Christ and his church, as is the sacramental washing of water at baptism to our first incorporation with that mystical body. In this communion we eat and drink the bread and wine as symbols of Christ's body given, and his blood shed for us, for the remission of sins; so as to commemorate his state of humiliation, his sufferings, and his death; and so as to become partakers of the fruits of his incarnation and atonement. But the body of Christ with which we become mystically united in the Eucharist, is his glorified body, which now sitteth at the right hand of God, as the king and head of the saints. * And as in the faithful partaking of the memorials of Christ's death we do virtually suffer with Christ, so in the mysterious effects of that partaking we are also glorified together. We shew the Lord's death till he come; but we participate in his victory over death and the grave. We submit our selves to the reproach of Christ; but it is to us greater riches than all the world can offer, even a participation in his glory. Extremely imperfect as is the view of this high and mysterious subject, which I have been able to lay before you in one sermon, I yet hope, my brethren, that I may have excited in some of you a determination to pursue it farther for yourselves; and I am sure that I have laid a sufficient foundation for the following remarks. The Eucharist, as an act of devotion, is the highest * See Bishop Barlow as quoted by Waterland. Review, ch. vii. worship that we can render to Almighty God; and, as a medium of privileges, is the greatest boon that Christ hath bestowed on his Church: so that no man can possess the best gifts, nor exercise the highest duties of a Christian, without partaking of this sacrament. And I doubt even whether it is too much to affirm, that one who habitually neglects it cannot be said to be in a state of salvation; seeing that he lives in a constant neglect of an express command of our Lord and Saviour; seeing that he continually refuses the highest act of worship to God; and seeing that he wilfully remains void of the greatest blessings of the Christian covenant. How great, then, is the number of those whom we see joining in every other service of our church, who are by themselves cut off from the greatest blessing which she hath to minister in time; and from the highest hopes, with which she anticipates eternity. Yet again; when we consider the inexpressible dignity of this solemn service, the tremendous mysteries that are there exhibited, the inestimable privileges which are there offered to worthy communicants, together with the fearful denunciation which the Scriptures direct against those who profane the Christian altar by an unhallowed approach ; we cannot but surround that altar with the rails of a most awful reverence, and with the earnest injunction to the impenitent and faithless, to withdraw from mysteries which they cannot behold, and from ceremonies in which they cannot bear a part, but to their own perdition. Oh! that some of those who receive the Supper of the Lord upon stated occasions, and upon the recurrence of certain great festivals of our Church, and then only, and for no better purpose than to keep up an ancient custom, or to declare their attachment to a sect; for even the Church becomes a sect to those who are attached to it only by a sectarian spirit :—Oh that some of those who approach the table of the Lord, seeking no spiritual food for themselves, but only as an example to and companion of those they love, thus proving that they know the value of those privileges, which yet for themselves they will not earnestly seek :-Oh that some of those who approach that holy feast, without having ever seriously considered what they shall receive, without any reverent and jealous self-examination and preparation :-Oh that some of those would take warning from the solemnity of such a service, and refrain from touching the body and blood of Christ with unhallowed lips. Yet, after having already stated the privilege, the importance, the necessity of a participation in these mysteries, far from me be the wish to see a smaller number of brethren surrounding the Christian altar. Making only a charitable supposition of the general sincerity of the communicants, we know no surer indication of the religion of a congregation than the proportion of its members who constantly join in this commemoration of the great sacrifice; and what could be more painful to any minister than to see an indication of the healthful state of his flock in the small est degree diminishing? And yet, if we were able to discern the spiritual state of those to whom we administer the sacred symbols, one thing there might be more painful; even to see the number of those who, receiving the body and blood of our Lord unworthily, eat and drink their own condemnation, not discerning, or even being guilty of, the Lord's body and blood. Oh yes, my brethren, we do exhort, entreat you, to come constantly to the Christian sacrifice and the Christian feast; but only let it be with clean hands, and a pure heart, and with faith unfeigned: so on each occasion shall you receive a blessing from the Lord, and comfort and strength for your approaching duties or impending dangers, and your bodies and souls shall be nourished to a blessed immorta your lity. 298 SERMON XVII. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 1 JOHN i. 3.-That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. AFTER having proposed to our faith, and required us to confess the Church of Christ, as a visible society of men, constituted by Christ himself, worshipping and serving God in spirit and in truth throughout the world; and taught us that the Church thus constituted, and for such purposes, possesses the two characters of holiness and catholicity: the Apostles' Creed continues, in the succeeding part of the same article, to set forth the inalienable privileges of that holy and catholic church; the communion of saints; and the forgiveness of sins. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS is a privilege verging on deep mysteries, yet one which it is most important that we should rightly understand; since it is full of strong inducements to purity, to charity, to |