and consummated happiness: but in those cases he clearly distinguishes the difference of his meaning by the prospective character of the language which he adopts; and by the painful, though, on the other hand, reanimating contrast which he has drawn, between the condition of those who have now only the blessed first-fruits and earnest of that redemption, and those who shall hereafter have entered into the full enjoyment of their eternal inheritance. Using the term in its fullest sense, we are said to "wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Under the pressure of an afflictive mortality, we earnestly desire the realization of our immortal condition as the sons of God; and we are supported meantime by the consolations of the Spirit, "which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession," (els àwoλúTPWOW TYS ἀπολύτρωσιν TeρITоhoes,) that is, until the final salvation of the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. But the more frequent use of the term, and that intended in our text, is in accordance with the primary sense, which denotes the payment of a ransom for the life of the devoted captive; and in Isaiah's very words, "the opening of the prison to them that are bound." This, as applicable to ourselves, is the forgiveness of sins, and the remission of the punishment of death, through the blood-shedding of Christ; which, being accomplished without merit on our parts, constitutes free justification by grace; as St. Paul writes, "all have sinned; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” This is emphatically the message of the Gospel. All the other doctrines of our holy religion are the development of this one paramount truth. And, therefore, as the great work of Christ is the atonement; it follows that this is the great truth about which, brethren, our ministry is chiefly ' Rom. viii. 23. 2 Eph. i. 14. 3 Isaiah lxi. 1. 4 Rom. iii. 24. conversant. For, in a word, what else has been committed to us, but the ministry of the atonement? (dianovla Ts kataλλayñs,) "the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them." It is as heralds and ministers of these terms that we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ. In every part of our ministerial office-in short, in all the holy ordinances of God-we are called upon to bear consentient testimony to the efficacy of the blood of sprinkling. 992 The mode of exhibiting the cross has been prescribed to us by him who died upon it, and dying vindicated his dominion over all who would be brought under its saving influence. His commands are, "Go: preach the gospel;" that is chiefly, repentance and remission of sins "to every creature." "Go: make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." "Do this: this is my body; this is my blood." The Church moreover regards the actual institution of the latter sacraments by our Saviour Christ, as in itself a commandment. St. Paul, who was immediately instructed by divine revelations, received it, and delivered it as such; and all the Apostles delivered that the ordinance was obligatory in all its essential particulars, after their Lord's example. "They transmitted that Jesus so enjoined them," as Justin Martyr witnesses. Doubtless there are also other things to be observed,' which he had commanded them, and which, with his departing blessing, he charged his Apostles to transmit to all who would shelter under the shadow of the cross: yet these are the main features of that system which he has committed to his ministers for Matt. xxvi. 26, 28; Mark xiv. 22, 24; Luke xxii. 19, 6 3 Matt. xxviii. 19. 20. 7 Matt. xxviii. 20. imparting to the souls of fallen men the benefits of his most precious death. By the divine ordinance of preaching are declared to the heathen world the untraceable riches' of God's eternal purpose to receive all nations into a participation of his promises in Christ; to them who have been already called to the fellowship of this ineffable mystery, is continually declared that Christ is the author of all spiritual wisdom, of their justification, of their sanctification, and of their final redemption; to those who have lapsed from this high and holy calling into the depths of sin, twice fallen, we apply ourselves most earnestly, and beseech them by all their neglected and despised privileges, above all by the blood of the covenant with which they have been washed, to repent, and be renewed, and turn again with prayers, yea, with tears, to their Redeemer; and we preach Christ crucified, their advocate, and their propitiation.3 By the sacraments are visibly signed and sealed those blessed promises of his Gospel which are promulgated by preaching. These are the expressly appointed channels of quickening and strengthening grace. Visible tokens are they, and assurances afforded to us by God of our reconciliation to his love, and of our very incorporation into the mystical body of his dear Son. By them instru 4 ? 1 Cor. i. 30. 31 John ii. 1, 2. ' Eph. iii. 8. 4 Art. xxr. The article published by King Edward, had this paragraph on the effect or operation of the sacraments: "not as some say, ex opere operato, which terms, as they are strange and utterly unknown to the Holy Scripture, so do they yield a sense which savoureth of little piety, but of much superstition." On the omission of which paragraph in our present form, Bp. Burnet observes, "the virtue of the sacraments being put in the worthy receiving, excludes the doctrine of opus operatum as formally, as if it had expressly been condemned." "A sacrament," he adds, "is an institution of Christ, in which some material thing is sanctified by the use of some form of words, in and by which federal acts of this religion do pass on both sides; on ours, by stipulations, professions, or vows; and on God's, by his secret assistances: by these we are also united to the body of Christ, which is the Church. "Exp. p. 317. mentally, as it were, we are made partakers of that redemption which is only through his blood working meritoriously, viz., "the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." To the merits of the cross, and to the name of Christ, we must not add other merits, or name of other Saviour, or availing mediator between God and man. As we preach in word, so we must, in the acts and elements of the sacraments, thankfully attest the efficacy of the same precious blood, once graciously shed for our redemption. No less an one than the Mediator himself has annexed them to the covenant,' and by his supreme will invested them with force, and decreed the outward elements to be significant of redemption, and effectually conducive to an inner life of grace. It may be predicated of the sacraments, that they serve at once to many holy purposes, and involve many blessed privileges: that they are ordinances instructive and commemorative, teaching us by a practical manifestation the truths of our religion, and exhibiting unceasing memorials of our departed Lord: that they operate as obligations at once to holiness and charity; binding us to God by the force of our professions and his mercies; and to one another, as by the one Lord, and one faith therein confessed,—so by the one baptism, wherewith we are washed, and the one bread, in which we have communion that they are badges and signs of our Christian profession, marks of difference, distinguishing from aliens and foreigners those who are of the adopted household of God. This and more may be attributed to these heavenly ceremonies. But we shall have omitted from the definition the very property of a sacrament, until we shall have said, that they are the divinely ordained signs and means of grace inwardly imparted to us;-no naked signs and mere figures of an uncertain blessing; but to all 1 Matt. xxviii. 19; John iii., vi. worthy receivers, the assuring testimony and unfailing channels of grace, mercy, and peace: by virtue only of that blood, which cleanseth from all sin; once shed upon the cross, and reapplied in the sacraments: in both justifying; in the one, cleansing and quickening; in the other, renewing and strengthening. For by baptism we are admitted into the holy discipleship, (μanτEÚσATE BARTÍŠOVTES,) and therein to a participation of all the privileges of that covenant, which is ratified in the name of the mighty Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.1 In the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we find a loving and reconciled God and Father: in the Son, a Redeemer, in whom we have, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins: in the Holy Ghost, a Sanctifier and Comforter, in whose regenerating grace we have an infallible testimony of our sonship, and fellowship with God, and a pledge of our future resurrection to immortal glory. We are not at liberty to conceive of any reconciliation without quickening grace, nor of any redemption without the co-operation of the Spirit. For this is the great promise of the covenant. He is the Spirit of promise, emphatically the promised Spirit. 1 Matt. xxviii. 19. 2 Acts xxii. 16. 3" Tria creationum genera in Scriptura nominata invenimus. Unum quidem ac primum, ex nihilo productionem; secundum vero, ex pejore in melius immutationem; tertium resurrectionem mortuorum. In his reperies Spiritum sanctum una cum Patre et Filio operantem. Cœli enim producuntur. Quid jam dicit David? Verbo Domini cœli formati sunt, et Spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum. Rursus creatur homo per baptisma. Si qua enim in Christo nova creatura. Jam quid dicit discipulis Salvator? Euntes docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Vides et hic una adesse cum Patre et Filio Spiritum sanctum. Quid autem dices et de resurrectione mortuorum, postquam defecerimus, et in nostrum pulverem reversi fuerimus? Terra enim sumus et in terram ibimus, et mittet Spiritum Sanctum, et creabit nos, et renovabit faciem terræ."-Basil, vol. iii. p. 124. (Trans. ed. B.) |