
 delights to comprehend what it may of the breadth, and 
 length, and depth, and height of that love wherewith Christ 
 hath loved us ; however, at present, this love may overpass 
 our power of knowledge. In all this, too, we have simply 
 the " new man" changed into the recovered image of God, 
 and putting forth his renovated powers in faith, comprehen- 
 sion, knowledge, and love, in the pleasing effort to realize 
 the manifested love, and presence, and in working of God, 
 
 ments. "The Church, before His coming, offered to him material elements, 
 ' which perish in the using,' but now He has sent His Spirit, to fill them 
 with himself, and to make them living and availing sacrifices to the Father,'' 
 &C. — Newman on Justification, p. 225-6. 
 
 And if the gift of the Spirit consisted in such imparlations as tliose in 
 which he believes, he is right in his theology on this point ; but if not, he 
 is perniciously wrong. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 133 
 
 his Father, his Savior, and his Sanctifier. It is simply ren- 
 ovation and its fruits ; God, in all his persons and perfec- 
 tions, dwelling in the heart hy faith ; faith proving itself 
 " the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things 
 not seen ;" faith bringing into manifestation before the mind 
 the Spirit, and all the bright, but viewless realities of the 
 spiritual world. 
 
 All this high gift of the Spirit may doubtless be enjoyed 
 most richly in the services of God's house, especially in that 
 sacred act, in which Christians commune and covenant to- 
 gether with their bodily absent though spiritually present 
 Savior, over the consecrated symbols of his body and blood, 
 his death and passion ; but, then, it is a gift which may 
 come before any outward sacrament, and which may abide 
 with the Christian strengtheningly and satisfyingly, though 
 all outward rites be denied him. 
 
 (2.) This course of illustration from particular texts might 
 be carried farther, but such farther illustration can hardly 
 be necessary. I pass, therefore, to the last step in this 
 somewhat prolonged examination. What is this gift itself 
 of the Spirit ? What is this indwelling of God, Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost, in the hearts of his people ? Is it, as is 
 claimed, an actual inipartation from and of God, the actual, 
 spriritual substance, the very Divine nature itself, especial- 
 ly of the incarnate Son, miraculously communicated and 
 mysteriously lodged within us, yet no part of us ; commin- 
 gled with our nature, shining from and around the heart, and 
 tending to absorb the human into the Divine ? Evidently, 
 nothing is farther than this from the teaching of the Word 
 of God, even in these, the strongest of its expressions, 
 which I have quoted, and to prepare for the true sense of 
 which I have passed through so long a course of remark. 
 This true sense has already been partially unfolded in what 
 has been said. But, to give it fuller statement, the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost in his ordinary grace, and the consequen* 
 M 
 
134 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM, 
 
 indwelling of God in the soul, plainly include and consist, 
 1. In the renewing work of the Spirit, wrought upon the 
 heart, or upon our rational and moral nature, through the 
 truth ; and, 2. In that sacred and happy fellowship which en- 
 sues between the renewed man and that God who has so 
 mightily renewed him. This renewing work involves the 
 solemn enactment of the covenant of grace between God 
 and the soul ; and this enactment first takes place amid 
 those withdrawn scenes, in that silence and secrecy of the 
 thoughts, where the Reconciler and the reconciled have 
 their first meeting of peace. No eye but the inner one of 
 the penitent and the approving one of the Omniscient looks 
 upon it, or knows aught of it, till it comes out in the light 
 of a holy life, and in the beneficence of godly actions, or 
 till it is brought forth, for sealing and for witnessing, in the 
 face of the Church, and under the seals of her sacraments. 
 And then, the indwelling of God which follows, is but the 
 ^^ fellowship" of the renewed soul " with the Father, with 
 his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John, i., 3), and with "the Holy 
 Spirit" (2 Cor., xiii., 14) ; maintained through yrt/Z/i, enjoy- 
 ed in love, and perfected with the growing perfection of the 
 Divine likeness within. This indwelling is the direct op- 
 posite to that state of the wicked which the Psalmist de- 
 scribes when he says, " God is not in all his thoughts." — 
 Ps., X., 4. God is in all the thoughts of his reneived child, 
 at least, so far as the lingering conflict with sin allows him 
 to act according to the tendencies of his renewed mind. In 
 these thoughts he delights to hold converse with God, espe- 
 cially as manifested amid the wonders of his redemption in 
 Christ Jesus. In this holy and blessed fellowship, h\s faith 
 lifts its eye, and realizes the presence of his Redeemer, Re- 
 newer, and Sanctifier ; his love opens its heart, and grasps 
 all that it can of the incomprehensible fullness of the love 
 of Christ for him ; his hope goes up and takes in all of the 
 fullness of God as his eternal portion ; his thoughts range 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 135 
 
 through the vastness of their theme, and bring home growing 
 knowledge of the infinitely perfect and blessed One ; and 
 thus, under the teachings of the Spirit through the truth, 
 and most rapidly when privileged to walk in the way of 
 God's own appointments in his Church, his whole soul be- 
 comes more and more full of God, of a renewed likeness to 
 Him, of blessed thoughts of Him, and of a divine enjoy- 
 ment of Him. 
 
 In the phrase of the quoted texts which I am explaining, 
 "The high and lofty One dwells with him who is of a con- 
 trite and humble spirit ;" and the end of his dwelling there 
 is, to " revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the 
 heart of the contrite ones ;" by his sweet influences, the low- 
 ly to exalt, and the bruised to heal. True Christians are 
 his " Temples" and He " dwells and walks in them." They 
 have worshiping and adoring thoughts of Him, and keep up 
 in their hearts sacrifices of prayer and praise, which render 
 their souls titter temples to Him than even his awful palace 
 in the Olden Church. And, then, his " exceeding great 
 and precious promises," received by faith, make them "par- 
 takers of the Divine nature;" not, indeed, of the substance 
 of God, the Divine nature itself, but of " a Divine nature,"* 
 a nature like God's, the Divine " image and likeness" re- 
 covered. 
 
 Specially doth Christ " abide in them." A precious Sav- 
 ior, He " dwells in their hearts by faith." By faith, their 
 hearts sweetly entertain this friend and brother of their 
 souls. By faith, they "put on Christ" with all the fruits 
 of believing, till they stand " conformed to his image," dress- 
 ed both in a robe of righteousness, which He has externally 
 ■wrought for them, and in a garment of holiness, which they 
 have inwardly caught from among his shining graces. He 
 is, moreover, " in them, the hope of glory." Their inmost 
 thoughts, affections, and desires, do so entertain Him, that 
 * eda; <pvaeuii, without the article. 
 
136 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 they can not doubt of ultimately sharing with Him the glory 
 to which He is already exalted. And, finally, He is '■'■form- 
 ed in them" in the beautiful likeness which they bear to 
 Him ; in that image of himself ■within them, which He sees 
 gradually shaping and brightening toward perfection ; and 
 in the growth of which, He anticipates, with a fullness of 
 divine satisfaction, the time when they will be " presented 
 faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding 
 
 joy." 
 
 And, lastly, as the source and agent of all these glori- 
 ous things, they have " received the Spirit" which Christ 
 promised. This Divine quickener, clothing himself in the 
 light, and making himself the power, of revealed truth, has 
 renewed their souls, made them " new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus," and brought them to that spiritual mind in which 
 such inward visions of God are possible, and such satisfy- 
 ing fellowship with the Father and the Son, not only possi- 
 ble, but actual. He has made even their " bodies his tem- 
 ples ;" their thoughts of Him, and their coinminiion with Him, 
 bring Him within the very walls of this little tabernacle, 
 the flesh, by putting all bodily appetites, affections, and fac- 
 ulties under his sacred control, and making them all instru- 
 ments in his heavenly work. In short, both in soul and in 
 body, they know what it is, in this its true sense, to " be 
 filled with the Spirit." 
 
 Such, in the sober light of the Scriptures, are that gift of 
 the Spirit, and that indwelling of God in the hearts of his 
 people, about which we have been inquiring. This, in its 
 fullness, is all that we need to make us holy ; all that we 
 need to make us happy ; all that ■we can have to make us 
 glorious. 
 
 To return, then, to the suggestion which has given rise 
 to what has been said in this chapter : it seems, from all 
 the texts and classes of texts which have been examined 
 that, whatever may be meant by the terras principle, seed, or 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 137 
 
 germ of the new life, we have no ground for supposing that 
 it is implanted in the infant at his baptism, but, rather, that 
 it has, both as to time and as to instrument, a different origin. 
 
 One reason why this process has not its beginning in 
 baptism is, as we have seen, that, as the gift of the Spirit, it 
 begins in that change of our nature, in that " repentance and 
 faith," which " infants, by reason of their tender age, can not 
 perform" or feel. And another reason which may be as- 
 signed is, that the theory which lays the beginning of this 
 work in baptism, puts the Bible out of its true place, or 
 tends to substitute, for its great office in the hands of the 
 Spirit, an unreal efficiency of sacraments, whose inevitable 
 fruits are, growing error in doctrine, and growing supersti- 
 tion in practice. If the new life, or its germ, may be mi- 
 raculously* communicated by one sacrament to unconscious 
 infancy, it may, of course, be miraculously developed by 
 another sacrament in even unreflecting 7nanhood. Thus, the 
 office of the Scriptures of truth is practically superseded. 
 The ministry need not preach those Scriptures, nor need 
 the people " search" them ; the former to teach, nor the latter 
 to learn, how " they testify of Christ." The work of both 
 parties is mainly summed up in sacraments, and their spiritual 
 life is both given and nourished in those supposed awfully 
 efficient mysteries. It is needless to say that this disuse of 
 the Scriptures and of preaching, and this almost solitary ex- 
 altation and magnifying of the sacraments, are facts with 
 which the history of the Church has been but too sadly fa- 
 miliar. 
 
 How discordant is the system which engenders and 
 brings forth these facts, from that which stands out, uncon- 
 cealable, on the pages of Inspiration ! " The Word of God 
 is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, 
 
 * The writers to whom I have referred on this subject repeatedly speak 
 ol baptism as a " miracle" and of both the sacraments as partaking of the 
 tmraculous in their effects. 
 
 M2 
 
138 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and 
 of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts 
 and intents'of the heart." — Heb., iv., 12. " The law of the 
 Lord is perfect, converting the soul." " The commandment 
 of the Lord is pure, enlighte^iing the eyes." — Ps., xix., 7, 8. 
 " Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things 
 out oi thy Law." — Ps., cxix., 18. " Sanctify them through 
 thy Truth : thy Word is Truth." — John, xvii., 17. How 
 all these, and a thousand similar texts, exalt the Bible ! 
 
 Indeed, for what purpose was this blessed volume in- 
 spired and sent, but to be a moral light, through which the 
 Holy Spirit may come and manifest himself, and make all 
 other spiritual realities manifest to our minds ? an atmo- 
 sphere of truth, in which He may become spiritually per- 
 ceptible., and with which He may breathe on the conscious 
 and intelligent soul, as it lies diseased and defiled in its sins, 
 His quickening and purifying power ? It is no more evi- 
 dent that, without natural light, we should see no natural 
 objects, than it is that, without this spiritual light, we should 
 have no perception of spiritual objects ; and so should re- 
 main utterly unaffected both by the Spirit himself and by 
 the spiritual world.* It is through this holy light that God 
 '^shines into our hearts, and gives us" — not his actual sub- 
 stance in the whole person of his incarnate Son, but — " the 
 
 * It will be admitted that we 7nust have this body of spiritual light. If 
 we do not have it practically before the people, spread over our eccle- 
 siastical firmament, in Divine writings, we vmst have it before their eyes in 
 the vague expanse of unwritten Tradition. But, in this latter form, it is a 
 light unavoidably filled and darkened by so many clouds, an atmosphere 
 inevitably pervaded and poisoned by so many miasms, that God, foreseeing 
 what would happen, saw fit to give it to us in the form of His own fixed, 
 and incorruptible, and lively Oracles. To these, therefore, we must go for 
 the only clear light in which we can see spiritual things, for the only pure 
 atmosphere in which we can breathe the spiritual life. Original Tradition 
 has been and is incurably darkened and poisoned ; and we certainly neither 
 Jook for, nor can accept, any new inspiration, unless it come accompanied 
 with its attesting miracles, as in the days of Christ and his apostles. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 139 
 
 light of the knoioledge of his own glory in the face of Jesus 
 Christ." — 2 Cor., iv., 6. And so, " beholding this glory, as 
 in a glass" which reflects its best brightness, " we are" — 
 not supernaturally endowed with an addition from his nature, 
 but — " changed into the same image" — into a likeness to 
 Himself; and this blessed change, by His continual shining, 
 and our continual beholding, is carried on, " from glory to 
 glory," in the ever-brightening resemblance, " as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord."— 2 Cor., iii., 18. 
 
 Having thus disposed of one of the suggestions arising 
 out of the previous chapter, others remain to engage our at- 
 tention in the next. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 John, iii., 5 : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of 
 water and the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 I AM still unprepared to enter on a direct examination of 
 this and other important texts on the subject of the first 
 Christian Sacrament. In approaching such an examina- 
 tion, much time has been required in clearing the way, by 
 setting aside those loose interpretations of Scripture, which 
 stand, like buttresses, around the edifice of an imposing but 
 false system of theology. In doing this, I have not felt 
 bound to enter into a critical examination of every text 
 which may have been pressed into the support of that sys- 
 tem, as it touches the point of baptismal regeneration and 
 justification ; but have thought it enough so to classify and 
 illustrate those texts, or the most important of them, as to 
 show the entire unsoundness of the views which they are 
 so confidently brought to defend. 
 
140 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 With this part of the subject, however, I have not yet 
 done. Still farther suggestions present themselves from 
 what was said in the first chapter on Baptism ; and the con- 
 sideration of them must detain us yet a little longer from what 
 I conceive to be the true doctrine of the Bible on this subject. 
 
 II. The next suggestion, then, which I apprehend, from 
 what has been said, is this : Did not God, at first, without 
 any intermediate means, create the soul in holiness, or in 
 His own image 1 and can He not now new-create it unto 
 holiness, or His renewed image, without the particular in- 
 termediate means of Divine Truth ? And, therefore, though 
 this new creation be not by baptism as its instrument, yet 
 may it not be at baptism as its time, and in the infant as its 
 subject ? 
 
 It is unfortunate for the argument intended to be involved 
 in this suggestion, that the conclusion which it seeks does 
 not follow from the premises with which it starts. To cre- 
 ate a soul originally, and to new-create it subsequently, are 
 very different processes. In what the former consists we 
 know not. To us it is in all respects unfathomable. Into 
 the literally creative act we can not enter. We may, in- 
 deed, rationally decide in what it does not consist. It does 
 not consist in separating a particle of the Divine substance 
 from God, and lodging it temporarily in a body of flesh : for 
 then this particle might be reabsorbed into God ; become 
 again, what, in truth, it had never ceased to be, identical 
 with Him ; and thus leave God the solitary intelligence, the 
 only being in the universe. This would be but the emana- 
 tive philosophy of the Heathen ; the old Oriental Pantheism. 
 Thus far, then, as believers in the Bible, we may go. The 
 creation of the soul did not consist in such an act. But 
 when we come to ask. In what, then, did it consist ? we 
 can only say, this is an inquiry pushed to a point on which, 
 in this world, we must remain profoundly ignorant. Its 
 unsearchable Author alone can penetrate and comprehend 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 141 
 
 the process. But in what the latter of the two acts con- 
 sists we know. It is true that we can not, in all respects, 
 comprehend the new creation of the soul. In the move- 
 raents of the renewing Spirit, the heavenly " wind bloweth 
 where it listeth ; and we can not tell whence it cometh and 
 whither it goeth." Nevertheless, we can " hear the sound 
 thereof;" we can perceive its direction and its effects ; we 
 can comprehend something of the process carried on in our 
 inner man ; and we can understand all the results of this in 
 our own renewed character. In some respects, therefore, 
 we know in what this process consists. We know that it 
 is a totally different act from that of original creation. 
 True, the apostle calls it " a new creation" (Gal., vi., 15) ; 
 and there are great propriety and beauty in the figure. 
 Still, it is a figure, and but a figure ; heavy though it be, 
 like all other Scriptural figures, with deep and important 
 meaning. It is a moral, not a physical, an alterative, not 
 an originating act. It consists, not in originating a soul 
 into separate nature and life, but in actuating the nature of 
 a living soul, already originated and become sinful ; in so 
 actuating it as to effect a moral change of its nature and 
 character, of its tempers and tastes, its inclinations and pur- 
 poses, its inward and its outward habits and actions. Now 
 this is a process which we can comprehend. How it be- 
 gins with God and is sustained by Him, we know not ; but 
 we know how it begins and is sustained in us ; even with 
 memory, reflection, thought, feeling, purpose, action, in the 
 great work of repentance, faith, love, and obedience. 
 
 Creation consists in originating the power, or faculty, of 
 remembering, reflecting, thinking, feeling, purposing, and 
 acting ; the new creation consists in putting this power, or 
 faculty, after it has become disordered and diseased, into 
 its appropriate and its healthful activities. Of the former, 
 we can know nothing ; of the latter we know much. 
 
 The two processes, then, being thus radically dissimilar, 
 
142 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 it by no means follows that, because God at first created the 
 soul in holiness, without any intermediate means, therefore 
 he can new-create a sinful soul unto holiness without the 
 particular intermediate means of His own Divine Truth. 
 On the contrary, the difference between the two may be 
 such as, even with the Infinite, to require in the latter not 
 only some intermediate means, but the special intermediate 
 means of divine Truth, although, in the former, no means 
 at all were employed. I am constrained to believe that such 
 is the fact 5 and that, therefore, since the fall, God has fur- 
 nished us with His Word, and with His ministry for preach- 
 ing that Word. He has given to us His own Truth, because 
 it was necessary in doing within us His own work. 
 
 In expressing this belief, however, I wish it observed, 
 that I do not say God can not renew a sinful soul without 
 the Bible. This would be deciding, more positively than a 
 reasonable man should dare decide, the case of those liter- 
 ally innumerable multitudes who never had, as well as of 
 those countless myriads who now have not the Bible. 
 W^hat I suggest, as the basis of my belief, is the inquiry 
 whether God can, consistently with the nature which He 
 himself has constituted in man, renew a sinful soul without 
 such truth as the Bible contains 1 By a special revelation. 
 He may communicate such truth to any one capable of un- 
 derstanding it, and thus effect His work of " renewing the 
 soul through knowledge after the image of Him that created 
 him," without the written form of that truth in the Bible. 
 This admission, however, makes nothing for the advocates 
 of baptismal regeneration ; for they do not contend for such 
 a special revelation. Infants in baptism could neither ap- 
 ply nor comprehend it. It does, however, make something 
 for what I have advanced. Every man, if he have not this 
 truth by a revelation special to himself, that he may know 
 God and spiritual things, and participate in the new life of 
 the soul, must now, according to the view here taken, have 
 
THE NATUKE OF BAPTISM. 143 
 
 it as already revealed in the Bible ; either perused for him- 
 self, or in some way proclaimed or taught in his hearing. 
 And for this purpose, it has been made providentially acces- 
 sible. Before the fall, God talked with Adam face to face. 
 But since that sad catastrophe, though He can do, and some- 
 times has done, the same thing, yet He is ordinarily with- 
 drawn from such familiarity of intercourse with men. The 
 awful privilege befits not a race of defiled and condemned 
 criminals. Still, as a token of His yet living mercy ; yea, 
 as an instrument by which this mercy may reach us in our 
 guilt and ruin, He has graciously left us a substitute for that 
 high fellowship, by communicating to us His written Truth, 
 full of the knowledge of himself, and divinely fitted both for 
 use by His Spirit, and for entrance into our own minds. 
 And now, without this truth, addressed to our reason and 
 understanding, and flooding the world with a knowledge of 
 himself, it may well be doubted whether He can reach the 
 soul with his renewing and saving grace. To say that He 
 can, is to say that He can save all the heathen without 
 sending them either the Bible, or any equivalent for it in 
 special revelation ; that He can impart his grace to the soul 
 while it lies in perfect ignorance of Himself and of all di- 
 vine things. This is a high theme ; and it behooves us to 
 touch it with reverence. But, touching it thus, is it pre- 
 sumption to say, that God. by His own dealings, shows 
 that He is self-bound to His own divine Truth, actually 
 made known, actually understood and felt, as His instru- 
 ment in the hand of the Spirit for quickening a voluntarily 
 sinful soul to the new and spiritual life ; and that therefore 
 renovation, or what is the same thing, the gift of the new 
 life to the actual sinner, never takes place till the infant be- 
 comes capable of understanding and feeling those simple 
 forms of Divine Truth, which make known God and the 
 soul, the Spirit and the Savior? Let us see what light we 
 can obtain on this subject from the spiritual world. 
 
144 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 We have no evidence, then, either from the principles of 
 philosophy, or from the testimony of revelation, that spirit 
 affects spirit by impact of their substances. It is not by 
 such touches that they stir the powers, or modify the shape, 
 or affect the nature, each of the other. They doubtless 
 have other modes of action. And yet, of other modes we 
 can not conceive, except as they involve the use of truth. 
 I speak of good spirits only : to those which are evil, 
 error is as necessary as truth is to others. We know 
 that the Holy Spirit, in the use of the Bible, as revealed 
 truth, can not reach our souls while in the body, except 
 through the senses of seeing and hearing. Suppose, then, 
 the body laid aside, or, what is the same thing, not used in 
 the intercourse : how, in this case, does the Spirit reach 
 the soul in the use of truth 1 I say, in the use of truth, be- 
 cause truth exists independently of the body, and even of re- 
 corded revelation ; and God uses it in holding intercourse 
 with disimbodied spirits. But how ? Of course, by pre- 
 senting it to the seeing, or the hearing, or what may be 
 termed the inward sense, of the soul ; that inward sense, 
 without which truth were valueless in a world of spirits. 
 Hence the Bible represents angels as speaking and listen- 
 ing to each other, and God as speaking and listening to 
 them ; while they, in their turn, speak and listen to Him. 
 This is not mere empty imagery. It carries silent proof 
 that fleshless spirits, like God and angels, or cur own un- 
 bodied souls, have an inward, spiritual sense, in the use of 
 which they communicate and receive knowledge or truth. 
 This knowledge and that inward sense, truth known and 
 made known, are grand media of happy and beneficial in- 
 tercourse between all pure spirits. 
 
 The same thing held true when the body, though not laid 
 aside, was yet unused in the intercourse of revelation be- 
 tween God and man, at least in those cases in which there 
 was no vision to the outward eye, and no voice to the out- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 145 
 
 ward ear. " Holy men of God spake as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost." But how were they moved ? Was 
 it by a sensible impulse leaving them to speak whatever 
 might come up amid the fervors of the unusual excitement 1 
 No : but doubtless by the suggestion o£ thoughts pregnant 
 with the truth to be made known ; that these thoughts might 
 be either uttered for use, or recorded for permanency. In 
 other words, by truth and the sense which received it ; truth 
 known and made kaovvn, through that receptive faculty, 
 without which there could have been no revealing inter- 
 course between God and man. 
 
 Here, then, is one great established mode of intercommu- 
 nication between spiritual beings, and it is a mode which 
 apparently meets all their wants and all their capabilities. 
 For with truth understood and felt, with truth as a light 
 shining every where around them, all possible objects and 
 influences become perceptible and influential ; while, with- 
 out truth, all is but the darkness, and motionlessness, and 
 powerlessness of the moral world. If there could be a 
 spirit without truth, or without the faculty of receiving truth, 
 it would be necessarily cut off from all happy and profitable 
 intercourse with other spirits, whether they were its supe- 
 riors or its equals. But there are no such spirits. Mutual 
 exchange of thought and of truth, with the feelings and sym- 
 pathies which follow in the exchange of such Divine wealth, 
 this constitutes the peculiar, the established intercourse of 
 the whole world of spirits, imbodied or disimbodied ; and 
 the mighty power involved in the thoughts and the truths, in 
 the feelings and the sympathies, which circulate in such an 
 intercourse, constitute a necessary element, if not the whole 
 body, of the influence which one good spirit exerts over an- 
 other, or which one good spirit exerts over another that is 
 ovil. 
 
 The only question, then, which can arise on the point is 
 this : Is there not, may there not be, some other mode of 
 N 
 
146 THE NATrRE OF BAPTISM, 
 
 intercourse and of influence between spirits, and therefore 
 between God and tlie saul, wtiether bodily senses are used 
 ©r not used ? 
 
 I do not expect, definitively and forever,^ to settle the con- 
 troversy on this point ; because men will dispute about it so 
 long as they can demand, what others may not be able to 
 give, a demonstration that no other mode is possible. And 
 yet, this controversy ought to be capable of settlement by a 
 reasonable amount of moral probability. Is there not, then, 
 the strongest moral probability, from what has been said, 
 that all the feelings and sympathies, and all the consequent 
 influences with each other which can arise in a right in- 
 tercourse of spirits, have and must have their ground in some 
 of the numberless forms, combinations, and relations of 
 truth ; of truth perceived, understood, and felt ? Truths 
 when used in such intercourse, is addressed to the reason^ 
 the understanding, and the conscience, or moral sense. If^ 
 then, there be an intercourse, in which truth is not used, it 
 must be one in which reason, understanding, and conscience 
 remain without exercise ; for truth is the only food which 
 enters in by these mouths of the soul. It follows, there- 
 fore, that if there be any other possible mode of intercourse or 
 communication between God and pure spirits in general, or 
 between God and our own souls in particular, it must consist 
 in this: that without truth communicated, and independent- 
 ly of any inward sensibility to truth, or perception of it, God, 
 in some unknown manner^ impresses Himself, his simple^ 
 naked essence upon the unreasoning and unconscious soul ; 
 enstamping it with his image, as the seal leaves its likeness 
 on the yielding wax ; or quickening it with his life, as the 
 dove broodingly infuses animation into the unconscious egg. 
 This, however, is an hypothesis which the mind shrinks 
 from admitting, and will not admit, till an unreasoning cre- 
 dulity has usurped the place of an intelligent faith. 
 
 No reasonable man will reject a doctrine merely because 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 147 
 
 it involves a mystery. Many things are mysterious, and 
 yet true. Such a man, if he reject it at all, will reject the 
 theory of baptismal regeneration, as now generally under- 
 stood, for two reasons : 1. Because he finds no adequate 
 testimony to it, either in the Bible or from experience ; and, 
 2. Because it involves the immense difficulty, not to say ab- 
 surdity, of supposing that the soul may receive a communi- 
 cation, impartation, or impressiom from God, while utterly 
 ignorant of His existence, and utterly incapable, as in in- 
 fancy, of the removal of its ignorance. It is not mere mys- 
 tery, here, which staggers faith ; it is the absence of Script- 
 ure proof in support of the theory, and the inward pressure 
 of the huge difficulty inherent in the theory itself. With 
 nothing in the shape of adequate proof to bind faith down 
 to the theory, this inward pressure forces her off, and leaves 
 the theory to what must prove its ultimate fate — explosion. 
 To some the foregoing discussion may appear abstruse, 
 and be passed over as remote from the easy run of thought. 
 And yet, abstruse though it be, it makes some things plain. 
 It throws light on the reason of this great fact, that, in 
 His intercourse with His intelligent, yet sinful creatures, 
 God uses, and has furnished for our use, the exhaustless 
 riches of His Truth. He is Truth ; infinite in the treas- 
 ures and in the comprehension of it ; and He has made us, 
 though finite, yet capable, in reason and understanding, of 
 receiving Him in and through His Truth. Therefore hath 
 He given us the Truth, and Himself in it, and the eternal 
 world through its shining. All this is plain and certain ; 
 and if any other mode of intercourse between God and man 
 be possible, without involving the same principle of truth 
 and its intelligent reception, still, the fearful and perilous 
 darkness which meets us as we attempt to seek for it, con- 
 strains the belief that it is a mode which has never been 
 followed by even Him, " whose judgments are unsearcha- 
 ble," and " whose footsteps are not known." 
 
148 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 To Others, again, the views which have been advanced 
 may seem to ascribe too much, in the work of our renewal, 
 to the power of " influential motives :" to be " substituting 
 Gospel motives for the Gospel itself;" the tendency of 
 truths to excite love, for " the love of Christ constraining 
 us ;" and the persuasiveness of man's preaching for the 
 " demonstration of the Spirit and of power."* And, un- 
 doubtedly, there is a system which tends to " put Christ 
 out of Christianity, and the Holy Spirit out of the Holy 
 Scriptures ;" and, having done so, to fall down and worship, 
 not the vacated Bible, but an idol of its own, called Truth. 
 Against such a system and its tendencies we may well lift a 
 loud voice of warning. But what has this to do with a 
 view which makes God all in all, Christ the whole hope 
 of his people, and the Holy Spirit the one Agent, every 
 where at work in the renewal and sanctification of the 
 saints ? This view, indeed, makes truth a necessary medi- 
 um of manifestation, and a necessary instrument of opera- 
 tion in that renewing and sanctifying work ; still, eff'ectual 
 only because it is " the sword of the Spirit ;" only because 
 it is " the Word of God," and full of God in His Word. 
 
 Here, as well as elsewhere, there are two extremes to be 
 avoided. The one is, casting God out of His Word, and 
 then making speculations, and theories, and supposed truths 
 omnipotent. The other is, divorcing Truth, and putting her 
 away from God, and then making Him a Being who works 
 not only amid the darkness of constant mystery, but also 
 amid the prodigies of ceaseless superstition. It is needless 
 to say both these extremes must be avoided. We must 
 leave God and His truth where they naturally are — always 
 together — one and inseparable. In no other way shall we 
 know either of them unto profit. Truth manifesting God, 
 and God manifest through the Truth ; Truth testifying for 
 
 * Tract 67. Pusey on Baptism, p. 77. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 149 
 
 God, and God convincing by the Truth; Truth shining 
 round all divine things, and God making all divine things 
 savingly perceptible ; this is the eternal union and co-opera- 
 tion of the Infinite with the Light in which he dwelleth. 
 The true idea of " Gospel motives" is this — God moving in 
 the Gospel ; and this is " the love of Christ truly constrain- 
 ing us ;" Christ constraining us by the love which his Word 
 makes known ; while the true " demonstration of the Spirit 
 and of power" lies here, the Spirit demonstrating the power 
 of that " preaching which is not with enticing words of 
 man's wisdom." — 1 Cor., ii., 4. 
 
 And, finally, to others it may appear that, according to 
 the idea of baptism which has been shadowed forth, every 
 infant is left, through his early years, a solitary thing ; a 
 creature of God, yet cut ofi" from intercourse with Him ; 
 under the operation of His law, yet incapable of renewing 
 by His grace ; in short, thrown on a cold world, and left 
 to bud and blossom amid nothing but its frosts. 
 
 With reasons for the condition of infancy as a fact we have 
 nothing to do. Why God has seen fit to bring the human 
 creature into life, the heir to an inheritance which may 
 hereafter equal that of an angel in intellectual and moral 
 wealth and happiness, and yet actually knowing less at its 
 birth, and less able to care for itself, than the youngling of 
 the dumb beast of burden, we know not, and need not in- 
 quire. The reason of the order is His, and to Himself is 
 perfectly satisfying. Yet, this much we may say of it: 
 though infancy be incapable of comprehending the truths 
 of God, of performing any religious act toward him, or of 
 6eing renewed unto repentance and faith as the opening of 
 the new and spiritual life, yet is it not left in uncared-for 
 coldness and solitude. However unconscious of God's re- 
 gards, we know that in Christ He regards the infant with 
 the deepest and tenderest solicitude. The intense interest, 
 and the sacred delight with which the loving mother watch* 
 N2 
 
150 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 es her first-born, catches the first gleam of its opening in- 
 teUigence and moral sensibility, and seeks to nurse the 
 young spirit up for sweet and blessed intercourse with her- 
 self — these are but faint and feeble things compared with 
 that still more intense interest, that still more sacred de- 
 light with which a God of love watches the infancy of ev- 
 ery human being, sees its nature unfold, and seeks to draw 
 its young afl^ections to himself. Yea, the anxieties, cares, 
 and sleepless love of the Christian parent for his offspring 
 are actually but a part of that beautiful and beneficent sys- 
 tem which God hath ordained, and imder which he is pre- 
 paring to place the infancy of every human being, in order 
 that its first possible impressions may be holy, and its first 
 possible knowledge sanctifying ; or, if not actually so, yet 
 harmonious with the holy and the sanctifying influences 
 which are living round its young spirit. Let this suflSce* 
 Infancy is not uncared for of God. He watches over it 
 long before it can be conscious of His watching, and long 
 before it can requite His care with either gratitude or neg- 
 lect. 
 
 ni. I advance now to another suggestion which may 
 arise from what was said in the first chapter on baptism. 
 
 If, then, we deny that infants may receive the gift of a 
 new and spiritual life, in the sanctifying waters of baptism, 
 does not this throw us either upon the gloomy dogma, that 
 all infants, dying in infancy, are lost ; or upon that loose 
 heresy which holds that they are saved, because born with- 
 out sin 1 If infants are sinful, then, it may be urged, all 
 who die in infancy must either be previously renewed, and 
 have the gift of a spiritual life, or be lost. Or, if they are 
 saved, though not thus previously gifted with new and spir- 
 itual life, it must be because they are born without sin. 
 Upon the one part or the other of this alternative it may be 
 said we are unavoidably cast, by the view of baptism which 
 has been indicated ; a view which forces us either to hug 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 151 
 
 the chilling belief that all who die in infancy are lost, or ta 
 part from that belief only to join the rank heresy, that they 
 are born without sin. 
 
 To tliis suggestion I reply. Whether those who die in 
 infancy be saved or lost, is not strictly our question. It be- 
 longs to God, and He will settle it in equity. It need not, 
 therefore, influence us in what is our proper business, seek- 
 ing and believing the truth. As to the tendencies, however, 
 of the views which I have stated, I will endeavor to show 
 that they do not land us in either of the deep heresies just 
 named. 
 
 I begin, then, by declaring, with the Bible, that we are 
 " shapen in iniquity," and "conceived in sin" (Ps., li., 5) ; 
 and by professing, with our article, that " in every person 
 born into this world," original sin " deserveth God's wrath 
 and damnation." — Art. ix. And thus clear of one of the 
 heresies named, it only remains to be seen whether the 
 view of baptism now advocated runs into the other. 
 
 If this consequence does follow, it must be on one or the 
 other of these two grounds : that all who die in infancy 
 must be lost, either because original sin, their only sinful- 
 ness, " deserves God's wrath and damnation ;" or because 
 they can not be renewed unto repentance and faith, and 
 have the gift of the new and spiritual life. Does it follow 
 on either of these grounds ? 
 
 Before I answer this question directly, I must pause a 
 moment to inquire what the language of our article means, 
 •when it declares that, " in every person born into this world, 
 original sin deserves God's wrath and damnation ?" Does 
 it mean that the infant itself deserves God's wrath and dam- 
 nation for being born subject to this " infection of nature ?" 
 God forbid ! The distinction between the infant and the 
 " infection" which is " m" him ; or that between the infant, 
 as an involuntary subject of this infection, and the adult, as 
 a voluntary agent in the actual sin, which is its issue, may 
 
152 THE NATURE OF BAPTrSST. 
 
 be called a nice one ; nevertheless, it is a true aniT an es- 
 sential distinction. Both the infection itself, and the agent, 
 when voluntary in giving it issue, deserve God's wrath and 
 damnation. But the mere involuntary, unconscious subject 
 of that infection, not having reached the age at which its is- 
 sue becomes possible, does not, strictly speaking, deserve 
 such retribution. Original sin, to use the language of the 
 Article, is "-an infection." It is a taint, a poison, whatever 
 may be understood by such terms, and in this character, 
 God hates and condemns it. The primary disobedience of 
 Adam himself, and all its consequences both of involuntary 
 sinfulness m the infant, and of vohmtary sin in the adult, 
 are objects of utter dislike to God, and against them He 
 warreth ever. But, though thus "• angry with the wicked 
 every day," yet on the mere unsinning infant (unsinning, 
 though smful) He looks with a father's love and compas- 
 sion. The deep sin of Adam, and its deep efi'ect on the 
 nature of ever}' one bom into this world, these are justly 
 the objects of " God's wrath and damnation ;" but not the 
 new-born babe, involuntarily become the subject of the aw- 
 ful infection. If he liv-e to be capable and guilty of giving 
 this infection its issue in actual sin, he, too, fall's under the 
 never-changing wrath of God ; but till then, whatever other 
 relation he may bear to his Maker, he bears not that of the 
 actual transgressor. With this explanatory remark, I pass 
 to the first branch of the inquiry which has been stated. 
 
 1. Does the future perdition of the dying infant follovr 
 from the fact that orig/nal sin deserves God's wrath ? No " 
 for actual sin deserves the same, even in the true penitent, 
 and after it has been freely forgiven. Nay, in the highest 
 saint who, in heaven, has become sinless, even in him, his 
 past actual sins deserve God^s wrath, and wilt deserve ii 
 forever. For if sin ceases to deserve punishment because 
 it has been forgiven, then hath forgiveness the power of 
 changing guilt into innocenccj and sin into holiness I No, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 153 
 
 all sin, original or actual, forgiven or unforgiven, alike de- 
 serves God's displeasure, and will deserve it through eter- 
 nity. Hence it is that, though Christ has paid our ransom, 
 or endured a substitute for our penalty, yet our salvation is 
 still all of grace. Although, therefore, original sin does de- 
 serve God's wrath, yet it does not follow, from the view now 
 taken of baptism, that those who die in infancy must be 
 lost. If a way have been opened, this sin may be forgiven ; 
 and thus, so far as forgiveness can contribute to the result, 
 they may be saved. 
 
 Has not a way to its forgiveness, then, been opened ? 
 The limits which I have assigned to my argument will not 
 allow me to go fully into the evangelic scheme as it touches 
 this interesting point. It must be sufficient to glance at the 
 view of it given in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, from the 12th to the 21st verse. Whatever else 
 that important and somewhat difficult Scripture may con- 
 tain, it contains at least these things : that Adam was a type 
 of Christ, in the extraordinary sense of the latter's being set 
 over against the former at all points, or in all moral relations 
 to our race ; that, as Adam brought sin and death upon all, 
 so Christ brings righteousness and life to all ; that, as Adam, 
 by one act of trangression, brought condemnation, so Christ, 
 from many acts of transgression, brings justification ; and 
 that, while the evils of Adam's sin are unconditional, abso- 
 lute, the benefits of Christ's righteousness are conditional, 
 contingent. By his sin, Adam actually, positively brought 
 death, temporal and spiritual, upon all men. By His right- 
 eousness, Christ brings life, spiritual and eternal, condition- 
 ally, under terms, to all men. 
 
 Let us see how this bears on the question before us. In 
 the case of those who die in infancy, with original sin only 
 affecting their natures, Christ, it would seem, stands to them 
 for good, over against Adam for evil. As they are brought 
 under the condemnation of original sin through Adam, so 
 
154 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 they receive remission of it through Christ. And the con- 
 dition — (involuntarily enjoyed, indeed, on their part, but 
 voluntarily secured to them on God's) — the condition on 
 which they receive this remission is, that they have com- 
 mitted no actual sin. Being taken away from the ordinary 
 conditions of the Gospel, they need no other. For if, in 
 receiving this grant of remission, their relation to Christ be 
 involuntary, so, in becoming subject to the sin forgiven, was 
 their relation to Adam involuntary. Is it not reasonable, 
 therefore, that, on the condition named, Christ, the greater, 
 should remove what Adam, the less, entailed 1 To make 
 the principle here involved general : as the first Adam 
 brought the condemnation of original sin upon the whole 
 race, so the second Adam brings the remission of that sin 
 upon the whole race, on condition that original sin never 
 issues in actual sin. When, therefore, God is pleased to 
 remove infants by death, before they have committed actual 
 sin. He secures to them, in his own way, the benefits of 
 this condition. For Christ's sake, He delivers them from 
 the wrath and condemnation which original sin deserves. 
 As Christ " tasted death for every man" (Heb., ii., 9), and 
 as God removes these infants before they can comprehend 
 what their Redeemer hath done for them, and before they 
 have committed any actual sin, so, it may be believed. He 
 extends to them the benefits of His death and passion, 
 without imposing any other condition than that solitary one 
 which He has himself secured to them — freedom from act- 
 ual sin. It is thus the great law of the Church under the 
 Gospel, that while, in the case of those who live to commit 
 actual sin, the death of Christ can be rendered effectual 
 only by being applied in the exercises of faith and repent- 
 ance, or of that inward renewing which is the work of the 
 Spirit in the use of Truth ; in the case of all who die in in- 
 fancy, and without actual sin, the death of Christ itself is 
 effectual, without being so applied. As they have not be- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 15S 
 
 come voluntary in following the first Adam's sin, so need 
 they not be voluntary in relying on the second Adam's 
 righteousness. 
 
 Had it not been for Christ, the whole race had perished. 
 But since He " hath tasted death for every man," they only 
 perish who, to the fact of original sin, as an infection from 
 our common head, add the guilt of actual sin, as the intelli- 
 gent and voluntary issue of their own minds ; and who, 
 thus guilty and defiled, never become renewed and sancti- 
 fied by the Holy Ghost unto repentance, faith, and holi- 
 ness ; but, on the contrary, either by an actual volition, or 
 by cherishing tempers which would prompt such an act, 
 reject the ofl'er of pardon and life through the Savior, and 
 thus seal, beyond reversal, the sentence of their own con- 
 demnation. 
 
 This view of the effects of Christ's death and sacrifice 
 accounts for the fact that so little is said in the Bible of 
 those who die in infancy. Toward infancy and childhood, 
 as states of life, the Bible is full of the tenderest regard. 
 The language of Christ to those who would have kept the 
 little children from him may be taken as the best expres- 
 sion of that regard in summary ; while it shows that, be- 
 tween original sin in infancy, and actual sin in subsequent 
 years, there is a broad and important difference. But the 
 case of those who die in infancy the Bible leaves in almost 
 unbroken silence. The comforted mourning of the peni- 
 tent David over his dead child, " I shall go to him, but he 
 shall not return to me" (2 Sam., xii., 23), is the plainest 
 and loudest, if not the only word ever uttered to break that 
 silence. The slaughtered babes of Bethlehem have, by 
 some, been called martyrs for Christ ; and yet it is remark- 
 able that the evangelist says not a word of their state by 
 nature, or of their future condition. So far as what the Bi- 
 ble says may have a direction toward this subject (the fu- 
 ture state of those who die in infancy), it opens glimpses 
 
156 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 into something bright and blessed. But, in the remarkable 
 silence which it generally obserYes-, it plainly intimates that 
 this is a case to which the ordinary conditions of the Gos- 
 pel do not apply ; that, as "• what the law says, it says to 
 them that are under the law," so, what the Bible any where 
 says, it says to them that are under the Bible, and can 
 understand its elementary and fundamental teachings ; that 
 dying infants, not belonging to this class, are in Gk»d's 
 hands ; and that, as He sees good to take them away from 
 the ordinary lot of sinful men, so He probably takes them 
 to that bosom of mercy, to that freeness of pardon for 
 Christ's sake, to which the actual transgressor can be ad- 
 mitted in no other way than that fully prescribed in the 
 Gospel, 
 
 On the whole, then, we may confidently conclnde that, 
 although original sin, as it is expressed in the Article, ""de- 
 serves God's wrath and damnation," yet those who die in 
 infancy are not, for this reason, lost, but, on the contrary, 
 may be saved ; the way to a free remission being open in 
 this case as well as in others. To pass, then, to the sec- 
 ond branch of the inquiry : 
 
 2. Does it follow that those who die in infancy must be 
 lost, because they are incapable of that renewal unto re- 
 pentance and faith, obedience and holiness, which is effect- 
 ed by the Spirit in the use of Truth ? 
 
 It is needless to repeat here, that no one guilty of actual 
 sin can be saved without such a renewal. The heart that 
 has once understandingly, voluntarily, deliberately conceiv- 
 ed sin against God, can never know peace with Him till it 
 has been not only pardoned, but also reconciled, renewed, 
 and cleansed of the defilement which that accountable act 
 infused. It is enough to say, this is not the case now in 
 view. The dying infant is not guilty of actual sin. 
 
 In reference to this case, then, I reply, If dying infants 
 need any previous change of nature in order to their happi- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 157 
 
 ness with God, it can not be such a change as is required 
 of those who have become capable and guilty of actual sin. 
 For this latter change takes its very first steps in repent- 
 ance and faith ; and it is evident that, whatever else they 
 may need, dying infants need no such change as this. 
 
 They need not repentance, for they have never committed 
 a sin of which they ought to repent. Some strange theo- 
 rists, indeed, have taught that we ought to repent of Adam's 
 sin — of his personal and first act of transgression. But 
 this, even when applied to the case of adults, would almost 
 universally be set down as false theology. We may mourn, 
 with the deepest grief of which a smitten spirit is capable, 
 over 
 
 " Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
 Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
 Brought death into the world, and all our wo ;" 
 
 and yet, this grief would not be repentance, in the theologi- 
 cal or Scriptural sense of the term. In this sense, we 
 neither need, nor can, repent of any but our own, personal, 
 voluntary acts. I can not repent of Adam's sin, any more 
 than I can repent of the sin of Judas. And if this be true 
 even of adults, much more than this is true of infants. Dy- 
 ing in infancy, they need no repentance, whether of Adam's 
 sin, or of their own. From Adam, indeed, they have in- 
 herited " an infection of nature," termed original sin ; but 
 into actual sin, as the fatal consequence of this, they have 
 never, by their own volition, fallen. They, therefore, need 
 no repentance. They have nothing, they have done nothing 
 of which they should or can repent. 
 
 Nor, again, do they need faith. For faith, as it stands 
 related to the offered pardon of sin, is that act which the 
 soul performs when the Holy Spirit has " convinced it of 
 sin," especially the actual sin of unbelief; and has thus 
 shown it the need of a Savior. — John, xvi., 8, 9. Faith, as 
 a general act of reliance on God, and on what He hath tes- 
 
 O 
 
158 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 tiiied in His Word, may indeed have a wider scope than 
 this, though not a different nature ; but, as the act which 
 looks to Christ the Savior, and receives through Him a free 
 forgiveness, it can have no other place than that which I 
 have named, the look of the soul to Christ, when the Spirit 
 has convinced it of actual sin. But dying infants have no 
 actual sin, especially not that of unbelief, of which the 
 Spirit should, or can, convince them. They need no faith, 
 therefore, either as the hand by which pardon is received, 
 or as a step in that change through which purification 
 comes. For, of original sin they can not be convinced, any 
 more than I can be justly convicted of the sin of ray neigh- 
 bor ; nor need they be convinced of it, any more than a 
 miserable youth, infected with a hereditary disease, which 
 is sure to break out if he lives, needs to be convicted of 
 that sin of his parent in which his disease originated ; 
 while, as we have seen, faith in this connection is that act 
 which apprehends Christ as a Savior from the guilt of 
 actual sin ; at the same time opening a channel through 
 which the heart becomes purified from the defilement of 
 that sin. Dying infants, therefore, having nothing of either 
 this guilt or this defilement, have no more need of faith than 
 o{ repentance . 
 
 But repentance and faith are the main steps in that 
 change which every actual sinner must have in order to 
 his salvation. As dying infants, then, need not take these 
 steps, so neither do they need the change in which they are 
 steps. Consequently, so far as this point is concerned, they 
 may, without this change, be saved. Whatever else may 
 be necessary to their salvation, such a change is not neces- 
 sary. 
 
 Thus, the theory of baptism which I have shadowed 
 forth, lands not its advocate in the cold and horrid dogma 
 that all who die in infancy must be lost. On the contrary, 
 it leads to bright and blessed views of their future lot; 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 169 
 
 views full of the sunlight of hope, and rich with the bless- 
 edness of anticipated glory, to all whom God, in His chas- 
 tening goodness, is pleased to beckon away ere the stain of 
 actual sin has rested on their spirits. If they can not have, 
 neither do they need, that specifically renewing and sancti- 
 fying change which God demands of all others. If they 
 do not live to receive that gift of a renewed mind which 
 Christ came to bestow, neither do they live to feel that vol- 
 untary breaking out of the disease of sin, the workings of 
 which Christ came to destroy. Through Christ's sacrifice 
 the fact of original sin is, it may be believed, forgiven them ; 
 through God's intervention, the stain of actual sin is not 
 contracted. The pains of temporal death come upon them, 
 not in punishment of voluntary guilt, but as that only part 
 of the original penalty which follows involuntary infection. 
 In them, Adam still dies for his first offense. In them, 
 Christ now lives, through his satisfying obedience. The 
 first Adam plunged them into the peril of original sin. The 
 second Adam travailed for them in bloody pain, and deliver- 
 ed them out of their peril. The former left them to a state 
 of misery, as the inevitable consequence of introducing sin 
 into the world. The latter wins them to a life of blessed- 
 ness, as part of his promised reward for becoming a sacri- 
 fice for sin. 
 
 The only objection of which I can conceive, that may be 
 urged against the view thus given, is, that although dying 
 infants, in order to their salvation, need not, previously to 
 their death, the specific change effected in repentance and 
 faith, yet they need some other change which shall take 
 out the infection of original sin ; and this change is the 
 mystery in baptism. Even this objection, however, may, 
 I think, be effectually removed, or shown to be utterly 
 groundless. 
 
 (1.) If, in the mystery of baptism, the infection oi orig- 
 inal sin be taken out, then those baptized infants who sur- 
 
160 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 vive to " years of discretion" may reasonably be expected 
 to live without actual sin. The effect of the fall being once 
 remedied, God surely would not, after such an infinite ex- 
 penditure in furnishing and applying the remedy, suffer the 
 fall and its effect to be straightway repeated ; as would be 
 the case if such infants were to commit actual sin after bap- 
 tism. Their sin, in such a case, would be literally " after 
 the similitude of Adam's transgression :" it would be liter- 
 ally falling from a sinless condition. But what is the state 
 of facts here 1 Do those who survive their baptism till 
 "years of discretion," live without actual sin? Universal 
 experience concurs with the Word of God in testifying that 
 they do not. On reaching years of moral action, they in- 
 variably sin ; and thereby show in action how perfectly 
 true it is, as expressed in doctrine : " There is not a just 
 man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." — Eccl., 
 vii., 20. 
 
 What, then, says the language of our Article to the point ? 
 Does it teach that the infection of original sin is taken 
 away in baptism ? Directly the reverse. It declares that 
 " this infection remaineth, yea, in them that are regenera- 
 ted." This remaining of the infection, too, is at once a 
 reason why, if we survive to years of moral action, we in- 
 variably sin after baptism ; and a proof that, in thus sinning, 
 we do " not sin after the similitude of Adam's transgres- 
 sion," by falling from a sinless condition, but after the simil- 
 itude of the unbaptized around us, by giving voluntary issue 
 to the lingering infection within us. 
 
 2. Again : if baptism be the necessary mystery which 
 is infallibly to take out this infection, and thus leave the 
 soul of the dying infant, before the seal of death is set, pure 
 from all stain, as its only capacity for heaven, then what 
 becomes of the myriads of those infants who die without 
 baptism, not only in heathen, but even in Christian lands ? 
 And how is it that the theory of baptismal regeneration, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 161 
 
 SO careful of the infants of Christian parents, is so cruel to 
 the dying babes of those who are not Christians ? Many 
 of the advocates of that theory do not, and all of them, if 
 they consistently carried out their principle, would not, hes- 
 itate to avow their belief, that the mystery of baptism is so 
 absolutely necessary to the salvation of dying infants, that 
 none who die without it can he saved. And so the theory, 
 which thinks to save a {ew, consigns infinite myriads of 
 dying infants to perdition. 
 
 The simple truth is, the mystery of baptism is not the 
 specific for the removal of original sin, which these theo- 
 rists suppose it to be. This mystery does not take out 
 that " infection of our nature." It is not thus necessary to 
 the salvation of the dying infant. Overpowering probabil- 
 ities, yea, high moral certainties, cluster around the posi- 
 tion, that the obliteration of original sin, as a lingering " in- 
 fection of nature," its obliteration before the hour of death, 
 is not necessary to salvation. 
 
 Let me be understood. I assert not that the complete 
 sanctification of our nature from actual sin in this life is 
 impossible. That is a question which, in this discussion, 
 I need not moot. What I mean is, that the obliteration of 
 original sin before death is not necessary to the salvation 
 either of the dying infant, or of the dying man of years. 
 
 This is evident from the fact that the best Christians 
 actually carry this infection, and more or less of its fruits, 
 to the very hour of death. That they do, is the burden of 
 the concurrent testimony of the Bible, of our Article, and of 
 experience ; three unimpeachable witnesses. The Bible 
 declares, "There is not z.just man upon earth, who sin- 
 neth not ;" and experience says the same thing. This is 
 the state of facts. Whatever becomes of the question of 
 the possible complete sanctification of the soul from actual 
 sin in this life, the fact comes to this : that, in some of its 
 forms, it clings to all living men, even to the "just." But 
 03 
 
162 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 the presence of actual sin, in any of its forms, though but 
 in the most occult movements of the will, is full proof of the 
 co-presence of original sin. The actual would not live an 
 instant but for the coexistence of the original. The infec- 
 tion of original sin, therefore, not only " remains," as the 
 Article asserts, but remains till death, even in the most 
 deeply-experienced and truly ripened Christian. Hence, 
 at the.ir dying hour, the mourning of so many over the re- 
 mains within them of the fruits of this deep-fixed infection. 
 Hence they are, at that hour, driven to Christ «^ alone as 
 their ground of hope, and cleave to him in death with a 
 fondness of love, and an energy of faith, and a thorough- 
 ness of self-renunciation unknown in life. 
 
 If, as the objection supposes, this infection of original 
 sin must be taken out before death, in order to render sal- 
 vation possible, then, even these true Christians, notwith- 
 standing all the wonders of redemption and grace which 
 have been wrought for and in them, can not be saved. 
 From their Savior, in all the earnestness and sweet ag- 
 ony of their last love for him, and of their last faith in his 
 sacrifice, they must part and perish ! — a result, of course, 
 which contradicts the whole testimony of the Bible. 
 
 There is, then, no weight in the objection. It is not 
 necessary to salvation that the obliteration of original sin 
 should take place before death. Perhaps this previous ob- 
 literation is not possible, though on this point reasonable 
 men will not dogmatize ; but perhaps it is not possible. 
 Perhaps the high mysteries of our last change on earth, 
 and the still higher mysteries which await us when we 
 come to " see God as he is" (1 John, iii., 2), are necessary 
 finally to take out the deep infection which our nature has 
 received, and to present it again perfect in the image of its 
 Creator. Perhaps such a final extinction of original sin is 
 to be the summing up of the whole mystery of our redemp- 
 tion. Before the fall, God and man met face to face. Then, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 163; 
 
 to look upon God was to be like him. But the fall ensued, 
 and, in displeasure, God withdrew from sight, and from all 
 familiarity of intercourse with men. That loss of the vi- 
 sion of God was not only the effect, but also an aggravation 
 of their unlikeness to him. And yet they were not left 
 hopeless in their double loss. God at length, and in meas- 
 ured progress, made himself again manifest ; not, indeed, 
 as at first, " face to face," but in promise, in prophecy, in 
 type, in ritual, " in the flesh," " in Christ ;" still partly hid- 
 den, and yet in part, O how gloriously revealed ! And now, 
 through this graciously renewed, though still partial man- 
 ifestation of himself, through the wondrous sacrifice on 
 the cross for the free pardon of our sins, and through 
 the blessed work of the Spirit in the incipient and progress- 
 ive sanctification of our souls, he prepares as many as re- 
 sist him not, as grieve him not, for a reintroduction to his 
 unveiled presence, and for a final and complete obliteration 
 of all unlikeness to him ; and to be thus, through Christ and 
 by the Spirit, reintroduced to his presence, will be to be- 
 come again perfect in his image. 
 
 But, whether this vision of God be a necessary summing 
 up of the mystery of our redemption or not, it is often, per- 
 haps always, the actual summing up of that mystery. The 
 work of redemption, in its effect within us, frequently, per- 
 haps uniformly, has its completion, its last finishing touches, 
 in the power of that first look of the soul upon the unveiled 
 glory of God to which John refers in the expression above 
 quoted ; and if this be either necessary or sufficient to ob- 
 literate original sin from the soul of the aged saint, much 
 more is it sufficient for this effect in that infant spirit who, 
 before committing actual sin, returns to Him " who gave it" 
 — a soul redeemed by Christ, and presented to the Father, 
 for its first sin-extinguishing look upon the glorious God. 
 
 It is but reasonable to believe that such a soul, removed 
 in infancy from the sin, the corruption, and the evil influ- 
 
164 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 ence with which this world is filled, and which are early 
 as well as powerful stimulants to all that is evil within 
 us. may feel that first sanctifying look with a vastly more 
 penetrating power than that realized by the Christian, who, 
 after having become defiled with actual sin, is here privi- 
 leged to " behold," indeed, but only " as in a glass, the glo- 
 ry of the Lord ;" and is thus really, though gradually, 
 " changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by 
 the Spirit of the Lord." If this mere reflection of God upon 
 the eye of faith, an eye directed and steadied by the Spirit, 
 and yet beholding only His " manifestation in the flesh," 
 be thus efficient in gradually removing from the soul the 
 stains of actual sin and guilt, much more shall that direct 
 vision of God, vouchsafed, through Christ, to the sinful, yet 
 unsinning infant spirit, be efficient in at once extinguishing 
 that " infection of nature" which, however fatal in its activ- 
 ities and developments, lies yet the mere inactive, undevel- 
 oped principle of evil. 
 
 I do not intend, by any thing just said, that the sin, the 
 corruption, and the evil influences with which the world is 
 filled, are the tempters which originally lead our naturally 
 sinless hearts, by the power of evil example, into the ways 
 of wickedness. This would be a heresy worse even than 
 that condemned in our 9th article. I mean that, as the deep 
 infection of original sin is in our nature, and sure to act when 
 carried to years of accountability, so the sin, corruption, and 
 evil influences which fill the world, may prove to that deep 
 inward infection like impure air to the seeds of already la- 
 tent disease in the body ; developing it, if not into earlier, 
 yet into more virulent and fatal growth ; and that the soul 
 of the infant, being removed by the early act of God from 
 this morally polluted world, to a world of purer airs, may 
 feel its first sanctifying look upon God as He stands face to 
 face with the absorbed beholder, more penetratingly and 
 more eflfectually than the glimpses of faith in this life can be 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 165 
 
 felt by the Christian, who only sees the Divine glory " as in 
 a glass," and even there, but " through a glass darkly." 
 
 The whole apparent force of the third suggestion, that 
 which has led to this part of the discussion, arises from an 
 ambiguous use of the term sinful. If infants be sinful, it is 
 asked, Must they not be changed, and have a new life im- 
 parted to them before death, in order to their salvation ? 
 What has already been said in reply to this shows the ne- 
 cessity of distinguishing carefully between being sinful and 
 being sinners ; or between original sin and actual sin. 
 
 What constitutes the precise ultimate, or specific differ- 
 ence between the two, we know not, and probably never shall 
 know, till we come to read that difference by the light which 
 shineth in heaven. Still, there are some things which show 
 that they are different, and that their difference is important. 
 Thus, we know that, in original sin, the new-born babe is 
 not strictly guilty ; he is not guilty by a voluntary consent to 
 the infection : while in actual sin, the adult is guilty ; guilty 
 by a voluntary consent and indulgence in the act. So, also, 
 in estimating original sin, we see that the infection alone 
 " deserves God's wrath and damnation ;" while in estima- 
 ting actual sin, we see that" the wrath of God abideth" both 
 on the act and on the agent. Now these circumstances 
 show that the two things are really different ; and yet they 
 show us not in what the difference consists. They are no 
 parts of that difference, but only consequences of it. The 
 difference itself ?nai/ be something analogous to that between 
 a seed and its plant ; the former of which never produces the 
 latter without the concurrence of certain conditions ; while 
 the latter, when produced, contains within itself multiplied 
 repetitions or reproductions of the former. Or this difference 
 may be something analogous to that between a poison, and 
 the disease of the body which it generates ; the former sure 
 to result in the latter ; and yet the latter characteristically 
 distinct from the former. But, whatever this difference be, 
 
166 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 there can be no doubt that, were it once exposed to obser- 
 vation, it would more clearly than ever manifest the reason 
 why those who die in infancy are saved, notwithstanding 
 they carry, from their brief passage through a corrupt stock, 
 the infection of original, though not the guilt of actual sin, 
 into the presence of Him who is infinite in holiness. 
 
 I have said the difference between original and actual sin 
 may be somewhat analogous to that between poison and the 
 disease which it generates. The Article, so often mention- 
 ed, seems to suggest this possible analogy, when it defines 
 original sin to be " an infection of nature." Infection is 
 " that which taints, poisons, or corrupts, by communication 
 from one to another." Perhaps, therefore, by dwelling a 
 moment on this suggested analogy, the light which we have 
 on this point may become a little lighter. 
 
 Poison, then, we know, when lodged in the body and be- 
 fore it has begun to act , must in some way be expelled, or 
 it will generate a dangerous disease, sensibly felt and visibly 
 manifested. But after it has begun to act, it can no longer 
 he expelled, except with its eflfects : it must therefore have 
 an antidote, neutralizer, remedy, or the disease which it has 
 generated will inevitably kill. So, original sin, as a poi- 
 son in the soul, " an infection of nature," before it has be- 
 gun to act, must be expelled, or it will dangerously disease 
 the soul, the life, the whole man, inner and outer. But after 
 it has begun to act, it can no longer be expelled, except with 
 the last of its effects ; it must therefore have an antidote, 
 neutralizer, remedy, or it will prove inevitably and eternally 
 fatal. 
 
 Now we know, still farther, that poison, and the disease 
 which it generates, are not one and the same thing. Hence 
 it is that they admit of entirely different treatment, before 
 and after the generating action. If, therefore, there be any 
 thing in the suggested analogy, original and actual sin are 
 not one and the same thing ; whence it is that they receive, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 16*? 
 
 as well as admit of, very dissimilar treatment before and 
 after the period of moral accountability. In the dying in- 
 fant, the moral poison is expelled in God's own way : first, 
 its action is prevented by the suspending stroke of death ; and 
 then itself is taken wholly out by the energy of a direct vi- 
 sion of the perfect God, graciously vouchsafed for the sake 
 of Him who " hath tasted death for every man." But in the 
 adult, this process becomes impossible : disease has set in ; 
 and it must now be healed (unless it be suffered to become 
 fatal) by its appointed remedy, the mercy of God in Christ, 
 applied and made effectual by the Holy Spirit in the use ol 
 Truth, in the renewing and sanctifying change of repent- 
 ance and faith, and with the present fruits of love, obedience 
 and holiness. 
 
 These remarks, though of course an inadequate illustra- 
 tion of the difference between original and actual sin, are 
 still enough to show that they are different ; and that this 
 difference detects the fallacy couched in the suggestion 
 which has been considered. The infant, w^ho sleeps in ear- 
 ly death, and the adult, who sleeps in Jesus after a life of 
 accountability, are both sinful, but not both actual sinners; 
 and they are both saved by God's mercy through Christ, but 
 by a totally different application of that mercy. 
 
 At the same time, these remarks give increased strength 
 to the conclusion, that there is no weight in the special ob- 
 jection which I have been considering. It is a mistake of 
 the very genius of the Gospel to suppose that, in order to 
 salvation, we must, before the hour of death, be purified 
 from the infection of original sin. This would be virtually 
 to demand that the image of God should be, not only in the 
 process of a renewed formation within the soul, but brought 
 to its last finishing touch, in the present life. This would 
 be more than multitudes, if not more than any, of even the 
 eminent servants of Christ attain, while yet in the flesh. 
 Christ, indeed, came *' to destroy sin, the work of the dev- 
 
168 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 il ;" and ultimately he will effect his object, till not a sherd 
 of the broken image of evil remain in any one of his disci- 
 ples. But, allowing it to be possible, still, it is not necessa- 
 ry that the last stroke in this work should be struck this 
 side the grave. Christ's main purpose, so far as it falls with- 
 in the present life, is to bring men within the reach and em- 
 brace of mercy ; to open before them the door of the king- 
 dom of heaven ; and to set them in the way which passes 
 through its entrance. As illustrative of this point, it seems 
 to me that the whole view which the Bible gives of the fall 
 and recovery of mankind may be thus briefly stated. 
 
 By his first disobedience, Adam opened and spread the 
 broad roll of a flying curse over the whole race of man. 
 His act, which was one of rebellion, cut the race off from 
 God ; and, thus cut off, the whole fell into a state of moral 
 separation from Him : a state, which rendered it certain 
 that every individual would, on reaching years of moral ac- 
 tion, commit actual sin. That state of the race, including 
 this attendant certainty, constitutes original sin. It is a 
 state over which " God's wrath and damnation" rest ; and, 
 at the same time, one which includes every individual of 
 the race, from Adam to the last of his stock. Thus much of 
 the fall. 
 
 In the recovery, Christ, the second Adam, by his obedi- 
 ence unto death, brought in a blessing, which, in the possi- 
 bilities of its application, is coextensive with the primal 
 curse. He threw the reach and embrace of mercy around 
 the entire race. He " tasted death for every man." He 
 opened the door of the kingdom of heaven to all mankind. 
 He made eternal life possible to the whole race, from Adam 
 to the last of his stock. And thus much of the recovery. 
 
 According to this view, the infancy of every human being 
 appears to be a conditon actually embraced within the mer- 
 cy of God in Christ Jesus ; and if God call the infant away 
 while in that condition, or before actual sin, it will be difficult 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 169 
 
 to deny that He calls it to Himself and to salvation, the 
 work of extinguishing the infection of original sin being 
 complete in the first vision of his glorious face. 
 
 But, if the life of the human being reach to years of moral 
 action, to actual sin, the individual enters a state not cover- 
 ed by the^r.^^ application of mercy. He passes from that gen- 
 eral condition of the race, into a state of personal liability 
 for voluntary acts ; and before he can again pass within the 
 embrace of mercy, he ransi, personally and for himself, have 
 " repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ;" his sin must be slain by that Spirit, whose sword 
 is the Word of God ; and his soul must be renewed by that 
 Holy One, whose sanctifyings are through the truth. This 
 is the full Gospel-method of salvation. This is what the 
 Bible says to them that are under the Bible. And all who 
 thus come to Christ, making voluntary covenant with him, 
 and continuing faithful to the end, are saved ; not because 
 in this life they necessarily become perfect, or free from the 
 infection of original sin, but because they are in Him who is 
 perfect, and who will ultimately perfect them, when, after 
 the blessed trials, and the loving discipline, and the glorious 
 progress of time, he brings them to the full vision of God, 
 ^ and presents them, at last, " faultless before the presence of 
 his glory with exceeding joy." 
 
 It is evident that this is not a gospel, nor a view of the 
 Gospel, which encourages indolence in the Divine life, or 
 allows men to rest satisfied with mere half-way attainments 
 in grace. It puts every renewed heart to panting after per- 
 fection ; it sets every foot which has been turned to God's 
 testimonies boldly and determinedly on the race toward 
 perfection ; and it throws unwonted terrors on the way of 
 him who, having thus started, carelessly suffers a pause in 
 his progress, or a rest to his pantings after perfection. Still, 
 it is a gospel, or a view of the Gospel, which sheds not only 
 hope, but " the full assurance of hope," on the way of him 
 
 P 
 
170 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 who, having been renewed by the Spirit unto repentance and 
 faith in Christ, thus sets forth and thus perseveres on the 
 Christian course, even though, amid the weaknesses of na- 
 ture, and the intensities of the conflict witli evil, he come to 
 the goal of death with something still of remaining sin with- 
 in him. He has the beginnings of the " life hid with Christ 
 in God 5" and he knows, to his deep joy, that when he comes 
 to see Hiin, he shall he fully " like Him ; because he shall 
 see Him as He is." 
 
 But what are the results of this view of the Gospel as 
 applied to the case which has been passing before us ? 
 Evidently these : all the countless myriads who have died, 
 and who are yet to die, in infancy, whether in Christian 
 or in heathen lands, in all ages and in all nations, prob- 
 ably have entered, or will enter, heaven — the trophies of 
 God's redeeming mercy in Christ. The heathen are thus 
 shown to be, in all probability, Christ's " inheritance" not only 
 by purchase, but also, to no small extent, by '■'■possession ,■" 
 and when we come to listen to infant choirs around the 
 throne of God, we may see not only how literally, but also 
 how largely true were the Savior's words : " Of such is the 
 kingdom of heaven." In short, to pass from those who die 
 in infancy to those who survive till " years of discretion" — 
 that great mass of responsible human beings to whom the 
 Bible is addressed, and with whose case it is mainly con- 
 cerned — they only perish {fearfully great, doubtless, will their 
 number be) who voluntarily reject Christ and grieve from 
 their hearts the Spirit of Life ; or who, in lands uiievauge- 
 lized,and in dark corners not reached by the Gospel, ro/jw- 
 tarily and persei'^eringly do violence to the law within them, 
 and cherish those tempers which would " crucify afresh the 
 Son of God," were he revealed to them, and " do despite unto 
 the Spirit of Grace," were he to strive intelligently with 
 their hearts. 
 
 To this view it is hardly necessary to append a notice of 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. l7l 
 
 what the Bible says in such passages as these : " Without 
 faith it is impossible to please God." — Heb., xi., 6. " He 
 that believelh not shall be damned." — Mark, xvi., 16. These 
 passages touch not the case either of those who die in infan- 
 cy, or of those who never hear of Christ. They are but 
 specimens of what the Bible says to them that are under the 
 Bible, and can understand the Bible. While, therefore, of 
 such they are solemnly true, to such they are manifestly lim- 
 ited. 
 
 To sum up what has been said in answer to the 
 third suggestion, is it not plain that, in rejecting the now 
 commonly-received theory of baptismal regeneration, under 
 all those modifications which leave it still itself, we are 
 not landed either in the error of the Pelagians, or in the chill- 
 ing dogma that salvation is impossible to dying infants ? 
 We may retain the doctrine of Original Sin, as we must 
 heartily and steadfastly retain it, in all the strength of the lan- 
 guage used in our 9th Article ; while yet v.^' r^^joicingly be- 
 lieve that all who die in infancy are savej : n.jcctuse, over 
 against the first Adam, who brought the race under condem- 
 nation, stands Christ the second Adam, who, on appropri- 
 ate conditions, has brought in pardon for all ; because those • 
 who die in infancy 7ieed not, what they can not have, the 
 specific change which is eflected in repentance and faith ; 
 and because they do not need, what in like manner they 
 can not have, even that vague mystery in baptism which, it 
 is claimed, obliterates the infection of original sin. This is 
 an infection, which we are justified by the Bible, by the 
 Church, and by experience, in saying, remains to trouble and 
 vex even the ripening Christian, till he comes, after his dy- 
 ing hour, to look full upon the glories of God, and to feel 
 the last pulse of " the old Adam" cease amid the finally full 
 beatings of the new and heavenly Life. 
 
 In the somewhat prolonged discussion on the nature of 
 baptism which has extended through the last three chao- 
 
172 THE NATL'RE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 ters, it has, I think, been demonstrated, at least with reason- 
 able certainty, 1. That the theory of baptismal regeneration 
 which makes baptism a sort of miracle, a mystery, in which 
 the Holy Spirit imparts to the infant Jesus Christ in his 
 very incarnate nature, as the seed or principle of a new life, 
 is without any support in the Bible : 2. That, short of this. 
 there is nothing on which we can rest till we come to that 
 moral change of our nature which is effected by the Holy 
 Spirit in the use of Divine truth : 3. That this change, hav- 
 ing for its principal steps repentance and faith, is one which 
 our Church, in her Catechism, pronounces impossible in in- 
 fancy : 4. And, finally, that a rejection of the above theory 
 of baptismal regeneration, in its various modified forms, is per- 
 fectly consistent with the language of our 9th Article, while 
 at the same time it leads to bright and blessed views of the 
 future state of one of the most interesting portions of the hu- 
 man race — dying infants. 
 
 The views, indeed, thus far presented on this subject 
 may not appear, to all minds, free from difficulty ; nor 
 would it be reasonable to look for such a result to any dis- 
 cussion on the same subject. It is, perhaps, impossible to 
 frame a system of theology which, on all points, espe- 
 cially on one so controverted as this, shall be thus free 
 from difficulty. The most sanguine theologian, I apprehend, 
 never dreamed of presenting a view of this point which 
 should labor under no difficulty at all. The most that can 
 be hoped for is, to find that point of view which makes 
 Scripture most harmonious with itself, and which leaves the 
 fewest and the least difficulties in the way of a clear and 
 settled faith. Were theology, at all points, free of difficul- 
 ty, it would not be of a piece with all the rest of God's sci- 
 ences. At least, the mind which could so penetrate all its 
 depths as to throw the light of demonstration every where, 
 would thereby give proof that it had taken one step, if no 
 more, in advance of even the inspired men themselves of 
 olden times. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 173 
 
 I am now ready to take up the principal texts on the sub- 
 ject of Baptism, and to see what light they cast on the nature 
 of this sacrament. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 John, iii., 5 : " Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be bom of 
 water, and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 In what I have thus far said, whether on the subject 
 of preaching, or on that of baptism, I have been mainly 
 intent on these three points : 1. That our renovation 
 unto a new and spiritual life is the great work of the 
 Holy Spirit, Avrought on the intelligent mind in the use 
 of Divine truth ; 2. That this work can not be wrought 
 in the baptism of infants, because, as our Church her- 
 self teaches, the mind, at that tender age, is not capa- 
 ble of the repentance and faith which the work in- 
 volves ; and, 3. That the alleged mystery of baptism, 
 which consists in an actual communication to us of the 
 Divine nature, especially as manifest in the Incarnate 
 Son ; a communication effected by the Holy Spirit in 
 and of the sanctified and sanctifying waters of baptism, 
 and characterizing the theory of baptismal regeneration 
 as now currently taught, is, in all its modifications, un- 
 sanctioned by Scripture, and in itself morally impossible, 
 on the principles of the nature in which God has con- 
 stituted, and upon which He deals with man. 
 
 The view of the new birth which I have begun to sha- 
 dow forth is clearly taught in the following passage ; 
 with a remark upon which, by way of bringing the sub- 
 ject to mind, I will introduce what I have yet to say. 
 P2 
 
174 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 " Of his own will begat He us with the Word of Truth, 
 that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his crea- 
 tures" (James, i., 18) ; or, literally, " He who toilled hath 
 begotten us by the Word of Truth."* Nothing can 
 be clearer than this as to the fact which it asserts. 
 God, putting His will into, or with, " the Word of 
 Truth," His own true Word, had " begotten''^ the early 
 Christians, and made them " first-fruits of his crea- 
 
 * BovXrjdcis avcKvrjacv fiixai \6ytif aXrjOclas ', not eyii'i'rjutv, as in 1 Cor., IV., 15, 
 and elsewhere. The two words, however, are of similar significancy, and 
 of equal extent of meaning. 
 
 Dr. Pusey, indeed, attempts to show that " baptism is spoken of as the 
 source of our spiritual birth as no other cause is, save God ;" because the same 
 preposition is used when speaking of the Water, as when speaking of the 
 Spirit, or of God : ycvvrjOn 'EE (idaros, 'EK UvdiJiaTOi, 'EK BtS ; while, in speak- 
 ing of " the Word of Truth" as the " more remote instrument" of that birth, 
 a different preposition is used : aIA \6yn, AIA tS davyi\i!i, &c. But the 
 criticism, I apprehend, is unsound. The expressions, ck Trvtinaros, ix ecS, 
 denote the sole agent of the new birth ; as these, iid XSyu, iui th cvavytXiu, de- 
 note the sole instrument of the work. Why, then, it will be asked, is it said 
 that we must be born, i\ MaToj, if the Word of Truth be the sole, instead of 
 only the more remote, instrument of the work ? I answer, because, water 
 being the appointed and significant symbol of the Spirit's cleansing influen- 
 ces, we are symbolically born of water, as we are really born o/the Spirit, 
 or by His agency. To say that water is really a source of the new birth con- 
 jointly with the Spirit, because the same preposition is used of both, is to 
 say that water is, not a more immediate instrument, but a joint agent with 
 the Spirit ; or that we are born of water in the same sense in which we are 
 born of the Spirit ; and thus, on the theory of Dr. P., that the "new crea- 
 ture in Christ" is composed jointly of the two elements, water and the 
 Spirit. The truth is, water is neither ayi agent nor an instrument, but it is 
 the symbol of the agent, or, rather, of His cleansing influences; and, there- 
 fore, the same preposition is used in speaking of it as is used in speaking of 
 that of which it is the symbol. 
 
 It is needless to add, that in the passage in James there is no preposition 
 governing Xdyt^ aXtiddas- It is what grammarians call " the dative of the in- 
 strument." 
 
 The passage, 1 Pet., i., 23, is exactly equivalent to that from Jam., i., 18 : 
 
 " Beingborn again, dvK ix avopSi <j>OnpTris,a\\a dipSiipTy]^, iia \6yov g(3v7o; Qcou :" 
 
 the " Incorruptible Seed" referring to the Holy Spirit as the sole agent, and 
 "the Word of the living God" to Divine Truth as the sole instrument. 
 [For the criticism to which this note refers, see Pusey on Bap., Tr. 67, p. 
 25, 26, N. Y. ed.] 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM, 175 
 
 tures." If this be not the work of our new birth^ of our 
 being begotten to the new and spiritual life by the sole 
 instrumentality oi the Word of Truths then it is impossi- 
 ble to find that work described or asserted in the Bible, 
 as the result of a7iy agency, or o( any instrumentality. 
 
 With a similar meaning, James goes on to exhort those 
 whom he addressed to "receive with meekness the in- 
 grafted Word, which was able to save their souls.'''' — James, 
 i., 21. The fgure here is changed, but not the signifi- 
 cancy. The Word ingrafted, the Truth implanted by the 
 Holy Spirit, is the instrument of the new birth. Far- 
 ther along the figure is again changed, though the same 
 significancy remains; with this difl'erence, perhaps, that 
 what is said of the Word as " a glass," the mirror of a 
 *' perfect Law," and of him who " looketh into" it, as 
 " like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass," 
 has a broader application ; reaching not only to him 
 who, for the first time, looks into the mirror of the 
 Word with a spiritual perception, belief, and love of the 
 truth, but also to him who, having entered on the way 
 of life, " continueth therein," consulting often the same 
 Divine Mirror, which first, through the Spirit, brought 
 him to a knowledge of the Savior; and even extending 
 to him who, having the Mirror of Truth, looks into it, 
 but, upon " beholding himself, goeth his way, and 
 straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." — 
 James, i., 22-25. 
 
 The whole passage shows us the true place and po- 
 sition of the Word of God, His Divine Truth, both in 
 its relations to Him who uses it as his sole instrument 
 in our regeneration, and in its aspect upon us, in whom 
 it is made to effect His blessed work. 
 
 Here, then, it will be asked, If there be no such thing 
 as an actual impartation to us of the very Divine na- 
 ture, that awful mystery in baptism, or as the alleged 
 
176 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 gift involved in some one of the various modifications 
 of this theory ; and if the Spirit ahmys performs his 
 quickening and renewing work in the intelligent use of 
 Divine Truth, and, therefore, always in the mind after 
 it has become capable of understanding at least the sim- 
 ple and sovereign elements of that Truth j then, what 
 is left, as the nature of baptism 1 What is God's act, 
 and what the soul's experience in this primary Christian 
 ordinance 1 
 
 To this inquiry I now proceed to seek for such an 
 answer as may be consonant with the intent and mean- 
 ing of those precious Scriptures of Truth which God 
 hath given us — the richest treasury of all accessible Di- 
 vine knowledge. 
 
 I. And, in the first place, I invite attention to what I 
 must consider the false Canon of Interpretation,* which 
 has been applied to the text, John, iii., 5, by way of fur- 
 nishing a key. to unlock the meaning of all other passages 
 on the subject of baptism. In fashioning and using this 
 key, the awful mystery of baptismal regeneration, as it 
 has been stated, is first virtually assumed j then this text 
 is cited as a passage which teaches that mystery ; and, 
 finally, with the key thus fashioned, the meaning of num- 
 berless other passages is unlocked, some of which, in- 
 
 * Says Dr. Pusey, " The words of our Lord, ' Birth /roj?i above of water 
 and the Spirit,' are a key to other Scripture ; they are in themselves a high 
 revelation, not to be closed up when we come to read other Scripture, and' 
 their fullness restrained within themselves (as if, like the heretics of old, we 
 looked upon different portions of Scripture as the work of another God)» 
 bat flowing over into other parts, and imparting to them the light which 
 they contain concentrated within them." — {On Bapt., Tract 67, p. 44, N. Y.) 
 
 Again : speaking, of certain early writers, he says, " Not only did they 
 understand the words, ' water and the Spirit' of baptism, but they regarded 
 them as a sort of key to the rest of Holy Scripture which any way bore on 
 the same subjects." — {Idem, p. 31.) 
 
 And again : " This was tb^ general interpretation of the ancient ChuTcb ; 
 those who quote the text of baptism go not about to prove its refereno<» to 
 it ; they asswne it, see it," &cc. — {Idem, p. 46.) 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 177 
 
 deed, allude to baptism, though others of them carry no 
 allusion to this ordinance. 
 
 The same false Canon of Interpretation is applied in 
 settling the meaning of Scripture on the subject of the 
 Lord's Supper. What Christ says, in John, vi., of " eat- 
 ing His Jlesh and drinking His blood,^^ is assumed to be 
 spoken of actually eating and drinking His flesh and 
 blood in that sacrament ; and then all other Scripture 
 on the subject is forced to take, whether it naturally 
 will or not, the meaning thus arbitrarily assumed. 
 
 It is not asserted that a single text may never become 
 a key to the sense of all other texts on the same sub- 
 ject. The falseness of the canon in question arises not 
 from the single circumstance of arguing from the mean- 
 ing of one text to that of others. This is sometimes ad- 
 missible. When a single text announces a doctrine, in 
 itself salutary and reasonable, or not absurd and impos- 
 sible, and announces it in terms, about which there can 
 be no difl'erence of opinion, in terms which can not pos- 
 sibly or reasonably be understood but in one sense, then 
 that text is a key to all others on the same subject, pro- 
 vided these others reasonably admit of more than one sense, 
 or of a sense harmonious with that of the key. If, in- 
 deed, these other texts themselves admit of but one possi- 
 ble or reasonable sense, and this a flat contradiction to 
 the meaning of the first, then the authority of the book 
 in which they are found is annihilated ; for two portions 
 of God's Truth never may, never can flatly contradict 
 each other.* 
 
 * To illustrate the principle advanced. In Deuteronomy, vi., 4, it is 
 said, ''inx m'n' irrl'7X niri';" literally, "Jehovah, our God, is one 
 
 Jehovah." Now this can not be understood but in one sense. This 
 one sense is good, vitally important, and agreeable to pure reason. This, 
 therefore, is a key-text ; and all others in the Bible on the same subject must 
 be explained into harmony with this. When, therefore, we find a multitude 
 of other texts which speak of this Jehovah as Father, as Son, and as Holy 
 
178 TIIK NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 But when a meaning is arbitrarily imposed on a text 
 which admits of a different sense, and may reasonably 
 be understood otherwise, especially when the assumed 
 meaning involves a doctrine which is, if not pernicious, 
 yet useless, and if not absurd, yet loaded with infinite 
 embarrassment ; and when, with the meaning thus fix- 
 ed, men approach as with the key of infallibility, to 
 explain all other passages touching the same subject, 
 albeit these others reasonahly admit of a different mean- 
 ing, expecting the moment their key is applied they will 
 all fly open at its touch, and receive a flood of light 
 into their previous darkness ; then, unquestionably, 
 they adopt a false canon of interpretation ; and the 
 common sense of the reflecting world turns Protestant 
 against the violence thus done to all sound laws of her- 
 meneutics. 
 
 Now this is done in explaining, or, rather, fixing, the 
 sense of the text, John, iii., 5. True, a somewhat im- 
 posing effort is made to give color to the meaning put 
 upon the passage ; but, after all, it amounts but to an as- 
 sumption of a meaning, and then goes on to a virtual 
 forcing of the meaning thus assumed upon all other texts 
 on the subject of baptism. The meaning itself, as as- 
 sumed, is thus expressed : " This is our new birth, an 
 actual birth of God, of water and the Spirit, as we are 
 actually born of our natural parents ;"* or, differently, 
 thus: "This reofeneration is the beinof born of water 
 
 Ghost, as these do not contradict the key-text, and as they, too, carry a rea- 
 sonable and vitally important sense, they must be explained into a harmony 
 with that text ; as thus : in the one Jehovah there are Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost ; and these being three in person, are one in substance. The es- 
 sential, indestructible, and indivisible xmity of Jehovah consists in a myste- 
 rious but blessed trinity of persons. If, however, there were a single text 
 in the Bible which said, " Jehovah, our God, is two Jehovahs," it would de- 
 stroy the whole authority of the Bible as an alleged revelation. It would 
 make the Bible a flatly self-contradicting book. 
 * Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 24. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 1^ 
 
 and the Spirit," or " by God's Spirit again moving on 
 the face of the waters, and sanctifying them for our 
 cleansing, and cleansing us thereby j"* or, more fully, 
 thus: "This birth from above is an actual birth from 
 God, a gift coming down from God, and given to faith 
 through baptism j yet not the work of faith, but the 
 operation ' of water and the Holy Spirit ;' ' the Holy 
 Spirit giving us a new life in the fountain opened by 
 Him ; and we being born therein of Him, even as our 
 blessed and incarnate Lord was, according to the flesh, 
 born of Him in the Virgin's womb :' ' the gift of God, 
 illimitable and incomprehensible as that great mystery 
 from which it flows, the incarnation of our Redeemer.' "f 
 
 Such being the meaning put upon the text, the prin- 
 cipal reasons assigned for it are two : 1. That it is 
 therein said we must be horn from above (avGJ0€v),J and 
 *'o/" water and the Spirit," as, in our ordinary birth, we 
 are born of our natural parents; and, 2. That such is 
 the meaning put o.n the passage by a long catalogue of 
 ancient writers and liturgies. § 
 
 Now of these reasons, the former is simply a naked 
 assumption. The very thing to be ascertained is, what 
 is the meaning of the expressions " born again" and 
 born "of water and the Spirit V To say, therefore, 
 that they carry the meaning assigned them, is but to 
 assume a meaning without reason. The latter, however, 
 
 * Puscy on Baptism, Tract 07, p. 47, 48. f Idem, p. 43. 
 
 t Nicodemus, however, as it appears, did not understand (h'u)Oc:v in this 
 sense, as a spiritual birth fro7n above. He supposed our Savior to imply 
 that " a man must enter a second tune into his mother's womb, and be born." 
 This shows that the sense of avij}Oci> (or, rather, of its synonym in Hebrew- 
 Chaldaic, as the dialect probably used in this interview with Chtist), was 
 that of denuo, anew, or a second tune, and not that of desupcr, from above. 
 It is true that, on the whole, Nicodemus misunderstood Christ; and yet his 
 very misunderstanding of the general meaning of the Savior shows the sense 
 of the word avujdu; at least in this particular place. 
 
 i) Pasey on Baptism, Tract 67, p 24 to 48, passim. 
 
180 THE NATURE OF BAPTISIW. 
 
 of the two alleged reasons certainly does show that the 
 sense assigned actually has been put upon the passage, 
 and that it has the authority of many and grave names j 
 but it does not show that this is necessarily the true 
 sense. No one deserving the Christian name denies 
 that we must " be born again of water and the Spirit." 
 Nor are many disposed to deny that the birth of water, 
 spoken of in the text^ means baptism. But^ then, multi- 
 tudes, the authority of whose names is, perhaps, as 
 weighty as that of any, at least since the times of the 
 apostolic fathers, do deny that the expression " born of 
 the Spirit''^ bears the meaning here assigned to it. They 
 do deny, too^ that the effect which this meaning involves 
 follows baptism as its source or cause. This is the very 
 question to be determined. If, therefore, the meaning 
 " assumed" for this expression, and " seen''' in it, though 
 not '■'■proved'''' of it, be a wrong meaning, then it matters 
 not how many writers, or how many liturgies, have been 
 Goncerned in thus assuming and seeing what they at- 
 tempt not " to proved There have been ages, not very 
 modern, when both individual writers, and scattered 
 churches using liturgies, were prone to incorporate some 
 errors among the mass of truths which they doubtless 
 held j and, under such circumstances, a wrong meaning 
 of the text, though "assumed" and "seen" ten thou- 
 sand times, does not thereby become the right meaning. 
 
 Notwithstanding, then, these alleged reasons for the 
 meaning assigned to the text, it is, in fact, an arbitrari- 
 ly-assumed meaning. Abstractly, it might be a right^ or 
 it might be a wrong meaning, ^ni practically, whether 
 it be right or wrong, is the very question to be decided ; 
 it must be decided according to just laws of interpreta- 
 tion ; and these laws oblige us to look at any meaning 
 proposed before we adopt it as the true. 
 
 Let us, then, look at the meaning proposed in the 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 181 
 
 present case. It comes briefly to this: that in baptism 
 the infant is born of "sanctifying" water and of the 
 Holy Ghost, even as Christ was born of the Holy Ghost 
 in the womb of the Virgin ; insomuch that, by " an il- 
 limitable and incomprehensible mystery," it thereby be- 
 comes "a partaker in the incarnation." Now, it is 
 fearlessly asserted that this is neither a salutary nor a 
 reasonable sense of the words. The reason which God 
 has given to every man, and the history which God has 
 written of every age of his Church, justify the asser- 
 tion. It is a sense which nourishes a mischievously 
 superstitious regard for, and use of, both the Christian 
 ordinances J and is, at the same time, a sense which 
 supposes such a moral impossibility as burdens the 
 Scriptures with an intolerable load of difficulties More- 
 over, it is not a necessary sense of the words ; not the 
 only sense which they will bear ; not an actually undis- 
 puted sense ; not a sense which resistlessly shuts out an- 
 other and a better meaning. Fearlessly, therefore, is it 
 asserted, that the process by which this sense is reach- 
 ed involves a false canon of interpretation. It is forcing 
 on a text which may have another and a better mean- 
 ing, a sense which carries in it the seed of that mon- 
 ster-absurdity and impossibility, Transubstantiation ; and 
 then boldly claiming that the sense so assumed shall be 
 received as an i7ifallible key (or opening the meaning of 
 all other texts on the subject of baptism. Nothing more 
 need be said to show that such a process of interpreta- 
 tion is fundamentally wrong ; and that if, in any case, it 
 ever reach the truth, it must be by accident, and not by 
 following a safe or luminous guide. 
 
 The true Canon of Interpretation for settling the 
 meaning of a disputed text (which, for the very reason 
 that it is disputed, must admit of another sense than 
 any arbitrarily assumed for it) is the direct opposite 
 
 Q 
 
182 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 to that just exposed. It consists in first "searching 
 the Scriptures" for the analogy of faith or doctrine 
 on the subject involved, and then, by this analogy, ex- 
 plaining the particular passage in question. In all cases 
 where the sense of a particular passage is doubtful, it 
 is certainly right that it should yield to the general 
 analogy of Scripture , and certainly wrong that the 
 whole analogy of Scripture should be forced to yield 
 to it. 
 
 I have, then, already shown, at length, that the mean- 
 ing which we have seen imposed on this text is part of 
 a great system of theology, which necessarily pushes 
 itself back to the fall of man, and discovers there an 
 idea of original righteousness and original sin wholly 
 unknown, and altogether opposed, both to the Bible and 
 to our Articles ; and that, therefore, we are not only 
 justified in rejecting, but bound to reject, not only that 
 false notion of original righteousness and original sin, 
 but also its inseparably associated error of baptismal re- 
 generation itself. We are not at liberty, as consistent 
 theologians, to reject that false notion of original right- 
 eousness and original sin, and yet retain this twin-born 
 theory of baptismal regeneration. If we can not hold 
 the former^ we must not cling to the latter. The texts 
 which relate to baptism, we not only may^ but must^ in- 
 terpret into harmony with that other great system of 
 theology which necessarily comes in as antagonist with 
 that which we have rejected. 
 
 Through a somewhat extended axamination of texts 
 which have, or are alleged to have, a connection with 
 the subject of baptism, we have already passed. Upon 
 an examination of others, more important, we are now 
 to enter. .■n 
 
 1. I begin with the account of the baptism of Christ 
 (Matt., iii., 13-16), because our Church, in her baptis- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 189 
 
 mal office, says that God, " by the baptism of His well- 
 beloved Son in the River Jordan, did sanctify water to 
 the mystical washing away of sin ;" and because of the 
 peculiar view which the advocates of baptismul regen- 
 eration take of this baptism of Him who was the Insti- 
 tutor of the ordinance into the nature of which we are 
 inquiring. By the language of our Church, " did sanc- 
 tify water to the mystical washing away of sin," I under- 
 stand, according to the usual sense of the word " sanc- 
 tify^'' when applied to external things, " did separate and 
 set apart that element to be a seal of the pardon of sin 
 on the terms of the Gospel, and a symbol of purification 
 from sin by the influences of the Spirit." But the ad- 
 vocates for the theory of baptismal regeneration, as 
 here understood, give a very different significancy to 
 these words of our ritual, and a very different eflect to 
 the baptism of Christ, on which they are founded. 
 They suggest that the design of His baptism may have 
 been "to fulfill all righteousness" by cleansing the sin- 
 ful nature, in the likeness of which He had come, and 
 to impart to it, as a whole, the righteousness which He 
 should afterward communicate, one by one, to those 
 who came to the baptism which He had thus conse- 
 crated." They say that the early Christians "doubted 
 not that the very element had, by its contact with Him, 
 in this His condescension, received a degree of sanc- 
 tity and fitness to be a vehicle of spiritual gifts ;" and 
 that " His baptism received the gifts which were be- 
 stowed upon ours, and was to us the pledge and first 
 channel of those gifts."* 
 
 Now all this is mere theory ; a theory which one has 
 
 a right to construct if he choose, but still mere theory. 
 
 Having fashioned the idea of the "opus operatum" in 
 
 baptism, of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the water, and 
 
 * Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 221, 224, 225. 
 
184 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 the mystery of incorporation into the body of the Incar- 
 nate Son, it is easy to impose it, by way of addition, 
 upon any text that mentions baptism. But to add a 
 sense to a text is not to find that sense in a text ; and 
 this were enough to say, even if the sense added were 
 intellisfible and sfood. It is more than is needed, when 
 that sense is scarcely the one or the other. What may 
 be meant by the baptism of Christ " cleansing that sin- 
 ful nature in the {sinless) likeness of which He had 
 come," or by its " imparting to our nature, as a whole, 
 that righteousness which he should afterward communi- 
 cate, one by one, to those who came to the baptism which 
 he had thus consecrated," or by "the very elements 
 receiving a degree of sanctity and fitness to become a 
 vehicle of spiritual gifts," because a portion of the Jor- 
 dan once came in " contact with Him," it is, I confess, 
 difficult to conceive ; although it is easy to see that the 
 sense, so darkly shadowed forth, can not minister much 
 to any thing but superstition in using the sensible things 
 of religion. This sense may minister to a deep and 
 trembling awe in view of a supposed " overwhelming 
 mystery," but it can not impart to the ordinance of bap- 
 tism the efficacy which it ascribes. It is enough to say 
 of it, it is a sense not found in the account which the 
 evangelist gives of the baptism of Christ. What that 
 baptism actually was, I leave to be seen jn the simple 
 phrase in which the Bible expresses it. 
 
 2. I pass to another passage, which deserves a brief 
 notice here, not because it has any thing to do with 
 baptism, but because such a reference in it is boldly as- 
 serted by the advocates of baptismal regeneration.* I 
 refer to the 12th and 13th verses of the first chapter of 
 the Gospel according to John. " As many as received 
 Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of 
 * Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 31. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 185 
 
 God, even to them that believe on His name ; which 
 were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
 of the will of man, but of God." Here, because it is 
 said that those who " received Christ," or " believed on 
 His name," were '■'■born of God,'''' \i is assumed that they 
 were thus born in and of the waters of baptism y and that 
 their birth consisted in an impartaiion of the Divine 
 substance, or nature, in and of those waters. But, in 
 the first place, this would make against infant baptism ; 
 for, in the evangelist, the birth is predicated of those only 
 who believed on Christ, and infants can not so believe. 
 In the second place, however, the meaning given to the 
 passage is again mere assumption. There is no reason 
 for supposing that baptism is here implied or under- 
 stood as a source, jointly with God, of the birth declared. 
 The evangelist had just been speaking of the rejection 
 of Christ by his "own cuuntrynien" (ot iStoi), through 
 their unbelief; they " received Him not," or believed 
 not on Him. To these He immediately opposes those 
 " who received him by believing on His name." Of these 
 He says, " They were born, not of blood, nor of the will 
 of the flesh, nor of the will of man ;" this work was of 
 no human agency, '■'■ bzit of God j'" and to these he says, 
 Christ " gave power," or the privilege, " to become the 
 sons of God." All this certainly does prove that the 
 new birth, one of the principal steps in which I have all 
 along observed to be faith, is a Divine work, wrought 
 by the sole agency of God's Spirit. But to assume that 
 this work is wrought in baptism, and that it is the birth 
 q/" water, as being, with the Spirit, its joint source, is but 
 to force a sense upon Scripture, whether it will take it 
 or not. It is, after all, but to add strength to a human 
 theory by the prop of mere human weakness. The 
 passage is heavy with importance ; but its importance 
 weighs wholly against the theory into a support of 
 Q2 
 
186 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 which it is pressed. It shows that the birth from God in- 
 volves the exercise oi faith in its subject ; and that the Bi- 
 ble impliedly separates it from its symbol in baptism. 
 
 3. The next passage which I take up is found in 1 Cor., 
 xii., 13 : "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body." 
 At first sight, this seems to teach that the Holy Spirit, in the 
 baptism by ivatcr, does bring us into spiritual union with 
 Christ. But I suggest whether, on closer examination, this 
 may not prove a groundless inference. There is nothing in 
 this connection to show ihat baptism by water is here in- 
 tended ; but, on the contrary, much to prove that the refer- 
 ence is to that inward work of the Spirit, of which the water 
 in baptism is but the divinely-appointed symhoL 
 
 That there is a baptism without water can not be denied. 
 " I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance," said 
 the herald John, " but He that cometh after me," &c., 
 "shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." — 
 Matt., iii., 11. Literally was this fulfilled on the day of 
 Pentecost, when fire, not water, was the symbol of the mar- 
 vel which the Spirit wrought.* And, substantially, is it 
 
 ♦ This expression, " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
 fire." throws light on the meaning of the phrase, " born of water and of the 
 Spirit." No one, I think, will deny that the ''fiery cloven tongues," which 
 marked the baptism with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, fultillmg 
 thus the words which the Baptist spake of Christ (Matt., iii., 11), were a 
 symbol of the Spirit's influences in endowing the apostles with the miracu- 
 lous power of speaking various languages. If, then, to be " baptized with 
 fire" is to receive a symbol of one class of the Spirit's influences, it follows 
 clearly that to be baptized " with water" is to receive a symbol of another 
 class of the Spirit's influences. Nor will it follow that, because the 
 miraculous gift accovipanied its appropriate symbol, therefore the ordinary gift 
 must also accompany the symbol in which it is represented. For it is es- 
 sential to the proof oi a miracle, that the symbol, or token, which evidences 
 it to be a miracle, should be sinndtaneous with that of which it is an evi- 
 dence. No such necessity as this ties the symbol of ivater to the ordinary 
 influences of the Spirit which it represents. Or, if men will insist that 
 baptism Itself, as well as the gift of tongues, is a miracle, let them prove it 
 such (as this thing ever must be proved) by showing the miraculous effect, 
 and the symbol which demonstrates it, to be inseparably simultaneous. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 187 
 
 ever fulfilled when the same Divine Agent brings the soul, 
 by repentance and faith, to Christ, and to newness of heart 
 and life. There is an inward work on the soul — a work of 
 power and love, of quickening and life-warm energy, of 
 transforming, yet of ordinary grace — which is called a bap- 
 tism, doubtless because the baptism by water is its appoint- 
 ed symbol. This inward work of the Spirit, whenever ef- 
 fected through the Word of God, and the holy light which 
 this Word sheds around the mind, may, with truth and force, 
 be called a baptism. The figurative use of this word has 
 been carried even farther than this, by the highest and best 
 authority, that of the Divine Savior himself. " I have a 
 baptism to be baptized with," said Christ, in view of his 
 bloody cross. — Luke, xii., 50. " Are ye able to be baptiz- 
 ed with the baptism that I am baptized with ?" (Matt., xx., 
 22) was his inquiry of the disciples whose ambitious moth- 
 er would have them to be distinguished in their Master's 
 kingdom ; little dreaming that martyrdom would be the first 
 and brightest crown awarded in this life to the foremost 
 subjects of such a King. 
 
 With our minds thus familiar, then, with this beautifully 
 and forcibly ^^«raht"e use of the word baptism, let us look 
 at the passage just cited from Corinthians. It occurs in the 
 apostle's discourse on the subject of that essential, intimate, 
 close, spiritual union which exists between all Christians, 
 whether " Jew or Gentile, bond or free," and Christ their 
 Divine Head ; a union which always characterizes the true 
 spiritual body of Christ, and which, therefore, ought always 
 to characterize what is visible of that body in the Church. 
 Speaking of the various gifts by which this body was then 
 distinguished, by way of preparing for that most divine dis- 
 course which follows in the next chapter, about charity, or 
 holy love, as the " very bond of perfectness," which is to 
 tie the members of Christ in heaven, whew faith and hope 
 shall have gone out in sight and in fruition, the apostle says, 
 
188 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 using one of his customary striking figures, " For, as the 
 (human) body is one, and hath many members, and all the 
 members of that one body, being many, are one body, so 
 also is Christ. For, by one Spirit we are all baptized into 
 one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
 bond or free ; and have all been made to drink into one 
 Spirit."—! Cor., xii., 12, 13. 
 
 Now, the whole of this is figurative speech ; that is, the 
 literal human body — animated, of course, by the living hu- 
 man soul — is used as a strong figure of the myslical body of 
 Christ, filled with that Holy Spirit by whom its members 
 are cemented into indissoluble union. Hence, doubtless, 
 the baptism spoken of is that inward baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost, which has its appointed symbol, indeed, in the bap- 
 tism by water, but which, as we have so often seen, has no 
 connection with it as its operated result. The true force of 
 the passage may be thus expressed in paraphrase : " By 
 one Divine Spirit, all real Christians, of whatever nation or 
 name, are closely united as members in that one spiritual 
 body, of which Christ is the Head ; and this work of the 
 Spirit may be called a baptism, because it has its appointed 
 symbol in that primary Christian ordinance." 
 
 The whole of the passage is so incontestably a strong, 
 ho\6. figure of speech, that it would evidently be as great a 
 violence to language to quote it as explanatory of the na- 
 ture of infant baptism by water, as it would be to quote what 
 Christ said of his coming bloody baptism on the Cross, as 
 though it had been spoken of his past literal baptism in the 
 Jordan. Even, however, if we were to admit that the liter- 
 al baptism could have been intended in this very heart of 
 an enclosing figure, it would still remain for inquiry. What 
 is the actual work of the Spirit in connection with that lit- 
 eral baptism ? To this inquiry, however, I am not yet ready 
 to attend. For the present 1 must proceed with this ex- 
 amination of passages. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 189 
 
 4. I take up next, for a few remarks, what is found in 
 the Epistle to the Ephesians, v., 25-27 : " Husbands, love 
 your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave 
 Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it toilh 
 the washing of water by the Word ; that He might present 
 it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, 
 or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without 
 blemish." 
 
 The author of the celebrated treatise on baptism so often 
 quoted observes, " As it is a melancholy mark of our times, 
 that a portion of * the world' has already begun to shrink from 
 this comparison between the relations of marriage and those 
 of Christ to His Church, so it is, undoubtedly, not uncon- 
 nected with it, but a part of the same state of feeling which 
 depreciates baptism, thus connected by St. Paul with it."* 
 After this, he endeavors to show, and cites various post- 
 Nicene writers as favoring his view, that baptism is that 
 mysterious fountain of cleansing and sanctification to the 
 Church from which she is at once presented to Christ 
 " wholly cleansed ;" that, however there may be an " ulte- 
 rior purity," to which the Church, " in her triumphant state," 
 is to be advanced, still, " the end of the cleansing" (in bap- 
 tism) " is, that she might abide sanctified, spotless, unblem- 
 ished," being, in this sacrament, "once wholly cleansed ;"t 
 and that the instrumentality of " the Word,''' as mentioned 
 in this passage, is immediately connected with " the wash- 
 ing of water ;" being the power of Christ in the baptismal 
 formula, and not in the truths of Revelation, written and 
 preached. I 
 
 But what a violence upon language is this ! The whole 
 force of this passage may be thus expressed : " Husbands, 
 love your wives, as Christ loved the Church, and gave 
 Himself for it, that, having cleansed it emblematically, by 
 the washing of water. He might, progressively and really, 
 * Tract 67, p. 152. t Tract 67, p. 154, 155. % Tract 67, p. 160. 
 
190 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 sanctify it ly the Word ; and that thus, in her future glori- 
 fied state, He might at last present it to Himself, spotless 
 and unwrinkled, holy and without blemish." Where, in all 
 this, is the idea of Christ's presenting to Himself the Church 
 spotless from the very bath of baptism ? Not to be found. 
 Besides, the instrumentality which the apostle here assigns 
 to " the Word" is evidently the same with that which Christ 
 Himself assigns to it in his last prayer, when he says, 
 " Sanctify them by thy truth : thy Word* is truth." — John, 
 xvii., 17. " The washing of water" is evidently referred to 
 as the baptismal emblem of what Christ really efiects by 
 his Spirit, through the subsequent instrumentality of his 
 Word. Hence, the really instrumental character of " the 
 Word" is so plainly indicated by the peculiar form of the 
 expression, ^^ with the washing of water by the Word :"t 
 " with the washing of water" emblematically representing, 
 "by the Word" instrumentally eflecting the divinely- cleans- 
 ing process. In infancy, baptism first symbolizes, and then, 
 through subsequent life, the Spirit, in the use of the Word 
 of Truth, effects, carries forward, and finally perfects the in- 
 ward sanctification of the soul ; and thus, each individual 
 being made holy, the whole Church, as one body, shall at 
 length, in her glorified state, be presented by Christ to Him- 
 self, as his spotless and divinely-adorned bride, to spend 
 with Him an eternity of perfect blessedness. This futurity 
 of the Church's spotlessness will become more evident by 
 studying the verses which immediately follow. 
 
 " So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. 
 (He that loveth his wife loveth himself;) for no man ever 
 yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, 
 
 * The difference between f»U'a, in the apostle's phrase, and Xrfyoj in that 
 of Christ, is unessential, as any scholar will be convinced who examines 
 Dr. Pusey's most unsatisfactory criticism and references, on the ICOth p. 
 of the N. Y. ed. of his Tract on Baptism. 
 
 t Tu) Xoi)T/3(p Tov vSaToi, fV ftiijxaTi ; the last word having the preposition pre- 
 fixed ; the first being withwit the preposition. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 191 
 
 even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of his 
 body, of his Jlesh, and of his hones. ' For this cause shall a 
 man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto 
 his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.' This is a great 
 mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." 
 — Eph., v., 28-32. 
 
 In a note to what the author of the afore-named treatise on 
 baptism says when explaining the previous verses, he adds, 
 among other things, the following, in reference to these lat- 
 ter and connected verses : 
 
 " The words belong to human marriage as a type ; but as 
 to the antitype, they designate that which marriage also 
 designates, the relation of Christ to his Church. Marriage 
 is a mystery, as shadowing out that union, as having been, 
 in the first instance, a hidden prophecy of it, and now be- 
 ing an image and reflection of it." " Marriage is a mys- 
 tery, as portraying the union of the Church with Christ ; is 
 not a sacrament, as not conveying it."* 
 
 In other words, according to this theory, the sacraments 
 do convey union with Christ. Marriage does not convey 
 this union, and therefore is not a sacrament. What this au- 
 thor means by union with Christ, we have already seen. He 
 means a " participation in the incarnation ;" or (as he says 
 when treating of the Lord's Supper), the flesh and blood of 
 Christ " commingled and co-united with the bodies and 
 souls" of Christians, " and preserving both for incorruption."t 
 This union is held to be conveyed and sustained by the 
 sacraments, and by the7n only. Hence this author speaks of 
 them as " the means whereby he (Christ) originally unites 
 her (the Church) to himself, or still nourishes, and cherish- 
 
 ♦ Tract 67, p. 154. 
 
 t Dr. Pusey's Sermon on the Lord's Supper, N. Y., p. 9. Had the au- 
 thor, in the passage here referred to, been speaking of the preservation of 
 natural flesh from corruption by the intermixture with it of what is anti- 
 septic, he could not have used stronger terms. 
 
192 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 es, and maintains her in that union."* Hence he quotes 
 Chrysostorn as saying, " In baptism, we are incorporate into 
 Christ, and made flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone."t 
 And hence he says that " the partaking of the incarnation,^^ 
 &c., " is imparted through baptism, and is not imparted with- 
 out it"X 
 
 From these quotations, it is easy to gather the interpreta- 
 tion which the author suggests, but does not develop, of the 
 latter passage cited from the fifth of Ephesians. In con- 
 formity with his explication of the verses immediately pre- 
 ceding, it would run thus : Marriage is a type of the union 
 between Christ and his Church. As, therefore, by the mys- 
 tery of marriage, the " twain become one flesh," so, by the 
 mystery of baptism, Christ and the Church become " one 
 flesh ;" each individual member being made therein " a par- 
 taker of the incarnation ;" and all, by the " commingling 
 and co-uniting of his flesh and blood with their bodies and 
 souls," being made " members of his body, of his flesh, and 
 of his bones." Marriage is the shadow ; the substance lies in 
 this '• great mystery" " concerning Christ and the Church." 
 
 But does this passage really convey such an idea of the 
 union between Christ and his Church ? A moment's ex- 
 amination will show that it does not. It is no more than 
 reasonable that we should judge of the nature of that union 
 of which marriage appears to be in some sense a type, or 
 shadow, by looking at the nature of the relation which is 
 constituted in marriage itself. In the language of the Hom- 
 ilies, "If sacraments had not a certain similitude of those 
 things whereof they be sacraments, they should be no sac- 
 raments at aliy^ The same is true oi types. If they have 
 not a certain similitude of those things of which they are 
 types, they are no types at all. What, then, is the simil- 
 itude between marriage as a type, and the union of Christ 
 
 * Tract 67, p. 216. t Tract 67, p. 159. J Tract 67, p. 31. 
 
 ^ Homily of Com. Pr. and Sac. (N. Y., 1815), p. 296. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 193 
 
 «ind the Church as the antitype ? A brief answer to this 
 question will serve to throw light on a point which certain 
 writers are fond of wrapping in the darkness of profound 
 Hiystery. 
 
 The relation, then, between the husband and his wife is 
 that of a union based on covenant, on a mutual engagement 
 to fidelity each to the other. The first transpiring of this 
 mutual contract, or the first entering into it, is called the he- 
 irothmeiit, or espousals. Its final solemnization according to 
 constituted form is termed tJie marriage. And those who 
 enter into this state are regarded by the Word of God as 
 one ; that is, as united in a covenant, which supposes com- 
 mon sympathies, which creates a common interest, and which, 
 when religiously understood and fulfilled, looks forward to 
 a common destiny. Behold, here, the similitude of the type 
 to the antitype ; of marriage to the union between Christ 
 and the Church ! This latter relation, also, is that of a 
 union based on covenant ; on a mutual engagement to fidel- 
 ity between the contracting parties. This sacred union has 
 its day of espousals in the present life. The marriage, to 
 which it looks forward, is to be celebrated, in solemn and 
 royal state, on the morning of the greatest day of days. And 
 the parties who here enter into this holy state of covenant 
 are regarded by the Bible as already one ; that is, as united 
 in a bond which supposes a common love, which creates a 
 common interest, and which, spiritually understood and dis- 
 charged, looks forward to a common destiny. 
 
 Let us see how this matter lies in the record. The cove- 
 nant, then, between the Lord and His Church, under the 
 old dispensation, is termed a " marriage." — Ezek., xvi., 8 ; 
 and Jer., iii., 14. In his character as " Maker and Redeem- 
 er," the Lord styles himself the " husband" of His ancient 
 people. — Isa., liv., 5. The time when He entered into 
 covenant with that people in particular is called the time 
 of their " espousals." — Jer., ii., 2. Moreover, the covenant^ 
 
 R 
 
194 THE NATURE Of BAPTISM, 
 
 which then united lh« Church t& her head, was the ssTim 
 with that which sii/l unites them. The only difference isy 
 that it has passed inta a new and better economy, under 
 which Christ, the way of salvation through Him, and the 
 nature and extent of His promises, are more fully revealed j 
 and thus " life and immortality more distinctly brought to- 
 Mght." And,, furthermore, this Divine relation, this holy 
 Bnion, here based on covenant signed and sealed, is to be 
 brought forth for final and glorious solemnization on the il- 
 lustrious morning of the resurrection. Hence,^the Apostle- 
 Paul, eviden-tly referring forward to that great day, says t© 
 the Corinthians, " I have espoused you unto one husband^ 
 that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." — 
 2 Cor., xi., 2. Hence, also, John, in the visions of the 
 Apocalypse, when he " heard a great voice of much people 
 in heaven," caught, among others, these words : " The rnar' 
 riage of the Lamb is come ; and his wife hath n:iade herself 
 leady." — Rev., xix., 7. And hence, "The New Jerusa- 
 lem," or the Church in heaven, is styled " the bride, the 
 Lamb's wife." — Rev., xxi., 9. 
 
 Bringing now the light which has been gathered, so tha£ 
 it may shine on the passage last cited from the fifth of 
 Ephesians, it is evident that this passage, without pretend- 
 ing, however, to follow its exact order, may be thus para- 
 phrased : 
 
 "Under the covenant of grace. Christians ^ are members 
 of Christ''s bodi/,^ the Church, and may, therefore, be termed 
 * His flesh and His bones.'' In this holy union, Christ ' loves 
 the Church ;' He ' nourisheth and cherisheth' it, as His now 
 graciously espoused, and hereafter to be royally affianced. 
 and glorified bride. Of this Divine union, the sacred rela- 
 tion of husband and wife is a kind of type, or symbol, and 
 was so ordained from the beginning. ' Husbands, there- 
 fore, are religiously bound to love their wives as their own 
 selves (he that loveth his wife does in fact love himself j 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 195 
 
 since the covenant between them makes them in so many- 
 important respects one) : for no man ever yet hated his 
 own flesh ; but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the 
 Lord loveth and cherisheth the Church.' So let husbands 
 love and cherish their wives. For it is written, on the first 
 pages of Revelation, * For this cause,' that is, on account 
 of the nature of marriage, as a type of Christ's covenant 
 relation to the Church, ' For this cause shall a man leave 
 his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife ; and 
 they two shall be one flesh.' — Gen., ii., 24. 'This is a 
 great mystery; but I speak it of Christ and the Church,^ 
 Marriage, as a covenant relation, is significant as well as 
 sacred ; pointing to Christ and the Church ; designed to be 
 auxiliary to this higher covenant ; and, therefore, binding 
 to the same holy love, which this higher covenant de- 
 mands." 
 
 The plain meaning of all this seems to be, that marriage 
 is a Divine institution. It is the basis of the family rela- 
 tion. The family itself is a divine arrangement, designed 
 to be preparatory to the Church. Every truly religious 
 family is a little church. Its office is to train up God's 
 children for individual membership in His greater Church 
 on earth ; even as the office of this is to train them more 
 perfectly for their collective character, as " the bride" the 
 Church in heaven, which is, on the morning of the great 
 day of days, to be presented to Christ, arrayed in divinely- 
 eff'ulgent glories, for the enjoyment with Him of eternal 
 blessedness and honor. 
 
 Such is the " great mystery" of marriage, as related to 
 Christ and the Church. The Church, it is true, hath her 
 sacraments ; and they are a sort of holy marriage ring ; signs 
 of the union, and pledges of the love between her members 
 and her Head. But this union itself is, in other words, a 
 covenant relation ; and, as such, it involves no " participat- 
 ing in the incarnation." The phrase, " We are members 
 
196 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones," means, " We 
 are members of that Church, which is called His body ;" and, 
 as every natural body has flesh and bones, so, carrying out 
 the strong figure, we, as members of His " mystical body," 
 the Church, may be called " His flesh and His bones." 
 The language of the apostle, understood as some authors 
 are fond of understanding it, would make Christians in a 
 double, and even treUe sense, members ; in other words, 
 members of Christ's body, and also members of " His jlesh, 
 and members of His hones.'''' It is needless to dwell on 
 such an unnatural straining of words. They import no 
 more than this : that, adopting the lively phraseology of 
 symbol, or of figure, individual Christians may be called 
 " the flesh and bones of that body" of Christ, which is — 
 The Church. 
 
 This whole passage, then, in Ephesians v., from the 
 25th to the 32d verse, makes nothing in favor of the theory 
 of baptismal regeneration, in the sense maintained by its 
 modern advocates ; but is replete and luminous with teach- 
 ing of a very diff'erent character. It makes " the washing 
 of water" the emblem, and " the Word" of truth the instru- 
 ment, of that renewing and sanctifying process which, re- 
 alized here in every true Christian, shows how " the bride, 
 the Lamb's ivife,'" is now " making herself ready" for that 
 august occasion on which Christ is to " present her to 
 Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or 
 any such thing ; but holy and without blemish." And it 
 shows the momentous relation which, in the Divine inten- 
 tion, marriage has to all this, as an institution designed to 
 minister to the whole heavenly result ; and, therefore, bind- 
 ing to all that holiness of affection which this result is 
 eternally to unfold. 
 
 5. I go, next, to the passage which occurs in the first 
 Epistle of Peter, 3d chapter and 21st verse: "The like 
 figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 197 
 
 the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of 
 a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 Here, as in the last passage, the baptism by water is un- 
 doubtedly the idea which the apostle had in his mind 
 when making this reference to Noah and those saved with 
 him in the ark. 
 
 The present is a passage of some difficulty, and its pre- 
 cise meaning is not easily settled. Nevertheless, its main 
 sense is, I think, apparent. It does not mean, then, that the 
 waters of the flood were themselves a type of the waters in 
 baptism. This meaning were full of incongruity. The 
 waters of the flood were not saving, but destroying. They 
 could not, therefore, typify even the symbol of our salvation. 
 The idea is, that the whole circumstance of Noah's being 
 saved by passing in the ark " through the waters" (dt' v6a- 
 TOf), is a type of something which baptism, rightly under- 
 stood, does for us " through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." 
 Nor, again, does the passage mean that what is thus effect- 
 ed for us by baptism, is effected by the waters of that ordi- 
 nance ; for the apostle expressly guards against such a sup- 
 position when he says, that the thing in baptism to which 
 he refers is, not " the putting away of the filth of the flesh, 
 but the answer of a good conscience toward God." In 
 other words, it is, not the water in baptism, but that inward 
 work of the Spirit, in repentance and faith, which baptism 
 .symbolizes, and which enables us, in all good sincerity and 
 honesty of conscience, to answer the questions propounded 
 at baptism. And, finally, I think it may be made evident 
 that the something from which baptism, thus understood, 
 saves us, is not the present deep pollution and the future 
 eternal punishment of our sins, but the present afflicting ter- 
 ror, and the future abiding dominion of that same temporal 
 death, from which Noah was saved in the ark. This is 
 rendered highly probable by the addition which the apostle 
 R2 
 
198 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 makes when he says, that this inward significancy of bap- 
 tism saves us " by" or through " the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ." That is, as Jesus Christ rose from the dead the 
 third day, so the faith in Him which is professed or sealed 
 at baptism, when, with " a good conscience toward God," 
 we answer the " questioning" [e'n£po)T7][ja) which is then 
 made, assures us that we also shall rise from the dead at the 
 last day, and thus that death shall not hold over us more 
 than a brief dominion. 
 
 This interpretation is, moreover, strongly confirmed by 
 two other texts. The one of these is found in connection 
 with a passage in the sixth of Romans, to which I shall soon 
 have occasion more largely to refer. " Now if we be dead 
 with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him : 
 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no 
 more ; death hath no more dominion over Him." — Rom., 
 vi., 8, 9. This was spoken after what the apostle had said 
 about being " baptized into Jesus Christ," and about being 
 " buried with Him by baptism into death." Without antici- 
 pating what I have to say of these expressions, I may re- 
 mark, that their connection with the succeeding passage 
 (that now under consideration) makes it evident that the 
 sense of this passage is as follows : " If, as we profess at 
 adult baptism, or as baptism in infancy signifies we should 
 become, we be really ' dead with Christ,^ really penitent for 
 sin, thoroughly determined to renounce it, and inwardly 
 deadened to its power, ' we believe we shall also live with 
 Him ;' shall continue to cherish, and cultivate, and enjoy 
 the spiritual life which our repentance and faith imply, or to 
 which baptism in infancy binds us ; and not only so, but 
 shall ultimately rise, like Christ, from the dead, and live 
 with him forever more. ' As death hath no more dominion 
 over Him,^ so shall it have no more over us, either in the 
 tyranny of sin in this life, or in the abiding power of the 
 grave over us, when this life shall have ended." It is prob- 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 199 
 
 able that, at baptism, the early converts to Christ professed 
 their faith in the great doctrine of the resurrection from the 
 dead, based on the fact of the resurrection of Christ. 
 
 And this probability is increased by the other of the two 
 texts just mentioned. It occurs in the apostle's great ar- 
 gument for the resurrection of iJie body, in the fifteenth 
 chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, and is in 
 these words : " Else, what shall they do who are baptized 
 for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? Why are they 
 then baptized for the dead ? And why stand we in jeopardy 
 every hour f — 1 Cor., xv., 29, 30, This is, in some re- 
 spects, one of the most difficult texts in the New Testament. 
 But the best criticisms and helps to interpretation to which 
 I have found access, render it highly probable, if not cer- 
 tain, that its sense is this : " If our dead bodies rise not at 
 all, then why, at baptism, profess we our belief in their res- 
 urrection from the dead ? Why are we baptized in the 
 belief of such a resurrection ? And why, through constan- 
 cy in this faith, do we every hour jeopard our lives amid 
 the persecutions which are thus brought upon us ?" This 
 sense agrees with the whole scoi>e of the apostle's argu- 
 ment in that noble chapter, and it goes far to render certaia 
 the position that, originally, one of the things professed at 
 the baptism of the early Christians was their steadfast faith 
 in the resurrection of the body, grounded on the fact of 
 Christ's own resurrection. It was this fact which all the 
 apostles most vigorously asserted and testified. It was their 
 testimony to this fact which brought on them the persecu- 
 ting hate of the Jews; and it was their preaching of this 
 fact, with the truth which it involved in the possibility of the 
 resurrection of the human body, that provoked against theiu 
 the burning scorn of die Greek. Doubtless, therefore, it 
 was this fact itself, and the faith which it supported in the 
 resurrection of their own bodies, which the first Christians, 
 St their baptism, uaosi steadfastly professed, and persevered 
 
200 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 in professing in the face of all the peril in which it involved 
 them. 
 
 Let us now take the light which comes from these texts, 
 and spread it over the passage from the Epistle of Peter. 
 Thus spread, it plainly manifests the following meaning : 
 The baptism, which is the antitype (^avTirvrrov) of Noah's 
 being saved in the ark from present temporal death amid the 
 devouring waters of the Deluge ; the baptism, which consists, 
 not in the mere " putting away of the filth of the flesh, but" 
 in " the answer" which " a good conscience toward God" 
 makes to the questioning customary at that ordinance ; this 
 baptism, or baptism thus understood, assures us that we also 
 shall be saved from the future dominion of the grave, as cer- 
 tainly as our Savior Christ was raised up from the power 
 of the sepulchre. In the light which one apostle thus re- 
 flects from Christ upon a brother apostle, the passage from 
 the latter may, with strict justice to the original, be thus 
 paraphrased : " Noah and his family were carried in the 
 ark through the vvhelming waters of the flood, and thus saved 
 from present temporal death. The antitype to this, I mean 
 baptism, not, however, the mere putting away of the filth of 
 the flesh, but what this material washing signifies, in the 
 answer of a good conscience toward God, given as the re- 
 sult of the inward baptism of the Spirit, now saves us alsa ; 
 or assures us, as God's pledge, the seal of His promise and 
 His oath, that our bodies shall hereafter be raised from the 
 grave, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or by the 
 same power which raised Him from the dead." 
 
 So little support does this apostle give to the idea that 
 baptism is the fountain and source of that new life which 
 saves us from sin and eternal death, and that in it is wrap- 
 ped the unutterable mystery which makes the baptized in- 
 fant " a partaker in the incarnation." 
 
 6. I pass now to the text to which, a moment since, I re- 
 ferred, in the Epistle to the Ramans. " Know ye not, that 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 201 
 
 80 many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were 
 baptized into his death ?" — Rom., vi., 3. Here, it may be 
 asked, Is not baptism said to bring us " into Christ ?" and 
 does not this constitute that reverend mystery, that " parti- 
 cipating in the incarnation," that transmuting of " the sinful 
 flesh into the body of Christ," which has been ascribed to 
 this ordinance ? Is it not said, too, that by this baptism we 
 " are baptized into His death ?" And does not this show that, 
 in baptism, our sinful nature is put to death through the pow- 
 er of Christ, into whom we are thus actually ingrafted ? To 
 this I answer, if such does appear to be the teaching of the 
 passage, appearances here, as elsewhere, may prove deceit- 
 ful. Taking the language as it stands by itself, is not the 
 way to penetrate its meaning. To reach this, we must 
 look at its connection with the apostle's argument. 
 
 He had, then, been just setting forth the great doctrine 
 of justification by faith, and, having done so, comes, in this 
 part of his epistle, to a vindication of the doctrine from ob- 
 jection ; especially from the objection that it has an Antino- 
 7nian tendency, or a tendency to bring the moral law into 
 disrepute as a rule of life, on the ground that, being freely 
 justified hy faith, we need not be strict in obedience. " What 
 shall we say, then V' he inquires, anticipating the language 
 of an objector : " Shall we continue in sin, that grace may 
 abound ? God forbid ! How shall we, that are dead to 
 sin, live any longer therein ? Know ye not, that so many of 
 us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His 
 death ? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 
 death ; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by 
 the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
 newness of life. For, as we have been planted together in 
 the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of 
 his resurrection : knowing this, that our old man is crucified 
 with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that 
 henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead 
 is freed from sin." — Rom., vi., 1-7. 
 
202 THE NATUKE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 Now, without attempting a labored criticism of this pas- 
 sage, the materials for which, however, are abundant, it is 
 enough to say, that the scope of the apostle's argument ful- 
 ly justifies the following paraphrase, v. 1. " Because, where 
 sin abounds, there grace much more abounds ; shall we go 
 on in sin that God may have the glory of this superabound- 
 ing grace 1 v. 2. Let no such inference be drawn from the 
 doctrine of justification by faith, or the free gift of our sal- 
 vation in Christ Jesus. How shall we, who, by that in- 
 ward renewing which a justifying faith implies, have died 
 to sin, continue to live in the commission of it ? v. 3. Know 
 ye not, that so many of us as have been baptized in the name 
 of Jesus Christ, have, in that baptism, sealed a covenant which 
 binds us continually to die unto sin, even as Christ once died 
 FOR sin ? V. 4. This is the solemn import of our baptism. 
 We are there, in a most significant symbol, and in a most 
 stringent covenanting, buried with Christ into death ; the 
 deep significancy and obligation of our baptism being this ; 
 that, as Christ was raised up from the dead by His glorious 
 Father, even so we, through the power of the Spirit, should 
 habitually walk in the newness of a holy life. v. 5. This is 
 the true import of the baptismal act, and if we be true 
 Christians, we shall live conformably to this import. If we 
 have been planted with Christ in a likeness to His death, we 
 shall be also in a likeness to His resurrection. ' As He 
 died and rose again, so shall we, who are baptized, die from 
 sin and rise again unto righteousness ; continually mortify- 
 ing all our evil and corrupt aflfections, and daily proceeding 
 in all virtue and godliness of living.' v. 6. In our inward 
 renewal, professed and sealed in baptism, our old man is 
 crucified with Christ for the very purpose, that henceforth 
 we should not serve sin. v. 7. For he who has thus died 
 to sin is Christ's free man, and no longer a slave to sin." 
 
 Thus, by opening a little more fully the apostle's argu- 
 ment, we see that his words in the third verse involve no 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 203 
 
 such sense as the theory of baptismal regeneration, in its 
 various modifications, implies. His argument is briefly this. 
 The abounding of grace in the free pardon of siii by Jesus 
 Christ neither encourages nor tolerates sin, because, in ac- 
 cepting by faith that covenant of grace, which is sealed in 
 baptism, we come under the most solemn obligations to ab- 
 stain from all sin ; while, at the same time, if we are not 
 hypocrites, we have that inward principle of the new life, 
 which the Spirit quickens in us through the truth, and which 
 ultimately works the utter death of all sin in our natures. 
 So far, therefore, as his language in the third verse is con- 
 cerned, there is no need of seeking for any thing more, or 
 for any thing else, than the idea intimated in the paraphrase, 
 that, " as many as are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 are baptized either as adults, with a profession, or as infants, 
 in symbol, of that inward renewing, which makes us dead 
 unto sin, even as Christ once diedyor sin." 
 
 To a similar purpose the argument is continued in the 
 subsequent verses ; but it is needless farther to follow its 
 reasonings. The passage, so far as it has been examined, 
 is one among others, which show the significant and sym- 
 bolizing nature of Christian baptism. 
 
 7. In the Epistle to the Colossians (ii., 10-13) is an- 
 other passage, which involves the same general sense with 
 that just examined. " Ye are complete in Him, which is 
 the head of all principality and power ; in whom also ye 
 are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, 
 in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the cir- 
 cumcision of Christ ; buried with Him in baptism ; wherein 
 also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the opera- 
 tion of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, 
 being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your 
 flesh, hath he quickened together with Him ; having forgiven 
 you all trespasses." 
 
 After what has been said, the sense of all this is beauti- 
 
204 THE NATURE OF BAPTISIVT, 
 
 fully apparent without any lengthened comment. V. 10. 
 " All true Christians make up together the complete body, 
 of which Christ is the Divine Head." V, 11. In Him they 
 have the true circumcision, " tliat of the heart," which is 
 effected by " putting off the body of the sins of the flesh," 
 even " by the circumcision of Christ ;" i. e., the circumcis- 
 ion which Christ requires. V. 12. All this is most strik- 
 ingly represented in their baptism, wherein they are sym- 
 loUcalJy (for Ulerally they can not be) " buried and raised 
 with Christ." And their death unto sin, and their rising to 
 a new life, as here symbolized, are effected " through their 
 belief oi that mighty working of God, which raised up Christ 
 from the dead." V. 13. " And thus it is that, having been 
 once dead in sin, in the uncircumcised carnality of their 
 nature, God hath quickened them together with Christ, and 
 freely forgiven them all their trespasses." 
 
 This passage, besides implying the symbolical nature of 
 baptism, distinctly favors the doctrine that, under the Gos- 
 pel, baptism holds the same place as a seal of the covenant 
 of grace, with circumcision under the Law. 
 
 But in all this there is nothing favorable to that view of 
 baptism in infancy which ascribes to its instrumentality, or, 
 rather, to it as a source, " the death unto sin and the new 
 life unto righteousness," which are mentioned. These ef- 
 fects are here ascribed rather to that ^' faith''' which is ever 
 the act of the conscious and intelligent mind of riper years. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Ephesians (ii., 1-8), this whole 
 Divine process of "quickening us together with Christ," 
 and of "raising us up together with him to the new and 
 heavenly life," is described without the least allusion to 
 baptism, though not without a very distinct reference again 
 to faith, in its place and exercise as the Christian's act 
 under the renovating influence. " By grace are ye saved," 
 not of baptism, but " through faith." Thus these eight vers- 
 es strongly confirm the view taken both of the passage in 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 205 
 
 Romans, vi., 3, and of that in Colossians, ii., 10-13, viz., 
 that the object in those passages of the mention of baptism 
 in connection with this spiritual death and resurrection is to 
 show that, in that sacred ordinance, this Divine operation, 
 though not wrought in baptism, is yet at baptism professed 
 and symbolized. 
 
 8. I approach now a text of great importance, which 
 has, however, as a little examination will show, been un- 
 vi^arrantably pressed into the service of the theory of bap- 
 tismal regeneration. It is the celebrated passage in the 
 Epistle of Paul to Titus : " The washing of regeneration 
 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." — Tit., iii., 5, 
 
 It is admitted at once that the former part of the expres- 
 sion, " The washing of regeneration," means baptism ; but, 
 at the same time, it is contended that the latter part, " The 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost," means no more than just 
 what it expresses ; " Renovation, effected by the Holy 
 Spirit ;" including, of course, all its fruits, or effects. It 
 does not mean what is claimed for the mystery of baptism, 
 that awful gift which, it is said, " is not to be confounded 
 with renovation or a change of heart ;" nor restrained to 
 any other of the fruits of that gift ; but is " illimitable and 
 incomprehensible as that great mystery from which it 
 flows, the incarnation of our Redeemer."* It is simply 
 and solely, what the apostle says it is, " Renovation by the 
 Spirit," with all the fruits which it bears. More especially 
 is it maintained that it does not, as is claimed, tie " the 
 renewing by the Holy Ghost," as a special effect, to " the 
 washing of regeneration," as, jointly with the Spirit, its 
 source and cause,] making the two simultaneous in that 
 
 * Dr. Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 43. 
 
 t Idem, p. 25, 26. This last reference, indeed — like that to page 43 — is 
 to that part of the Tract on Baptism in which the author treats of John, 
 iii., 5. But, then, he considers that passage and this, Tit., iii., 5, as iden- 
 tical in sense ; and, therefore, what he affirms as the sense of the one, he 
 affij-ms also as the sense of the other. 
 
 s 
 
206 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 baptismal " fountain," wherein we are said to be " born of 
 the Holy Ghost, even as our blessed and incarnate Lord 
 was, according to the flesh, born of Him in the Virgin's 
 womb."* The words of the apostle neither make the 
 change overpass renovation and its fruits, nor do they 
 teach that this change is wrought at one and the same mo- 
 ment with " the washing of regeneration." To assume 
 both, or either of these, is but io force a meaning where the 
 Bible expresses none ; and thus to make Scripture for our- 
 selves, where we can not And it to our wish. 
 
 " The washing of regeneration," which symbolizes, and 
 " the renewing of the Holy Ghost," which effects " the great 
 and necessary work of our change from sin to holiness ;" 
 this is a paraphrase which evidently exhausts the meaning 
 of the passage ; leaving the question as to the time when 
 this change takes place, a point wholly untouched. 
 
 It is, indeed, more than probable that, in those early 
 days, when the Word preached was so generally accom- 
 panied with wonderful power, and when those who preach, 
 ed it were guided with more than ordinary wisdom in judg- 
 ing of the hearts and characters of men, the washing of 
 water and the renewing of the Spirit were generally, in 
 point of time, near each other. Thus, to name a single in- 
 stance : after Philip had preached Christ to the eunuch, 
 with evidence of the Holy Ghost accompanying the Word ;t 
 
 * Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 43. 
 
 t That the Holy Ghost actually accompanied, and still accompanies the 
 Word preached, there can be no doubt. " My speech and my preaching 
 was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
 Spirit and of power." — 1 Cor., ii.,4. And this was to show that the "faith" 
 of the early Christians did " not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the 
 power of God" — v. 5. So Peter, when ivriting to the Christians to whom 
 Paul had preached, says (speaking of Paul undoubtedly, and his compan- 
 ions in labor). They " have preached the Gospel unto you, with the Holy 
 Ghost sent down from Heaven:" literally, "have evangelized you with the Holy 
 Ghost;" tvavYe\i<!aiiivuiv vjidi iv XlvtiinaTi ayi'tj). — 1 Pet., i., 12. This de- 
 monstration of the Spirit, accompanying the preaching of the Word, was, 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 207 
 
 and after he had demanded and received from the renovated 
 Ethiop a profession of his heartfelt faith in Jesus, as the 
 Son of God, he at once baptized hira. — Acts, viii., 26-38. 
 The evidence of his renewal was satisfying. The apostle 
 needed not to wait, as in these days of feebler power, and 
 dimmer wisdom in the ministers of Christ, it is generally 
 deemed expedient to wait, for professions to prove their 
 sincerity, for character to test its permanency, or for feel- 
 ings either to settle into principles, or to evanish in forget- 
 fulness, before deciding the great question whether he 
 should or should not be baptized. There was enough in 
 all the circumstances of the case to settle that question at 
 once ; and, therefore, at once was the sealing ordinance ad- 
 ministered. And there can be little doubt that it was this 
 state of things which led to the occasional — by no means 
 the constant — mention of the inward work of the Spirit, and 
 of its symbolizing, sealing rite, in close connection of lan- 
 guage. This, however, proves not that the baptismal waters 
 were, with the Holy Spirit, the joint " source''' and " cause" 
 of the soul's renewal ; or that the two were, in point of 
 time, simultaneously effected. On the contrary, there are, I 
 apprehend, in all such cases, attendant circumstances suffi- 
 cient to show not only that, in foint of lime, they were 
 actually separated, but also that, in point of order, that in- 
 ward change preceded its outward symbol and seal. Let 
 us see if this be not the case with the passage before us 
 (Titus, iii., 5). 
 
 What says the context ? Read this part of Paul's letter 
 to his " son Titus after the common faith." " Put them 
 
 no doubt, sometimes for the communication of miraculous gifts. Yet, un- 
 less we suppose that all to whom Paul preached, and to whom Petei- wrote, 
 were miraculously endowed, we must allow that it was generally for the 
 ordinary work of their renewal and sanctification. This, however, is only 
 adding to the cumulative evidence already given, that the gift of the Spirit 
 was— not in baptism, but — through the Truth of God, understood and felt, 
 received and obeyed. 
 
208 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 (the Cretians) in mind to be subject to principalities and 
 powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good 
 work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, 
 showing all meekness unto all men." Do you ask, What is 
 your encouragement for preaching such things to those 
 " Cretians," whom " one of their own prophets"* has rep- 
 resented as 
 
 " Always liars, evil beasts, slow-bellies ?" 
 I reply, even this : " We ourselves" I, Paul, who speak, 
 thou, Titus, whom I address, and other preachers like us, 
 were once as unpromising subjects as these very " Cre- 
 tians ;" myself, especially, having been " the chief of sin- 
 ners." "PTe ourselves," I say, "were once foolish, diso- 
 bedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living 
 in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But" 
 — see, oh, see what the mighty Gospel, which you are to 
 preach to your " Cretians," has, by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, effected even in us ; for, " after that the kindness 
 and love of God our Savior toward man appeared (not by 
 works of righteousness which ive have done, but according 
 to his mercy). He saved us by the washing of regeneration 
 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us 
 abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior ; that, being 
 justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according 
 to the hope of eternal life." Thus encouraged, .then, by 
 what has been wrought in ourselves, be not backward in 
 calling your " Cretians" to the entire holiness which I have 
 enjoined. What I have said " is a faithful saying ;" my 
 injunction is in full accord with the spirit of the Gospel ; 
 " and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that 
 they which have helieved in God might be careful to main- 
 tain good works." — Titus, iii., 1-8. 
 
 Here we see that the change of which the apostle speaks 
 
 * Supposed to be Epimenides, born at Gnossus, in Crete ; a poet, reputed 
 a prophet, and the auther of a work on oracles, now lost. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 209 
 
 was nothing more nor less than his own conversion, and that 
 of Titus and other preachers : a change which we know, in 
 the case of Paul at least, preceded baptism, and was simply 
 his being " turned from darkness to light, and from the pow- 
 er of Satan imto God," by the mighty working of the Holy 
 Ghost, accompanying the pungent preaching of Jesus him- 
 self, and of his servant Ananias, and operating through days 
 of an intense struggle in prayer, which began in that heart- 
 surrendering petition, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do ?" It was no miracle, or mystery, wrought on imcon- 
 scious infancy, but an intelligible renewal, wrought by most 
 reasonable and adequate causes, and in years of most intel- 
 ligent and ripened rebellion against God.* 
 
 * It is surely extravagant, and utterly without reason, to say, as our op- 
 posing theorists do say, that the conversion of St. Paul, and his endowment 
 with the gift of the Holy Spirit, both for ordinary and for extraordinary grace, 
 did not take place till the moment, and in the act of his baptism. In the ac- 
 count of the whole transaction, as recorded in the ninth and twenty-second 
 chapters of the Acts, his baptism was preceded by every circumstance 
 which could characterize a true conversion, and the bestowment of all the 
 gifts of the Spirit. For instance, there were his arrest on his way to Da- 
 mascus by the out-shining of the Sun of Righteousness; the short, but 
 searching sermon of Jesus, evidently carried, by the subduing power of the 
 Spirit, to the soul of the stricken man ; that cry of a most submissive heart, 
 uttered in the true spirit of faith, and of a most repentant consciousness of 
 his awful sins, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" his overpowering, 
 and even blinding sense of the manifested glory of Christ ; his three days' 
 struggle in prayer and fasting at Damascus; the Christian instruction of 
 Ananias, accompanied by the laying on of his hands, and instructing him 
 unto baptisj7i, as the first outward element and duty of Christ's rehgion ; 
 Paul's receipt of the miraculous gift of inspiration in being " filled with the 
 Holy Ghost," and the restoration of suspended sight to his darkened eyes, 
 in token of the marvelous gift which had just been " shed on him so abun- 
 dantly." All these circumstances transpired, not tvhen, or after, but before 
 he was " baptized, and washed away his sins, having called on the name of 
 the Lord" — i. e., before he received that baptismal washing which was to 
 him at once the sign of the full renewal, and the seal of the free forgiveness 
 which he had received. Who, then, in the face of all this, shall say that 
 Paul was not converted and endowed with the gifts of the Holy Ghost till 
 the time and in the mystery of his baptism ? If an army of post-Nicene and 
 Mediaeval writers were to concur in the assertion, that could not alter the 
 
 S2 
 
210 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 So Utterly groundless is the assumption which takes the 
 naked words, " He saved us by the washing of regeneration 
 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost," and then uses them as 
 a proof that, in infant baptism, the two things are tied togeth- 
 er in the relation of source and issue, cause and effect ; and 
 not only so, but as a proof that this result is as awful a mir- 
 acle as that which was wrought when the Holy Ghost made 
 the Son of God incarnate in our nature ! And yet, next to 
 John, iii., 5, this is the principal text cited to prove these, 
 and all associated, though modified views of the doctrine 
 of baptismal regeneration as applied to the case of in- 
 fants ! 
 
 9. Having thus examined all the texts on the subject of 
 baptism which I think it necessary to examine, whether of 
 those which are alleged to refer, or of those which unques- 
 tionably do refer to this subject, I take up, at last, the 
 great " key-text'''' itself, as it has been termed, under which 
 I have so long been writing. I have reserved it for this 
 place, because it is, in itself, the most important text on the 
 subject before us, and because, in obedience to that just 
 canon of interpretation which I have adopted, I think it 
 ought not, as a text of disputed, if not of doubtful meaning, 
 and as, in a strong sense, the hinging point in this discus- 
 sion, to be interpreted till we have looked abroad through 
 the Bible, and especially through the New Testament, for 
 the best and fullest light which can be collected upon the 
 point proposed for illustration — the nature of Christian bap- 
 tism. And yet, though standing at the focus of all this 
 light, I shall endeavor, as far as possible, to place this im- 
 portant passage in its own light, to examine it by its own 
 shining, and see whether, fairly viewed, it does not give 
 forth to others the same light which it receives from them. 
 
 " Verily, verily, 1 say unto thee. Except a man be born 
 
 testimony of incontestable facts. [For the views referred to in the above 
 note, see Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 174-176, N. Y. ed.] 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 211 
 
 of water and the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom 
 of God." — John, iii., 5. 
 
 1. In seeking, then, for the meaning of these words, I 
 shall not avail myself of the interpretation which would cut 
 the knot of difficulty instead of untying it, by asserting that 
 there is here no mention of literal baptism. With the ad- 
 vocates of baptismal regeneration I have no controversy on 
 this point. I admit, and, if necessary, would contend, that 
 by the birth of water literal baptism is intended. Yet I 
 urge, in the first place, that our Savior does not say here, 
 and can not be made to say, that the birth of water and the 
 birth of the Spirit must be effected, and are effected, at one 
 and the same instant. This is one of the points which, un- 
 der the false canon of interpretation formerly noticed, is 
 ever silently, but without reason, assumed. Taking it for 
 granted that the water spoken of means the water of baptism, 
 the supporters of that canon also take it for granted, as 
 something which necessarily follows, that the birth of the 
 Spirit is simultaneous with it, and effected hy it. It needs 
 but a moment's thought to see that this assumption is whol- 
 ly groundless. Christ says, on another occasion, " He that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark, xvi., 16) ; 
 while Peter, on the day of Pentecost, in answer to the in- 
 quiry of the Jews, " What shall we do ?" replies, " Repent 
 and be baptized, every one of you." — Acts, ii., 38. Now, 
 faith and repentance are essential movements in the work 
 of the Spirit ; we can do neither the one nor the other with- 
 out his gift. What our Savior and his apostle say, there- 
 fore, on those two occasions, amounts precisely to this : 
 " Seek ye the gift of the Spirit, in order to faith and repent- 
 ance, and then he baptized ;" and we may as reasonably as- 
 sume from this that we must, at one and the same instant, 
 " believe and be baptized," " repent and be baptized," and 
 that faith and repentance are produced by baptism's being, 
 jointly with the Spirit, their source and cau^e, as we may 
 
212 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 assume from what Christ says in John, iii., 5, that we 
 must be born of water and born of the Spirit at one and 
 the same instant, and that the latter birth is effected by 
 the former as its joint source and cause. The order of 
 statement is indeed changed. Faith and repentance, as 
 included in the gift of the Spirit, are named before bap- 
 tism, while in the text the gift of the Spirit, as includ- 
 ing faith and repentance, is named after baptism 5 and 
 yet the things named in both cases are themselves the 
 same. We may, it is true, say that the gift of the Spirit 
 includes more than faith and repentance, even the power 
 to believe and to repent. Still, this is but saying that 
 the power itself, like the faith and repentance which 
 spring from it, is made by Christ and his apostle an an- 
 lecedent to baptism. This, however, is, in other words, 
 as effectually as by the former inference to overthrow 
 the theory that the power here intended (which may, 
 peradventure, be what the theorists mean by the seed, 
 the germ, the principle of the new life) is the mysteri- 
 ous and awful gift of the Spirit in and of the baptismal 
 waters. If we say that faith and repentance, as included 
 in the gift of the Spirit, are and must be communicated 
 in and of baptism, then, so far as it affects the case of 
 infants, we contradict the Church, which says that these 
 are things which " infants, by reason of their tender 
 age, can not perform." And if we say that the gift of 
 the Spirit includes more than faith and repentance, even 
 the power to believe and repent, while yet we insist that 
 this power is and must be communicated in and of bap- 
 tism, then we contradict Christ and his apostle, who put 
 faith and repentance, flowing out of that power, as an- 
 tecedents to the baptism of adults. Either way we over- 
 throw the theory by showing the actual if not the ne- 
 cessary separation, in point of time, between the birth by 
 water and the birth by the Spirit. 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 213 
 
 Whether the power to believe and repent can be given 
 to the infant in baptism, to be kept for exercise in riper 
 years, or to be lost by post-baptismal sins, is, in fact, a 
 question identical with that so largely discussed when 
 considering the suggestions arising out of the first chap- 
 ter on baptism. Its farther discussion, therefore, need 
 not here be renewed. It may, indeed, be said, that by 
 nature, and in our worst estate through sin, we all have 
 a power to believe and repent ; that what we want is 
 only the will to exercise that power ; and that therefore 
 the office of the Spirit in infant baptism consists in giv- 
 ing us a new and '■'•good will ;''^ and then, in riper years, 
 " working with us when we have that good will." This, 
 however, is only shifting the difficulty to a new term, 
 although it shows more clearly than ever the moral im- 
 possibility that the office of the Spirit should be per- 
 formed on unconscious infancy. If there be any thing 
 that requires the concurrence of our conscious volition, 
 it is a change of the will from evil to good. How this 
 change is produced by the Spirit, even in the use of 
 Truth, we may never be able fully to fathom. But these 
 two things, I think, we may know : 1. The office of the 
 Spirit consists in a change of the will from evil to good, 
 and not in imparting a literally new wiU. The Christian 
 is not a being who has two separate wills, the one evil 
 and the other good. He has, and can have, like other 
 men, but one power, or faculty of willing, though that 
 one faculty may be so strongly solicited and drawn con- 
 trary ways by contrary inducements, as almost to make 
 him feel, at times, as though he had two separate wills. 
 And yet he has not, and can not have ; and the office of 
 the Divine Spirit with him consists in simply changing 
 his naturally eml will to a will graciously good ^ and 
 then continually " working with him" that this good will 
 may, on the whole, be governor of his inner man, de- 
 
214 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 spite the numberless solicitations to evil which he feels. 
 2. A change of the will can not be effected without the 
 concurrence or an exercise of the will. This is a con- 
 scious act, and, therefore, can not be performed in un- 
 conscious infancy. The will changes only as it sees rea- 
 sons for change. I say not that the will of the infant is 
 incapable of action. It evidently does act under the 
 promptings of bodily appetite and bodily pain. But 
 upon moral and spiritual truths and objects it is incapa- 
 ble of action, because Reason is not yet so developed 
 as to be able to comprehend them. How early Reason 
 may become so far developed as to be able to compre- 
 hend at least the simple and sovereign elements of these 
 things, in order that, through them, the Spirit may ef- 
 fect a change of the natural will, it is not for me to say. 
 I only suggest that there is a period, longer or shorter, 
 in the infancy or childhood of every human being, du- 
 ring which God is pleased to leave both the reason and 
 the will incapable of being exercised upon the truths and 
 objects of the spiritual world, and, therefore, the will 
 itself incapable of being changed and made a new and 
 good will. This view, therefore, strengthens the con- 
 clusion formerly reached, that, on the principles of that 
 nature in which God has constituted man, the office of 
 the Spirit can not be performed on the w^ireasoning, un- 
 thinking, w?iconscious infant. 
 
 2. But, to leave this momentary digression, and to 
 return upon the text, I urge, in the second place, that 
 in these words our Savior does not say that, in bap- 
 tism, " God, by His Spirit, moves again on the face of 
 the waters, sanctifies them for our cleansing ; and cleans- 
 es us thereby." This is another of the points quietly 
 but groundlessly assumed under the false canon of in- 
 terpretation to which I have adverted. If we may as- 
 sume such mysteries as implied when not a word is 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 215 
 
 said of them in the text which we may happen to be in- 
 terpreting, then we may assume any thing we please ; 
 and so, again, if we can not find, may at least make as 
 much Scripture to our purpose as Ave need. 
 
 I do not forget, in this connection, what our Church 
 says in her baptismal office: that God, "by the bap- 
 tism of his well-beloved Son Jesus Christ in the River 
 Jordan, did sanctify water to the mystical washing away 
 of sin." I have already briefly alluded to this expres- 
 sion ; but it may not be amiss to notice it again. What 
 meaneth our Church, then, by this language 1 What 
 can she mean, but that, according to the established 
 use and sense of the word '■'■sanctify,^'' when applied to 
 external things, God, by that great act, did separate and 
 set apart, not all waters, but the element of water, to the 
 religious use there designated ; or, as our Church ex- 
 presses it, " to the mystical washing away of sin V 
 But, mark what she says: "the mystical,'''' not the effi- 
 cient ; the typical, not the actual ; the symbolizing, not the 
 operated " washing away of sin." In other words, by the 
 baptism of Christ, God designated water to be perpetual- 
 ly a mystical seal of the pardon of sin, and a mystical sym- 
 bol oi purification from sin. This is all that the sense of 
 the words " sanctify" and " mystical" requires ; and it 
 is, undoubtedly, the true meaning of what our Church 
 says. Whether it be, however, or be not, and whatever 
 her meaning may be, it can never justify any one in as- 
 suming, for Christ's words in the text, the meaning put 
 upon them, that " God, by His Spirit, moves again on 
 the face of the waters, sanctifies them for our cleansing, 
 and cleanses us thereby." If we may assume this, when 
 the Divine speaker says nothing of the kind, then, I re- 
 peat, we may assume any thing not impossible or ab- 
 surd ; and so, if we can not draxo our creed from the 
 Bible, may at least /orce our creed upon the Bible. 
 
216 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 3. Again : passing from the birth of water to that of 
 the Spirit, and leaving the point of time for the present 
 out of the question, I urge, in the third place, that when 
 Christ says we must be " born of the Spirit," He does 
 not say that this is not only " a gift of God," but also 
 as " illimitable and incomprehensible as that great mys- 
 tery from which it flows, the incarnation of our Re- 
 deemer;" nor does He say that " the Holy Spirit gives 
 us a new life in the fountain opened by Him, we being 
 born therein q/Him, even as our blessed and incarnate 
 Lord was, according to the flesh, born of Him in the 
 Virgin's womb." This is still another point most gra- 
 tuitously assumed under the false canon of interpreta- 
 tion which I have named. What matters it how many 
 ancient writers say that the birth of the Spirit consists 
 in such a mystery 1 Does their assertion prove that 
 these simple words of Christ carry so absurd a sense ] 
 Suppose that one of them does say that, in the baptism 
 by water, " the sinful flesh is changed into the body of 
 Christ,^''* does this prove that Christ put this actual 
 seed of transubstantiation into baptism, that He might 
 ripen the fruit of it in the Lord^s Supper ? I pray, where 
 must this strange system of interpreting Christ have its 
 end, but in a monster-body of false divinity, practically 
 overlaying, and in effect crushing out the life of that 
 beautiful and shapely body of Truth which He once in- 
 formed with His Spirit and made quickening to our souls 1 
 
 When Nicodemus, misapprehending Christ's meaning 
 about being " born again," and supposing, from the force 
 of the word employed, that it implied the necessity of 
 a man's being literally born a second time, inquired, " How 
 can these things be 1" Christ reproved him ; not, how- 
 ever, because Nicodemus doubted the possibility of so 
 absurd an operation, but because, being " a master in 
 * Leo, quoted by Dr. Pusey on Baptism, Tract 67, p. 46. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 217 
 
 Israel," a teacher of God's people, he did not know bet- 
 ter than to suppose the acknowledged Divine Teacher 
 before him intended so monstrous an idea. Had the 
 thought which Nicodemus conceived been truly Christ's 
 meaning, his question had been a sensible one, and 
 Christ would have answered it, not in a reproving, but 
 in an explanatory way. And yet the operation, ascribed 
 by this false canon of interpretation to baptism by wa- 
 ter, is as incredible as that to which Nicodemus sup- 
 posed our Savior to refer j and if the mystery of the 
 new birth of the Spirit consist in what is here assumed 
 for it, we may reasonably ask the "Nicodemus ques- 
 tion," " How can these things be'?" and our question 
 would deserve, not a reproof, but an explanation such 
 as hath never yet been given by either the Great 
 Master himself or any of his subordinate teachers. 
 But if that new birth consist in no such thing as that 
 assumed, then the question, by taking such a meaning 
 for granted, would be impertinent, and they Avho asked 
 it might well be reproved, as masters in God's Christian 
 Israel, for supposing that our Divine teacher's weighty 
 words meant so impossible a process ! 
 
 4. Throwing away, then, all these groundlessly-as- 
 sumed meanings of Christ's words, let us, with humble 
 minds, endeavor to ascertain, so far as we may, what is 
 their true sense. 
 
 " The kingdom of God" mentioned in John, iii., 5, has 
 two conditions : the one in time, the other in eternity ; 
 the one on earth, the other in heaven ; the one prepara- 
 tory, the o\.h.ev final ; the one ior p)robation, the other for 
 rewards. To these two conditions of the kingdom, bap- 
 tism and renewal, the symbolical regeneration and the real, 
 bear analogous relations. Without baptism we can not 
 enter the kingdom on earth, without renewal we can not 
 enter the kingdom in heaven. This, I apprehend, will 
 T 
 
218 THE NATURE OF BAPTISUf, 
 
 he regarded as a statement fully sustained by the gen- 
 eral teachings of the Bible. 
 
 Now, with this general view, the particular words of 
 Christ in the text exactly agree. Understanding "the 
 kingdom of God" to be there spoken of in its compre- 
 hension, or as including both its earthly or temporal, and 
 its heavenly or eternal state, it is abundantly evident 
 that Christ means to say, " the birth of water," or bap- 
 tism, is necessary as our act or privilege of entering 
 " the kingdom" here, while "the birth of the Spirit," or 
 inward renewing, is necessary as our meetness or prep- 
 aration for enjoying "the kingdom" hereafter. With 
 this, too, the language of our Church accords when it 
 represents the water in baptism as " an outivard and vis- 
 ible sign,^'' while it recognizes " the death unto sin and 
 the new birth unto righteousness" as "Me inward and 
 spiritual grace,'''' or '•'■things signified.'''' 
 
 It may, indeed, be inquired, What, then, does our 
 Church mean when she says of a sacrament, in general, 
 that it is not only an '" outward and visible sign of an 
 inward and spiritual grace," but also " a means whereby 
 we receive the same V or when she says of baptism in 
 particular, " we are hereby made the children of grace V 
 To this question, however, a satisfactory reply will, I 
 apprehend, be attended with no difficulty. 
 
 Why are we required to be "born of water," or bap- 
 tized % Because it is Christ's ordained mode oi becom- 
 ing members of His Church or kingdom on earth. And 
 why are we required to be "born of the Spirit," or re- 
 newed unto holiness^. Because, in every one capable 
 and guilty of actual sin, it is that "without which no 
 man can see the Lord," or be happy with Him in heav- 
 en. These points are clear. But why are we required 
 to enter the Church here in order to our entering heavens 
 hereafter 1 This is the point on which we now seek 
 
THE NATUKE OF BAPTISM. ^19> 
 
 light. I answer, then, because whatever God, in his 
 unfathomable goodness and abundant power, may be 
 pleased to do in saving men by His Spirit and His Truth, 
 in places where His Church is not known, or not fully 
 and regularly organized, still His Church was and is in- 
 tended to be that great Divine system of means and in- 
 struments, in the use of which He ordinarily holds 
 present intercourse with men's minds, reaches their 
 hearts, renews, sanctifies, and edifies them " unto the 
 perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the full- 
 ness of Christ." His ordinary way now is, not to make 
 us, in infancy, partakers of an unutterable mystery, that 
 we may thus become members of His Church (all Scrip- 
 ture is opposed to this view), but to take us, in infancy, 
 as members of His Church, that we may, with our first 
 opening susceptibilities and powers, find ourselves in 
 holy associations and under holy influences, and thus 
 realize the best means, opportunities, and incitements 
 for seeking and obtaining the knowledge, love, and obe- 
 dience of God and His Word ; for becoming " renewed 
 in the Spirit of our minds," and thus for ripening unto 
 His heavenly kingdom. His first act, now, is, not to 
 perform a miracle on our unconscious infancy, that He 
 may thus make us members of His Church, and yet 
 leave us morally sure to fall into the awful aggravations 
 oi post-baptismal sin, but to adopt us in infancy, into His 
 family as His graciously, though undeservedly privi- 
 leged children, that He may the better discipline us for 
 our actual sins, bring us to "repentance toward God, 
 and to faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," and thus 
 make us finally holy as He is holy, and perfect as He is 
 perfect. His way is to enter us very early into His 
 school, though perfectly ignorant and defiled in our ig- 
 norance, that He may the more successfully teach us 
 of His ways and *' make us wise unto salvation," 
 
220 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 through that " meekly-received" and inwardly " in- 
 grafted Word," by which His Spirit instructs us unto 
 Christ, and which, thus used and received, " is able to 
 save our souls." Such, manifestly, is the great office 
 and place of His Church on earth, in all her divinely-ap- 
 pointed means and influences. Inasmuch, then, as it is 
 by baptism that we enter this Church, and without bap- 
 tism can not enter it, it may, with no little propriety 
 and force, be said that not only is baptism " an outward 
 and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace,'''' but 
 also " a means whereby we receive the same," being 
 ^^ thereby made children of grace," brought into the family 
 and school of a most gracious God, and surrounded 
 with all His most gracious provisions and influences for 
 securing, what is yet unsecured, our souls' renewal, 
 sanctification, and eternal blessedness. 
 
 This view fully satisfies the language of our Church 
 in her Catechism. It shows what she means when she 
 says that water in baptism is " an outward and visible 
 sign of an inward and spiritual grace ;" and that baptism 
 itself is " a means," not the means, as though there were 
 no other, but a means, one of a great system of means, 
 *' whereby we receive''^ the grace so signified. But wheth- 
 er this be her precise meaning or not, I would humbly 
 trust there is evidence that it is the general teaching of 
 the Word of God, and in accordance with the particular 
 teaching of Christ in the text. 
 
 Having said thus much, then, by way of collecting the 
 general sense of Scripture on the subject of baptism, 
 and of eliciting the particular meaning of the text, I 
 venture to give the following paraphrase of these im- 
 portant words as expressive of their true and full im- 
 port : 
 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
 of water, which in baptism mystically symbolizes, and of 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 221 
 
 the Spirit^ which, in reality, efficiently works, the needed 
 renewal and sanctification of his nature, he can not or- 
 dinarily be saved. Without the birth of water he can 
 not enter the Church, as the earthly state of my king- 
 dom, my constituted family and school for his spiritual 
 training and discipleship j and without the birth of the 
 Spirit, he can not enter heaven, as that future and final 
 perfection of my kingdom for which that spiritual train- 
 ing and discipleship are designed to fit him." 
 
 Touching, now, the point of time, as involved in the 
 text, the conclusion is undeniable, that, in what Christ 
 says. He does not tie the birth of the Spirit unto the birth 
 of water. He does not make the two simultaneous, 
 or wrought at one and the same instant. He places the 
 one as a Divine symbol of the other. He indicates the 
 ceremonial as an introduction to the way which ordina- 
 rily leads to the spiritual. He ordains baptism as the 
 gate of entrance into His kingdom on earth ; and he re- 
 veals the Spirit^s work of renewing and sanctifying grace 
 as that without which no actual sinner can possibly en- 
 ter His kingdom in heaven. But he leaves the time when 
 the symbol shall be followed by the thing symbolized to 
 be decided by that which alone can decide the question 
 of every man's salvation, the movements of God's Spir- 
 it and truth, of His grace and providence, on the minds 
 of those multitudes to whom His Church and His Gos- 
 pel come. 
 
 In accordance with this view, and in confirmation of 
 it, we can not fail to remark that, as a symbol of the 
 Spirit's renewing and sanctifying work through the in- 
 strumentality of God's quickening and purifying truth, 
 water is the most appropriate and beautiful element that 
 could have been named. How it gives new life and 
 strength to the fainting, dying pilgrim of the Desert ! 
 How it cleanses the dust and filth from the body of him 
 T2 
 
22^ THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 who has grown unclean through exposure or neglect ! 
 And in both these effects, how beautifully and appro- 
 priately does it teach in symbol the life-giving and pu- 
 rifying power of the Spirit upon the soul that is dead 
 in sin, and defiled with both its guilt and its corruption I 
 
 To the same effect, we can not fail to notice the fact 
 that the text says nothing of the proper subjects of bap- 
 tism. It leaves the seal of the covenant under the Gos- 
 pel, as it came in from under the law, to be applied gen- 
 erally to the infant seed of God's people, and yet, when 
 occasion requires it, to those adults who have not re- 
 ceived it in infancy ; and, leaving these things thus, 
 goes at once to its great teaching about the Divine sym- 
 bol and its substance, as needed in opening the entrance, 
 and in training us on the way which leads to heaven 
 and to God. In this teaching it addresses an adult, and 
 is evidently designed to present its main, its fundament- 
 al truth to the consideration of those capable of under- 
 standing it. In its chief import, it is but another in- 
 stance of what the Bible says to those who are under 
 the Bible, and who may be savingly affected, if by noth- 
 ing more, by its simple and sovereign elements of truth. 
 
 There are many other passages in the New Testa- 
 ment which refer to baptism. But their reference to it 
 is indirect or incidental, while there is nothing in them 
 from which we can derive aid in determining the true 
 nature of this Christian ordinance. They, of course, all 
 fall in and harmonize with that view of baptism which, 
 by a just application of the principles of interpretation, 
 may most conclusively be shown to imbody the true 
 sense of those main texts which have now been exam- 
 ined. It will not be necessary, therefore, farther to 
 continue an examination which has already gone to a 
 length not at first intended. 
 
 It is time to gather up some results from what has 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 223 
 
 been said by way of a summary enumeration of what is 
 included in the true nature of baptism. The whole dis- 
 cussion, indeed, has thus far been devoted chiefly to 
 what I have deemed erroneous views of the subject. 
 Still, no one can have followed me through this discus- 
 sion without seeing that, in setting those views aside, 
 others, like rays from an uncovered light, have all along 
 been silently beaming forth from those Scriptures of 
 Truth from which the obscurings of a false sense have 
 been successively withdrawn. 
 
 1. In the first place, then, as an institution of Christ, 
 and as an act of God, baptism is a badge of our Christian 
 profession. 
 
 It is not thus characterized by any particular text, 
 but this character follows from the nature of the case, 
 and especially from the fact (which for the present I 
 assume) that, under Christ, baptism takes the place of 
 circumcision as a seal of the covenant of grace. Circum- 
 cision, we know, was the peculiar visible badge and 
 mark of God's ancient people, distinguishing them from 
 all others, and stringently holding them to fidelity to 
 Him who had graciously taken them to be his chosen 
 race. As the new form of this seal, then, baptism has 
 the same force. It marks the Christian people of God 
 as distinct and separate from the world, and most bind- 
 ingly holds them to fidelity to Him whose glorious name 
 they wear, and to whom they belong by solemn cove- 
 nant. Under these blessed obligations, baptized infarUs 
 may be considered as properly placed. As of old, in 
 the case of circumcision, baptism is the seal, not of their 
 originally and intelligently covenanting with God, but 
 of His gracious and holy covenant with them. He has 
 most condescendingly and lovingly bound Himself to 
 them on the conditions of the Gospel ; and to these con- 
 ditions, with all that they involve, of holy faithfulness 
 
224 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 and obedience, He holds them in most sacred bonds. He 
 does not ask them whether they can or will consent to these 
 bonds : He puts them under tlieir binding, as one of the 
 most precious favors which he could confer. That He has 
 a right thus to put them under bonds to Himself, and to treat 
 them according to their fidelity, or want of fidelity, to their 
 obligations, none can doubt. But this is a low view. He 
 is most good and loving in laying these bonds on them : in- 
 finitely more so than the kindly wise parent who hedges 
 about the path of a wayward child to prevent him, if possi- 
 hle, from plunging into irrecoverable ruin. 
 
 Nor are these bonds one of the greatest of blessings to 
 the Christian alone as an individual. They are designed to 
 be one of the best of safeguards to the Church also as a body. 
 As affording ground for whatever is needed of salutary, ma- 
 ternal discipline upon those who walk unworthily of their 
 vocation, they are intended to be to the Church as a whole^ 
 like the wall to the vineyard, her security against destruc- 
 tion from the ravages of unholy principle and of ungodly ex- 
 ample. Those who walk thus unworthily, having been 
 brought into the Church by her iapiism^ may be cast out, 
 or reformed by her discipline. God hath given her this 
 power for the common good of all. 
 
 2. In the second place, as un institution of Christ, and as 
 revealing the mind of God, baptism is a symbol of our re- 
 generation. 
 
 This is not a contested point, any more than the corre- 
 sponding one in the Lord's Supper, that the consecrated el- 
 ements of bread and wine are symbols of the sacrifice of the 
 body and blood of Clirist. It is admitted, in both cases, 
 that the outward parts are symbols of the inivard ; the ma- 
 terial, of the spiritual. The controversy, so far as baptism 
 is concerned, therefore, turns not on this, but on another 
 point, whether the symbol is also, jointly with the Spirit, tho 
 source and cause of regeneration in the sense of an actual 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 225 
 
 impartation even to infants of a new and spiritual life ; of a 
 communication to the recipient of the very Divine substance, 
 or nature. This point, however, I have already examined 
 at sufficient length. It is not necessary, therefore, to touch 
 it now ; nor will it be necessary to dwell long on the un- 
 contested point, that baptism is a symhol of the true regener- 
 ation. 
 
 This is implied in several of the texts which have been 
 examined, particularly in those principal ones which speak 
 of our being " born of water and the Spirit," and of our be- 
 ing " saved by the washing of regeneration, and the renew- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost." Whatever else may be disputed 
 here, this, at least, will be admitted by all, that the birth of 
 water is a symbol of that of the Spirit, and that the washing 
 of regeneration is a symbol of the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 On these and similar texts it must be that our Church, in 
 her office of baptism, takes her stand when she says that 
 " Baptism doth represent unto us our profession, which is, 
 to follow the example of our Savior, Christ, and to be made 
 like unto Him : that, as he died and rose again for us, so 
 should we who are baptized die from sin, and rise again unto 
 righteousness." It can represent this only in its character 
 as a symbol of so important a change. The Catechism, too, 
 expressly says, that baptism is " an outward and visible 
 sign of an inward and spiritual grace." 
 
 In its character as a symbol of regeneration, baptism seems 
 originally to have represented tv^o great facts, with the 
 truths which these facts involve : 1. The fact of our spirit, 
 ual resurrection in this life ; " the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost ;" involving the truths that, by nature, we are " dead 
 in trespasses and sins," and that, therefore, we must be 
 "born again" to a new and spiritual life. As a symbol of 
 this change, baptism is called " the washing of regenera- 
 tion." 2. The fact of our literal resurrection from the grave 
 
S26 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 to that new state of glory which is to succeed, involving the 
 truths that Christ died and rose again, and that, as the cer- 
 tain fruits of His death and resurrection, all true Christians 
 shall literally follow him in both, and in the glory which is 
 to ensue. As a symbol of this change, baptism represents 
 our passing from the death of the body to that future life of 
 blessedness with Christ, which he himself calls " The re- 
 generation when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of 
 His glory." — Matt., xix., 28. We have already seen rea- 
 sons for believing that the early Christians, at their baptism, 
 professed and sealed their faith in the fact of Christ's resur- 
 rection from the dead, and in the doctrine of the future res- 
 urrection of their own bodies. Of this resurrection, there- 
 fore, as well as of the other, baptism may still be considered 
 the symbol ; the teaching representation. In this sense, it 
 is full of important meaning and power. The truths which 
 it "holds forth," when received by a living yat7/i into minds 
 renewed by the Spirit, do operate mightily to the strength- 
 ening of hope, courage, and constancy, in meeting, sustain- 
 ing, and overcoming all those conflicts, trials, and persecu- 
 tions to which, for Christ's sake, we may in this life be ex- 
 posed. 
 
 3. In the third place, as an institution of Christ, and as an 
 ordinance through which God continually brings Himself 
 into action among His people, baptism is an initiatory rite. 
 
 Hereby, God brings us into his Church, and makes us 
 " children" in His family on earth ; " members of Christ''s'^ 
 body in this world, and " heirs of his kingdom" in the next. 
 His benign intention in this is to gather around us, at 
 the earliest possible period of opening reason, understand- 
 ing and conscience, every possible advantage and favoring 
 influence for deciding the great question for eternity, wheth- 
 er we are also to be children of His family in heaven ; 
 members of Christ's glorified body in the world to come ; 
 and inheritors by actual possession, as well as heirs by con- 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 227 
 
 ditional promise, of His everlasting kingdom ? To this view- 
 allusion was made in explaining the text (John, iii., 5) ; it 
 expresses all that need be understood by the second answer 
 in our Catechism ; and it is implied in the last great com- 
 mand and promise of the Savior to His disciples — " Go ye 
 and leach all nations," or make disciples of them ; enter 
 them into my school ; " baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." — Matt., 
 xxviii., 19. " He that believeth and is baptized, shall be 
 saved." — Mark, xvi., 16. In the case oi infants, baptism is 
 the first known act of God in drawing them within the cir- 
 cle of His future gracious influences ; and in the case of 
 adults, the whole testimony of the New Testament touching 
 this point shows, as we have seen, that the first thing, af- 
 ter their renewing by the Spirit, was their initiation into the 
 Church by baptism ; upon which sometimes followed the 
 extraordinary gift of the Spirit ; while always followed those 
 graciously nurturing and ripening influences, needed to per- 
 fect them for " the general assembly and Church of the first- 
 born, which are written in heaven." 
 
 In order to entrance into the Church on earth, it surely 
 is not necessary, as the theory which has been opposed 
 assumes, that a " miracle" be wrought in an outward ordi- 
 nance, giving us beforehand the very thing, ay, and more 
 than the veryjhing, for which we enter that dispensation 
 of means. Nor is it at all certain that those who, by bap- 
 tism, enter the Church on earth, will, in fact, by inward re- 
 newal and sanctification, enter the Church in heaven. God, 
 as our gracious Father, has many " children''' in His family 
 on earth who prove disobedient, and so become the subjects 
 of His just judgment. There are many " members of Christ" 
 in this world who resemble the unfruitful, because the dead 
 branches of a vine, and who will, therefore, be cut off" and 
 cast into the burning prepared for them. And there are 
 many " heirs of the kingdom of heaven'^ who, through a re- 
 
228 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 fusal to comply with the conditions of their heirship, will be 
 disinherited, and banished forever from among the true sons 
 of God. AH this comports not only with the suggestions 
 of observation, but also with the language of Scripture. 
 Still, as a general fact, I doubt not it will be found that, 
 among those who enter heaven at last, after having once 
 become actual sinners, the great mass will be of those who 
 have entered the Church by baptism, either in infancy or 
 in " riper years ;" and who have thus come within that cir- 
 cle of His gracious influences, which God has prescribed 
 for our salvation. 
 
 The question, I know, is sometimes asked, " Supposing 
 the case of two children in the same neighborhood, of sim- 
 ilar families, of equal capacities, and surrounded by the 
 same means of religious instruction ; the one, however, bap- 
 tized into the Church, and the other unhaptized : would the 
 former be any more likely, as a matter of fact, to be saved 
 than the latter ; or any more likely to be brought to that 
 repentance, faith, and holiness, which are necessary to 
 salvation ?" This question, however, does not present the 
 true point for consideration. We might, indeed, answer 
 such a question aff,rmatively, and, doing so, find ourselves 
 ultimately sustained by facts. But suppose we were to 
 answer it negatively, and even admit that possibly the bap- 
 tized child might become " a reprobate and a castaway" 
 while the unbaptized was brought to Christ, and made final- 
 ly an ornament of His Church on earth, and an inheritor of 
 glory in heaven ; still, this would not touch the real point 
 in the case. The grand question is, Whence come the means 
 of religious instruction which the two children receive, and 
 receive with such possibly different effect 1 Come they 
 not from God through His Church ? Would they have ever 
 been accessible to the imbaptized, had not God organized 
 His Church, and given it His Word and ordinances, and 
 laid on men the work of dispensing them as His stewards ? 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 229 
 
 What had ever been known of these things but for " the 
 Church of the living God ?" And where had the Church 
 been but for that baptism, through which, as by an open 
 door, God is continually entering us, in order to keep up the 
 intended succession of teachers and hearers of the Truth, 
 and the designed perpetuity of the knowledge and worship 
 of Himself? Say not. He might have done all this without 
 a church and without baptism. He has not chosen to do so, 
 and, therefore, it is to us the same as though to do so had 
 been impossible. Practically, then, the true state of the 
 case is this : There had been no Divine Truth, no Divine 
 influences, no means of grace, no Christian instruction, with- 
 out the Church ; there had been no Church without baptism, 
 as that gate of entrance, by which the Divine succession 
 of means and instruments is perpetuated ; and thus, with 
 truth it may be said, that, without that baptism, in despite 
 of whose solemn obligations the reprobate and castaway 
 child goes on in sin, the healings of the Spirit of life had 
 never reached and saved the unbaptized ; while, at the 
 same time, even his salvation, though begun before outward 
 ordinances, is yet ordinarily to be carried forward and per- 
 fected under the gracious means to which adult baptism in- 
 troduces its subject. 
 
 Here, then, we reach one of the strongest views possible 
 of the importance of baptism in general, and of infant bap- 
 tism in particular. Can we, at too early a period, be 
 brought within that gracious circle, which, if it do not cir- 
 cumscribe, is yet most fully and vitally pervaded by' the in- 
 fluences and mercies of God for the salvation of our souls I 
 Does not God, as a matter of fact, show His regard for the 
 seal of His covenant, as affixed in infant baptism ? Can we 
 tell at how early a period the moral susceptibilities, reason, 
 understanding, and conscience, may possibly develop them- 
 selves? Can we, then, at too early a period, find ourselves, 
 upon this opening of our natures, with the seal of God's 
 U 
 
230 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 covenant upon us, our young minds looking up and seeing 
 the God of that covenant in every shining of His truth, and 
 feeling Him in all the down-pouring rays of His influence, 
 through every possible channel which conducts from Him, 
 the infinite, to us, the finite ? This, however, leads to an- 
 other view of the nature of baptism. 
 
 4. In the fourth place, then, as an institution of Christ, 
 and as a rite in which God first presents Himself in action 
 among His people, baptism is a covenanting and sealing or- 
 dinance. 
 
 Infants, it is true, are not capable of intelligently and vol- 
 untarily entering into covenant with God, or of receiving, un- 
 derstandingly and cordially, the forgiveness of sin ; but 
 they are capable of being taken into covenant with God, and 
 of being admitted into a state which is endowed with the 
 sealed promise of forgiveness, on the annexed terms of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Of this we have sufficient proof in the case of Jewish 
 children under the old dispensation. They were all cir- 
 cumcised " the eighth day," and by that act assumed with- 
 in the relations constituted by God's covenant with His an- 
 cient people. The act was that of God's covenanting with 
 them, and taking them witiiin the relations of His covenant. 
 Among His people as a whole, children were included hy 
 name ; and thus the conditional privileges of the covenant 
 were thrown around the entire nation. " Ye stand this day, 
 all of you, before the Lord your God,''^ " all the men of Israel, 
 your little ones, your wives," &c., " that thou shouldst en- 
 ter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into His oath, 
 "which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day." — Deut., 
 xxix., 10-12. It was a covenant, then, even an oath, which 
 God made with them and their " little ones.^' He asked 
 them not whether they could comprehend, or would fulfill 
 it ; but He took them into it ; He 7nade with them His covenant 
 and His oath ; He sovereignly, yet graciously, bound himself 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 231 
 
 to them, and them to Him, on assigned conditions ; and the 
 benefits of the act followed or failed according as those 
 conditions were, or were not, fulfilled. 
 
 These conditions, under the old dispensation, were includ- 
 ed in this expression : " Thou shall return unto the Lord 
 thy God, and shalt ohey His voice, thou and thy children, 
 with all thine heart, and with all thy soul." — Deut., xxx., 2. 
 They were conditions which necessarily involved yaii/i and 
 repentance ; since without these it had been ipipossible to 
 return to God, and to obey His voice with all the heart and 
 soul. 
 
 Again, the blessings which, on these conditions, God 
 promised to them, were partly temporal and partly spirit- 
 ual. " Then,'^ that is, on the prescribed conditions, " the 
 Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers 
 possessed, and thou shalt possess it ; and He will multiply 
 thee above thy fathers." Thus far the temporal. " And 
 the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart 
 of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart 
 and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." — Deut., xxx., 
 3-6. And thus far the spiritual. On the conditions pre- 
 scribed, He pledged himself with an oath to give them rich 
 temporal favors, but far richer spiritual blessings, even the 
 true circumcision of the heart, with the love of God, and 
 life forevermore. And these He pledged not only to them, 
 but also to their " seed" or posterity after them ; of course, 
 on their becoming capable of loving Him, as well as of being 
 placed under His covenant. On condition of obedience to 
 His voice. He promised to work in them love for himself ; 
 and on condition of a return to Him, He promised to give 
 them life with himself. 
 
 It is worthy of remark here, that even the temjmral fa- 
 vors which God promised on these conditions seem design- 
 ed to lead the thoughts into the spiritual, which were to 
 follow. Why did He promise to bring them, not into some 
 
232 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 heathen land of which they had never heard, and which, 
 therefore, they had never lost, but " into the land which their 
 fathers had once possessed ?" Why but to intimate that the 
 spiritual blessings, love for God and life with God, were 
 man's primitive state, lost by the fall, and to be restored hy 
 grace? And why did He promise, in that land of their 
 forefathers, to " multiply them ahove their fathers V Why, 
 but to intimate that heaven, once regained with love for 
 God and life with God, should constitute an eternal portion, 
 never more to be forfeited, and infinitely richer than even 
 that primitive perfection and bliss on earth, from which the 
 great forefather fell 1 
 
 And again : of the covenant, which thus conditionally 
 promised these blessings, both temporal and spiritual, the 
 rite of circumcision was the ancient seal. Hence St. Paul 
 says of " Abraham, the father of the faithful," " He received 
 the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the 
 faith, which he had, yet being uncircumcised." — Rom., iv., 
 11. Mark the order here indicated. It is not said that 
 Abraham's /ai7/i was prior to God's covenant with him ; but 
 prior to his receiving the seal of the covenant, " the seal of 
 the righteousness of faith ;" the seal of his justification with 
 God. And this is the order as fixed by the transactions 
 themselves. 1. God made a covenant with Abraham, even 
 before the latter had expressed any faith in the former. — 
 Gen., xii., 1-3. 2. Abraham oleyed God by "departing" 
 from Haran, " as the Lord had spoken unto him ;" thus for 
 the first time expressing his faith in God. — Gen., xii., 4. 
 3. Twenty-four years after, God confirmed his covenant 
 unto Abraham and his seed, and annexed to it the seal of 
 circumcision, as " a token of the covenant betwixt them." 
 Then it was, and not till then, that Abraham and his fami- 
 ly received the seal of that covenant under which, for four- 
 and-twenty years, he had been living. — Gen., x\'\\., passim ; 
 particularly 1, 7, 11,23,24. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 233 
 
 From this brief sketch of the covenant under the old 
 dispensation, I come now to its correspondences under the 
 new. 
 
 Under the Gospel, then, the covenant itself remains un- 
 changed. This is proved by what the apostle writes, Gal., 
 iii., 17: " This I say, the covenant, that was confirmed be 
 fore of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and 
 thirty years after, can not disannul, that it should make the 
 promise of none effect." Why was this covenant said to 
 have been confirmed in Christ so long before Christ came 
 in the flesh 1 Why, but to intimate that God's covenant of 
 grace is one ; and that it really had Christ for its surety he- 
 fore as well as after " the fullness of time," the period of His 
 advent ? 
 
 Unchanged remain the conditions also of the covenant. 
 True, they are now more distinctly expressed, as " repent- 
 ance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 — Acts, XX., 21. But they are not different conditions. 
 What is expressed now was iinplied then, in returning to 
 God and obeying His voice ; returning to Him in repentance, 
 and in faith obeying His voice ; as a God who even then 
 held intercourse with them through a surety, whose name, 
 however faintly traced, has now but more clearly shone out, 
 "the Sun of Righteousness," "the Lamb of God," "the 
 Christ" with all anointings ! 
 
 Unchanged, moreover, are the blessings which, on these 
 conditions, the covenant promises. It is true that less is 
 now said of the temporal, and more of the spiritual. The 
 Gospel talks out, and at large, of the forgiveness of sin ; of 
 justification by faith ; of peace with God ; of the grace of 
 the Spirit ; of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge ; 
 of the richness of the glory of His inheritance in the saints ; 
 and of eternal life, as a kingdom, and a crown, and an in- 
 heritance, which shall never fade away. Still, amid all 
 this profuse display of the Divine treasures revealed and in 
 U2 
 
234 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 Store for us, the Gospel does not utterly forget to say, that 
 the " godliness" which is required of us, " hath promise of 
 the life that 7iow is," as well as " of that which is to come." 
 —1 Tim., iv., 8. 
 
 Once more, the seal of the covenant remains unchanged ; 
 so far, at least, as its significancy and effect are concerned. 
 lis form is indeed new ; the bloody rite of circumcision be- 
 ing exchanged for the ?/nbloody washing of baptism* Stilly 
 it signifies the same thing now as of old ; the circumcision 
 of the heart, the renewing of the mind ; and it binds to the 
 same thing : fidelity to God, lifelong constancy in his ser- 
 vice. This change in the mere form of the seal is indi- 
 cated with sufficient clearness in the passage already ex- 
 amined from the Epistle to the Colossians (ii., 11, 12). 
 For, although the phrases there, " circumcised with the 
 circumcision made without hands," and " the circumcision 
 of Christ," or which Christ requires, doubtless refer to the 
 inward work of the Spirit, yet the figurative expression 
 which immediately follows, " buried with him in baptism," 
 shows at least this ; that the spiritual circumcision now has 
 its symbol in the baptismal water, instead of the baptismal 
 blood ; and, therefore, that as the literal circumcision was 
 the seal of the covenant under the old dispensation, so now, 
 with a change oiform, the literal baptism is the seal of the 
 same covenant under the new ; so that, in truth, baptism 
 may now be called " the circumcision of Christ," or the 
 Christian circumcision. 
 
 Finally, then, to complete the chain of correspondences, 
 the subjects of the covenant remain unchanged : they are 
 still the people of God, and their little ones. As a nation, 
 indeed, the Jews have been cut of!" from the root of " the 
 good olive tree," and the Gentiles "grafted in." But then, 
 as individuals, even the Jews have not been cast ofl^, that 
 they should necessarily perish. The only change, in this 
 respect, which has been made, is rather an enlargement of 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 23i5 
 
 the field around which the inclosure of the covenant is 
 thrown. Christ did not cut ofi" the Jew from the hope of 
 final salvation ; but only from exclusive possession and en- 
 joyment of the means of that salvation. When His cross 
 came down, it fell on the old wall of separation between 
 Jew and Gentile, and made a great breach ; through which 
 the Church, and covenant, and promises, and offers of God 
 and His Gospel, passed out from their former narrow con- 
 finement, and went forth with stately goings to compass 
 the whole earth for Christ as His well-purchased inherit- 
 ance. I repeat, then, even the subjects of the covenant re- 
 main still unchanged. They are still the people of God, and 
 their little ones. These latter are surely as capable of being 
 taken into covenant with God now, as they were of old. 
 The act does not consist, it never did consist, in their vol- 
 untarily and intelligently making a covenant with God ; but 
 in His sovereignly yet graciously assuming them within the 
 embrace of His covenant, and pledging to them all His 
 blessings, on the conditions of that covenant. He does not 
 now, any more than of old, ask infants whether they can 
 comprehend, or will comply with. His act ; but He merci- 
 fully takes them within the sacred inclosure, and there 
 does what belongs to Him toward training them, with 
 opening accountability, for himself and for heaven. They 
 are, therefore, still included within the covenant of grace. 
 They are capable of being made subjects of the promise 
 that, upon future repentance and faith, God will forgive 
 them all sin, and bestow on them the blessings of everlast- 
 ing life ! They are capable of being placed, in their earli- 
 est infancy, within the circle of His mercies ; that peculiar 
 circle, where His mercies live most vitally, and fill all 
 means with their best power. Infants, indeed, are not, in 
 the New Testament, as in the Old, specifically mentioned 
 among the subjects of the covenanting rite. Neither are 
 adults thus distinguished from infants. And the silence 
 
236 THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 
 
 has, in both cases, the best of reasons. The subjects of the 
 seal were well known. That seal had always been applied 
 to infanls, as well as to adults. And now, the mere change 
 in the form of the seal, while the significancy and effect of it, 
 with all else about the covenant, remained unchanged, did 
 not render it necessary, one might well say, did not render 
 it proper, either to change, or to specify aiiew, the subjects 
 to whom it was to be applied. At first, when the Gospel 
 began to be preached, the seal would naturally be applied 
 to adults, because these only could at first be the subjects 
 of Christ's teachings. But afterward, when households 
 grew up in the Christian Church, and whole households 
 were baptized together, then, past all doubt, the covenant 
 gathered its subjects as of old ; and fixed its seal on the 
 infant seed of God's people, as well as on those adults who 
 might be gathered in from the world. Confirmatory of the 
 truth of this view, Ecclesiastical History has ever been one 
 long-lived commentary. 
 
 Baptism, then, is a covenanting and sealing ordinance. 
 But what is meant by this covenanting and sealing in bap- 
 tism ? This is a point of deep importance, for here the ad- 
 vocates of the theory of baptismal regeneration begin to de- 
 velop most distinctly the genius of their theory. Baptism, 
 say they, conveys remission of sin. This is a vital error. 
 The difference between conveying and sealing is essential. 
 For though this difference were at first but a point, yet it is 
 a point of divergency, and, therefore, infinite in importance ; 
 inasmuch as the two systems which start from it, accord- 
 ing as they take the one or the other of the divergent lines, 
 become at length separated by a difference which is heav- 
 en-wide ! Sealing is a sign used in conveyancing ; yet, con- 
 veyance and sealing are not one and the same thing. Convey- 
 ance, in the present case, is the gracious act of Him who 
 really imparts, and actually communicates, Divine blessings. 
 Sealing is " a token" " a sign," " a pledge," which He 
 
THE NATURE OP BAPTISM. 237 
 
 vouchsafes, and by which He certifies us of His truth, and 
 fidelity to His promises, and to the conditions on which those 
 promises rest. The blessings are not conveyed ly the seal. 
 They were not under the old dispensation. They are not 
 under the new. They never are conveyed till the condi- 
 tions on which they are promised are met. They are sig- 
 nified ; they are sealed ; they are pledged ; and of their 
 certainty, so far as God is concerned, we are assured, and 
 thus encouraged and invited to diligence and fidelity, on our 
 part, in meeting the conditions on which they are signified, 
 sealed, and pledged. In accordance with this, our Cate- 
 chism, in defining a sacrament, says, it " is an outward and 
 visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ;" and that, as 
 before explained, it is not only " a means," one of a grand 
 system of means, " whereby we receive the same," but also 
 "a pledge to assure us thereof." But, then, to say that the 
 blessings of the covenant are conveyed by the seal of the 
 covenant, is to begin building, on a foundation of error, a 
 structure of superstition, a religion of trembling homage to 
 outward signs, which will, in all probability, leave the soul 
 famished for lack of the inward substance. 
 
 What, then, it will be asked, if the pardon of sin is not 
 conveyed by baptism, are we to understand by these texts ? 
 " Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name 
 of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.'''' — Acts, ii., 38. 
 " Arise and be baptized ; and wash away thy sins, calling on 
 the name of the Lord." — Acts, xxii., 16. Or, what is 
 meant by the Article in the Nicene Creed, as grounded on 
 these texts : " I acknowledge one baptism jTor the remission 
 of sins ?" In reaching the answer to these questions, I re- 
 mark that, in the former of the two texts, Peter does not 
 say to the Jews, " Be baptized for the remission of sins ;" 
 but " be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
 sion of sins ;" neither in the latter does Ananias say to 
 Paul, " Wash away thy sins by baptism ;" but " be baptized, 
 
238 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord ;" 
 or, rather, " having previously called on His name," having 
 called in faith on the name of Jesus Christ. The differ- 
 ence between the two forms of expression is material. " Re- 
 mission of sin" is really the gift of God to them that believe 
 on the name of Jesus Christ ; and this, in all such passages 
 as those just recited, is always implied and to be under- 
 stood. It is " the blood of Jesus Christ" that " cleanses," 
 or " washes away," " all sin." Faith, " calling o« the name 
 of the Lord" Jesus Christ, is the actual aeqi/' '1*0 s'i which 
 the remission of sin is conve^ed^^adiii arplfixn, as we have 
 seen, is but the seal of the covenant, the promise, 'th. oath, 
 that the grant shall be, and actually is made, when* the spe- 
 cified condition is met, and not before. Peter directed the 
 Jews to " be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the re- 
 mission of sins ;" that is, to be baptized " in token,^'' or as 
 " a 'pledge''^ from God, that remission is granted to ihdii faith 
 in Christ, which in baptism is professed or promised. And 
 Paul was exhorted to " be baptized, and to wash away his sins, 
 having first called on the name of the Lord ,•" in other words, 
 he was exhorted to receive the appointed seal of that re- 
 mission which was really conveyed when he believed on 
 the name of Christ. 
 
 In explaining such texts, we should never forget what 
 baptism implies. It implies either a profession by adults, 
 or a promise for infants, of faith in Christ. This is the 
 least that can be meant by baptism's being "m the name of 
 Christ," or " calling on the name''' of Christ. It is a rite 
 which points to the true and only fountain of cleansing, " the 
 blood of Jesus." It seals in our favor the assurance that, 
 in Christ, " we have redemption through His blood ; the 
 forgiveness of sin." — Eph., i., 7. When, therefore, in the 
 Creed, as fouaded on such texts, we " acknowledge one 
 baptism for the remission of sins," the true meaning is, not 
 that baptism actually conveys that remission, but that it seals 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 239= 
 
 to US the covenant, in which God engages to convey it on 
 the conditions annexed. The Article may be thus express- 
 ed : "I acknowledge one baptism as a symbol of purifica- 
 tion from sin, and as a seal of the promise of remission on 
 those terms of the Gospel, which are, ' repentance toward 
 God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 This explanation applies to an expression in the Office for 
 Confirmation, as well as to this Article in the Creed, and the 
 texts oii which it is founded. In behalf of the candidates, 
 we th'^ '^ ' God, as "having vouchsafed to regener- 
 
 ate them , by \. .-i .f' \}re Holy Ghost," and as "having 
 given f^itnto them forgiveness of all their sins." This latter 
 clause, ii, is true, might be explained on another ground, 
 viz., that the candidates, " being now come to years of dis- 
 cretion," and having been instructed in all the " things 
 which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's 
 health," are to be regarded, in the judgment of charity, as 
 having realized in their own experience what was " prom- 
 ised for them in baptism ;" as actually having that " repent- 
 ance toward God, and that faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," to which, under the seal of baptism, remission was 
 annexed ; and, therefore, as actually having now the remis- 
 sion itself, which was then only put under the seal of a prom- 
 ise. And this explanation imbodies a most important truth. 
 Still, the language in the confirmation office couples " the 
 forgiveness of sin" so closely with " regeneration by wa- 
 ter and the Holy Ghost," as to leave a high probability that 
 the Church, in this one of her offices, regards the regenera- 
 tion and the forgiveness as going together. Taking the pas- 
 sage on this ground, then, it is only necessary to remark 
 that, if I have shown from the Bible that the regeneration 
 is symbolical, and not actual, I have, at the same time, and 
 by the same reasons, shown that the remission, as connect- 
 ed with the regeneration, is conditional, and not conveyed. I 
 am willing that this explanation of the term remission, aa. 
 
240 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 connected with baptism, should stand or fall with the argu- 
 ment on that of regeneration, as expressive of the nature of 
 baptism. 
 
 The view which has now been taken of baptism as a cov- 
 enanting and sealing ordinance, can not be too well consid- 
 ered, nor too well understood. For, according as we view 
 baptism either in the one light or in the other, either as act- 
 ually conveying, or only as sealing the conditional ■promise 
 to convey the pardon of sin ; either we verge upon that sys- 
 tem of theology which makes men virtually worship the sac- 
 raments, while yet they live at ease in what are termed 
 " venial sins," because they are taught that they can, at any 
 time, obtain a valid pardon through its priestly dispenser ; 
 or we adopt that " radically and essentially different" sys- 
 tem of doctrine which, while it makes us reverence the or- 
 dinances of God because they are his ordinances, and be- 
 cause they are full of unspeakably precious meaning and 
 value, still works in us an utter loathing of all sin, because 
 it is offensive to God, and grievous io that blessed Savior, 
 through whose bloody stripes we profess to be healed, and 
 by faith in whom we have received " pardon and peace." 
 
 All the views of baptism thus far given, as a badge of our 
 Christian profession, as a symbol of regeneration, as an ini- 
 tiatory ordinance, and as a covenaiiting and sealing act, are 
 expressly and fully sustained by our Article on this subject. 
 Read it attentively : 
 
 " Baptism is not only a sign of profession, or a 77iark of 
 difference whereby christian men are discerned from oth- 
 ers that be not christened, but it is also a sign oj" regenera- 
 tion, or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that 
 receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church ; the 
 promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be 
 the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and 
 sealed ; faith is confirmed, and grace increased, by virtue of 
 prayer to God. The baptism of young children is in any 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM, 241 
 
 wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable to the 
 kistitution of Christ."* 
 
 The body of this Article is spoken of adult baptism, though 
 much of its language will apply to that of infants also. It 
 goes the full length of all the views which I have advoca- 
 ted. Especially does it make baptism, on the great point 
 which has detained us so long, not a conveyance of forgive- 
 ness, but a sign and seal of the promise of forgiveness. 
 And when it says, " Faith is confirmed and grace increased 
 by virtue oi prayer to God," it sweeps away at a stroke the 
 whole fabric of the " opus operatum" which has been so in- 
 geniously and toilfully built up, and so industriously and 
 superstitiously tilled with the alleged miracle-working pow- 
 er of the sanctifying water. " Faith" says the Article, " is 
 confirmed ;" of course, in those who already have a faith 
 which may be confirmed : " and grace increased ;" that is, 
 in those who already have grace which can be increased : 
 but, then, even this confirmation and increase of previously 
 generated graces is not produced by any marvel connected 
 with the symbolizing waters, but simply " by virtue of pray- 
 er to God .'" How evidently was this Article framed as a 
 flat contradiction of that theory of baptismal regeneration to 
 which I have so often adverted ! 
 
 5. But there is one view of baptism which is not given 
 in this Article, but which is yet of some importance. I will 
 therefore add a brief sketch of it to what has already been 
 said. I observe, then, that, as an institution of Christ, bap- 
 tism imbodies the evidence of a moral monument to the iden- 
 tity of the Church, and to the truth of the Christian revela- 
 tion, through all ages; evidence that could not have been 
 counterfeited, and that can not be set aside. 
 
 The principle here involved is indicated in what St. Paul 
 says of the Lord's Supper, as a similar moral monument ; 
 " As often as ye do eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye 
 * Art. xxvii. 
 
 X 
 
!l48 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM, 
 
 do shorv the Lord's death till He come." — 1 Cot., xi., 2&, 
 A similar assertion may be made of baptism : " As often as 
 ye do baptize in the name of Christ, ye do show the Lord's 
 resurrection till He came." 
 
 Here, then, is a grand moral raonament, testifying to a 
 fundamental fact in Christianity^ and to all the glorious 
 truths which that fact carries with it. This monument! 
 must have been set up in the very age when that fact trans- 
 pired, and those truths were revealed ; set up for the al- 
 leged purpose, too, of their commemoration : for it could 
 not have been subsequently and fraudulently erected and 
 established under this character in the reverent memory 
 and universal observance of the Church, any more than we 
 could now, in the year 1844, without contradiction and de- 
 tection, begin to consecrate in a nation's devout memory 
 and universal observance, the falsely-alleged fact, that the 
 22d of February, 173^2, was the birth-day of a man who 
 formerly rescued these United States from the bondage of 
 slavery to the lordly Turk. Baptism, therefore, is such a 
 monument as I have described. It does imbody an evi- 
 dence to the identity of the Church, and to the truth of the 
 Christian revelation, which could not have been counter- 
 feited, and which can not be set aside. More unchangea- 
 bly enduring than the Pyramids on the plains of Egypt, 
 this monument, like the solemn sister at its side, stands to 
 testify to all the generations which have succeeded, or 
 which are to succeed, of the age in which it was set up, of 
 the great Master by whose order it was reared, and of the 
 eternal truths to which it has been dedicated, and with 
 which it has been inscribed ! 
 
 This view of the two grand monuments of Christianity is 
 most fully and ably given in that master-piece of brief but 
 resistless moral demonstration, " Leslie's Short Method 
 with the Deist," with a reference to which, I close this part 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 243 
 
 of the views which have been given of the nature of bap- 
 tism. 
 
 I have shown that this ordinance of Christ is a badge of 
 Christian profession ; a symbol of regeneration ; a rite o{ ini- 
 tiation ; a covenanting and sealing act ; and an evidence to 
 the identity of the Church and the truths of Christianity, un- 
 counterfeit and indestructible, from generation to generation. 
 And in doing this, I have shown that the ordinance, thus 
 viewed, is at least all that our Church makes it in her chief 
 standard of doctrine ; and that, therefore, the Church being 
 our guide, we may reject that theory of baptismal regener- 
 ation which has all along been in view, without leaving this 
 prime Christian ordinance stripped of its solemnity and im- 
 portance — a mere soulless, lifeless form of what Christ in- 
 tended should be instinct with mysterious and awful power. 
 In fact, the view which our Church takes of baptism, while 
 it is simple and Scriptural, is, for that very reason, essen- 
 tial to its true beauty, value, and efficacy. To burden it 
 with the thick covering which the theory of baptismal re- 
 generation throws around it, however reverend and awful 
 the robes in which it was thus designed it should be dress- 
 ed, is but to disfigure Divine beauty, simplicity, and life, with 
 what, in fact, robs them of much, if not all, of the salutary 
 power which they were intended to exert. Disencumbered, 
 and left as Christ left it, and as our Church finds it in the 
 Bible, baptism commends itself to the Christian's warmest 
 regards and most reverential affection, as every way wor- 
 thy of its Divine Institutor, and of the Divine end which, 
 in its institution. He contemplated. 
 
 I must not, however, entirely close this examination of 
 the all-important subject of baptism without one farther ref- 
 erence to the language in which it is spoken of by our 
 Church. 
 
 It will, of course, be asked. Does not our Church call 
 baptism, not only " a sign of regeneration," but also regen- 
 
244 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 eration itself? Does she not, in her office for infant bap- 
 tism, thank God " that it hath pleased Him to regenerate 
 the infant" just baptized "with His Holy Spirit?" And 
 does she not, in evident allusion to this baptismal act, de- 
 clare, in her Office for Confirmation, that God hath " vouch- 
 safed to regenerate" the candidates " by loater and the Holy 
 Ghost ?" And is not all this a proof that she really holds 
 the doctrine of baptismal regeneration in all its breadth and 
 length ? Does it not show that she really ties the birth of 
 the Spirit to the washing of water? 
 
 To this questioning, then, I reply, The language here 
 used by our Church, if taken by itself, or without reference 
 to the Bible, would, without doubt, be difficult of reconcili- 
 ation with the views already advanced. In truth, whatever 
 view we take of this language, such a reconciliation is not 
 altogether easy, if we expect thereby to satisfy the queries 
 of every mind. To explain to the satisfaction of all, what 
 others of more leisure and ability have failed so to explain, 
 I certainly do not expect in the little which my remaining 
 limits will allow me to add. And yet, it may fearlessly be 
 said, our Church can not mean by this language that the 
 Holy Spirit in baptism regenerates the infant in the sense 
 of working in him that great moral change from the old 
 death in sin to the new life of holiness, in which faith and 
 repentance are essential parts. If she meant this, she 
 would stand up a house divided against itself, and sure to 
 fall. She can, therefore, mean no more than that the Holy 
 Spirit effects for the infant in baptism that of which in bap- 
 tism it is capable. What this is, different minds differently 
 decide, even while rejecting the theory of baptismal regen- 
 eration, as it has been stated. 
 
 Perhaps the best thing which, in a few words, I can do, 
 will be to give what the author of one of our standard works 
 on infant baptism says, in explaining what the infant is ca- 
 pable of receiving from the Holy Spirit. 
 
THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 245 
 
 " There are some operations of the Holy Spirit, as work- 
 ing actual faith, repentance, &c., in the heart, of which an 
 infant, indeed, is not capable. But when God does apply 
 the pardon of original guilt, does transfer a person out of the 
 state of nature into the state of grace and of the Christian 
 covenant, does unite him as a member into the mystical 
 body of Christ, and accept him for His child ; these things 
 and these 'promises are spoken of in Scripture as done, seal- 
 ed, and applied to the person by the Spirit. Now of these 
 latter an infant is capable."* 
 
 This view, understood as the author probably intended, 
 accords well with that which I have already given. In sub- 
 stance it amounts to this : " That in infancy we are capable 
 of having the pardon of original guilt applied, at least in this 
 sense, that the promise of its forgiveness through Jesus 
 Christ is then sealed ; of being transferred from that state 
 of nature, in which we are out of covenant, to that state of 
 grace, in which we are in covenant with God ; of being 
 united to that mystical body of Christ which is His Church ; 
 and of being thus, for our future discipline and training, 
 adopted as children of God." Of all this we doubtless are 
 capable in infancy ; all this, too, may with justice be said 
 to be done for us by the Holy Spirit in baptism ; and in this 
 sense, we, who were baptized in infancy, may be said to 
 have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit in that ordinance. 
 Understood in this sense, there can be no objection to the 
 term. The Church has sanctioned its use, and at least one 
 text in the Bible justifies us in considering baptism a sym- 
 bolical regeneration (Tit., iii., 5) ; a regeneration effected 
 by the Holy Spirit in applying to the infant all the benefits 
 of the covenant of grace of which, at that tender age, he 
 is capable. 
 
 But whether or not th^s be, to all minds, a perfectly satis- 
 
 * " A Conference between two Men about Infant Baptism." By Wm. 
 Wall, author of " The History of Infant Baptism." 
 X2 
 
246 THE NATURE OF BAPTISM. 
 
 fying explanation of the language of our Church, as it has 
 been quoted, in one thing we may be well settled : the just- 
 ness and necessity of that great law of interpretation, so vi- 
 tally important to us as Protestant Episcopalians, which I find 
 in the writings of the late venerable Bishop Griswold ; that, 
 in cases of apparent conflict, " the Prayer Book must be ex- 
 plained into an agreement with the Bible, and not the Bible 
 into an agreement with the Prayer Book." If the two ap- 
 pear to differ, much more, if they really do differ, the hu- 
 man must bow to the Divine. It were impious to force the 
 Divine to do obeisance to the human. And that the theory 
 of baptismal regeneration, as I have exhibited it from the 
 writings of its now most popular, if not its actually greatest 
 masters, does, not only apparently, but actually and irrecon^ 
 cdahly, differ from the true sense of Scripture, is a position 
 which has, I humbly conceive, been sufficiently demon- 
 strated. 
 
 That great names and many, in times long past, and in 
 times now current, may be arrayed against the view which 
 has now been taken of baptism, I am well aware. But if I 
 have succeeded in showing that the Word of the living God 
 and the general teaching of our Church are in favor of this 
 view, then I may justly feel well sheltered under names 
 more mighty and more hallowed, if not more numerous, than 
 all that can be brought for a different teaching, whether from 
 the dim days of Mediaeval antiquity, or from these days of 
 strange tendency toward a Mediaeval theology. 
 
 To say that the difference between the two views which 
 have been taken of baptism is important, would be weak 
 speech. It is fundamental ; involving the vital interests of 
 the kingdom of Christ, and auguring, as the one theory or the 
 other shall prevail, either the return of a dun eclipse to the 
 Sun of truth and life ; or the shining on to a still more perfect 
 day of that glorious light of the Gospel which the best fathers 
 of the English and American Protestant Episcopal churches 
 
TH}5 JTArURB OP BAPTISM. 247 
 
 Jsave held forth evsr since the time of the blessed Reforma- 
 tion. It is in the view taken of baptism that the seed was 
 planted which, in the Middle Ages, produced the fruit of 
 that giant error, in later times named Transubslantiation ; tht 
 poison of which, it may well be feared, hath mad« her wh^ 
 tasted it sick unto death. And it will be in onr views of 
 baptism, if we are indeed destined to so sad a retrogressioi:;^ 
 that we shall replant the same seed of error, and reproduc^^ 
 tlie same fruits of death .' 
 
PART III. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTS. 
 
 THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
PART III. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 I Cor., xi., 23-2G ; " 23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I 
 delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was 
 betrayed, took bread : 24. And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and 
 said, ' Take, eat : this is my body, which is broken for you : this do in re- 
 membrance of me.' 25. After the same manner also he took the cup, when 
 he had supped, saying, ' This cup is the new testament in my blood : this 
 do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.' 26. For as often as ye 
 eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he 
 come." 
 
 From our deliberate and prolonged survey of the most 
 ancient of what I have termed the two great Christ- 
 ian monuments, those significant memorials of himself 
 which Christ hath builded within the ample inclosure of 
 His Church, I come now to a view of its younger but 
 more solemn sister, rearing itself evermore from amid 
 the sad shades of Gethsemane and of Calvary, and yet 
 gathering most o( its sublime impressiveness from the 
 light which breaks around its summit, the light of eter- 
 nal life. While baptism is built on the broad /ac^ of our 
 own " death in trespasses and sins," and on the coex- 
 tensively broad truth^ that we need a quickening and a 
 rising to the new life of holiness ; and while, from such 
 a base, it towers upward till lost in the glories of our 
 bodily resurrection from the dead as first-fruits of the 
 great Forerunner's victory over the grave ; the Lord's 
 Supper is built on the mighty /ac^ of the death of Christ 
 as a sacrifice for sin, and on the equally mighty truth,, 
 that in Him alone " we have redemption through His 
 
252 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 ; blood, the forgiveness of sin j" and rising from such a 
 base, it points away till its pinnacle is lost in the pro- 
 found upward depths of that light which it pierceth be- 
 fore the throne of God and the Lamb, the light of the 
 soul's blessed life forevermore. 
 
 Viewed thus as to their significancy, these moral mon- 
 uments of Christianity are vital things. He to whom 
 they point, and whom they commemorate, still liveth in 
 them by the facts which they symbolize, and by the 
 truths which they imbody. Beautiful things are they in 
 their significancy, but blessed things in their vitality. 
 Enough to justify this, I think, we have already seen in 
 the view which has been taken of baptism. Enough to 
 justify it, I think, we shall see in the view which is now 
 to be taken of the LorcTs Supper. Whatever I may be 
 obliged to strip from this sacred ordinance, I trust God 
 will keep me from that rudeness of hand which would 
 either touch its essential life or disfigure its originally 
 Divine beauty. 
 
 In what I have already said on the relation which the 
 ordinance of preaching, and the sacraments in general, 
 bear to the renewing and sanctifying work of the Holy 
 Spirit, and even in what I have so largely added on the 
 subject of baptism, so much has necessarily been spoken 
 of the Lord's Supper itself, the principles which, like a 
 foundation, underlay the whole structure of sacramenta- 
 ry theology, have been so fully canvassed, and so much 
 light is consequently thrown forward upon the subject 
 of my present inquiry, that it will not be necessary to 
 enter, at so great length as would otherwise have been 
 required, upon the question touching the nature of this 
 sacrament. In what I have to say I shall first exhibit 
 what I consider the great seminal error, as it manifests 
 itself in that view of the Lord's Supper which is now 
 gaining currency among us ; second, examine those 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 253 
 
 passages of Scripture on which this view is rested ; 
 third, place this view in the light of reason and of expe- 
 rience ; and, fourth, educe from the Bible, and from the 
 language of our Church, the true idea of the nature of 
 this great Christian ordinance. 
 
 I. First, then, in order to exhibit the great seminal 
 error to which I refer, I quote the following language 
 from works now become but too well known. 
 
 It is said that there is " a real presence of Christ's 
 body and blood in the sacrament ;"* that " the body 
 and blood of Christ are sacramentally united to the 
 bread and wine, so that Christ is truly given to the 
 faithful ;" " His flesh together with the bread, and His 
 blood together with the wine :"t that the "Aan&" of 
 the officiating minister '■'■convey the sacrifice," "our 
 Savior''s sacrifice," that on which the Lord's Supper is 
 a " holy feast ;":{: that " every faithful communicant may 
 be as certainly assured that he receives the Lord's body 
 as if he knew that the bread is substantially turned into 
 it;"§ that "the nature of this mystery is such, that 
 when we receive the bread and wine, we also, together 
 with them, receive at the same time the body and blood of 
 Christ, which, in the celebration of the holy Eucharist, 
 are as truly given as they are represented y"|| in short, 
 " that there is a true, real, spiritual presence of Christ 
 at the Holy Supper ; more real than if we could, with 
 Thomas, feel Him with our hands or thrust our hands 
 into His side ;" and that though " this is bestowed upon 
 faith and received bij faith," yet faith does but " open 
 our eyes to see what is really there," and "that it is 
 there independently of our faith."ir The presence is in- 
 
 * Tracts for the Times, N. Y., vol. i., p. 192. 
 t Ibid., vol. i.. p. 199. t Ibid., vol. i., p. 23. 
 
 ^ Ibid., vol. i., p. 205. II Ibid., vol. i., p. 214 
 
 ^ Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, N. Y. ed., p. 86. 
 
 Y2 
 
254 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 deed spiritual, not visible ; and our eating is spiritual^ 
 not carnal : still, that presence is not the mere omnipres- 
 ence of infinite Spirit, realized by faith, but the real 
 presence of Christ's very body and blood, '■''independent of 
 faith ;" and our eating is not mere faith in the sacrifice 
 of Christ, as offered on the cross, and as represented in 
 the Eucharist, but a real reception of the true body and 
 blood of Christ, as united with the bread and wine, and 
 as actually conveyed by the hands of the officiator. 
 
 To leave no doubt that the doctrine which I am en- 
 gaged in exhibiting is all that has now been stated, I 
 add a few quotations from one of the latest works on 
 the subject. 
 
 In that work it is laid down, " that the Eternal Word 
 so took our flesh into Himself as to impart to it His 
 own inherent life ; so, then, we partaking of it" (the flesh 
 which Christ assumed), " that life is transmitted on to 
 us also, and not to our souls only, but to our bodies also, 
 since we become flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, 
 and He, who is wholly life, is imparted to us wholly.''''* 
 Again: "For now, according both to the declaration of 
 our Lord and our faith, it is truly flesh and truly blood. 
 And these, received into us, cause that we are in Christ 
 and Christ in us."f To the same effect, "Having re- 
 ceived into ourselves, bodily and spiritually. Him who 
 is by nature and truly the Son," "we, becoming par- 
 takers of the nature which is above all, are glorified. "J 
 Again, speaking of the effect of the sacrament on " the 
 sinner,^'' as the author had been speaking of its effect on 
 the saint, he says, " To him its special joy is, that it is 
 his Redeemer's very broken body ; it is His blood which 
 was shed for the remission of his sins. In the words of 
 the ancient Church, he ' drinks his ransom ;' he eateth 
 
 * Pusey's Sermon on the Eucharist, N. Y., 1843, p. 7. 
 t Idem, p. 8. t Idem, p. 9. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 255 
 
 that, * the very body and blood of the Lord, the only sacri- V^ 
 jice for sin ;' God ' poureth out' for him yet ' the most 
 precious blood of His only Begotten ;' they ' are fed 
 from the cross of the Lord, because they eat His body 
 and blood.' 'He,' says St. Ambrose, 'is the bread of 
 life. Whoso, then, eateth life, can not die. How should 
 he die whose food is life % How perish, who hath a / 
 living substance 1' "* 
 
 To add more on this point is really unnecessary ; and 
 yet a few more sentences I will add, as showing how 
 this seminal error is beginning to grow. The author, 
 alluding to that priestly act of Christ by which the nat- 
 ural bread and wine become changed into His body and 
 blood, speaks of His " words as the form which conse- 
 crates the sacramental elements into His body and 
 blood. "f Consequently, those who are now priests un- 
 der Christ, when they repeat that form, although they do 
 not transubstantiate the elements into the body and blood 
 of Christ, yet come so near that alleged miracle that 
 they consecrate the elements into that body and blood. 
 And thus it happens, according to this doctrine, "that 
 His flesh and blood in the sacrament shall give life, not 
 only because they are the flesh and blood of the Incar- 
 nate Word, who is life, but also because they are the 
 very flesh and blood which were given and shed for the 
 life of the world. "J Yea ; " For that, so are we members 
 of Him, not by love only, but in very deed ; mingled 
 with that flesh, mingled with Him, that we might become 
 in a manner one substance with Him, the one body and 
 one flesh of Christ ; and He, the Eternal Son and God 
 the Word in us, commingled and co-united with us, with 
 our bodies as with our souls, preserving both for incor- 
 ruption ;" " descending to our nature, subject to cor- 
 
 * Pusey's Sermon on the Eucharist, N. Y., 1843, p. 9. 
 t Idem, p. 10. t Idem, p. 10. 
 
256 THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 
 
 « ruption and to change, and raising it to Its own excels 
 lences, and, by commingling it vnth Itself, all but remov- 
 ing it from the conditions of created nature."* 
 
 Now all this is certainly plain language, though it as- 
 serts a doctrine which is not plain. So far as such a 
 subject can be stripped of ambiguity in expressionj it 
 is so here. However incomprehensible the thing in- 
 tended, the thing itself is not left for doubtful conject- 
 ure. The real presence of the body and blood of Christ 
 in the elements, as distinguished from what would be 
 understood by the presence of Christ at the sacrament, is 
 unequivocally affirmed ; even the presence of that very 
 jiesh and blood which were given and shed for the life of 
 the world. The change of the natural elements of 
 bread and wine into more than symbols, into actual vehi- 
 cles, of that very flesh and blood, is distinctly taught. 
 The conveyance of that very flesh and blood by the hands 
 of the officiator, and the reception of them by the com- 
 municant, together with their symbols, are expressly as- 
 serted. And the miraculous result of the Christian's 
 being made literally a partaker in the nature, the sub- 
 stance of Christ incarnate, so that there is a mutual 
 commingling and co-uniting of His Divine nature with 
 the Christian and of the Christian with His Divine na- 
 ture, is undisguisedly developed. In all this it is con- 
 sidered as essential to a true and perfect sacrament, 
 that the very body and blood of Christ, which are the 
 things signified, should be present with the bread and 
 wine, which are the conveying signs of that body and 
 
 * Pusey's Sermon on the Eucharist, N. Y., 1843, p. 9. Many of the 
 foregoing quotations from Dr. Pusey's Sermon are in fact his quotations 
 from the post-Nicene fathers, but he adopts them as expressive of his own 
 views ; and that, too, without abating any thing from their literal force, in 
 consideration of the fact that, with those fathers, they may have been 
 sometimes but strong figures, intended, with however ill a judgment, to gar- 
 nish and commend a true and salutary meaning. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 257 
 
 blood ; and that they should be conveyed by the hands 
 of the officiator, and received into the body as well as 
 soul of the communicant, at the same time, and together 
 with those signs. If the language which I have quoted 
 do not express the whole of the foregoing complex and 
 amazing idea, then words for its expression can not be 
 framed. How all this is possible^ the authors quoted do 
 not attempt to inquire ; but leave it as that deep, pro- 
 found, and awful mystery which invests and is involved 
 in this sacrament, and which gives it its claim to our 
 deep, profound, and awful reverence. 
 
 II. I pass now, in the second place, to an examina- 
 tion of those passages of Scripture on which the fore- 
 going doctrine of this sacrament is rested. In doing 
 so, I approach a topic which demands our most serious 
 attention. The seed of the great error which is here 
 so largely developed is, as we have seen, planted in the 
 false view taken of baptism. But it has already grown 
 so much, and gained such vigor, as to call for solemn 
 heedgiving " to the law and to the testimony." We 
 must know, as we value our soul's eternal weal, wheth- 
 er, in very deed, the Word of God actually teaches the 
 doctrine which we thus see and hear inculcated. 
 
 1. I go at once to the key-text from which this doc- 
 trine is drawn. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except 
 ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, 
 ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my blood hath eternal life j and I will raise 
 him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, 
 and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh 
 and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." — 
 John, vi., 53-56. 
 
 I say this is the key-text on this subject, not because 
 it is that which should govern the doctrine of the Eu- 
 charist, but because it is confessedly that which Acw 
 Y2 
 
258 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 given shape to the doctrine as just exhibited. The true 
 summary of the nature of this sacrament is found in the 
 instituting words of Christ, and these words are found 
 in the passage which I have placed at the head of this 
 discourse, and its parallels in the Gospels. For this 
 reason, and in obedience to the canon of interpretation 
 which I have adopted, I shall reserve this true summa- 
 ry for examination when I shall have collected all the 
 light possible from other portions of Scripture ; I might 
 more correctly say, when these other portions shall 
 have dissipated by their own light all the darkness 
 which has been spread over them. 
 
 I repeat, then, the key-text to the doctrine of the Eu- 
 charist, as I have exhibited it, is the passage just cited 
 from the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John. 
 Adopting here (as in the case of John, iii., 5, on bap- 
 tism) the false canon of interpretation formerly exposed, 
 the advocates of this doctrine every where assume that 
 these words of Christ were spoken of the sacrament of 
 His Supper ; and not only so, but also spoken literally, 
 and to be literally understood. And then, with their key 
 thus fashioned, they go to the instituting words of Christ 
 themselves, and insist on it that they must be understood 
 as teaching the same doctrine. 
 
 The very first inquiry to be made, then, is. Were the 
 words quoted from the sixth of John spoken o( sacrament- 
 al eating and drinking 1 Was Christ there, in fact, dis- 
 coursing of the nature of the Lord's Supper'? It may 
 seem bold to ask such a question, after its affirmative 
 has been so confidently assumed and reiterated, and 
 used as a point which all the world must concede, and 
 about which there could be no question. And yet one 
 is constrained to ask the question, because this assump- 
 tion is clearly groundless. It takes for granted what 
 can not be granted — what, I trust, it will be shown. 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORD S SUPPER. 259 
 
 ought not to be granted. We who live after the institu- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper have no riglit to assume that 
 the words which have been quoted, as they stand by 
 themselves, however much they may sound like the lan- 
 guage in which we have been accustomed to hear this 
 sacrament stated, were actually spoken of it, and are 
 intended to express its nature and effect. Every prin- 
 ciple of sound interpretation obliges us to go back to 
 the occasion on which they were uttered, and to the chap- 
 ter in which they are found ; and to gather thence their 
 true^ their intended im^oxX. Back to that occasion, then, 
 and to that chapter, I go ; and I trust it is with the spir- 
 it of teachableness to learn what the great Master would 
 have all his disciples know. 
 
 The first thing discovered, on thus going back, is the 
 simple, but important fact, that the discourse of Christ 
 in John, vi., was delivered more than a year before the 
 institution of His Supper, and some time before he had 
 even begun to hint to his disciples the great truth, that 
 He was to suffer on the cross, a sacrifice for sin. In 
 His school they had not yet advanced so far as this cen- 
 tre-truth of His Gospel. They were yet wholly igno- 
 rant of the manner in which He was to effect the work 
 of their redemption. They, therefore, could not have 
 understood Him, in what He said, to speak of sacrament- 
 al eating and drinking. In his discourse, as we shall soon 
 see, He was, it is true, teaching them that fundamental 
 principle of evangelic truth, the necessity of faith in 
 Him as their Savior ; but of the peculiar aspect under 
 which He was finally to present Himself to their faith 
 in the Holy Supper, as a Savior crucified, he said nothing. 
 There was not in his words even a dim shadowing of that 
 aspect to their minds. His speech was perfectly general, 
 even more so than that of his forerunner, the Baptist, 
 when he pointed out Christ to the people, in those mem- 
 
260 THE NATURfi OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 orable words, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sin of the world!" — John, i., 29. The Lamb 
 of God, they might easily understand, meant a sacrifice 
 for sin , and beholding Him truly was to look upon Him 
 with the eye of faith. If, then, Christ's words, in the 
 passage before us, may be assumed as spoken of the 
 sacrament of the Supper, with equal, and even with 
 greater justice, may those of His chosen preparatory 
 preacher be assumed as spoken of the same ordinance ; 
 for they both teach the same thing; moreover, in the 
 language of John there is a distinct foreshadowing of 
 sacrifice, while in that of Christ, not even the shadow 
 of the cross is seen. The truth is, neither was spoken 
 of that ordinance, but only of Him who came to be our 
 Divine Savior, and of whose sacrifice that ordinance has 
 since become a Divine symbol. 
 
 But, in order to be fully satisfied that these words of 
 Christ do not refer to sacramental eating and drinking, 
 we must go more at large into the occasion on which, 
 and into the discourse in which, they were uttered. In 
 doing this, we shall see, not only that they are a strong 
 figure^ but also that the figurative dress in which Christ 
 chose to clothe His thoughts was suggested by some- 
 thing very different from the then future institution of 
 His Supper. Our Savior, we know, was wont to seize 
 on passings or on well-known and familiar incidents and 
 objects, that by them He might the more impressively 
 illustrate, and that from them He might the more easily 
 lead the thoughts of His hearers to contemplate and ap- 
 prehend, the glorious truths which He taught. Hence 
 the peculiarly interesting dress in which so many of his 
 discourses and parables appear. Hence, especially, that 
 most striking dress in which this discourse in the sixth 
 of John appears. 
 
 To give a few instances in which the above remark 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 261 
 
 is illustrated. When Jesus had cursed the barren fig- 
 tree, and when the disciples marA'eled that it so soon 
 withered away, he seized on their remark, and on the 
 excited attention which it evinced, to direct their 
 thoughts to the necessity and power o{ faith, and to the 
 still more marvelous things which, through faith, they 
 should be enabled to accomplish. — Matt., xxi., 18-22. 
 So, when He wished to correct the false inference of 
 the Jews, that the greatest sufferers in this life were the 
 greatest sinners, and to impress on their minds the truth 
 that repentance is equally necessary for all, he seized on 
 the incident which they related to Him, of Pilate's mas- 
 sacre of some Galileans, while engaged in their sacri- 
 fices J and on the well-known incident of the fatal fall 
 of the Tower in Siloam on eighteen of the citizens of 
 Jerusalem, assuring them that their reasonings from 
 such events were false, and that, unless they repented, 
 they would even more seriously perish. — Luke, xiii., 
 1-5. In Matthew, xvi., 5-12, having just fed more than 
 four thousand with seven loaves and a few fishes, he 
 improves both that miracle and the one recorded in 
 John, vi., for the purpose of putting his disciples on 
 their guard against X)xe false leaven of Pharisaic doctrine. 
 In Matthew, xv., 1-20, the Scribes and Pharisees come 
 and complain of his disciples for breaking the traditions 
 by eating with unwashen hands. He at once takes up 
 the fact, and goes on, in a severe discourse, to show 
 them the difference between mere outward unclean- 
 ness and that inward defilement of which they were 
 themselves the subjects. In Luke, xiv., 1-24, when a 
 chief Pharisee invited him to dine, and "He marked 
 how some chose out the chief rooms," or seats, at the 
 feast, He seized on the incident, and out of it wove the 
 dress of two parables, full of important instruction. But 
 the instance most strongly and exactly in point is that 
 
262 THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 
 
 which is recorded in John, iv., 5-25, and which occurred 
 at Jacobus Well, near Samaria, when the woman came out 
 to draw water. Here the starting of the discourse from 
 the incident before Him, the figurative dress which His 
 discourse drew from that incident, the ?iature of the great 
 truth which He taught, and the manner in which He led 
 the conversation from one change to another, till He 
 had brought His hearer to the full knowledge of Him- 
 self as the true Messiah, and of those waters of eternal 
 life which He giveth, and of which he that drinketh shall 
 be forever satisfied — are all in full keeping and harmo- 
 ny with the origin, progress, and character of the dis- 
 course in the sixth of John, which I am now to ex- 
 amine. 
 
 This chapter opens with an account of His miracu 
 lous feeding of the five thousand with five barley loaves 
 and two small fishes. The sight of this miracle prompt- 
 ed the multitude, who were its witnesses, to a forcible 
 attempt " to make him a king." But he withdrew from 
 the attempt, first, " into a mountain himself alone," and, 
 afterward (when his disciples had launched upon " the 
 sea toward Capernaum"), into that sublime triumph 
 over the elements, in which, as it were, he trode the 
 roaring waves into that lowly acknowledgment of His 
 Godhead, their unopposing silence! The next day, 
 however, the eluded multitude followed, " seeking for 
 Jesus." " And when they had found him," and had ques 
 tioned him as to the manner of his passage thither, then 
 it was that He gave them the memorable reply which 
 opens at once the ensuing discourse, and puts into our 
 hands the clew that is to guide us through its succeed- 
 ing changes : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek 
 me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye 
 did eat of the loaves and were filledy This is the very 
 generating point of the whole figure in which he pro- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 263 
 
 ceeds to clothe his speech. " Labor not," he imme- 
 diately adds, "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, 
 but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, 
 which the Son of Man shall give you ; for him hath 
 God the Father sealed." His very first words were a 
 figure drawn fram His own allusion to their feeding on 
 the five barley loaves and two small fishes ; and His 
 very next furnish the meaning of the figure, and give us, 
 not only a clew through the changes of His discourse, 
 but also a key to unlock its deepest teachings. " What 
 shall we do," they again inquire, " that we might work 
 the works of God V Mark His answer : " This is the 
 work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath 
 sent." Himself, as the Sent of God, to achieve the 
 great work, and to unfold the grand truths of man's re- 
 demption ; this was the meat for which they were to la- 
 bor : faith in Him as " the way, the truth, and the life ;" 
 this was their sole receiving of the meat so furnished ; 
 and l\\e figure, in which He called it meat, was suggest- 
 ed by what had passed so recently before their eyes. 
 
 With this clew and key, both to the changes and to 
 the teachings of this discourse, let us now advance, fol- 
 lowing our Divine Teacher to its close. Having pro- 
 posed to the multitude the true meat, and called on them 
 to receive it hy faith in Him as the Sent of God, they 
 asked Him, " What sign showest thou, then, that we 
 may see and believe thee \ What dost thou work 1 Our 
 fathers did eat manna in the desert ; as it is written, 
 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" To this 
 unreasonable demand of a sign such as might chal- 
 lenge their faith, when Christ was daily giving signs 
 which awed dumb nature herself into most profound 
 changes in obedience to His will ; and to their dispara- 
 ging comparison of Him with Moses, as though the lat- 
 ter alone had challenged faith by his miracles, Christ 
 
264 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 replied, " Moses gave you not that bread from heaven" 
 of which I have spoken, " but my Father giveth you the 
 true bread from heaven. For the Bread of God is He 
 which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto 
 the world." Here we have the first change in the dis- 
 course ; and we see clearly its object, and how natural- 
 ly it followed, both from the opening allusion to the 
 feeding of the five thousand, and from the allusion here 
 made to the manna. They were willing to make a 
 temporal king of one who could so easily feed and sup- 
 port conquering armies ; but to His character as their 
 spiritual Messiah, their Savior from sin, they were 
 blind. They wanted nothing of such a deliverer, and 
 were indisposed to listen to His deep and saving teach- 
 ings. He, however, understood their temper, and pro- 
 ceeded to manage it with His usual consummate skill. 
 He gently checked their disposition to wander from 
 the point which He had in view, and drew them back 
 to Himself, and to those deep truths concerning Him- 
 self as the true Savior which He wished to inculcate. 
 At first, He had proposed to give them — not " the meat 
 that 'perisheth^'' like the barley loaves and fishes — but 
 " the meat that endureth unto everlasting lifeP And when 
 they turn disparagingly from Him to their own Moses, 
 and talk of his having " given bread from heaven^'' to 
 their forefathers. He seizes on the hint, and gives a 
 change, not to the real drift, but to the figurative dress 
 of His discourse, calculated and intended to draw them 
 still nearer to Himself, and to the glorious truth which 
 He was seeking to bring into their minds. "Moses, in- 
 deed, gave you manna from heaven, yet not the trve 
 bread which you need. This my Father giveth you for 
 the salvation of your souls. The Bread of God is He 
 which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto 
 the world." Still, He utters not the whole of the truth 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 265 
 
 which filled his thoughts. He tells them, indeed, of 
 One that cometh down from heaven to save the world ; 
 but He tells them not yet whom He means by that won- 
 drous One ; His object being first to stimulate, and then 
 to satisfy inquiry. 
 
 His design prospered. " Lord," said they, " ever- 
 more give us this bread." Their curiosity was excited. 
 They knew that the miraculous supply which they had 
 recently received could nourish them but for the day. 
 They would, therefore, fain know something of a bread 
 that could give life. Here, then, comes ^Ae second change 
 in Christ's discourse, and with it the full truth which 
 He would teach, followed by a still fuller explanation of 
 its meaning. He saw that they had yet false concep- 
 tions of the bread which He offered, and of the life 
 which it was to give. To their eager petition, there- 
 fore, "Lord, evermore give us this bread," He at once, 
 and without disguise, replied, "/am the Bread of Life. 
 He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that 
 believeth on me shall never thirst." The figurative dress 
 of the discourse is here changed from the summary ex- 
 pression, "Bread of God that givetk life" to the more 
 condensed summary, " Bread of Life ;" and the dress, 
 thus changed, Christ wrappeth still more closely and ex- 
 clusively around Himself ; that, if possible, there may 
 be no farther mistake of His meaning. "/," says He, 
 " am the Bread of Life." And yet His meaning itself is 
 not changed. He is still but presenting Himself under 
 this figure as the only Savior of lost men, the only De- 
 liverer from the curse of sin. Hence it is that, with 
 the same meaning, though in a somewhat altered dress, he 
 gives the same explanation, though in a somewhat /w/^er 
 form, of that necessary act by which sinners are to re- 
 ceive and realize Him as their Savior. He says not merely, 
 as before, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on 
 
 Z 
 
266^ THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER.. 
 
 Him whom He hath sent ;" but, more largely, and witfe 
 a stricter reference to Himself, " He that cometh to me 
 shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shalB 
 never thirst." In other words, the great truth wrapped 
 up in this figurative discourse, as thus far taught and 
 explained, amounts simply to this: '^' I am the bread of 
 life ; the true and only Savior from sin j the true and 
 only author and giver of eternal life ; come unto me and 
 believe on me, and you shall, in this very act of coming- 
 and believing, receive this bread to your salvation ; 
 you shall hunger no more and thirst no more, but be 
 forever satisfied with the fullness of everlasting bliss." 
 See, now, how all this grows into distinctness in what 
 immediately follows of the discourse. "But! said unto 
 you, that ye also have seen me and believe not.'''' I know- 
 well the blindness of the Jewish mind, which shuts the 
 true Savior from its vision, and, therefore, earnest as 
 1 am to teach you the truth, I know ye will not all re- 
 ceive it. Nevertheless, " All that the Father giveth me 
 shall come to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in no 
 wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do 
 mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And 
 this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that, of all 
 which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but 
 should raise it up again at the last day. This also is 
 the will of Him that sent me, that every one which 
 seeth the Son, and believelh on him, may have everlasting 
 life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." Here, I 
 say, the great meaning and its explanation are seen 
 growing into distinctness and fullness. Here is Jesus, 
 the true and only Savior, knowing who are his own, and 
 promising never to cast them out. Here, too, is faith, 
 " coming to''"' Jesus in the inner movement of the soul j 
 faith, " seeing the Son," with a spiritual discernment of 
 his true character j faith, in short, receiving him as that 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 267 
 
 great act by which the benefits of his salvation are realized 
 and secured. And here, finally, is the life in which the 
 glorious work of redemption ends — not the life which is 
 supposed to spring from a miraculous commingling and co- 
 uniting of Christ's incarnate body and blood with the very 
 substance of the body and soul of the Christian ; but that 
 life which, actually having its root in faith, bides on through 
 the grave, and, on the morning of the resurrection, springs 
 up into a plant of immortality, reanimates the glorious body 
 which the power of Christ has gathered from its sleeping 
 dust, and, thus perfect, flourishes and is blessed forever 
 with Him, who has proved both its " Author and its Fin- 
 isher." 
 
 But let us pass on through the discourse. " The Jews 
 murmured at Jesus, because he said, ' I am the bread which 
 came doion from heaven.'' Is not this Jesus, the son of Jo- 
 seph, whose father and mother we know ? How is it, then, 
 that He saith, / came down from heai'cn V To this cavil 
 the patient Teacher replied, " Murmur not among yourselves. 
 No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath 
 sent me, draw him ; and him will I raise up at the last day. 
 It is written in the prophets, ' A7id they shall be all taught 
 of God. ^ Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath 
 learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man 
 hath seen the Father, save he which is of God ; he hath 
 seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that 
 believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of 
 life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and 
 are dead. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, 
 that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living 
 bread, which came down from heaven ; if any man eat of 
 this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will 
 give is my fiesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 
 
 Here we have the third change in the figurative dress, 
 which Christ chose for his thought in this discourse. After 
 
268 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 repeating, with a slight variation, the previous form of the 
 figure by calling Himself not only " the bread of life," but 
 also " the living bread," He adds, that this " bread, which He 
 will give for the life of the world, is His flesh." Neverthe- 
 less, this is but another new form of the figure. When, after 
 first pointing somewhat obscurely to Himself as " the meat, 
 which endureth unto everlasting life" (drawing His figure 
 from the miracle of feeding the multitude), he changed His 
 speech by distinctly calling Himself " the bread of life," 
 " the bread of God which giveth life ;" it was but a change 
 of the figure from one form to another ; a change very natu- 
 rally suggested by the reference which had been made to 
 the manna. So also here : when, after calling Himself 
 again " the bread of life," " the living bread," He again 
 changes his speech, and says that this bread " is His flesh," 
 it is but another change in the form of the figure. It is 
 not a change from the figurative style of speech to the liter- 
 al. It is rather a recurrence from the incidentally sug- 
 gested figure of " the bread," to that first adopted when he 
 bade the multitude " labor for the meat which endureth 
 unto everlasting life." And the object of the change evi- 
 dently was, as before, to wrap the figurative dress of His 
 discourse still more closely and exclusively around Himself, 
 that the murmuring cavilers might have no excuse for 
 again attempting to evade the point of His teachings by fly- 
 ing oflf either to Moses and the manna, or to Joseph and 
 the reputed human origin of Jesus. 
 
 But though the figurative dress of His discourse was again 
 changed, yet the great truth which it covered remained still 
 unchanged. He was still but presenting Himself, though 
 more and more prominently, as the only Savior, who had 
 come down from heaven to open the way, and to bring the 
 offer of salvation to a lost world ; while, on the manner in 
 which we are to become partakers of this salvation, the por- 
 tion of his discourse now before us pours a flood of new 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 269 
 
 and brilliant light. He had before explained that to receive 
 ifie meat which the Son of Man would give, or to eat the 
 bread which in Him came down from heaven, consists in 
 " heiieving" on Him, in " coming''' to Him hy faith, or in " see- 
 ing" Him with this spiritual eye. He now separates this 
 act of receiving Christ still more effectually from that idea 
 of a mysterious commingling of natures, to which I have 
 adverted. Seeing the multitude disposed to cavil at his 
 words, and to reject his claims, He addressed to them 
 the important language which I have quoted, " No man can 
 come to me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw 
 him." " It is written in the prophets, ' They shall be all 
 taught of God.'' Every man, therefore, that hath heard and 
 hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." The Father 
 " draws" to the Son by the instrumentality of " teaching,'" 
 and they who spiritually " hear" this teaching, and thus 
 effectually " learn" what is taught, " come" unto Christ, " be- 
 lieve" on Him, receive the imperishable " meat which the 
 Son of Man giveth," eat " the bread which cometh down 
 from heaven," yea, eat the ^^ flesh which he giveth for the 
 life of the world." All these are but varying expressions 
 of one unvarying idea, that of receiving Christ as a Savior, 
 or of becoming partakers of the salvation which He brings ; 
 and the faith, by which we thus receive Him, or become 
 partakers of his salvation, is generated amid the intelligible 
 teachings of God, and in the process of intelligently " hear- 
 ing," and, in a docile and obedient spirit, " learning" the 
 truths which we are taught concerning Him. 
 
 Thus far, then, the character and meaning of this great dis- 
 course of Christ are plain. Both his position and his design 
 are evidently seen. He was contending with a Divine wis- 
 dom and skill, which nothing could resist but that against 
 which he was contending — the carnal blindness and the ob- 
 stinate prejudice of his Jewish hearers ; and his whole ob- 
 ject in the contest was, to make them comprehend these 
 
 Y2 
 
270 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 essential and vital truths : that He was their true Messiah 
 and only Savior; and that faith in Him was the only way 
 in which they could become partakers of his salvation. The 
 former of these truths (according as he was wont, so long 
 before the closing act in his Divine drama justified him in 
 removing all covering from his speech), the former of these 
 truths he expressed in figures. The latter he taught most- 
 ly in plain language. Hence it is that, throughout the dis- 
 course up to this point, the figurative and the literal alter- 
 nate, and that in most palpably distinguishable forms. When 
 speaking of Himself as the partially manifested, yet still not 
 fully revealed, God in Christ, the long-expected Messiah of 
 the nations. He calls himself, in various figures, " the meat 
 which endureth to everlasting life ;" " the true Bread from 
 Heaven ;" " the Bread of God, which giveth life to the 
 world ;" " the Bread of Life ;" " the Living Bread ;" " the 
 Flesh, which he giveth for the life of the world." But, 
 when speaking of the process and act, in which we receive 
 Him as a Savior, or become partakers of His salvation. He 
 describes it in plain language ; or, if some of it were ori- 
 ginally j?gMraiM'e, still, it has become so common as to be 
 considered virtually literal. He describes that process as 
 being " drawn" by being " taught ;" and as a " learning" 
 which follows " hearing ;" and he describes this act as faith, 
 as " believing on Him ;" as " coming to Him ;" and as " see- 
 ing" Him. At the point in his discourse which we have 
 now reached, he changes his speech, it is true, even in de- 
 scribing this act ; and, instead of calling it any longer, be- 
 lieving on Him, or coming to Him, He throws this also into 
 a figure, and calls it " eating the bread which cometh down 
 from heaven." Thus, he prepares the way for carrying this 
 figure still farther, and expressing the idea of believing on 
 Him, or oi coming to Him, under the altered dress of, not only 
 " eating the bread which cometh down from heaven," but 
 also " eating the fiesh and drinking the blood of the Son of 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 271 
 
 Man." And yet, even Hiis change does but show, still more 
 unquestionably, the really figurative character of the whole 
 main body of the discourse ; since, to " eat the hread whick 
 Cometh down from heaven," and to " eat thefiesh of the Son 
 of Man," are undeniably the same act, both e<\\xa\\y figurative, 
 both finding their literal sense in faith. 
 
 Having thus, by the clew put into our hands, threaded our 
 way through the changes of this discourse, and also, by the 
 key furnished us, unlocked its meaning, we are now ready 
 to enter on that part of it which I have called the key-text 
 to that peculiar doctrine of the Eucharist which has been 
 stated. 
 
 At what Christ had just said about giving his fiesh for the 
 life of the world, " the Jews," with utter perverseness, un- 
 derstanding him literally, or rather 7?i«.sunderstanding his 
 words, fell to " strife among themselves, saying. How can 
 this man give us his fiesh to eat V To this evidence of 
 their determination not to take his meaning, or of their sin- 
 ful blindness to that meaning, Jesus, not choosing to throw 
 ofT its figurative dress, replied, in continuance of His dis- 
 course, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the 
 flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no 
 life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood 
 hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 
 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 
 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in 
 me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and 
 i live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live 
 by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven ; 
 not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead ; he that 
 eateth of this bread shall live forever." 
 
 After the remarks which I have already offered, tracing 
 the discourse onward from its starting-point in the eating of 
 ihe barley loaves and the fishes, the meaning of all this, I 
 conceive, is no longer doubtful. It is a most strikingly fig- 
 
272 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 urative close of a discourse highly figurative throughout ; 
 conveying, indeed, the most weighty of all meanings, and yet 
 conveying it under the dress of an unquestionable figure. 
 Reading it by the light already gathered round it, it may be 
 thus paraphrased, or put into its appropriate literal dress : 
 
 (vs. 52, 53.) " There is essential and necessary truth i'n 
 what I have been teaching ; and, therefore, though ye choose 
 to ' stumble at the word,' and to cavil at the dress, in which 
 I have seen fit to clothe my speech, yet I reaffirm what I 
 have said ; and, taking up the lastybr?;i which the figure of 
 my discourse hath assumed, I solemnly assure you, that, 
 unless ye do what I have taught you ; unless you ' see,' or 
 spiritually discern, ' the Son ;' urdess you are ' drawn'' to> 
 me by ' hearing' and ' learning' the spiritual ' teachings of 
 God ;' unless you thus ' come to me,' and ' believe on me,' 
 as your only Savior ; unless you thus ' labor for the meat 
 which perlsheth not,' and thus eat ' the bread which com- 
 eth down from heaven ;' ijea, unless you thus ' eat the fiesh 
 and drink the blood of the Son of Man, as given for the life 
 of the world,' you can not be saved ; you give evidence that 
 you have not that spiritual life in you which hath its root in 
 the very faith required of you, and that, therefore, you caa 
 not come to that eternal life which is to follow the glorious 
 resurrection at the last day. (v. 54.) For they only who 
 thus eat my flesh and drink my blood ; they oidy who thus 
 spiritivally discern and truly believe in me as the Son of 
 God, the Savior of the world, enjoy the consciousness of 
 having this inward life now, or have promise of inlicriling 
 that eternal life at the resurrection. And tliis conscious- 
 ness and this promise all enjoy who do thus receive mc. 
 (v. 55.) For my flesh and my blood, thus by faith received 
 and applied, are meat and drink indeed : my teachings right- 
 ly understood, and my salvation accepted, by faith, beget 
 a spiritual life in the soul v/hich shall never be extinguish- 
 ed, {y. C6.) He that,. i:i the sens© iiitended,, eateth my 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 273 
 
 flesh and drinketli my blood, he who spiritually discerns 
 ray true character, and believingly comes to me and receives 
 me as the true Savior, he dioelleth in me and / in him ; he 
 is a living branch in me as the true vine, and receives both 
 the graces and the growth of his inner life from me as their 
 true source ; he is a member of my spiritual body, by the 
 faith which he has in me ; and I live in him by the power 
 of that truth which he has received of me, and by the work- 
 ings of that life which is thus nourished from me. I live 
 in him by the sweetness of those thoughts which such a 
 life hath of me, and in the comforts of that hope with which 
 such a life is inspired by me. (v. 57.) As the Father, who 
 is essential life, hath sent me to be a Savior, and as I live 
 by the Father, through a participation in His essential life, 
 or by having the holiness of my humanity sustained by His 
 providence and by His influences ; so, he that, with a true 
 faith, receives me as I have taught, even he shall live by 
 me ; his faith in me shall, as a root, nourish in his soul a 
 spiritual life similar in its holiness to that of the Divine na- 
 ture itself ; a life upheld in its present power by my provi- 
 dence, and nurtured to its final perfection by my grace, (v. 
 58.) This is what I mean by the bread that cometh down 
 from heaven, as ex])ressed under the former dress of my fig- 
 ure ; this is what I then meant by eating that bread ; and 
 this is what I now mean by eating the flesh and drinking the 
 blood of the Son of Man as given for the life of the world. 
 And if you have a right understanding of my meaning, you 
 will see that, marvelous as was the supply of manna which 
 God gave by Moses, it was at best but a perishable type 
 of me, and of the vitally nourishing truths which I teach. 
 Your fathers ate that manna and died : I give you a bread, 
 which whosoever eateth, shall never die. They who truly 
 believe in me, may drop their bodies for a season in the 
 grave j but in their souls they shall live on a most blessed 
 life ; and at the resurrection I will raise, and spiritualize, 
 
274 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 and glorify even their bodies to be the appropriate and the 
 immortal companions of their blessedness." 
 
 It was said, a iew moments since, that, in all this dis- 
 course of Christ, not a shadow of the cross is seen. What 
 was meant by the saying is now manifest. In this dis- 
 course, Christ was undoubtedly bodying forth, through fig- 
 ures, the fact which comprehe7ids the great doctrine of atone- 
 ment, the all-embracing fact that He came to save His peo- 
 ple from their sins, and to give them life, spiritual and eter- 
 nal, through faith in Him as their Savior. But to His cross 
 and His passion, as the mysteries in which His atoning sacri- 
 fice was to be consummated, He evidently was not pointing. 
 He spake naught of suffering, he spake naught of death. 
 The figure which He finally adopted of " eating His fiesh 
 and drinking His blood," He plainly drew, 7iot from His cruci- 
 fixion, as then future ; but from His miracle of feeding the 
 multitude, as just wrought. It is clearly observable through- 
 out His discourse, that at each change in the figurative dress 
 of His one thought, He does but seize and spiritualize upon 
 hints thrown out by His opponents, as, at the first assump- 
 tion of that dress, He does but seize and spiritualize upon 
 the incident of His fieedijig them with the barley loaves and 
 the fishes. Thus, when they came seeking Him, after hav- 
 ing eateji of His miraculous supply, He takes up that inci- 
 dent, makes a garment of it for His speech, and exclaims, 
 " Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat 
 which endureth unto everlasting life." Thus, again, when 
 they seek to turn the point of His discourse, by bringing 
 forward Moses and the manna which he gave as " bread 
 from heaven," He seizes on their allusion, changes the dress 
 of His thought, wraps that dress still more closely around 
 himself, and thus prevents their escaping from His point by 
 exclaiming, " I am the bread of life," " the true bread from 
 heaven," " the bread of God," " which giveth life unto the 
 world." And thus, finally, when He had spoken of giving 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORD S SUPPER. 275 
 
 ** His flesh," that is, liimsdf, " for the life of the world," and 
 when they perversely torture His language into the harsh 
 idea i)f His literally " giving them His flesh to eat" though 
 oi eating it ?Ie had said nothing, He again takes up their own 
 language, changes once more the dress of His one thought, 
 draws that dress more closely than ever around himself, and 
 without deigning to drop His figure in accommodation to 
 their perverseness, exclaims, " Even so ; I will teach my 
 truth in your own terms ; most solemnly do I assure you, 
 with a firm reiteration of my meaning, covered as it may be 
 from you by its figurative dress, and by your own voluntary 
 blindness, iiiost solemnly do I assure you, that unless, in the 
 sense which i have already repeatedly as well as literally 
 expressed — unless, as thus explained, you eat the flesh and 
 drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you." 
 The thonght need not be followed again through the re- 
 mainder of the discourse. My object in thus recurring to 
 it is to bring out, into still gi'eater prominence, both the^o'- 
 uralive character of Christ's teaching, and the fact that His 
 figure originally, and the changes of His figure throughout, 
 are drawn, not from the then future crucifixion-scene, but 
 from His past miracle o{ feeding the multitude, and from the 
 passing hints, which He took and turned to use, from the 
 cavils of his unreasonable opponents. The idea of " eating 
 His flesh" was not originally His own, but that of the cavil- 
 ers at his words ; and, like the phrase " bread from heaven," 
 was merely seized upon as a new form to the figurative 
 dress of the one, great, all-pervading thought of His discourse. 
 He was teaching the doctrine of salvation by faith in Him 
 as an atoning Savior, and illustrating it by past and passing 
 incidents ; not pointing forward to the crucifixion as the 
 mystery in which His work of atonement was to be consum- 
 mated. I repeat, in this discourse the shadow of the cross 
 is not seen. He spake not a word here of death ; not a 
 word here of suffering. Himself given for the life of the 
 
276 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SITPPEE. 
 
 world through faith — this was the single burden of His 
 teaching ; and the dress in which He clothed it He gathered 
 from His recent feeding miracle, and drew it closer and 
 closer around himself at every attempt of His opponents to 
 tear it oft'. 
 
 There is one circumstance to which I have not yet ad- 
 verted, but which confirms the view just given, that the one 
 thought which has been brought out runs throughout the dis- 
 course, and lies under all the forms which the figure of the 
 discourse assumes. At the very opening of the discourse, 
 Christ says, " Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for 
 that meat (tt^v [ipoJOLv) which endureth unto everlasting 
 life." — V. 27. And just before the close of the discourse, 
 after it had assumed the last form of the figure, He adds, 
 with evident recurrence to what He at first said, " My flesh 
 is truly meat'" {j3pojoi,g, v. 55) ; thus showing that, under all 
 changes of dress, He had carried through one unchanged 
 body of truth. The same thing is evident in the recurrence, 
 at the very close of the discourse, of another term, which He 
 had used just after its opcniiig. In the thirty-second verse 
 He took up the allusion to the manna, and called himself the 
 " true Iread (rov aprov) from heaven." In the fifty-eighth 
 verse He says of " his flesh" (a mere synonym for himself ), 
 " This is that bread which came down from heaven." 
 " Whosoever eateth this hread {rov aprov) shall live forev- 
 er." These two correspondences are a double chain, link- 
 ing all the figurative parts of the discourse together, and, in 
 fact, making them all but a single dress, though of several 
 folds, inwrapping the one vital body of truth, which Christ 
 sought to illustrate and commend to the understanding of 
 His hearers. Whether, at the opening of His discourse. He 
 exhorts them to labor for that ineat which himself would 
 give — and then, near its close, says that Hisfiesh is meat in- 
 deed — or whether, near its opening. He calls himself the true 
 bread from heaven, and then, at its close, says that Hisfiesh 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 27? 
 
 is that bread, He equally shows that, while the^^wre is man- 
 ifold, the thought is one; His flesh — that is, Himself — 
 given for the life of the world through faith. 
 
 It is, of course, self-evident, that if, in all this, Christ 
 draws His manifold figure from past and passing incidents, 
 and not from the future crucifixion scene, there can not be, 
 in the last paragraph of the discourse (that great key-text 
 of the doctrine of the Eucharist as it has been exhibited), 
 any allusion to what this doctrine terms " eating the flesh 
 and drinking the blood of Christ," as conveyed in and by 
 the consecrated elements and the hands of him who dis- 
 penses them. If that discourse draw not its dress from a 
 yet future cross, this dress can not cover that meaning of 
 sacramental eating and drinking which lives only in sight, 
 and at the foot, of the cross. 
 
 If the true doctrine of this discourse were to be stated in 
 somewhat fuller terms than those of the very brief summary 
 just given, it might be stated thus : " As the Divine Son of 
 God, I am come into the world to be the bread of life, the 
 true and only Savior from sin. Without me there can be 
 no salvation. Without coming to me, therefore, and believ- 
 ing on me, no one who hears my Gospel can receive the 
 salvation which I bring. And whosoever, under the draw- 
 ing and teaching of my Divine Father, thus comes and be- 
 lieves, wherever his lot may be cast, and however destitute 
 of outward privileges he may be, has thereby eternal life, 
 and, continuing steadfast in his faith, shall never perish." 
 Here, indeed, we have a truth which lies at the very heart 
 of the Gospel ; which makes this Gospel what its name 
 signifies, '^ glad tidings f^ and which pours into the evan- 
 gelic temple a glory that outshines all other glories : but 
 we have not one word about the sacrament ; not one word 
 to divert our thoughts from Christ himself to any outward 
 rite in which His atoning work might subsequently be sym- 
 bolized. 
 
 A A 
 
278 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 This sixth chapter of John, then, though it thus luminously 
 displays the Gospel of Christ, has yet nothing to do with an 
 illustration of the natwe of the Lord's Supper. Its 53d and 
 three following verses are wrongly quoted, when they are 
 brought to illustrate this point. There is no ultimate rea- 
 son, or authority, for thus quoting them, but naked assump- 
 tion ; and this assumption, by however many jjo^^Nicene 
 writers it may have been made, can not bear the intense 
 light which pours against it from out of the very centre of the 
 Divine Record itself. It may be well to add, that, did my 
 object require it, and the limits assigned to my treatise ad- 
 mit, it would be very easy to show that the view which I 
 have taken of this chapter is fairly consonant with the 
 theology of the anle-Wicene Fathers, and substantially sus- 
 tained by the authority of the best standard Biblical inter- 
 preters in our own Church. 
 
 My examination of John vi. has occupied considerable 
 time ; not so much, however, as the importance of the sub- 
 ject would have justified. I have not attempted a complete 
 analysis, nor an exhausting commentary on the chapter ; but 
 only such an analysis of the Discourse into lis principal Y>B.xis, 
 and such a commentary on its chief ixwXh, as were necessary 
 for my purpose ; that of showing that we ccin not have re- 
 course to this chapter, nor to any part of it, for an explana- 
 tion of the nature of that solemn ordinance, which was, 
 more than a year afterward, instituted at the last Paschal 
 Supper of Christ with His disciples. How far this purpose 
 has been effected it must be left for candid minds to judge. 
 This much, however, must be acknowledged : the authority 
 of Scripture, as it here forces its own explanation, is greater 
 than that of any merely assumed meaning, however im- 
 posing be the array of names, whether from middle, or from 
 modern ages, upon which this assumed meaning may be 
 shown to rest. And this would be the case, even were 
 there no counter-array of names in support of the view 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 279 
 
 which has been taken. ^^When the Bible clearly and con- 
 sistently explains itself, its authority carries a power of 
 weight which, at least with all sound Protestant minds, 
 bears down and sweeps away the opposing authority of all 
 human names ; the more so, when these names are gather- 
 ed, not from the purest, but from the more corrupt ages 
 and portions of the Church. 
 
 2. I pass now to a brief notice of another passage, 
 usually cited in support of that view of the nature of the 
 Lord's Supper which is here opposed. It is found in the 
 tenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (v. 16), 
 and is in these words : " The cup of blessing which we 
 bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ 1 The 
 bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body 
 of Christ?" 
 
 In interpreting this passage, two things are taken for 
 granted by those who hold the view just named: 1. That 
 the real body and blood of Christ are verily present with the 
 consecrated elements of bread and wine in the Lord's Sup- 
 per : 2. That the word rendered communion means commu- 
 nication, or conveyance ; and that, therefore, the bread and 
 wine communicate, or convey, that real body and blood to 
 the faithful recipient.* 
 
 But this interpretation can not stand, unless it be first 
 proved that the real body and blood of Christ, " the very 
 body and blood," which were offered in " sacrifice for sin,"f 
 are, in themselves, as well as by their represeiitalives, pres- 
 ent with the elements in the Supper ; nor unless it can be 
 
 * "The bread which we break is the Koivojvla, communion, or communi- 
 cation, of the body of Christ ;" that whereby His body is give7i, and the 
 faithful are made partakers of it.'' — Tracts, vol. i., p. 205, N. Y. 
 
 Dr. Pusey renders the other part of the expression thus: "The cup of 
 blessing which we bless, is it not the participation of the blood of Christ?" 
 attaching, of course, to this participation, the idea which runs through his 
 discourse. — Sermon before the University of Oxford, p. 10. 
 
 + See Pusey 's Discourse, p. 9. 
 
280 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 shown that the Greek word rendered " com77iunion," truly 
 carries in it the active sense of a communication, or convey' 
 ance. Neither of these things is expressed in the passage ; 
 neither is proved by those who quote the passage ; but both 
 are assumed, as being intended. This, however, is to as- 
 sume most important points ; the very points in controversy 
 on this subject ; the very things which are to be settled. 
 It is easy to say that a certain text has a certain sense ; and 
 if we grant it because it is said, we may, indeed, have an 
 " end of controversy ;" yet we may not have the truth in 
 that "end." How are Christ's body and blood connected 
 with the Eucharist? And hoio are the bread and the cup 
 the communion of His body and blood ? These are ques- 
 tions which we must not allow any one to settle for us by 
 a word. We must look at the Scriptures themselves, and 
 seek to draw from them their own decision. 
 
 As to the former of these questions, then, without antici- 
 pating what is to be said of it hereafter, it will suffice for 
 the present to say, that this passage, 1 Corinthians, x., 16, 
 leaves it untouched. It says that " the bread and wine are 
 the communion of the body and blood of Christ," without 
 saying either where or what that body and blood are. We 
 may have the communion of an absent thing ; and if, as it 
 is said, " the very body and blood which were broken and 
 shed on the cross" be here meant, we necessarily have the 
 communion of things absent. That body and blood no 
 longer exist ; unless (contrary to what St. Paul teaches) 
 "flesh and blood can inherit the kingdom of God." The 
 body and blood which were broken and shed on the cross 
 have been changed from corruptible to incorruption, and 
 from mortal to immortality. They have become Christ's 
 "glorious body^"" a spiritualized form, which is no longer 
 '■'• jiesh and bloodP Necessarily, therefore, I repeat it, if the 
 " flesh and blood" which were offered on the cross be in- 
 tended in this passage, we have, in the Lord's Supper, the 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 281 
 
 communion of tilings ahsent. And so we actually have, let 
 this passage mean what it may. That flesh and blood, so 
 offered, were the very sacrifice for sin, through which, by 
 faith, we are pardoned and saved ; and with them, in the 
 character of that sacrifice, we are unquestionably concerned 
 in the mystery of the Supper. But, then, it is with them as 
 ahsent, and not with them as present, things. They can not 
 be present, in any other sense than that of being present 
 by their representatives. 
 
 As to the latter of the questions, " How are the bread and 
 cup in the Lord's Supper the communion of the body and 
 blood of Christ ?" I remark, that the interpretation which 
 renders the original of the word " communion^'' into the simi- 
 larly sounding, but not similarly significant term, " communi- 
 cation," appears to be wholly unfounded. Koivwvia means 
 fellowship, partnership, common sharing of somewhat among 
 several persons. It expresses the passive condition of au 
 object, which is shared in common by a plurality of individu- 
 als — not the active sense of cammmiicating that object to them. 
 It means, " possessing, or enjoying, in com7no7i" — not impart- 
 ation, or conveyance. Understood in this, its right sense, 
 there is no difficulty in the passage. True Christians, at 
 the Lord's Supper, have fellowship, or a common share, in 
 the very body and blood of Christ, as they were actually 
 offered on the cross, a sacrifice for sin. But they have 
 this fellowship, this common share, in them as necessarily 
 ahsent things ; or as things present only by their divinely- 
 ordained representatives. And the medium by which they 
 hold this fellowship of interest in the ahsent body and blood 
 of their crucified Lord, is, as our Church defines it, faith. 
 "Faith," here as elsewhere, "is the substance of things 
 hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." Looking 
 at its ordained symbols, faith makes the very sacrifice on 
 the cross appear present ; and enables the Christian to re- 
 alize his interest in that sacrifice, as effectually as though 
 A A 2 
 
282 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 he had been on Calvary, when the cry sounded " 7i( is fin- 
 ished ;" and as though he had then laid a believing hand on 
 the very head of his accepted substitute. 
 
 A company of men may have fellowship, a joint and common 
 right, in an absent estate, though it be on the opposite side 
 of the globe, and no one of them have ever seen it; and 
 w^hen the sure and stated income reaches them, they are as 
 well satisfied as though the estate itself lay at their very 
 doors, or as though its value were counted and deposited in 
 their hands. The title deed by which they hold it is in 
 their possession, and it is good ; no one can dispossess them 
 of it, and it is to them the visible evidence and representative 
 of the absent treasure which they hold, and enjoy in com- 
 mon. 
 
 Thus, the great company of faithful Christians have jTe/- 
 loioship, a joint and common interest, in the absent body and 
 blood of Christ, as actually offered in sacrifice for their sins 
 upon the cross. With the Divine revenue of holy comfort, 
 hope, and strength, which infallibly reaches them from 
 their unseen treasury of blessings, they are sweetly satis- 
 fied. The covenant, by which they hold and enjoy their 
 common interest in it, is in their actual possession. The 
 great seal of that covenant, in the consecrated symbols of 
 the Lord's Supper, is often exhibited to their eyes. And 
 from this visible evidence, this sensible assurance, that 
 their title is good, that " He is faithful who hath promised," 
 their faith gathers its richest income of present and of satis- 
 fying benefits. Thus is it that " the cup of blessing which 
 we bless, and the bread which we break, are to them the 
 communion of the very body and blood of Christ ;" of the 
 very sacrifice which was offered for their sins on the cross. 
 
 The idea which 1 have now presented of communion or 
 felloioship in the benefits of Christ's sacrifice, as represent- 
 ed at the Lord's Table, is, I think, sustained by what fol- 
 lows the words which have been explained. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 283 
 
 The apostle having said that the elements in the Supper 
 are the communion of the body and blood of Christ, adds, 
 " For we, being many, are one bread, one body : for we are 
 all partakers of that one bread." That is, " in this com- 
 munion, we, though many, are yet united into one fellowship, 
 the mystical body of Christ ; a union and fellowship repre- 
 sented by the one bread, of which we are all partakers." 
 " Behold Israel after the jiesh ; are not they which eat of 
 the sacrifices partakers (^Koivovot) of the altar ?" " Have 
 they not a fellowship, not literally in the altar itself but in 
 that which the altar furnishes /" So, also, in applying the 
 argument, might it be said, " Behold Israel after the Spirit; 
 the great company of faithful Christians ; are hot they who 
 eat and drink the consecrated elements partakers (^koivcovoc) 
 of the body and blood of Christ ? Have they not a fellow- 
 ship, not literally in the very body and blood which were 
 offered in sacrifice for sin, but in what the sacrifice of that 
 body and blood supplies — pardon and peace through faith, 
 present adoption and eternal life ?" Or take the case of the 
 heathen : " What say I of this ? That the idol is any thing, 
 or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing ? 
 No ; but that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they 
 sacrifice to devils, and not to God ; and I would not that ye 
 should have felloioship (KOivcdvovg ytveadai) with devils. 
 Ye can not drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of 
 devils. Ye can not be partakers of the Lord's Table and 
 of the table of devils." That is, " fellowship with Christ, 
 and fellowship with devils, in the sacred rites performed to 
 each, are utterly incompatible things ; and partaking, not lit- 
 erally of the tables themselves, but of what is present on the 
 tables of both, is an impious profanation of Christ's ordi- 
 nance." 
 
 It is observable in the language which I have thus para- 
 phrased, that, when the word icotvoivoi comes to be joined 
 with devils, our translation renders it, not partakers, but "/«/- 
 
284 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 lowship." Fellowship with devils is an intelligible idea , 
 but partakers of devils, if intelligible, is also absurd. The 
 term should have had the rendering of '^fellowship" through- 
 out the passage, as more faithful to the true sense. Men 
 may have "fellowship with devils," but can not be "parta- 
 kers q/" devils." So the Jews had fellowship in the henefits 
 of the altar, but could not be partakers of the altar itself. 
 In like manner, faithful Christians have fellowship together 
 in the henefits of Christ's death and passion, but can not be 
 partakers of the very body and blood which were offered in 
 sacrifice for their sins.* 
 
 This passage, then, in the writings of St. Paul, does not 
 sustain that view of the Lord's Supper which I have pre- 
 sented. It is only by the usual way of assuming a meaning 
 for it that it can be forced to speak the language of that 
 view. The passage, interpreted, speaks the language of the 
 only sound theology on this subject. 
 
 3. I come now to an examination of that important Script- 
 ure, the instituting words of Christ ; for really this is the 
 only remaining passage which it will be necessary to exam- 
 ine. There are, it is true, other passages in the New Test- 
 ament which relate to the Lord's Supper, but they are 
 merely incidental allusions to it, or to the naked fact of its 
 administration, and contain nothing which can help us to an 
 understanding of its nature. Thus, in one place, the ordi- 
 nance is spoken of as a " coming together to Ireak bread" 
 (Acts, XX., 7) ; and in another, as " eating the Lord's Sup- 
 
 * Kotvavol tZv Sainovitav ylvtaBai really ought to be rendered " to be par- 
 takers of devils," if Koiviavla Tov adiixaroi, Kai tov cujxaTOi too Xpiarov is to be 
 translated, on Dr. Pusey's principle, "a participation of the body and blood 
 of Christ." The truth is, that the proper rendering of each is as I have 
 paraphrased them. The former means, " to be the fellows of devils," or, as 
 •)ur translation renders it, " to have fellowship with them ;" while the latter 
 means, " the fellowship of the body and blood of Christ." The fonner is that 
 fellcnvship in which the wicked are influenced and governed by the devil ; 
 the latter is ihaX fellowship in which Christians are influenced and benefit- 
 ed by the body and blood of Christ. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 285 
 
 fer''' (1 Cor., xi., 20) ; the latter phrase corresponding with 
 that noticed a few moments since, of being " partakers of 
 the Lord's Table."— \ Cor., x., 21. Upon such expressions, 
 therefore, it will not be necessary to pause. The nature of 
 this ordinance must be learned mainly from the words of 
 Christ, in which it was instituted. To these words, then, 
 let us now, with all earnestness, attend. 
 
 The writers who give the instituting words are the evan- 
 gelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the Apostle Paul ; 
 to this last of whom they were specially revealed. As giv- 
 en by these writers, they are substantially the same. St. 
 Matthew, indeed, is the only one who, in connection with 
 the giving of the cup, records the expression concerning the 
 blood ; that it was "shed for many ^br the remission of sins." 
 But the idea here expressed is implied in what the others 
 record in common with him, in these words : " Blood of the 
 New Testament," and " the New Testament in ray blood ;" 
 since this New Testament, or, rather, New Covenant {Sia- 
 6rjK7]g), includes the promise of re?ni.'ision of sins. It is also 
 true, that St. Paul is the only one who records the impor- 
 tant expression, " This do in remembrance of me," in con- 
 nection with the giving both of the bread and of the cup. 
 St. Luke records it only in connection with the giving of 
 the bread, while St. Matthew and St. Mark omit it altogeth- 
 er. But, then, its record by two out of the four, to one of 
 whom it was specially revealed, is enough to assure us that 
 it formed a part of Christ's words at the insthution, and that 
 it is essential to a right understanding of the nature of the 
 ordinance. So the first two evangelists record what St. 
 Luke and St. Paul omit, the "giving of thanks" after Christ 
 had taken the cup ; while, in like manner, the latter two re- 
 cord what the former two omit, the "giving of thanks" after 
 He had taken the bread ; or, rather, the former two say that 
 " He took bread and blessed it," instead of saying that " He 
 took it and gave thanks." But the same remark applies to 
 
286 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 this as to the last case. It is enough that any one of them 
 records an expression which the others omit. It shows that 
 the expression was used at the institution. Once more : 
 St. Matthew alone records the valuable words in connection 
 with the cup, " Drink ye all of this.'" St. Mark merely says, 
 " They all drank of it ,-" while St. Luke and St. Paul whol- 
 ly omit the expression. But, then, the comment in St. 
 Mark implies the command in St. Matthew, while the omis- 
 sion of it by the other two is no contradiction. Again : the 
 first two evangelists use the words, " This is my blood of the 
 New Testament," while St. Luke and St. Paul say, " this cup 
 is the New Testament in my blood." And yet these are 
 but slightly varying expressions of the same general idea. 
 And, finally, St. Paul says, " This is my body which is bro- 
 ken for you," while St. Luke says, " This is my body which 
 is given for you." This difference, however, is immaterial, 
 as is also the fact that St. Matthew and St. Mark record 
 the circumstance, that Christ, having taken the bread and 
 the cup, "gave them to the disciples,^'' while St. Luke records 
 it only of the bread, and St. Paul omits it altogether. It is 
 sufficient that the main words in the form of institution are 
 the same in all ; and that, by comparing the four records, 
 we doubtless obtain the whole of that important language of 
 Christ on which is based the authority, and from which must 
 be deduced the nature of this precious ordinance. This 
 work of comparison has been partly done by the framers of 
 our Communion Service. They evidently took, for the ba- 
 sis of our form of consecration, the words of Christ as spe- 
 cially revealed to the Apostle Paul, incorporating and har- 
 monizing with them such expressions as are peculiar to one 
 or more of the three evangelists. As more fully harmoni- 
 zed, the whole form of institution and consecration stands 
 thus : 
 
 " The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was be- 
 trayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, or bless- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 287 
 
 ed, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, Take, 
 eat ; this is my body, which is give7i and broken for you ; 
 do this in remembrance of me. After the same manner, 
 also, He took the cup, when He had supped ; and when He 
 had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying. Drink ye all oj 
 this {and they all drank of it) ; for this is my blood of the 
 New Testament; this cup is the New Testament in my 
 blood, which is shed for you and for many for the remission 
 q/"sins. Do this, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of 
 me." 
 
 The words in italics show what is taken from the evan- 
 gelists, because not recorded by St. Paul ; while the be- 
 ginning, the close, and the general order of the form evince 
 that the framers of our service adopted the words of St. 
 Paul, rather than those of the evangelists, as the basis of 
 the form. 
 
 It is not my purpose, at this stage of the discussion, to 
 examine all the parts of this form of institution and conse- 
 cration. This purpose confines me, for the present, to the 
 meaning of the words " This is my body,''' and " This is my 
 blood," since upon that meaning the whole controversy con- 
 cerning the nature of this ordinance turns. 
 
 From what has already been said, we can very easily 
 anticipate the meaning put upon these instituting words by 
 the advocates of that theory of the Lord's Supper which I 
 have exhibited. The notion, that the very body and blood 
 of Christ must, some how, be received into the body and 
 soul of the Christian in order to their joint immortal life in 
 blessedness, having, in the growingly impure ages of the 
 Church, obtained possession of men's minds, and this no- 
 tion having found the shadow of a cover in that strongly- 
 figurative language from the sixth chapter of John, which I 
 have examined, it was, of course, brought forward from that 
 chapter, and applied to the interpretation of the instituting 
 words themselves. Hence it was argued, that when, on 
 
288 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 the eve of His crucifixion, Christ took bread, and blessed, 
 and brake, and gave it to the disciples, saying, " Take, eat ; 
 this is my body ;" and when, on the same occasion, He took 
 the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, " Drink ye 
 all of this, for this is nty htood of the New Testament," He 
 must be understood as saying that, by the iniraculous energy 
 of His blessing and giving of thanks, the bread and the wine 
 which He held in His hands became indeed, not only the 
 ordained signs and symbols of His body and His blood, but 
 also His very body and blood themselves. This was con- 
 sidered necessary to make His words true ; and to deny 
 this was then, as now, by the advocates of the theory, ac- 
 counted daring presumption, deserving excommunication 
 from the Church.* 
 
 Now, that our blessed Savior spake truth when He said, 
 " This is my body, this is my blood," and that he who 
 charges the Divine Teacher with falsehood in these words 
 is deserving of excommunication, can not be denied by any 
 one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the real 
 question here is, not whether Christ spake truth in those 
 words, but what is the truth which His words convey ? 
 The true meaning of His words must be received by every 
 Christian ; and yet, not the less necessarily, must a false 
 meaning of them be rejected. What, then, is the true mean- 
 ing of the words, " This is my body, this is my blood V 
 
 * "Those words which our blessed Savior used in the institution of 
 the blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, ' This is my body, which is given 
 for you ; this is my blood, which is shed for you, for the remission of sins,' 
 are held and acknowledged by the Universal Church to be most true and 
 infallible ; and if any one dares oppose them, or call in question Christ's 
 veracity, or the truth of His words, or refuse to yield his sincere assent to 
 them, except he be allowed to make a mere figment, or a bare figure of 
 them, we can not and ought not either excuse or suffer him in our churches ; for 
 we must embrace and hold, for an undoubted truth, whatever is taught by 
 Divine Scripture."— Tracts, vol. i., p. 190, N. Y., quoted from Cosin, Bishop 
 of Durham. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 289 
 
 The right answer to this question settles the whole contro- 
 versy. 
 
 1. In seeking this right answer, I observe, first, the no- 
 tion of this sacrament against which I am reasoning, is, so 
 far as it is drawn from the present text, based on the as- 
 sumption that the words of Christ, " Take, eat," and '* Drink 
 ye all of this," refer, not back in the sentence to the bread 
 and the wine, which He had just taken up, but forward to 
 His body and His blood, which He was about to name. It 
 is a notion which really requires us to paraphrase the text 
 thus ; " And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and 
 blessed, and brake, and gave it to His disciples, saying, 
 * Take, eat my true and real body ; this which I hold in 
 my hands has, by the marvelous power of my blessing, be- 
 come that body.' Then, also. He took the cup, and gave 
 thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ' Drink ye all of my 
 true and real blood ; this which 1 hold in the cup has. by 
 the mysterious energy of my thanksgiving, become that 
 blood ;' "* a paraphrase which needs but to be expressed in 
 
 * Even Calvin retained something of this notion, as is shown by Cosin, 
 ia his treatise. The following is part of the quotation which this author 
 makes from Calvin's writings ; Christ " declares that His flesh is the food 
 and His blood the drink of my soul, and my soul I offer to Him to be fed by 
 such nourishment. He bids me take, eat, and drink His b»dy and blood, 
 which in His holy Supper He offers me under the symbols of bread and 
 wine ; I make no scruple but He doth reach them to me, and I receive 
 them." Again, " Except one presumes to call God a deceiver, he will 
 never dare to say that the symbols are empty, and that Christ is not in 
 them." Again, " We most firmly believe that, receiving the signs of the 
 body, we also certainly receive the body itself." Again, " The Son of God 
 offers daily to us, in the holy sacrament, the same body which He once of- 
 fered in sacrifice to His Father." — Tracts, vol. i., p. 196, 197 ; Cosin's quo- 
 tations from Calvin. 
 
 The above language is, indeed, susceptible of a Protestant explanation ; 
 and yet, like some expressions in our " Homily of the worthy receiving and 
 reverent esteeming of the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ," it 
 shows how deeply the minds of the Reformers had become imbued with 
 the language on this subject of an earlier and an impure age, even though 
 they rejected the erroneous meaning of that language. 
 
 Bb 
 
THE RATXTEE OF TIIE LOEIi> S SUFTEK, 
 
 words ta be at once rejected^ inasmuch as it involves tbe 
 plain impossibility that tbe yet uncrucifted Jesiia actaally 
 held in His hands the body from which He was speaking, 
 and the blood which was then coursing through His veins I 
 2. But, secondly^ I observe tltat this view of the sacra- 
 ment rests on another assun^ption : that the substantive verb, 
 " J<S," in the text, Ims and can have no other force than thaS 
 of its proper and literal signification f that it nteans, and 
 must mean, simply and lileraUyj " /&." I>et us see whether 
 this assumption have any ground of support. 
 
 It must be remembered, then, that, in tbe time of our 
 Savior, the spoken language of Judea, in which He and His 
 disciples conversed^ was not the Greek, in which the evan- 
 gelists have xcrrilten His history and His discourses, bvU the 
 Syro-Chaldaic, or Hebrreo-Aramean, as the then currens 
 dialect of the ancient Hebrew to7igue. Besides other his^ 
 toric evidence, we have that of the New Testament itself 
 to the fact here noticed. Hence, when Jesus met the per- 
 secuting Paul on his way to Damascus, the latter " heard 
 3 voice speaking unto him, and sayings in i]i€ Hehrexe tongue f 
 Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me •" &c, — -Acts, xxvi., 
 14. And hence, when Paul would address and calm the 
 excited multitude of his countrymen in Jerusalem, from 
 whose murderous hands the chief captain had just rescued 
 him, he stood on the steps of the Castle of Antonia, and 
 spake to them, not as the chief captain expected he would, 
 in "Greek" but "in the Hebrew tongue^ "And when 
 they heard that be spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, 
 they kept the more silence," while, in their own familiar 
 speech, he proceeded to tell the wonderful story of his own 
 conversion. — Acts, xxi, 30-40; xxii., 1-21. 
 
 Now it is well known that the Hebrews, and those neigh- 
 bor nations whose languages were cognate with their own, 
 although they had verbs expressive oi something like the 
 sense of our words, to signify, to mean, to denote, to repre- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 291 
 
 sent, to typify, to symbolize, yet rarely used them in discourse. 
 When they wished to say that one thing signified or repre- 
 sented another, they customarily said the one was the other ; 
 and, in saying so, they were not liable to be misapprehend- 
 ed. Their intended meaning was perfectly well under- 
 stood. 
 
 So deeply rooted in the genius of these languages was 
 the idiom to which I refer, that I am not aware of the oc- 
 currence, in the Hebrew Scriptures, of any one verb which 
 has the sense of our words to signify, to represent, and 
 their various synonyms. The noun, " sign," and its plural, 
 " signs," are of frequent occurrence, carrying the sense of 
 miracle, prodigy, index, military standard ; but it has no cor- 
 responding verl>, and, if it had, that verb would be of no 
 avail in the present inquiry. There is, indeed, one verb in 
 our English translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which, if 
 it had any correspondent in the original, would be of some 
 importance here. It occurs in the following passages : 
 "What mean these seven ewe lambs?" — Gen., xxi., 29. 
 " What mean ye by this service ?" — Ex., xii., 20. " What 
 mean the testimonies" — " which the Lord our God hath 
 commanded you?" — Deut., vi., 20. "What mean ye by 
 these stones?" — Josh., iv., 6. "What mean ye that ye 
 beat my people to pieces ?" — Isa., iii., 15. "Know ye not 
 what these things mean V — Ezek., xvii., 12. " What mean 
 ye that ye use this proverb ?" — Ezek., xviii., 2. That is. 
 What do all these things signify, or represent ? It happens, 
 however, as any one who reads his Hebrew Bible will see, 
 that in the original there is no word corresponding with our 
 English word mean, in the translation. There is an ellip- 
 sis ; and the questions in Hebrew run thus : " What — these 
 seven ewe lambs ?" " What — this service to you ?" and 
 so of the others ; and there can, I presume, be no doubt, 
 that if an Israelite were to supply the ellipsis in all such 
 cases, he would do so by simply inserting the substantive 
 
292 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 verb are, or is ; so that the questions written in full would 
 read, " What are these seven ewe lambs V " What is 
 this service to you ?" and the like.* The truth i§, as I 
 have said, the Hebrews and their cognates in language were 
 not accustomed to use any verb in expressing the idea to 
 signify, to represent, to symholize. Ordinarily, in expressing 
 the typical, or representative relation, they either used the 
 substantive verb which means " to ie," or, more frequently, 
 made an ellipsis, which any Hebraeist would supply by in- 
 serting that verb. Thus, when Moses would express the 
 idea that the ancient Paschal Lamb signijied, or represented 
 the Lord's Passover, he says, " It is the Lord's Passover." 
 — Exod., xii., 11. 
 
 To show that this sense of the Hebrew verb " to be" is 
 not got up to sustain a theory, and to avoid a difBculty, I 
 give a few of the numerous passages in which it occurs. 
 When Joseph was interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh, he 
 said, " The seven good kine are seven years : and the 
 seven empty ears shall be seven years of famine." — Gen., 
 xli., 26-27. So, when one of the heavenly ones was ex- 
 plaining to Daniel the vision with which the prophet had 
 been favored, he said, " These great beasts, which are four, 
 are four kings." " The fourth beast shall be the fourth king- 
 dom." " And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten 
 kings." — Dan., vii., 17, 23, 24. So, also, when Joseph was 
 
 *■ In two passages, the Hebrew, "ijjX' " dixit,'" "he said," is rendered, in 
 its plural form, as though it had the force of our verb intend, or mean. 
 Vide Josh., xxii., .S3; 2 Chron., xxviii., 13. But I see no necessity for de- 
 parting from the usual sense of the word in those places. Thus, Josh., 
 xxii., 33, may be rendered, "The children of Israel blessed God, and spake 
 not to go up against them in battle." So, also, 2 Chron., xxviii., 13, may 
 be rendered, " Ye are speaking to add to our sins." " What ye propose to 
 do with the captives would greatly aggravate our guilt." Even, however, 
 if the primitive sense of "^j^j^ were, " he intended," " meant," or " designed," 
 instead of " he spake," or "said," it would not be the sense required in ex- 
 pressing the idea of one thing's signifying, representing, or symbolizing an- 
 other. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 293 
 
 interpreting the dreams of the butler and the baker of King 
 Pharaoh, and when Daniel was interpreting the various 
 mysteries which were proposed to him, their language 
 abounded in similar forms of expression. — Gen., xl., 12, 
 and 18; and the Book of Daniel, ii., 37, 38 ; iv., 20-22; 
 viii., 20, 21. In two of the passages which I have recited, 
 Gen., xli., 27, and Dan., vii., 23, the substantive verb is 
 expressed ; in the others it is omitted ; as is the case in the 
 language of Moses, when he says of the lamb, " It is the 
 Lord's Passover." In none of the cases, however, would 
 any Hebraeist think of supplying the ellipsis with any other 
 than the substantive verb. 
 
 This same peculiarity of the Hebrew language manifests 
 itself very strongly in the influence which it had over the 
 idioms of that peculiar form of the Greek in which the in- 
 spired penmen of the Neto Testament wrote, and which, by 
 vv^ay of distinction, is sometimes called Hebrew-Greek ; be- 
 cause the writers, being mostly Jews, although they wrote 
 in Greek words, yet instinctively abounded in Hebrew idi- 
 oms. The instances in which this influence of the Hebrew 
 of the Old over the Greek of the New Testament manifests 
 itself, in the use of the substantive verb to express the idea 
 of signifying, representing, &c., are numerous. I add some 
 of the more prominent, as illustrations of the remark. 
 
 When Christ was explaining " the parable of the tares of 
 the field," he said to His disciples, " The field is the world ; 
 the good seed are the children of the kingdom ; but the 
 tares are the children of the wicked one : the enemy that 
 sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the 
 world, and the reapers are the angels." — Matt., xiii., 38-39. 
 Again : when St. Paul was explaining the miracle by which 
 Moses gave the people water from the rock in the wilder- 
 ness, he said, " They drank of that spiritual Rock that fol- 
 lowed them, and that Rock was Christ." — 1 Cor., x., 4. 
 And, finally, when Christ himself, in the sublime visions of 
 B b2 
 
294 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 the Apocalypse, was explaining the mystery which had 
 been exhibited to the beloved disciple, He said, "The 
 seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches, and 
 the seven candlesticks are the seven Churches." — Rev., 
 i., 20. 
 
 These references, both to the Old and to the New 
 Testament, in illustration of the idiom in question, 
 might be made more full and complete ; but they have 
 already extended far enough to show both the nature 
 and the strength of the argument which they furnish, 
 and by which the meaning of Christ in the instituting 
 words before us is demonstrated. In all the references 
 which I have made, the substantive verb clearly has the 
 sense of signifying^ representing, or symbolizing ; and no 
 Hebrew who reads them would ever think of under- 
 standing them in any other sense. To take a few of 
 the instances as examples, their true English would run 
 thus : " The seven good kine represent seven years, and 
 the seven empty ears represent seven years of famine." 
 " The fourth beast represents the fourth kingdom." 
 " The field represents the world, and the reapers repre- 
 sent the angels." " This Lamb symbolizes the act of the 
 Lord's Passover." " They drank of the spiritual Rock 
 that followed them; and that Rock typified., or symboli- 
 cally represented Christ." 
 
 But, if this be the true and unquestionable force of 
 these, and the numerous similar expressions which are 
 scattered so profusely through the Hebrew and the He- 
 hiew-Greek Scriptures, and which open to us one of the 
 most deeply-rooted idioms of Oriental speech, by what 
 law, I pray, is it that we, or any other interpreters, may 
 set ourselves at work to show that, in the instituting 
 words, which are a perfectly analogous idiomatic ex- 
 pression, our Savior dropped the forms of His own na- 
 tive tongue and assumed that literal meaning of the 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 295 
 
 verb " IS," which obliges us to maintaia that He was 
 then working the imjMssihh miradt of holding in his 
 hands not only the ordidned symbols of His body and 
 blood, but also His i>ery body ami blood themselves ? Why 
 resort to such a straining and violent force upon lan- 
 guage, when the customary sense of the words is so 
 plain and so satisfying X 
 
 The paschal lamb, we know, was one of the great 
 Old Testament types of Christ. Hence (I Cor., v., 7), 
 St. Paul calls Christ '■'■ our Passover^ So the rock 
 ivhich Moses smote in the wilderness we are justified 
 in considering a remarkable symbol of Christ, the Rock 
 of our Salvation, smittea for our sins, and pouring forth, 
 the reviving waters, the never-failing stream of eternal 
 life- — 1 Cor., x., 4- And it would have been just as 
 reasonable, if the Jews had taken the words of Moses, 
 " This is the Lord^s Passover," and argued from them 
 that the Paschal lamb was not only a symbol of the 
 Lord's act in passing over their dwellings and sparing 
 their first-born at the sight of the blood sprinkled on 
 their lintels, but also, by a marvelous transubstantiation, 
 his very aa itself of thus passing over and sparing them ; 
 or, it would be just as admissible if we should now take 
 the words of St. Paul, " That rock was Christ," and ar- 
 gue from them that the rock which Moses smote in the 
 wilderness was not only a symbol of Christ, but also, by 
 some mysterious change, nothing less than Christ him- 
 self; as it is to take the instituting words before us, 
 " This is my body, this is my blood," and argue from 
 them that the bread and the wine, in the Lord's Supper, 
 are not only the divinely-constituted symbols or represent' 
 atives of the body and blood of Christ, as offered in sac- 
 rifice for our sins, but also, by some mysterious trans- 
 formation, that very body and blood themselves ! To say 
 truth, all this is utter force on the natural and simple 
 
296 THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 
 
 meaning of these instituting words. The verb " is" 
 here has not its primitive and literal, but its derived and 
 idioinatic meaning ; a meaning which must have been 
 perfectly well understood when the Divine Speaker ut- 
 tered it ; and the true sense of the language may, with 
 the utmost fidelity to its spirit^ as well as to its gram- 
 mar, be thus expressed : " This bread and this wine 
 represent my body and my blood ;" " I hereby constitute 
 these elements significant and perpetual symbols of that 
 atoning sacrifice for sin, which on the shameful cross I 
 am about to ofTer/'^ 
 
 Having thus carefully examined these instituting 
 words of Christ, and having formerly given such a par- 
 aphrase of them as is required by that view of the 
 Lord's Supper which I am opposing, it is proper now 
 to paraphrase them in conformity with the sense which 
 they really express. Taking, then, the whole passage, 
 as I have harmonized it from the writings of the evan- 
 gelists and of St. Paul, it may be thus more fully set 
 forth : 
 
 " The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was 
 betrayed, took bread, and when, according to Paschal 
 custom, he had given thanks, or pronounced the bless- 
 ing over it. He brake it and gave it to His disciples, 
 saying, ' Take, eat this bread. TMs represents my 
 body,'* which, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of 
 the world, is already given and broken for your salva- 
 tion. 'Do this yourselves, and enjoin it on my Church, 
 as a perpetual memorial of me, and of my sacrifice for the 
 sins of the world. ^ After the same manner, also, He 
 took the cup, Avhen he had supped ; and when, aceord- 
 ino" to the custom of the feast, he had given thanks, he 
 gave it to them, saying, ' Brink ye all of this cup'' (which 
 they all accordingly did), '/or this represents my blood 
 of the new covenant ; this cup is the symbol and seat of 
 
THE NATURK OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 297 
 
 that new covenant, which hath '■'■ force''' through the 
 blood already virtually shed for you and for many, for 
 the remission of sins. Do this yourselves, and enjoin it 
 to be done by my Church, in remembrance ofme;^ for a 
 perpetual memorial of my atoning death and sacrifice, 
 wherever and whenever, till my coming again, that 
 death and sacrifice shall be celebrated." 
 
 Separated from the body of the paraphrase, the words 
 which have been more particularly examined stand 
 thus: "Jesus took bread, blessed, brake, and gave it to 
 his disciples, saying, 'Take, eat this bread ; this repre- 
 sents my body, which is given for you.' He took also 
 the cup, gave thanks, and distributed it to them, say- 
 ing, ' Drink ye all of this cup ; for this represents my 
 blood, which, according to the new covenant, is shed 
 for the remission of sins.' " This paraphrase, as it will 
 be seen, makes the words, " Take, eat," " Drink ye all 
 of this," refer back in the sentence to the bread and the 
 cup which Christ had first taken into his hands, and not 
 forward^ as in the paraphrase before given, to the body 
 and the blood which He was about to name ; and I am 
 now willing that others should judge for themselves 
 whether the former paraphrase or the latter gives the 
 true meaning of Christ in these most important words. 
 
 It is observable that, in all the passages which I have 
 cited, whether from the Old Testament or from the 
 New, as illustrative of the idiomatic character of 
 Christ's instituting words, the speakers were explaining 
 something significant. I add, so, evidently, was Christ, 
 in the language before us. In breaking and blessing the 
 bread, and in pouring the wine into the cup with thanks, 
 He had performed most deeply significant acts ; acts Avhich 
 He intended His ministers should copy to the end of 
 time. These acts, therefore, He must needs explain, to 
 the end that they might ever be rightly understood by 
 
298 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 the unbiased mind. He took the bread and brake it. 
 He took tlie wine and poured it forth. These were His 
 momentously significant acts. Their explanation imme- 
 diately followed. Of the bread He said, " This is my 
 body y" and of the wine^ " This is my blood f using a cus- 
 tomary idiom of their native tongue which His disci- 
 ples doubtless perfectly well understood to mean, " This 
 represents my body ; this represents my blood." Hence, 
 in speaking of the Supper themselves, before superstition 
 had crept into the Church, and, with her transforming 
 touch, had wrought up a Divine memorial into an unut- 
 terable mystery, they gather round it no words of dark 
 and awful import; they simply name it, "the Breaking 
 of Bread j" " the Lord's Supper ;" " the Lord's Table ;" 
 " the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ." 
 And, considering the work which, in more modern days, 
 Truth hath wrought in unweaving the thick spells of 
 superstition from around the monument of Himself 
 which Christ hath left in His Church, I confess it ap- 
 pears a matter for profoundest wonder that any in our 
 own Protestant Church should be found eager to weave 
 once more the fearful covering of mystery and of mira- 
 cle, and therewith to enshroud again in terrible pomp 
 these blessed memorials of their Savior's death and sac- 
 rifice for sin. Through the clear light of our Protest- 
 ant day the very idiom of His native tongue sounds 
 louder than ever, and, in its most intelligible tones, re- 
 bukes the strangely unnatural force which they would 
 again put on His simple words ! 
 
 In what has now been said no pretension to infallibil- 
 ity is urged. The Scriptures alone have been taken as 
 a guide ; and, in submission to their sole authority, there 
 has been an honest and a prayerful endeavor to under- 
 stand them, ^s thus consequently understood, they 
 are wholly opposed to the idea that, in order to salva- 
 
THE NATURE OF TUE LORd's SUPPER. 299 
 
 tion, it is necessary that the very body and blood of 
 Christ should be literally given by the hands of His 
 ministers, and received into the bodies and souls of His 
 disciples, along with the Divine symbols by which they 
 are represented. On this subject the Bible teaches no 
 more than this, that, in order to salvation, Christ, as 
 our Divine and atoning Savior, must be believed in^ trust' 
 ed, loved, and obediently followed ,' and that, in the sacra- 
 ment of His Supper, we feast, in common, with the whole 
 fellowship of believers, on the constituted symbols which 
 represent His death and passion, as endured in order to 
 procure the pardon of our sins, and to render forgive- 
 ness possible to our fellow-creatures. For the contrary 
 view no authority in the Bible is discoverable; and so 
 far as human authority should justly have weight here, its 
 teachings must be received as addressed to that faith 
 which, in the sacred Supper, sees the absent body of the 
 Savior as though present, or as present only in its divine- 
 ly-communicated benefits, and in its divinely-appointed 
 representatives ; to that faith which, thus seeing Him, 
 feeds spiritually on Him, to the great comfort and re- 
 freshing of the soul ; so that, in the language of our 
 Communion service, we " take and eat bread in remem- 
 brance that Christ died for us ; and feed on Him in our 
 hearts by faith^ with thanksgiving." 
 
300 THE NATURE OF THE LOKl/s StTPFEIt. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NATtTRE OF TlIE LORD^S SUPPEE. 
 
 ! Cos., xi., 23-26 •, " 23. For I have receiTed sf the Lord that which also J 
 delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was 
 betrayed, took bread : 24. And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and 
 said, ' Take, eat ; this ia my body, whjch is broken for yoB : this do in re- 
 membrance of nje.' 25. Aftei the same manner also he took the cup, when 
 he had supped, saying, 'This cup is the new testament in my blood : this 
 do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.' 26. For as often as ye 
 eat this bread, and djink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he 
 come." 
 
 In the previous chapter, on the nature of the Lord's 
 Supper, I exhibited a view of the subject which was 
 deemed erroneous, and the error of which was evinced 
 by an appeal to the Sacred Scriptures. In the present, 
 I shall add a few comments, by way of preparing for a 
 statement of the true Scriptural account of this institu- 
 tion. And let not the reader be shocked when I say 
 that, in making these comments, I shall do what was 
 proposed in the third place ; in other words, shall set 
 the erroneous view which has been exhibited in the 
 light of reason and of experience. Reason and experi- 
 ence are sacred things. The one is that light which 
 God hath set in the soul, and without which we can 
 read neither his Word nor his works. The other is 
 that Providential test, to which He himself brings, for 
 a trial far from useless, the truth or the falsehood of all 
 human theories. And that theory, even of this holy in- 
 stitution, which will not abide the test both of reason 
 and of experience, gives at least one weighty proof that 
 t can not abide the higher trial of God's Revealed Word. 
 ni. The view, then, to which I advert, consists in 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 301 
 
 maintaining that the very body and blood of Christ, 
 which were offered in sacrifice on the cross for the 
 sins of the world, are, in a manner inexplicable by us, 
 really present in the elements of bread and wine at the 
 Lord's Supper; that they are thus present ^'^ independ- 
 ently of faith,'''' or that, whether the communicant have 
 faith to discern them or not, still they are there ; and 
 that the office of faith is, not merely to believe in Christ 
 as a crucified and atoning Savior ; not merely to con- 
 template the broken body and the shed blood of Christ, 
 as they were offered in sacrifice on the cross ; not 
 merely to view his risen and glorified humanity, as it 
 ascended into heaven and as it remains there at the 
 right hand of the Father ; but really to discern that 
 broken body and that shed blood in the elements, by 
 believing those words of Christ, "This is my body and 
 this is my blood," which make them present ; and to re- 
 ceive them into the body and the soul of the faithful 
 communicant at the same time and together with the signs 
 by which they are represented.* 
 
 This view is not content with affirming that Christ is 
 present at his Holy Supper in His Divine nature as an 
 Infinite Spirit, or by the special benefits of his death 
 and sacrifice, which he communicates to his faithful 
 disciple, but asks us to believe that His very broken 
 body and shed blood are, however inscrutably, yet real- 
 
 * " Our faith doth not cause or make that presence, but apprehends it as 
 most truly and really effected by the Word of Christ ; and the faith whereby 
 we are said to eat the flesh of Christ is not that only whereby we believe 
 that He died for our sins (for this faith is required and supposed to precede 
 the sacramental manducation), but more properly that whereby we believe 
 those words of Christ, ' This is my body,' which was St. Austin's meaning 
 when he said, ' Why dost thou prepare thy stomach and thy teeth ? Be- 
 lieve, and thou hast eaten.' For in this mystical eating, by the wonderful 
 power of the Holy Ghost, we do invisibly receive the substance ol Christ's 
 body and blood as much as if we should eat and drink both visibly." — Tracts, 
 vol. i., p. 199, N. Y., quoted from Cosin, bishop of Durham. 
 
 Cc 
 
302 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 ly present with the elements ; and that they are actually- 
 conveyed by the hands of the officiator, and received 
 into the body and the soul of the Christian at the same 
 time with those elements. And they who urge this 
 view, call that opposite interpretation, " which regards 
 the consecrated elements as visible symbols only of his 
 absent body and blood," an " ultra-Protestant theory."* 
 
 1. Having sufficiently recalled this view of the Lord's 
 Supper, the first remark which I have to offer upon it is 
 this. It is based on the notion that salvation depends on 
 receiving into our bodies and souls the substance of the body 
 and blood of Christ ; that there must be, somehow, a 
 commixture and co-unio* of the substance of His body 
 and blood with our bodies and souls, in order to impart 
 to our own the incorruptibleness and the purity of His ;f 
 a commixture and co-union, indeed, which do not take 
 place by the process of natural digestion, but which, 
 nevertheless, by some unknown process, are actually 
 effected. 
 
 This notion, it has already been shown, is unscriptu- 
 ral. Receiving Christ, as Christ himself explains the 
 act, even under the strong figure of "eating His flesh 
 and drinking His blood," is believing on Him ; being 
 '■'■ drawn'^ to Him, '■'■ coming to Him," and '■'■ seeing''' Him 
 with that spiritual discernment which results from be- 
 ing " taught of God," and from having *' learned of Him." 
 It is relying on His sacrifice and righteousness, /oviwg 
 Him, and obeying His Word. It is taking by faith such 
 a view of His nature and character, of His office and 
 work, as to be thereby made partakers of the grace of 
 pardon, and, through the accompanying power of the 
 Spirit, to be influenced to newness and holiness both of 
 heart and life. It is, hy faith, "beholding as in a glass 
 
 * Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, N. Y., p. 96. 
 
 t Dr. Pusey's Sermon, p. 8, 9. Also Tracts, vol. i., N. Y., p. 206-7 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 303 
 
 the glory of the Lord" (a glass which becomes most 
 powerfully reflecting when placed in the light of this 
 sacrament), till " we are changed into the same image 
 from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
 
 It is now added, that receiving Christ in any other 
 sense is as unreasonable as it is unscriptural. Neither 
 carnally nor spiritually is the substance of his flesh and 
 blood, however spiritualized, to be received into and 
 commingled with the substance of our bodies and souls. 
 Except simply ^s faith relies and feeds on His atoning 
 sacrifice for pardon, adoption, and eternal life ; and as 
 thus, through the power of the Spirit, it brings His char- 
 acter into our characters, fashions us into a moral like- 
 ness to Him, and gives us herein the true secret of im- 
 mortal life and blessedness j aside from this reception 
 of Christ, there is no eating of His flesh, no drinking of 
 His blood. He gave His body to be a sacrifice for sin ; 
 and the bread, broken in the Sacred Supper, represents 
 the gift and the sacrifice in which it was offered. He 
 shed His blood for the remission of our sins; and the 
 wine poured out in the Divine Feast represents the blood 
 and the shedding, through which it avails for remission. 
 Yet, when we eat that bread and drink that wine, our act 
 is but love's memorial and faith's reception of His act. 
 We thereby " celebrate His death till He come ;" while, 
 at the same time, amid the solemnities of our commem- 
 oration, and through the sanctifyings of the Sp'nh, faith 
 feels a quickening as it feeds on the benefits of His sac- 
 rifice ; love burns with an intenser flame as it realizes 
 His love for our souls ; and obedience grows stronger 
 with hoth faith and love, because the soul is rapt away 
 into heaven, in unwonted communions with her risen 
 Lord, the now glorified Lamb of God. 
 
 Except in such a sense, there is no eating and drink- 
 ing the flesh and blood of Christ. The exercises which 
 
304 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 have been described are, indeed, called a sacramental 
 eating and drinking of that flesh and blood. This, how- 
 ever, rightly understood, means no more than receiving 
 the Lamb of God by faith, while we partake of that 
 bread and wine, which are the constituted signs of 
 Christ crucified, and which tixe figuratively called by the 
 name of the things signified.* But what Christ says, 
 when He speaks of "eating His flesh and drinking His 
 blood," was, as we have seen, not spoken of sacramental 
 eating and drinking; but, as He himself explained it, a 
 year before instituting His Supper, it was a strongly 
 typical expression of the act of " coming to Him" in 
 the obedience of submissive hearts, and of " believing on 
 Him" as the only Savior from sin ; an act which every 
 true Christian performs not only at the Lord's Supper, 
 but also at other times; and which, if we would go 
 guiltless, we must perform before we ever approach the 
 Lord's Table. 
 
 In the early, and toward the Middle Ages, figurative 
 language, like that of Christ in the sixth chapter of 
 John, was profusely used, abounding in most florid ex- 
 aggerations, and applied to the sacraments of the Gos- 
 pel, apparently with the design of exalting them in the 
 estimation of a people who had long been accustomed 
 to the dark and hidden mysteries of Paganism ; and 
 thus of meeting the charge that the new religion was a 
 naked system, without any deep and interior secrets. 
 By this process error was at length bred; the legisla- 
 
 * " ' If sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things whereof 
 they be sacraments, they should be no sacraments at all. And of this 
 similitude they do, for the most part, receive the names of the self-same things 
 they signify.' From these words of St. Augustine, it appeareth that he al- 
 loweth the common description of a sacrament, which is, that it is a visible 
 sign of an invisible grace ; that is to say, that setteth out to the eyes and 
 other outward senses the inward working of God's free mercy, and doth, as 
 it were, seal in our hearts the promises of God." — Homily of Common Prayer 
 and Sacraments, N. Y., 1817, p. 296-7. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 305 
 
 tion of the Church transubstantiated the figurative into 
 the literal ; and the notion that the real flesh and blood 
 of Christ are verily given and received in the Lord's Sup- 
 per took possession of the Church herself, and for ages 
 ruled both the faith and the language of her millions. 
 So deeply did the poison of this error infect the theolo- 
 gy and the modes of thought and speech of the Christ- 
 ians of the middle ages, that it influenced the phrase- 
 ology of those Reformers of the 16th century who were 
 willing to go to the stake for discarding the very error 
 which that phraseology had been accustomed to enwrap. 
 And even now, to those who read much and reverentially 
 the theological works of those ages of corruption, al- 
 though such readers may for the present reject the final 
 absurdity of transubstantiation into which the error ran, 
 yet there is great difficulty in dispossessing their minds 
 of the seminal principle of that absurdity — the idea that, 
 together with the elements of bread and wine, and by 
 the hands of those who minister, the very flesh and blood 
 of Christ are given and received into the bodies and 
 souls of the faithful in the Lord's Supper. To use very 
 modern language on this subject — language which I 
 could not make my own without a shudder — Christ's 
 ministers are " intrusted with the awful and mysterious 
 gift of making tiie bread and wine Christ's body and 
 blood ;"* and this body and blood, " in the celebration 
 of the holy Eucharist, are as ir\x\Y given as they are rep- 
 resentedy^ But to the spiritually enlightened as well 
 as devout traveler into antiquity, who leaps over that 
 immense mass of scholastic subtleties which makes 
 even the truths of the Middle Ages dark, and who 
 alights far back amid the unobscured truth and glory of 
 the Age of Revelation itself, there is no difficulty in un- 
 derstanding that sacramental eating and drinking con- 
 * Tracts, vol. i., p. 55. t Idem, p. 214. 
 
 Cc2 
 
306 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 sist simply in receiving the divinely-constituted sym.' 
 Ms, or representations, of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, 
 accompanied by a living faith in the sacrifice represent- 
 ed, and in Him who gave himself to be that sacrifice ; 
 and that the language in which, a year before He gave 
 himself to the cross, He spake of " eating His flesh and 
 drinking His blood," is but a strong, though vitally im- 
 portant figure for what He so uniformly inculcates as 
 the very ground of our hope of salvation; I mean the 
 act of obediently "coming to Him," and truly "believ- 
 ing on Him," as the only Savior of lost men. 
 
 2. The second remark which I have to offer on this 
 part of the subject is this : that the erroneous view 
 which has been exhibited includes the doctrine that 
 pardon, or the remission of sins after baptism, is not only 
 commemorated and sealed, but also conveyed by this or- 
 dinance. 
 
 Of the connection of baptism with the remission of 
 sins I have already spoken. That of the Lord's Supper 
 with the same benefit equally demands our discrimina- 
 ting regards. 
 
 One of the expressions in the instituting words of 
 Christ is to this effect: " This is my blood of the New 
 Testament, which is shed for you and for many /or the 
 remission of sins.^^ On the theory, then, that, by the 
 act of consecration, the elemental bread and wine be- 
 come mysteriously changed into the body and blood of 
 Christ, it easily follows that this blood, being still shed, 
 still poured forth, does actually convey, in the mystery 
 of the sacrament, " the remission of sins." Hence the 
 following language from a distinguished advocate of this 
 theory. Having spoken of the benefits of the Lord's 
 Supper to Christians, of its "gift /or the holy," and pro- 
 ceeding to speak of its benefits to ^^ sinners," of its 
 "special joy" for the guilty, he says, "Although most 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 307 
 
 which is spoken belongs to Christians, as belonging al- 
 ready to the household of saints, and the family of 
 heaven, and the communion of angels, and unity with 
 God, still here, as elsewhere in the New Testament, 
 there is a subordinate and subdued notion of sin" (that 
 is, there is this notion of sin in the sacrament) ; so that 
 " what wraps the saint already in the third heaven, may 
 yet uphold us sinners, that the pit shut not her mouth 
 upon us. The same reality of the Divine gift makes it" 
 (the sacrament) " angel's food to the saint, the ransom 
 to the sinner / and both, because it is the body and blood 
 of Christ. Were it only a thankful commemoration of 
 His redeeming love, or only a showing forth of His 
 death, or a strengthening only and refreshing of the 
 soul, it were, indeed, a reasonable service ; but it would 
 have no direct healing for the sinner. To him its special 
 joy is, that it is his Redeemer's very broken body ; it is 
 His blood, which was shed for the remission of his sins. 
 In the words of the ancient Church, he ' drinks his ran- 
 som ;' he eateth that, ' the very body and blood of the 
 Lord,' the only sacrifice for sin: God 'poureth out' for 
 him yet ' the most precious blood of His only begot- 
 ten.' "* Again : " This may have been another truth 
 which our Lord intended to convey to us when He pro- 
 nounced the words, as the form which consecrates the sac- 
 ramental elements into His body and blood, that that pre- 
 cious blood is still, in continuance and application of His 
 one oblation once made upon the cross, poured out for 
 us now, conveying to our souls, as being His blood, with 
 the other benefits of His passion, the remission of our 
 sins ahoy " That which is in the cup," St. Chrysostom 
 paraphrases, " is that which flowed from His side, and 
 of that do we partake." How should we approach His 
 sacred side, and remain leprous still 1 Touching with 
 * Dr. Pusey's Sermon, N. Y., p. 9. 
 
308 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 our very lips that cleansing blood, how may we not, with 
 the ancient Church, confess, " Lo, this hath touched my 
 lips, and shall take away mine iniquities, and cleanse my 
 sins ?"* 
 
 So, then, we have the full-grown doctrine, that this sac- 
 rament brings a " direct healing for the sinner ;" that those 
 who fall (as all do fall) into actual sin after baptism may, 
 though not Christians in the sense of being saints, or holy, 
 go, as sinners, to the sacrament, "touch their lips to the 
 blood which flowed from the side" of their Redeemer, " and 
 remain leprous no longer ;" but receive there remission of 
 their sins, and have their iniquities taken away ! And 
 this, because Christ, by His form of words, " consecrates 
 the sacramental elements into His body and blood !" By 
 that perpetual miracle, " His blood is, in continuance and 
 application of His one oblation, still poured forth for us ; 
 and still, by this continuance, conveys the remission of our 
 sins." 
 
 How different this from the true doctrine of the Bible I 
 This Word of God, interpreted by the laws of the language 
 in which his own inspired servants spake, does not say that 
 the words of Christ consecrate the elemental bread and 
 wine into his body and blood. All that His words really 
 imply is, that the bread and the wine are His body and His 
 blood, in the well-known Scriptural sense of representing 
 that body and that blood. Thus, by the force of its own 
 simple, self-interpreting law, the Bible sweeps clean away 
 the very foundation of the monstrous superstructure of doc- 
 trine which has been built on these truly reasonable words 
 of Christ. The blood of Christ was shed for the remission 
 of sin, not at the institution of the sacrament, but on the Cross 
 of Calvary ; and the pouring of the wine in the Lord's Sup- 
 per is, and till the end of time will remain, but a silently- 
 speaking memorial of that glorious sacrifice in which proph- 
 * Dr. Pusey's Sermon, N, Y., p. 10. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 309 
 
 ecy was fulfilled, and on which hangs the hope of a world's 
 salvation. With this, the instituting words of Christ, inter, 
 preted by the idiom of his own language, perfectly accord. 
 " Drink ye all of this cup ; for this represents my blood of 
 the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remis- 
 sion of sins. Do this, as often as ye drink it, in remem- 
 brance of me." To convert this simple memorial into a 
 mysteriously actual " continuance''' of Christ's bloodshed- 
 ding; to consider the body of the Church as, by a standing 
 miracle, the perpetuated incarnation of Christ ; and the high 
 sacrament of the Church as that miraculously-continued sac- 
 rifice in which His blood still flows for the remission of sins 
 (and this is now the undisguised form of the theory here 
 opposed), is most evidently to fabricate a mere human no- 
 tion, for which, as the Bible furnishes it no support, the 
 Bible is in no way accountable. Every where, through 
 the Bible, the pardon of sin is seen to depend on the shed- 
 ding of the blood of atonement ; every where, through the 
 Bible, we see outward rites pointing us to this central 
 truth of our religion ; but nowhere in the Bible are we 
 taught that the pardon of sin is conveyed by these outward 
 rites. 
 
 Hear what the apostle says of these riles under the old 
 dispensation. " Every priest standeth daily ministering, 
 and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never 
 take away sins." Hear, too, what he says of the One true 
 sacrifice, which does take away sins, and which was once 
 beheld by looking forward through the types of the old dis- 
 pensation, and is now seen by looking backward through the 
 symbols of the new. Speaking of Christ, as the only real, 
 atoning High Priest, he says, that " after He had offered 
 one sacrifice for sins. He forever sat down on the right hand 
 of God," no more to appear among men in the work of sacri- 
 fice ; " for by one offering He hath perfected forever them 
 that are sanctified." In Him we " have redemption through 
 
310 THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 
 
 His blood — the forgiveness of sins." Mark, now, what fol- 
 lows. " Where remission of these is, there is no more offer- 
 ing for Jin." — Heb., x., 11, 12, 14, 18. Christ, by His 
 one bloodshedding, having, once for all, opened the way of 
 forgiveness, all sacrifice for sin thenceforward ceased. The 
 true offering for sin was full and complete, when, on the 
 cross, Jesus exclaimed, '* It is finished" bowed his head, 
 and died. And being finished then, it needs no continu- 
 ance now, other than that outward revelation of the Word, 
 and that inward revelation of the Spirit, which make it ef- 
 fectually known to faith. The High Sacrament of the 
 Church is not designed to be a daily or a stated repetition, 
 or continuance, of Christ's once and forever perfected sacri- 
 fice — a repeated or continual opening of the fountain of his 
 blood, in order to render remission of sin still possible, or 
 accessible. It is, like the types of the old dispensation, but 
 a silent, significant, symbolic teacher, telling us, guilty sin- 
 ners, where to go, where to look, as the only source to which 
 we can go or look for that forgiveness, without which our 
 everlasting perishing is sealed. 
 
 One great danger, additional to the intrinsic error, or 
 growing out of the inherent falsehood of the teaching which 
 directs men to this sacrament for the pardon of post-baptis- 
 mal sin — a pardon authoritatively dispensed by priestly in- 
 tervention — is, that multitudes of darkened souls will, as 
 they so often have done, stop at the sacrament itself ; rest 
 in the mere sign for their forgiveness ; and never see, through 
 or beyond it, that grand, life-giving, soul-saving act of Christ, 
 in which alone is wrapped up their everlasting salvation, and 
 missing the sight of which by faith, they miss forever the 
 enjoyment of what it oflers. The teaching here indicated 
 is too full of peril to be found in the Gospel of our salvation. 
 It is calculated to hush myriads of otherwise uneasy con- 
 sciences into a quiet indulgence in a life of actual impeni- 
 tence, under the soothing thought that they may, if not pur- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 311 
 
 chase a pardon with money in a mass, at least "drink" it, 
 with "their ransom," from a chalice. To such blind self- 
 deception, woful experience tells us, is the natural mind 
 every where prone ! It is not necessary, in this place, to 
 speculate on the question, how far some minds may hold 
 error here in connection with truth ; or how far they may 
 see through the error and reach the truth ; or whether they 
 may not thus, in spUe of their error, be saved through the 
 truth 1 It is enough for us to know that such power to pen- 
 etrate the mists of moral darkness is not natural to the eye- 
 sight of the human mind ; and that neither is it the ordi- 
 nary way of the Spirit to use error as a medium through 
 which to make the truth apparent. It is enough for us to 
 know that the human mind is always fearfully inclined to 
 rest in outward observances, and to make a religion oi forms 
 a salve to the conscience when rendered sore by the neg- 
 lect of a religion oi power. 
 
 When viewed mainly as signs, this sacrament readily 
 points us, by a language peculiarly its own, to the vastly 
 important and vital thing signijied. But, when considered 
 as a conferring and conveying ordinance, communicating the 
 pardon which it only symbolizes and seals, it proves but a 
 veil to make still darker the already darkened heart of the 
 natural man. Christ evidently designed His ordinances to 
 be a system of indices, pointing men solely to Himself. 
 Error makes them but a set of blinds, screening Him the 
 more effectually from view ! 
 
 What is contended for on this point is, that it is the 
 great teaching of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ came to be 
 " the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world" 
 (John, i., 29) ; that He came to be this Lamb of sacrifice, 
 by shedding His blood on the cross ; that " whosoever be- 
 lieveth on Him" (thus crucified) " shall receive remission 
 of sins" (Acts, x., 43) ; that He is " the end of the law for 
 righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom., x., 4) ; 
 
312 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 that " by Him all that believe are justified from all things, 
 from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses" 
 (Acts, xiii., 39) ; in short, that " God so loved the world that 
 whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life" (John, iii., 16) ; should receive a free for- 
 giveness of sin, and (continuing in the faith) a full and per- 
 fect salvation. All this, and much more to the same pur- 
 pose, is said in the Gospel of the remission of sin, in those 
 unqualified, absolute, universal terms, which avail to carry 
 the assurance of pardon and life to every believer in Jesus, 
 wherever the knowledge of His atoning sacrifice may come ; 
 an assurance of this pardon and life to faith alone as the se- 
 cret link of union with the Savior, and as the root of all true 
 holiness. This teaching is the one glorious burden of the 
 Gospel ; and we can no more put it out of sight than we can 
 put out the sun in the firmament ! It opens God's way for 
 the remission of sins ; a way in which whosoever walketh 
 shall never perish. 
 
 But, says the theory which we are examining, although 
 the atoning sacrifice of Christ be the only meritorious cause 
 of the remission of sins, yet the sacraments of the Church 
 are the truly instrumental cause of this remission. The 
 pardon which Christ purchased on the cross, He conveys 
 through the sacraments. 
 
 Here, however, starts up the question, What, then, be- 
 comes of those myriads who have the Word of God, and 
 hear the Gospel preached, and believe in Christ " with all 
 the heart" and yet have not access to the sacraments of 
 the Church in the only sense in which this theory under- 
 stands the sacraments ? a question to which the theorists 
 have nothing to reply but this : that if such are saved, it is 
 not by promise, not by guarantee, not by covenant ; but in 
 some way of which God hath been pleased to tell us 
 nothing ; perhaps by those superaboundings of grace, of 
 which the Church, as " a vessel of mercy," is so unconfina- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 313 
 
 bly full that they overfloiv, and reach even to those hapless 
 believers who are providentially left (if not left too far) 
 beyond the limits of covenanted favor. This reply, how- 
 ever, brings out the thoroughly unscriptural character of the 
 theory to which it belongs. According to the Bible, all 
 to whom the Gospel comes, and who truly believe in 
 Christ, are saved, not by the vague possibilities of " uncove- 
 nanted mercy," but under the guarantee of promise, covenant, 
 and oath. The covenant of grace goes with the Word of 
 God, and reaches wherever that Word is received into the 
 faith of renewed hearts. It is not circumscribed by the 
 walls of a visible Church, especially as those walls are built 
 by the architects of this restrictive theory. It covers with 
 its Divine Palladium every believer in Jesus who, having 
 that Word in which it is revealed, clasps it to his heart, and 
 lives on its assurance. Every such one has, by those " two 
 immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, a 
 strong consolation;" he is among those "heirs of promise" 
 to whom " God hath more abundantly shown the immuta- 
 bility of His counsel," in that He " confirmed it by an oath*^ 
 Such a one •' hath fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope 
 set before him ;" and this " hope he hath as an anchor of 
 the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into 
 that within the veil ; whither the Forerunner is for us enter- 
 ed — even Jesus, made a high-priest forever, after the order 
 of Melchisedec." — Heb., vi., 17-20. Every such believer, 
 I repeat, is saved, not by chance, or by possibility, or by j^cr- 
 adventure, but by promise, and under the oath of the cove- 
 nant, whether he fall within or without those walls of the 
 visible Church, which are drawn and reared by the hands 
 of this limitarian theory. God hath not two revealed ways 
 in which He extends remission of sins to the disciples of 
 Jesus ; He hath but one such way ; this way excludes every 
 other, wherever the knowledge of the Savior comes ; and 
 this way is thus marked out : " God so loved ike world, that 
 
 D n 
 
314 THE NATUKE OF THE LORd's SUPPER, 
 
 He gave His only-begotten Son^ that whosoevek helieveih 
 on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 What, then, have the saeraments to do with the remission 
 of sins, that our Church should, in her offices for baptisnj 
 and the Lord's Supper, say so much of this remission in 
 connection with those sacraments ? I reply, as when the 
 subject of baptism was under consideration^ they have jusit 
 this to do with the blessing : they are symbols of remission, 
 and seals of the promise to forgive on the terms of the cove- 
 nant.* The covenant, as bound up in God^s Word, may go 
 without its sealSj as placed in the hands of His Church ; 
 and yet thes€ seals, where they may be had, are not trifling 
 things ; they are of deep significancy, and of rich value ; 
 better have them than be without them ; and yet, better that 
 our right arm were palsied, than that we should attempt to 
 stay the flight of the angel of the covenant, as He goeth 
 forth to carry, with the " everlasting Gospel," pardon and 
 peace to every poor sinner that will believe, because that 
 Messenger of good news carrieth not with Him every where 
 those rich and precious seals with which, for their greater 
 comfort and benefit, He hath been pleased to favor the 
 actual members of the Chvirch. 
 
 3. The third remark which I have to make on the theory 
 before us is this : The real presence of the body and blood of 
 Christ in this sacrament, as now so zealously taught, is a 
 thing impossible. 
 
 It is true, we are told by the theory that this presence is 
 spiritual and invisible. Still, we are also told that it is real ; 
 that it is not an ideal presence ; that it is not faith, seeing 
 Christ's crucified body on the cross ; nor faith seeing 
 Christ's glorified body in heaven ; but that it is his real 
 
 * So says the Homily, when it speaks of the sacraments as " visible 
 signs, expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto is annexed 
 the promise of free forgiveness of our sins," «fcc. — Homily on Com. Prayer 
 and Sacraments, N, Y,, 1815, p, 299, 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 315 
 
 hody, sometimes described as " the very body and blood 
 which were broken and shed on the cross,"* and at others 
 named without any such limitations ; but, whether thus de- 
 fined or not, still his real body and blood, present with the el- 
 ements of the sacrament ; and thus present, whether faith dis- 
 cerns them or not, or though the communicant have no faith 
 for the discernment. This, I repeat, is impossible. For, be- 
 sides the truth taught by the apostle, that " flesh and blood 
 can not inherit the kingdom of God" — and that, therefore, 
 Christ's risen, and spiritualized, and glorified body has nei- 
 ther jlesh nor blood, in any sense of those terms — besides 
 this, it is a universal and necessary attribute of body, even 
 in its spiritualized state, that it exists in place, is limited by 
 place, and can not be present in more than one place at one 
 and the same time. Refine, spiritualize, glorify body as we 
 will, and render it as invisible as we may, even by the ab- 
 sence from it of flesh and blood, still it is but body, with its 
 lines and limits, and can no more exist in two places at one 
 and the same time than it can when robed in its grossest 
 visibility.t It is, therefore, impossible that even the spirit- 
 ual and glorified body of Christ should be in heaven and yet 
 on earth ; or that it should be present on earth, at one and 
 the same time, in all the places where this sacrament is si- 
 multaneously administered. Of course, such a presence is 
 still more impossible (if impossibilities may be compared) 
 when predicated of the " very body and blood of Christ 
 
 * Dr. Pusey's Sermon, p. 9, N. Y. 
 
 t The English Prayer Book, in explaining the posture of kneeling, as re- 
 quired of the Enghsh communicant, says, among other things, " It is hereby 
 declared, that thereby no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either 
 unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received, or unto any cor- 
 poreal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood. For the sacramental 
 bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore 
 may not be adored (for that were idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful 
 Christians) ; and the natural body and blood of our Savior Christ are in heav- 
 en, and not here^ it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at 
 one time in more places than one." 
 
316 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 which were broken and shed on the cross" which, as com- 
 posed of the corruptibilities of flesh and blood, were dropped 
 when his glorified body sprang up from the rock of Joseph ; 
 and which, consequently, are no longer in existence any 
 where, as a separate, organic human frame. To suppose such 
 a presence of his body, whether under the one or the other 
 of these forms, is to suppose that Jiiiite body, like infinite 
 spirit, may be omnipresent. It is to teach as thorough an 
 absurdity and injpossibility as that the bread and wine are, 
 by the miracle of a priestly consecration, themselves transub- 
 stantiated wherever this sacrament is administered, so that 
 they are no longer bread and wine, but the true, visible 
 body and blood of Christ ; yea, as many such bodies as 
 there are simultaneous administrations of this sacrament, or 
 even as there are separate communicants who, at one and 
 the same time, are held to receive, each and every one, 
 whole and entire, the undivided body and blood, soul and 
 divinity, of the Lord Jesus Christ ! 
 
 Take this subject as it lies in the Bible, and all is simple 
 and plain. The crucified and broken body of Christ exists 
 for us, in its organic form, only on the cross, where, once 
 for all, its great office '■'■ was finished." His risen and glo- 
 rified body exists only and always in heaven, where he " is 
 forever set down at the right hand of God." At his sacred 
 Supper, then, wherever simultaneously administered over 
 the face of the wide e^xih., faith takes the soul of every be- 
 liever either to his cross on Calvary, or to his throne in 
 heaven, and shows him there, according to the bent which 
 his spirit may have received, either the pierced and bleed- 
 ing form of Him who once died for his sins, or the beatified 
 and triumphant form of Him who now reigns, his Advo- 
 cate with the Father on high. No matter from what wide 
 extremes of the earth His communing disciples thus look 
 upon Him ; there He is, the one gathering-point of all their 
 worshiping thoughts, the one object of faith's adoring 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 317 
 
 vision to all his countless followers below ; made, through 
 their faith, the " spiritual food," and the " heavenly refec- 
 tion" of their longing souls.* 
 
 But the moment we adopt a theory which brings His body 
 down either from the cross to the communion table, or from 
 heaven to earth, and which makes Him really and bodily 
 present in the sacrament, as simultaneously administered in 
 numberless places, or in any two places, that moment our 
 theory involves an impossibility ; while, at the same time, 
 it plunges the company of His followers into a sea of confu- 
 sion, where waves of conjecture and imagination, of super- 
 stition and error, toss and mix themselves incessantly, leav- 
 ing the inquiring mind no resting-place but that which it 
 finds by driving through uncertainty into utter dissatisfac- 
 tion ; from utter dissatisfaction into perplexing doubt ; and 
 from perplexing doubt into blank unbelief! 
 
 I said the inquiring mind can find no resting-place but 
 this, under such a theory. I add, some minds will be al- 
 ways inquiring, and, at times, the mass of mind will be 
 roused to inquiry. The mind of man can not be, always 
 and every where, broken into bondage, into an unquestion- 
 ing submission to mere human authority, as it binds its bur- 
 dens of absurdity on the backs of abject ignorance, even 
 though it be beneath the awfully heavy rod of religious ter- 
 rors that it is first made to stoop. Prone to the earth as all 
 minds are through sin, and willing as many are to be fet- 
 
 * " We ought" (says the Homily, repeating " the advice of the Council 
 of Nice"), "we ought to lift up our minds by faith, and leaving these infe- 
 rior and earthly things, there seek it (the body of Christ) where the Sun of 
 Righteousness ever shineth. Take, then, this lesson" — " that, when thou go- 
 est up to the reverend communion, to be satisfied with spiritual meats, thou 
 look up with faith upon the holy body and blood of thy God, thou marvel 
 with reverence, thou touch it" (not with thy lips) " with the mind, thou re- 
 ceive it" (not from the hand that ministers) "with the hand of thy heart, 
 and thou take it fully" (not into thy body) " with thy inward man.'' — Homi' 
 ly of the worthy receiving and reverent esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body 
 and Blood of Christ, N. Y., 1815, p. 279-80. 
 
 Dd3 
 
318 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 tered even for life in ignorance, yet there are always some 
 that will not be slaves in understanding, though they may 
 be slaves to passion ; and others, who will not be slaves 
 either in the one sense or in the other ; while, at the same 
 time, there is ever a liability to those crises, when the mass 
 of mind will be roused from ignoble lethargy, and when 
 those master spirits that always rise from such a " vasty 
 deep" of agitation, will seize on the excited elements, and 
 work them up into a tempest capable of scattering the 
 gloomy fabrics of superstition into one wide wreck. Such 
 crises have occurred ; they may again occur ; and when- 
 ever they do occur, they present those emergencies in 
 which myriads of valuable minds are driven from their 
 moorings in the harbor of the Church, and thus, what was 
 intended to keep them bound to an unquestioning credulity 
 (for it can not be called faith), results in forcing them off 
 into cold unbelief, and even into utter atheism ! 
 
 The difficulty in the theory under examination, which 
 arises from the necessity of supposing the body of Christ 
 to be brought from heaven to earth, and, in fact, to exist 
 simultaneously in more than one place, has not been unper- 
 ceived by the advocates of that theory. Hence some, al- 
 though they seem disinclined to meet the difficulty in its 
 whole breadth, yet tell us thus much : " This manner 
 of presence is unaccountable, and past finding out ; not to 
 be searched and pried into by reason, but beliered hy faith. 
 And if it seem impossible that the flesh of Christ should de- 
 scend and come to be our food through so great a distance, 
 we must remember how much the power of the Holy Spirit 
 exceeds our sense and our apprehensions, and how absurd 
 it would be to undertake to measure His immensity by our 
 weakness and narrow capacity; and so make owx faith to 
 conceive and believe what our reason can not comprehend."* 
 
 * Tracts, vol., i., N. Y. ed., p. 199. 
 
 I am not ignorant of the explanation of this difficulty given in the fa- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 319 
 
 But to what does all this amount, but the presenting of an 
 
 unaccountably absurd notion, demanding for it an unques- 
 
 mous Tract No. 90. But, really, that explanation seems to me a quibble 
 unworthy of a serious author. The writer was led to it by the force of the 
 language of the English Prayer Book, already cited. This language, as we 
 have seen, denies the " corporeal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood" 
 in the sacrament. This, the writer intimates, was intended to deny, not 
 the real, but only the carnal presence of Christ's body. That is, Christ's 
 presence in the Eucharist, though not corporeal in the sense oi carnal, is yet 
 real and bodily in the sense uncarnMe. 
 
 Again, the language of the English Prayer Book says, " The natural body 
 and blood of our Savior Christ are in heaven, and not here ; it being against 
 the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more places thaa 
 one." And this, the writer intimates, is intended again to deny, not the real, 
 but only the local presence of that body and blood in the sacrament. And 
 then he gives a dissertation of several pages to prove that, in the Eucharist, 
 Christ "is reully here, yet not locally ;" and to show what is meant by be- 
 ing " really, yet not locally present." The result which he reaches is, that 
 "locally, Christ's body and blood are at God's right hand; yet really, they 
 are present here." 
 
 And how does he reach this result ? I can not follow the whole process 
 by which he reaches it ; but its principal steps are these. " Why should 
 the perception of our eyes or our ears be the standard of presence or dis- 
 tance ? Christ may really be close to us, though in heaven, and His pres- 
 ence in the sacrament may be but a manifestation to the worshiper of that 
 nearness; not a change of place, which may be unnecessary." "The body 
 and blood of Christ may be really, literally present in the Holy Eucharist ; 
 yef, not having become present by local passage, may still, literally and really, 
 be at God's right hand." Illustration. " A thing is present, which is so 
 circumstanced as to act upon us, and influence us, whether we are sensible 
 of it or not." " The stars are millions of miles off, yet they impress ideas 
 upon our souls through our sight." " Sight, for certain purposes, annihi- 
 lates space." " Other unknown capacities, bodily or spiritual, may annihi- 
 late it for other purposes." Christ may "open the heavens," "in the sac- 
 ramental rite," and " then dispense with time and space, in Che sense 
 in which they are daily dispensed with in the sun's warming us at the 
 distance of 100,000,000 of miles." " Locomotion is the means of a mate- 
 rial presence ; the sacrament is the means of His spiritual presence." " We 
 kneel before his heavenly throne, and the distance is as nothing; it is 
 as if that throne were the altar close to us." — Tract No. 90, London, 1841, 
 p. 52-57. 
 
 At this explanation I confess astonishment ! Tioes all the talk of these 
 writers, then, on this point, come but to this: that the body and blood of 
 Christ are present in the sacrament because, though locally in heaven, they 
 are yet so circumstanced in tlial rite as to infiuejux us on earth ? that, as the 
 
320 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 tioning faith, and forbidding reason to inquire into its possi- 
 bility? If this principle be allowed, what unaccountable 
 
 stars and the sun affect our senses and impress ideas on our souls through 
 the distance of incalculable millions of miles, and may, therefore, be said to 
 be present to us ; so the body of Christ influences us and impresses ideas on 
 our souls, even from its seat at God's right hand, and may, therefore, be 
 said to be present to us in the sacrament ! Why, this seems to amount onlif 
 to the scriptural and reasonable truth, that the body and blood of Christ are, 
 at the Lord's Supper, present to our faith, as the spiritual faculty which an- 
 nihilates time and space ; that faith sees them, though locally absent, and 
 thus makes them effectively present ; giving them influence over our souls, 
 and making them " our spiritual food and sustenance in that holy sacra'- 
 ment." This is the very doctrine which we hold, and ag-ainst which, in 
 other places, these writers so strenuously contend ! Can such an explana- 
 tion have treen seriously given ? Notwithstanding all that has, in so many 
 ■ways, been said to prove that the very body and blood of Christ are in the 
 Eucharist, and that they are conveyed by the hands of the minister, and rev 
 ceived into the body and soul of the communicant at the same time and to- 
 gether with their signs, does it, after all, mean but this : " We kneel before 
 His heavenly throne, and the distance is as nothing ; it is as if that throne 
 were the altar close to us?" No ; this is not all that is meant ; and there 
 are phrases in the explanation which show that it is not. I refer to such as 
 these : " We know nothing to negative the notion, that the soul may be ca- 
 pable of having Christ present to it by the stimulating of dormant, or the de^ 
 velopment of jiossible energies. As sight, for certain purposes, annihilates 
 space, so other unlawum capacities, bodily cr spiritual, may annihilate it for 
 ether purposes." This shows that, after all that is said by way of explain- 
 ing a real and bodily presence into a mere presence to the contemplation 
 of faith, they still carry the idea of a presence, which can be effected only 
 by a miracle ; by the " stimulating of dormant, or the development of possible en- 
 ergies," or by the working of an " unknown bodily capacity," which, for the 
 purpose contemplated in the sacrament, may " annihilate space," and so 
 make Christ's body really present in the Eucharist, though Ixally absent in 
 heaven. 
 
 The truth is, no one can read the other writings of these authors, and 
 then read the explanation to which we have been attending, without feeling 
 that what is ostensible in that explanation is but a cover, convenient for the 
 occasion, thrown over the real meaning which is held of a true bodily pres- 
 ence in the Eucharist. This may be well intended, but it is wrong. In 
 sober discussion, no man may use at one moment plain English terms, and 
 at another moment virtually say they mean no such thing as their words 
 imply. They must be held to the literal meaning of their ordinary language^, 
 and not be allowed to escape through an explanation to which they may 
 be driven by an emergency. 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 321 
 
 absurdity, nay, what palpable impossibility, may not be 
 brought forward and urged on the unreasoning credulity of 
 blinded men ? 
 
 The extract, as I have remarked, does not meet the whole 
 breadth of the difficulty. This difficulty does not arise 
 from the necessity of bringing the body of Christ once or 
 twice, or any number of times, from heaven to earth 5 but 
 from the necessity of so bringing it down to earth as that it 
 shall yet remain in heaven, where it is " set down forever at 
 the right hand of God ;" nor only so, but, moreover, from the 
 necessity of so bringing it down as that, while it remains in 
 heaven, it shall yet be present, whole and entire, at one 
 and the same moment, in many and in distant places of the 
 earth. Nevertheless, though the extract does not meet the 
 tvhole of the difficulty, yet it looks toward that difficulty ; 
 and, in doing so, adopts a principle which, if allowed, will 
 be found to imbody a power sufficient to force any absurd- 
 ity, any impossibility, on the unreasoning credulity of blind- 
 ed men. Such teaching comeih not of the Bible! This is 
 not a question whether '■'■faith shall conceive what reason 
 can not comprehend." Such demands on the faculty ad- 
 dressed by revelation may undoubtedly be made. Thus, 
 reason can not comprehend how the human and the Divine 
 natures were once so united as to form one Christ. And 
 yet faith may be called on to receive the doctrine, because, 
 while it is revealed, it involves neither absurdity nor impos- 
 sibility, being merely incomprehensible. Nor, again, is the 
 present a question touching the possible modes of God's 
 existence as an infinite Spirit. For although reason can 
 not comprehend how God, as such a Spirit, can be omni- 
 present, yet faith may be required to believe, because the 
 doctrine is revealed, and because it involves nothing either 
 absurd or impossible. But the question now before us is 
 one which touches the presence or omnipresence of that 
 body of Christ, in which God hath been pleased to become 
 
822 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 " manifest in the flesh ;" " of that very substance which He 
 took of the Blessed Virgin, and afterward carried with Him 
 into heaven."* This is the question with which we are 
 here concerned ; and being such, we say to it, that of the 
 modes of bodily existence we do know something, and in 
 the simple light of that reason with which God hath en- 
 dowed us, can conceive more. We are not, therefore, to 
 be awed from inquiries into it by the suggestion that this 
 would be to question the omnipotence of the Divine Spirit. 
 It is, indeed, said that " with God all things are possible." 
 But this is spoken with necessary and well-known limita- 
 tions. Some things are impossible even with Him. Change, 
 incongruity, sin, falsehood, absurdity, are impossible with 
 Him. This notion of the implied ubiquity of Christ's glori- 
 fied body is both false and absurd. It, therefore, is clearly 
 impossible, and can not be forced on us as the meaning of 
 that Divine Teacher, in whom dwelt ever the spirit of clear, 
 transparent wisdom, and of reasonable, though sometimes 
 unfathomable truth. Let us believe Him when He says, 
 " This is my body, this is my blood ;" and let us believe all 
 that He means by the saying. But, at the same time, let 
 us believe only what He means as interpreted by the laws 
 of His own language ; for to believe more or other than this 
 is to believe not Him, but our own perhaps absurd conceits. 
 4. The fourth and last, perhaps the most important, re- 
 mark which I have to offer on the theory before us, is this : 
 the great error which it imbodies is a moral generant ; that 
 is, it produces other errors. 
 
 If the error concerning the real presence of the body and 
 blood of Christ stood alone, a barren notion, incapable of 
 moral production, the evil from it would be less ; though even 
 then it would be of sufiicient magnitude to justify the strong- 
 est protest against its admission. But it stands not alone j 
 it is not a barren notion ; it is prolific ; and its offspring are, 
 * Tracts, vol. i., N. Y., p. 202. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 323 
 
 if possible, more mischievous than their parent. This re- 
 mark opens a wide field ; so wide, that I shall not attempt to 
 explore its whole breadth. A few words must suffice to in- 
 dicate something of its extent and of its contents. 
 
 (1.) Perhaps, then, the first oflspring which the error 
 produces, is the doctrine that, in the Lord's Supper, there is 
 offered a " true liost ;" in plainer English, a real sacrifice. 
 This conception had its birth centuries ago ; and it is fast 
 growing, or, rather, has fully grown, into the views and lan- 
 guage of many of our own religious teachers. Hence, we 
 are told that, in the Lord's Supper, the sinner " drinks his 
 ransom ; he eateth that, the very body and blood of the 
 Lord, the only sacrifice for sin."* " That precious blood is 
 still, in continuance and application of His one oblation once 
 made upon the cross, poured out for us now, conveying to 
 our souls, as being His blood, with the other benefits of His 
 passion, the remission of our sins also."t The writers in 
 question call the sacrifice, which is oflfered in the Eucharist, 
 a " commemorative, impetraiory sacrifice ;" and hold that, " by 
 this sacrifice is obtained remission of sins for the whole 
 Church, and some additional refreshment for the souls of 
 the dead in their intermediate state. ";{: 
 
 If it be true that Christ's body and blood are really, even 
 though invisibly, present in the sacrament. His body broken 
 and His blood shed, and both made an oblation unto God, 
 it of course follows that, in every repetition of the sacra- 
 ment, there is a repetition, or " continuance,^' of the sacri- 
 fice of Christ ; in a sense subordinate, it is true, to that in 
 which it was offered on the cross, but still, a " true host," 
 a real sacrifice ; " commemorative and impetratory ;" avail- 
 able for pardon to the living members of the Church ; and 
 (as the theorists will have it) not without benefit to the be- 
 
 * Pusey's Sermon, p. 9. t Idem, p. 10. 
 
 X Tract No. 81, p. 4-7, as referred to in Good's Letter to the Bishop of 
 Oxford, on " Some of the Difficulties in his late Charge," Phil., 1842, p. 10. 
 
324 THE NAITJRE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 Heving dead. Hence, in their phraseology, what St. Paul 
 calls " the Lord's Table" becomes an altar ; the conse- 
 crated elements cover a victim ; and the minister of Jesus 
 stands a priest amid the awful solemnities of a verita- 
 ble sacrifice. And hence, under the Chrislian as well 
 as under the Jewish dispensation, " every priest standeth 
 daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifi- 
 ces ;" of which we may say, as the apostle said of those 
 typic offerings of old, they " can never take away sins." If 
 this theory be right, it ceases to be true that Christ, by 
 " offering one sacrifice for sins," " hath perfected forever 
 them that are sanctified." The work of their salvation can 
 not be completed without many sacrifices ; sacrifices more 
 numerous than even the great annual types of atonement 
 under the Law. 
 
 All this, it is obvious, is utter subversion to the Gos- 
 pel. This Divine system knows nothing of any sacri- 
 fice but that which Christ '''■finished^'' on the cross; and 
 by finishing which, he brought to an end forever the 
 whole system of even typical sacrifices. The Gospel 
 knows nothing of a system of '■'■commemorative and im- 
 petratory sacrifices,^^ which have succeeded to the types 
 of the Law, and which look backward, as their predeces- 
 sors look forward, to the cross ; while, at the same 
 time, they avail for pardon to the living, and for grace 
 to the dead. The Lord's Supper is, indeed, a commemo- 
 rative rite, looking backward to the cross ; but its char- 
 acter as an " impetratory sacrifice'^ is a human invention, 
 added to what the Gospel calls simply the " breaking of 
 bread,^'' " the Lord's Supper,'' the " Lord's Table,'" and the 
 *■'■ communion of the body and blood of Christ ;" that is, 
 a social fellowship in partaking of the bread and wine, 
 as consecrated symbols of Christ's body and blood, in 
 contradistinction from a merely private and irregular 
 feast upon those elements, as though they were but an 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORD S SUPPER. 325 
 
 ordinary and profane meal. If the Lord's Supper was 
 designed to carry with it, in any sense, the character 
 and efficacy of a sacrifice, why is there no intimation 
 of such a design in all the New Testament \ The truth 
 is, that, by ceasing to apply the term " sacrifice''' in its 
 proper sense, under the Gospel, to every thing save the 
 death of Christ as an atonement for sin, the inspired 
 writers evidently designed to imbody this grave and vi- 
 tally important teaching, that the One, great, and only 
 propitiatory sacrifice having been offered once for all, 
 the whole system of typical and representative sacrifices 
 is at an end forever, and is forever to remain without 
 successor and without substitute. And there is a need 
 of this teaching now, which did not exist under the old 
 dispensation. Then the great Atonement had been nei- 
 ther publicly offered nor fully revealed. It was neces- 
 sary, therefore, to keep up a lively idea of sin, and of 
 Xhe necessity of atonement, by a system of most speaking 
 types. Hence, living victims were ordered to be slain, 
 and animal blood to be sprinkled, amid all the solemni- 
 ties of an imposing ritual ; a ritual carrying, neverthe- 
 less, on its very face, the truth, that " those sacrifices 
 which were offered year by year continually,^'' could not, 
 of themselves, " take away sin ;" while, at the same mo- 
 ment, it served to keep alive both a sense of sin, and the 
 idea that a real and efficacious atonement was necessary. 
 But now this real and efficacious atonement having 
 been both publicly offered and fully revealed, the whole 
 system of typical and representative sacrifices is abolish- 
 ed, and the pall of significant silence is, under the Gos- 
 pel, thrown over the dead body of that system, in order 
 that there may be nothing, not even a word, to turn 
 away our eye from the sacrifice on the cross, the true 
 " Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world," 
 as He stands forth luminously manifest in the Gospel, 
 E K 
 
326 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 the only hope of the sinner. To introduce the idea 
 that " impetratory sacrifices" are necessary and avail- 
 able under the Gospel, is to argue defect, incomplete- 
 ness, in the one sacrifice of Christ. It is saying that 
 that one sacrifice, through the Word which reveals it, 
 and the Spirit which applies it, to our minds, when, un- 
 der the teachings of the Gospel, we behold by faith 
 the Lamb of God lifted up — is not enough ; but that its 
 efficacy depends upon, or must be conveyed through, 
 the instrumentality of a visible form ! A visible form, 
 indeed, may, as we shall hereafter see, be of use in va- 
 rious ways; but to invest it with the character thus 
 claimed for it is, I repeat, utter subversion to the Gos- 
 pel. 
 
 The silence, for which the Gospel is so remarkable 
 as to the sacrificial character of the Eucharist, is equal- 
 ly distinctive of the standards of our Church. The 
 Gospel, it is true, calls the " bodies'''' of Christians, in a 
 figurative sense, " sacrifices " even while they are " liv- 
 ing''^ (Rom., xii., 1) ; it caUsfiaith a " sacrifice" as well as 
 a " service" (Phil., ii., 17) ; it calls the liberalities of 
 Christians, in the spread of the Gospel, " a sacrifice," 
 even " acceptable and well pleasing to God" (Phil,, iv., 
 18 J also, Heb., xiii., 16) ; it calls praise and thanksgiving 
 to God a "sacrifice," as being " the fruit of lips'^ that 
 know how to interpret the gratitude of holy hearts 
 (Heb., xiii., 15) ; and it calls the worship and good 
 works of all Christians " sacrifices," " spirituaV in their 
 nature, and offered by " a holy priesthood''' in " a spirit- 
 ual house" (1 Pet., ii., .5). And the Gospel calls all these 
 things " sacrifices," because, in their propernature, they 
 are not sacrifices; and because the beautiful j^gwre^, in 
 which they are called so, carry with them their own in- 
 terpretation, and can never mislead. But the Lord's 
 Supper it never calls a " sacrifice," because, though in 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 327 
 
 Its proper nature not a sacrifice, yet, such is its relation 
 as the symbol of atonement, that even to call it J^u- 
 ratively a sacrifice, would be to mislead innumera- 
 ble minds by the authority of apparently Divine sanc- 
 tion. Every thing else pleasing to God may be called 
 figurative sacrifices j but not this, lest, in its peculiar 
 connection, superstition should translate the figurative 
 into the literal, and thus, to use the words of the Homi- 
 ly, " lest of the memory, it be made a sacrifice ;"* that is, 
 lest what was intended to be a memorial of Christ's 
 death, be perverted into a sacrifice, in derogation of 
 that of which it is a memorial. 
 
 Thus significantly silent is the Gospel on this point. 
 I repeat, equally distinctive is this silence of the stand- 
 ards of our Church. Our office "for the administration 
 of the Lord's Supper" calls the alms of the communi- 
 cants '■^ sacrifices,''^ just as the Gospel does ; and their 
 offering '■^ o{ praise and thanksgiving''^ it calls a " sacri- 
 fice,^^ with a similar following of the Gospel ; and the 
 " presentation of themselves, souls and bodies,^'' it calls a 
 " living sacrifice,^^ in the very words of the Gospel j and, 
 finally, it calls the " bounden duty and service" of their 
 worshiping act a " sacrifice,^'' Avhich, though " unwor- 
 thy, through their manifold sins, to offer," they yet 
 humbly present in their capacity, described in the Gos- 
 pel, as " a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacri- 
 fices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.'''' All these 
 things may safely be called sacrifices here, for the rea- 
 son before stated ; but the Lord's Supper itself may not 
 be even called a sacrifice, lest, as before urged, the very 
 word deceive. Not once, therefore, does our commu- 
 nion office apply this term to the Supper itself. It calls 
 the ordinance by various other names ; as, " holy mys- 
 
 * Homily of the worthy receiving and reverent esteeming of the Sacra- 
 ment of the Body and Blood of Christ, N. Y., 1813, p. 376. 
 
328 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 teries," "pledges of His love," "a continual remem- 
 brance of His death," " the memorial" which the "Son 
 hath commanded us to make," and " the banquet of a 
 most heavenly food 5" and, in doing so, it misleads no 
 one ; but not once does it call this Supper a sacrifice. 
 Our Church has proved too faithful a follower, both of 
 the letter and of the spirit of that Word, of which she is 
 both a " witness and a keeper," to be guilty of so dan- 
 gerous a use of language. 
 
 The same silence on this point which characterizes 
 the communion office is distinctive of the Catechism 
 also, and the Articles ; in neither of which is this Supper 
 once called a sacrifice. 
 
 How the Homily guards against the use of this term, 
 and for what reason, we have already seen. To the lan- 
 guage then quoted, however, the following may be add- 
 ed : " Herein" (in the Lord's Supper) " thou needest no 
 other man's help ; no other sacrifice or oblation j no sacri- 
 ficing priest, no mass, no means established by man's 
 invention." And this is the more significant, in that it 
 is spoken immediately after a reference to the necessi- 
 ty of "a sure and constant yazifA" in the great truth that 
 Christ " hath made upon His Cross a full and sufficient 
 sacrifice" for every individual communicant ; a faith 
 which is called a " sticking fast to Chv'\sVs promise made 
 in his Institution, to make" himself the believer's " own,^^ 
 and to " apply His merits''' unto the believer's " self .''''* 
 This language is addressed to the communicant in the 
 second person, and holds up before him the one sacri- 
 fice on the cross as full and sufficient ; to be received 
 through faith in that promise, by which Christ makes 
 Himself the Christian's own, and applies His merits to 
 him ; and to be thus received to the exclusion of all 
 " other sacrifice, oblation, and sacrificing priest.^'' The 
 ♦ Homily on the Sacrament, N. Y., 1815, p. 379. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 329 
 
 phraseology is discriminating; it does not say that, in 
 the Lord's Supper, " the hands of the minister convey'''' 
 the very hody and blood of Christ, to be received by 
 the communicant " at the same time, and together with 
 their signs ;" but it teaches that in this Supper Christ 
 makes himself the Christian's " own,'''' his own Savior ; 
 and applies to him, not his jiesh, but " his merits ;" and 
 that this is done in such a way as to shut out from the 
 sacrament the idea of any other priest or sacrifice than 
 Christ himself, and His oblation on the cross. 
 
 The great Hooker caught the true spirit of the Hom- 
 ily on this point when he said, " Sacrifice is now no part 
 of the Church ministry ;" and when he added, " The 
 word presbyter doth seem more fit, and in propriety of 
 speech more agreeable than priest, with the drift of the 
 whole Gospel of Jesus Christ." 
 
 (2.) But the mischievousness of this notion of a sac- 
 rifice in the Lord's Supper will appear more distinctly 
 when I add, that the second offspring of the error touch- 
 ing Christ's bodily presence in the Eucharist, is seen in 
 Transubstantiation itself. 
 
 This is that monstrous conception and birth in which 
 is imbodied not only the idea that there is a real pres- 
 ence of the flesh and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, 
 but also the progeny of that idea, that the very sub- 
 stance of the bread and wine is changed, so that they 
 are bread and wine no longer, but the visible and sensi- 
 ble flesh and blood themselves of a crucified Savior, 
 seen and eaten under the mere " species'''' or appearance 
 of the bread and wine. The hideous features of this 
 monster-birth I will not attempt to paint. It is enough 
 to say, and to show, that it sprang directly from the 
 doctrine of the Real Presence, as its parent. It is noth- 
 ing more than the legitimate offspring of that parent. 
 
 To say this requires but a sentence. To show it re- 
 E e2 
 
330 THE NATURE OP THE LOEd's SUPPER. 
 
 quires but little more. To whatever age the origin of 
 transubstantiation be referred, whether to that of Par- 
 rhasius Radbertus,* in the 9th century, or to that of In- 
 nocent III. and the 4th Lateran Council, in the 13th, or 
 to any age earlier or intermediate, one thing is certain, 
 it must be traced to the doctrine of the real presence 
 of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, un- 
 derstood in the most literal sense of the terms. Other 
 origin than this the monster conception of transubstan- 
 tiation could not have had. Had not the notion of a 
 real presence, carrying with it the literal substantiality 
 of flesh and blood, been in full possession of the minds 
 which controlled the theology of the Church, transub- 
 stantiation never would, and, speaking in the light of 
 moral probabilities, never could have been conceived in 
 human thought. And it is equally true, that, having ob- 
 tained full possession of those controlling minds, and, 
 through them, of the major mass of those who necessa- 
 rily read little, and ordinarily think less, this notion of 
 a literal real presence — speaking in the light of the same 
 probabilities — could not but work itself out in due time 
 into an alleged metamorphosis of the bread and wine 
 into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ. 
 The idea of a literal real presence is one of those con- 
 ceptions which necessarily put the human mind into a 
 ferment; one of those marvelously strange things, 
 which, when thrown among the mass of men's thoughts, 
 act with the power of a moral earthquake, putting ev- 
 ery thing around into the agitation of a heaving, work- 
 inor motion. In the case of this particular idea, the fer- 
 ment into which it put the mind of the Church was 
 made up, in part, of a struggle to throw off' something 
 repugnant both to sense and to reason ; and, in part, of 
 a diseased eagerness to seize upon something gratify- 
 * Usually written, Paschasius Radbertus. 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORD's SUPPER. 331 
 
 ing to that sensuous philosophy of the natural heart 
 which delights even in the strange imagery that fills 
 the inner chambers of superstition. In others words, it 
 was a ferment made up of an effort to reject what both 
 sense and reason condemned, and of an eagerness to 
 seize on what met the askings of the natural heart, 
 trained to superstition, and delighting in a religion 
 which powerfully addresses the senses^ and keeps stir- 
 ringly alive the emotions of thrilling wonder, and the 
 workings of excited imagination. These latter elements 
 obtained the mastery in the ferment ; and hence the doc- 
 trine of a literally real presence in the Eucharist became 
 prolific. Transubstantiation had both birth and baptism, 
 and in due time was brought forth to final confirmation. 
 The steps in this process, so far as they can be traced, 
 appear to be as follows. 
 
 In the ninth century, the ferment which seems to have 
 been produced by the doctrine of a literally real pres- 
 ence, led Radbertus to the attempt to satisfy the uneasi- 
 ness which was felt, and to settle the controversy which 
 it kept alive, by explaining the nature and manner of 
 that presence. Accordingly, he first put the doctrine 
 into this new form : that, "after the consecration of the 
 bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, nothing remained 
 of these symbols but the outward figure under which 
 the body and blood of Christ were really and locally 
 present ; and that the body of Christ, thus present in the 
 Eucharist, was the same body that was born of the Vir- 
 gin, that suffered on the cross, and was raised from the 
 dead."* This was the birth of transubstantiation. Pre- 
 viously, but its embryo had been in being. At its first 
 
 * The words of Radbert in his book, " De Corpore et Sanguine Domini," 
 are these : " Licet figura panis et vini hie sit, omnino nihil aliud qiiam caro 
 et sanguis post consecrationem credenda sunt — nee alia quam quas nataest 
 de Maria, passa in cruce, resurrexit de sepulchre ; et hsec, inquam, ipsa 
 est, et ideo Christi caro est, quae pro vita mundi adhuc hodie offertur." 
 
332 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 appearance, many were amazed at the new shape ; still, 
 the energies which had given it birth sufficed to cherish 
 it into growth. For a long time, however, it lived a 
 mere birth ; growing, indeed, yet without a name. 
 
 The period during which the new form of the doc- 
 trine, as put forth by Radbertus, lived thus unnamed, 
 reached from the 9th to the 13ih century ; and, as the 
 doctrine itself was yet without the sanction of any coun- 
 cil or decree of the Church, instead of silencing, it rath- 
 er stimulated controversy ; for men were yet at liberty 
 to form and express private opinions, even though 
 counter to those which, on the whole, imbodied the 
 mind of the Church. But this period of comparative 
 liberty at length drew to a close. Early in the 13th 
 century was held the fourth Council of the Lateran, and 
 Innocent III., with the reckless audacity that character- 
 ized him, strangled all discussion of this point by pro- 
 nouncing the opinion of Radbertus, as it had grown in 
 strength and shape, to be the only true and orthodox 
 faith on the subject of Christ's presence in the Eucha- 
 rist ; and not only so, but also by giving the doctrine, 
 what it had hitherto wanted, a name. That was the bap- 
 tism of transubstantiation j and by this name the doc- 
 trine has ever since been known, as the only tolerated 
 faith of the Church of Rome on this point. 
 
 And yet, though discussion on this subject was stran- 
 gled, the minds of men were not in all cases chained. 
 The prodigy which had thus been nurtured tovvard ma- 
 turity was far from inertness. It brought forth early 
 and prodigious corruptions on every hand ; till, at last, 
 the deep and powerful, though silent workings, which 
 were stirring in the minds of men could be repressed 
 no longer. The ever-glorious Reformation burst forth, 
 mingling awful thunders with the light in which it 
 dawned, and shaking terribly the nations which it was 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORD S SUPPER. 333 
 
 destined to bless. Startled by the shock, Rome at 
 length summoned her famed Council of Trent; and 
 there, in the 16th century, not only adopted anew the 
 dogma of transubstantiation, but also bound it on the 
 consciences of all her subjects, under the terrors of an 
 anathema which consigns to endless torments all who 
 dare gainsay her decree ! That was the confirmation of 
 the now mature child in the church by which it was 
 bred. In the strength thus given it, it has already trai- 
 torously chained, and will, at last, resistlessly destroy, 
 the parent that gave it being. It took Rome seven hun- 
 dred years to train the great apostate from birth to full 
 communion. It may not take her giant offspring so long 
 to do the matricidal work for which, with such mistaken 
 fondness, it has been trained. 
 
 I have thus traced transubstantiation from its unques- 
 tionable parentage, the doctrine of a literally real pres- 
 ence of the flesh and blood of Christ in the Lord's Sup- 
 per. It could have had no other parentage. The sim- 
 ple words of Christ, "This is my body; this is my 
 blood," interpreted by the laws of His own language, 
 as synonymous with the expressions, " This represents 
 my body ; this represents my blood," in which sense 
 they were undoubtedly understood by those first disci- 
 ples who, under the guidance of inspiration, afterward 
 called the institution by the unpretending names of the 
 " breaking of bread," the " Lord's Supper," the " Lord's 
 Table ;" those words of Christ, thus naturally and right- 
 ly understood, never could have suggested the unnatural 
 conceptions in which Radbertus imbodied the Romish 
 doctrine of the Eucharist, ^ges of corrupting igno- 
 rance and superstition, brought in upon the Church by 
 mixture with the philosophy and the fooleries of sur- 
 rounding paganism, must have gradually perverted and 
 transformed the simple and beautiful memorial which 
 
334 THE NATURE OF THE LORD 3 SUPPER. 
 
 Christ left of himself in the Church, till finally it be- 
 canne the alleged mystery and miracle of His literal 
 flesh and blood, before even those mediaeval minds, so 
 strangely trained to the subtleties of the schools, could 
 have conceived the monstrously unnatural thought that, 
 by the priestly words of consecration, what had just 
 been mere natural bread and wine, became forthwith the 
 very body and blood of Christ, which the Son of God 
 took of the Virgin, carried to the cross, and finally 
 raised from the dead ; retaining, in this their awful 
 presence, the mere species, or appearance, of the sub- 
 stances whose place they had taken ! This conception, 
 I repeat, never could have originated in the simple 
 and easily-understood words of Christ. Eight hundred 
 years of change and of gradual depravation must have 
 brought in the frightfully prolific error of the real pres- 
 ence, before even the spoiled mind of man, whetted to 
 acuteness in the most egregious subtleties, and driven, 
 by still uneasy common sense, to its last shift in main- 
 taining its strange intellectual progeny, could have ex- 
 cogitated such an unnatural, such a pernicious dogma 
 as that finally baptized transubstantiation ; a dogma, in 
 defending and enforcing which, Rome has filled the na- 
 tions with more of error, corruption, change, and blood- 
 shed than have ever flowed from any other single cause. 
 Why did not the Jews get a similar doctrine of tran- 
 substantiation from the similar words of the inspired 
 Moses, "This is the Lord's Passover 1" Because they 
 understood the idiom of their own yet living language ; 
 and because, so long as that idiom was alive, even their 
 1500 years of mingled change and error could not 
 breed subtlety enough in their schoolmen to misinter- 
 pret the simple phrase. For the same reason, the 
 words of Jesus could not have been perverted, while as 
 yet his living language and its obvious idiom survived. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 335 
 
 The loss of that language, with its idiom, from the 
 Church, by the dispersion of the Jews, the growing cor- 
 ruptions of the old Greek and Latin tongues during the 
 decline of the Empire, the ripened subtleties of the 
 Oriental philosophy caught into the theories and schools 
 of the Church, and the consequently increasing impu- 
 rity of her whole system of both faith and practice — 
 these things alone gan account for the surprising facts, 
 first, of the succession of the doctrine of the real preS' 
 ence to that of the New Testament breaking of bread in 
 memory of Christ ; and, finally, of the coming in of the 
 dogma of transubstantiation as the full development of 
 that of the real presence. 
 
 But why dwell so strenuously on a position which is 
 too plain to be denied'? I answer, because I wish to 
 bring fully before the mind of our Church both the na- 
 ture and the peril of that doctrine of the real presence 
 which is now so industriously taught to her members. 
 Under our last general head of discourse, we noticed an 
 attempt to explain this doctrine, as if it were something 
 not only harmless, but Scriptural 5 while, at the same 
 time, we saw that the explanation did but cover the real 
 features of the doctrine from view, as though the time 
 had not then come, among us, for fully drawing the veil 
 aside. That time, however, has since arrived ; and that 
 veil, though perhaps unintentionally, has been since 
 removed. One of the principal authors to whom I have 
 heretofore referred has, I think, made it too evident to 
 be longer concealed, that what they mean by their doc- 
 trine of a real presence, is nothing less and nothing 
 other than that parent error, which was in the bosom 
 of the Church in the ninth century, when Radbertus 
 gave birth to the monstrous conception of a change in 
 the elements of bread and wine ; a change by which 
 their substance no longer remained, but gave place, un- 
 
S36 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 der their mf.re species, to that very flesh and blood of 
 Christ which was then held to be present in the Eucha- 
 rist 5 a change, too, to which Rome has since done lit- 
 tle more than officially to give it nurture and a name. 
 This author tells us that what he and his co-authors in- 
 sist upon is, as they term it, that very Catholic doctrine 
 of the real presence, which was in the Church before 
 the attempt was made to explain it by the theory of 
 transubstantiation ; and which has ever since been in 
 the Church, though under the cover of that wicked de- 
 vice. The following is the language which he uses: 
 
 " We do not yield to the Romanists, as to the great- 
 ness of our privileges 5 we do not think that our Lord 
 is less really and spiritually present than they ; that He 
 communicates Himself less by His sacraments than 
 they ; that we less receive His hody and blood ; that our 
 sinful bodies are less cleansed by His glorious body,^^ &c. 
 Again : " We do not believe ' This is my body' less than 
 they ; we blame them, not as exceeding as to the great- 
 ness of the spiritual gift contained in that sacrament 
 (all human language and thoughts must fall short), but 
 for their carnal conceptions of it ; for attempting to ex- 
 plain to man's senses the mode of his Savior's presence ; 
 for trying to solve the apparent contradiction that the 
 elements are still what they were, but are, over and 
 above, to us the body and blood of our Lord ; for long- 
 ing, with the weak faith of Nicodemus, to know the 
 how of things Divine and spiritual ; and so, for debasing 
 them, and, by their explanations, leading at least their 
 priesthood to pride, and then to unbelief."* 
 
 Again : " Our Church, as holding the original Catho- 
 lic truth, of which the corruptions of Rome are the de- 
 basement, appears to me yet farther removed from 
 those modern traditions, the inventions of men who 
 
 * Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, N. Y., 1839, p. 87, 88. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER 337 
 
 deny the truth. Rome, in this respect, has the truth, 
 though mingled with error, and clouded and injured by- 
 it J the ZHingli-Calvinist school have forfeited it. In a 
 word, our Church holds, with Rome, the reality of the 
 communication of the body and blood of Christ through 
 the Holy Eucharist, but denies her carnal way of ex- 
 plaining it, and protests against the corruptions thereby 
 entailed 5 but, in what Rome retains in truth, she" (our 
 Church) " must needs hold with her against those who, 
 explaining to human reason Divine mysteries, can not 
 but explain away what is mysterious, and resolve the 
 hidden gifts of the sacrament into aids of contempla- 
 tion, outward attestations of God's gifts, exhibitions to 
 our outward senses, mere remembrances of His death."* 
 That is, in the matter of this sacrament, these au- 
 thors being judges, our Church is nearer Rome than she 
 is to the Continental Protestants. She holds, with Rome, 
 the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, in the full 
 signification and alleged efficacy of that presence. She 
 holds that her members receive the body and blood of 
 Christ as really as the members of the Church of Rome 
 are held to receive them j and that we receive i\\e savie 
 body and blood which they receive. In short, she 
 blames nothing in the view which Rome takes of this 
 mystery, but her carnal way of explaining the mode of 
 Christ's presence, and the corruptions entailed by that 
 carnal explanation. Drop this explanation ; throw away 
 the name transubstantiation 5 leave the doctrine of the 
 real presence as it was when Radbertus undertook "to 
 solve the apparent contradiction" which it involves ; 
 and, these authors being judges, our Church would have 
 no farther fault to find with the views of Rome on this 
 great point. 
 
 Here, at least, is no concealment. These writers 
 
 * Dr. Ptisey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, N. Y., 1839, p. 97. 
 
 Ff 
 
338 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPEK, 
 
 hold the doctrine of the real presence, as Kome holers 
 it. They only object to her mode of explaining it, and 
 to the consequences thereby entailed. Yet Rome gets 
 her doctrine of the real presence, not, as has been in- 
 contestably shown, from the Bible interpreted by the 
 idiom of Christ's own language, but from the corrup- 
 tions of a far later age j an age in which pure Christian- 
 ity had degenerated into a religion o( forms, addressed 
 strikingly to the senses, and operating powerfully on 
 the imagination. In that age, the great parent error of the 
 Church, the notion of the real presence, grew up ; and 
 all that has since followed has been but the legitimate 
 offspring of that parent. 
 
 This it is which makes me so strenuous on the pres- 
 ent point. Mankind have not yet been redeemed frorti 
 a strong native bondage to both their senses and their 
 imagination ; nor has human nature yet lost its prone- 
 ness to superstition ; nor yet has the natural heart lost 
 its fondness for a religion of mere forms ; a religion 
 which appeals luxuriously to the senses, and plays de- 
 liciously with the imagination ; and which carries with 
 it so much that is imposing and solemn in its ritual, as 
 easily to satisfy beings who would gladly have some re- 
 ligion, though not prone to one which requires the la- 
 bor of thought, and the mortification of real deadness 
 to sin and the world. Under this constitution of our 
 fallen and depraved nature, could we suppose the past 
 history of Christianity, since the days of Radbertus and 
 the opening of the ninth century, blotted out ; and the 
 Church, from that point, beginning her course anew, 
 with her great parent error of the real presence already 
 conceived of foregone corruptions, and fashioned mere- 
 ly into the form under which it was then held ; or, could 
 we suppose this error now for the first time conceived, 
 distinctly fashioned, and made the prevalent and deep- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 339 
 
 seated opinion of the great body of Christians ; and the 
 Church now beginning to move forward on her way as 
 one great whole, nursing this prolific conception in her 
 bosom, fostering it as her grand thought, defending it 
 against opponents, and vindicating it by her authority — 
 I can have no doubt of the issue which would be produ- 
 ced : the living error could not be confined to its mere 
 conception ; it would ask expression, and it would have 
 expression j it would struggle for the birth, and it would 
 have birth ; another Radbert would bring it into utter- 
 ance and shape ; another Innocent would adopt and name 
 it by authority ; and another Council of Trent, in order 
 to hush the remonstrances of reason, and the protest- 
 ings of the senses, would bind it on the consciences of 
 benighted men, under pain of eternal torments ! The 
 process, after its first conception, was natural, was un- 
 avoidable ; and, instead of blaming Rome for bringing 
 it to its issue, we should rather go back, search for the 
 origin of the conception itself, and there seek to expel 
 from the Church the great parent of all this progeny of 
 errors, by showing that the doctrine of the real pres- 
 ence is not wrapped up in the simple words of Christ, 
 but was bred amid the multiplying corruptions of a far 
 later age. 
 
 But, even supposing that the error of the real pres- 
 ence were not (though, undoubtedly, it is) so vitally 
 polific as to force all the prodigious births which have 
 followed it ; who, I pray, that has any just appreciation 
 of the Gospel, and of the preciousness of its great sal- 
 vation through faith in Christ, and the renewing of the 
 Holy Spirit, would be willing to take the Church in the 
 ninth century as their pattern of faith and practice in 
 the matter of the Lord's Supper, and run the fearful 
 hazards of carrying such a live error in their creed, 
 struggling continually to multiply itself, and kept from 
 
340 THE NATURE OF THE LOUD ri SUPPER. 
 
 self-multiplication by nothing but apparent accident ; 
 while, at the same time, its own unmultiplied energies 
 were sufficient to infect the whole body of associated 
 truth, and to place the religion of the Church but at a 
 slioht remove from corruptions of the grossest charac- 
 ter 1 Such, however, is the peril into which we are 
 now running, and which we shall inevitably realize, if 
 the notion, now beginning to prevail, of the real pres- 
 ence of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, 
 should ever become the thoroughly adopted, and the 
 generally, as well as heartily defended doctrine of our 
 own Protestant Episcopal Church. Naj^, greater peril 
 than this will be ours, if the error, which we are asked 
 to embrace, should become general ; for it is vitally 
 prolific, and can not be kept from self-multiplication. 
 Long ages, indeed, might be required in training its 
 progeny to maturity ; but those ages would again come 
 round, and we should find ourselves, in our posterity, 
 returned and clasped to the very bosom of those deep 
 corruptions from which, in our ancestors, at the period 
 of the blessed Reformation, we broke and fled away 
 with horror ! 
 
 (3.) After having dwelt thus long upon the character 
 of the first two offspring of the doctrine of a literally 
 real presence in the Eucharist, I shall, without attempt- 
 ing to name all their kindred, draw this part of my 
 subject to a close, with a brief reference to two of the 
 most conspicuous which remain : the traffic in masses, 
 and the worship of the Host. 
 
 The traffic in masses sprang naturally from the idea of 
 a sacrifice for the remission of sins, both of the living 
 and of the dead, as brought into the sacrament by the 
 doctrine of the real presence. If there be such a sacri- 
 fice in the sacrament, and if the pardon of sin be con- 
 veyed in its reception, then, what more natural than for 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 341 
 
 poor darkened sinners to seek the benefit at any ex- 
 pense ; and to seek it thus for the quicker release from 
 purgatorial pains of the baptized dead, as well as for the 
 greater ease in their sins of the baptized living"? The 
 purchase of salvation is the very idea which, of all 
 others, suits best the pride of the natural heart ; and all 
 history, Pagan as well as Christian, teaches that men 
 can be made willing, yea, glad to part with the richest 
 patrimonies, and to make themselves miserable mendi- 
 cants, under the delusive dream of thereby meriting 
 and purchasing the salvation of their souls. Thus the 
 traffic in masses was introduced ; and thus the Church 
 found herself in possession of a means of amassing 
 wealth, which, had not the Reformation in a measure 
 broken up that traffic, would have speedily brought her 
 into the splendid peril of literally " gaining the whole 
 world, and losing thereby her own soul !" This peril 
 may now never be realized ; and yet, even the notion 
 of a sacrifice in the Eucharist for the pardon of sin, as 
 now gaining sanction among us, may, if sufficiently fos- 
 tered and patronized, become the means of bringing 
 into our Church an amount of riches which would make 
 her virtually one of the kingdoms of this world, in dead- 
 ly conflict with the spiritual kingdom of the temporal- 
 ly poor and unportioned Jesus. 
 
 " The worship of the Host,^^ that is, the adoration of 
 the elements in their supposed transubstantiated state, 
 as the very body and blood of Christ, elevated with aw- 
 ful solemnity in view of prostrate multitudes, sprang, of 
 course, directly from transubstantiation itself, as the 
 traffic in masses did from the doctrine of sacrifice. 
 The impulse to worship, in deep prostration, the sup- 
 posed present and visible Deity, was at least natural. 
 But over this amazing issue of the corruptions bred by 
 the error of a literally real presence of Christ's body 
 Ff 2 
 
342 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 and blood in the Lord's Supper, I am willingly forced, 
 by the limits assigned to the discussion, to throw a veil. 
 I will only say that, for overpowering splendor and 
 magnificence, and for awful impressiveness and effect, 
 the elevation and worship of the Host is a show which 
 casts the greatest brilliancy of imperial pomp into 
 shade ; that, for deep impiety and blasphemy, it is a 
 ceremony which outvies the rankest and the tallest 
 idolatry of paganism itself; and that, as the unquestion- 
 able product of the error which we have been consider- 
 ing, it shows, perhaps more plainly and strikingly than 
 any thing else, the essentially vital and irrepressibly 
 prolific energy with which that error has wrought on 
 the human mind, and with which, wherever cherished, 
 it ever will work. 
 
 The notion of a literally real presence of the body 
 and blood of Christ in the elements of the Lord's Sup- 
 per, leads to the multiplication of error just as naturally 
 and as necessarily as sin leads to the multiplication of 
 evils in the moral disease of our nature. Were it not 
 that the light of the Bible has probably become too 
 strong in our Protestant Church ever to be again en- 
 tirely put out, this doctrine, fully adopted and thor- 
 oughly cherished, would rapidly carry us back to the 
 very darkness from which we have emerged. And 
 even now, blessed as this Church is with light, that doc- 
 trine is capable of wrapping the "deceitful and desper- 
 ately wicked hearts" of men in a darkness as fatally, if 
 not as literally profound, as that of the Middle Ages 
 themselves. Hence it is that men, otherwise intelli- 
 gent and wise, and even amiable and virtuous, are found 
 yielding to the approaches of an error, the form of 
 which, in the dimness and shadowyness of their relig- 
 ious conceptions, they do not distinctly recognize, or 
 the imposing impressiveness of which, in its address to 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 343 
 
 their senses, takes well with their love of a religion 
 which, dispensing with the labor of thought and with 
 the necessity of a real and utter deadness to sin and 
 the world, gives them up to impulse, and to the dreamy- 
 luxury of wondering imagination. 
 
 One of the most dangerous aspects of this error, as 
 now presented to us, is, that it is, ybr the present^ asso- 
 ciated with much sound and wholesome truth — truth 
 earnestly held and fervently told j and with much appa- 
 rent, and, doubtless, real purity and austerity of charac- 
 ter in its principal teachers. Its advantages for self-prop- 
 agation are hence easily apparent, and our obligations 
 to guard against its spread are immensely increased. 
 The most fatal seductions from the way of truth and 
 life may have their beginnings amid a real increase of 
 zeal and devotedness to some of the minor things of 
 religion, especially when outward circumstances favor 
 a backward movement from the restless activities and 
 the sometimes apparent changefulness of the public 
 mind, stimulated by the spirit of intense inquiry, and 
 heaving amid the throes of incessant progress. 
 
344 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 1 Cor., si., 23-26 : " 23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I 
 delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was 
 betrayed, took bread : 21. And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and 
 said, ' Take, eat : this is my body, which is broken for you : this do in re- 
 membrance of me.' 25. After the same manner also h€ took the cup, when 
 he had supped, saying, ' This cup is the new testament in my blood : this 
 do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.' 26. For as often as 
 ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he 
 come." 
 
 The various passages in the New Testament which in 
 any way touch upon the nature of the Lord's Supper have 
 already been examined. In v.'hat I have thus far said, my 
 object has been to refute an erroneous view of this point, 
 rather than fully to exhibit the tnie one. This, however, 
 may easily be gathered from what has been advanced. 
 For, if the interpretations which have been given to the 
 language of Christ, in the sixth of John, and in His insti- 
 tuting words themselves, be correct, they not only refute 
 the error which has been exhibited, but also throw a dis- 
 tinctly guiding light upon the only remaining question. 
 What is the true nature of the Lord's Supper ? The an- 
 swer to this question I shall now, as was in the fourth and 
 last place proposed, proceed to educe from the Bible, and 
 from the language of our Church. 
 
 IV. By way of introducing this answer, I recur for a mo- 
 ment to the principal points established by the interpreta- 
 tions to which I have referred. According to those inter- 
 pretations, the language of Christ in the sixth of John, in 
 which, after having fed the five thousand. He speaks of 
 " giving His flesh for the life of the world," and of our 
 " eating His flesh and drinking His blood," refers, not ta 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 345 
 
 the sacrament, nor to sacramental eating and drinking, but 
 to Himself, as the only atoning Savior ; and yet without 
 any allusion to the act of crucifixion as that in which His 
 atonement was to be consummated. It also refers to our 
 reception of Him as such an atoning Savior ; which recep- 
 tion He himself explains as " coming to Him," " believing 
 on Him," and " seei7ig the Son" with the true spiritual dis- 
 cernment of those who are " taught of God," and who thus 
 " learn" and are " drawn" of " the Father." In short, that lan- 
 guage of Christ refers to Himself, as the only atoning Sav- 
 ior, and to that great deciding transaction between the soul 
 and God, in which the penitent sinner, in the secrets of his 
 own mind, is taught and drawn by the Spirit in the use of 
 truth ; and in wliich, thus taught and drawn, he voluntarily 
 yields his heart to Christ, and receives Him by faith as his 
 only, all-sufficient, and life-giving Savior ; a transaction 
 which lies at the very begiiniing of the true, inward Christ- 
 ian life, and which, in the case of every rml Christian, 
 precedes, or should precede, his first sacraiijciiUtl commem- 
 oration of his Savior's death. 
 
 Again : according to those interpretations, the words of 
 Christ, in instituting His Supper, teach, not the real, bodily 
 presence of Christ in the elements of the sacred feast, but 
 the symbolic and representative character of those elements, 
 and of the ordinance in which they are used. They are, 
 in truth, exactly equivalent to this expression, which I give 
 again, as a fair paraphrase of His words, and of the apos- 
 tle's brief comment on them : *• Take, eat and drink this 
 bread and this wine ; they represent my body and my blood, 
 which, according to the tenor of the new covenant, are 
 given in sacrifice for the sins of the world : eat and drink 
 thus in memory of me." " For as often as ye do this, ye 
 celebrate the Lord's death ; a celebration which is to be per- 
 petuated till the period of His final coming." 
 
 The ground of these interpretations has been stated at 
 
346 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 sufficient length, and I humbly venture to think it wholly 
 unassailable. 
 
 1. What, then, is the view which they give of the prima- 
 ry nature of this Christian ordinance ? Bring together, as 
 thus interpreted, the only expressions which bear on this 
 question. " Take, eat this bread ; it represents my body." 
 " Drink ye all of this cup ; it represents my blood." " Do 
 this in meinory of me." " As often as ye eat this bread and 
 drink this cup, ye do celebrate the Lord's death." In what 
 light do these expressions place the nature of this sacra- 
 ment ? It is a light which shines with broad and resistless 
 demonstration on this conclusion — that, in the primary, most 
 obvious attribute of its nature, the Lord's Supper is a divine- 
 \y-ordained, and di\ine]y-obligatory memorial of the death 
 of Christ for the sins of the world. The breaking of the 
 bread and the pouring of the wine represent the fact and 
 the manner of that death ; Christians partake of the bread 
 and the wine in memory of Him who died for their sins : 
 as often as they do so, they celebrate, or proclaim the fact 
 of His death and sacrifice ; and to a perpetuation of this 
 memorial they are individually bound by the command of 
 Him who is Lord both of death and of life. 
 
 In answer to the question, then, I repeat, in the primary, 
 most obvious attribute of its nature, the Lord's Supper is a 
 divinely-obligatory memorial, and the Christian's reception 
 of it is a divinely-obligatory commemoration of that solemn 
 act in which our blessed Redeemer gave His body and His 
 blood on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sin. This is 
 the most palpable meaning of all that He said at the time 
 of the institution, as recorded by the three evangelists, one 
 of whom was His eye and ear witness, while the other two 
 are His inspired historians. This, in like manner, is the 
 most palpable meaning of what He said after His ascension 
 into heaven, when He specially revealed the instituting 
 words to the great Apostle to the Gentiles, as recorded in 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 347 
 
 his first Epistle to the Corinthians. It is worthy of obser 
 vation, that both at the original institution, and at the sub- 
 sequent revelation of the instituting words, He not only said 
 the same things in the main, but also so spake, on both oc- 
 casions, as to leave the memorial character of the institu- 
 tion its most observable feature ; to show that His leading 
 purpose in ordaining His sacred Supper was, to leave in 
 His Church a standing and an imperishable monument of 
 that solemn act for which He came down from heaven — 
 the act of making Himself" the Lamb of God, that taketh 
 away the sin of the world ;" and to leave such a monument 
 as a ^a^/ierm^-point, around which, till His coming again, 
 His faithful disciples should statedly assemble for social 
 " communion,'^ or ^'■fellotoship" in the love and blessings of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Much is said, in the writings to which I have so often 
 referred in this discussion, about the deep and awful myste- 
 ry involved in the nature of this ordinance. Nor do I wish 
 to detract from its true character as one of the great Christ- 
 ian mysteries. But, then, it may be a mystery without be- 
 ing incomprehensible. In the New Testament, this word 
 has several senses, subordinate, indeed, to one general sense. 
 Its general sense is that of something " shut up,"" secret. In 
 its subordinate senses, it means, 1. Something thus secret, 
 because it cafi not be known ; because it is, in its very na- 
 ture, incomprehensible. Such is " the mystery of God, 
 even of the Father and of Christ" (Col., ii., 2), called else- 
 where " the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the 
 flesh" (1 Tim., iii., 16) ; the absolutely inscrutable union 
 of the Father and of Christ ; the literally incomprehensible 
 mystery of the incarnation of God. 2. Something secret, 
 because not revealed ; though, when revealed, easily com- 
 prehended. Such was " the mystery kept secret from the be- 
 ginning of the world, but made manifest when Christ came 
 and revealed it ; namely, that His Gospel should be preached 
 
348 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER, 
 
 to ^'' all natio7i.s," Gentiles as well as Jetvs. — Rom., xvi., 25, 
 26. Eph., iii., 3-6, and 9. Col, i., 26, 27 ; iv., 3, 4. 3. 
 Something intentionally kept from connnon knowledge or 
 profane use ; something sacred to the saints, though not ne- 
 cessarily difficult to be understood. Such were " the mys- 
 teries of the kingdom of heaven," which, in the plain teach- 
 ings of Christ, it was " given" to the disciples " to hioivj" 
 but which were designedly concealed from the perverse 
 Jews by the veils o( parable. — Matt., xiii., 10, 11. 
 
 Now, in this last sense, the Christian sacraments are 
 doubtless mysteries. They are sacred and richly significant 
 symbols, designedly kept from common and profane use ; 
 pledges of love reserved as the exclusive privileges of the 
 people of God ; holy things, not to be handled by the wick- 
 ed, ordinarily not even understood by them ; and yet not 
 difficult of understanding to those who desire to know and 
 enjoy them. And, in this sense, they are doubtless includ- 
 ed among the truths of the Gospel, in what the apostle 
 says to the Corinthians, when characterizing " the ministers 
 of Christ" " stewards of the mysteries of God." I say the 
 sacraments are here included among the truths of the Gos- 
 pel, because these sacraments evidendy do not comprise 
 the whole of those " mysteries," of which Christ^s ministers 
 are constituted " stewards^ These mysteries embrace 
 every thing with which those ministers are intrusted, and 
 primarily, without doubt, those rich, though in the main in- 
 telligible, truths of the Gospel which it is their chief office 
 to unfold to the Church and to the world. Such being the 
 case, there is no more reason for supposing the sacraments 
 of the Church to involve incomprehensible mysteries than 
 there is for supposing that the ordinary truths of the Gospel 
 involve incomprehensible mysteries. Some of the truths 
 of the Gospel are, indeed, incomprehensible, absolutely so, 
 to finite minds. Such are the truths of the Trinity, and of 
 the incarnation. Others of them are so, in the sense of be- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 349 
 
 ing unfathomable by the line of our understanding, though 
 we can fathom them to great depths, and find them beauti- 
 fully clear and comprehensible as far down as that line will 
 reach. Such are the truths of the atonement, and of election, 
 o{free-2vilI, and of a particular providence. But, then, many 
 others of the truths of the Gospel are not only partially, but 
 also wholly intelligible ; clear as light, and bringing objects 
 before our minds in full distinctness and beauty ; and yet 
 these, as well as the others, are included among " the mys' 
 ieries of God," of which the " ministers of Christ" are 
 " stewards." 
 
 In the light of what has now been said, place the mys- 
 tery of the Lord's Supper. The truth of the atonement, as 
 one of the principal to which it points, is mysterious in one 
 of the senses just indicated. That is, though we can see a 
 great way into it, and see it so far gloriously clear and com- 
 prehensible, yet we can not see to the bottom of it. Even 
 this character, however, of the great truth exhibited does 
 not make the Lord's Supper itself a mystery in the sense 
 of being an incomprehensible thing. Were the grand truth 
 which it exhibits absolutely incomprehensible, this would 
 not make the sacrament itself incomprehensible. Ksymhol 
 may be a very intelligible thing, even though that of which 
 it is a symbol were absolutely beyond the grasp of under- 
 standing ; much more so when the thing symbolized is, to a 
 great extent, beautifully and blessedly intelligible. Such is 
 the case with the Lord's Supper. It is a mystery, a glorious 
 mystery, as one of the holy things intrusted to the steward- 
 ship of Christ's ministers ; as one of those Divine symbols 
 designedly kept sacred to the saints ; as one of those con- 
 secrated emblems which are not to be touched and handled 
 by profane and wicked hands. It is a richly significant 
 and a preciously valuable thing ; and yet it is, in its prima- 
 ry and most obvious meaning, a thing clearly and beautiful- 
 ly intelligible. The plain design of Christ on " the night 
 Gg 
 
350 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 in which He was betrayed" was, to leave among his disci- 
 ples an affecting memorial of his expiatory sufferings and 
 death, a memorial never to be forgotten, and never to be 
 looked on without -under standingly recalling both the event 
 itself, and the vital meaning of the event which it was or- 
 dained to commemorate. It is not a mystery, in the sense 
 of imbodying that awful and incomprehensible secret of the 
 real presence of Christ's body and blood which, in a sort of 
 miraculously mechanical way, we know not how, develops 
 the previously-communicated Divine nature within us. Nor 
 is it a mystery in the sense of furnishing an impenetrable 
 cover for holding in " reserve'''' the great doctrine of atone- 
 ment, as something which was designed to be exhibited but 
 sparingly to the common gaze. On the contrary, it is a 
 symbol designed to hold that truth up in its most affecting 
 light, and to exhibit it in its most touching power. The 
 elements themselves in the symbol, the bread broken and 
 the wine poured out by Christ's command, represent His 
 atoning sacrifice offered, once for all, upon the cross. And 
 the Christian's reception of those consecrated elements rep- 
 resents his own act in receiving the atonement, in feeding 
 on Christ by faith, in believing on Him as the Son of God, 
 the Savior of lost men ; while, at the same time, it consti- 
 tutes his affectionate commemoration of that " precious 
 death," through which he ventures to hope for life. In all 
 this, however much there may be that is unsearchable in the 
 love that is commemorated, there is nothing incomprehensi- 
 ble in the memorial by which that love is kept in mind. It 
 is a rich mystery, as holding up the most affecting of truths 
 in a light the most beautiful, and as presenting us with a 
 privilege kept sacred to the children of God ; but, as Christ's 
 institution, kept alive by the Christian's observance, it is a 
 luminously intelligible ordinance. 
 
 On the character of the Lord's Supper as a memorial of 
 His death and passion, our office for the communion is in 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 351 
 
 full accord with the language of Christ. Let us for a mo- 
 ment look at this point. In the notice given of the cele- 
 bration of the Lord's Supper, the officiator proposes " to 
 administer the most comfortable sacrament of the body and 
 blood of Christ ; to be received in remembrance of His meri» 
 torious cross and passion, whereby alone we obtain remission 
 of our sins, and are made partakers of the kingdom of heav- 
 en." This passage is valuable, not only as showing that 
 the institution is a memorial^ but also as virtually contradict- 
 ing the dogma formerly noticed, that this sacrament conveys 
 remission of post-baptismal sins. " We obtain remission 
 of our sins," not by receiving the Lord's Supper, but by 
 Christ's " meritorious cross and passion alone ," and our re- 
 ception of this Supper is but a " remembrance,^'' a memorial 
 of that precious sacrifice. Again, in the exhortation at the 
 time of the celebration, occurs this language : " And to the 
 end that we should always remember the exceeding great 
 love of our Master and only Savior, Jesus Christ, thus dy- 
 ing for us, and the innumerable benefits which, by His pre- 
 cious bloodshedding. He hath obtained for us, He hath in- 
 stituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of His 
 love, and for a continual remembrance of His death, to our 
 great and endless comfort." Here we see, distinctly, that 
 the design of Christ's " precious bloodshedding" was to 
 "obtain for us innumerable benefits;" while "iAe end" for 
 which the Holy Supper was instituted, was to furnish 
 "pledges of His love, for a continual remembrance," a per- 
 petual memorial, " of His death." Again, in the prayer of 
 consecration, after an adoring reference to God's "tender 
 mercy in giving His only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death 
 upon the cross for our redemption," it is added, that Christ 
 " did institute, and in His Holy Gospel command us to con- 
 tinue a perpetual memory of that His precious death and 
 sacrifice." Here the same distinction is kept up ; Christ's 
 sacrifice on the cross, our only hope of eternal life ; His 
 
352 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 Holy Supper, the great memorial of that sacrifice. So, in 
 the same prayer, when we come to the oblation, and to the 
 doing of what Christ requires of us in the ordinance, we 
 have this language : " According to the institution of thy 
 dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ, we, thy humble servants, 
 do celebrate and make, here before thy Divine Majesty, 
 with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, 
 the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make ; having 
 in re7nembrance His blessed passion and precious death." 
 Here, to make our act accord with Christ's institution, 
 nothing is specified but the offering up of the great memo- 
 rial of what Christ has done upon the cross for our redemp- 
 tion. Once more, in the actual delivery of the consecrated 
 elements to the recipient, putting the two sentences into 
 one for brevity's sake, we have these important words : 
 " The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
 were given and shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul 
 unto everlasting life. Take, eat and drink these in remem. 
 brance that Christ died, and that his blood was shed, for 
 thee ; and feed on Him in thy heart by faith, with thanks- 
 giving." The importance of these words will appear in 
 paraphrasing them according to the two theories of the 
 Lord's Supper which have been exhibited. The theory 
 which includes the doctrine of the real presence would be 
 obliged to paraphrase them thus : 
 
 " As Christ's authorized minister, and by his mysterious 
 power, I ' convey' to thee by these ' hands' and ' together 
 with these signs,' the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, which were given and shed for thee, and which are 
 here 'in continuance' still given and shed. Preserve they 
 thy body and soul unto everlasting life, by becoming ' com- 
 mingled and co-united' with both, making them 'one sub- 
 stance with Him,' and ' preserving both for incorruption.' 
 Eat and drink these signs, together with the awful myste- 
 ries which they signify, in remembrance that Christ died 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 353 
 
 for thee, and that His blood was shed for thee ; and feed 
 on Him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving." 
 
 Between the latter and the former part of this paraphrase 
 there is, indeed, an apparent discrepancy, since it represents 
 the communicant as receiving the sacred emblems in memory 
 of what is present. Still, it is the only paraphrase that I am 
 able to draw from the language which I have from time to 
 time quoted, and in which the theory of the real presence 
 is stated in the words of its own advocates. The theory 
 which I am engaged in exhibiting, and which rejects the 
 doctrine of the real presence in the sense set forth, is bound 
 to give a different paraphrase of the sentence ; thus : 
 
 " Appointed to minister in the name and Gospel of our 
 blessed Redeemer, I devoutly and fervently pray that the 
 body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which were given 
 and shed for thee, may preserve thy body and soul unto 
 everlasting life, by being made to thee the meritorious cause 
 of a free remission of sin, and of a future resurrection from 
 the dead. Take, eat and drink these consecrated symbols 
 of His great sacrifice and salvation, as the appointed memo- 
 rial of His death and bloodshedding ; and feed on Him in 
 thy heart hy faith, with thanksgiving." 
 
 I am not here engaged in the argument against the doc- 
 trine of the real presence ; and yet it is impossible, 1 think, 
 to look upon these two paraphrases of the words of our 
 communion service at the delivery of the elements, without 
 seeing that they imbody an argument of most cogent power 
 against that doctrine, and in favor of the view which I have 
 begun to present. Both here, and in the previous quota- 
 tions from the communion service, we see the vital distinc- 
 tion preserved between Christ's meritorious sacrifice on the 
 cross, and the intelligible memorial of it which He has or- 
 dained for our observance in the Church ; while here, with 
 even unusual distinctness, the nature of our act in keeping 
 the memorial is set forth as a " feeding on Him in the heart 
 G G 2 
 
354 THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 
 
 by faith" in the heart, with fervent love in return for His 
 love unquenchable : by faith, with a helicving appropriation 
 of that sacrifice on the cross to which his love hath prompt- 
 ed. 
 
 Which looks most like the Gospel, the attitude assumed 
 by the minister in the former of the paraphrases which I 
 have given, or that assumed by him in the latter of those 
 paraphrases ? In xhe former, he stands up as one " intrusted 
 with the awful gift of making the bread and wine the body 
 and blood of Christ ;" and, having exercised his gift, pro- 
 ceeds to " convey" with his " hands" the sign and the thing 
 signified as that unutterable mystery which, by co-union 
 with the body and soul of the recipient, is to " preserve 
 both for incorruption" and everlasting life. In the latter, 
 he appears as the servant of Christ, commissioned to minis- 
 ter for Him in the Word, in prayer, and in ordinances ; and 
 having set apart the appointed elements to the sacred office 
 of representing, in a Divine symbol, the atoning sacrifice ot 
 Christ on the cross, proceeds to deliver them to his fellow- 
 Christians, with the fervent petition that the body and blood 
 of Christ, which they represent, being received in faith and 
 with love, may insure to his body a resurrection, and to his 
 soul a redemption, unto life eternal. 
 
 Which of these attitudes is scriptural? Which is con- 
 ceived in the spirit of the Gospel ? Would not any serious- 
 ly intelligent student of the Bible, who was, at the same 
 time, a careful observer of his own nature, feel that the 
 former attitude belongs to a religion which addresses itself 
 with thrilling energy to the senses and the imagination ; to 
 all the strong, inborn tendencies of man to superstition and 
 a perilous reliance upon forms ; a religion which proposes 
 to do its work by mysteries operating upon awed and pros- 
 trate minds, and encouraging a passive reception, in which 
 thought lies still amid the excitement of the senses, and the 
 overmastering of wonder ; a religion, in a word, which tends 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 355 
 
 to exalt its minister into the rank of an almost superhuman 
 caste, and to depress its subjects to the level of beings who 
 bow with unquestioning submission to mere authority and 
 to overpowering prerogative ? And would not such an ob- 
 server feel that the latter attitude belongs to a religion 
 which addresses itself with instructive power to the affec- 
 tion and the faith, in combination with the reason and the 
 understanding of the Christian, to all that is capable in 
 man of being raised into a worship full of love and of light ; 
 a religion which, by the hand of intelligible symbols, leads 
 the mind away to glorious acts and glorious truths sym- 
 bolized, and there, through a teaching memorial, wakens 
 thought, and kindles meditation, and calls up the whole mind 
 to the activity of grasping, embracing, and feeling the work 
 and the power of Christ's divinely rational, though fathom- 
 less love ; a religion, in short, which shows its minister, 
 though in the midst of unusually holy things, still intelligent- 
 ly exhibiting the one Gospel of our salvation, and its sub- 
 jects, though receiving an unusually solemn ministry, yet 
 receiving it into earnest minds as well as into yielding 
 hearts, and voluntarily co-operating with the power of Di- 
 rine grace, as well as reverently honoring the claims of 
 that Divine commission under which this grace is prof- 
 fered 1 
 
 Such appears to be the difference between the tendency 
 of this sacrament when considered as involving the perplex- 
 ing mystery of the real presence, and its tendency when 
 considered as imbodying the intelligible mystery o.f a memo- 
 rial of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross. 
 
 But let us look a moment at the reasons why Christ left 
 such a memorial in His Church, and why He gave its char- 
 acter, as a memorial, such prominence in his instituting 
 words. 
 
 As the Son of the Father, Christ came into the world, 
 and mysteriously took upon him our nature, for the purpose 
 
356 THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 
 
 of representing in that mystery the reconciliation of man 
 with his offended God ; and of consummating that work of 
 atonement by sacrifice, through which this reunion was to 
 be effected. He also came to teach that Divine system of 
 truth and doctrine which is involved in the work of atone- 
 ment, and to organize that simple and decent body of rites 
 which should be appropriate to the Church of God in pass- 
 ing from a dispensation of shadows to a dispensation of 
 light. Having effected these objects, He returned to the 
 Father ; and there, in the presence of the heavenly hosts, 
 exhibited, in the union of his glorified humanity with the 
 ever-glorious Divinity, what the eye of heaven had never 
 before beheld — a living symbol of that splendid result which 
 He went to achieve — the reconciliation of rebellious man 
 with his offended, though forgiving God. 
 
 But before He finally took his departure from our world, 
 He was specially careful to do something to comfort and 
 support his disciples, and after them his whole Church, 
 imder his long hodily absence. Bodily, he was to be pres- 
 ent with them no longer, at least till the time of His sec- 
 ond advent. In the work of spreading His Gospel, they 
 were to labor without his personal and bodily presence, 
 though encompassed by a hating and a hostile world. They 
 needed, therefore, something to cheer and sustain them in 
 their perilous toils, and under their painful privation. This 
 need he graciously supplied ; and how ? In the first place, 
 just on the eve of His departure, He revealed to them those 
 great and glorious truths which had been before but little 
 the subject of his teachings, such as His own essential 
 oneness with the Father, and their spiritual union with 
 Himself; His purpose to prepare for them heavenly man- 
 sions in their Father's house ; and, finally, to receive them 
 to a participation of His own glory with the Father ; the 
 certainty that their prayers, offered in His name, should be 
 ansv.'ered ; and that their efforts in gathering His fold from 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 357 
 
 the world should be crowned with success ; a manifestation 
 of Himself to them, which the world could not comprehend, 
 and in which the world should have no share ; and the joint 
 dwelling of the Father and the Son in their hearts as a 
 token of favor to those who should keep his commandments, 
 and as realized in the sweet comforts of mutual love be- 
 tween Him and His obedient disciples ; the precious leg- 
 acy of His own Divine, inwai'd, heartfelt jjeace, as that which 
 the world could neither give nor take away; and, finally, 
 as a mightily compensating substitute for Himself during 
 His long bodily absence, the coming of the gracious Com- 
 forter, the Spirit of Truth from the Father, to guide them 
 into all truth, to glorify Him, and to work mightily in their 
 labors for the conquest of the world. — John, xiv., xv., xvi., 
 xvii. 
 
 Having thus revealed to them these cheering, comforting, 
 sustaining truths of doctrine and of promise, he proceeded 
 to leave them one thing more, which had a still more special 
 reference to His own approaching hodi/y absence. And 
 what was this ? Did He, as the theory of the real presence 
 shapes the idea, leave His sacraments, as the instruments 
 of perpetuating in the Church a miraculous incarnation of 
 Himsef; so that, though absent to sight, He would still be 
 present in substance ? Did He thus leave His Church an 
 actual incarnation of Himself, in a new form; a living body 
 endowed, once for all, with the full gift of the Spirit from 
 Himself, and clothed, once for all, with the sole prerogative 
 and power of communicating both Himself and His Spirit in 
 a perpetual succession to those who were to become His 
 people ? Such a shaping of the theory could come from no 
 other source than that which produced the first conception 
 of the real presence ; the workings of sense and imagina- 
 tion under the sombre power of old superstition, seeking to 
 defend against reasoning remonstrance, and to entail on un- 
 questioning credulity the monstrous birth of which it had 
 
358 THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 
 
 become the parent. It is a shape of the theory which could 
 never have come from the Bible. Christ spake in good 
 faith when He proclaimed to His disciples His approaching 
 departure from the world, and return to the Father ; a de- 
 parture, in consequence of which " they should see Him no 
 more," because bodily He was to be with ihem no longer 
 till His coming again. " I go to my Father," says He, 
 " and ye see me no more." " And now / am no more in the 
 world ; but these are in the world, and / come to thee. 
 Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom 
 thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 
 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy 
 name." " And now / come to thee,'' Sic. There was, it is 
 true, a sense in which they still " saw Him," even after His 
 departure. It was that sense in which "the world saw 
 Him not ;" because it loved Him not, and kept not His com- 
 mandments, as they did. They saw Him, because He lived; 
 and because they lived also a spiritual life capable of loving 
 Him and obeying Him, and thus of enjoying inward tokens 
 of His spiritual presence. But bodily, they saw Him not, 
 after His departure, simply because, in honest truth, bodily 
 He was no more in the world. In every sense which these 
 words could cover, He was withdrawn from the world ; and 
 the Spirit came, another Comforter, in His stead. Nothing 
 but the perverting power of a mighty error could extract 
 from the Scriptures the idea that, after His visible with- 
 drawal, Christ still left Himself incarnate, under another 
 form, in the body of His Church ; empowering this Church 
 once for all, to dispense and communicate Himself and His 
 Spirit solely through the sources of her living and quicken 
 ing sacraments ! Besides, the mischiefs of this theory, as an 
 exhaustless fountain of corruption, and as the broad base ol 
 an intolerable spiritual despotism, are absolutely incalcu- 
 lable ! 
 
 What, then, was that one thing more which He left with 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 359 
 
 His disciples in addition to tlie promised Coniforter, and 
 which had a still more special reference to His own entire 
 bodily absence ? It was that very memorial of Himself 
 which we are considering, His last Sup'per ; that divinely 
 significant representation of the sublime act, in which His 
 whole work of redemption was about to close. His body, 
 spiritualized and glorified, was about to ascend into heaven, 
 never more to reside substantially with His Church, till the 
 period of His second coming, or till His Church herself 
 should come to dwell personally with Him on high. But, 
 in place thereof, He left them this precious memorial of 
 Himself; this divinely-instituted symbol of His body and 
 blood, as that body and blood were exhibited in His last 
 wondrous office in the work of their redemption. He did 
 not leave His body to reside unseen in the present memorial ; 
 but He left the memorial to represent to sight His absent 
 body. He left, not Himself in the memorial, but a memorial 
 of Himself. 
 
 In doing this, too, He acted with a plain and wise refer- 
 ence to one of the most deep-laid, and certainly operative 
 principles of our nature ; that by which love seeks to keep 
 the absent in mind, and to preserve mutual affection alive, by 
 asking, or by giving tokens of love, pledges of affection. He 
 performed an act which every spiritually-enlightened fol- 
 lower would be sure to understand and feel. He knew that, 
 whenever and wherever the light of His Gospel shone pure- 
 ly, the memorial-token which He left, as often as it should 
 be brought forth and exhibited amid the solemnities of His 
 worship, would bring the absent Savior to mind with un- 
 wonted vividness, and thus prove a sweet quickener of His 
 disciples' love ; that it would be the gathering-point of their 
 freshly-awakened affections ; the sacred pledge, around 
 which their holiest feelings would cluster and mingle, and 
 glow and burn, as thpy realized with freshened vividness 
 the beauties and the glories of His once marred, but now 
 
360 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 radiant form, in connection with the work of their own won- 
 drous redemption. Hence His repeated precept, " Do this 
 in remembrance of me." And hence His apostle's comment, 
 " As often as ye eat this hread and drink this cup, ye do 
 show the Lord's death till He come." 
 
 In the leading and most obvious feature of its nature, 
 then, this ordinance is love's memorial of the bodily ab- 
 sent Jesus, and of that work of conquering mercy in which 
 He achieved upon the cross the salvation of sinners. And 
 the beautiful wisdom of such an ordinance is clearly mani- 
 fest, when we consider the essential spirit and glory of 
 that religion which Christ came to teach and to exemplify. 
 What is that spirit ? Open the Bible, and its light flashes 
 from every page — the spirit of holy love. This brought 
 Christ from heaven. This lived and struggled, acted and 
 suffered in all He said, in all He did on earth. This makes 
 the groans, and the darkness, and the mysteries of Calvary 
 vocal with sweet sounds, and radiant with soft lights, and 
 clear in a Divine meaning. This knits His true disciples 
 into one living body, full of the sweet peace of heaven. 
 And this, when perfected, is to be the secret of their all- 
 conquering power over the enmity, the hostility, and the 
 persecutions of a wicked world ; love, that godlike temper, 
 which will never refuse to act, to sacrifice, or to suffer, in 
 the work of promoting the conversion of sinful men to 
 Christ. With what Divine propriety, then, did Christ make 
 His last and highest ordinance in the Church an appeal to 
 His disciples' love ; and thus, a means of quickening and 
 perpetuating this Divine sympathy with Himself, and with 
 all who should bear both His name and His image ! Di- 
 vine token from a most compassionate Savior ! Sacred sign 
 of the only true sacrifice ! May it never fail of the end for 
 which it has been given ! May it be cherished, and kept 
 pure and uninjured, till all mankind be knit together in love, 
 and brought with one heart to circle it in sweetest memory 
 of Him who loved them unto death ! 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORDS SUPPER. 361 
 
 With the account thus given of the leading feature of 
 this ordinance there are no texts which do not readily har- 
 monize. Take that so often quoted in support of the oppo- 
 site view, in which the Apostle Paul censured the sensual 
 Corinthians for " eating and drinking unworthily," decla- 
 ring, " Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of 
 the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood 
 of the Lord ,-" and that " he that eateth and drinketh unworth- 
 ily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discern- 
 ing the Lord's hodi/." — 1 Cor., xi., 27-29. Where, say the 
 advocates of a real presence, were the peculiar sin and peril 
 of eating and drinking unworthily, save on the ground that 
 the wicked, in doing so, discern not the holy thing which 
 is really, though invisibly present, the sacred body and 
 blood of the Lord, become thus guilty of that oody and 
 blood, and lind that they have received the sacrament of it, 
 not unto life, but unto death ?* " On no other theory" 
 " would the unworthy reception of the Holy Eucharist be 
 so much more dreadful than profane conduct in church, 
 where, also, Christ is ' in the midst of us.' " 
 
 To this I answer, the apostle does not say that eating 
 and drinking unworthily is so much more dreadful than p7-o- 
 fane conduct in church, where, also, Christ is " in ihe 
 midst of us." He says, indeed, that unworthy eating and 
 drinking is a great and perilous sin ; but he was not com- 
 
 * " This real, spiritual presence it is, which makes it so awful a tiling to 
 approach unworthily." "On no theory, whereby the sacred elements 
 should be mere representations, or signs, or pledges, or tokens, of an absent 
 thing, or means to kindle our faith, would the unworthy reception of the 
 Holy Eucharist be so much more dreadful than profane conduct in church, 
 where, also, Christ is in the midst of us.' All which Scripture says of 
 this case, ' not discerning the Lord's body,' ' guilty of the body and blood 
 of the Lord,' implies an hnmediate, unseen presence of that body, which the 
 wicked discern not, can not partake of, but offend against ; and so, eat and 
 drink judgr;i''i t to themselves,' in ' that they eat and drink the sacrament 
 of so great a thing.' " — Letter of Dr. Pusey to the Bishop of Oxford, New- 
 York, 1839, p. 86, 87. 
 
 H H 
 
362 THE NATURE' OF THE LORd's iSUPl'UK. 
 
 paring this with the sin of profane conduct in church ; aTid, 
 therefore, he does not tell us which is the more dreadful. 
 Perhaps, had he discoursed on the point of this comparison, 
 he would have said as thrillingly severe things against the 
 latter sin as he has said against the former. And this is 
 the more probable, inasmuch as he has told us of at least 
 one other sin, ^^ falling away''' from the beginnings of grace, 
 which is equally dreadful with this of unworthy eating and 
 drinking in the Lord's Supper. Such as thus "fall away," 
 he says, " crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and 
 put Him to an open shame." — Heb., vi., 6. In truth, a// the 
 open sins of professing Christians are thus dreadful. All 
 such, in the sense intended by the apostle, " crucify to 
 themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an 
 open shame." And even the profane conduct of the wicked 
 in the house of God is one of the most flagrant of outrages 
 that can be committed against that Divine Savior, who is 
 spiritually " in the midst" of His worshiping people. 
 
 But even allowing that the apostle intended to represent 
 the act of unworthy eating and drinking in the Lord's Sup- 
 per as a sin peculiarhj sinful, still, I apprehend, we can 
 make excellently important and weighty sense out of his 
 words, without resorting to the theory of an immediate real 
 presence of His body and blood in that ordinance. 
 
 The occasion on which he spake is well known. The 
 grossly " carnal" Corinthians had fallen into the practice 
 of making the Lord's Supper a common meal, or, something 
 worse, an occasion of excessive sensual indulgence. They 
 paid no attention to it as a divinely-ordained coinmemora- 
 tion of the death and passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 They " distinguished" not between this and an ordinary 
 feast : they ate, drank, and were drunken. They " dis- 
 cerned not the Lord's body," in that they treated the con- 
 secrated bread and wine, which were its symbols, as though 
 they were a profane feast. They had lost sight of the true 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 363 
 
 character and design of the sacrament, and had gone to such 
 " excess of rioting," that, as a special judgment, some of 
 them were seized with " weakness and sickness," and many 
 of them were fallen " asleep," either in literal death or in aw- 
 ful spiritual insensibility. They thus realized, in their own 
 sad experience, that " to eat and drink unworthily was to eat 
 and drink judgment to themselves." They were '•'■guilty 
 of the body and blood of the Lord,'^ not by failing to " dis- 
 cern" their '■^ immediate" presence, but by heaping contempt 
 on that sacred ordinance in which they were represented. 
 Contempt of the symbol is contempt of the thing symbolized. 
 Contempt of the representative is contempt of the being rep- 
 resented. Thus, the body of Christ was dishonored by the 
 abuse heaped on its memorial. Thus, " the King of Saints" 
 himself was insulted by the slight cast on His divinely-ap- 
 pointed representative. 
 
 This, plainly, is the whole of the apostle's meanings 
 There is no need of searching for the alleged real presence 
 of His body in order to justify the strong language in which 
 he denounced judgment on the sin of the sensual Corinth- 
 ians. 
 
 2. Having thus viewed the Lord's Supper as, in its na- 
 ture, Lovers memorial of the absent Jesus, I proceed now to 
 consider another of its essential features of no less vital 
 importance. I know not how to express it better than by 
 saying that this ordinance is also Faith's MIRROR of the 
 sacrifice on the cross. 
 
 The theory of the real presence admits that the Eucha- 
 rist is a memorial of Christ. So far as this theory is em- 
 braced by a member of our Church, it can not do otherwise 
 than make the admission. The formularies of our Church, 
 in accord with the words of Christ, are too full of this me- 
 morial feature of the rite to allow of its being denied, or 
 even left out of mention. But the advocates of the theory 
 do little more, in their writings, than to recognize the exist- 
 
364 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 ence of this feature. So far as I am informed, they dwell 
 not on it ; they seem not to consider it of much importance ; 
 they lay their main stress on another point, as though tt 
 alone were worthy of much consideration j as though it 
 alone involved the whole vital essence of the sacrament. 
 They consider the consecrated elements such signs as have 
 the thing signified joined icith them ; signs of the body and 
 blood of Christ really present in the sacrament, and actual- 
 ly conveyed with their significant emblems ; signs which 
 derive their chief importance from the fact that they are 
 thus the vehicles of the mightiest mystery beneath the sun. 
 
 Now I admit, that if we were to limit the nature of this 
 ordinance to its character as " a mere sign," though we 
 should still retain something extremely important and in- 
 teresting, yet we should have done somewhat toward rob- 
 bing the " holy mystery" oi d, part of its fullness and its rich- 
 ness. Nevertheless, I hold that we may reject the dogma 
 of the real presence, while, at the same time, we retain all 
 " the marrow and fatness" of the rite which can be drawn 
 from the words of inspiration. The feature which I have 
 just mentioned, that of the Lord's Supper as FaitJi's mirror 
 of the sacrifice on the cross, is doubtless one of the two 
 most vitally important under which the institution is pre- 
 sented in the Bible ; nor is it either easy or necessary to 
 say which of the two is the more vitally important. In Hi? 
 instituting words, it is true, Christ says nothing oi faith in 
 His sacrifice on the cross, though He does speak of our 
 eating bread and drinking wine in memory of Him. Still, 
 faith in His sacrifice is necessarily implied in His words, 
 inasmuch as we learn from other language of His that it is 
 by faith alone that " remission of sins," for procuring which 
 His " blood was shed," is received. 
 
 From the instituting words of Christ, we learn that the 
 cup in the Eucharist "represents the new covenant in His 
 blood." In this new covenant itself, the great covenant of 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. S65 
 
 grace, under which the Church of the old dispensation, as 
 well as that of the neio, was placed, the sacrifice on the 
 cross was promised, and virtually given (for thus only was 
 Christ a " Lamb slain from the foundation of the world"). 
 Now this was a covenant which, while it contained, on the 
 part of God, the promise of a Savior, required, on the part 
 of mKn, faith in that promise, and, consequently, in that work 
 of atonement by sacrifice which the promise guarantied. 
 Faith, then, is the act by which we originally become par- 
 ties to this new and gracious covenant of life. There may 
 be significant rites in which this faith is to be specially ex 
 ercised. Still, faith must be antecedent to any such rite, 
 else the rite itself will be an empty and a useless form. 
 For " without faith it is impossible to please God" in any 
 thing (Heb., xi., 6), much more so in so serious a thing as 
 a religious ordinance. 
 
 Let us look, then, more directly at the point before us. 
 In the Eucharistic rite, " the cup represents the blood," 
 which the new covenant guarantied should be shed, and 
 which finally was shed, " for the remission of sins." And 
 this rite is now, as one of the seals of that covenant, Christ's 
 visible " pledge" that the promise is, and shall be fulfilled to 
 every one that lelieveth in Him as the Son of God, the only 
 Savior of sinners. In view of this ^'pledge," faith realizes, 
 with unwonted vividness, the fulfillment of the promise ; 
 and thus the Lord's Supper becomes, to the true Christian 
 communicant, Faith's mirror of the sacrifice on the cross. 
 In that mirror, held, as it were, by the hand of the Divine 
 Surety, faith sees reflected Christ's precious bloodshedding 
 for the remission of sins. And -ds faith is the act by which 
 we originally become parties to the new covenant of salva- 
 tion, so, whenever faith is subsequently exercised in view 
 of this seal of the covenant, this " pledge" of salvation, this 
 mirror of the cross, there is a virtually repeated renewal of 
 our act of covenanting. We there renewedly give our- 
 H H 2 
 
366 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 selves to Christ as His redeemed, while He renewedly as- 
 sures us of the truth that He is our Redeemer, or enables 
 us renewedly to realize the certainty of the assurance that 
 " in Him we have redemption through His blood, the for- 
 giveness of sin." He does not convey this forgiveness 
 through any " impetratory sacrifice" which is then offered 
 (this forgiveness we had when first, in the faith of a true 
 Christian, we gave ourselves to Him, and received Him as 
 our Savior), but He then renews His assurance of our for- 
 giveness, quickens our faith in His assurance, pours into 
 our hearts the fuller comforts of our relation to Him, and 
 thus makes our whole inner man stronger for all that re- 
 mains of our walk, and work, and warfare in His service. 
 Every time we go to the communion, in the exercise of a 
 true faith, we thus renew our covenant with God in Christ 
 Jesus ; and the effect is, that our souls gather this rich and 
 Divine refreshment, while Faith sees, in that sacred mirror, 
 the visible seal of the promise, the ordained "pledge" of an 
 infallibly certain salvation to every true believer in Christ. 
 
 This, as we may safely understand it, is the faith by 
 which, in the language of our Catechism, " the body and 
 blood of Christ are spiritually taken and received by the 
 faithful in the Lord's Supper ;" by those who have the 
 faith of the true Christian. 
 
 Our Catechism teaches that in a sacrament there are two 
 parts, " the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual 
 grace ;" and that, in " the Lord's Supper, the outward part, 
 or sign," consists in the " bread and wine which the Lord 
 hath commanded to be received," while " the inward part, 
 or thing signified," is " the body and blood of Christ, which 
 are spiritually taken and received by the faithful in that 
 Supper." 
 
 Now between this, as I have just explained it, and that 
 view of the sacrament which includes the idea of a real 
 presence, there is an essential and vitally important differ- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 367 
 
 ence. The theorj- of the real presence makes the body 
 and blood of Christ, as the things signified, actually in the 
 sacrament, and conveyed through, or icilh the signs. The 
 Catechism teaches no such thing, but is perfectly consistent 
 with the explanation, that the thing signified, the real body 
 of Christ, is absent, and not conveyed through or wilh the 
 sign, being only '^spiritually taken and received" by faith. 
 The theory of a real presence teaches that the body and 
 blood of Christ can not be spiritually taken and received 
 unless actually in the sacrament, and conveyed through or 
 zoifh the sign. The Catechism is consistent with the doc- 
 trine that this body and blood may be spiritually tak«n and 
 received while absent, and though 7iot conveyed through or 
 with the sign. The former teaches that both parts of the 
 sacrament are present on the altar. The latter teaches that 
 the sign alone is present on the table, while the thing sig- 
 nified is absent at the right hand of God. 
 
 The CatecTiism, then, teaches 7iot the doctrine of a real 
 presence ; nor, so far as I am informed, is the ier7n real 
 presence once used in the accredited standards of our 
 Church. There certainly is a sense in which the true 
 Christian receives the body and blood of Christ in the Lord's 
 Supper as he receives it at no other time, and in no other 
 way ; and this sense I have already stated. Inasmuch, 
 however, as there are certain expressions in our communion 
 service upon which I have, as yet, offered no special re- 
 mark, I will here cite them for the purpose of stating more 
 definitely the sense to which I refer, and which I suppose 
 these expressions to imbody. 
 
 In that service, then, God is said to " have given His Son, 
 our Savior Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but also to 
 be our sjnritualfood and sustenance in that holy sacrament ;" 
 so that thither we " come to feed on the banquet of that 
 most heavenly food." We utter there the petition, " Grant 
 us, therefore, gracious God, so to eat the flesh of thy dear 
 
308 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 Son, Jesus Christ, and to drink His blood, that our sinful 
 bodies may be made clean by His body, and our souls wash- 
 ed through His most precious blood, and that we may ever- 
 more dwell in Him and He in us." To a similar efl'ect are 
 the following words : " We most humbly beseech Thee, O 
 merciful Father, to hear us, and of thy almighty goodness 
 vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy 
 Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine : that 
 we, receiving them, according to thy Son our Savior Jesus 
 Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of His death and 
 passion, may be partakers of His most blessed body and 
 blood." The following words also express the same idea : 
 " Humbly beseeching Thee that we, and all others who 
 shall be partakers of this holy communion, may worthily 
 receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus 
 Christ ; be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, 
 and made one body with Him, that He may dwell in the?n and 
 they in Him.''' And, finally, having uttered such petitions, 
 and finished our act of communion, we make the following 
 expression of our sense of the benefit which we hare re- 
 ceived : " We most heartily thank Thee for that thou dost 
 vouchsafe to feed us, who have duly received these holy 
 mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body 
 and blood of thy Son our Savior, Jesus Christy and dost as- 
 sure us thereby of thy favor and goodness toward us ; and 
 that we are very tnembers incorporate in the mystical body of 
 thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people." 
 
 Now all these expressions carry, in various forms, one 
 and the same idea ; so that, when this idea is once present- 
 ed or ascertained, it opens all the forms in which it is in- 
 closed. What, then, is this idea ? 
 
 The advocates of the theory which I oppose would con- 
 tend that it is the idea of the real -presence ; according to 
 which, the very spiritual substance of the flesh and blood of 
 Christ is given and received at the same time and together 
 
THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 369 
 
 with iheir signs ; so that we spiritually, though none the 
 less really, eat that flesh and drink that blood, in conse- 
 quence of which we become, in a great mystery, one flesh 
 and one blood with Christ, He dwelling in us and we in 
 Him, commingled and co-united in one body by the commu- 
 nication of the Divine nature. They would say that, al- 
 though the term real presence is not here used, yet is is m- 
 ■plied ; and that it is the only one which can open the true 
 sense of the expressions within the various forms of which 
 it is infolded. 
 
 But that the idea as well as the term real presence, in 
 any sense which would satisfy these theorists, is wholly ab- 
 sent from these expressions, must, I apprehend, be evident 
 to any one who will give them a candid as well as a care- 
 ful thought. 
 
 In the first place, if ilicir idea of the real presence be here 
 implied, why do we pray that God would " vouchsafe to 
 bless and sanctify His gifts and creatures of bread and 
 wine with His Word and Holy Spirit f Why do we not 
 rather pray that He would vouchsafe to bless and sanctify 
 them by uniting with them the present flesh and blood of 
 His dear Son, that thus we may receive the benefit of His 
 repeated sacrifice for our sins ? Or, again, why do we 
 pray for grace " so to eat the flesh and drink the blood of 
 Christ, as that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His 
 body, and our souls washed by His most precious blood ?" 
 Why do we not rather pray that we may " so eat and drink 
 as that we may become one body, one flesh, and one blood 
 with Him, commingled and co-united with Him by the 
 communication of His Divine nature, and by the convey- 
 ance of His spiritual substance ?" The truth is, that to be 
 " clean" and to be " washed" are well-known Biblical forms 
 of speech, signifying to be pardoned and to be purifed from 
 all sin, and to be perfected and made blessed in all holiness, 
 both of body and of mind. And that this is the true result 
 
370 THE NATURE OP THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 which is at all times realized by failh in the sacrifice and 
 death of Christ — though more largely realized in this sacra- 
 ment than at otlwr times, through the greater vividness of 
 faith in view of the Divine symbols of this holy ordinance — 
 is evident from the fact, that when our Church, in her com- 
 munion service, drops the use of her symbolic language and 
 speaks out in literal terms, she expresses no other than this 
 very result of pardon and purification from sin, with perfect 
 holiness and happiness, as making up " the other benefits of 
 Christ's passion." Hence, immediately after one of the pe- 
 titions which I have cited, praying that we " may be par- 
 takers of His most blessed body and blood," she adds, " We 
 earnestly desire thy Fatherly goodness mercifully to accept 
 this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, most humbly 
 beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and death of 
 thy Son, Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we, 
 and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our sins, 
 and all other benefits of His passion." Here we plainly see 
 the symbolic dress dropped away from the body of literal 
 sense which it had inwrapped, and leaving that sense ex- 
 posed to clear view. '" J5j/ the merits and death of Christ, 
 and through faith in His blood," the very moment we first 
 exercise this faith we ^'■obtain remission of our sins," and at 
 least begin to realize " all other benefits of His passion" in the 
 growing holiness and happiness of our Christian character and 
 lives. But in the Lord's Supper, this important work within 
 us is specially expedited. Faith is here specially vigorous 
 and invigorated. Love here is specially fervent and all-con- 
 quering over sin and the world, the flesh and the devil. And 
 thus, even in uncommon measures, are " all other benefits of 
 Christ's passion" insured in the ripening holiness and hap- 
 piness of our souls. This is the literal sense of what our 
 Church teaches in these parts of her communion service. 
 Wrapped up again in its dress of symbol, it becomes " so 
 eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ" (that is, 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 371 
 
 with such a spiritual signification), " that our sinful bodies 
 are made clean by His body, and our souls washed through 
 His most precious blood." The symbolic and the literal in 
 these two passages are not two distinct and difierent ideas, 
 but one and the same idea ; and it is an idea which sets, as 
 far off from this sacrament as the poles of heaven are asun- 
 der, the notion of an alleged real presence of the flesh and 
 blood of Christ; 
 
 But it will be asked by those who maintain the theory 
 of such a presence, Does not our Church, when she prays 
 that we may " so eat the flesh and drink, the blood" of 
 Christ, " that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His 
 body, and our souls washed through His most precious 
 blood," immediately add the petition, that thus " tv^ may ever- 
 more dwell in Him and He in us f And does she not also, 
 shortly after praying " that, by the merits and death of 
 Christ, and through faith in His blood, we may obtain re- 
 mission of our sins, and all other benefits of His passion," 
 subjoin the petition, " that we, and all others who shall be 
 partakers of this holy communion, may worthily receive the 
 most precious body and blood of Christ, be filled with grace 
 and heavenly benediction, and made one body wilk Him, that 
 He may dwell in them and they in Htm ?" Does not this 
 sustain the doctrine of the real presence, in consequence of 
 which we are " made one body with Him, that He may 
 dwell in us, and we in Him?" 
 
 To this, however, I reply, though our Church undoubt- 
 edly uses the language which is here quoted, yet she does 
 not thereby teach the doctrine of the real presence, and the 
 consequent commingling and co-uniting of the flesh and 
 blood of Christ with the body and soul of the individual 
 communicant ; but the farthest from such a notion and its 
 consequence. She is not, in that language, praying for the 
 commingling and co-union of Christ's very flesh and blood 
 with the body and soul of the individual communicant ; but she 
 
372 THE NATtRE OF THE I.ORd's f^Ul'I'EP. 
 
 is, as in another part of her service, '• praying for the whole 
 state of Christ's Church militant ;" for the whole body of 
 those who are, or " shall be partakers of this holy commun- 
 ion ;" in other words, all who shall be joined iu this holy 
 "fellowship" of true Christians. She is praying that all 
 these, as one grand icholc, may be " made one hody with 
 Him, that He may dwell in them and they in Hiin ;" that 
 He may dv/ell in this great hody, this collective " fellow- 
 ship" by dwelling with and among its members ; and that 
 this great body, this collective fellowship, may dwell in 
 Him by remaining imited as a whole, in the spirit of de- 
 pendence on Him, and obedience to Him as its Divine 
 Head. She is teaching the Bible doctrine, which she finds, 
 as in other places, so especially in the twelfth chapter of 
 the first Epistle to the Corinthians, and in the second chap- 
 ter of that to the Colossians ; the doctrine, that the Church, 
 as a whole, is a collective hody, of which Christ is the 
 Head, while Christians are its members in particular ; and 
 that there are benefits and blessedness in " holding the 
 Head," united together in the spirit of holy dependence on 
 Him, and obedience to Him, from whom alone " all the hody, 
 by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit 
 together, increaselh with the increase of God ;" that is, with 
 a glorious and mighty increase. This is the doctrine 
 which she is teaching in those expressions of her com- 
 munion service, the doctrine that the whole Church is 
 Christ's lody ; his body on earth, with its Head in heaven ; 
 and that Head sitting there supreme over all, ruling and de- 
 fending all with power, and " filling all with grace and 
 heavenly benediction." 
 
 That this is her meaning, take her own explanation as 
 confirmatory of the view already given of her language. 
 When, after having closed the solemn rite of consecrating 
 and setting apart the sacred elements, and of delivering 
 them to the communicants, she oft'ers her great thanks- 
 
THE NATURE UF TU]: LORd's SUPPER. 373 
 
 giving for the benefits received, in that God has vouchsafed 
 to feed her true children " with the spiritual food of the 
 most precious body and blood of His Son," and to " assure 
 them thereby of His favor and goodness toward them," and 
 of their being " very members incorporate in the mystical body 
 of His Son ,-" by way of showing what she means by being 
 thus " incorporate, as very or true members, in this mysti- 
 cal body of Christ,'^ she immediately adds, " which is the 
 blessed company of all faithful people." Here is the out- 
 breaking of light over all her meaning in this and similar 
 phraseology ! It is not the real, though spiritual, the very, 
 though glorified body of Christ, which her communicants 
 have individually received into their bodies ; Christ and the 
 Christian commingled and co-united each with each ; and 
 forming thus, in every particular member, one body, one flesh, 
 and one blood, with Him ; but it is the collective body of the 
 Church, " that holy fclloxvship," as it is immediately called, 
 that "blessed company o{ all faithful people," THIS, into 
 which, by the symbol of the Supper, the individual becomes 
 incorporated, and is thus made " a member in particular" of 
 that " mystical body," the Church, of which Christ is the 
 head, and in our " fellowship" with which, she prays, we may 
 ever "continue;" "doing all such good works as God hath 
 prepared for us to walk in, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 Here, again, as in the former case, we see the Church 
 dropping the dress of symbol from the body of literal signifi- 
 cation, which it had inwrapped, and leaving that significa- 
 tion exposed to clear view. " Very members, incorporate 
 in the mystical body of thy Son, which is the blessed com- 
 pany of all faithful people ;" " the communion," or " fel- 
 lowship," of which St. Paul speaks (1 Cor., x., 16), and 
 into which we are brought by eating " the bread which is 
 broken," and by drinking of " the cup which is blessed," as 
 a Divine memorial "of the body and blood of Christ;" this 
 is what our Church means when she speaks of our "so 
 I 1 
 
374 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 eating the flesh and drinking the blood of God's dear 
 Son," as " that we may evermore dwell in Him and He in 
 us j" or, as that " all who are partakers of this holy com- 
 munion," the whole collective mass of members in the 
 Church, may " be made one body with Him, that He may 
 dwell inthem^ and they in Him." These two forms of 
 expression do not inibody two distinct and diflierent 
 ideas ; they imbody but one and the same idea. In sym- 
 bol, it is " so eating the flesh and drinking the blood of 
 Christ, that He dwelleth in us, and we in Him," inso- 
 niuch that collectively we are " made one body with 
 Him," even His great " mystical body." In literal phrase, 
 with the dress of symbol dropped, it is, so " eating the 
 bread which is broken, and drinking the cup which is 
 blessed," that we become one Church under His supreme 
 government and influence ; one " communion,''^ one "/e/- 
 lowship,^^ one great " company,^^ made up of " all faith- 
 ful people ;''^ "knit together" with "joints and bands," 
 and "holding the Head," from whom "nourishment is 
 ministered," and the great " company" " increaseth with 
 the increase of God." This, I say, is the true meaning 
 of our Church in all this phraseology; and it is a mean- 
 ing which puts utterly away the doctrine of the real 
 presence, as this phrase is ordinarily understood. Our 
 Church, in her communion service, is constantly carry- 
 ing sacramental symbol and literal sense side by side ; now 
 wrapping up her meaning in the beautiful and striking 
 dress of the one, and now unfolding it in the plain and 
 reasonable language of the other ; and in both following 
 the example of Christ her Head in such a way that, to a 
 docile disciple, taught of the Spirit, or even willing to 
 be taught, each explains each ; and both make one Di- 
 vine whole of rich and powerful significancy. 
 
 In order that we may see more distinctly the import- 
 ant difference which exists between the two theories 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 375 
 
 which have been presented, I will now set down the 
 two points which each theory includes, so far as they 
 have just been the subjects of examination. 
 
 The theory, then, which involves the real presence, 
 puts a sacrifice into the Eucharist, and conveys remission 
 of sin by virtue of that sacrifice, and through the act of 
 its priestly offerer. But the theory which rejects the 
 real presence, makes the Eucharist the memorial of a 
 sacrifice, and a seal of the covenant which assures remis- 
 sion of sin to every one that believeth, even upon his 
 first exercise of a living faith in Christ. Such is the 
 first point of difference ; and it is of immeasurable im- 
 portance. 
 
 Again, the theory which involves the real presence, 
 brings the true, though invisible, the real, though spirit- 
 ualized body of Christ, into the Eucharist, and conveys 
 it with the sign into the body and soul of the recipient, 
 commingling and co-uniting both, so that each commu- 
 nicant becomes one body, one flesh and blood, with his 
 Savior. But the theory which rejects the real presence, 
 makes the Eucharist a symbol of the body of Christ ; 
 and a rite, which brings all who receive it truly into 
 one communion, fellowship, or company ; into the one 
 collective, mystical body of Christ, His Church ; under 
 Him as the Head, and receiving governance, grace, and 
 heavenly benediction from Him, as the source of all au- 
 thority, life, and blessedness. Such is the second point 
 of difference J and it is, if comparison maybe indulged 
 between things immeasurable, of still more immeasura- 
 ble importance than the other. 
 
 Tlie evils which, in the movement of ages, flow from 
 the doctrine of the real presence, as now taught among 
 us, I have already partially sketched. I need not, 
 therefore, in this place, repeat the sketch. I need only 
 say, we have the seeds of them planted in our portion 
 
376 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 of the vineyard, and that, just so far and so fast as they 
 are permitted to have nurture and growth, their bale- 
 ful influence will be inevitably visible in darkening the 
 nninds, confusing the theology, and corrupting both the 
 faith and the practice of our Church. 
 
 I have said there certainly is a sense in which the 
 true Christian receives the body and blood of Christ in 
 the Lord's Supper, as he receives them at no other time, 
 and in no other way ; and the examination which has 
 now been made of the language of our communion ser- 
 vice will enable me to state, as I promised, more defi- 
 nitely whalt I mean by the saying. I mean that, while 
 the true Christian may, and does receive the body and 
 blood of Christ, when, alone in the privacy of his closet, 
 and in the secrecy of his heart, he believes in his Sav- 
 ior, and relies on his atoning sacrifice for pardon, adop- 
 tion, and eternal life ; and when, thus alone, he rejoi- 
 ces in the blessed privilege, which is his, of being a 
 child of God ; he yet receives this body and blood with 
 a still richer fullness of benefit, when, in the company 
 of the faithful, in the house of God, and around the table 
 of his Lord, his faith sees that same atoning sacrifice 
 on the cross, reflected, with unwonted vividness, in the 
 divinely-appointed Mirror, which the hand of His sure- 
 ty holds before him ; when his faith, thus social in its 
 exercise, looks on the ordained, visible "p/ec/ge" of his 
 Savior's love for his soul, and on the constituted, sensi- 
 ble " seaV of the promise, which guaranties the free 
 and full forgiveness of all his sins ; and when, with his 
 faith thus awakened and strengthened, and his love as 
 its fruit made proportionately glowing and intense, he 
 identifies himself, or, rather, realizes his identity with 
 the communion of saints, the fellowship of the faithful, 
 and stands in that very company, and in the midst of 
 those very solemnities which Christ most delights to 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 377 
 
 honor and to bless ; which are, in themselves, best cal- 
 culated to bring into one living assemblage, round his 
 reverent, yet rejoicing soul, all that is most aflecting 
 and most quickening, most comforting and most hal- 
 lowing, in the wonders of Bethlehem and of Gethsera- 
 ane, of the cross and of the grave, of the resurrection 
 and of heaven ; and which are, therefore, to be regard- 
 ed as those occasions of special and of sacred privilege, 
 whereat Christ vouchsafes, in all its richness, the se- 
 cret of His favor and loving kindness for His chosen ; 
 and whereon He sheds, in all their fullness, the bless- 
 ings of His grace and heavenly benediction, even from 
 out that heaven of life and that throne of glory unto 
 which He is now exalted. 
 
 This is the peculiarity under which faith exercises 
 itself in the Lord's Supper ; and this is what is meant 
 by saying that the true Christian then receives the body 
 and blood of Christ, as he receives them at no other 
 time, and in no other way. Then only is it that he 
 receives them — not simply by faith in the sacrifice, 
 which they constitute, and in which they were, once 
 for all, offered on the cross — but, also, in sight of the 
 very mirror which reflects them on his spiritual sense ; 
 in sight of the very ^^ pledge''' which certifies him of 
 the never-dying love of Christ; and in sight of the very 
 seal which assures him that he is a ransomed, pardon- 
 ed, and adopted child of God. And this, I humbly sug- 
 gest, is the only sense in which the Christian can with 
 truth be said to receive the body and blood of Christ in 
 the Lord's Supper. He receives them by looking, from 
 the beating heart of love, and with the kindling eye 
 of faith, through the memorial to Him whom it keeps 
 in memory ; through the mirror to Him whose face 
 shineth therein ; through the symbol to the sacrifice 
 which it represents ; and through the seal to the par- 
 I I 2 
 
378 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 don which, on the terms of the covenant, it insures. 
 To receive the body and blood of Christ into our bod- 
 ies and souls, or to feed on them in the Lord's Supper, 
 in any other sense than that of believing in Christ, re- 
 lying on His atoning sacrifice by faith, and being spirit- 
 ually refreshed and strengthened amid the privileges, 
 and under the blessings, which are vouchsafed from 
 heaven on that precious ordinance, is impossible. Nei- 
 ther reason nor revelation shows any other way of 
 " eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of 
 Man," than that now indicated. This way both reason 
 and revelation concur in showing ; and it is the way of 
 life.. To seek any other, is to plunge deep into the 
 peril of being lost forever amid those darkly vvildering 
 mists of error which are spread over the entrance to 
 the way of death ! 
 
 3. The most important and fundamental views of the 
 nature of the Lord's Supper have now been given. 
 Growing out of these, however, is a third, of great in- 
 terest and importance j I mean that which presents this 
 ordinance in its character as a means of grace. This, 
 indeed, is not so much a distinct feature of the ordi- 
 nance itself, as it is the effect of the ordinance, flowing 
 out of its proper nature, as love's memorial of the bodi- 
 ly absent Jesus, and as faith's mirror of His sacrifice on 
 the cross. 
 
 It is proper here to spend a moment in distinguish- 
 ing between this ordinance as a means of grace, and the 
 same as a " source of grace." It will be remembered 
 that, at the very outset of this treatise, I referred to the 
 notion, which is gaining extended currency among us, 
 that "the sacraments are sources of Divine grace." 
 Now this is either a most unguarded expression, or a 
 designed enunciation of a doctrine which is full of er- 
 ror. A source is a fountain, first cause, or original pro- 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 379 
 
 ducer. A means is an instrument used by an agent 
 in the production of an intended effect j or a medium 
 through which some effect, or supply, is communicated. 
 To say, therefore, in so many words, that " the sacra- 
 ments are sources of Divine grace," or to treat them 
 as though they were such sources^ is either unguarded- 
 ly, or designedly, to lead men to stop at the sacra- 
 ments, to regard them as things endued with a miracu- 
 lous, spontaneous energy, and to rest in them, as, by a 
 secret power of their own, and in some mysterious way, 
 of which we know nothing, whether as to its operation, 
 or as to its effect, making us partakers of the Christian 
 character and of the Divine life. The sacraments are 
 not sources of grace ; they are but means of grace. 
 And even when we come to regard them as means, it 
 is necessary carefully to consider and rightly to under- 
 stand the sense in which they are means. They are 
 not means, then, in such a sense, as that by them God 
 generates the Divine life in the soul 5 but only in such a 
 sense, as that through them God nourishes and perfects 
 the Divine life already generated. Nor are they means 
 even in such a sense as that God nourishes and perfects 
 the already generated Divine life of the soul by any 
 power or virtue lodged in the very matter and substance 
 of the sacraments themselves; but only in such a sense 
 as that, through the vital truths and realities which they 
 affectingly symbolize and represent, the blessing of God 
 in the influences of His Spirit nourishes and perfects 
 the life which Himself had produced by the instrument- 
 ality of His own quickening and sanctifying Word. 
 
 This, then, is what I mean when I speak of the Lord's 
 Supper as a means of grace. It is a medium through 
 which the Holy Spirit increases and perfects all the gra- 
 ces of our Christian character by the peculiar and unusu- 
 al energy with which, in the symbols of this sacrament, 
 
380 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 He presents and applies to our souls those glorious 
 truths and realities which cluster so movingly around 
 the cross of Christ. 
 
 The Catechism of our Church represents " ^Ae benefits 
 whereof we are partakers" by this sacrament, as con- 
 sisting in " the strengthening and refreshing of our souls 
 by the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by 
 the bread and wine." That is, as our natural bodies 
 are strengthened and refreshed by the natural bread and 
 wine which are received into them and digested by 
 them, so are our souls " strengthened and refreshed" 
 by " the body and blood of Christ which are spiritually 
 taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Sup- 
 per." The remarks already offered show how this 
 strengthening and refreshing of our souls in the Lord's 
 Supper come from the body and blood of Christ. The 
 body has its own way of receiving and digesting its 
 proper sustenance. The sot// also has hers ; and it is as 
 peculiar to her as a spirit, as that of the body is to itself 
 as mere matter. The soul receives her proper susten- 
 ance, or eats and drinks her spiritual food, with her eye, 
 through that/a?VA which looks, and sees, and apprehends 
 the Divine truths and realities before it. Faith is that 
 " spiritual faculty" of hers, which, for the purpose de- 
 signed, "annihilates both time and space," by taking 
 her, in its quick motion, to the cross on Calvary, or to 
 the throne in heaven, and there feeding her ravished 
 vision with a sight of Him who once bled for sin, and 
 who now reigns unto salvation. 
 
 But before entering more at large into the idea of 
 this strengthening and refreshing which the soul re- 
 ceives in the Lord's Supper, I must offer a single re- 
 mark on the language just quoted from our Catechism. 
 
 It will be remembered that the authors to whom I 
 have so often referred speak of our receiving the very 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 381 
 
 body and blood of Christ into our bodies^ as well as into 
 our souls, commingling and co-uniting with them, and 
 preserving both for incorruption. Now, see how differ- 
 ent this is from the teaching of our Catechism. In de- 
 fining '■'■the benefits'''' of the Lord's Supper, it says, they 
 consist in " strengthening and refreshing our souls by 
 the body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the 
 bread and wine." Here is nothing about receiving the 
 very body and blood of Christ into even our souls, com- 
 mingling and co-uniting with them, and making them 
 one flesh and blood with Christ. The simple idea is 
 that of "the strengthening and refreshing of our souls 
 by the body and blood of Christ," " spiritually taken and 
 received hy faith. Faith receives them, and the soul is 
 thereby strengthened and refreshed. But the principal 
 point in my intended remark is this : the Catechism is 
 an utter stranger to the absurd notion that the very flesh 
 and blood of Christ are received into our bodies as well 
 as into our souls, commingling and co-uniting with their 
 substance, and preserving it for incorruption by imbu- 
 ing it with the principle of immortality ! This is but a 
 part of the general figment of the theory of a real pres- 
 ence. The Catechism leaves our bodies, after and not- 
 withstanding all the sacraments which they shall have 
 received, heirs to their natural corruption, to be raised 
 at the last day and made co-inheritors of life with our 
 souls, not by any principle of immortality which they 
 had carried with them from the sacraments into the 
 grave, but by the almighty power of God on that morn- 
 ing of eternal wonders. 
 
 I resume now the idea of the Lord's Supper as a 
 means of grace to our souls. 
 
 The spiritual benefits, then, of this ordinance come 
 through faith in Christ crucified, in that atoning sacri- 
 fice in which His body and blood were offered up to 
 
382 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 God on the cross, and through the blessing which the 
 Holy Spirit sheds on those peculiar helps under which 
 faith then looks upon that sacrifice. 
 
 When promising to His disciples the Comforter, who 
 should be with them during His bodily absence from the 
 Church, Christ uses these important words : " He shall 
 glorify me ; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show 
 it unto you," — John, xvi., 14-. Such being the office of 
 the Holy Spirit, He takes this memorial as one of "the 
 things of Christ," and '■'■shows it" to the Christian's 
 mind. He shows how it represents the death of Christ 
 for the sins of men. He makes plain, through its sym- 
 bol, the precious truth and efficacy of the atonement. 
 And thus he " glorifies" Christ in the sacrament which 
 Christ hath ordained. Through His blessing, the em- 
 blems in the sacrament become not only significant, 
 but affectingl'y and sanctifyingly significant. The great 
 truths and realities which they represent, find the Christ- 
 ian's heart, through His gracious influences, specially 
 prepared for the touching and moving contemplation of 
 those truths and realities. And thus, while his devout 
 soul regards, by faith, the whole sacred memorial be- 
 fore it, his love as well as his faith, his humility and his 
 hope, his courage and his zeal, his apprehension of Di- 
 vine things and his relish for Divine fellowship, his 
 deadness to earth and his longings after heaven, are 
 mightily quickened, and his whole inner man power- 
 fully " strengthened and refreshed" by his view of the 
 body and blood of Christ, and of that Divine work of 
 redemption in which they were offered a sacrifice. 
 
 From what I have now said, we see that the Lord's 
 Supper becomes a means of grace on the same principle 
 with that on which preaching or the reading of the 
 Word becomes a means of grace ; that is, through the 
 blessing of the Holy Spirit in the exercise of faith. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORu's SUPPER. 383 
 
 This Divine Agent acts, not tiirough the substance of 
 the bread and wine, but through the truths and realities 
 which they so affectingly symbolize. Those sacred 
 symbols are designed to aid the Christian, through the 
 influences of the Spirit, more touchingly and more mov- 
 ingly to realize and receive the whole body of truths 
 concerning the death and sacrifice of Christ for his sins. 
 
 The great difference between this sacrament and 
 preaching as means of grace consists in this. The sac- 
 rament takes up mainly those truths which respect the 
 work of Christ upon the cross; and these truths it pre- 
 sents, through the blessing of the Spirit, with unwonted 
 vividness, and, therefore, with unwonted effect, to the 
 specially-prepared minds of Christian communicants 
 only. But preaching is designed to take up all the 
 truths of Divine Revelation, and to present them all, 
 through the blessing of the same Spirit, to all classes of 
 hearers, and under all the circumstances of life ; for their 
 conversion as well as for their sanctification ; for their 
 direction in all duty, and for their support under all tri- 
 als ; for their light in all darkness, and for their com- 
 fort in all sorrows. 
 
 But, whether in the sacrament or in preaching, the 
 Spirit reaches the soul in the same way, through the 
 Truth which He presents, and not through the material 
 elements in the sacrament, nor through the living man 
 in preaching. To suppose the body and blood of Christ 
 really present in the Eucharist, and really conveyed 
 with its elements, does not, as is urged, make the ordi- 
 nance more full, more significant, or more efficacious. 
 It does but burden its simplicity, darken its meaning, 
 and, in the end, pervert its operation. Keep the ordi- 
 nance pure, simple. Scriptural, and Christ by His Spirit 
 will fill it with something better than His mere flesh 
 and blood ; with the power of His quickening, purify- 
 ing, strengthening, and refreshing Truth ; with intelli- 
 
384 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 gent and soul-cheering views of His cross ; and with 
 clear and enrapturing visions into heaven. He will fill 
 it with His Divine presence, as the heart-searching, 
 heart-sanctifying God. He will fill it with full and sat- 
 isfying foretastes of that eternal life which He came to 
 purchase and to insure for every humble and obedient 
 believer in His name.* 
 
 In addition to tlie views thus far given of this ordi- 
 nance, there are some others, upon which, however, I 
 shall touch more briefly, both because they involve no 
 disputed points, and because some of them, being com- 
 mon to both the Christian sacraments, have already been 
 exhibited when treating of baptism. 
 
 4. I say, then, the Lord's Supper is a divinely-ordain- 
 ad test of men's obedience to Christ. 
 
 " This do in remembrance of me." Such is Christ's 
 command ; and it is as obligatory on those to whom it 
 is addressed as any other precept in the Bible ; not as 
 founded on the same reasons, but as coming from the 
 same authority. Other commands bind to instant obe- 
 dience, without any previous preparatory process. Such 
 are the commands to " love God supremely, and our 
 neighbor as ourselves;" and to have "repentance to- 
 ward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 But this binds to obedience as the result of a previous 
 preparatory process. In other words, Christ does not 
 command us to partake of His Supper before we have 
 true repentance and faith ; but, being always under ob- 
 
 * It is really astonishing that the writers of the school to which I have 
 so often referred should be so ready as they are to admit the superior full- 
 ness of the privileges which Rome retains and enjoys in this sacrament ; 
 and to mourn over the meager portion which we, and those of the Anglican 
 Church who agree with us, have gathered and brought with us in our 
 wicked act of separating from that more favored communion ! All that 
 Rome retains, over and above these Scriptural views of the sacrament, is 
 but darkness, putting out the light of truth, and corruption, bringing death 
 into the place of life. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORDS SUPPER. 385 
 
 ligation to repent and believe, He requires us, when pen- 
 itent and believing, to express our allegiance to Him in 
 this high symbolic act. Inasmuch, however, as all 
 are under obligation to repent and believe, there is a 
 sense in which all are under obligation thus to remem- 
 ber Christ in His holy Supper. Christ claims obedience 
 as well as love and faith j and this ordinance is a test of 
 our obedience, as well as a symbol to our love and faith. 
 If men have the temper of obedience to Christ, that per- 
 haps best proof of love for Him, and even of faith in 
 Him, they will approach His sacred feast, and manifest 
 that temper before the world. But if they have it not, 
 or if shame, or the fear of man, or the love of the 
 world come into conflict with their rising reverence for 
 their Savior's behest, and finally overmaster a senti- 
 ment which had else grown into a settled principle of 
 obedience, they will refuse to approach that Supper, 
 and will thus manifest, before heaven and earth, their 
 disobedience to the Divine Savior of men. Christ, it is 
 true, needs not this test to show Him who are obedient 
 and who are disobedient ; seeing that, as the Searcher 
 of hearts, "He knoweth what is in man:" but He de- 
 signs by this test to show us, the Church, and the 
 world, whether we cherish the one or the other of these 
 tempers, and thus to make it evident " what manner of 
 spirit we are of." He has left this ordinance in His 
 Church as, on the whole, a faithful visible " detecter of 
 the hearts" of men. He seeks by it to reveal them to 
 themselves as they stand revealed to Him ; and thus to 
 bring them, if possible, by repentance to God, and by 
 faith to the cross. 
 
 5. Again : the Lord's Supper is, with baptism, one of 
 
 the visible badges by which the disciples of Christ are 
 
 distinguishable from the world, and held amenable to 
 
 the divinely-instituted laws of discipline in the Church. 
 
 K K 
 
386 THE NATURE OP THE LORD^S SUTPER. 
 
 When once baptized, we can never become unbap" 
 tized ; but, when once admitted to the Lord's Supper, 
 we may be cut off from farther fellowship in that Di- 
 vine symbol. Nor is such an excision a light thing* 
 On the contrary, as to be admitted to this sacrament is 
 the highest outward privilege which we can enjoy on 
 earth, so, to be cut off from it, is the highest of earth- 
 ly deprivations. By our admission to this privilege, we 
 have applied to us the highest visible seal of the truth 
 of Christ's precious promise of pardon and eternal life? 
 by our excision from it, we are declared unfit, not only 
 for the seal itself, but also for the mercy which, to the 
 true Christian, it guaranties. By the one, we are brought 
 into the highest company of Christ's spiritual followers ; 
 by the other, we are shut out amid the society of all the 
 servants of sin and the world. By the former, we are 
 encircled, in all their plenitude and perfection, with that 
 whole system of outward means which God hath so 
 graciously and so wisely devised for strengthening and 
 embellishing our Christian characters in all the graces 
 and beauties of the heavenly life ; and by the latter, we are 
 placed without this circle of blessings, and separated 
 from the action of those influences with which that cir- 
 cle is filled ; and in this condition are left once more, 
 with the choice of life and death still before us, indeed, 
 but exposed, in again making that choice, to all the op- 
 posing enmities and oppositions, and to all the perilous- 
 ly counteracting crafts and subtleties of the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. 
 
 This view of the Lord's Supper, as one of the visible 
 badges of Christ's disciples, is extremely important. 
 Without such a badge, the Church would be deprived 
 of her most effective means of discipline, and exposed, 
 without the possibility of purification, to even deeper 
 corruptions than have ever yet defiled her. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 387 
 
 This means of discipline has, it is true, like all other 
 good things, been abused. In those ages when spirit- 
 ual despotism ruled without restraint, even kings and 
 their kingdoms have been made to tremble and bow 
 down under the awful terrors of the Church's interdict. 
 But those ages are passed. The rod of terror, which 
 abuse of power had put into the hands of spiritual ty- 
 rants, has been broken ; and, so far at least as we are 
 concerned, has left in its stead nothing but the emblem 
 of holy authority, placed in the hands of a spiritual pa- 
 rent, to be used for the benefit only of even her unwor- 
 thy children. In this character, it were devoutly to be 
 wished that it were more frequently, as it might then 
 be more salutarily used. Discipline among us is plain- 
 ly in a state of decay ; and our Church harbors in her 
 bosom many who, both for her benefit and their own^ 
 should be cast out, and received no more to her holy 
 feast till they can come back robed in the white gar- 
 ments of most humble repentance, and shining in the 
 evident graces of a heart-purifying faith. 
 
 6. And, finally, the Lord's Supper, in common, also, 
 with baptism, carries with it the evidence of a moral mon- 
 ument to the truth and Divine origin of Christianity, and 
 to the identity of the Church through all ages. 
 
 This point, however, having been sufficiently illus- 
 trated when treating of baptism, I shall not here repeat 
 the illustration. I recur to it only for the purpose of 
 noticing the connection which this evidence has with 
 the ordinance that has now been examined ; and of say- 
 ing, once more, that this evidence is of the highest 
 value. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as a sim- 
 ple memorial of the death of Christ, is one of the bright 
 links in that infrangible chain which binds the Gospel and 
 the Church to the throne of God. Every time we go to 
 the Lord's Supper, we do, in effect, make a spiritual pil- 
 grimage across the wide desert of Time ; a pilgrimage 
 
388 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 which ends in bringing us out upon that holy ground 
 whereon " the Son of Man" was crucified for our sins j 
 and which leaves us kneeling there, where myriads 
 have knelt before us, with adoring hearts, around that 
 sublime and imperishable monument erected on the 
 triple plinth of the fact, the date, and the meaning of 
 Christ's atoning sacrifice ! 
 
 The views which have now been given of the nature 
 of the Lord's Supper are in sufficiently full accord with 
 those given in our Articles. 
 
 " The Lord's Supper is not only a sign of the love 
 that Christians ought to have among themselves, one to 
 another, but rather it is a sacrament of our redemption 
 by Christ's death ; insomuch that, to such as rightly, 
 worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread 
 which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ ; 
 and, likewise, the cup of blessing is a partaking of the 
 blood of Christ." . . . . " The body of Christ is given, 
 taken, and eaten in the Supper, only after a heavenly 
 and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body 
 of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith."* 
 
 Again : " Sacraments, ordained of Christ, be not only 
 badges, or tokens of Christian men's profession, but 
 rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual 
 signs of grace and God's good-will toward us, by the 
 which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only 
 quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in 
 Him."t 
 
 Upon these definitions from the Articles, it will not, 
 after what has been said, be necessary long to dwell. 
 It will be sufficient to say, that the nature of the Eu- 
 charist, as love's memorial, is referred to in the words, 
 " Sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death," and 
 " sign of grace and God's good- will toward us ;" that its 
 character, as faitKs mirror of the sacrifice on the cross, 
 * Art. xxviii. t Art* xxv. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 389 
 
 is distinctly indicated in the phrase, "insomuch. that, to 
 such as rightly, worthily, and Avith faith receive the 
 same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the 
 body of Christ 5 and, likewise, the cup of blessing is a 
 partaking of the blood of Christ ;" that its character, as 
 a means of grace, is fully asserted in the expression, " ef- 
 fectual signs of grace, and God's good-will toward us, 
 by the which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth 
 not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our 
 faith in Him ;" that its character, as a test of obedience 
 to Christ, and also as a badge of discipleship under Him, 
 is intimated in the single phrase, " badges or tokens of 
 Christian men's profession ;" and that, finally, its char- 
 acter, as imbodying the evidence of a moral monument, 
 &c., is apparently expressed in the terms, "certain sure 
 witnesses'^ ..." of grace and God's good-will toward 
 us ;" while, from the whole, the doctrine of the real 
 presence is excluded, not only by the omission of the 
 terms, but also by the introduction of a clause evident- 
 ly designed to guard against the idea; "the body of 
 Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper only 
 after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean 
 whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the 
 Supper, is faith.^^ In the sacrament, /aM takes the soul 
 away from the memorial, the symbol, and the sign, to the 
 cross, to the throne, to the Crucified, and the Glorified ; 
 and there, through its rapturous vision, feeds the soul 
 on the merits, the benefits, the life of our great Sacrifice ; 
 of Him " that liveth and was dead, and is now alive 
 forevermore." Thus, in " a heavenly and spiritual man- 
 ner," through " the mean" of "'•faith,^^ do we eat the 
 body and drink the blood of Christ ; and thus do the 
 bread and the cup of blessing prove, to the " worthy^^ 
 recipient, effectual signs of "grace and God's good- will 
 toward us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us, 
 Kk3 
 
390 THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 
 
 and doth not only quicken," where it already exists, 
 " but also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him." 
 
 When treating of baptism, I remarked that we may 
 reject the theory of baptismal regeneration, as it has all 
 along been in view, and yet leave the ordinance all that 
 Christ intended it should be. I trust it has now been 
 seen that we may, in like manner, reject the dogma of 
 the real presence, and yet leave the Lord's Supper all 
 that Christ intended to make it by His instituting words. 
 Certainly, after such a rejection, we leave the ordinance 
 invested with all the attributes that I can discover for 
 it, whether in the Bible or in the standards of our 
 Church 5 and I know not that I can close the whole ex 
 amination better than by adapting to this part of the 
 subject the language with which I prepared to close the 
 views formerly taken of baptism. 
 
 In what I have said, then, upon the Lord's Supper, 
 ' I have shown that the view which I have taken of this 
 ordinance is at least all that the Bible and our Church, 
 in her chief standards of doctrine, make it ; and that, 
 therefore, the Bible and our standards being guide, we 
 may reject the doctrine of the real presence, as it has 
 been exhibited from the writings of its advocates, with- 
 out leaving this high Christian ordinance stripped of its 
 solemnity and importance, a mere soulless, lifeless 
 form of what Christ intended should be instinct with 
 mysterious and awful power. In fact, the view which 
 has been taken of this ordinance, while it is scriptural 
 and simple, is, for that very reason, essential to its true 
 beauty, value, and efficacy. To burden it with the 
 thick covering of the theory of the real presence, how 
 ever reverend and awful the robes in which it is tKns 
 designed to dress it, is but to disfigure Divine beauty, 
 simplicity, and life, with what, in fact, robs them of much, 
 if not all, of the salutary power which they were de- 
 signed to exert. Disencumbered, and left as Christ left 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORD's SUPPER. 391 
 
 it, and as our Church finds it in the Bible, the Lord's 
 Supper commends itself alike to the Christian's highest 
 esteem, and to his most reverential affection, as every 
 way worthy of its Divine Institutor, and of the Divine 
 end which, in its institution, He contemplated.' 
 
 It is not because I wish to take from it the smallest 
 portion of its true value, or to lessen, in the smallest 
 degree, the reverence which the most devout Christian 
 should feel for it, as " the sacrament of his redemption 
 by the death of Christ," that I have so earnestly urged 
 the views presented (for I would as soon seek to put 
 Christ out of his own Gospel, as I would to put his inten- 
 tion out of his own ordinance) j but because I wish to 
 separate from our apprehensions of this ordinance a 
 feature which, I am most thoroughly persuaded, does 
 not belong to it 5 and which, I am as thoroughly per- 
 suaded, can never be supposed to belong to it, without 
 exposing the Church to the gradual, but certain intro- 
 duction of corruptions the most dangerous, and of su- 
 perstitions the most pernicious. It does seem to me 
 that we must be blind to the teachings of all Church 
 history for the last eighteen hundred years, before we 
 can put out of sight the truth, that the two doctrines 
 which I have opposed, and in the forms under which I 
 have opposed them — baptismal regeneration, and the 
 real presence — have been copious spring-heads to some 
 of the worst corruptions, and to some of the worst su- 
 perstitions, by which the beautiful and simple form of 
 Scriptural Christianity has ever been marred. 
 
 The sum of what, in the present treatise, has been 
 said, is this. The sole end of God, in all His gracious 
 dealings with us, is the renewal and sanctification of 
 our sinful natures : the sole agent of this necessary 
 change is the Holy Spirit: the sole instrument which 
 the Spirit uses in this work is Divine Truth : while both 
 preaching and the sacraments are but channels of equal- 
 
392 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 ly Divine appointment, through which, in their proper 
 places, order, and degree, that Spirit pours the energy 
 of truth, in all its renewing and sanctifying light, upon 
 waiting, inquiring, and obedient minds. 
 
 Keep these principles in view, and the Church will be 
 to us full of life, and the way along which she conducts 
 us to heaven luminous with safety. Lose sight of these 
 principles, and the Church herself is in danger of becom- 
 ing but a body of death ; and the way along which she 
 leads us begins to be overhung with the darkness of 
 error, superstition, and fearful peril to our souls. 
 
 The Bible, as a book of Divine truths, has been given to 
 be the instrument of purifying a " world lying in wick- 
 edness." In this, its purifying work, it has been cast, as 
 a sacred leaven, into the mighty lump, carrying with it, 
 as forms through which the Spirit ordinarily operates, 
 the Church, its ministry, and its ordinances. In the fer- 
 ment which has followed this gift of God to man, light 
 has mixed with darkness, truth with error, and pure reli- 
 gion with defiling superstition. During this fearful con- 
 flict, darkness, error, superstition, have seemed, for long 
 ages, victorious ; and light, truth, pure religion, have 
 at times appeared not only vanquished, but almost ex- 
 tinct. Nevertheless, in the written form which God has 
 given to His Word, and in the wondrous Providence 
 with which He has watched over its integrity^ He has 
 given perpetual security to this instrument of a final 
 triumph in favor of Himself and His cause. What has 
 appeared so often worsted in the conflict has not been, 
 in reality, the Word of Truth itself, but only those em- 
 anations from itself which, by the power of the Spirit, 
 have gone out for leaven, for mixture, for operation, 
 through the great mass of surrounding evil. In itself 
 it has ever remained, on the whole, incorrupt ; giving 
 forth its power ; maintaining the ferment of good in the 
 midst of evil ; and preparing the way for the time when. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 393 
 
 the whole lump being leavened, truth shall every where 
 prevail, the world yield to its sway, and all human 
 things settle down into the unfermenting calm of light, 
 and peace, and love, under Jesus, the spiritual king of 
 all the earth. 
 
 In this great warfare of good with evil, the Church, 
 though often deeply corrupted with error and supersti- 
 tion, has yet, on the whole, been the visible medium for 
 diffusing the powerful truths of the Bible ; and the time, 
 it may be believed, will come, when, free from all cor- 
 ruption, her influence shall be felt as simply benign ; 
 when she shall become a widening circle of lights, ra- 
 diating truth only from Christ, her centre, through the 
 ministry, whom his right hand upholds ; and when all 
 her ordinances, as included among those " mysteries of 
 God" which have been committed to her stewardship, 
 will be seen to operate, not in the darkly confounding 
 prodigies of alleged perpetual miracle, but in the simple 
 richness of that light of knowledge and of life which, 
 as through all her ministries, so also through her signs 
 and symbols, shineth down from her glorified and all 
 knowing Head. 
 
 That her symbols are mysteries in this sense only, the 
 present treatise has attempted to show. They are not 
 such symbols as carry in themselves a perpetual incar- 
 nation of Christ ; but only such symbols as collect and 
 pour forth the powerful and sanctifying light, where- 
 with the Spirit seeks to glorify Him. 
 
 An illustration, just used, carries the mind back to 
 one grand symbol which, though not in the form of a 
 sacrament, has yet been left on record, and from which 
 somewhat may be gathered not inappropriate to the 
 subject at this its closing stage. It was given in the 
 vision with which the evangelist of the Apocalypse was 
 favored on the Isle of Patmos. 
 
394 THE NATURE OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 " In the Spirit on the Lord's Day," he " heard a great 
 voice;" and, turning "to see the voice, which spake with" 
 him, he " saw seven golden candlesticks, and, in the midst of 
 the seven candlesticks, one like the Son of Man, clothed with 
 a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a 
 golden girdle. His head and hairs were white like wool, 
 as white as snow ; and his eyes as a flame of fire ; and his 
 feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace ; and 
 his voice as the sound of many waters : and he had in his 
 right hand seven stars : and out of his mouth went a two- 
 edged sword : and his countenance was as the sun shineth 
 in his strength." — Rev., i., 9-16. 
 
 There was, indeed, a glorious symbol ; a truly evangelic 
 mystery ; " the mystery of the seven stars, and of the seven 
 golden candlesticks ;" with him in the midst, who was " like 
 unto the Son of Man." It was a " mystery" full of voice, 
 full of light ; and He who filled it was girt in the robe and 
 golden zone of Divine beauty and gracefulness. It was full 
 of voice for teaching, and of light for illumination ; and the 
 garment which was girt there was as a v.esture of righteous- 
 ness, zoned with truth. Its voice was as " many waters" 
 for sounding forth, and as " a two-edged sword" for piercing ; 
 its light was as a flame of fire for searching, and as the sun 
 in his strength for shedding perfect day ; and its garment 
 was as holiness for an enrobing glory, and as truth for a 
 girdle of gracious beauty. 
 
 Such was the wondrous symbol in its dress : one like 
 unto the Son of Man, standing in the midst of seven golden 
 candlesticks, and holding in his hand seven shining stars ; 
 more glorious in array than words could describe, and more 
 powerful for operation than thought could conceive. What, 
 then, was the symbol in its signification ? Not Christ's 
 flesh and blood commingled and co-united with the bodies 
 and souls of individual Christians, effecting thus a perpetu- 
 al and living incarnation of Himself; but Christ, showing 
 his relation to his light-bearing churches, and to those true 
 
THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 395 
 
 ministers, whom He upholds with his right hand, and who, 
 as starry lights, catch and cast forth, through His churches 
 upon the world, his own glorious effulgence of saving truth 
 and life. " The seven stars," said the interpreting form, in 
 the very idiom of Christ's native tongue as He spake on 
 earth, " the seven stars are (represent) the angels of the sev- 
 en churches ; and the seven candlesticks are (represent) the 
 seven churches." This, then, was not Christ incarnate in 
 a darkly incomprehensible symbol ; but it was the most 
 gorgeously luminous symbol ever conceived of Christ and 
 his churches ; of Christ upholding His true ministers with 
 His right hand ; speaking through them His two-edged 
 Word of life, in sounds terribly piercing to the sinner, and 
 affectingly solemn to the saint ; and casting, through them 
 on the churches, and through the churches on the wide 
 world, the effulgent daylight of His own saving truth. 
 
 This was " the mystery," the meaning, of the symbol. It 
 was a mystery, not because it was incomprehensible, but be- 
 cause it was rich in a meaning designed to be understood, 
 and luminously intelligible the moment the word of interpret- 
 ation was spoken. As the language of Christ, " This is 
 my body," " This is my blood," was really interpreting 
 language, making plain what was intended to be understood, 
 the symbolic mystery of his acts in breaking and blessing 
 the bread and the wine ; so, the words, " The seven stars 
 are the angels of the seven churches ; and the seven golden 
 candlesticks are the seven churches," were truly interpret- 
 ing words, making perfectly plain what was designed to be 
 comprehended, the grand symbolic mystery which opens the 
 Apocalypse. 
 
 In this symbolic mystery, Christ sets forth to all ages the 
 relation which he holds to his Church, as one whole, com- 
 posed of many branches ; exhibiting Himself as the source 
 and upholder of its ministry ; the source and dispenser of its 
 light ; its centrally supreme and governing Head, directing its 
 movements in the divinely merciful work of slaying sin, and 
 
396 THE NATURE OF THE LORd's SUPPER. 
 
 of spreading both the light of truth and the garment of holi- 
 ness over all the earth. And this relation of Christ to His 
 Church, this agency of Christ through His Church, must be- 
 come more and more perfectly apprehended and appreciated. 
 His Church must carry less and less of the darkness of super' 
 stitious mystery, and more and more of the light of evangelic 
 mystery ; till finally, what was represented to the Lesser 
 Asia by the mystic circle of the seven golden candlesticks, 
 with their accompanying seven shining stars, shall have 
 widened and thrown its circumference around the globe ; be- 
 coming thus the One Church of all lands, and, with its num- 
 berless stellar angels, making universal the light both of the 
 knowledge and of the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 To this splendid result every Christian, but especially 
 every Christian minister, however humble be the station in 
 which he is placed, should, according to the ability and the 
 grace given to him, contribute his portion ; and nothing can 
 absolve him from the sin either of ceasing to shine forth in 
 his Master's light, or of turning that light into mere radiating 
 darkness. Influenced by the power of this consideration, 
 whoever, in the spirit of teachableness, humility, and prayer, 
 seeks to gather and give forth light from Christ, and, in this 
 spirit and with this desire, goes to the Word of God, and 
 looks at Him, who appears there as " the sun shining in 
 his strength," may at least hope to be kept from becom- 
 ing the unwilling disseminator of error instead of truth. 
 Tremblingly, yet confidingly, may he place his work at the 
 feet of Him who standeth in the midst of the golden candle- 
 sticks, and who holdeth in his right hand the whole constel- 
 lation both of the greater and of the lesser lights ; leaving 
 his labor there to be used as the Infinite in wisdom shall 
 see fit to use it, and quieting himself with the thought that, 
 if His blessing justify, it will matter little who may condemn ; 
 while if, withholding His blessing, He condemn, it will be 
 of no avail, though thousands attempt to justify the offering 
 which is made. 
 
■:^'. 
 

 Date Due 
 
 
 N:; 1 <A ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
P mceton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 012 0102- 
 
 1953