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titude, unoffended by the difficulties of a mystery, receives Christ; that is, receives the Holy Spirit, who applies to him the benefits procured by Christ, while he partakes of the elements in the Eucharistical Communion. The cavilling disputant in theology makes the Sacrament an insignificant, lifeless ceremony; while every worthy receiver, learned or unlearned, feels it conferring on him the invaluable benefits of pardon and sanctification. The anti-superstitions, as it is well observed, are quite as ridiculous, and much more mis chievous than the superstitions of the wellmeaning but unlearned devotee.

"When thou comest," says the celebrated Dr. Donne," to this seal of thy peace, the Sacrament, pray that God will give thee that light that may direct and establish thee in fundamental things; that is, the light of faith, to see that the body and blood of Christ are applied to thee in that action; but for the manner how the body and blood of Christ is there, wait. his leisure. If he have not

* Profuisse deprehendas, QUOMODO profuerunt, non deprehendes.

SENECA.

yet

yet manifested that to thee, grieve not at that; wonder not at that; press not for that let us exercise our faith only here, and leave our disputations in the school*."

Precisely with such a disposition as Dr. Donne recommends, the multitude of Christians, who are yet untainted with the depreciator's doctrine, come to the Sacrament; and as they are hungry, there is every reason to believe that they are filled with good things; while, it is to be feared, "the rich," those who abound in their own sense and knowledge, “are sent empty away +."

* "If then it seem strange HOW a thing can be as truly REAL, spiritually as carnally; seek the Spirit of God, who is the knitter of this knot, and that will teach thee, that the power of the WORD, which appointed Light to be, and it was, and the evening and the morning to be a day, and it was; and man to be, and he was; did also ordain the Body and Blood of Christ to be really one with the elements, without locality or mixture, and THEREFORE, SO THEY ARE." ROGERS.

+ "As the Jews, after they had offered to God in the Temple their Peace-Offerings, did eat a part in his presence, whereby they were admitted as his guests, and reconciled to him: so in the same analogy, the Eucharist is a banquet, where the faithful feed on Christ crucified;

not,

not, indeed, on His real Body and Blood, but on the symbols which he has constituted in their stead: God is the master of the feast, and there he looks on us as his children, as reconciled to him. We enter into his Banquetting-House, and the BANNER OVER US IS LOVE.” Anon. Essay on the Lord's-Supper.

It is of great importance, while we are speaking of GRACE, and the Influence of the HOLY SPIRIT, to understand rightly the word PARACLETE.

The original word, used by our Saviour himself, is sup

פרקליט

posed to have been "Praklita," a word borrowed by the Jews from the Greeks, and signifying, in the opinion of learned men, not an advocate or a comforter only, but more properly a MONITOR.

MICHAELIS.

SECT.

SECTION XXI.

The Love of Christ to Man, of Man to Christ, and of Man to Man, strikingly exhibited in the Eucharist duly celebrated.

THE

HE rigid examiners of Christ's pretensions (a favourite word of such persons, and used by Bishop Hoadly on the Sacrament*,) seldom take into consideration what the Scriptures dwell upon, the love of God, the love of Christ, and the return of love which is due from Man to his Maker, Preserver, and Redeemer. They seem to make theology a Scholastic science, and exclude the fervor of piety. The AFFECTIONS, which have great sway in the cause of virtue and goodness, as well as of vice, have scarcely any place in the meagre systems of

* Page 106 of his Plain Account.

what

what I may denominate a philosophical and mathematical theology; that sort of theology which amuses a few good and ingenious men in their libraries, but has little effect on a world groaning under evil both moral and natural; and requiring the guidance and consolation of a popular religion.

Notwithstanding the cold and comfortless representations of the detractors from the dignity and benefit of Sacramental Communion, it is certain that the whole of the transaction is begun and completed in PIOUS LOVE. It is a delightful exercise of the finest affections or sensibilities of the human soul. The name Eucharist signifies the expression of gratitude, always a pleasing office, and more especially delightful, when shewn to the God who is love itself, and multiplies his benefits in proportion, as they are gratefully acknowledged. This holy feast after the Sacrifice, the great Sacrifice once made, as a full, perfect, and sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, is a luxurious

banquet

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