These are, as respects the Body, the effects upon our morals of the fact of the Incarnation,—the fact that the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us, and is now, together with that Human Nature which he took of his mother, seated on the right hand of God. And therefore should man reverence his Body, and neither scorn nor despise it, but even in its weakness count it not evil, but good, although injured by Original Sin.

CHAPTER VI.

The nature of man has, 1st, a capacity of life through the Word Incarnate; 2d, of receiving His Body and Blood; 3d, of the Indwelling of the Spirit. Love is the highest Christian state. The Eucharist is hence a school of Works and Love.

THE great fact with which we closed our last chapter, while it fully manifests the truth, that the body of man is not of the same kind as the body of the beasts, but an organization wholly different in its nature, inasmuch as it could be united with the Word of God; and these two natures, the Human and Divine, become and be eternally one Christ; while it shows this as a fact, it enables us, upon the strength of that fact, to proceed still further.

Can the Word, eternally begotten of the Father, assume the flesh of man? It can be so. Then as made of God, that Human Nature had, by its constitution, as of God created, this capacity of union with the Word,-a capacity no other created being has. This is a quality of man's nature which is not manifested by mere organization, and yet which evidently exists and distinguishes clearly between his body and that of the beasts.

Human Nature, then, has the capacity in it of eternally being in Christ upon the throne of God as God. It must, then, have a capability of Life everlasting through him. There must be in our nature secretly, and it may be unconsciously to us, a capability and a power of having His Life dwelling in us. There must be in nature as it is, the power whereby the same Holy Ghost that in Christ united the Word with Human Nature, so that both should

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be one eternally, can implant in our human nature, that is, in our body, our soul, and our spirit, the Life of the Eternal Word. For if the Human Nature, as created in His Image, had the capacity of being united with the Word, so as to be one Christ, then has it of the same constitution the capability of receiving the Life that comes from the Word only. And so of being of Him new born through the same Spirit, so that the man shall become a "member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven." Hence also, it has the capacity that it should receive of the "Body and Blood" of Christ our Lord. For that Humanity which he assumed here upon earth,-which was born, "suffered," "died," and was "buried," and all this being "corporeal," "earthly," natural," "fleshly," "rose again," being then "spiritual," heavenly, perfect. For it is most distinctly the doctrine of holy writ that the body, after the resurrection, remains the same and identical as to its actual being; but all imperfection and incompleteness is then done away. For the Natural body is changed into the Spiritual body, the corruptible into the incorruptible, the earthly into the celestial, not losing its identity, but casting off its imperfections. And the body of our Lord having been, until his burial, a Natural body, as ours, (save only in sin,) at his Resurrection was changed, even as ours shall be through Him. It became a Spiritual and glorious body from having been a Natural body,—its qualities being changed, yet did it still remain the same in being that he bore on earth,-nay, even the same that was born in the manger at Bethlehem. God-man on Earth, even while yet a speechless and feeble babe on his mother's knee! God-man in Heaven, seated upon the throne of power! Great, truly, is the mystery of godliness, that God should be born of a woman and shed his blood and die for us here on earth! Greater still its crowning glory, that Man should take his seat upon the throne of the universe! forever to be worshipped! forever to reign as God! And thus the Word and the Human Nature, united in one Person, are at the head and on the throne of all being.

And the Human Nature of the Word, as far at least as his Body and Blood are concerned, this by the Spirit of God, can we, having faith, receive as the food and supply of the Life of Christ in us. For the very fact that Human Nature in Christ is capable of being united with the Word, and being invested with all the attributes of God, this proves that Nature to be capable of bending down

from its eternal throne and giving itself as the food and supply of the Life to its kindred nature in us here upon the earth.

Only grant the great central fact that "Man is God," and no Time, no Space, shall prevent "omnipotence," omniscience united with Humanity forever, from conferring upon us, really and truly, the gift of his Body and his Blood, not in figure, not in metaphor, but actually, really, and truly, and by means which, while they are not themselves the "Body" and the "Blood," are means of its being most certainly conferred. Think upon the great fact that Human Nature could be joined unto the Word,-and Human Nature can, by virtue of this capacity, receive that gift of the perfect and glory-crowned "Body and Blood," that now sits upon the throne of eternity, and be fed and cherished by it in body, soul, and spirit. No figure this is of an absent body, no metaphor, save the Incarnation of the Word be a metaphor, and his conception of the Holy Ghost a metaphor.

But if the Human Nature is eternally united with the Word, so that a real man, one who has, as I have, a body, a soul, and a spirit, is seated on God's throne, and is God,-then this capacity exists in him to give to me in whom, by spiritual regeneration, is His Life, his glorified, spiritual, heavenly "Body and Blood," as food and nutriment of that His Life in me. Then in me exists, by my "creation in his image," and the suitableness of my very nature, the capacity of receiving that true gift of his real Body and Blood.

But if "God" and Man are not truly united, the two Natures in one Christ eternally,-then this union is but a figure, a metaphor; and the reception of the Body and Blood is only a figure and a metaphor; and the frame and nature of man is as the frame and nature of the beasts, flesh made to live and then to perish; but having in it no capacity of the divine nature,* no capacity of a Spiritual Life, or of spiritual support to it.

But it is not so.. We can, by our nature, receive this heavenly food. The capacity is in us; because our very "flesh and blood," the Humanity of Man united with the Eternal Word, is God eternally; and because of this that we are created "in His image." For these reasons we can receive actually, really, and truly His Body and His Blood.

* "Wherefore unto us are given exceeding great and precious promises, that by them ye might be partakers of the divine nature." 2 Peter, i. 4.

This is the doctrine of the *real presence, which may thus be seen, not only to be plainly declared in the Scripture, universally upheld by the Ancient Church, the manifest and evident opinion of the Churches of England and of America in their standards, but also to be the highest reach and pinnacle of the philosophy of Christianity, the doctrine which unites earth with heaven; and frail and feeble, weak and afflicted as my human Nature may be in body, in soul, and in spirit, yet binds me to the Humanity that now is seated upon the throne of eternity, and tells me, "as he is, so shall I be also."

We see, moreover, from this also the capacity existing in us, our "Body," our "Soul," and our Spirit, that the Holy Spirit of God, should, as in a temple, dwell in us actually and really, as much as "Jehovah" of old by the Shekinah dwelt in the material temple of human building, in the glory that rested between the Golden Cherubims over the Mercy Seat. So it is possible that the Holy Spirit should dwell in this material temple of our Body, made in God's image originally, as he does also in the Humanity of our Lord, which is by him united with the Word forever. So that as our Soul, a limited Spirit, can dwell in our body, so can the Infinite Spirit indwell in the same Humanity to them born of Christ, through his regenerating power,—and by an immediate influence, uphold the body, the soul, and the spirit, through his Grace. So it is that through "Christ in him and strengthening him," the

I would have my readers notice, that while we believe in a real presence it is, first,-spiritual, as not local nor corporeal, but of the Spiritual Body, which is free from the bonds of Time and Space. Secondly, It is spiritual as it is conferred upon us by the gift and operation of the Holy Spirit, the same God who is the Giver of Life,—he gives us this Grace to maintain that Life. Thus the Sacrament is a real means of Grace. Thirdly,-It is spiritual as received in us by Faith, one of the highest operations of the spiritual being in man. This, with what I have said in the text, distinguishes the Church doctrine from the Romish figment of Transubstantiation.

One word more. This doctrine is one easily misrepresented, easily misunderstood. We have in our Services, our Catechism, our Articles, a most complete and perfect system upon it. To those, then, who think they see inconsistencies, I would give this advice, let them wait a little before they speak -let them in silence use the Prayer-book practically, and the Holy Eucharist practically, and they may grow up to the measure of this doctrine,-they may see that the inconsistency is in their own fragmentary notions, not in the Prayer-book.

Christian man can do all things, and yet of himself, of his own power, of his own ability, nothing,-but all things through Grace.

These are then facts, first, that Human Nature, a man as we are, with a real body, a real soul, and a real spirit, as mine is, is now and for ever God.

Secondly, That from this fact comes the truth of our nature's capacity for a new Life and birth derived from him our risen Lord, a spiritual birth of the whole nature, the body, soul and spirit. And that this birth takes place in us through the Word, and by the agency of the Eternal Spirit, the Holy Ghost.

Thirdly, That this Eternal Spirit and the Eternal Word Incarnate, the one can and does feed the flame of life in us, with the peculiar gift of his Body and his Blood; and the other "dwells in us richly," in our bodies, our souls, and our spirits, with Grace and strength.

These, then, are plain facts of the Gospel, for those that have been redeemed by Christ's blood, and having true faith in that atoning blood, and true repentance, have been "baptized in His name for the remission of sins," and have so been "born anew of water and the Spirit."

How high, then, can the Affections of the Human Race ascend? So high by nature and natural capacity that Humanity joined with Deity as one Christ is God; so high as this,―our Lord, ever blessed, yet still a real and true man in all things that appertain to Human Nature, he is God, with all the feelings, all the emotions, all the affections of the heart that belong to our common Humanity. Love, joy, sympathy, pity, hope, all the emotions whereby man in Society is by his Heart carried on towards the good of his fellowman, and made to rejoice in it-all these belong for ever to God the Word Incarnate. So that Compassion is almighty and all-seeing, and "Pity" ever-present, and "Sympathy" omniscient, and "Love" is crowned with the diadem of Eternity, clothed with the royal robe of infinite power, gifted with the sceptre of omnipotence. And the same Heart that upon earth overflowed with all emotions of gentleness, and compassion, and kindly feeling towards man, that same Heart has become of the same emotions an infinite fountain towards man, gushing forth from the central throne of God.

Well might men feel that the highest summit of Humanity is the Affections; that this, if it cannot reach to Heaven, at least