of St. John, the water, and the blood, and the Spirit, are one' and the same glorious purposes. : As it was with our fathers in the beginning, so it is now with us, and so it ever shall be, world without end: for they fed upon Christ, that is, they believed in Christ, they expected his day, they lived upon his promises, they lived by faith in him and the same meat and drink is set upon our tables and more than all this, as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, so he shall be the food of our souls in heaven, where they "who are accounted worthy, shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal supper of the Lamb;" concerning which blessedness, our blessed Saviour saith," Blessed is he that eateth bread in the kingdom of God:" for he hath appointed to his chosen ones, to eat and drink at his table in his kingdom: plainly teaching us, that by eating and drinking Christ, is meant in this world to live the life of the Spirit, and in the other world it is to live the life of glory: here we feed upon duty, and there we feed upon reward: our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrh, there it is mere and unmixed: but still it is called meat and drink, and still is meant grace and glory, the fruits of the Spirit and the joy of the Spirit; that is, by Christ we here live a spiritual life, and hereafter shall live a life eternal 8. Thus are sensible things the sacrament and representation of the spiritual and eternal", and spiritual things are the fulfillings of the sensible'. But the consequent of these things is this: that since Christ always was, is, and shall be, the food of the faithful, and is that bread which came down f Luke, xiv. 15. 8. Οἱ δὲ Θεὸν τιμῶντες ἀληθινὸν ἀέναόντε, Ζωὴν κληρονομήσουσ' αἰῶνος χρόνον, αὐτοὶ Sibyl. Erythr. Orac.-Luk. xxii. 30. Eå formâ quâ semper carnalia in figuram spiritualium antecedunt.— Tertul. de Baptis. Τὰ νοητὰ πληρώματα τῶν αἰσθητῶν· τὸ γὰρ φαγεῖν σύμβολόν ἐστι τροφῆς ψυχικῆς τρέφεται γὰρ ἡ ψυχὴ ἀναλήψει τῶν καλῶν καὶ πράξει τῶν κατορθωμάτων. — Phil. Al. In ratione sacrorum, par est animæ et corporis causa, nam plerumque, quæ non possunt circa animam fieri, fiunt circa corpus. Servius in illud Virgilii 'vittasque resolvit,' et lib. iv. 512. In sacris quæ exhiberi non poterunt, simnlabantur et erant pro veris.' from heaven: since we eat him here and shall eat him there, our eating both here and there is spiritual: only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of glorification, and our faith into charity, and, all the way, our souls live a new life by Christ, of which eating and drinking is the symbol and the sacrament. And this is not done to make this mystery obscure, but intelligible and easy. For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire, which to our flesh is most painful,—and the joys of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure, by meat and drink,-and the growth in grace, by the natural instruments of nutrition, and the work of the soul, by the ministries of the body, and the graces of God, by the blessings of nature: for these we know, and we know nothing else; and but by fantasms and ideas of what we see and feel, we understand nothing at all. Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our communion, that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in thè world and when he gives us his body and his blood, he does not fill our stomachs with good things: for of whatsoever goes in thither, it is affirmed by the apostle, that " God will destroy both it and them," but our hearts are to be replenished, and by receiving his Spirit we receive the best thing that God gives: not his lifeless body, but his flesh with life in it; that is, his doctrine and his Spirit to imprint it, so to beget a living faith, and a lively hope, that we may live, and live for ever. 4. St. John, having thus explicated this mystery in general, of our eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ, added nothing in particular concerning any sacraments, these being but particular instances of the general mystery and communion with Christ. But what is the advantage we receive by the sacraments, besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministries of faith, I thus account in general. The word and the Spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ, that is the ground of all. Now, because there are two great sermons of the Gospel, which are the sum total and abbreviature of the whole word of God, the great messages of the word incarnate, Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two sacraments, and assist those two sacraments, as he did the whole word of God, with the presence of his Spirit, that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards. 66 "Believe and repent," is the word in baptism, and there solemnly consigned: and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ: for faith as it is opposed to works, that is, the new covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old covenant of works, is the covenant of repentance: repentance is expressly included in the new covenant, but was not in the old: but by faith in Christ we are admitted to the pardon of our sins, if we repent and forsake them utterly. Now this is the word of faith; and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ, for this is that which the soul feeds on, this is that by which the just do live: and when, by the opera tion of the Holy Spirit, the waters are reformed to a divine nature or efficacy, the baptized are made clean, they are sanctified and presented pure and spotless unto God. This mystery St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed, that we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ, when we are in baptism incorporated into his body;" "we are baptized in the passion of our Lord;" so Tertul lian", to the same sense with that of St. Paul, we are buried with him by baptism into his death:" that is, by baptism are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death: the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are, in baptism, reached to us by the hand of God, by his Holy Spirit, and received by the hand of man, the ministry of a holy faith. So that it can, without difficulty, be understood that as in receiving the word, and the Spirit illuminating us in our first conversion, we do truly feed on the flesh, and drink the blood of Christ, who is the bread that came down from heaven; so we do it also, and do it much more in baptism, because in this, besides all that was before, there was superadded a rite of God's appointment. The difference is only this, that out of m Ad infantes apud Bedam. 66 Tingimur in passione Domini.-Tertul, lib. de Bapt. 'APTITUTOY TAY TOU Xgistõï wadeμáty, S. Cyril. vocat baptismum.- Catech. 11. the sherament, the Spirit operates with the word in the ministry of man; in baptism, the Spirit operates with the word in the ministry of God. For here God is the preacher, the sacrament is God's sign, and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son, that is, by the death of Christ into which we are baptized. And in the same divine method the word and the Spirit are ministered to us in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. For as in baptism, so here also there is a word proper to the ministry. "So often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye declare the Lord's death till he come." This, indeed, is a word of comfort. Christ died for our sins;' that is, our repentance which was consigned in baptism, shall be to purpose; we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb". This is verbum visibile;' the same word read to the eye and to the ear. Here the word of God is made our food, in a manner so near to our understanding, that our tongues and palates feel the metaphor and the sacramental signification: here faith is in triumph and exaltation: but as in all the other ministries evangelical, we eat Christ by faith, here we have faith also by eating Christ: thus eating and drinking is faith, it is faith in mystery, and faith in ceremony: it is faith in act, and faith in habit: it is exercised, and it is advanced: and, therefore, it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, with much eminency and advantage. The sum is this. Christ's body, his flesh and his blood, are, therefore, called our meat and our drink, because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us: so that it is mysterious, indeed, in the expression, but very proper and intelligible in the event, to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood, since by these it is that we have and preserve life. But because what Christ began in his incarnation, he finished in his body on the cross, and all: the whole progression of mysteries in his body, was still' an operatory of life and spiritual being to us,-the sacrament of the Lord's supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death, which was the consummation of our redemption P St. Aug. tom. vi. contra Faustum. lib. xix. c. 19. ét tom. ix. in Evang. by his body and blood, does contain in it a visible word, the word in symbol and visibility, and special manifestation. Consonant to which doctrine, the fathers, by an elegant expression, call the blessed sacrament, the extension of the incarnation.' So that here are two things highly to be remarked. 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken out of the sacrament, by the same he is taken in the sacrament: and by some ways here, more than there. 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the sacrament: the life and the spirit is believing greatly, and doing all the actions of that believing, direct and consequent. So that there are in this, two manducations, the sacramental, and the spiritual: that does but declare and exercise this; and of the sacramental manducation,-as it is alone, as it is a ceremony, as it does only consign or express the internal,-it is true to affirm, that it is only an act of obedience: but all the blessings and conjugations of joy, which come to a worthy communicant, proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ, which, as it is done out of the sacrament very well, so in it and with it, much better. For here being, as in baptism, a double significatory of the spirit, a word, and a sign of his own appointment, it is certain he will join in this ministration. Here we have bread and drink, flesh and blood, the word and the spirit, Christ in all his effects, and most gracious communications. This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery. Christians are spiritual men, faith is their mouth, and wisdom is their food, and believing is manducation, and Christ is their life, and truth is the air they breathe, and their bread is the word of God, and God's Spirit is their drink, and righteousness is their robe, and God's laws are their light, and the apostles are their salt, and Christ is to them all in all, for we must put on Christ, and we must eat Christ, and we must drink Christ: we must have him within us, and we must be in him: he is our vine, and we are his branches: he is a door, and by him we must enter: he is our shepherd, and we his sheep: Deus meus et omnia :' 'he is our God, and he is all things to us:' that is, plainly, he is our Redeemer, and he is our Lord: he is our Saviour and our |