The Literary Remains | Page 6

reason of extremity of sickness, &c.
I think this rubric, in what I conceive to be its true meaning, a precious
document, as fully acquitting our Church of all Romish superstition,
respecting the nature of the Eucharist, in relation to the whole scheme
of man's redemption. But the latter part of it--'he doth eat and drink the
Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health,
although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth'--seems to me
very incautiously expressed, and scarcely to be reconciled with the
Church's own definition of a sacrament in general. For in such a case,
where is 'the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace

given?' [1]
[Footnote 1:
'Should it occur to any one that the doctrine blamed in the text, is but in
accordance with that of the Church of England, in her rubric
concerning spiritual communion, annexed to the Office for
Communion of the Sick: he may consider, whether that rubric,
explained (as if possible it must be) in consistency with the definition
of a sacrament in the Catechism, can be meant for any but rare and
extraordinary cases: cases as strong in regard of the Eucharist, as that of
martyrdom, or the premature death of a well-disposed catechumen, in
regard of Baptism.'
Keble's Pref. to Hooker, p. 85, n. 70. Ed.]

XI SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
Epistle.--1 Cor. xv. 1.
Brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you.
Why should the obsolete, though faithful, Saxon translation of [Greek:
euaggélion] be retained? Why not 'good tidings?' Why thus change a
most appropriate and intelligible designation of the matter into a mere
conventional name of a particular book?
Ib.
... how that Christ died for our sins.
But the meaning of [Greek: upèr ton hamarti_on haem_on] is, that
Christ died through the sins, and for the sinners. He died through our
sins, and we live through his righteousness.
Gospel, Luke xviii. 14.

This man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
Not simply justified, observe; but justified rather than the other, [Greek:
ae ekeinos],--that is, less remote from salvation.

XXV. SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
Collect.
... that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of
thee be plenteously rewarded. ...
Rather--"that with that enlarged capacity, which without thee we cannot
acquire, there may likewise be an increase of the gift, which from thee
alone we can wholly receive."

PS. VIII.
v. 2.
'Out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast thou ordained
strength, because of thine enemies; that thou mightest still the enemy
and the avenger'.
To the dispensations of the twilight dawn, to the first messengers of the
redeeming word, the yet lisping utterers of light and life, a strength and
a power were given 'because of the enemies', greater and of more
immediate influence, than to the seers and proclaimers of a clearer
day:--even as the first re-appearing crescent of the eclipsed moon
shines for men with a keener brilliance, than the following larger
segments, previously to its total emersion.
Ib. v. 5.
'Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and
worship'.

Power + idea = angel. Idea - power = man, or Prometheus.

PS. LXVIII.
v. 34.
'Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel: his worship and strength is in
the clouds'.
The 'clouds' in the symbolical language of the Scriptures mean the
events and course of things, seemingly effects of human will or chance,
but overruled by Providence.

PS. LXXII.
This Psalm admits no other interpretation but of Christ, as the Jehovah
incarnate. In any other sense, it would be a specimen of more than
Persian or Moghul hyperbole and bombast, of which there is no other
instance in Scripture, and which no Christian would dare to attribute to
an inspired writer. We know, too, that the elder Jewish Church ranked
it among the Messianic Psalms. N.B. The Word in St. John, and the
Name of the Most High in the Psalms, are equivalent terms.
v. 1.
'Give the king thy judgments, O God; and thy righteousness unto the
king's son'.
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, the only begotten,
the Son of God and God, King of Kings, and the Son of the King of
Kings!

PS. LXXIV.

v. 2.
'O think upon thy congregation, whom thou hast purchased and
redeemed of old'.
The Lamb sacrificed from the beginning of the world, the God-Man,
the Judge, the self-promised Redeemer to Adam in the garden!
v. 15.
'Thou smotest the heads of Leviathan in pieces; and gavest him to be
meat for the people in the wilderness'.
Does this allude to any real tradition? [1] The Psalm appears to