[Footnote 4: See the Church and State, p. 73, 3rd edit.--Ed.] * * * * * NOTES ON LEIGHTON. [1] Surely if ever work not in the sacred Canon might suggest a belief of inspiration,--of something more than human,--this it is. When Mr. Elwyn made this assertion, I took it as the hyperbole of affection: but now I subscribe to it seriously, and bless the hour that introduced me to the knowledge of the evangelical, apostolical Archbishop Leighton. April 1814. Next to the inspired Scriptures--yea, and as the vibration of that once struck hour remaining on the air, stands Leighton's Commentary on the 1st Epistle of St. Peter. Comment Vol. I. p. 2. --their redemption and salvation by Christ Jesus; that inheritance of immortality bought by his blood for them, and the evidence and stability of their right and title to it. By the blood of Christ I mean this. I contemplate the Christ, 1;--As 'Christus agens', the Jehovah Christ, the Word: 2;--As 'Christus patiens', The God Incarnate. In the former he is 'relative ad intellectum humanum, lux lucifica, sol intelligibilis: relative ad existentiam humanam, anima animans, calor fovens'. In the latter he is 'vita vivificans, principium spiritualis, id est, veræ reproductionis in vitam veram'. Now this principle, or 'vis vitæ vitam vivificans', considered in 'forma passiva, assimilationem patiens', at the same time that it excites the soul to the vital act of assimilating--this is the Blood of Christ, really present through faith to, and actually partaken by, the faithful. Of this the body is the continual product, that is, a good life-the merits of Christ acting on the soul, redemptive. Ib. pp. 13-15. Of their sanctification: 'elect unto obedience', &c.