The Literary Remains | Page 6

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: euagg��lion] 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: up��r 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 have been composed shortly before the captivity of Judah.
[Footnote 1: According to Bishop Horne, the allusion is to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.--Ed.]

PS. LXXXII. vv. 6-7.
The reference which our Lord made to these mysterious verses, gives them an especial interest. The first apostasy, the fall of the angels, is, perhaps, intimated.

PS. LXXXVII.
I would fain understand this Psalm; but first I must collate it word by word with the original Hebrew. It seems clearly Messianic.
PS. LXXXVIII.
vv. 10--12.
'Dost than shew wonders among the dead, or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee?' &c.
Compare Ezekiel xxxvii.

PS. CIV.
I think the Bible version might with advantage be substituted for this, which in some parts is scarcely intelligible.
v. 6.
'the waters stand in the hills.'
No;