of his mystical body. It is the feast of love, and the heart that feeds upon it with a true relish of the repast, cannot retain a particle of envy, revenge, or malevolence.

All these (and more might be enumerated) ap pear to me, as, I believe, they do to the majority, to be the present benefits of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Nor let any one imagine the cause inadequate to the effect: Omnipotence can give efficacy to causes, which to man's limited un. derstanding appear totally unconnected with the effect, as well as inadequate to its production. In the present case, it must ever be remembered, that the Holy Spirit, and not the created elements, is the cause; and therefore all that has been described, and much more, can be effected by that Holy Person with the most perfect ease. Nor let any one, who believes in the Gospel, doubt this efficacy of bread and wine, under the Divine direction ; while he remembers that our Saviour cured corporeal blindness by the application of the first materials that occured, even the moistened clay, however unequal to the purpose it might appear to men trained in the confined schools of human art and science.

It is a satisfaction to me to produce the testimony of a very strong-minded man, Bishop Warburton, on the present benefits of the Sacrament; and I rather choose his testimony, (as I have intimated before,) because he was a declared enemy to

every thing which savoured of irrational enthusi

asm.

"Having now, " says he, "so largely inquired into the specific nature of this holy rite, we are enabled, in very few words, to shew (which we proposed as the principal end of the inquiry) what these Benefits are which we receive at the Lord's Table.

"Christ, by the sacrifice of himself upon the cross, purchased the redemption of mankind: and this rite being by its nature commemorative thereof, as it is a feast upon a sacrifice, each partaker receives, of consequence, the seal of pardon, and consequently of restoration to his lost inheritance.

"But as this operates only on the terms of repentance and newness of life, the gift would be defeated, by being bestowed on a condition which our perverse nature so much opposes, was not this nature softened and subdued by the power of grace, that promised blessing peculiar to the gospel dispensation. Now, as the influence of the Holy Spirit constitutes the most intimate communion of God with man, what time can we conceive so highly sanctified for the reception of it, as that in which we renew our federal union with our Lord and Master, in his last Supper, called by St. Paul, the "Communion of his body and blood ?”

It appears from this passage, that Bishop Warburton, who, in one of his sermons, writes on the

Eucharist, in a masterly manner, was convinced of this most important doctrine, that grace is vouchsafed in more abundance than ordinary, at the time in which we celebrate the Holy Communion.

SECTION VIII.

Christ's more intimate dwelling with us, or our Participation of his Divine Nature considered, as an effect of, and Benefit annexed to, worthily receiving the Lord's Supper.

THERE is no idea that occurs more frequently throughout the New Testament than the mystical union of Christ with all true believers. Two allusions are chosen by the sacred writers to express the intimacy of this union, one from the vegetable world, the other from the animal. Christ is represented as a vine, and true believers as the branches. What closer connection can be conceived than this, the branches of the tree deriving all life and nourishment, and consequently growth, from the stem in which they vitally inhere? Christ is also represented as the head of a body, of which believers are the members.

The Church, in her excellent Communion-office, asserts, that those who receive the Sacrament worthily, "dwell in Christ, and Christ in them; that they are one with Christ, and Christ with them." In what can this union consist? Certain

ly in some degree of resemblance at least, though it cannot be any near approximation to him, in power or in knowledge. In what then does it consist? Doubtless in his Holy Spirit's influence, or emanation on us, producing Godlike qualities, goodness of heart, upright, honest intention, purity, and universal benevolence. How is it principally, and by Christ's appointment, to be effected? By worthy participation of the Sacrament. Man, by the mercy of God, is rendered, in the Eucharist, a partaker of the Divine nature. A food to the soul is supplied by the Sacrament, in consequence of which it is nourished, and arrives at this wonderful improvement in goodness and purity, which resembles in kind, though not in degree, the Divine; hence the Eucharist has been named by Theologists, the Sacrament of Nutrition. What more intimate union can exist, than that of the aliment with the body nourished by it?

As the daily waste of our bodies requires a supply of food, so likewise the decay of Grace, and the decline of goodness in our dispositions, render frequent repair and support necessary. We are susceptible of diminution and augmentation in Grace, as long as life continues, and "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you :"* the principle of life will be extinct without this food; and this food

* John vi.

is afforded in the greatest plenty, at the feast of the Eucharist; a feast for ever to be repeated after the one great sacrifice.

Our Catechism expresses the true doctrine in terms, which may perhaps be considered as too strong, since, from their strength, they are liable to misconstruction. It asserts, that the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken in the Sacrament. The compilers, however, could not mean, by "verily and indeed," to teach the doc. trine of transubstantiation; for we know they ab horred it. If it be asked, What did they mean? I answer, that they meant, in opposition to the Romanists, that all, whatever our Saviour intended by eating his body, and drinking his blood, is really and truly taken in the Lord's Supper, notwithstanding there is no real and material flesh or blood either seen or tasted throughout the whole transaction. They meant to say, that though the bread continues bread still, and the wine is but wine, yet, whatever our Lord intended, is verily and indeed received by the faithful, without the necessity of transubstantiation; to all intents and purposes of affording spiritual nourishment to their souls; sustentation of the heavenly life, and union with the divine nature.

This spiritual nourishment is that which is called grace, the grace of sanctification. The real presence is not indeed in the sacramental elements,