Lord, the risen and glorified Saviour, living and ruling in His Church. Now it is Now it is very remarkable that, though He thus appears as Christ in the vision, yet in what follows, He is spoken of as the Spirit, not as Christ, though He still speaks of Himself as Christ; as if to intimate that all the gifts His blood has purchased are ministered by the Spirit, and that what Christ was to His Apostles when on earth, such, and far more than such, is the Holy Ghost to us now. Here we seem to see something of the meaning of the words," The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified ;” for the gift of the Spirit was really this and nothing else, Jesus Himself glorified, ascended and invisibly returned.

To conclude:-What has been said will serve to throw light upon a peculiarity of the Apostles' preaching, which has sometimes drawn attention. They insist on our Lord's Resurrection, as if it were the main doctrine of the Gospel; but why so, and not His Divinity or the Atonement? Many good reasons may be given for this; as for instance, that the Resurrection was the great miracle and evidence of the divinity of the religion; or that it is the pledge of our resurrection; on the other hand that His Divinity and Atonement was too sacred a doctrine to preach to the world. But if, as we have seen, the Resurrection be the means by which the Atonement is applied to each of us, if it be our justification, if in it are conveyed all the gifts of grace and

glory which Christ has purcha ed for us, if it be the commencement of His giving Himself to us for a spiritual sustenance, of His feeding us with that Bread which has already been perfected on the Cross, and is now a medicine of immortality, it is that very doctrine which is most immediate to us, in which Christ most closely approaches us, from which we gain life, and out of which issue our hopes and our duties. Christ is God from everlasting; He became Man under Cæsar Augustus; He was an Atonement for the world on the Cross; but He became a Saviour on His resurrection. He was then "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour;" to come to us in the power of the Spirit, as God, as Man, and as Atoning Sacrifice.

JUSTIFICATION consisting in the presence of Christ within us, and that presence manifesting itself in newness of heart and conduct, the question arises, where, under such a view of the doctrine, Faith is found, what is its position, what are its bearings upon the points already settled, and how are its claims satisfied as acknowledged in our Formularies. This is the subject which shall now engage our attention.

The eleventh Article says that "we are justified by Faith only," agreeably with which we are told in the Homily on the Passion, that Faith is the one mean and instrument of justification. “As it profiteth a man nothing," says its most perspicuous writer," to have salve, unless it be well applied to the part affected, so the death of Christ shall

stand us in no force, unless we apply it to ourselves in such sort as God hath appointed. Almighty God commonly worketh by means, and in this thing He has also ordained a certain mean whereby we may take fruit and profit to our souls' health. What mean is that? forsooth it is faith. Not an unconstant or wavering faith, but a sure, stedfast, grounded, and unfeigned faith. God sent His Son into the world,' says St. John. To what end? "That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have life everlasting.' Mark these words, 'that whosoever believeth in Him.' Here is the mean, whereby we must apply the fruits of Christ's death unto our deadly wound. Here is the mean, whereby we must obtain eternal life, namely faith." Then after quoting other texts of Scripture, he continues, "By this, then, we may well perceive, that the only mean and instrument of salvation required on our parts is faith, that is to say, a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God." He adds, towards the end of the Homily, "Let us, then, use that mean which God hath appointed in His word, to wit, the mean of faith, which is the only instrument of salvation now left unto us. Let us stedfastly behold Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart;" and so he concludes in a very serious and impressive strain.

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In the judgment, then, of this Homily, faith is certainly in some distinct and important sense the

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sole mean and instrument of justification. The question is, in what sense.

Now, on the one hand, I observe, what all will allow, that the faith spoken of is not any faith, but a lively faith. This indeed is implied in the passage just quoted, which speaks as concerning "not an unconstant or wavering faith, but a sure, stedfast, grounded, and unfeigned faith.” Faith which does not trust, as the devil's faith,-or faith which does not love, though it could "remove mountains,"—or faith which cannot work, as his to whom " to will is present," but "not to perform that which is good,” -all such faith does not justify. It is, then, not mere faith, but faith under certain circumstances or conditions, faith when it trusts, loves, and lives, a fruitful faith, which is the sole mean and instrument of justification.

On the other hand, I do not understand faith to be a general term, meaning nothing more or less than trust, love, life, and all other excellences of the new mind or creature together. When the Homily calls it "the sole mean," it speaks by way of contrast to other graces. The writer would not call it the sole mean, if it were the sole grace. By faith is not meant religiousness generally, nor obedience, nor spiritual life, nor love, nor hope, nor trust; whatever is meant, sometimes is meant distinct from all these. I do not deny that faith often stands for these in Scripture, in the Homilies them