1

of "spirit, soul, and body ");1 and in that case the petition would be that by abstinence the lower part of our nature might be brought into subjection to the higher. But since the higher part of our nature cannot possibly gain the mastery of the lower, without being quickened and strengthened by the Holy Spirit of God, whose influence alone can give a right direction to our spirit, it is much better to suppose that the Holy Spirit is here meant, or rather the Holy Spirit, as animating and actuating ours. And thus that passage of the Romans comes chiming in beautifully with this part of the petition; "If ye live after the flesh" (live as its natural propensions induce you to do), "ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit' (through His prompting and influence) "do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." 2 Glorious prize, indeed, which God proposes for a little act of self-denial !——The phraseology of the Collect, however, points at something more than a single act or even a succession of single acts. That, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit" indicates a state of subjection, a habit which is formed gradually, and, like other habits, can only be formed by repeated acts. Remark, too, that what the Collect speaks of, as being brought into subjection, is "the flesh," which means, as I have observed, not so much the material body as that corrupt nature, the chief organ of which is the body. It is not merely sensuality which has to be mortified under the Spirit's influence, but temper, vanity, jealousy, and an hundred things besides.

"We may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness." We read in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans of "the motions of sins" (passions instigating to sin)," which were by the law," working “in our

11 Thess. v. 23.

2 Rom. viii. 13.

Here we are

members, to bring forth fruit unto death."1 told of "motions" in an opposite direction, the instigations made by our Lord Jesus Christ in the hearts of His people, their compliance with which redounds to His honour and glory, and their salvation. The Holy Spirit is, as it were, a silver thread, let down from Christ in heaven into the soul of each one of His disciples; and when that silver thread is touched by His scarred hand, the vibration caused in the soul thereby is a "godly motion" of Christ.—“ Righteousness and true holiness is a phrase borrowed from St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, where these graces are said to be the characteristic features of "the new man," which the Apostle exhorts us to "put on." To obey the motions of Christ in the soul is the way to "put on the new man, which, after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," just as the mortification by the Spirit of the deeds of the body is the way to "put off the old man," or old nature, which is in a state of moral corruption according to the lusts of deceit.4 "True holiness " here means something more than real, genuine holiness. The lusts are called "lusts of deceit," because they have a tendency to blind our eyes, to cheat and cozen us, and make us think about sin with levity. Holiness, on the other hand, is called "holiness of truth,"5 or true holiness, because it shows sin and other spiritual subjects as they really are, and as we shall view them when the dawn of eternity quenches all artificial lights, and shows all objects of worldly ambition to be tinsel baubles.

2

But how does morti

"To thy honour and glory." fication by the Spirit of the deeds

of the body, and

3 Eph. iv. 22. ὁσιότης τῆς ἀληθείας.

2

obedience to Christ's motions in the heart, redound specially to His honour and glory? The Collect-writer here holds fast to Scripture. St. Paul speaks of his earnest expectation and hope that "Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death."1 And it is open to all to magnify Him in their bodies, if not by literal death, yet by mortifying through the Spirit the deeds of the body. For it is said, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ ?" And again; "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." If, then, our bodies are His members, it is easy to see how He is honoured and glorified by our so keeping them under, and bringing them into subjection, that they may be yielded as instruments of righteousness unto Him. His body was a temple for the personal indwelling of the Son of God, as He declared when He said to the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."4 Our bodies are the temples in which He dwells by the Spirit; as it is said, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? "5 and immediately afterwards," Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? "6 Therefore any vindication of the purity of this temple necessarily redounds to the honour of Him who dwelleth therein.

Our final observation shall be upon the wise and holy moderation of this prayer. It intimates clearly enough that abstinence is to be practised by Christians (for why else should we pray for grace to practise it?), while it leaves the kind and measure of abstinence to be determined and limited by the end in view. Whether the abstinence is to be from food, or amusements, or luxuries

1 Philip. i. 20.

4 St. John ii. 19.

21 Cor. vi. 15.

5 1 Cor. vi. 15.

6

3 Eph. v. 30.

1 Cor. vi. 19.

and comforts; whether from all food, or only from the more palatable forms of it; whether it is to be total or partial; these are questions which each man must answer for himself under the guidance of God's Spirit, and which will be answered differently according to the infinitely varying circumstances and temperament of the persons, who are to submit themselves to the discipline. The great point, and the only essential point, is that, by whatever form and measure of discipline, the end should be secured. And the end is, that the rebellious flesh should be so controlled and brought into subjection, that the inspirations of the Saviour by the Spirit should be heeded and complied with, and the members of our bodies yielded readily and willingly as instruments of righteousness unto God.1

CHAPTER XXII.

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT.

Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Deus, qui conspicis omni nos virtute destitui ; interius exteriusque custodi, ut ab omnibus adversitatibus muniamur in corpore, et a pravis cogitationibus mundemur in mente. Per Dominum.—Greg. Sac.1-Miss. Sar.

LENT is the season when we commemorate our Lord's conflict with and victory over the devil,-that conflict and victory which opened in the wilderness after the forty days' fast, when the devil thrice assaulted Christ,2 and was thrice pierced with the sword of the Spirit.3 Now Christ's conflict with and victory over the powers of evil was not for Himself alone. It was a victory won, not only in man and by man, inasmuch as He took to Himself a perfect human nature, but for man, and even for that portion of the human race who, as being farthest from God, were most entirely under Satan's dominion. And thus we advance, by a sequence of thought at once

1 In Gregory's Sacramentary, as given by Muratori [ii. Col. 35], there is an et before "ab omnibus ;" and the end is given simply as "Per." 2 See St. Matt. iv. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9.

3 See St. Matt. iv. 4, 7, 10; and Eph. vi. 17.