with desire I have desired to eat this

passover with you before I suffer, for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God; and he took the cup [the cup of the Passover] and gave thanks, and said, take this, and divide it among yourselves, for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come." And this last cup of the Sacrament of the Passover, is immediately succeeded by the institution of the first cup of the Lord's Supper. " And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." Luke xxii. 14-20. Here the conclusion of the Paschal Sacrament under the Law, finds its full accomplishment in the richer Supper of love under the Gospel the same table contains the guests, the slain lamb of the Passover yields to the broken bread of the Supper, the very same cup of Paschal "Memorial" under the law, is that of "remembrance" under the Gospel: and the very same Saviour himself, whom both Sacraments designated, with his own blessed presence confirms the faith of his Disciples, accomplishing the Paschal type of the Law, in the anticipative antitype of the Gospel. Surely then the Passover was a Sacrament conveying grace and sealing it in confirming the faith of the believing participant, the very

same cup probably conveying the very same wine of "memorial" and "remembrance of "the sacrifice of the death of Christ."

And it is remarkable how similar to this is the view which our Church takes of the Passover as illustrating the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. "And as of old time God decreed his wondrous benefits of the deliverance of his people, to be kept in memory by the eating of the Passover, with his rites and ceremonies; so our loving Saviour hath ordained and established the remembrance of his great mercy expressed in his passion, in the institution of his heavenly supper." Hom. XXVII. P. 1. "For newness of life, as fruits of faith are required in the partakers of this table: we may learn by the eating of the typical lamb: whereunto no man was admitted, but he that was a Jew, that was circumcised, that was before sanctified." Hom. XXVII. P. 2. Where the Church plainly intimates, that "newness of life," real sanctification, "as fruits of faith" is required "in the partakers" of "the Lord's table," as it was in "the eating of the typical lamb," or the Passover; to which none but the faithful " was admitted," that is, "he that was a Jew, that was circumcised," and as truly circumcised, "that was before sanctified." So that our Church as truly ascribes "fruits of faith" to the eater" of the typical lamb," or the Passover as it does to the partaker of the Lord's "table;" and thus makes the Passover as real a seal and sign of faith and spiri

tual life, as it does the Lord's Supper and making Circumcision and sanctification synonimous to the faithful Jew, it makes both the Passover and Circumcision means of grace; and expressly saying "Circumcision was a Sacrament," and ascribing the same faith and newness of life and sanctification to the one institution as to the other, it makes them to be both Sacraments of the Law.

But our Church does not only thus by implication consider the Passover to be a Sacrament; as it does Circumcision, it calls it such in express terms in the following passage. "And if this advertisement of man cannot persuade us to resort to the Lord's table with understanding, see the counsel of God in the like matter; who charged his people to teach their posterity not only the rites and ceremonies of the passover, but the cause and end thereof; whence we may learn that both more perfect knowledge is required at this time at our hands, and that the ignorant cannot with fruit and profit, exercise himself in the Lord's Sacraments." Hom. XXVII. P. 1. Here no other institution is adverted to but the "Lord's table" under the Gospel, and "the rites and ceremonies of the passover" under the Law, and each is adduced as an equal instance that "the ignorant cannot with fruit and profit exercise himself in the Lord's Sacraments." And thus in the estimation of our Church the Passover is as real a Sacrament as that of "the Lord's table."

Thus it is evident that the two Sacraments of

the Law were seals of the promise,--signs, and pledges, and means of grace as Sacraments are, the Apostle expressly stating, that real "circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter," Rom. ii. 29. and our Church as expressly confirming the same sentiment; " and so was Circumcision a Sacrament, which preached unto the outward senses the inward cutting away of the foreskin of the heart, and sealed and made sure in the hearts of the circumcised, the promise of God touching the promised seed that they looked for:" and the Scripture affirms the same of the Passover, as applied by the faith of the believing partaker. "Through faith he (Moses) kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them." Heb. xi. 28. The Passover was the seal of his faith in the promise. And such it was to every man that "kept" it with faith and a sanctified soul; for "newness of life, and fruits of faith were required” in all admitted to the "eating of the typical lamb," says our Church, "whereunto no man was admitted, but he that was a Jew, that was circumcised, that was before sanctified."

We now come in the process of our historical evidence, to the intermediate and preparatory dispensation of John the Baptist; and if we simply adhere to the word of Scripture, so far shall we find it, I conceive, from presenting an interruption to our statement, that on the contrary, the Baptism of John will be found to be as truly "from

heaven" and as real a Sacrament, the outward sign of water signifying and conveying real grace to the faithful partaker of it, as the two Sacraments of the Law which preceded, or the two Sacraments of the Gospel which succeeded it.'

Let us then distinctly bear in mind, what it was foretold that John should do in clearing the way for the coming of the Saviour by his intermediate dispensation between the shadows of the Law and the substantial realities of the Gospel. His office as the spiritual harbinger of his Saviour was distinctly foretold; He was to " prepare the way of the Lord," and to "make straight in the desert" of the Jewish Church "a highway for our God; who was coming as the Saviour of Jew and Gentile, first to "his own," the household of faithful Abraham and as his spiritual pioneer, "every

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"The Baptism of John, then, could not impart the Holy Ghost," says Dr. Pusey, even on that ground, that it was administered while our Lord was yet in the flesh, before the atonement had been made, or the world cleansed for his indwelling." Tracts for the Times, No. 67. p. 246. If so, and really no grace of the Holy Ghost was imparted, before the atonement had been actually "made," then the ancient Church had no grace, and the enumeration of faithful Worthies in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews was a fallacy : then John the Baptist himself was not "sanctified from his mother's womb;" and what becomes of our Lord's declaration respecting his disciples before his atonement, "For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." John xvii. 8.