My Christian brethren, I have no reason to believe that there is any thing of this kind among you who hear me: one would earnestly trust that it is not so; but sure I am that this spirit is abroad in the world around you. And I think if you could but know to what danger your Church is liable in consequence of it, you would feel, and value, and cherish the inestimable treasure you have in the Sacraments, and would join all good people with your frequent and earnest prayers, that your children also may have the same. The greatest blessings are little valued, until we feel we are in danger of losing them. And this is more especially they are not of the things

the case with the means of grace, as which perish with the using, but contain every thing to which we can look forward with hope.

Let us not lose them by our own fault: as far as we ourselves are concerned, it is better to have them taken away from us, than that we should have them, and not value them—not use them aright. And moreover, if GOD, in His just judgments, should be about to remove from us these means of our salvation, nothing, surely, will so effectually plead with HIM to spare us such a visitation, as to find that we are diligently bent on making the most of them. He is pleased to vouchsafe to us His gracious life-giving Presence, by means of Sacraments and outward means of grace. Surely, if He finds that such His Presence with us is what we value above all things, HE will not depart and leave us. Notwithstanding all the appearances that are gathering against us in the world, we may be assured that on this alone on ourselves, it will depend. If we show ourselves worthy, by repentance and amendment, HE will stay with us; if we do not, HE will depart. He is passing by; He is as if He would go further -to other parts of the world; and the evening is fast drawing on but if we invite HIM-if we stretch forth our hands to HIM -if we hold HIм fast, by our earnest faith and desire, HE will abide with us, and manifest HIMSELF to us in breaking of Bread, more than He yet has done.

SERMON XVI.

THE WASHING OF WATER.

EPHES. V. 25, 26.

"As CHRIST also loved the Church, and gave HIMSELF for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word."

As God had always intended to make water the sign and instrument of a matter so great as the new birth of the soul, we might naturally suppose, from the usual mode of His teaching us, that He would fill the whole of the Scriptures with some intimation of this; not such, indeed, as would be perceived beforehand, but which would become afterwards full of edification and interest to us. And this is exactly what we find to be the case; we no sooner open the Bible than the subject meets us in all that dignity and majesty which is suited to its importance; for in the beginning of Genesis, even before the creation of the world is described, we read, " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters'." This description is supposed to mean, brooded like a bird does on its nest, with outstretched wings, imparting life. Now this was at the Creation of the world, which was full of signs and figures of the New Creation, when God should by CHRIST bring in new Heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;" and therefore it is to be observed, that we have something corresponding to this in the Gospels. For when our LORD was HIMSELF baptized, it is mentioned in three Gospels, that the Heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit

1 Gen. i. 2.

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2 See S. Basil, Hex. 1. 6.

of GOD descending like a dove, in a bodily shape, and lighting upon HIM3. Here this descending upon the waters like a dove, seems to have a reference to the account in Genesis, of the Spirit brooding, as it were, on the waters. It is said by old writers, that He thus came on the waters as being “the seat of the Spirit of GOD;" and as thus recognising His ancient home "." There seems also a probable connexion in the dove-like motion, as of a bird brooding, cherishing, and imparting vital warmth. It is impossible that any thing could set before us in a greater or stronger manner the new birth, which was to be by water.

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Again, the next remarkable circumstance which meets us, is the destruction and restoration of the old world, which was by water; when wickedness was so great that GOD could not allow the earth to exist any longer until it was washed by water. That the flood was the great sign of Baptism is very evident, as St. Peter testifies : "The longsuffering of GOD waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth now also save us." And it was thus that Noah became, says St. Paul, "heir of the righteousness which is by faith." While the wood of the ark by which the righteous were then saved, foretold, says Augustin, the mystery of the Cross, by which the Church would be saved in the destruction of the world 8.

The next great salvation of God's people which meets us in Holy Scripture, is that of Israel coming out of Egypt, which we all know was marked by another signal figure of Baptism-by the Red Sea, when the children of GoD were saved by water. The very name, also, of the Red Sea, is highly remarkable, inasmuch as it is by water and blood that we are saved. The water," says St. Augustin, "must be consecrated by the Name of CHRIST, Who shed for us His blood, therefore it is called the Red Sea'.

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Both of these types are familiar to us from the baptismal service : Who of Thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family

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in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel, thy people, through the Red Sea, figuring thereby Thy holy Baptism." St. Paul, too, speaks of this as the great sign, the Baptism, as it were, of Moses, which set forth that of CHRIST: They were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea By faith they passed through the Red Sea, which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned "." Now these which I have mentioned are great signs of Baptism, as representing the Christian Church at large, in distinction from the world. Thus, in the first-mentioned sign, "in the beginning ... darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of GOD moved upon the face of the waters." In the next, it is that dreadful Baptism of the Deluge, wherein all the world was destroyed, except those that entered at the straight gate and narrow way of the ark-the few that are chosen. And then again, at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh and his host, representing all the enemies of God, were destroyed, and the waters were the signal deliverance of God's Church. These present to us lively figures of that to which the text alludes, that CHRIST" might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water; that He might present it to HIMSELF a glorious Church, without spot 3."

Nor is this all, for a similar miracle of water is again to be repeated on the children of Israel entering the land of promise: "As they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap." And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, "Take you twelve men, out of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones 5." Thus it was with the ark of Israel. When the temple of Solomon was afterwards built, there was a similar memorial of Baptism, for in it there was a molten sea, supported by twelve oxen, looking to the four quarters of the globe, to represent the Baptism which was to be carried unto all the world by the twelve

11 Cor. x. 2.
4 Jos. iii. 15, 16.

2 Heb. xi. 22.

5 Ib. iv. 3.

3 Eph. v. 26.

62 Chron. iv. 2.

Apostles and the Christian Ministry. And as if in further explanation of this, the Prophet Ezekiel describes a vision, in which he saw holy" waters issuing out from under the threshold of the House"." The same is alluded to by other Prophets, as some great Baptism or washing which was to be. "In that day," says the Prophet Zechariah," there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." And again, And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be King over all the earth "."

In all these places, the Church generally is spoken of in reference to the waters of Baptism; and in like manner we read also of waters flowing from the smitten rock in the wilderness, which was CHRIST1; of waters and fountains of water springing forth in the dry desert2; of drawing water from the wells of salvation, and the pouring forth of water at Jewish festivals'; and of wood being cast into the waters, and rendering those sweet which before were bitter *- -as the wood represented the cross of CHRIST; of the water appearing like blood with the shining of the sun upon it, and so saving the people of Israel'.

But if these speak of Baptism as established in the Church at large, so do other instances appear to be spoken of individual Christians, as being cleansed from sin "by the washing of regeneration"." Such was the cleansing of the leper, where the washing was combined with the sprinkling of blood". Such were the many purifications among the Jews after any legal uncleanness; such that great figure of the sinner among the Gentiles, coming to the sacred waters of Israel, in Naaman, the Syrian leper. How strongly does that memorable history set before us, in all its circumstances, the sacred washing that was to be? the dipping seven times, that great Christian number;-in that holy stream of Jordan, in which CHRIST was baptized; at the command of a prophet whom he saw not, but a messenger only, even as it is now in the Christian Church. How does the heathen leper himself