Would that the thought of this stupendous grace might ever dwell with each Bishop of the Church Universal, that those words of promise which are the charter of the perpetuity, and the power which Christ hath given might accompany them, as if ever and anon spoken by a heavenly voice,—to elevate, console, and awe their inmost spirit,—“Lo, I AM WITH YOU!”—Nay, what thoughts of glory and majesty may well possess us all! when, putting aside the thankless debates, and presumptuous questionings of men, there rises before our mind’s eye the august vision of the “whole family in heaven and earth;” existing as for ever ONE to The Omniscient EYE, yet mysteriously passing through the long and varying successions of time, age after age; ministered unto throughout, by ONE succeeding Priesthood, {67} ever subsisting “after the power of an endless life,” and so holding together all the members of the eternal family, the living and the dead, in mystic fellowship and communion, even reaching to a “fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ!” Seems it not too great a thought for mind of man to take in, in all its sublime fulness?—And has it not some holy influence, forcing from us the exclamation of felt unworthiness—‘Alas! for what we _are_,—and what we _should_ be?’—It is as if (with earth’s pollutions yet unwashed from our spirits) we were borne upwards in vision even “to heaven-gate,” and bidden by the Angel of an Apocalypse to look in, and see, though from far, the eternal wonders, behold the forms of distant glory, and feel, though but for a moment, the thrilling air of heaven’s own Holiness. III. THE OBJECTIONS. FROM THE EPISTLE. {69}—“Now the GOD of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one towards another, according to CHRIST JESUS. That ye may with One mind and One mouth glorify GOD.”—Rom. xv. 5. OUR object in the present Lecture will, I trust, be the same as that of the Apostle’s prayer in these words . . .