means, among others, of feeding upon Chrift's body and blood, but a very peculiar and eminent means of exercising that faith in Chrift, and that regard to his atoning facrifice, to which these actions may be ascribed; fince that body and blood are there, in a peculiar manner, prefented to their minds, as the objects of their faith, by the bread and wine, which are the emblems thereof. The phraseology used in reference to the Lord's Supper, fo much resembles that of our Saviour, in his difcourfe with the Jews, that we may naturally understand it as expreffive of that fame fpiritual eating and drinking there intended. Christ says of the bread, This is my body, and of the wine, This is my blood. Moreover, he required his disciples not merely to behold them, but to take them, to eat the one and drink the other. It is doubtless true, (as Bishop Hoadly remarks) that the bread and wine are the memorials of the body and blood of Chrift, i. e. of his natural body and blood; but it does not therefore follow, that (as he maintains) it is improper to confider the receiving the bread and wine as the token of the mind's feeding by faith upon Chrift; receiving and rejoicing in the happy fruits of his incarnation and death. And indeed, without including this idea, there feems to be no propriety in the actions of eating and drinking. Bread and wine placed before our eyes, only to be looked at by us, would have been a lively memorial, or representation of Chrift's natural body and blood; and had nothing more than this been intended, the receiving these elements would have been unneceffary. But fince we are required to take and eat bread, which ftrengtheneth man's heart,' and is the staff of life; and to take and drink wine, which maketh glad the

heart of man,' and cheers his fpirits, being told that the one reprefents the body, and the other the blood of Chrift; and fince we are elsewhere affured, that unless we eat the fleth and drink the blood of

the

the son of man, we have no life in us, it is natural to confider this eating and drinking in the Lord's Supper, as a token and a means of our feeding fpiritually upon Chrift; of our deriving nourishment from him, for the life and joy of our fouls: which is very confiftent with confidering these elements as the memorials of his natural body ånd blood. The justice of this idea feems to be confirmed by the apoitle Paul's account of the matter: the bread which we break, is it not the communion [xovavia the communication, or joint participation] of the body of Christ? The cup of bleffing, which we blefs, is it not the communion [xorvona] of the blood of * Chrift?' In the Lord's Supper, while our bodies are fed with bread and wine, our fouls feed upon that which these elements represent, the body and blood of Chrift; we exercifé a believing regard to him as the life of our fouls, and by faith accept of the bleffings procured by his facrifice, whereby our fpiritual life is maintained, our ftrength increased, and our joy in the Lord promoted. The objection of Bp. Hoadly will here probably be urged, whofe words are thefe: "To fay that this communion is "the actual partaking of all the benefits of Chrift's "broken body and blood fhed, is not only to put "that upon one fingle act of obedience, which is,

by our bleffed Lord, made to depend upon the "whole fyftem of all virtues united; but has this peculiar abfurdity in it, that in this rite which "was inftituted for the remembrance of Chrift, it destroys that very notion of remembrance, which "is the effence of it. Its great defign is to call to "remembrance the death of Chrift, and what is

implied in this, to commemorate the benefits ac"cruing to Chriftians from it. To make it there"fore the actual partaking of these benefits, is alter

ing the nature of it, as much as the actual partaking of any thing is different from the remem

bering it. It is to fuppofe those benefits prefent "which are to be commemorated, &c.*"But I do not fuppofe, nor do I think that the affembly of divines in the answer referred to, p. 107, meant, or that our writers upon the fubject in general mean, that in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, believers do actually partake of all the benefits of Christ's death, fince this would imply many abfurdities; but only, that by the act of eating and drinking in this ordinance, they do, in a peculiar manner, teftify that believing regard to Chrift, to which all thofe bleffings are promised; that Chrift, by giving them the facramental bread and wine, gives them the pledges of his love, and exhibits to them his body. and blood as their food, the life of their fouls, in fuch a striking manner, as is calculated to confirm their faith and enliven their joy; and that in attending this rite, as far as they actually exercise that regard to Chrift, which may be called feeding upon him, they do actually partake of those bleffings which are connected with that regard to him, and which their circumstances at the time require, and render it fit for them to receive. Nor can I fee that this is at all inconfiftent with the primary idea of the defign of the Lord's Supper as a remembrance of Christ. Observe, it is not called a remembrance of his benefits, as the bishop will have it; they are not fpoken of by our Lord as to be commemorated; they are not to be confidered as having been, and as now ceafing to be, conferred; they are fuch as continue to be bestowed on believers, and will do fo to the end of time. And they are not all beftowed on fuch, immediately upon their faith in him; but out of Chrift's fulness, they continue to receive grace for grace; and the bleffings of his grace are ufually bestowed upon them in the attendance upon his inftitutions. So that thofe bleffings are not fo proHoadly's plain Account, p. 158.

r

perly

perly the objects of remembrance, as the fufferings of Chrift by which they were procured. And I cannot conceive any inconfiftency between the remembrance of Chrift's death, and the participation of thofe bleffings which are the happy confequences of it; much lefs that this last view of the Lord's Sup per is altering its very nature with as much reason might it be faid, that it would be inconfiftent with the primary defign of it as a remembrance of Chrift, to pray to God for the bestowment of any fpiritual bleffing, or to exercife love to our brethren, or any other christian grace. If at any time we might expect a larger communication of divine bleffings thari at others, one might naturally fuppofe it would be; when (as in the Lord's Supper) our faith has peculiar refpect to that bleffed Mediator by whom they were procured, and through whom they are be ftowed.

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I will conclude this part of my fubject, and this letter, with tranfcribing a paffage from Dr. Taylor's Treatife upon the Lord's Supper, from whence it will appear, that orthodox writers are not fingular in entertaining that view of the ordinance which has now been reprefented. And perhaps the fanction of fuch a name may lead fome of my readers to think there is not quite fo much fuperftition in this account of the matter, nor fuch an impropriety in my application of our Lord's difcourfe in the fixth of John, as they might otherwife have imagined.

The Doctor begins his fecond fection thus: "Hitherto, we have taken a general furvey of the *Lord's Supper; now we come to the provifion, which our Father hath fet before us in this fpiritual feaft, viz. bread and wine, reprefenting the body and blood of Chrift, which we are to eat and drink in remembrance of him, or with the atten"tion of our minds fixed upon him. Eating Chrift's "body, and drinking his blood, are doubtlefs to be * under

I 2

"understood figuratively; denoting, in an eafy and "familiar way, the improvement and comfort of

દ

the mind, by that which nourisheth and refresheth "the body." After having produced a variety of fcriptures, in which this metaphorical language occurs, and made fome remarks upon them, he goes on (p. 31.) thus: "It is from this plain and current "fense of fcripture, that we muft form our ideas of eating and drinking in the Supper of the Lord. "And this is quite fufficient to fupply the most clear "and fatisfactory notions of it. We there eat our "Teacher, who is the bread of life, by attending to "and receiving his heavenly inftructions. But whereas 86 we are commanded to eat our Lord's body, and to "drink his blood, this requireth fome further explica"tion, which we may take from John vi. There

our Lord faith (ver. 51.) I am the living bread, "&c. By this we understand, agreeably to the fcope "of the whole chapter, and to the fenfe of the whole "New Teftament, that Jefus Chrift came from God, "furnished with all divine wisdom and truth to in“struct mankind, &c.—And further, Chrift is that "living bread, as he hath given up, facrificed, his "flesh for the life of the world. By comparing "these four verses [54, 47, 40, 35] it evidently ap"pears, that eating Chrift's flesh and drinking his "blood, is the very fame as feeing him with atten❝tion and serious confideration, believing on him, or

having right conceptions concerning him, and "coming to him, or embracing his doctrine and obeying his inftructions; that is to fay, it is to have "fuch a knowledge of Chrift, fuch a due and deep perfuafion concerning the grace of God in him, "and concerning the truth and excellence of his "doctrine, as engages us with pleasure and thank"fulness, to follow him in all obedience to God, in "the practice of all that virtue and piety which he “hath taught and exemplified, both in his life and

5

"death,