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told, the divinity of our Blessed Lord; some protest against the use of the sacraments; others against the use of the sacraments as the ordinary means of grace. Others, again, while allowing their use, deny their grace and sanctifying efficacy-of all delusions the most fatal, and the most extensively prevalent-and nearly all protest against the unity of the Church, and the Apostolic succession of the Priesthood. Others again, in the face of the most stringent passages of Scripture, and of its universal bearing, deny the necessity of good works, or in other words, obedience to the law of God; putting in its place their doctrine of "free grace," and the "calling and election of the saints:" mysterious subjects of the Divine Economy, which, in their orthodox sense, bear a widely different interpretation from that so generally and so dangerously adopted.

Thus we see how much has been done by the surrender of a name, towards obscuring, and in a serious measure, destroying a great principle. Instead of the One Holy Catholic Church—the "pillar and ground of the truth"-the "One Body," animated by the "One Spirit," rejoicing in the "One hope of our calling;" the "One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism"-we have churches without number, separated and divided-bodies having various doctrines, and of unfriendly spirits, differing in the hope of their calling some receiving, and some denying the One Lord; and all differing in faith, and diverse in practice.

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The Catholic doctrine of the One Body in Christ Jesus, is so clearly defined in Scripture as to leave Sectarists without a plea for its rejection; so that in this, as in the case of the sacraments, and other divine institutions, where it cannot specifically be denied, its true nature is evaded, or misrepresented. Hence we hear of bodies "holding by the Head," an idea so utterly unworthy of that which St. Paul, through the Spirit, gives of the nature of Christian Unity. “That we," he says, "speaking the truth in love, may grow up in Him in all things, which is the Head; from whom the whole Body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love." Let us consider the exact development, and cordial co-operation of the several parts of this body; and then picture to ourselves numberless discordant, unconnected bodies, professing to "hold," as the phrase goes, "by the Head," and observe what will become of the analogy-the figure so closely and significantly applied by the Apostle, to convey a sense of the oneness, the unity-not union-of Christ's Church

May we not be permitted to trace in so strange a perversion of this most ennobling doctrine of oneness with Christ, and through Him the no less love-inspiring belief of oneness with each other, a singular illustration of popular teaching-the adherence of

individuals to one point, instead of the entire absorption of the whole into Christ--the clinging to Him who gives the law, while we reject the law itself? What is the head, but that which devises, wills, ordains; and what are the members but they who obey perform, or suffer? Of what use is that faith which teaches us to lay hold on Him in whom we believe, while we reject the law of obedience which binds us to Him? Puritan traditions have so long and so completely held an influence over us, as to have sapped the very foundations of the Faith. We talk of "strong meat," while our stomachs are loathing and rejecting the very "milk" of the word of life-the very basis upon which our spiritual existence is founded. We must be one with Christ before we can claim to be His disciples; we cannot be one with Him, unless we be one with "His Body, which is the Church."

SACRIFICE.

The word Sacrifice is now so rarely heard in the mouths of Christian men, and is by many so earnestly rejected, except in a mere figurative sense, such as in "the sacrifice of prayer and praise," &c., as to indicate an almost total forgetfulness of the true nature of Christian worship, the great object of which is to set forth Christ crucified. I would gladly enlist the attention of the Christian reader, while I make a few brief remarks upon this very important subject.

It will be seen from an attentive examination of the sacred text, that from the beginning God has been pleased to institute some outward and visible sign of His covenanted mercies. By a reference to the 9th chapter of the book of Genesis, we see that when God established His covenant with Noah and his sons, and with their seed after them, and with every living creature upon the earth, it was not without a visible sign. "This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.” "I do set My bow in the cloud-and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that upon the earth." The sign of God's covenant with man for "perpetual generations," still gleams forth in our sight; but we have ceased to adore in it a pledge of His manifest goodness to mankind.

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Let us now turn to the 12th chap. of the Book of Exodus. We shall there see that when God brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and was to destroy all the first-born of the Egyptians, He commanded the Israelites to strike the lintels and the two side-posts of the doors of their houses with the blood of the Paschal Lamb: for, said God, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and

beast." "And the blood shall be to you a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." Here we see that God ordained an outward token as a pledge to the believer, that He would look upon it to remember His promise.

The doctrine of a visible sign is also solemnly set before us in the Revelation of St. John; the types of which, in the appointed worship of God as ordained by Himself, were first in the tabernacle, and afterwards in a glorious temple, to be a figure of Heaven. In these there was a Holy of Holies, with a Mercy-seat to represent the Presence-chamber, and the throne of the Most High; and a High Priest, to appear in the Holy of Holies, with the blood of the creature.

We will now turn to the true Holy of Holies, of which the tabernacle and temple were but the types and earthly representations, "I was in the Spirit," says St. John, "and, behold, a throne was set in Heaven, and ONE sat on the throne."-" And round about the throne were four-and-twenty seats; and upon the seats I saw four-and-twenty Elders sitting." "And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts, full of eyes before and behind." And again," I beheld, and lo! in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the Elders, stood a LAMB as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are

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