389 have been strangely divided. The Fathers well understood, that to make Christ's natural body the real sacrifice of the Eucharist, would not only be absurd in reason, but highly presumptuous and profane; and that to make the outward symbols a proper sacrifice, a material sacrifice, would be entirely contrary to Gospel principles, degrading the Christian sacrifice into a Jewish one, yea, and making it much lower and meaner than the Jewish, both in value and dignity". The right way therefore was, to make the sacrifice spiritual: and it could be no other upon Gospel principles. Thus both extremes were avoided, all perplexities removed, and truth and godliness secured.

So then here I may take leave of the ancients, as to the present article. The whole of the matter is well comprised and clearly expressed in a very few words, by as judicious a Divine as any our Church has had: "We "offer up our alms; we offer up our prayers, our praises, "and ourselves: and all these we offer up in the virtue "and consideration of Christ's sacrifice, represented before "us [I would only add, and before God] by way of re"membrance or commemoration; nor can it be proved, "that the ancients did more than this: this whole service "was their Christian sacrifice, and this is ours." A learned foreigner has likewise very briefly and justly expressed the nature of the Christian sacrifice; whose words I have thrown to the bottom of the page P, for the learned reader.

n How contemptibly the Romanists speak of a material sacrifice in that view, may be seen in Bishop Morton, (p. 438.) who has collected their sentiments upon it.

• Archbishop Sharpe, vol. vii. serm. xi. p. 253. If any one is disposed to trace this matter down, even to the dark ages, he will find that most of the Greek and Latin Liturgies contain the same notion with the Fathers, of the spiritual sacrifice in the Eucharist. See Covel, Acc. of Gr. Church, pref. p. 47. book, p. 36, 41, 46, 53, 67, 68, 175. Deyling. Observat. Miscellan. p. 310, &c.

P Oblatio omnis quæ fit a credentibus sub Novo Testamento, est incruenta, et vero castissima, et simplicissima, quia spiritualis. Sive quis se ipsum,

I shall now shut up this chapter with two or three short corollaries, which naturally offer, and may be of

some use,

1. The first is, that this sacrificial view of the Eucharist squares exactly with the federal view before given. For if it be really a spiritual sacrifice, in or by which every faithful communicant devotes himself entirely to God; and if the sacerdotal offering up our Lord's mystical body be (as St. Austin explains this matter) a sacerdotal devoting all the faithful joining it, to God's service, and to God's glory; then may we again justly conclude, that the sacramental service is a federal, as well as a sacrificial solemnity: because, in this case, the administrator's devoting the communicants, and their devoting themselves to God, is tantamount to a solemn renewing former engagements or covenants made with him, under such symbols as God has appointed, and promised to ratify on his part.

2. From hence may be understood, how Christians, at large, are priests unto God 9: for every one that sacrificeth, is so far a priest. Therefore Justin Martyr represents Christians in common as so many priests, offering their sacrifices in the Eucharist. And Isidorus, so late as the fifth century, does the likes, reckoning every man a priest, when he offers up his own body, or himself, a sacrifice unto God, by sacrificing his lusts and passions. Nevertheless, the proper officers, who minister in holy things, and who offer up to God both the sacrifices and sacrificers, are priests in a more eminent and emphatical sense; as Isidorus observes in the same place, and as the

sive σãμa suum, affectum, omnesque suas facultates et actiones Deo offerat ut sacrificium; sive alia σxéσu, ministri verbi, qui in nobis convertendis laborarunt, nos offerant Deo; sive preces, suxagısías, supplicationes nostras feramus ad Deum, ubique eadem ratio: nullus hic funditur sanguis, nihil committitur violentum; actio tota est spiritualis, et λayın. Vitringa in Isa. Ixvi. 21. p. 951.

9. 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. Rev. i. 6. v. 10. xx. 6.

Justin. Mart. Dial. p. 386. Conf. Origen. in Levit. hom. ix. p. 236. • Isidorus Pelusiot. lib. iii. ep. 75. p. 284.

reason of the thing itself sufficiently evidences t. I may farther note, that as Christians at large were considered as priests, on account of their offering spiritual sacrifices, so their consecration to such their priesthood was supposed to be performed in or by Baptism: or, in other words, their baptism was their consecration ".

3. A third corollary is, that the Socinians, or others, who reject both the sacrificial and federal view, do not only causelessly depreciate a venerable sacrament and sacrifice, but at the same time do the greatest disservice imaginable to practical religion. For as the sacrificial notion of the Eucharist, here explained, carries in it the most instructive and compendious lesson of Christian practice, so does the federal notion of the same carry in it the strongest engagements to bind us for ever to it. The removing these awakening hints, and the dissolving these sacred ties, under fair and smooth pretences of supporting practical Christianity, is betraying great want of judgment or want of sincerity; because there cannot be a more dangerous or more fatal way of subverting, by little and little, all true Christian morality.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Preparation proper for the HOLY COMMUNION.

IF we have hitherto gone upon sure grounds, with respect to the nature, ends, and uses of the holy Communion, there can be no doubt made, but that so sacred and so

t Cum omnes credentes N. T. sint sacerdotes respectu status spiritualis, et juris appropinquandi Deo in summo Pontifice Jesu; ministri verbi, dispensatores mysteriorum Dei, quatenus a Deo electi sunt, ut circa sacra publica versentur, respectu quodam economico et externo, in externa Ecclesiæ woArsiq fundato. Hunc titulum sibi peculiari modo vendicant. Vitringa in Isa. lxvi. 21. p. 951. Conf. Vitring. in Apocalyps. p. 335. N. B. This argument is discussed at large by Mr. Dodwell, De Jure Laico Sacerdotali, and by other tracts going along with his.

u Tertullian. de Monogam. cap. vii. p. 529. Origen. in Levit. hom. ix. 238. Cyrill. Hierosol. Catech. xviii. cap. 33. p. 301. Ambrosiaster. de Sacram. lib. iv. cap. 1. p. 365. ed. Bened.

salutary an institution ought to be held in great reverence, and to be observed with all joy and thankfulness, tempered with godly fear. If we consider it either as a Divine ordinance coeval with Christianity, and perfective of it, or as a solemn memorial of God made man, or as an instrument whereby God vouchsafes to receive us, Christ to dwell in us, and the Holy Ghost to shed his blessed influences upon us; or if we consider it as the noblest part of Christian worship, the renewing of our covenant with God, the sacrificing of the heart, and the devoting of the affections, and all that we have, to his service, and to his glory; or if we farther consider it as a badge of our most holy profession, and as a band or cement of union, whereby we abide in Christ, and have fellowship with all the family of heaven *; in which soever of these views we contemplate this holy ceremony, it must appear to be a matter of infinite concern to us, and highly deserving our most affectionate and devout regards. How we ought to express our esteem of it, is the next thing to be inquired into and the general rule here is, that we take care to do it in such a way, as may best answer those heavenly and salutary purposes for which this holy Sacrament was ordained. Our esteem or disesteem of it will be seen by our conduct; by our frequenting or not frequenting it, by our preparing or not preparing for it, as also by our manner of behaviour at the time of receiving, or after. My present concern is with the preparatory part. There is something of a preparation of heart, mind, and ways, required for all religious offices y; much more for this, which is the flower and perfection of all: and now the only remaining question is, what preparation is here requisite, or whereof it consists. The nature and ends of the institution, laid down above, will be our sure marks of direction, and cannot mislead us, if carefully attended Let us come to particulars.

to.

x Hebr. xii. 22, 23, 24.

y Eccles. v. 1, 2. 1 Sam. vii. 3. 2 Chron. xxxv. 6.

1. Baptism, it is well known, must go before the Eucharist, like as Circumcision was previous to the Passover. A person must be admitted into covenant first, in order to renew; must be initiated, in order to be perfected; must be born into the Christian life, before he takes in the additional food proper to support and increase it. Of this there can be no dispute, and so I need not say much of it. There is an instance in antiquity, as high as the third century, of a person who had long been a communicant, and who afterwards found reason to doubt whether he had been validly baptized, and thereupon scrupled the coming again to the Lord's table. His Bishop advised him, in that case, (considering how long he had been a communicant, and honestly all the time,) to go on without scruple; not presuming to give him Baptism, which now seemed to be superseded by the long and frequent use of this other Sacrament. The case was very particular, and the resolution, probably, wise and just: both the scruple on one hand, and the determination on the other, (made with some hesitancy, and scarce satisfactory to the party,) show how acknowledged a principle of the Church it then was, that Baptism is ordinarily a most essential part of the qualification required for receiving the holy Communion. Confirmation besides, is highly expedient a, but Baptism is strictly necessary.

2. A competent knowledge of what the Communion means is another previous qualification. St. Paul teaches, that a person, coming to the Lord's table, should examine or approve himself, and that he should discern the Lord's body b: both which do suppose a competent knowledge of

2 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 9. But Timothy, afterwards Bishop of the same see, (about A. D. 380.) determined, that if a catechumen ignorantly should happen to receive the Communion, he should forthwith be buptized, pursuant to such call of God. Timoth. Alexandr. Can. I. Hard. p. 1192. tom. i.

See the Rubric at the end of our Order of Confirmation, and the Constitutions of Archbishop Peckham, A. D. 1281. Spelm. Concil. tom. ii. p. 331.

b 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29.