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rious rites of the Christian Religion more than ever injurious. Amidst the diffusion of general knowledge,there now prevails a conceited fastidiousness which leads the minds of many, inflated with the pride of superficial attainments, to the rejection or diminution of all ecclesiastical authority. At such a period, nothing is allowed to become venerable by the lapse of time; nothing is secured from assault by the high character of the Institutor; all ancient opinions and practices are examined at the bar of private judgment; the reason of every individual is rendered the standard of right reason; and human judgment is presumed to be a criterion of truth, perfect in its kind, and universal in its application.

In science and philosophy, in the business of the world, in the common intercourse of human life, reason is, for the most part, a guide sufficiently sure. But the mysteries of Religion are in their nature above reason; and it is a proof of human folly, as well as pride, to demaud that the dispensations of the CREATOR should be all explicable by the reason of

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a CREATURE-of a creature no less limited in his faculties, than in the term of his mortal existence.

If men give up all pretensions to belief of Christianity, they may then indeed assert, consistently with their folly, the omnipotence of human reason; but while they profess the Gospel, they must, if they would retain consistency, submit their reason to their Religion; for the whole doctrinal part of Christianity is a mystery. Is not the boasted Religion of Nature also mysterious? Can Reason account for Creation any more than for Redemption?

But I am now to consider, not the ge neral mystery of Christianity, but the particular mystery of the Lord's Supper.

The church-men, who, deserting to the Socinian party, endeavour to degrade this mysterious rite, use the three following means in accomplishing their purpose: first, they represent the whole of it as a mere memorial; secondly, they deny or explain away all present benefits annexed to it; and, thirdly, they maintain, either that no preparation is necessary, or, that a slight one is sufficient; such as may be made

made in the Church during the time of celebration, or a few minutes before it.

I shall endeavour to make it appear, that the Eucharist, though a memorial, is, at the same time, much more than a memorial; that its benefits are present and unspeakably great, and that, in order to the reception of its benefits, peculiar care should be taken in the preparation.

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SECTION II.

The Sacrament in general, and the word Sacrament in particular, considered.

THE all-wise Governor of the universe, knowing what is in man, and condescending to his infirmities, has not accommodated his Holy Ordinances to the intellectual improvements of a few only of the human race; but adapted them to the great mass of mortals, immersed in sensual things, prone to acquiesce in mere animal life, and with difficulty perceiving and admitting the pure and exalted truths of Religion. The rites which he has instituted are accompanied with sensible images, with objects visible and tangible, in order to conduct the carnal mind, by gentle gradations and in the easiest manner, to the sublimity of a spiritual and celestial state,

For this purpose, he has appointed two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, in which the elements of water, bread, and wine, are constituted, under the opera

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tion of his Spirit, both * signs and means of sanctification and pardon. In these mysterious institutions something is to be done as well as spoken; some palpable signs are introduced; and the language of actions and signs is a language more impressive and universal than any mode of oral utterance.

The word Sacrament, which distinguishes these Holy Rites, is certainly not a scriptural term, neither is it classical; for I do not accord with those who derive it from Sacramentum, the military oath of the Romans. It evidently comes from Sacramentum, as used by the early traslators of the Bible, in the edition called the Vulgate, whenever they had occasion to render into Latin the Greek term, Mystery +.

The very name Sacrament implies mystery. In the language of theologists, who,

*EFFICIUNT QUOD SIGNIFICANT. "Sacramen"tum est sacræ Rei Signum; ita ut Imaginem gerat, et "Causa existat." Heskins, Cap. xv. Lib. iii. p. 270. + In the VULGATE are the following passages, where SACRAMENTUM is used for Arcanum et Mysterium:

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