according to man's fitness to receive it; and therefore the Church is a system of reserve. And this in no way limits or confines, but in every way strengthens the most active efforts for propagating the Gospel in the world; which can no more be doubted than that our LORD Himself took the very best, the most engaging, and at the same time the most powerful, means of recommending truth to mankind. And indeed the Church, in which our LORD has promised to be present unto the end, may very well be compared in this respect to His visible body in the flesh; a comparison which may be allowed, as He applied the term "temple" to His human person; both served as a veil to His Divinity, in both He withdraws from human eyes, through both in the same manner, He manifests Himself according as persons will by faith receive Him, will take up the cross after Him, and be His disciples.

2. The Holiness of God's House of Prayer.

Now the whole business of the Church, as a system upon earth, is to impart to mankind this true saving knowledge; and in so doing she is quite opposed to the restless systems of the world for imparting mere knowledge of itself. She acts therefore as her Divine Founder throughout, on a species of reserve. As one desirous above all things to prepare men's minds, and bring them to the truth, but communicating it to them as they are able to receive it. She contains as it were within herself numerous channels or modes of access, by which men may be brought to this knowledge of GOD. Her Sacramental ordinances are, in fact, ways to that invisible Jerusalem, that celestial fellowship, and the city of the Living GOD. The progressive states of proficiency in the school of Christ have been termed the via purgativa, or the way of repentance; the via illuminativa, or the way of Christian knowledge; and the via unitiva, or the way of charity and union with GOD. Now it may be seen, that Church principles contain within them these modes of bringing men to the knowledge of, and to union with GOD, who dwelleth in secret, after a reserved, silent, and retiring

manner. All those that are considered peculiarly Church principles, doctrines, and practices, are of this character.

For instance, the Church, contrary to the human system, which we have described, looks upon houses of Divine worship as being especially sacred, and the place of God's peculiar presence. Now if this doctrine of the Church is true, then they must be the abode of some great and peculiar blessing; every body must necessarily allow, that the Divine presence must be life-giving and hallowing, and as it were sacramentally convey spiritual benefit; but now if both these opinions of the Church be true, it is evident that these blessings cannot be realized, but by particular persons and dispositions; by those who make it their reverential study to raise their minds to it, and by faith receive the blessing. These privileges, so high and spiritual, are held by the Church in a sort of reserve and silence. The case is precisely analogous to that of our LORD in the flesh; conveying now spiritual blessings, as then bodily cures, after precisely the same rule and method; and withdrawing Himself from many, who may be inclined to doubt and ridicule such a supposition. That such a sense of the holiness of Churches is itself beneficial to the moral character, may be inferred from the high authority of Bishop Butler, the great master of morals, who recommends some devotional act of the mind, as a reverential exercise, to be practised at the very sight of a Church. And there is something in Holy Scripture most mysteriously striking, and awful, on this subject; as for instance, the sanctity, and adoration, claimed so strongly in the Old Testament for the place where God vouchsafed to disclose His presence, of which there are many instances. And perhaps there is no circumstance in all the account of our SAVIOUR'S life, which so arrests and demands our awful attention, as that of His driving the buyers out of the temple, when He would suffer no "vessel to be carried through it." In the first place, because this action was so different in its character to all other actions of our LORD; in the next place, because it was twice repeated; and lastly, because it implied a sense of holiness so transporting as to have carried Him, humanly speaking, beyond Himself, fulfilling the expression of the Psalmist, "the zeal of

Thine house hath eaten me up." Since therefore no man can equal the sense of veneration here expressed, for GOD's "House of Prayer," therefore no one can exceed on this subject; the case is in some respects analogous to an adoration of our LORD's Divinity when seen in the flesh. And the effect and cause become mutually implicated in bearing on the moral character: the most holy men will most reverence the place of God's presence, and he who more values the place of God's presence will become the most holy. Now this secret of God is so entirely disclosed by Him, after this manner of reserve, that the difference of regard which men feel for Churches, is as great as the difference of estimation in which our LORD was regarded by the beloved disciple or by the traitor Judas, for both of them were in His presence, but one only derived benefit from it. For instance, David speaks of the temple of GOD with words of longing desire, as great as could be expressed for any conceivable blessing, as being the place of God's presence; and yet many of us doubtless feel nothing of the kind. These gifts, therefore, the greatest that heart of man can devise, are in secret; it is the kingdom of heaven upon earth, but seen only by certain persons; a treasure hid, "the pure in heart seeing God" under those veils of all of which it may be said, as of our LORD's teaching," he that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

3. Sacraments, Church Ordinances and practices.

In the next place, with respect to the Holy Sacraments, it is in these, and by these chiefly, that the Church of all ages has held the Doctrine of the Atonement after a certain manner of reserve; which sense of things this modern system has relinquished, and in consequence has put forward this doctrine to the people in a manner unknown to former ages. The Church has ever thus held the doctrine in its substance, in its fulness, in its life-giving power and reality: for which these moderns have substituted what is human;-the declaration of it by eloquence of speech, the reception of it in excitement of feeling. The Church considers it in the Sacraments as a power of substantial and Divine efficacy, conferring spiritual gifts and privileges; this system, as

nominal and external to ourselves. In the Sacraments the doctrine is most intimately and closely blended with the life and conduct of man; in this system, it is in great measure separated from it. For instance, all ancient Baptismal Services, as well as that of our own Church, have most closely connected with the doctrine of the Atonement, the consideration of our being crucified with CHRIST, being dead with CHRIST, being buried with CHRIST, and the consequent necessity of our mortifying our earthly members in this respect, they exemplify, in a wonderful manner, all that we have stated respecting this doctrine in the Gospels, and the Epistles of St. Paul, wherein our own cross,- -the world being crucified to us, and we to the world,-is mysteriously connected with that of CHRIST. The Sacraments realize the doctrine in a way that no human system can do: for we believe that a Divine Power, and the blessings of the Atonement especially, are, after some transcendental manner, present in those Sacraments, according to the express promise of our LORD. And it is very obvious that our Communion Service does support the same principle in like manner with the Baptismal Offices; for it throughout implies penitence, faith, and charity as indispensable on the part of man; and "the Body and the Blood of CHRIST, verily and indeed taken and received," as the highest of gifts on the part of God. And these it considers as the spiritual life of Christians. And as the very essence of a Church does depend on a due dispensation of the blessed Sacraments, so, where a sense of these is impaired, or not realized by faith, the doctrine of the Atonement itself is put forth to mankind, as if the preaching of this constituted all that was life-giving in the Church. Now here it is very evident at once that the great difference between these two systems, consists in this, that one holds the doctrine secretly as it were, and in reserve; the other in a public and popular manner; one in connexion with all other doctrines of Scripture, the other as separated from them. It is always the case with the Church, that it has considered the Sacraments as certain veils of the Divine presence, being not only the signs and tokens, but vehicles, and conveyances, if we may so speak, of Divine gifts. This is obvious, not only from the Discipline of the secret,

but from usual modes of speaking concerning them. Thus, St. Augustine (Ps. xviii. v. 11.) on the words, "He laid in the darkness His secret place," applies this to GOD having laid His secret place "in the obscurity of the Sacrament, and secret hope in the heart of believers ;""where He Himself might be hid, and desert them not, even in this darkness, where we walk as yet by faith, not by sight." (Tom. iv. 107.)

The same may be shown with respect to the powers of Priestly Absolution, and the gifts conferred thereby. It is not required for our purpose to show the reality of that power, and the magnitude of those gifts which are thus dispensed. But a little consideration will show, that if the Church of all ages is right in exercising these privileges, the subject is one entirely of this reserved and mystical character. Its blessings are received in secret, according to faith: they are such as the world cannot behold, and cannot receive. The subject is one so profound and mysterious, that it hardly admits of being put forward in a popular

way, and doubtless more injury than benefit would be done to religion by doing so inconsiderately. And yet a faithful Christian may look through the actions and offices of the Church, to that which is beyond human senses, to CHRIST absolving, CHRIST baptizing, CHRIST interceding, CHRIST pronouncing benediction; and may thus by an habitual sense of Absolution declared, come to the state of that penitent, who "loved much, because she had much forgiven." The same may be said with respect to the Benediction: no words and arguments, no learned proofs nor eloquent demonstration, of the blessing that is through these channels conveyed, render us of themselves capable of receiving them but it is a secret which God Himself dispenses as men are found worthy. For when our SAVIOUR instructed His disciples to pronounce the blessing of peace beyond understanding, He annexed to it, "that if the Son of peace be there, His peace should rest upon that house, if not, it should return to them again." And that His peace was mysteriously powerful to convey what it expressed, and not like mere human words of salutation, nor in a manner capable of being understood by the world, our LORD seems to have signified in that expression, "Peace be unto you,

;