Father, by Himself, and subordinately by the Jews and Judas Iscariot) "for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." The passage has given occasion to lengthy expositions from commentators; but is not really difficult. Justification is a forensic term; and means the sentence of a tribunal in a prisoner's favour-a sentence of acquittal. Our sins made Christ's death (He being our Representative, and taking our sins upon Him) a necessity; He died for our sins, bare them in His own body on the tree.1 And our acquittal equally made His Resurrection a necessity. For it was by His Resurrection that God the Father declared Himself satisfied with Christ's atoning work, and gave sentence of acquittal upon mankind as viewed in Christ. When God bruised and put Christ to grief, He was really punishing us; and when-after Christ's death. and passion-He raised Him from the dead, He was really giving sentence of acquittal upon us. Without the Resurrection of Christ, there would have been no evidence of God's forgiveness of man's sins, or of His acceptance of Christ's sacrifice. And the very first boon which comes to man in the train of Christ's Resurrection is God's absolution. For when, in the Gospel of the day, Christ for the first time after His Resurrection meets His assembled Apostles, He comes with " Peace be unto you," and "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them."?

"Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness." This petition is a reference to, and a citation from, 1 Cor. v., where St. Paul bids the Corinthians to excommunicate an incestuous member of the Church, who had brought discredit upon their body. This, however, he makes the occasion of a precept, which reaches far beyond the church life of the community, into the life 2 St. John xx. 19, 23.

1 See 1 Pet. ii. 24.

3 See 1 Cor. v. 7. 13.

of each individual composing it. "Christ our passover (our Paschal Lamb), says he, "is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness." The allusion to the putting away the old leaven would be vividly significant to a Jew, and come home to him with a force which we can hardly appreciate. In the seven days which followed the Feast of the Passover, the Jews held themselves bound to keep absolutely clear of every kind of leaven, and, in order to effect a thorough riddance of it, they first made a purging out of it, cleansing every part of their household stuff to which it might by possibility adhere; secondly, a searching out, looking with wax candles into all the crevices of their houses, even into the mouse holes; thirdly, a burning out, which was done by putting all the leaven into a little heap and setting fire to it; and lastly, a cursing out, the recital of a formula in which they prayed for the scattering and destruction of any small particle which might perhaps have escaped notice1-a sufficiently striking image of the thoroughness with which God would have us put away sin, and exterminate it root and branch.-But sin is here termed "malice and wickedness," the first word probably denoting uncharitable sentiments towards our neighbour, and a feeling of grudge and malignity, the second, wicked deeds in the widest sense of the term-against God, our neighbours, and ourselves-sins, crimes, and vices-as the same word is used in Acts iii. 26, "God sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Not but that the word "malice" also sometimes denotes sins against God; for it is used of the sin

2

1 Godwyn's "Moses and Aaron," Book iii. chap. 4, pp. 109-10. [Ed. London: 1672.] 2 κακία καὶ πονηρία. 3 ἀπὸ τῶν πονηριῶν ὑμῶν.

of Simon Magus, which was an unhallowed trafficking in sacred things, and is there translated "wickedness."1 We shall not be mistaken if we take the two words together as denoting every form of moral and spiritual evil.

That we may alway serve thee in pureness of living and truth." The Latin translation, made by order of Queen Elizabeth in 1560, renders this "in purity of faith and life."2 It is evident that the translator took "living"

1 Acts viii. 22.

2 And so also Canon Bright's and Mr. Medd's Latin Version of the Book of Common Prayer (Rivington, 1865), whose translation of the Collect we here place side by side with that of Aless :

Aless, 1560.

Omnipotens Pater, qui dedisti Filium tuum, ut pro peccatis nostris moreretur, et pro justitia nostra resurgeret, præsta, ut abjecto fermento malitiæ et nequitiæ, in puritate fidei et vitæ tibi perpetuo serviamus. Per, etc.

canæ.

Bright and Medd, 1865. Omnipotens Pater, qui dedisti Filium tuum unicum, ut propter delicta nostra moreretur, et propter justificationem nostram resurgeret: Præsta ut, abjecto fermento mali. tiæ et nequitiæ, in puritate fidei et vitæ tibi perpetuo serviamus. Per merita ejusdem Filii tui Jesu Christi Domini nostri. Amen.

The rendering "in puritate fidei et vitæ" is found also in that now scarce book, Dr. Richard Mockett's "Doctrina et Politia Ecclesiæ Angli[Londinî: Apud Joannem Billium, 1617. Cum privilegio]. This translation of the Prayer Book attained a great notoriety from its omitting the first clause of the Twentieth Article upon the power of the Church. Mockett, its author, was Chaplain to Archbishop Abbot, and Warden of All Souls College, Oxford.

66

In 1665 a Greek translation of the Prayer Book was put forth at Cambridge under Bishop Pearson's superintendence, in which "truth" is made to depend upon "in," (as in the text of 1 Cor. v., from which the expression is drawn), not upon pureness,”—ὥστε ἐν τῇ τοῦ βίου εἰλικρινείᾳ τε Kaì åλŋßeiα σ0ɩ Xaтpeúew). And this view of the meaning of "pureness of living and truth," is taken in some Latin translations subsequent to 1665. Thus, in the translation of 1670, the words are rendered “in puritate vitæ et veritate," as they are also in the Latin Prayer Book of Queen Anne's reign [Londinî, 1703], in the frontispiece of which is an engraving of the Queen on her knees before a table, on which is an open book, over which is written, "Liturgia Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ ;" and the translation of 1727

1

and "truth" to be under the same bracket, that is, understood the word "pureness" to refer to the word "truth" as well as to the word "living," "pureness of living and pureness of truth," the first denoting moral soundness, and the second doctrinal soundness. It may be much questioned whether this was exactly what St. Paul meant by "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth;" but it is certain that this is what those who drew up the Collect supposed him to mean. And a most wholesome lesson it is for us, and one most necessary for these, and, indeed, for all times, that we should regard as leaven not merely sins but also false doctrine. Our Lord Himself spoke of false doctrine as leaven, when He bade His disciples beware of leaven, meaning, however, not the leaven of bread, but the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And of this we may be quite sure, that error in principle will not long work in the Church, without first corrupting the Church's worship, and then engendering laxity and worldliness of practice. If but a grain of false doctrine be admitted into the mind, it will work stealthily and rapidly, and will spread itself with wonderful speed and power, like leaven, through the entire religious system.

2

In conclusion, how instructive is it that, when we have been seeking from God absolute spotless purity, both in doctrine and life, we should solemnly remind ourselves that this purity, even if we could entirely attain to it, could not be the ground of our acceptance-that that can only be "through the merits of the same thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord!”

(having in the frontispiece an engraving of a congregation, the worship of which is being conducted by the clergyman and the clerk), gives the latter part of the Collect thus; "da ut, abjecto improbitatis malitiæque fermento, et pura vivendi ratione et verè Tibi semper serviamus.”

11 Cor. v. 8.

2 See St. Matt. xvi. 11, 12.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER.

Almighty God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life; Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [A.D. 1549.]

THE Collect which is found in the Sarum Missal for the Second Sunday after Easter1 is a petition for Christian joy, founded on the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ after He had humbled Himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. It rings with the echoes of Easter joy, and very beautiful is the way in which the Christian's present joy in Christ's salvation is spoken of as ultimately expanding into, and merging in, what our form of Daily Absolution calls God's "eternal joy,”—the joy to which the Saviour's voice will invite, when He says to the servants who have improved their talents, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 2

But beautiful and edifying as the Sarum Collect is,

1 Deus, qui in Filii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti; fidelibus tuis perpetuam concede lætitiam, ut quos perpetuæ mortis eripuisti casibus, gaudiis facias sempiternis perfrui. Per eundem. -Gel. Sac. [Mur. i. 583]-Miss. Sar.

VOL. I.

O God, who by thy Son's humbling himself hast raised up a fallen world; Grant unto thy faithful people perpetual joy, that they whom thou hast snatched from the dangers of perpetual death, may be brought by thee to the fruition of eternal joys. Through the same.

2 St. Matt. xxv. 21, 23.
2 B