act of redemption, our type is ordered with a corresponding difference from theirs who preceded it, whether they were of the Jewish or of the heathen vocation. As the real offering for the former was still to be made, some of them "seeing the promises afar off," and none very near, since the spirit of prophecy had ceased for several hundred years; so their type, having a respect to the whole or living sacrifice, was likewise to be alive: but as our offering is made, the victim slain, his precious body and blood are dissevered, the current of life is detached from the fountain, so is our type conceived, being the same which he instituted and used himself when the thing was done, but not "finished." Of these two articles, or elements as they are called sacramentally, the bread and wine which constitute our type of the true paschal Lamb offered, and not to be offered, I should have more to say at this time, and of the bread especially, if 1 had never mentioned the subject before: as it is, I can only observe a few particulars relating to the same; as for example,

-

-1, How nicely the real offering is imitated by its type, as a beginning of food or sustenance laid for thousands in the sacred victim; and not only a beginning but a continuance, a Well of life and light, as the Psalmist intimates, saying, "How excellent is thy mercy, O God: and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house: and thou shalt give them drink of thy pleasures, as out of the river. For with thee is the well of life and in thy light shall we see light." (Ps. xxxvi. 7-9.) And thus the saying of St. Paul; "to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," (Cor. II. v. 19,) would seem intelligible enough, as the operation of a divine principle stirring by Christ in the constitution of the regenerate. For it is the spirit that converts or reconciles the grosser constituents to itself, not they it, where there happens an assimilation: and the effect of converting our ordinary food into a pabulum for

the body of Christ, and thereby our bodies to his, however inconceivable it may seem to many, is not really more so in itself, than the conversion of our simple thoughts to such exalted knowledge as we derive from Christ, or our ordinary discourse to such exalted topics as he prepares, or ordinary men to such as he sends like leaven, to leaven the world with his Spirit, and with such superior modes of thinking and doing as he gives them. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven," (Matt. xiii. 33,) said he. And what St. Paul observes thereafter, or in the spirit of the parable, is very much to our purpose, "Know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast; not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (Cor. I. v. 6-8.)

-2, The sacred leaven, or consecrated elements, would be enough to leaven or consecrate any feast however ample and abundant as effectually as if the same was all blessed at once, like the five loaves with which the Consecrator satisfied five thousand, and the seven with which he satisfied four thousand,-on being taken with his spirit: but not if taken with a spirit of rioting and drunkenness, as the old heathen sacrifices were generally, and the early Christian too sometimes in imitation of them. "This is not to eat the Lord's Supper:" (Cor. I. xi. 20 :) as the apostle told some of those corrupt imitators, and still tells others by them: neither is the institution answerable in any respect for such abuse. For Christ, the tree of life, which was withdrawn from Adam, is now restored to the earth,-being planted this time on the Lord's table, as it was at first in the midst of Paradise, or a garden of delights: and his faithful followers have now only to put forth their hand again as at first, "and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." (Gen. iii. 22.) But

3, At the same time that we justly rate the eucharist so high as a medium of life; to avoid confusion we should remember one saying particularly among others by its Founder, which I have had occasion to cite before now,that the life is more than meat, (Matt. vi. 25,) or its medium, even in the flesh of Christ full and perfect, leave alone its principles or elements. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; (says he) the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John vi. 63.) And all the selection in eating and drinking, of which so great an account is made in the first covenant or dispensation, refers apparently in the same manner to a choice of principles; as for example where David says, "O let not mine heart be inclined to any evil thing let me not be occupied in ungodly works with the men that work wickedness, lest I eat of such things as please them."* (Ps. cxli. 4.) He would rather have a clean heart, (Ib. li. 10,) and be occupied in suitable works. with such as make a point of them, that by God's grace and the natural influence of practice on principles he might eat of what they esteem most, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," (Ib. xix. 10,)-in " the body and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." Therefore,

:

-4, What the faithful would like to receive in that holy

N.B. Without some understanding of this kind some sort of people might be apt to think on the Psalmist's deprecation in the preceding text, that it was a piece of supersanctity. Truly a dreadful consequence (they might think) of conforming to the ways of the wicked, if one should eat of such things as please them! And by the same token it might be enough to cover the multitude of sins then, if we should not? So the Jews conforming to our bad example in many respects might still think themselves an holy nation, because they do not eat pork! or Roman Catholics, because they only eat it on certain days! We may see, that was not the Psalmist's meaning. The generality of these two classes may shame some others by their superior attention to forms: yet, as I love their persons, and also admire their principles in some respects, I should be glad for their sakes, if they did not rely sometimes too much on such forms.

sacrament, is Christ's spiritual body, such as theirs is to be; not the natural unchanged body of Christ, which he exhibited on earth for a few years before his crucifixion, nor the unglorified body in which he appeared for a few days after, but that glorious body which he derives from the Father, and imparts to his true disciples; daily feeding on the same, and "nourished up in the words of faith;" (Tim. I. iv. 6;)" till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man*, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ - from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Eph. iv. 13, 16.) "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; (said he) the flesh (meaning his natural, unchanged body, as aforesaid) profiteth nothing;" (John vi. 63;) i. e. toward the realization of eternal life: the reason being very natural according to St. Paul, namely, "that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." (Cor. I. xv. 50.) He says too, "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them," (Ib. vi. 13,) intimating thereby an affinity that may be ascribed to the whole man, as well as to a part and to the inward man, as well as the outward; either of these being composed of several elements, and either element of a crescent nature: whereby, as it is well observed," while the temple of the body waxes, the inward service of the mind and soul grows wide withal."

-5, The body of Christ which is taken by the faithful in the Lord's Supper not being his natural body then, but his spiritual; not that which was, but that which it is changed to-for it is not to be doubted, that the body of Christ underwent the same change INSTEAD of dissoluTION, as that which every survivor's to the last day must undergo (Cor. I. xv. 52)--the natural effect of the same

⚫ A fine idea of the metaphysical person of Christ.

in those who take it will be, to change their bodies in like manner by the operation of the same Spirit by which his was changed. So St. Paul avers, and nothing can be more probable, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. viii. 9, 11.) And thus we change a natural for a spiritual, a mortal for an immortal, a created for an uncreated-body, that which was created for that which created it; we change corruption, in short, for incorruption.

-6, The elements of the Lord's Supper improved by the faith of those who rightly receive them will have a corresponding influence severally in our own elements; the body and blood of Christ to nourish and recruit eternally our body and blood, his mind and spirit ours in the same manner; one being taken by the medium of bread and wine, the other by that of faith and information thereon. For what meat and drink are to the corporeal part, righteousness, and peace, and holy joy are to the spiritual, being its invisible food; as our Saviour told his disciples, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John iv. 32, 34.) So that one might as well be said to feed on another by faith and information, as on the fruits of the earth by simple mastication: and it is as possible to feed on God in our hearts by delighting like our Saviour in his will, as on bread in our bodies by the usual means of refection.

-7, It may be noted, that by means of our communion and offering in the Eucharist its Founder is pleased to be seen or perceived; as we may gather by experience, and read also in the instance of his discovering himself in this manner after his resurrection to two disciples in their way to Emmaus: (Luke xxiv. 13, &c. :) who related what they had seen immediately on their return to Jerusalem to the