LECTURE XVII.

ON THE LAST OF THE TWO FINAL PRAYERS.

The Christian Resurrection from the Beath of Sin unto a Life of Righteousness.

COLOSSIANS iii. 1, 2, 3.

"IF YE THEN BE RISEN WITH CHRIST, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. SET YOUR AFFECTION ON THINGS ABOVE, NOT ON THINGS OF THE EARTH. FOR YE ARE DEAD, AND YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD."

THE last Collect in the office for the Burial of the Dead may be considered to contain two petitions, the one a prayer for spiritual life here; the other a prayer for life eternal in the world to come.

"O merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Resurrection and the Life; in Whom whosoever believeth shall live, though he die, and whosoever liveth and be

lieveth in Him shall not die eternally; Who also hath taught us by His holy disciple Saint Paul, not to be sorry, as men without hope, for them that sleep in Him; we meekly beseech Thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in Him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that at the general resurrection in the last day we may be found acceptable in Thy sight, and receive that blessing, which Thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear Thee, saying, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world: Grant this, we beseech Thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen."

It is to the first of these points that I am now about to call your attention; the need there is, namely, that we should all of us be raised from the death of sin (from that corruption. and infection of our nature, which, if unsubdued, will, in spite of our privileges, bring upon us a sentence of death eternal), unto a life of righteousness,-unto a state in which

the mind of Christ shall be gradually formed in us, in which we shall live more and more according to our baptismal "profession, which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him; that as He died and rose again for us, so should we who are baptized, die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness; continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living."

Such, in her own words, is the doctrine of our Church; and how truly her doctrine is that of the Bible, will be seen at once by a reference to that passage in S. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, which, as containing some of the most important practical inferences deducible from the fact of our adorable Redeemer's resurrection, has been selected⚫ for the Epistle of Easter Day, the most joyous and awakening of all our festivals.

In a former chapter of the same Epistle, S. Paul had told the Christians of Colossæ that they had been buried with Christ in the waters of Baptism as dead persons, in token of their relinquishing the principles

and practices of their former heathenism; and that in Baptism likewise they had been raised out of the water with Christ, as an emblem and pledge of the resurrection with Him unto life eternal. "Ye are complete," wrote the Apostle, "in Him.

buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead."

Having thus laid down the doctrine, he proceeds in the chapter under consideration to make a practical application of it, by admonishing them that since they had been raised with Christ out of the water of Baptism, and thereby had professed their hope of being raised with Him to an eternal life in the body, they were bound to do their utmost by faith and holiness, by aiming at the spiritual mind, and by mortifying all their fleshly appetites and passions, to obtain possession of the joys of heaven, where Christ now sitteth at the right hand of God, vested with full power to bestow those joys on all who were capable of receiving them.'

1 See Macknight in loc.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience; in the which ye also walked some time when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all."