and the Holy Spirit; where the guilt, though not the tendency to evil, may be washed away; where they may be admitted into the fold of God, as the lambs of His flock, and made no less the objects of His care and love than those whose faith and obedience thus dedicate them to Him. Of such the Church of England speaks with a holy and scriptural confidence, that dying after baptism, and before the commission of actual sin, they are undoubtedly saved. She does not doubt that they, who in their thoughtless infancy are capable of inheriting a curse, are also capable of receiving a blessing.

But though principally important in respect of our treatment of infants, how little should the Christian doctrine of original sin be forgotten or undervalued by ourselves, and for ourselves! How broad is the basis which it spreads for the doctrines of guilt, mercy and pardon! In what a bright light does it set the mercy and goodness of Christ in our redemption, who died for us when we were sinners', reconciled us when we were enemies, unjust, aliens. How should the remembrance of it quicken and encourage our prayers, since, without God's aid, we not only do not, but cannot please God. How should it increase our faith and trust in Him, in whom alone, exiles and enemies as we are by nature, we have help or hope.

1 Cf. Rom. v. 8. 10. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Eph. ii. 12.

But, God be praised for His mercy! we are no longer in such outcast condition. Newly born in baptism, our bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost, fed by the body and blood of Christ, having the adoption of sons, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, we have the amplest help, and hope, and promise. God grant that we may so live that our hope may end in possession, and our faith be realized in sight in the other world, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON XIV.

THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.

ACTS ii. 31-33.

"He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore He is by the right hand of God exalted."

THESE words, which form part of St. Peter's address to the Jews, after the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, contain a short summary of the three great events which closed the visible ministry of our ever blessed Redeemer. In selecting them as the subject of the present discourse, it my intention to offer a few observations on each of them in order, as each of them seems to suggest various matter of important practical reflection. These three events are, the descent of Christ into hell, the resurrection, and the ascension. And first, of the descent into hell.

is

I. It is observable, that the narrative of the Gospel contains no account of the manner in which our blessed Redeemer spent the time which intervened between His crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead. The evangelists record minutely the events of those days, as far as regards the mere human agents in those momentous scenes. And these are of the most touching kind: the coming of the women from Galilee to weep over the body, the loyal devotion of Joseph of Arimathea, the burial in the rich man's newly hewn grave, the purchase of spices for the anointing of the body, the solitary watching of Mary Magdalene by the tomb. And there are also most awful circumstances recorded as having occupied a portion of this time, when, at the end of three hours supernatural darkness, the vail of the temple was rent in twain, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints which slept arose: so that the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, feared greatly, saying, " Truly this was the Son of God!"

This silence of the inspired historians is striking and solemn. The price of human pardon was paid. The victim was laid in the tomb. During the three awful days that followed, the Evangelists do not seem to invite curiosity to the place or doings of the Lord.

And it had been well if we had been left

to muse in awful silence on this unrecorded time, waiting for the glorious Easter news of His triumph. But, unfortunately, there are other reasons besides the direct practical benefit deducible from doctrines, which render it necessary for the Church of Christ to be exact and particular in her statements of the truth. In this particular instance, perverse interpretations of Holy Scripture, unwarrantably assigning definite occupation and situation to our holy Lord during this mysterious period, have rendered it necessary for the Church authoritatively to state just so much as she has ever taught, and as can be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture. And therefore, in the Apostles' Creed and in the third Article, she teaches that "He went down into hell."

The passages of Holy Scripture upon which this doctrine rests, are the following. David, in the holy spirit of prophecy, declares, "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption!" and St. Peter, in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, after quoting at length the passage from the Psalms, thus continues: "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this