The  fourth  ground  was,  Because  to  permit  this  would  be
to  contradict  the  true  idea  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  "  Ye  are
unleavened."  This  is  the  idea  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  a
body  unleavened  with  evil ;  and  St  Paul  uses  a  metaphor
taken  from  the  Paschal  Feast.  It  was  eaten  with  unleaven
ed  bread,  and  every  Jewish  family  scrupulously  removed  ev
ery  crumb  of  leaven  from  the  house  before  it  began.  In  like
manner,  as  that  feast  was  eaten  with  no  remnant  of  the  old
leaven,  so  is  our  Christian  jubilee  to  be  kept.  All  the  old
life  has  passed  away.  We  may  say,  as  St.  Paul  said  of  the
Corinthians, "  Ye  are  unleavened."  A  new  start,  as  it  were,
has  been  given  to  you  in  Christ ;  you  may  begin  afresh  for
life.  Here,  then,  is  the  true  conception  of  the  Church:  re
generated  Humanity,  new  life  without  the  leaven  of  old  evil.
Let  us  distinguish,  however,  between  the  Church  visible
and  invisible.  The  Church  invisible  is  "the  general  assem
bly  and  Church  of  the  first-born"  spoken  of  in  Hebrews  xii.
