soever these things be. It becometh God to do no small deeds, how impossible soever they seem to thee. Pray to God that thou mayest have faith to perceive this great mystery of Christ's resurrection; that by faith thou mayest certainly believe nothing to be impossible with God. Only bring thou faith to Christ's Holy Word and Sacrament .. Thus, good Christian people, forasmuch as ye have heard then so great and excellent benefits of Christ's mighty and glorious resurrection, as how that He hath ransomed sin, overcome the devil, death, and hell, and hath victoriously gotten the better hand of them all, to make us free and safe from them, and knowing that we be by this benefit of His resurrection risen with Him by our faith unto life everlasting, being in full surety of our hope, we shall have our bodies likewise raised again from death, to have them glorified in immortality, and joined to His glorious body, having in the mean while His Holy Spirit within our hearts, as a seal and pledge of our everlasting inheritance, by whose assistance we be replenished with all righteousness, by whose power we shall be able to subdue all our evil affections rising against the pleasure of God; these things, I say, well considered, let us now in the rest of our life declare our faith that we have in this most fruitful article, by framing ourselves thereunto, in rising daily from sin to righteousness and holiness of life."

This last extended sentence, be it observed, is describing the "benefits of Christ's resurrection," that is, according to St. Paul's words on which the Homily is commenting, "our justification, "or our "endowment with perfect righteousness," as the Homily itself calls it, ascribing it to the operation of the Holy Ghost. This then is the great gift of the Gospel, manifold, but one, of which justification and sanctification are the two principal effects, divisible however only in our idea of them, not in fact; and that this one gift, considered in itself, is the sacred presence of the Word Incarnate within us, as both righteousness and renewal, a cleansing from guilt and from sin, is stated still more forcibly than hitherto in the words which follow:

"What a shame were it for us, being thus so clearly and freely washed from our sin, to return to the filthiness thereof again! What a folly were it, thus endowed with righteousness, to lose it again! What madness were it to lose the inheritance that we be now set in, for the vile and transitory pleasure of sin! And what unkindness should it be, where our Saviour Christ of His mercy is come to us, to dwell within us as our guest, to drive Him from us, and to banish Him violently out of our souls, and, instead of Him, in whom is all grace and virtue, to receive the ungracious spirit of the devil, the founder of all naughtiness and mischief! How can we find in our hearts to show such extreme unkindness to Christ, which hath now so gently called us to mercy, and offered Himself unto us, and He now entered within us? Yea, how dare we be so bold to renounce the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, (for where one is, there is God all whole in majesty, together with all His power, wisdom, and goodness,) and fear not, I say, the danger and peril of so traitorous a defiance and departure?"

Now surely there is something very striking and arresting in this repeated mention of the Divine Indwelling, over and above its being mentioned at all. Nor is this the last reference to it; after a while the Homily continues :—

Apply yourselves, good friends, to live in Christ, that Christ may still live in you, whose favour and assistance if ye have,"

Favour and assistance, be it observed, denote, in other words, a state of justification and of renewal :

:

"Whose favour and assistance if ye have, then have ye everlasting life already within you, then can nothing hurt you. Whatsoever is hitherto done and committed, Christ, ye see, hath offered you pardon, and clearly received you into His favour again; in full surety whereof ye have Him now inhabiting and dwelling within you."-Sermon, of the Resurrection.

LECTURE VII.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GIFT OF

RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Is. lxi. 10.

“He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, or as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."

It is not uncommon in Scripture, as all readers must observe, to represent the especial gift of the Gospel as a robe or garment, bestowed on those who are brought into the Church of Christ. Thus in the text the prophet speaks of being "clothed with the garments of salvation, covered with the robe of righteousness," as with a rich bridal dress. A passage was quoted in a former place from the prophet Zechariah to the same purport; in which Almighty God takes from Joshua the high priest his filthy garments, and gives him change of raiment, and a mitre for his head. In like manner, when the prodigal son came home, his father put

on him "the best robe," "and a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet;" agreeable to which is St. Paul's declaration that "as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ."

Now such expressions as these in Scripture are too forcible and varied to be a mere figure denoting the profession of Christianity; as if our putting on Christ were a taking on us the name and responsibilities of a Christian; as I shall take for granted. It is much the same kind of evasion or explaining away, to say that by God's clothing us in righteousness is only meant His counting us as if righteous; all the difference being that in the former interpretation the clothing is made to stand for our calling ourselves, and in the latter for God's calling us, what really we are not.

Nor, again, can these expressions be very well taken to mean newness of life, holiness, and obedience; for this reason, if for no other, that no one is all at once holy, and renewed, in that full sense which must be implied if the terms be interpreted of holiness. Baptized persons do not so put on Christ as to be forthwith altogether different men from what they were before; at least this is not the rule, as far as we have means of deciding. Thus there is a call on the face of the matter for some more adequate interpretation of the text and like passages, than is supplied either by the Roman or the Protestant creed; and this surely is found in the doctrine of the last Lecture. If that be true,

N

the robe vouchsafed to us is the inward presence of Christ, ministered to us by the Holy Ghost; which, it is plain, admits of being immediately vouchsafed in its fulness, as a sort of invisible Shekinah, or seal of God's election, yet without involving the necessity of a greater moral change than is promised and effected in Baptism.

With this, too, agrees what is told us of our own duties towards this sacred endowment, which are represented as negative rather than active; I mean, we are enjoined not to injure or profane it, but so to honour it in our outward conduct, that it may be continued and increased in us. For instance, our Lord says, "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy." Such words are more naturally interpreted of an inward gift than of a mere imputation; and scarcely admit of being explained of a moral condition of heart, attained (under grace) through our own exertions. They are parallel to St. Paul's warning against "grieving the Spirit of God;" which may just as reasonably be interpreted of mere moral excellence, as in some heretical schools has been done. Of the same character are exhortations such as St. Paul's, not "to defile the temple of God;" to recollect that we are the temple of God, and that the Holy Ghost is in us.

1 Rev. iii. 4.