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SERMON XVI.

THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

MATT. xxvi. 26, 27, 28.-As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

A due administration of the sacraments is scarcely more essential to the existence of the church, than is a correct notion of the nature and efficacy of the sacraments to the perfection of the Christian character: for none can receive the full benefits in the celebration of the sacraments; and therefore none, unless the sacraments are a mere nugatory ceremonial, unaccompanied by any grace, can be a completely furnished Christian, unless he communicate in them with a well grounded and rational expectation of the blessings which are therein bestowed. Every religious act, to be a homage acceptable to God, and a service profitable to man, should be accompanied with faith in the efficacy of that act; as prayer in the efficacy

of prayer; fasting in the efficacy of fasting. According to your faith so shall it be unto you, is a declaration which applies not only to the whole complex of religious principles and feelings, but also to every particular religious or devotional act; and he who hath the most lofty notions of the efficacy of a religious service, consistent with the truth, not only expects but receives therein the highest privileges. And not only in order to our fully participating in the blessing, of which the Sacraments are the proper medium, but also in order to our more reverent celebration of those holy mysteries, it is most important that we have a true notion of their efficacy. For surely we shall approach with the greater reverence a devotional service from which we expect the greatest blessing; and in proportion to the greatness of the privileges which we expect, will be the reverence with which we celebrate the ordinance on which those privileges attend.

So far, however, the Sacraments are in the same position with all other religious ordinances, our respect for which, and our benefit from which, are equally proportioned to our correct notions of their virtue and privileges. But in the Sacraments there is an element which is absent from all other religious ordinances, and which may be viewed with more or less of reverential awe,-even with no reverence at all, or with a superstitious and idolatrous homage. There is the matter of the Sacraments; in Baptism the consecrated water, and in the Eucharist the con

secrated bread and wine; and none I suppose will question, that to increase his reverence for these symbols is to increase his reverence for the Sacraments themselves respectively. So that, on the whole, we can imagine no more certain way of increasing the interest of each individual in the celebration of the Sacraments, and of assuring, on his part, a religious preparation for the celebration, and a solemn reverence in the service itself, than by fully declaring the benefit therein to be received, and by raising the dignity of the matter of the Sacraments as much as we can, without giving occasion to superstition or idolatry.

Fully impressed with this belief, I shall proceed to declare the dignity of the matter of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, the consecrated elements of bread and wine; and also to declare the benefits which we receive in and by the worthy celebration of that mysterious feast, concluding with such warnings as these considerations may suggest, against a neglect or an unworthy partaking of that Sacrament.

Now, with respect to the consecrated symbols in the Eucharist, in contradiction to opposite errors which declare, on the one hand, that they have become the natural body and blood of Christ, accompanied by his divinity, so as to be the entire Godman Christ Jesus, and, therefore, the proper objects of divine worship; and on the other hand, that they still remain, after the consecration, mere bread and wine, in no sense or degree differing, even in virtue, from any other bread and wine, and the proper object of no peculiar

respect in contradiction, I say to these opposite errors, it is well that we should remember, that it hath ever been the doctrine of the Scriptures, and of the most holy fathers of the ancient and of our own Church; and that it is still the doctrine of the most learned and orthodox Protestant divines, That while, indeed, the forms and nature of the bread and wine remain, after consecration; and that so entirely, that it is just as true as ever it was to call them bread and wine; yet they are endowed with such virtue from on high, as to be justly entitled to the name, in a symbolical and sacramental sense, of the body and blood of Christ; and that, as such, they ought to be approached with the greatest reverence, not merely as the vehicle of good things, and as the commemorative symbols of our great sacrifice; but as possessing a relative sanctity to which nothing else can pretend.

And while the truth of the former proposition, that the elements, even after their consecration, remain real bread and wine, rests upon the dictates of all our senses; which no man, at the same time reasonable and unprejudiced, will venture to disbelieve; and also upon the plain word of Revelation, since the Apostle calls them bread and wine even after their consecration the truth of the latter proposition, that they are to be viewed as possessing a very high and peculiar sanctity, and as worthy to be called the body and blood of Christ, rests also upon the express words of Scripture; since Christ himself declared of the consecrated symbols, This is my body, this is my blood; since the

Apostle warns the Corinthians against receiving the Lord's Supper without discerning the Lord's body; and asks, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it net the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ?"

But, besides these express Scripture testimonies, the peculiar sanctity of the consecrated symbols rests upon the very nature of consecration in general, and of the consecration of these in particular. For, to the truest consecration which we can imagine, this only is necessary, the concurrence both of God and of men and to the highest degree of sanctity we can imagine nothing to be necessary, besides the concurrence of God and men, to consecrate any thing to the highest and most sacred purposes. Now we shall see that this truest and highest consecration actually takes place in the elements of bread and wine at the Eucharist.

For first, they are presented among our oblations to Almighty God, in which oblations we give to God his own, from his own, in acknowledgment of his goodness and providence; and with the express intention that they may afterwards be employed in a solemn service which is, out of all doubt, the loftiest purpose for which any oblation can be made. And all this is done as a religious act, and accompanied, as a religious act ought to be, with the word of God and with prayer: and surely this is the least that can be said of this part of the service, that these oblations of a Christian congregation come up as a memorial before God, just as truly as did the alms and prayers of Cornelius;