The sayings of the great forty days, between the resurrection and ascension : regarded as the outlines of the kingdom of God, in five discourses with an examination of Mr. Newman's theory of developments

Front matter

THE

SAYINGS OF THE GREAT FORTY DAYS,

BETWEEN THE

Contents

DISCOURSE I.

SAVINGS OF THE FORTY DAYS.

Christianity founded on the Crucifixion and Resurrection. — Yet our Lord remained forty days on the earth, — 1st, To give proof of His resurrection. — 2ndly, To speak " the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." — The teaching of the Gospels prospective, — I. The moral teaching. — II. The Parables. — III. The Discourses. — IV. The Acts. — V. The Miracles. — The teaching of the forty days present, immediate, and conveying powers. — ■ This teaching contains the written charter of the Church. — The relation of these sayings to other Scripture: 1. Earlier ; 2. Later. — Sayings of the great forty days. — Summary of the Sayings. — There were probably others : these alone are written. . . . . . . ... 13

Preface

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

The following work, from one of the profoundest theologians of this age, is commended to the careful study of all inquirers after Christian Truth. It has already passed through three editions in England, and attained the place of a standard work on the great subject of which it treats. The simplicity of its style, its clear logical method, its deep reverential views of Holy Scripture, its calm tone and Christian spirit, will no doubt secure for it the attention of thinking persons in all denominations*

The great question of our age is allowed, on all hands, to be the Nature of the Christian Church — What is it? and How shall it he known ? Our author makes his appeal to the Bible, and finds in the recorded words of our Saviour during the Forty Days between His Resurrection and Ascension, the CJiarter — the Outlines of His Church. St. Luke tells us that during that mysterious tarrying on earth, He spoke u of tJxe things pertaining to the Kingdom of God" (Acts i. 3.) And our author gathers together these " Sayings" in one, and by viewing them in connection with other portions of our Lord's teachings, and the spirit of prophecy, and the actual conduct of the Apostles, presents to m a wonderful

PREFACE.

and striking harmony, and a full Church System imbedded in Scripture, and only as it were incidentally and casually coming to view. In other words, these "Sayings" furnish the hey with which the meaning of the Scriptures on this momentous subject of the Church is opened.

This method of inquiry has certainly the merit of originality in this age, though familiar, as will be seen, to holy men of old. May it be the means of guiding the humble inquirer, in his perplexity, to the haven of a sure Faith, where he may abide peacefully " until the day dawn, and the shadows flee away."

January, 1850.

PREFACE

TO THE

FIRST EDITION.

In submitting 4hese Discourses to the press, I am not without some uneasiness, that they may seem, at the first sight, to lie open to one of the heaviest charges that can be brought against Christian doctrine, that of Novelty. I trust, however, most earnestly, that any apparent novelty is confined to the manner of the argument, and that the dootrine will be found to be, in every point, accordant with the Holy Catholic Truth of God, as taught in the Church of England.

The principles upon which the view taken in these Sermons depends, are, I believe, very commonly, nay, universally, acknowledged among theologians. It is allowed, as indeed it cannot be denied, that the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord must needs have taken place as events, before the Church, in its full constitution and condition of privilege, could be founded. It is allowed, both as a fact, and as a consequence of the former position, that the teaching of our Lord before the Crucifixion is mostly (at least that part of it which refers to the Church) of a prospective kind, not intended to take effect in Institutions and Powers until after the events had taken place. It is often shown in separate instances, that particular sayings of our Lord, subsequent to his Resurrection, were the fulfilments, or, if I may so call them, the enactments of things promised in His earlier teaching j or, what is the same thing, that words spoken in the earlier teaching of Christ waited for the Resurrection before they gained their full force and meaning. So it is usual to regard the power imparted to