tution. It is intended to procure an UNÍON with the God of our Salvation; and that union procures, a necessary, (consequent, or concomitant) effect; sanctification and pardon. We are baptised but once; but we are to communicate, without limitation to the number of times, while life continues."

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By Baptism we are united to the mystical body of Christ, which is, his Church; and since Church-membership is not only an outward, but a public rather than a private thing, one single administration of such rite is sufficient to make that union lasting."

"

"But by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper we are united, as members, to the spiritual body of Christ, that is, his GRACE. This is an inward union, and lasts no longer than the right disposition of the heart and affections shall continue; and this, by reason of our corrupt nature, and perpetual commerce with an evil world, being always impairing, it has always occasion to be strengthened and renewed:

Bishop Warburton.

This

This is the office of the Holy Spirit; whose gracious influence more peculiarly sanctifies that holy season, the season of communion. Hence the use and necessity of frequent communion, intimated in the words of the institution, "Do this in remembrance of me," which imply the

CONTINUING TO RECEIVE HIS BENEFAC

TION, which is conveyed to us from time to time, and "as often as we shew forth "the Lord's death till he come." So true is the account given in this sacred rite in the articles of our Church: "That the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is not only a badge or token of a Christian man's profession, but rather a certain and sure witness and effectual sign of GRACE, and God's good-will towards us; by which he doth work invisibly in us; and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him *."

This Sacrament being then a Sacrament of spiritual NUTRITION, is to be repeated so long as we continue in this sublunary state, and subject to spiritual infirmity,

Article XXV.

disease

disease, and famine. In such a state, SPIRITUAL DEATH must be the consequence of refusing sustenance.

If indeed any man be confident that the grace which he received at his last celebration of the Eucharist is not impaired, and that he has not committed sin, since the forgiveness he then obtained, he may, perhaps, have reason to think the repetition of the Sacrament is to him not absolutely necessary. But who can possess such confidence without presumption? If we say that we have no sin, and feel no decay of grace, while we continue in a corrupt world, and carry in our bosoms a natural propensity to error and to vice, we probably deceive ourselves, or wish to deceive others by hypocrisy, "A man, one would think, cannot too often commemorate our Lord and his Passion, nor too often return him devout thanks and praises; nor too often repeat his resolutions of amendment; nor too often renew his solemn engagements; nor too often receive pardon of sins, and fresh succours of divine grace.”

But prudence and discretion have a proper place here, as well as in every thing in which human beings are concerned. We must be careful not so to familiarize the rite by frequency, as to lose all reverence for it by performing it unprepared, with minds engaged in the occupations of the world, and little attentive to the importance of the solemnity. "Divines of all ages of the Church, except in the first, and part of the second, century, secm inclined to abate of frequency rather than of the strictness of preparation or qualification *." The want of preparation is the only allowable impediment to frequency of communion; but this is an impediment which every man, unless under very peculiar circumstances, may himself remove.

Strictness of examination is required, yet this is not to be pleaded as an excuse, "either for a total, a frequent, or a long neglect of the Sacrament. A man may say

that he comes not to the table because he is not prepared ; and so far he assigns a good reason; but if he should be farther asked,

* Waterland.

why

why he is not prepared, he can only make some trifling, insufficient excuse, or remain speechless."

When we consider the frailty of man and the brevity of life, it must be deemed presumption ever to continue long unprepared for the Sacrament; because at the same time, we must be unprepared to die. If we keep our minds in a constant state of preparation, it will certainly be right to communicate, not only on all the great Festivals of the Church, but whenever opportunity offers, and at the same time no reasonable cause urges us to postpone it. Precise rules cannot be given; neither would they be followed.

One admonition, however, of universal importance, may be offered; which is, that though, with respect to frequency of communion, much is left to the discretion of the Church, and much to the private judgment of individual Christians; yet the omission must never be the effect of contempt, or even of negligence*.

"It is in this duty as in that of prayer, God has annexed blessings to it; but then he requires that we should be in a proper frame of mind to be PARTAKERS of them;