the former, are imparted on the express condition, of the acknowledgment and recognition, of an inseparable union and conjunction of all the children of God with each other; and, through each other, with their common head. I say, that grace is conveyed to this or the other particular person, not as if he were independent on others, but, as if he were, and because he really is, dependent on them all. He is contemplated, not as a whole, but as a part: not as a complete and perfect number, which happens for the time to make one in a collective sum; but as an existence incomplete, defective, and imperfect in a detached state : as a subordinate component, in that which subsists only in combination: as part and parcel, not of a number, but of unity. He is regarded, in his duties and in his powers, not as one in a vast aggregation of unconnected particles of discontinuous matter, but as a vital and subservient function in one coherent, organized, and living body.

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I am the vine," saith our Redeemer "ye are the branches 1." There is no such, thing as separation from the branches, without separation from the vine itself. The sap, which nourishes and fills the cluster, flows and circulates from the root, through every fibre and ramification, to the utmost tendril.

The Christian Church is a temple, whose firmness and stability depend, not merely on the fixedness and durability of the foundation, but on the mutual coherence and dependence of all the particular parts. Each stone, indeed, is a temple of the Holy Ghost; and, therefore, each is a living stone and it is precisely because each is living, and a temple, in itself, that the whole mysterious fabric, is a living temple of the living God. The life of each tends, not to disunite, but to give cohesiveness and continuity; not to render any one independent of the rest, but to give each its proper position, and its relative beauty and importance. Ye "are

built," saith St. Paul, "upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit '.

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The Christian Church is a body, of which Christ is the head. In one sense, each several Christian is a child of God. In that sense, each stands connected, directly and immediately, with the source and author of his being. And, precisely for this very reason it is, that all these separate spirits and independent wills, make up conjointly but one mystical body, of which Christ is the head, and the Holy Spirit, the living, animating, and directing principle. The Christian, considered in his individual capacity, is joined with God in the steadfastness of his affections, though every other being on earth should renounce the relation. But this

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individual conjunction is not independent on his relation to the other parts of the body, but by reason of his incorporation and identification with the whole. It is because he is a member of the Church, that he is a member of Christ. It is because he is admitted by baptism into that mystical fraternity, that he is a child of God. "For by one Spirit," saith St. Paul, 'are we all baptized into one body 1." It is because of this incorporation, therefore, that we are severally the children of God. "For," as the same Apostle teacheth, "ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For, as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." And this is precisely what our Church teaches her children to acknowledge as the confession of their faith; that each, in his baptism, was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven 2."

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The promises of God, consequently, are

directed, not to those who imagine they can do without the heavenly contrivances of that spiritual organization, but to those who feel their dependence, and are grateful for it; who understand their relative position, and act accordingly. The promises of divine grace are directed to those, who seek for grace, to enable them, not to subsist apart, but to live and move in indissoluble unity: to those who are willing to receive grace, through the assistance and intervention of others, and are diligent in seeking it, in the channels appointed for its distribution and conveyance. Nothing can be more striking or conclusive than the argument of St. Paul. "The body is not

one member, but many.

If the foot shall

say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it, therefore, not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it, therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the