banquet for the soul, in which it is gratified with Love, Joy and Peace *.

It was commanded in the law of Moses, "Thou shalt rejoice in thy feasts "before the Lord t;" and surely if the

* Mihi ante omnia, et supra omnia SUMMA DULCEDO. ROM. Missal.

JANSENIUS autem eam Christi Gratiam, quæ hominem jam boni cognitione illustratum, et variis modis pulsatum, allectum et sollicitatum, ut bonum amplectatur, ad illud tandem reapse prosequendum efficacitèr et certò determinat, non aliud esse vult, quam CELESTEM QUANDAM ATQUE INEFFABILEM SUAVITATEM, seu SPIRITUALEM DELECTATIONEM, quâ voluntas prævenitur et flectitur ad volendum faciendumque quicquid Deus eam velle et facere constituerit. Nec enim ullum esse genus actionis aut voluntatis bonæ, uliumve effectum Gratiæ efficacis, qui non isti Cælesti DELECTATIONI, tanquam veræ gratiæ Christi, veræque causæ tribuendum sit. Illam esse, per quam bonum quod prædicatur nobis, incipimus concupiscere: per quam bonum jam cogitatum piâ voluntate credimus atque suscipimus. Sine cœlitus infusâ ejusmodi DELECTATIONE, nec orationem ullam Deo gratam fundi posse, nec Deum pure et castè diligi, nec cupiditatum nostrarum tentationibus resisti, nec denique ullum bonum opus fieri. Ut prolixè Doctor ille ex Augustino probare contendit. JANSENIUS De gratia Christi Salvatoris, Libro 4. cap. 1, et seq.

+ Deut. xvi. 11.

Jews

Jews had cause to rejoice at their paschal feast, in memory of their deliverance from the house of bondage, their state of slavery in Egypt, Christians must feel delight in commemorating the mercy of God in sending the Son of his Love, out of his bosom, to redeem them from the chains of sin and death. St. Luk e, i the Acts, gives us a pleasing account of the behaviour of the first Christians in celebrating the Lord's Supper:-" And

they, continuing with one accord in "the Temple, and breaking bread in the

house*, (in the place of their religious "assemblies,) did eat their meat with

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GLADNESS and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with "all the people." Consistently with the idea of joy as the predominant sentiment at the Eucharist, we are taught in our Communion office to break out in the following words with rapture: "With "angels and archangels, and with all "the company of Heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore

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* So it should be translated.

+ Acts, ii. 16.

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praising

"praising thee, and saying, Holy, holy,

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holy, Lord God of Hosts, heaven and "earth are full of thy glory. Glory be "to thee, O Lord most High." And again: "We praise thee, we bless thee, "we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, “O Lord God, Heavenly King, God, the "Father Almighty."

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These words are expressions of the warmest feelings of love, gratitude, and adoration. They who repeat them without such feelings are so far guilty of hypocrisy; to avoid which it is necessary to raise the mind to a high degree of ardour or fervency; a purpose rendered difficult, if not impossible to be accomplished by the refrigerating doctrines of those who undervalue the holy rite. We must endeavour to feel, with due force, the love of Christ towards us; and love will produce love. We are commemorating the greatest instance of love that possibly could exist:-" Greater love hath "no man than this, that a man lay down "his life for his friend:"-but we, as

sinners,

sinners, were enemies,-" And* God com"mendeth his love towards us, in that, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died "for ust." Such words should not be carelessly repeated, but laid to heart, after serious consideration of their full force and significancy. How great would have been our wretchedness if he had not shewn us this love? but as he has shewn it, we have reason to believe that he will continue it; and with himself freely give us all things-an exalted state of bliss and perfection, in a future and glorified existence.

Thus the worthy communicant experiences in the Eucharist, the truth of St. John's declaration :-" God is love; and

* Rom. v. 8.

+ The EUCHARIST is an expression of GRATITUDE. "Instead of slaying of beasts and burning Insence, whereby they called on the name of the Lord in the Old Testament, the Fathers believed our Saviour ordained this Sacrifice of Bread and Wine as a rite whereby to GIVE THANKS and make supplication to his Father in HIS NAME." JOSEPH MEDE.

It was therefore called Euxapiotia, or the Sacrament of Thanksgiving or GRATITUDE.

He

"he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in "God, and God in him *.” He has a of the happiness of Heaven;

prelibation

for

* 1 John, iv. 8.

+"I speak here of that soft, calm satisfaction which every good man feels more or less in the conscientious discharge of his duty, and of this duty in particular above all others. And I may appeal to the experience of all faithful Christians, whether in the performance of it they do not find a pleasure infinitely superior to all earthly enjoyments, and a peace within their own breasts, which the world cannot give. For I do not mean, by what I have said above, those transports of joy, even to extacy, which are only constitutional, and which some enthusiastical persons have felt (or at least have given out that they have felt) in the exercise of the grossest superstition, and which many of the same complexion have experienced likewise in the best Religion, who yet have been persons of none of the best morals, but rather wholly devoid of the spiritual life. It is sometimes possible, indeed, that God Almighty may, for the encouragement of young beginners in religion, give them extraordinary tastes of the pleasures that are to be had in it, as he has sometimes done to persons exposed to very great trials and dangers for the sake of their virtue, which was in some measure the case of David, and especially that of St. Paul, who was caught up into the third Heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 4. But as we have at present no certain mark in these sensible joys themselves to distin.