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may naturally be confidered as a token, and as a means of communion with Chrift; of our believing, dutiful regard to him who gave himself for us, and of our partaking the bleffed fruits of his facrifice. That receiving Chrift" in the crament, which you call mystical, may easily be interpreted and vindicated by fuch paffages of fcripture as thefe, and indeed by many others in which the very expreffion is ufed*; but more particularly by fome which I fhail juft now have occafion to mention.

I fhall only observe here, that those views of the Lord's Supper, which have now been confidered, and to which you object, do not (as you fuppofe) occafion" a long train of awful ideas, to accompany "every thought about it, and a fuperftitious reve"rence for it," but, on the contrary, tend to give the Christian pleafing apprehenfions of it, and to encourage his cheerful approach to it.

There is another form of expreffion, commonly ufed in fpeaking of the benefits attending the Lord's Supper, which I wonder you have not excepted againft, and that is, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Chrift. You have, indeed, expreffed your difapprobation of that anfwer in the affembly's catechifm, in which a similar phrase occurs. This phrafeology I fhall now (as I promised, p. 20.) attempt to vindicate, as what I think expreffive of a very important part of the nature and benefit of the Lord's Supper. The words of the catechifm are,

his death is fhewed forth, and the worthy re❝ceivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and

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blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nou"rifhment and growth in grace."In order to explain this form of fpeaking, and maintain the propriety of it, give me leave, Sir, to remind you,

John i. 11. 12. Col. ii. 6. Heb. iii. 14, &c.

that

that the New Teftament continually speaks of believers as having fuch an intimate relation to, and dependance upon, the Lord Jesus Christ, as is expreffed in the strongeft terms language affords, and reprefented by the hi heft fimilitudes in the whole circle of nature. They are faid to be in Christ, and he in them; he is called their life, he animates their fouls as their fouls animate their bodies; and they are ipoken of as being one with him. See to this purpose the following texts of scripture. 'If any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature. Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. I live, yet not I, but Chrift that liveth in me. The glory which thou haft given me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and they in me, that they also may be one in us.' The fimilitudes used to exprefs this vital union with Christ, are fuch, as the relation of branches to the root, and of the members of the body to the head. • I am the vine (faith he himself) ye are the branches: As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. We are members of his body, of his flesh, and his bones.-That we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, even Chrift, from whom the whole body (fitly framed, and firmly united by the conjunction of the parts mutually fupplying one another, according to the refpective energy that operates in each) receiveth its encrease towards the completion of itself in love.'-—But there is another very strong and uncommon metaphor by which our Lord himfelf is pleafed to reprefent the dependance of believers upon him, for maintaining and perfecting the divine life in their fouls, which is taken from those natural actions on which the life of the body depends, eating and drinking. He fpeaks of himself as their food, and defcribes them as feeding upon his flesh and his blood, and as living there

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by, and enlarges upon the abfolute neceffity of thus living upon him. As his language is very remarkable, and as this figure of fpeech is frequently repeated in different forms, I will transcribe thofe paffages in the 8th chapter of John's gospel, wherein it occurs, omitting the intermediate words: 32. Ve

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rily verily I fay unto you, Mofes gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 35. I am the bread of life; he ⚫ that cometh to me fhall never hunger, he that believeth on me fhall never thirst. 48. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead; this is the bread which • cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat • thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he fhall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 53. Verily verily I fay unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the ton of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whofo eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raife him up at the laft day; for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my 'blood, dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath fent me, and I live by the Father, fo he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.'

Before I make ufe of this paffage for my particular purpose, I must beg leave to hint a little at the meaning of it. I can by no means think, that our Lord here refers only to the receiving his doctrine, or attending to his inftructions; for though there be many paffages in fcripture, in which divine instructions are reprefented as the food of the mind, and compared to delicious meat and drink, and teach

ers

ers are faid to feed their difciples; there is no text to be found (except in this discourse, of our Lord himfelf) in which the Teacher himself is called food, and we are required to eat his flesh and drink his blood. This appears a moft extravagant figure of fpeech, unparalleled in any writings human or divine, upon any other fuppofition, than that Chrift did not merely fuftain the office of a Teacher, but that he came to offer himself a facrifice unto God for the fins of the world; that by his incarnation and fufferings, particularly on the crofs, when his body was broken or wounded, and his blood was fhed, he procured fpiritual and everlafting benefits for all true believers; and that by eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, he intends, believing the efficacy of his atonement, by faith relying upon it, and accepting the glorious bleffings which are the confequences of it; particularly the free mercy of God to pardon fin, and the influences of the holy fpirit to purify the foul, and to transform it into the Saviour's own image. On this interpretation (but on no other) I can fee a propriety in the apoftle's allufion, 1 Cor. v. 7. 8. Chrift our paffover is facrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feaft, not with the old leaven, &c. In what fenfe does the apoftle fpeak of Chrift, as our paffover, facrificed for us, and of Chriftians, as keeping a feaft; unless, he intended to reprefent them as partaking of that facrifice which Christ offered, as exercifing a believing regard to that Lamb.

of God which taketh away the fins of the world,' of whom the pafchal lamb (which the Jews were required to eat) was the type? This they may in an especial manner be faid to do in the Lord's Supper which answers to the pafchal feaft under the law. This ordinance (which fome, indeed, think is particularly referred to in the above paffage) may properly be called a feast upon a facrifice, and therein, I now proceed to fhew, true believers eat the flesh,

and

and drink the blood of Chrift, in the fenfe in which he used that expreffion, in that difcourfe of his with the Jews, which I quoted above.

I am, indeed, firmly of opinion (for the reasons Bishop Hoadly fuggefts) that our Lord did not refer (at least principally) to this inftitution, in that difcourfe, but that is no reason why it may not be confidered in relation to it, and as expreffive of those acts of the mind, which are required in it, and thofe benefits, which are reprefented and conferred by it. There are many paffages in the New Teftament, in which the writers intended not the leaft reference to either of the positive inftitutions, which are of admirable ufe to give us right apprehenfions concerning the difpofitions of mind, with which they ought to be celebrated: fuch, for instance, you will allow to be thofe, which treat of repentance, as neceffary to baptifm, and of brotherly love, in doing good, forgiving injuries, &c. as requifite to a due attendance upon the Lord's Supper.

What, though (as Bishop Hoadly urges) eating Chrift's flesh, and drinking his blood, is expreffive of fuch a regard to Chrift, as is not peculiar to the Lord's Supper, and was required before it was inftituted, and would have been the duty of all, had there been no fuch ordinance? This is no juft objection to our application of this paffage. It is readily allowed, true Chriftians do feed by faith upon Chrift, before they come to his table, and at other times, and by other means; nay, even though (by reafon of fome unhappy mistake) they utterly neglect this. But it does by no means follow, that they do it not in this inftitution; for with as much reafon might it be faid, that the exercifes of brotherly love, of repentance, or even of faith in Chrift, and the thankful acknowledgment of his benefits, have no relation to this ordinance, because they are not peculiar to it. But the Lord's Supper feems to be, not merely one

means,

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