Christ Our Rest and King by Henry Edward Manning

A sermon by Henry Edward Manning in 1843 on Christ Our Rest and King. Manning converted to the Catholic Faith in 1851 and later became a Cardinal in the Church.

Excerpt: 1. For first we learn that the rest and shelter of
mankind is Christ himself. " A man shall be a hiding
place from the wind." What man is this but " the
man Christ Jesus." 3 "God of the substance of the
Father begotten before the world : and man of the
substance of his mother born in the world. Perfect
God, and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human
flesh subsisting."? He is the almighty universal
Healer of mankind. By his incarnation : by his life :
by his death : by his resurrection : by his ascension
into Heaven : by his unseen kingdom reigning over
all : by his princes, the pastors of his church ruling
in judgment, by his word, and by his sacraments,
by his providence over his church and by his presence
in it, He the prince of peace, the Lord our righteous-
ness hath made Himself to be a hiding place from
the wind, a covert from the tempest as rivers of water
in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. There is no sorrow of body or spirit
for which there is not healing and consolation in him.
Human nature has no capacity of suffering for which
he has not a medicine and a cure. In the whole
compass of human griefs there is no pang nor agony
for which there is not healing in the Word made Flesh.
From the sting of conscious guilt to the pure sorrow
of the bereaved and desolate, there is no form of
affliction which he has not a balm to allay. For He is
Himself the medicine of all mankind. He is our
" wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption." 4 He is "our peace." 5 He is "all,
and in all." 6 Christ in us is " the hope of glory."*
The man Christ Jesus is " the resurrection and the
life." 7 By his incarnation he hath purged our man-
hood : by his life and death he has overcome death
and sin. In him mankind is by virtue and anticipation
restored to more than original glory. We are made
righteous and immortal. In him the second Adam
there is the beginning of the new creation. He has
restored the sovereignty of God over his own world :
and the sovereignty of man over his own nature : and
has exalted man even above angels : and enthroned
our manhood "at the right hand of God, whereby he
has become a Prince and a Saviour to the world.
And this he has done, first, by abolishing the guilt
of sin. He has in himself made propitiation for us
towards God. All the power of sin and death cannot
reach the man that is sheltered under the atonement
of our Redeemer. He blotted out " the hand-writing
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to his
cross." 8 "If any man sin we have an advocate with
the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins." 9 His perpetual inter-
cession is the perpetual cleansing of the penitent
man.