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N. 
 
A LETTER 
 
 TO THB 
 
 CONGREGATION OF St. JAMES' CHURCH, YORK, U. CANADA, 
 
 OCCASIONED' Bt 
 
 THE HON. JOHN ELMSLEY'S PUBLICATION. 
 
 OF THa 
 
 BISHOP OF STRASBOURG'S OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 ON THE 6TH CHAPTER OF St. JOHN'S GOSPEL. 
 
 BY JOHN STRACHAN, D. D. L. L. D. 
 
 Archdeacon Of" York. <S»c. «§<> 
 
 YORK: 
 
 PRINTED BY ROBERT STANTON. 
 
York, Ui'i-eu Canada, 1st Ja.mary 1834. 
 
 'JO THE CONGUEGATIUN OF Sr. JAMES' (JllUUClI. 
 
 Mv Ueau BiiETiiuriN : 
 
 After the Honorable John Elmslky roturned from E'liglaiid, 
 his attendance at Church, which had been usually very regular, 
 was observed to be unfrequent ; and after a little time altogether 
 ceased. Rumours were afloat that he had desened the Faith of his 
 Fathers, and conforn)ed to the Roman Catholic Church. As ho 
 had never spoken to me on the subject, I felt unwilling to notice 
 such rumours, although, to external appearnce, they were not with- 
 out foundation ; fur having known no instance of such conversion in 
 this Province, it seemed scaiccly credible, that a person who had 
 been carefully educated, to mature age, in the doctrines of the Pro- 
 testant Church, should have suddenly abandoned them, and attached 
 himself to the Roman Catholic pcrvsiujsion ; but yet there seemed 
 to bo ground for apprehension. Soujctimes I thought that my duty 
 required of me to call upon him, and expostulate with him on his 
 absence from public worship. At other times I considered that if 
 he were sincerely in doubt, he would luiike his dilficulties known to 
 me ; this I felt to be his duty, and what I was entitled to expect. 
 
 While thus conten)platiug the matter in my own mind, I re- 
 ceived from Mr. Elm.s]ey the following letter, with the Bishop of 
 Strasbourg's observations on the sixth Chapter of St. Juhn's Cospel : 
 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 York, OcronEu 7th, 133.3 
 
 " In enclosing you the copy of a pamphlet, the j)ublication of 
 which in this Country 1 have been at some pains and expense to 
 effect ; I trust you will pardon the liberty 1 take in begging for it 
 yuur most attentive consideration, in order to my being favored, 
 at your leisure, with your opinion of the important subject of its 
 pages, and also of the manner in which the argument is sustained. 
 
*' It is an extract from the work of a very able and pious Ca- 
 tholic Prelate, a brief memoir of whose life is prefixed to the work 
 by the London publisher. The view taken by the author, iu this 
 most essential point in controversy, between Catholics and Protes- 
 tants, is to me quite new. I have perused, I believe, every other 
 work to be found in the catalogue on this subject, before I fell in 
 with *.his, and I met with nothing which favored the Catholic doc- 
 trine any thing like it; and as I may safely say, I feel myself quite 
 unable to gainsay it, so I do not hesitate to say, that I have found 
 nothing in any of the Protestant writers, whose controversial works 
 I have perused, which throws the smallest difficulty upon it, or 
 establishes a single doubt of the soundness of the argument. 
 
 **Your reading must of course have been more and more various 
 than mine, and your judgment more matured ; I therefore come to 
 you, my dear Sir, as an enligtened teacher of that Sect in which I was 
 born and educated, and as a friend of my Parents, and I flatter my- 
 self of mine too, to afford me all the information you can supply on 
 so momentuous a subject. In the mean time, I will not conceal from 
 you my determinaton, that unless the subject of the Bishop's argu- 
 ment can be overthrown, I must« of necessity, no longer abstain 
 from receiving the Communion in that Church, where alone the 
 real presence of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the 
 Sacrament of the Eucharist, is acknowledged. t 
 
 "I remain, ' r < 
 
 •' My dear Sir, - 
 
 " Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "JOHN ELMSLEY." 
 
 York, 7th OcTpBEB, 1833. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 ** I have to ^-knowledge your letter of this day, enclosing a 
 pamphlet, of which you avow yourself the publisher. With the 
 distinguished Prelate's works, of which this pamphlet forms a very 
 small part, I have beea for some time acquainted, and readily admit 
 
sCa- 
 work 
 11 thia 
 rotes- 
 other 
 cU in 
 doc- 
 quite 
 bund 
 works 
 it, or 
 
 ti 
 
 that, next to Bossuet, it is the ablest apology for the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church liiat I havo yet seen. I am, nevertheless, astonished 
 that the Bishop^s exposition of the 6th Chapter of St. John should 
 hnvo nmdo so deep an impression on your mind, for no tenet of tho 
 Roman Catholic Church appears to mo so comi)Ietcly uiisciiplurnl, 
 and so extensively pernicious, ns that of transobstantiatioii, nor any 
 that has been more triumphantly refuted by ProtcstJint writers; 
 and had I been called upon to point out tlio weakest portion of tho 
 Bishop's ticatiso, I should have pointed to that which you havo 
 published. You must allow nio to premise, that tho very fact 
 of your having printed and disseminated this Pamphlot before 
 referriug to me, aflbrds me but small encouragement to enter upon 
 the subject of which it treats, as it evinces a strong predilection 
 on your part in favour of tho Bishop's reasoning; and when our 
 best Protestant writers, which you say you have read, havo failed 
 to convince, I daro not flatter myself with the hope of being 
 able to satisfy your scruplos, but since you havo called upon nio 
 as the ancient friend of your parents, and as one who takes a 
 lively interest in your eternal interest, to state my sentiments, I 
 will do my best to convey to your mind that sincere conviction of 
 the unsoundness of the Bishop's argument which pervades my own. 
 I must, however, bespeak your patience, as the preparation for 
 the opening of the Church, and other avocations press upon me at 
 present, and will prevent me for some weeks from giving that atten- 
 tion to the subject which its importance confessedly merits. 
 " I remain, 
 
 "My dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours, very sincerel}', 
 ' "JOHN STRACHAN." 
 
 The members of the Roman and English Catholic Churches, 
 both Clergy and Laity, have always lived on the most friendly 
 terms in Upper Canada, and will I trust continue to do so. The 
 former believed the field to be sufficiently large for their spiritual 
 labours, and therefore assiduously abstained from controversy. A 
 regard for the tranquillity of their flocks, and the variety and extent 
 
n 
 
 of llieir (liilicR, Jipiicnifd lo tliolatc this linu of coiidiicl to llic 
 C'lor(r> ; uiid tlioir sidiutiun iins hitherto uiriiidrd tlicin but littlo 
 Icisnro or convonirncc for polomicnl discussion. Hut now con- 
 verts, anxious to spread the strange light that has burst upon them, 
 nro not so easily restrained witliin the limits of a prudent discretion; 
 and tliorcfore Mr. Elnisloy thought it necessary, nsit would appear, 
 even before his final conversion, to labour fur the conversion of 
 oihois, by publishing an english translation of the Bishop of 
 Strasbourg's commentary on the sixth chapter of St. John. It 
 was, I freely confess, at the fust view pat a little mortifying lo 
 nie to see the son of two old and valued friends, /.calous and en- 
 lightened members of the Church of England, forsaking the faith 
 of his parents, and that of his uncle, one of the brightest pillars 
 of our Ecclesiastical establishment, and one of the most eminent 
 classical scholars in Europe. Yet so conscious was I that Mr. 
 Elmsley's defection would have no effect as an example, that had 
 lio been content with the silent possession of his novel opinions, 
 and 'lOt attempted to sprdad them among my people, I should not 
 have undertaken their refutation. The tenets held by the Roman 
 Catholii Church, and in which bho diflers from the truly Catholic 
 Church of England, have been so often, and I think so clearly 
 refuted, that Mr. Elmsley's adoption of them, v.hen considered in 
 all its bearings, carried with it, in n)y apprehension, no weight 
 whatever. He might therefore have ascribed infallibility to iho 
 Pope ; adopted transubstaniiation ; auricular confession ; indul- 
 gences ; invocation of the Saints; the adoration of the Cross, and 
 the worship of relics. Sec. 6cc. without any molestation from me, 
 for I should have considered it sufficient on proper occasions to 
 have marked my dissent from such o])inions, and to have shewn 
 on what ground our Church pronounces them unscriptural, and 
 holds them to have no foundation in truth or in the bible. His 
 letter and pamphlet, however, evidently assumed the nature of a 
 challenge, and deprived me of the power of remaining any longer 
 .silent. I must acknowledge that I was not a littlo astonished that 
 he should have embraced at once the doctrine of transubstaniiation, 
 
 V' 
 

 
 which protcstaiils justly consider tho most incrcdiblu of any hold 
 by thu Church of Roniu : a doctrine, us wc shull prove, unknown 
 to tho primitive Church, and without tho slightest counlentuico 
 from scripture. But it was perhaps still more astonishing that Mr. 
 Elinsloy's adoption of this touet should have been produced by the 
 Bishop of Strasbourg's observations on the sixth chapter uf St. 
 John, when it is recollected that many able divines, both ancient 
 and modern, are of opinion that it has no reference to th& L' d's 
 Supper, and is directly opposed to the doctrine of a real physical 
 presence of the body and blood of Christ iu the Eucharist. To 
 me these circumstances oiler some hope ; for if so slight an argu- 
 ment as can be drawn from a disputed explanation of a passiige of 
 scripture, whose application to the subject is doubted, has unsettled 
 or carried conviction to his mind, when the utter weakness of that 
 argument is shewn, he may return to the true fuld. Perhaps Mr. 
 Elmsley has been bewildered by the words "real presence," for 
 he seems to think, from the lust paragraph of his letter, that the 
 real presence of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in tho 
 Sacrament of the Eucharist is only acknowledged in the Church of 
 Rome ; — in this he is greatly mistaken, for the doctrine of the real 
 presence in (he Lord's Supper ii held by all Protestant Churches, 
 and particularly by the Church of England : not indeed us tho 
 Church of Rome holds it, a corporal or physical presence of 
 Christ's natural flesh and blood ; for that Church maintains, in 
 contradiction to reason, scripture, antiquity and tho evidence of 
 our senses, that the substance of the bread and wine is changed 
 into the very substance of Christ's personal body and blood ; but 
 the Church of England believes that the bread and wine become 
 holy and the spiritual body and blood of Christ, and therefore tho 
 real presence which she maintains is spiritual — not carnal ; for 
 Christ's body is in heaven, not to return till he come with his 
 Mighty Angels to judge the world. How then, to adopt the language 
 of one of the most eminent Prelates of our Church, can his body 
 be supposed to come down to twenty thousand different Churches 
 to be divided, chewed, swallowed and digested : the presence 
 therefore for which we contend is the spiritUHl presence of Christ; 
 
♦ t 
 
 T I 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 a presence by which wo abiJe in Christ and Christ nbideth in us, 
 to the obtaining of eternal life, und such presence is fitly named a 
 "real presence," fur it is not feigned, but true und faithful. 
 
 IVIy first intention was strictly to confine myself to the Bishop 
 of Strasbour^h's r v unontary on our Saviour's remarkable discourse 
 m the Synagogue oi Capernaum, but finding it perverse and erro- 
 neous, I thought it better to eniargo my plan, and to give such an 
 account of the Sacrament of the Lord's Sujijicr, as should not only 
 contain a full answer to the Bishop, but tend to instruct und edify 
 my congregation, and all Christians wiio should peruse my work on 
 one of tho most important parts of our holy religion. Having littlo 
 relish for controversy myself, I thought many were of the same 
 taste, and I have therefore divided my subject into three sections: — 
 First. Observations on tho Euclwirist. Second. A short History 
 and Refutation of Transubstantiation. Third, Remarks on the 
 Sixth Chapter of St. John's Gospel. — Tho first section I feel war- 
 ranted in recommending to the perusal of all who are desirous of 
 forming a just conception of the Lord's Supper. The second and 
 third sections contain less of the spirit of controversy, than is usual 
 in such publications, and are relieved by many remarks which per- 
 haps to most readers will be new and striking. 
 
 The numerous calls upon my time have delayed the work 
 some weeks longer than 1 intended, or rather tho delay has been 
 occasioned by enlarging the plan. I have consulted all the authors 
 on the subject within my reach; nor have I vscrupled to mix up their 
 observations with my own, and even to use their words, for littlo 
 absolutely new can be said upon a subject which, from its great dig- 
 nity and importance, has employed the pens of the principal Chris- 
 tian writers, since the days of the Apostles. My great aim has been 
 lucid arrangement and perspicuous statement, and if I have suc- 
 ceeded, the touching beauty and value of the ordinance of which I 
 treat, will make my performance useful to the Christian inquirer. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 My dear Brethren, . * , 
 
 Your affectionate Pastor, 
 
 JOHN STRACHAN. 
 

 in us, 
 nied a 
 
 SECTION Ut. 
 
 OBSEUVATIOIfS ON THE EUC1IARI8T. 
 
 St. Mattiikw, xxvi Chap. 20, 27, 28, ^ 29th, verscfi. 
 
 " And as tlioy wero outin((, Jcsun touk bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and 
 gave it to the DiscipUta, and said, Tukc, cut ; thiti is my body. 
 
 *' And ho took Iho cup, and guvo thunkn, and gave it to thcin, sayinK, Drink ys 
 all of it ; 
 
 " For this is my blood of the now tostamont, wliich is shed for many for tho r«* 
 mission of bins. 
 
 " lint 1 5<fty unto you, I will not drink henceforth of tliis fruit of the vino, until 
 that day when I drink it new with you in my futhci's kin^fdom." 
 
 St. Mark, xiv Chap. 22, 23, 24, ^ 25tii verses. 
 
 " And an they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brako it, and gavo 
 to them, and said, Take, cat ; this is my body. 
 
 " And ho took tho cup ; and whjn ho hud givon thanks, ho gave it to them : 
 and they uU drank of it. 
 
 "And ho said unto thorn, This is my blood of tho new testament, which is shed 
 for many. 
 
 " Verily, I say unto you, I will drink no moro ef tho fruit of tho vine, until that 
 day that I driidi it new in tho kingdom of God." 
 
 St. Luke, xxii Chop. 19th S^ 20th, verses. 
 
 " And ho took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gavo unto them, say- 
 ing. This is my body wliich is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 
 
 " Likewise also tho cup after supper, saying. This cup is the now testament in 
 ray blood, which is shed for you." 
 
 ' " • ''* L Corinthians, xi Chap. 23, 24, 25 ^ 26th, versoB. 
 
 " For I have received of the Lord that which olso I delivered unto you. That 
 tho Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread : 
 
 " And when ho had given tlianks, ho brake it, and said, Take, cat ; this is my 
 body, which is brokon for you : this do in remembrance of me. 
 
 " After the same manner also ho took the cup, when he had supped, saying, 
 This cup is tho new testament in my blood ; this do ye, as often as ye drink it, in 
 remembrance of me. 
 
 " For as often as ye cat tliis bread, and drink tliis cup, yc do show the Lord's 
 death till ho come." 
 
 These are the Scriptures which are considered as more espe- 
 cially instituting the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or as 
 having an immediate reference to that most solemn ordinance. 
 It will be seen from their perusal, that the history of its first 
 

 
 1 1 
 
 I 
 
 i !S 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 celebration is given by llie first tliree Evangelists in their several 
 Gospels, and al :>o by St. Paul in iiis first Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, in nearly the same words. St. John, who wrote his Gos- 
 pel long after the others, and rather to supply what was wanting 
 than to repeat what was already written, omits this as a thing 
 perfectly itndci' stood by the Church. "'"' ' -' 
 
 It is not a little pleasing to remark, that there is scarcely 
 any variation in the several accounts of the institution ; that 
 given by St, Paul is perhaps the most full and impressive, and 
 was communicated to him by revelation of Jesus Christ, for 
 tllw Apostle conierred not with flesh and blood concerning the 
 truths he was to deliver, and yet the harmony between him and 
 the Holy Evangelists in every particular, is strikingly perfect : 
 hence, we may perceive the care taken by its Divine Author, 
 that its history should be clearly recorded, and its importance 
 unequivocally made known. In illustrating the nature and in- 
 tention of the institution, as they appear from the several parts 
 of the record, we shall aim only at simplicity and plainness, for 
 no eloquence can adorn a rile so beautiful, or language add 
 sublimity to an ordinance so holy. This seems not only profit- 
 able but necessary, before we proceed to examine the grounds 
 of difference tvhicli unhappily divide the Roman and Anglican 
 Churches on the subject of this Sacrament. , . . . < - ., . 
 
 The first thing that commands our attention is the person 
 who instituted this Sacrament — the Lord Jcsus Christ, — on the 
 evening of the day which preceded his death, Jesus met his 
 disciples in an upper hall in Jerur alem, that he might eat with 
 them the Paschal Lamb ; and knowing that he had performed 
 all things appointed for him by God, and was on the ensuing 
 day to complete his obedience by suffering a public and igno- 
 minious death, he sat down with the twelve : the Messiah so 
 long expected, whose coming had been the occasion of so much 
 
11 
 
 add 
 
 preparation and of so many splendid promises to the cliosen 
 people, was now about to complete the work given him to do 
 by his Heavenly Father : the friends who were associated with 
 him on this interesting occasion, were those humble men whom 
 he iiad selected as the companions of his hitherto limited la- 
 bours, but wlio were about to assume the character of the 
 greatest of all the instructors that have ever been chosen by 
 Divine Providence for the communication of spiritual blessings 
 to mankind. 
 
 Our Lord was to partake for the last time of the Paschal 
 ceremony, before that holy service which had been kept sacred 
 with such peculiar feelings by the Jews in all their generations 
 should have its meaning accomplished in the event, which it was 
 appointed to prefigure. For the atonement represented before 
 the crucifixion in the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, bore the 
 most exact resemblance to the sacrifice of Christ that the con- 
 nexion of the event, with its type, might be so evident as to be 
 easily recognised and admitted; but the same close lesemblance 
 not being necessary m a symbol of commemoration, that sym- 
 bol was changed to prevent any confusion between the old rite 
 v/hich was prophetic, and the new one which was commemora- 
 tive and sacramental : between the Jewish sacrifice which iiad 
 no independent and inherent efficacy, and the Christian sacrifice 
 which possessed it. Nor ought we to be ignorant of the inti- 
 mate connection between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, 
 which no where presents itself more forcibly than in the striking 
 resemblance of the Passover to the Eucharist, — both were of 
 divine appointment, and both were sacraments. The Passover 
 was a memorial of a great deliverance from temporal bondage 
 and the Eucharist is a memorial of a far greater deliverance 
 from spiritual bondage: the death of Christ was prefigured by 
 the Passover before it was accomplished, and the Eucharist 
 
IS 
 
 il 
 
 represents or figures that precious death now past, both are 
 federal rites between God and man. . ' 
 
 As no person was admitted to the feast of the Passover 
 before he was ciicumciscd, so no one is to partake of the Eucha- 
 rist befce he has been bnptizcd. Neglecting or despising the 
 Passover, was considered so great a crime as to render the 
 offender liable to be cut oft' from Israel, and in like manner to 
 despise or neglect the Holy Coiinnunion, is in pffect to be cut 
 off from Ciiristinnity. Tiie Passover was to continue while 
 the Jewish law was in force, and the Eucharist shall abide as 
 long as Chiisiianit}'. Such is (he striking correspondence be- 
 tween the Lord's Supper and the feast of the Passovor. To 
 Christians, tiicrrfore, as well as to the Jews, there is a night to 
 be much observed unto the Lord in ail generations, and to both, 
 the manner of observing the night is appointed with thanks- 
 giving : — '* Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, and has de- 
 livered our souls from death." 
 
 This sitting down of Jesus with the twelve was singularly 
 impressive, for he knew that he was soon to pass through his 
 last and most difficult trial; that already one of his disciples 
 had consented to betray him; that the rest would desert him in 
 his distress; th.nt all would be offended, because of him that 
 night, for the shepherd was to be smitten, and the sheep of the 
 flock to be scattered abroad : with these thoughts labouring in 
 his mind, he resolved to have one meeting of love with those 
 whom his Father had given him, and whom he loved unto the 
 end. While therefore they were eating, he took bread and 
 blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said: 
 •* Take eat ; this is my body, which is broken for you:" in like 
 manner, after supper, he took the cup, saying : "This is the 
 New Testament in my blood, shed for the remission of the s'ns 
 of many; drink ye all of it : and this do ye in remembrance of 
 me." 
 
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 has de- 
 
 Thus like a father on his death bed, surrounded by hif 
 children, he sat among his disciples for the last time ; and with 
 a view of impressing them strongly with the awful imoortance 
 of the events which were about to happen, and by a natural 
 reference to his body and blood, to which the bread and wine 
 incidently on the table before him bore some resemblance, he 
 made them the symbols of the most important event which was 
 ever to happen in the annals of time. By this simple and beau- 
 tiful rite, his death and its precious benefits were to be cc.nme- 
 morated to all coming times, and eventually over the vvhole face 
 of the- habitable globe. By the bread and wine the forgivenea 
 of sins, through the atonement made by our Saviour's suffer- 
 ings and death, and also the spiritual assistance which he pro- 
 mises to all believers are set forlh; the bread is broken, and the 
 wine poured out to denote our Saviour dying for us ; the bread 
 is also eaten and the wine drunk, to denote the spiritual strength 
 and refreshment and life which we derive from our Lord's mys- 
 terious presence and union with us : now this glorious event, 
 which saved a perishing world, is not to be commemorated in 
 sackcloth and ashes, in tears and lamentations, stripes and pen- 
 ance ; nor are we required to give our first born for our trans- 
 gression, the fruit of our body for the sin of our soul ; neither 
 are we desired to go forth on pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre; 
 nothing harsh, nothing burthensome, nolhing melancholy is 
 required from us. We are only commanded lo meet in holy 
 fellowship around the table of our Lord, to personate the Holy 
 Apostles, and to receive the sacred elements whith ho formerly 
 distributed to those well tried servants, when lie !^i?t them for 
 the last time before his d?aih. We kneel together wiui the kind 
 affections of Christian brethren, of ineu wl.o pnrtnke of the 
 isame misfortune, and who look forward to the srme deliver- 
 ance. Our Saviour has done so much, that we are desired to 
 
14 
 
 do little more, thai) with railhful and honest hearts to look fur- 
 ward to the completion of his work. He asks nothing that is 
 grievous or distnseful to our feelings, he only bids us remember 
 him, and the manner in which we are to remember him is not 
 with downcast and sorrowful countenances, but with glad hearts, 
 and by a social and friendly ceremony to attend to his injunc- 
 tion, *' This do in remembrance of me." 
 * ' i' '' "' ' ' " I , ■ 
 
 . ,- Although Ciirist instituted both Sacraments, he ofllciated 
 only in the Holy Supper, a distinction which, considering the 
 importance which he attached to both, cannot be supposed acci- 
 dental. It is indeed a distinction perceptible in several of his 
 parables, and especially in his first recorded miracle of Cana 
 of Galilee, when he changed water into wine ; the water, when 
 made wine, was then and not till then placed in the hands of the 
 governor of the feast, to be dispensed to the guests. It should 
 indeed seem that our Lord foresaw the notion so erroneous, that 
 would creep into the Church respecting the nature of the bread 
 and wine administered in the Eucharist, and therefore to render 
 its absurdit}' the more palpable, he officiated himself. Another 
 important reason evinces the wisdom of our Saviour's being 
 the Priest at the institution of the Lord's Supper, and this 
 arises from the nature of the things signified by the two Sacra- 
 ments. They are as it were an epitome'^of the Christian scheme. 
 Baptism represents the agency of the Comforter; the Eucha- 
 rist the agency of the Son. The admission into his Church 
 was not the work of our Lord himself, but of his disciples^ 
 filled with the Holy Ghost, and the ceremony of that admission 
 was baptism : but the redemption of diose so admitted was the 
 work of Christ, and of this the Eucharist is a symbolical pledge. 
 Hence this institution exhibits, by a significant action, the cha- 
 racteristic doctrine of the Christian faith ; that the death of the 
 author, which seemed to be the completion of the rage of his 
 
15 
 
 enemies, was a voluntary sacrifice, so eiltcacious as to supersede 
 the necessity of every other, and that his blood was shed for the 
 remission of sins. His disciples by partaking of this rite, pub- 
 lish an event most interesting to all the nations of the world, 
 and far from being ashamed of the sufferings of their Master, 
 they glory in his cross. 
 
 Our Redeemer might have exalted any creature by his 
 appointment to be to his Church a memorial of his body and 
 blood, but there arc some obvious and aff*ecting reasons for 
 the selection of bread and wine. They are pure elements 
 which his followers would be able to procure in every age, and 
 the Church for the consecration of thciu to the purpose, would 
 partake of the same symbols in every place. The loaf and tho 
 cup, which among the Jews the master of the feast at the close 
 of supper distributed among the guests, in token of peace and 
 good will, stood before our Lord, and were with instructive 
 felicity converted into the elements of that Sacrament in which 
 we receive from him the assurance of his favour and love.— 
 Wine, God hath provided to make glad the heart of man, and 
 bread hath he ordained to be the sta^ of our subsistance, and 
 most significantly do they represent that refreshment of the 
 soul and nourishment unto eternal life, which those find in the 
 body and blood of Christ who spiritually receive them in this 
 H0I3' Supper. In the use of these symbols, the faithful are 
 impressively taught their joint communion in the mercies of 
 Jhrist, and thejr union with each other in him. For though 
 there be many grains reaped perhaps from divers fields, yet is 
 there in the same loaf but one bread ; and though there are 
 many grapes gathered perhaps from several vineyards, yet is 
 there in the same cup but one wine. The cup of blessing which 
 we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ.^ the 
 bread which we break, is it not the comnunion of the Body of 
 
16 
 
 Christ f For we being many, are one bread and one body, for 
 we are all partakers of tliat one bread. The bread and wine 
 were in themselves nothing more than means of corporeal 
 strength and refreshment. Not till our Lord had blessed did 
 he break the bread, not till he had broken the bread and taken 
 the cup, and by his word and benediction hallowed them to 
 this purpose, were they in any sense his body and blood. It 
 was his consecration and offering of them as symbolical of his 
 sacrifice of himself, which gave .them their sacred significance, 
 and converted them into the means of spiritual sustenance : 
 and of bread and wine thus consecrated and made holy sym- 
 bols, according to the ministry of the word by Divine appoint- 
 ment, and offered to God after the same manner, must we par- 
 take when we desire to receive this Sacrament, for otherwise 
 we cannot be said to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. 
 The necessary authority Christ left with his Apostles and their 
 successors forever, and to them, and such as they shall autho- 
 rize, does it exclusively appertain on behalf of their Master, to 
 bless the cup and to break the bread : for, in the act of breaking 
 the bread, is shadowed forth the breaking of our Lord's Body, 
 who is the sustenance of the faithful, and in the pouring out of 
 the wine is represented the shedding of his blood, as the liba- 
 tion which propitiates the Father, and washes away the sins of 
 the world. 
 
 Hence the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper has been deem- 
 ed by the pious a feast upon a sacrifice, a spiritual feeding 
 upon the body broken and blood shed of Christ, under the sym- 
 bols or signs of bread and wiiie ; that is, partaking of the 
 atonement made by our Lord's death and sufferings, and a per- 
 fecting and strengthening our mystical union with his glorified 
 body* Though first enjoined on the Apostles, the participation 
 in this Sacrament was made obligatory on all Christians, in 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I r 
 
17 
 
 remembrance o( Christ, in the fulfilmont of the most important 
 part of his history. The Apu5;tles best understood its nature 
 and origin, for tiiey were chosen to bear testimony to the event 
 which the Lord's S"pper was to call to remembrance, and they 
 not only admiiled, but earnestly invited the converts to partake 
 of the Sacrement. It was for many ages thought to be altoge- 
 ther inconsistent with a Christian profession to be otherwise 
 than a regular communicant. Indeed the great eagerness of 
 the Christians of the primitive Church to participate in this 
 sacred mystery, bore the freshness of the deep impression made 
 upon their hearts by the preaching of our Lord and his disci- 
 ples. They felt that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was 
 not of man but of God, that it was appointed by their Saviour 
 whom they were bound to love, and whom they had pledged 
 themselves in baptism to serve and obey. The injunction laid 
 upon tlie Apostles by Christ, to do what he had done, to lake 
 the bread and the cup, and to bless them, and distribute them 
 as a memorial of his death and passion, necessarily implied that 
 there should be recipienis. But who were to receive his body 
 and his blood but the members of the Cliurch ? who were to 
 unite in this solemn communication before God of the sacrifice 
 of the death of Christ r but those who hope by that death to 
 obtain remission of sins ; who were to eat at the table of the 
 Lord of this feast upon a sacrifice, but those who fell that they 
 had need of the pledges of God's favour and goodness towards 
 them. Thus was the institution understood by the first Chris- 
 tians, who cannot be supposed to have been ignorant of the 
 design of the ordinance or intention of their Lord. Therefore 
 on the first day of the week in all their assemblies, the celebra- 
 tion of the Supper was the great act of their public worship, 
 and every person who had been grafted into the body of the 
 
18 
 
 Ciiurcii, aiid hud noi furl'ei(ed ins privileges by iiotoriuus ini- 
 quity, was considered as not only having a right, but as being 
 under an indispensable obligation to join in this Holy Eucharist. 
 
 When our Saviour said " do this in remembrance of me," 
 he suggests the simple but peculiarly interesting idea on wliich 
 the celebration of the Sacrament is founded. It is doing as it 
 were over again what our Lord did with hU disciples at the last 
 interview which he had with tliem before his agony, his appre- 
 hension and crui:ifixion. It h not enough to remember him as 
 a great and good man, a wise instructor, an admirable teacher 
 while he lived, and that he was received up into celestial glory 
 when he died : nor is it sufficient to remember Christ as an 
 eminent prophet and ambassador from Heaven, a worker of 
 miracles, and leading a most holy life, nor to remember him as 
 our Head Lord and Master, to whom we owe the greatest vene- 
 ration : nor is it enough to remember Christ as higher than the 
 angers, but we are to remember him as our Divine Lord, as 
 God with us, as the true God ; our Almighty Saviour and Deli- 
 verer, the only begotten of the Father over all, God blessed 
 forever. To make this fundamental conception the more vivid, 
 we must call to remembrance the last Supper, and place our- 
 selves in the upper chamber in Jerusalem, where it was eaten. 
 The scene then before us, when viewed in all its circumstances, 
 cannot be paralelled among all the meetings that ever took 
 place upon earth : and whether we consider the party — the 
 august rites which it was to terminate — the transcendently im- 
 important serea in the history of mankind, which it was to intro- 
 duce — the great sufferings that were to fall upon the head of 
 him who presided, or the worderful display of affection and 
 humility, and of all holy submission and sublime fortitude and 
 Calmness that characterized his proceedings, there is obviously 
 none among all the meetings that ever occurred among men, at 
 
 '-i 
 
 \ru 
 
19 
 
 DUS im- 
 
 is being 
 icharist. 
 
 of me," 
 n which 
 ing as it 
 
 the last 
 3 appre- 
 * him as 
 
 teacher 
 al glory 
 5t as an 
 orker of 
 r him as 
 2st vene- 
 than the 
 l<ord, as 
 ind Deli- 
 1 blessed 
 jre vivid, 
 lace our- 
 as eaten, 
 nstances, 
 ;ver took 
 irty — the 
 ently im- 
 
 to intro- 
 
 head of 
 tion and 
 itude and 
 jbviously 
 I men, at 
 
 vwhich every human iieart must feel so natural and urdent a 
 wish, tlia! it also had been so favonred by God, as to have made 
 one of the company that then met together. He who presided 
 had an equal regard for all his friends to the end of time ; his 
 mind embraced the interests of all the individuals that should in 
 all future ages and in e*'ery country of the world be sincerely 
 disposed to obey his commandments. The little flock that then 
 sat round him, and had followed him in life, were but represen- 
 tatives of that august and innumerable company whom he is to 
 conduct into his heavenly kingdom. And wishing that his 
 friends in all ages, and over the whole face of the earth, should 
 enjoy an honor and privilege of the same kind with that which 
 his personal presence then conferred on his more immediate 
 friends, he said *• this do in remembrance of me." He there- 
 fore who now ohjciates at this solemnity, as it is administered in 
 our Churches, represents for the time, that Divine Teacher who 
 sat down with the twelve before he suffered death. Those who 
 partake of it also personate for the occasion those chosen 
 Iriends whom Jesus had admitted to his intimate followship ; 
 and they take their places at the table as the Apostles once took 
 their seats at the Paschal table, where Jesus himself condes- 
 cended to give them this parting token of his dying love. No 
 mode of commemorating the death of their Master could have 
 been selected more simple in itself or so well adapted by every 
 affecting association to recall the events it was meant to suggest. 
 It is obvious, beautiful and touching ; it only requires our Lord's 
 disciples of all ages to meet together, as he met with his friends 
 on the last evening of his intercourse with them in time. That 
 they should repeat that last Supper at which he gave them his 
 parting instructions; and should thus have their imaginations 
 and affections recalled to the recollection of all the love with- 
 which he loved his own, of all the condescension with which he 
 
cy 
 
 1»0 
 
 
 had honoured them in his familiar converse, and of the divine 
 pity wliich induced him at last to avoid not even the horrors of 
 an ij^nominous death, that he might accomplisli the worii which 
 his Father had given him to do. 
 
 The association of our Saviour's memory and sublime ex- 
 ample, with some solemn circumstance to guard against the 
 sloth and negligence incident to the weakness of human nature, 
 evinces the wisdom of the institution of the Holy Supper. As 
 often as Christians meet at the altar, they bind themselves afresh 
 to their Divine Master's service ; whether learned or unlearned, 
 we are all animal as well as rational creatures. Sensible objects 
 more forcibly adect us and make deeper impressions than words, 
 and the more of our senses that are moved in the same manner 
 and in the same view, the stronger and more durable must the 
 impression be which is made upon the mind. Now this is pre- 
 cisely what happens in the Lord's Supper. That which the 
 ear admits by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus and his 
 saving death, that likewise the eye sees, and the. taste as it were 
 feels, so that we may say in some manner with the Apostle, 
 " that which we have heard with our ears, which we have seen 
 with our eyes, and which our hands have bandied — that we be- 
 lieve and confess concerning Jesus, the author of life and hap- 
 piness." At the Holy Supper, therefore, all are in the fairest 
 harmony, the thoughts and senses are turned on one and the 
 same subject, the absent is in a manner present, and the unseen 
 visible. How greatly this conduces to renew the memory of 
 Christ, and with how much force and vivacity it operates on 
 our minds, is matter of experience to every communicant. In 
 this view, therefore, the institution of the Holy Supper, and 
 its continued use, have been, and will ever be, the surest meanc 
 of preserving the memory of Christ, his death and resurrection, 
 amongst mankind. 
 
ii 
 
 ': 
 
 But the last Supper goes still farther than a repetition 
 by his followers in all their generations of their affectionate 
 remembrance of his spotless character and dying love ; for the 
 very elements distributed by our Saviour were made emble- 
 matic or symbolical of the great interest which they had in the 
 sacrifice which he made. He therefore directed them to con- 
 sider the bread which he had blessed as a symbol of his body, 
 which was about to be broken, and the wine as an emblem of 
 his blood, which was soon to be shed for the transgressions of 
 men. But not satisfied with such a consecration as conferred 
 only a figurative and symbolical character on the elements of 
 bread and wine, and which the words of our Saviour, pro- 
 nounced by the Apostles, were only intended to confer, the 
 Roman Church, by giving a new sense to Christ^ expressions 
 — This is my body ; this is my blood — has given rise to the 
 afflicting and portentous error of transubstantiation, by which 
 the true meaning and striking beauty of the ceremony have 
 been long hid from many professing christians : and thus the 
 simplest and most interesting and instructive of all the religious 
 rites that have ever been given t.o the world ; the one most 
 founded on natural feelings, and destined to give satisfaction 
 to universally experienced wants, has been covered with mystery 
 which has made it in the Church of Rome the most perplexed 
 and mystical of all the ceremosies that have ever darkened the 
 imaginations, or lessened the mutual good will of the human 
 race. But most fortunately that Church stands almost singu- 
 lar in her erroneous apprehension of this ordinance ; and the 
 general distribution of the Scriptures, and rapid dissemination 
 of knowledge, is enlightening her children on this subject, as 
 well as many others, and restoring among all the followers 
 of the cross, that affecting and spiritual conception of the Sa- 
 crament which was entertained by the whole Christian Family 
 
 it 
 
^fwp 
 
 22 
 
 for inoic than clji^ltt liuudred years after the usccusiou of our 
 Saviuur. ^ 
 
 Indeed thU, and every other error that may have attaclied 
 itself to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, will vanish before 
 the honest interpretation of our Saviour's own words, and a 
 reference to the spiritual nature of his blessed religion. When 
 sitting with his disciples our Lord may be supposed to have said, 
 this is the last supper that 1 shall eat with you before I suffer 
 the things that have been foretold of me in the Law and the 
 Prophets, and the Psalms. An awful scene of darkness is ap- 
 proaching, through the utmost horrors of which I am to pass ; 
 and i shall soon bow my head in death, amidst the insults of men, 
 and the apparent desertion of God : yet all this is but working 
 out the glorious designs of my heavenly Father, for the wel- 
 fare of mankind ; for my death is henceforth to be viewed by 
 all generations as the sacrifice with which God is well pleased, 
 and for the sake of which, forgiveueness of sin and eternal hope 
 are to become the portion of all that have been given to me. As 
 often, therefore, as ye shall eat bread and drink wine, made by 
 consecration in my name symbols of my body and blood, ye 
 do shew forth my death in an acceptable and effectual manner. 
 Ye shew it forth to the Father as your plea for pardon, grace, 
 and immortality ; ye shew it forth as gratefully impressed upon 
 your hearts, and as an inducement to me to forgive and preserve 
 my Church, having redeemed it with my blood : ye do shew 
 it forth to the world as the subject of your faith, of which you 
 are not ashamed, as the only ground of your reliance for par- 
 don and immortality, and through which alone, man can ob- 
 tain everlasting life: ye shew it forth to each other as a source 
 and occasion of common joy, of mutual consolation and en- 
 couragement, of tender friendship and reciprocal good services : 
 ye slicw it forth to your own souls as the purchase of your 
 
23 
 
 redemption, as ilie sure foundation of liopc and pence, as Hir 
 sacrifice by which your sins are taken away, nnd yc are restokc:' 
 to tlie love and favour of God. It is, tlicreforc, obvious, tiiat the 
 intent and meaning of this Holy Rite is n commemoration of tho 
 death of Christ, in all its aspects and benefits both here and here- 
 after; a commemoration in which we declare ourselves his 
 diciples, believing in and relying upon the redemption and 
 mercies that are In him ; a commemoration, desiring especially 
 to be fed with that bread of Life which came down from 
 Heaven ; to eat the flesh and drink the bloud of the Son of 
 Man, that we may have eternal life abiding in us. The ordi- 
 nance of the Lord's Supper, in whatever aspect it is honestly 
 viewed, is found to produce (he same beautiful and interesting 
 results, namely — a devout recollection of the death of Christ, 
 as the grand <\nd central event in the sublime oeconomy, by 
 which the covenant of reconciliation between God and Man is 
 sealed; and the promise of forgiveness and eternal life is now 
 made freely, and in the name of Christ, to all who believe in 
 
 him and obey his laws. 
 
 ..-.•■'■ . ■ . ■ ^. ' ■ ■ ' 
 
 The adaptation of this sacrnmcnt to the condition and 
 illumination of all the varieties of men, who may ever partake 
 of it, is exceedingly striking. The simplest and most humble 
 of mankind in respect to intellectual attainments, is in a con- 
 dition to understand its import and to feel its beauty ; and, 
 perhaps, the simplest understandings and best conditioned 
 hearts are better adapted to receive the full impression of the 
 solemnity than those of greater expansion of thought, but of 
 less simplicity of moral feeling ; and yet, this rite opens the 
 most glorious Held of contemplation, even to the most en- 
 lightened of mankind, by the recollections which the symboli- 
 cal character of the elements employed in the service, was 
 
24 
 
 nKfant to awaken. This, said the Redeemer, is my body 
 which is broken for you, and this cup is the new testament 
 in m3' blood, shed for the remission of the sins of many. All 
 the spiritual blessing's of the new covenant seem thus, in the 
 simple elements of bread and wine, to be set before the view 
 of the communicant; all the grand scheme of the Divine oeco- 
 nomy, and all the glorious consequences which its provisions 
 are intended to effect for the moral regeneration, the intellectual 
 and religious cdture, and the ^nal forgiveness and salvation of 
 the human race. It is a service worthy of having been insti- 
 tuted by Divine Wisdom itself, adapted to the intellectual con- 
 dition of all orders nf worshippers, and fitted at once to in- 
 terest the hearts of the most simple, zvA to employ with an 
 exhaustiess fund of ever expanding treasures, the intellect and 
 imagination, and most refined sentiments of those who have 
 attained or shall ever attain to the utmost possible reach of 
 human perfection. Indeed, the higher beings delight to look 
 into this mystery, and in its study, the finest and loftiest spirits 
 that have graced and enlightened humanity, have evinced their 
 affinity to those of Angels, by finding it a favorite subject of 
 devout contemplation ; to think lightly therefore, of this ser- 
 vice, or to regard it because of its symbolical character as 
 fitted only for those who live rather by sight than failh shews 
 the greatest presumption, for while by this character it is made 
 interesting to the hearts, and level to the imagination of the 
 lowliest; it offers objects of thought on which the most im- 
 proved and expanded intellect that has ever adf»rned humanity, 
 may continue to expatiate with increasing advantage. Thus is 
 the Divine Wisdom of our Lord most 'beautifully pointed 
 out in this ordinance ; for, it is so ordered, as not only to be 
 suited t3 the infinitely varied condition of those, who in all 
 ages and countries, shall ever partake of it, but so as to stand 
 
25 
 
 for ever an evidence of the Divine foresight of him, by whom 
 it was thus consecrated for the use of .nen. 
 
 The sacramental character of the Lord's Supper is of 
 the greatest importance; it is an oath of fidlelity taken to our 
 Divine Master, as a soldier in ancient times, bound himself by 
 an oath, to be true to his Prince or Commaiid«!r ; it is an oath, 
 not indeed, taken in words, but by the holiest of all symbols, 
 namely — the holding in our hands, and partaking of tiie sym- 
 bols of the body and blood of our Redeemer, that we will be 
 true to his service ; that we will avoid all known sin, practice 
 all known duty, take the example of our Lord as the model 
 of our lives, and endeavour in all things, to obey the pure and 
 charitable precepts which he has given us. Here, we have 
 another beautiful adaptation of the solemnity, to the wants and 
 welfare of men ; for it is of great moment that there should be 
 times when a man may recall his thoughts from their wander- 
 ings, and solemnly devote himself to the service of that Being 
 who has given him his place in life, and made him capable of 
 offering unto him a reasonable service; and what time so 
 proper for this solemn vow ; what service so likely to impress 
 it upon ones heart, and to give it every awful and touching 
 sanction, as that in which we thank God for his great mercy. 
 In sending his Son to be a partaker of our nature, and to 
 die for our sins, in which we appear as supplicants for that 
 pardon, which we all feel ourselves to need, and humbly hope, 
 through Christ, for that eternal life, which is not denied for 
 his sake, to any that come to him with true purpose of heart. 
 
 The Supper, says the Evangelist, being ended, and Jesus 
 knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, 
 and that he was come from God, and went to God, he riseth 
 from Supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel 
 
■■ 
 
 26 
 
 and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a bason, 
 and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with 
 the towel nith which he was girded. So after he had washed 
 their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down again, 
 he said unto them : know ye what I have done to you ? Ye 
 call me Lord and Master ; and ye say well, for so I am. If I, 
 then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also 
 oriG^ht to wash one another's feet : for I have given you an 
 example, that ye should do as I have done to you. The inti- 
 mate communion and fellowship taught by this incident, ought 
 to prevail among all those who partake of the solemnity, and 
 are united in its performance with their Divine Master: because 
 it is of the greatest value. They pledge themselves to kindly 
 feelings and good offices to each other ; and as all are r.nited, 
 the rich and poor, the wise and ignorant, great and low, meet 
 at the same ordinance, eat the same bread and drink of the 
 same cup, to remind them that all distinctions are for the time 
 lost in the recollection of higher and more interesting relations, 
 and that consequently the same feelings of good will ought to 
 be carried into all the scenes of familiar and active life. In 
 this Sacrament we- commemorate :he love of God manifested 
 through Christ, in forgiving the offences of men, proclaiming 
 free pardon to all who bear the sinfulness of this our human 
 nature. Hence the duty of universal pity and charity to the 
 human race, flows from the ceremony, and from our prepara- 
 tion for it, with peculiar effect to every human heart. At such 
 times we feel inclined to forgive our enemies, and to be recon- 
 ciled to those whom we imagine to have done us wrong : and 
 indeed such is the sanctifying power of the solemnity, that the 
 most untutored niin.], while engaged in its performance, must 
 feel that one o^'the niost inconsistent of all things would be the 
 provoking or indulging enmity against any iiuman oeing. 
 
27 
 
 Now it is evidently of great moment, iliat there should be 
 seasons when the duty of mutual forgiveness ; of being recon- 
 ciled to enemies ; of silencing every angry passion in our 
 bosoms, and of indulging the sublime and purifying feeling 
 cf love to the whole human race, should be conscientiously 
 performed by every one of us ; and what service so likely to 
 dispose the heart to perform this duty as that in which we 
 appear before God to thank him for the pardon of our manifold 
 sins and offences, and to commemorate his boundless pity and 
 truly divine love in sending his bon in the likeness of man, 
 that through him we might have strong consolation and good 
 hope, through grace. 
 
 The Eucharist is distinguished in a very remarkable 
 manner from the more solemn ceremonies of ancient times, by 
 its wonderful simplicity and easiness of performance. This 
 characteristic, which to vulgar eyes seems to place it below the 
 more splendid ceremonial of Jewish and Heathen worship, fits 
 it for many of the most valuable purposes, and confers upon 
 it superior excellence and beauty ; it rests upon the kindest 
 affections the most holy recollections ; it is a repetition of 
 Christ's last Supper with his chosen friends ; a devout com- 
 memoration of his death. Nor is it less distinguished from the 
 pompous services of other times, by the ex * of its duration. 
 All other ceremonies terminate with the nations which have 
 adopted them ; but the last Supper is intended to continue as 
 long as the world, and not to give place to any other service. 
 Nor is it less distinguished from the more remarkable cere- 
 monies of all other nations, by the intended universality of its 
 adoption among men ;— for it is not only to last while time en- 
 dures, but with the Gospel itself it is destined to be diffused among 
 all nations, and thus to bpcome in time, what by its nature it is 
 fitted to be — the grand festival of the human race. And 
 
M 
 
 this it is more especially calculated to be from the precious 
 and universally felt nature of the blessings it commemorates, 
 and the wants it professes to supply. It is a thanksgiving for 
 pardon of sin ; for divine pity manifested to a sinful race of 
 beings ; for good news published from heaven to earth ; for 
 the blessed hope of everlasting life. Now these are the greatest 
 of all conceivable blessings, and those for which the hearts of 
 all the children of men have ever felt the most deep seated and 
 obiding wish. 
 
 The beauty and excellence of the Eucharistical service 
 will appear in a most interesting light from the farther conside- 
 ration, that it is rather one of pure and humble feeling, of good 
 intention, nnd of charitable thoughts and moving recollections, 
 than of profound knowledge, or of any of the more valued 
 qualifications towards which the ambition of men is often 
 erroneously directed : it seeks rather to promote the best state 
 of the feelings of men, or set their hearts right, than to aug- 
 ment their intellectual wealth ; and the most acceptable wor- 
 shipper is not the man who is best acquainted with all the 
 mysteries of the service, or who has formed to himself the 
 justest and most affecting estimate of its nature, but the roan 
 in every rank and in every degree of culture, who approaches 
 it with the most sincere sense of his own frailties ; the truest 
 gratitude for divine mercy; the most determined pursuit of all 
 holiness, and the most fervent chai ity and good will to all who 
 bear the same human nature. 
 
 Tltese ditVerent and striking characteristics, as well as the 
 nature and object of the institution, prove that altiiough con- 
 ttned to the twelve or its first celebration, it was designed to 
 be a perpetual ordinance of the Church, and to become the 
 privilege of her children. All. therefore, who siand related 
 
29 
 
 to Christ as the disciples did ; all who look for salvation by hi* 
 
 death, and who after the way of his appointment have been 
 grafted into his Church ; all to whom the Saviour has been 
 manifested as Lord and Christ — are called upon to partake of 
 
 the Holy Eucharist. In the primitive Church, every adult 
 christian who had not been set aside for his unworlhiness, wai 
 a frequent communicant ; — indeed the Church itself invites all 
 luch as shall be religiously and devoutly disposed : for the com- 
 mand of our Lord is— drink ^e all of it ; and who that looks 
 
 ' for salvation by the blood of Christ, can abstain from the grate- 
 ful commemoration of his death. If there be among christian! 
 one duty which may be raised above another, when all rest 
 upon the same authority of their Lord, it is that of observing 
 with proper afiections the rite which he hath ordained for the 
 perpetual commemoration of his death, as the sacrifice for sin : 
 a sacrifice without which we could never have had any certain 
 assurance of forgiveness : for he was not a man merely, but 
 was also one who, being in the form of God, " thought it not 
 robbery to be equal with God, yet, made himself of no repu- 
 tation, and took upon him the form of a serjvant, and was made 
 in the Iw^eness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, 
 he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even 
 the death of the cross." In this point of view, the general 
 and frequent attendance upon the Last Supper, is well calcu- 
 lated to make upon our minds impressions of deep regret for 
 our sins, and hearty resoluii^/.3 of amendment. 
 
 The Lord's Supper suggests in a most emphatic manner, 
 our Saviour's second coming, to which the faithful look for- 
 ward, when all his promises will be completed, and those 
 whom he approves, will be made happy with him for ever. The 
 very form of the Sacrament justifies St. Paul's explanation j 
 that it shews forth the Lord's death, in the belief, that he will 
 
30 
 
 come again in tlic gl6ry of his Faliier, to judge the World. 
 He will no longer wander over an obscure part of the earth, a 
 poor and neglected stranger, scorned by the wicked, and 
 scarcely acknowledged by any of the good, sufTering all the 
 misfortunes incident to human life, and finally enduring the 
 punishment of a criminal ; but he will appear sitting on the 
 right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven, 
 and every kindred, and tongue, and nation, shall be gathered 
 before him. If we determine therefore, to be good and faith- 
 ful servants, we are well assured that our Master has the power 
 as well as the will, to reward us, and grateful ought we 'to be, 
 that our Saviour, by the institution of this Sacrament, has given 
 us a solemn opportunity of frequently calling to mind the 
 great leading maxim of the Christian life ; that we are 
 strangers in a foreign land, travellers through a scene of 
 danger, combatants in a serious warfare, and that we must fix 
 our eyes on our true country, and bear up with faith and hope. 
 
 At no time has the devout Christian so clear an impression 
 of the Divinity of our Saviour, as in this the most solemn act 
 of religious worship, in which he can engage. He feels that 
 Jesus is that Divide person which in so many places he declares 
 himself to be. The Divine person whom the Prophets foretold 
 and the Apostles taught, was the Son of the highest; Immanuel, 
 God with us; God manifest in the fiesh, the true God and eter- 
 nal life; a proper object of religious worship to men and an- 
 gels; possessed of all the perfections, maintaining all the func- 
 tions, land taking part in all the operations of Deity. But 
 rapturous emotions, or any preternatural manifestations of 
 Divine love, will not be looked for by sober and faithful Chris- 
 tians. Yet they know and feel that blessings of a most sub- 
 stantial and most satisfying kind will not fail to accompany a 
 becoming preparation for this Sacrament, and to follow the 
 
31 
 
 vows riiey have taken. They read in Scripture, that from the 
 
 participation of tliis holy supper, they may justly expect that 
 
 their views of the Divine economy nnd of tlie purpose of Christ's 
 
 assuming human nature, shall be extended and brightened ; that 
 
 their resolutions .of new obedience shall be confirmed and 
 
 realized; that their love to the whole human family shall be 
 
 encreased; and that the assurance of blessed immortality shall 
 
 be gradually advanced to a joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 Surely these are blessings of the most precious and truest kind, 
 
 and we are authorised by Christ, without presumption, to believe 
 
 that they will be conferred upon every sincere communicant : 
 
 Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed, therefore let us keep the 
 
 feast; he was the true sacrifice, the Paschal Lamb, by whose 
 
 blood we obtain remission of our sins, are sanctified and saved. 
 
 Therefore, the memory of this precious 3acrifice, and of all the 
 
 blessings which flow from it, is to be observed by a feast fre« 
 
 quently to be repeated by all Christians to the second advent. 
 
 Then shall our Saviour's power shine forth over all flesh in 
 
 its meridian glory, when the mystery of God shall be finished, 
 
 and when we shall see and feel our interest in the glory of him, 
 
 who is the bond of union between things in heaven and things 
 
 on earth. < ' '^ - '■' ''- * 
 
 It is manifest that in coming to the Lord's Supper, the 
 communicant should have a clear and satisfactory conception 
 of the nature, the object and value of the institution; he should 
 consider it as the primitive Christians undoubtedly did, a true 
 and proper sacrifice, and indeed the noblest we are capable of 
 oflering, for it calls upon us to give alms and oblations to the 
 poor, the sacrifice of prayer from a pure heart : the sacrifice of 
 praise and thanksgiving to God the Father, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; the sacrifice of a penitent and contrite heart; 
 the sacrifice of ourselves, our souls and bodies; and the sacri- 
 
32 
 
 * :: 
 
 I 
 
 fice of faith and hope and self humiliation, in commemorat- 
 ing the grand sacrifice made by our Redeemer, and resting 
 entirely on it as our atonement. In sucli a service, and so 
 viewed, the heart and the aiTeclions must be right: wc feel the 
 sinfulness of our own nature, and are aware of the love of God, 
 in sending Jesus Christ h's Son to be a propitiation for our 
 sins, and we are induced to accept with gratitude the ofiers of 
 pardon, which are made in the Gospel through Jesus Christ, 
 to those who sincerely repent of their iniquities. Such views 
 and considerations naturally induce us to break off every unholy 
 habit, to resolve to live in obedience to God's holy laws for the 
 time to come, and cherish a spirit of love to the whole human 
 family, and consequently be willing to be reconciled to any with 
 whom we are living in enmity. To profit by this Sacrament, 
 we must prepare ourselves by continued and earnest prayer, 
 that God may command his blessing from on high, and that his 
 Spirit may prepare us for doing in an acceptable manner this 
 honourable and solemn service. We must qualify ourselves 
 by knowledge of the Scriptures : faith, repentance, love and 
 new obedience, and the means appointed fur obtaining the 
 requisite qualifications are, retirement, serious self examination, 
 reading the Book of Revelation, humble prayer for the sanc- 
 tifying and sirengthoning influences* of the Holy Spirit: and 
 all these should rather be habitual than occasional, for the sin- 
 cere Christian is always prepared to come to the table of the 
 Lord and is ever ready to confess, and desirous to forsake his 
 sins: I^e rests entirely on the merits of tlte Redeemer, and gra- 
 titude warms his bosom at every remembrance of his love. 
 
 But let no true disciple of tne Lord Jesus Christ keep 
 back from this holy ordinance, from mistaken notions of the 
 measure and degree of preparation which it becomes him to 
 possess, in order to engage in it with profit and acceptance. 
 
t^3 
 
 The cumint^ to the rjord's Supper U us much the duty as it is 
 the privilege of the sincere Christian, and none such ought on 
 slight grounds to exclude himself from this ordinance. It h 
 appointed by that Being whom we acknowledge and are bound 
 to love, as our Saviour whom we reverence, as the Lord of all 
 things whom we have confessed as our master and instructor, 
 and have pledged ourselves in our baptismal covenant, to serve 
 and obey: it is a positive institution of that Saviour, in a con- 
 formity to whose will, safety and happiness, improvement and 
 final approbation, will always bo found. Great indeed are the 
 inducements and powerful itie reasons which should bring all 
 the followers of the Lamb to his holy table, nor ought any to 
 cherish excuses for so fatal on omission. Are they conscious 
 of sin f Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, who 
 turn unto him with penitent hearts and lively faith. Are they 
 deficient in repentance and faith ? — but will they ever escape 
 from this sad stale of bondage, if they deny themselves 
 the appointed means of grace, and refuse to receive ihc Re- 
 deemer in his veiled presence at his holy table ? This is a 
 direct act of disobedience added to their iniquities, and how 
 shall they under such circumstances approach him in the un- 
 veiled display of his glory, when lie cometh in judgment? 
 Are they scandalized because they see many going to the Sup- 
 per of the Lord f who seem altogether unworthy. This U 
 indeed afilicting and humiliating, but the unworthiness of others 
 can never pollute the ordinance to us. Judas, the basest of 
 men, was present at the first celebration of the Supper, and 
 hence we learn that duties which others prostittue or perform 
 insincerely, we are not on that account to neglect. Arc any 
 deterred trom the fear that they may not subsequently live up 
 to their obligations.'* This maybe humble, but it implies a 
 forgetfulness of the baptismal covenant, which imposes the same 
 
34 
 
 obligations, the same faith and duties : nor should it be forgot- 
 ten, that when our exertions are faithful, God's grace is sufli- 
 cient for us, and that when we are weak, then he is strong. 
 And let no Christians think that because he ihat receiveth the 
 Sacrament unworthily, eateth and drinketh his own condemna- 
 tion, that therefore he that receiveth it not hath chosen the better 
 and safer part, for as those are condemned who come not to 
 the Lord's Supper with a due preparation of mind, so are they 
 condemned who willingly refuse to come forward. Some are 
 perhaps deterred from the striking observation of St. Paul, 
 *<That he who eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and 
 drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.'* 
 Now by 'damnation" is not here meant, as many suppose, 
 everlasting destruction, but the immediate disapprobation, the 
 displeasure of the most High, which displeasure is mani- 
 fested as the Apostle states, by visiting unworthy communicants 
 with temporal judgments, in order to their final salvation : at 
 the same time, it were to be wished that the word damnation 
 had been rendered condemnation, as it ought to have been, and 
 as it actually has been in a subsequent verse of the same chap- 
 ter. Moreover, the Apostle is here addressing himself to the 
 Corinthians, who had fallen into an irreverent and in some 
 cases a profane manner of celebrating the Lord's Supper. — 
 Against this irreverence, St. Paul with great propriety employs 
 the most severe reprehension: but his solemn sentence will not 
 light upon those who qualify themselves in a becoming manner 
 for receiving this Sacrament. And let it also be remembered, 
 that although it is desirable, that all who come to the altar 
 should come with happy feelings and glowing affections, fully 
 prepared to admire the beauty of the Lord, to relish the provi- 
 sions of his love, and with joyful lips to sing his praise : yet 
 there may be true principle, where there is not perfection, real 
 
tk*) 
 
 It! 
 
 i 
 
 faith where there is not strunu; faith, a warm iicart towards the 
 Saviour, wiiiic the eye tliat looks to him is dimmed with Icarii, 
 and the hand trembles that lays hold of the hem of his garment. 
 The altar is provided with encouragement, as well ns nourish- 
 ment, and is spread not more for those who tire going on the 
 way rejoicing, than for those who mourn in Zion; for every 
 case a Divine supply is prepared. Let our faith be only in 
 lively exercise, and it will be found that there is no want in the 
 Christian experience for which the love of the Saviour has not 
 made n suitable provision. 
 
 The benefits to be derived from a worthy participation in 
 the Eucharist, have been in a great measure already antici- 
 pated ; and indeed if we think ourselves bound either in duty 
 or policy to promote our greatest happiness, to establish a title 
 to the blessings of this life and that which is to come, we can- 
 not more effectually do so, than after we have examined our- 
 selves, by eating of that bread and drinking of that cup : for 
 in so doing, we arc admitted into the privilege of entering into 
 a state of reconciliation with God, whom we have in so many 
 ways offended by the breach of our former vows and promises : 
 God the Father engaging to pardon and forgive us ; God the 
 Son to continue his intercession for us ; and God the Holy 
 Ghost to quicken and assist us with his heavenly influences; 
 and the whole ever blessed Trinity to conduct us to the king- 
 dom of glory ; in this manner is our condition in the world 
 sanctified, so that whether we are poor or rich, sick or in health, 
 all things will certainly work together for the best, and God 
 himself will choose for us, who not only knows better than we 
 ourselves do what is most for our benefit, but likewise is more 
 affectionate and constant in the procuring it for us. 
 
 The Eucharist is a sacrificial feast, instituted in memory 
 of Christ's death, and conveys, as the Church expresses it, au 
 
inward and ipiritiial grace, and all the benefili at wliicli a sacri- 
 fice arrived: ai pardon, favour and thanksgiving. It imparts 
 to us the benefits of asinofiering; namely, atonement and for* 
 giveness, expressed in the words, " This is my body given for 
 the remission of sins," and restores to us the power of receiv 
 ing every cummunication of Divine grace necessary to our 
 future and eternal salvation : it farther includes the benefits of 
 a peace ofiering, expressed in the words, " Take eat, this is my 
 body," clearly intimating that by the nature of the ordinance 
 we are placed in a state of acceptance with God : it is moreover 
 a federal rite, for in drinking the blocd of the new covenant, 
 we obviously apply to ourselves all the precious benefits pro. 
 cured by that covenant, by which we have justification, peace 
 and the gift of grace ; that is, sanctification, in truth all the 
 fruits of the spirit. So just is the account of the Lord's Sup- 
 per given by our Church: — "The Sacrament of the Lord's 
 *' Supper is not a badge or token of a Christian man's profcs- 
 *' sion, but rather a certain and sure witness and efiectual sign 
 *' of grace, and God's good will towards us, by which he doth 
 ** work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also 
 '* strengthen and confirm our faith in him." 
 
 It will be seen from the remarks already made, how inte- 
 resting, how obligatory, how holy and significant, how proper 
 and useful, this Sacrament of the Supper is : and yet a leading 
 cause of its neglect is a thoughtlessness as to its true nature 
 and importance. Maiiv persons never seriously consider it as 
 the true and proper a\;t of Christian worship : as an ordinance, 
 which by their baptismal vows they arc solemnly pledged to 
 observe and keep as a Sacrament, instituted for the whole body 
 of the Church, which no member can neglect without great 
 detriment to his spiritual life. 
 
37 
 
 Tbey have never reflected that thii ordinance wai not 
 made for a few, but for all the followers of '^hriit, and they 
 allow themielvei to think, that because they are unfit, it is inno- 
 cent if not meritorious to abstain from this Sacrament. They 
 forget that this unfitness proclaims aloud the degeneracy of 
 their character, and the peril of their condition. Their un- 
 worthiness to appear at this heavenly banquet ought to be a 
 new motive to urge them to make their peace and effect their 
 reconciliation with God ; to seek the wedding garment of holi- 
 ness and righteousness, that they may thus be meet partaken 
 of these holy mysteries : it is the duty of all real Christians to 
 approach the table of the Lord, in order to seal their covenant 
 with God ; so long as tbey know and acknowledge that they 
 are utterly unfit for this sublime duty and privilege of the chil- 
 dren of God ; they confess themselves his enemies, and are in 
 danger of being everlastingly excluded from the Divine pre- 
 sence : he that is unfit to come to the Lord's Supper, is unfit 
 for death, unfit for judgment, and unfit for heaven. 
 
 Let no person however suppose, that they ought lightly 
 to come forward and give an uameaning attendance at the altar 
 of the Lord : if they are blasphemous, slanderers, unclean, 
 malicious, or living in the habitual breach of any of the com- 
 mandments, let them repent sincerely of their sins before 
 they come to that holy table : but to the young, I would speak 
 the words of encouragement, — come with holy boldness to your 
 father's table ; nor would I speak harshly to those who feel a 
 conscious disqualification that for a season keeps them back ; 
 the scruples of a tender coLScience require the kindest treat- 
 ment, as they indicate a state of mind not inaccessible to warn- 
 ing and entreaty. Let such place themselves on the ground 
 on which alone sinners can stand ; confess therhselves unwor- 
 thy, and pray that their iniquity may be taken away ; let,them 
 
30 
 
 plead what Christ hath done to take away sin : dwell with con- 
 fidence on his n.erits, i^ righteous life, his atoning death, his 
 triumphant resurrection — his perpetual advocacy ; and coming 
 thus to God through Christ, they may dismiss all their fears of 
 being rejected : he will receive them graciously, he will love 
 them Aeely, he will place them among his children, aud number 
 them among his jewels : henceforth they will draw, with joy, 
 water out of the well of salvation ; with enlargement of mind 
 wiirthey join themselves to their fellow disciples, to profess a 
 faith and love, no longer strangers to their bosoms, and with 
 them look Cy, ward to a place at the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb in the sanctuary ^bove. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST. 
 
 According to the Church of Englatid. According to the Church of Home. 
 
 " The Supper of the Lord is not only 
 " a sign of the love that Christians ought 
 " to have among themselves one to ano- 
 " ther ; but rather is a Sacrament i>f our 
 '• redemption by Christ's death ; inso- 
 " much that to such as rightly, worthily 
 " and with faith receive the same, the 
 " bread which we break, is a partaking 
 " of the body of Christ ; and likewise 
 " the cup of blessing is a partaking of 
 " the blood of Christ. 
 
 " Transubstantiation (or the change 
 " of the substance of bread and wine) 
 " in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be 
 " proved by holy writ ; but is repugnant 
 " to the plain words of Scziptiirc, over- 
 " throweth tlie nature ©f a Sacrament, 
 " and hath given occasion to many su- 
 " perstitions. 
 
 " The body of Christ is given, taken 
 '* and eaten in the Supper, only after an 
 " heavenly and spiritual manner. And 
 " the mean whereby the body of Christ 
 " is received, and eaten in the Supper, 
 " is faith. 
 
 " The Sacrament of the Lord's Sr.p- 
 " per was not by Christ's ordinance 
 " reserved, carried about, lifted up or 
 " worshipped." 
 
 '28t/» .trticle of Religion. 
 
 " I do likewise profess, that in the 
 •' Mass there is offered a ttuo, proper 
 " and propitiatory sacrifice for the livmc 
 " and the dead ; and that the body and 
 " blood, together with the soul and divi- 
 " nity of our Lord Jesus Christ, aro 
 " truly, really and substantially in the 
 " most Holy Sacrament of the Lord's 
 " Supper; and that the whole substanco 
 " of the bread is turned into the body, 
 " and the whole substance of the wine is 
 " turned into the blood, which change 
 " the Catholic Church calls TiansuD- 
 " stantiation. 
 
 " I do also profc 39, that whole and 
 " entire Christ, and a true Sacrament, 
 " is received under one kind only." 
 
 \7th if ISth Articles of the Creed, esta- 
 blished by Pope Pious the Fourth, and the 
 Council of irent. 
 
 On referring to the Gospels, we find that our Lord, at the insti- 
 tution of the Eucharist, did three things : — First. He took the 
 bread and the ci'p of tlie Jewish Paschal Supper, and separated 
 and consecrated them, making them the representative figures, 
 symbols or substiiutos of his body and blood. Second. He 
 
40 
 
 odered them in sacrifice to God, and by these pledges volun 
 tarily gave or offered to God liis body and blood as a sacrifice 
 upon the cross. Third. He blessed them, that they might 
 become his body and blood, not in bare figure or representa- 
 tion only, as they were made by his separation of them before, 
 but in efficacy and life-giving virtue: and as such he gave 
 them, with these words, which are the ground of our faith and 
 hope: •' This is my body which is given for you," "this is tny 
 blood which is shed for you." After Christ our eternal High 
 Priest had performed his own oblation of himself once offered, 
 thai one all sufficient sacritice, which gave virtue to all the rest 
 before, as well as after his appearing, he authorized and com- 
 manded his Apostles, and in them all their successors in the 
 Christian Priesthood, to do as he had done, although not 'e- 
 the same end : for what he did was in order to his actual death 
 of inexhaustible merit, but what we do is in order to comme- 
 morate and receive the mercies and blessings oC it ; to perpetuate 
 under the figures or reprasentations, which he had appointed 
 the memorial o/ his death and sacrifice ; to plead his merits 
 with the Father, and to obtain all the benefits which by his 
 death he purchased for mankind, pardon, grace and eternal 
 glory: "Do this" he said, " in remembrance of me." 
 
 The most essential part of the £uch;t.rist is the symbolical 
 use of bread and wine, which. Christ ordained for our instruc- 
 tion, and the form of words with which he taught us to accom- 
 pany it. Now a corruption in its celebration may take place 
 iii two ways ; first, by omitting any essential part ; or second, 
 by appending to it circumstances inconsistent with its true cha- 
 racter : of both these kinds of corruption the primitive Church 
 was wholly guiltless, as most evidently appears from the ac- 
 counts handed down of the manner they adopted in its celebra- 
 tion. The Bishop or Priest first gave thanks to God for all 
 
41 
 
 lin 
 
 his mercies, especially for those of creation and redemption ; 
 then to shew the authority by which he was acting, and his 
 obedience to the commands of Christ, he recited the words of 
 the institution of the Holy Sacrament which he was celebrating : 
 in doing this, he took the bread into his hands, and brake it, 
 to represent the body of Christ ; the cup also of wine, to repre- 
 sent the blood; — over the bread and the cup, he repeated 
 Christ's powerful words : *' This is my body," " this is my 
 blood ;" the elements being thus made the symbols or repre- 
 sentations of Christ's crucified body and blood, were offered to 
 God as the great an J acceptable sacrifice of the Christian 
 Church. The Bishop or Priest continued his prayer, and 
 intreated the Almighty Father to send upon the bread and wine 
 the Holy Spirit to sanctify and bless them, and to make them 
 Christ's spiritual life-giving body in power and virtue, that to 
 all the faithful they might be effectual to all spiritual purposes. 
 The officiating Bishop or Priest then received the Eucharist in 
 both kinds himself, and proceeded to deliver it in both kinds to 
 the people. In .Liese days the utmost simplicity prevailed ; to 
 have reserved any part of the Eucharist for the Ministers alone, 
 or for any one privileged class of believers, would have been 
 to manifest a violation of that great principle of equality recog- 
 nized by the Gospel, that in the sight of God there is no respect 
 of persons. The communion of the body and blood of Christ 
 was de. .led a privilege of the most precious kind, to which 
 every convert was entitled ; and so far was the Church from 
 vhrowing any impediment in the way, that she earnestly and 
 affectionately invited all her members to partake of this holy 
 Sacrament ; and it was long thought to be inconsistent with 
 the Christian profession, to be otherwise than a regular com- 
 municant. 
 
42 
 
 Nearly fifty of tlie ntost ancient Liturgies have been col- 
 lected, among which we find one, which has been attributed to 
 St. James, our Lord*s brother, and which was assuredly con- 
 stantly used in the very first age in the Church of Jerusalem. 
 This Liturgy may be justly considered one of the most prpci- 
 ous monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity, and its strict con- 
 formity with the account given by St. Cyril of his service, is a 
 demonstrative proof tiiat it has come down to us in all its origi- 
 nal purity and simplicity. Now, however much these numerous 
 Liturgies difier in other things, they agree with that of St. 
 James, and with :^^h other in their manner of consecrating 
 the elements, and . leir distribution : the consecration is 
 solemnized by the three steps already noticed. 
 
 1st. The words of our Saviour's institution, containing 
 the Priest's authority to celebrate the solemn office, and his 
 setting apart the elements, as the representatives of his body 
 and blood, broken and shed for the sins of the world, by pro- 
 nouncing over them the words of Christ : *' This is my body," 
 *' this is my blood." 2nd. A solemn oblation or offering of 
 these instituted memorials, in sacrifice to God the Father, com- 
 memorative of his Son's death and passion. 3rd. Prayer for 
 God's acceptance and blessing upon them by his Holy Spirit, 
 sanctifying them through his Divine power, so as to make 
 them the spiritual life-giving body and blood of Christ, and 
 the means of conveying to the well disposed receiver, all the 
 benefits purchased by our Lord's sacrifice for mankind, par- 
 don, grace, and eternal life. 
 
 In accordance with the ancient Liturgies and Eucharistic 
 services of the Church universal in its primitive times are the 
 sentiments of the Christian authors uf those ages, commonly 
 called the Fathers. These form a cloud of witnesses to the 
 commemorative sacrifice, representative and yet efficacious 
 
43 
 
 and communicative of the blessings obtained for us by Christ's 
 body and blood. This Holy Sacrament, says Ireneus, (quoting 
 one out of many,) consists of two parts, an earthly and an 
 heavenly : bread and wine from the earth, but tlie body and 
 blood of Christ in spirit, power and heavenly efficacy. Far 
 indeed were the Father's from imagining any change in the 
 bread and wine, but only in their qualities, by the sanctifying 
 poH'er of the Divine spirit, for so the blessed author of the 
 high and heavenly mystery had taught them " it is the spirit 
 that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I 
 speak unto you are spirit, and they are life." Thus we have 
 seen, and it deserves our particular attention, that in all the 
 forms of administering the Eucharist handed down from the 
 first ages, the most harmonious concurrence prevailed, and that 
 the three important points noticed above, were invariably intro- 
 duced in the same order. Nor did the Church of Rome, then 
 a highly respected Church, for purity as well as station, difler 
 (nor for many ages after) from the Church of Jerusalem or 
 other Churches, in the celebration of the Eucharist, all of them 
 arranged the service in the same order, and gave to the words 
 the same interpretation. We have further the unanimous testi- 
 mony of all the aiicient Fathers and early writers of the Chris- 
 tian Church from the very beginning, and for many ages 
 downward, that this is the true and real import of our Lord's 
 command, and that their manner of administering the Eucha- 
 rist is the only way in which it ought to be administered. — 
 From all this the fullest conviction arises, that such is our 
 Saviour's gracious will on this his last and dying command : 
 antiquity, universality and consent, all concurring in this just 
 interpretation of scriptural truth, and in the administration of 
 the Lord's Supper, in both kinds to communicants. This 
 universal testimony of the Church cannot deceive us : that 
 
44 
 
 m 
 
 mi'. 
 
 which was taught and practiced in all considerable Churches, 
 for the first four centuries, must be of apostolical authority ; 
 and indeed without this testimony of the Church, it is impos- 
 sible to prove the canon of the New Testament, or to establifh 
 the authority of the books which it contains, and surely there 
 can be no testimony so satisfactory in ascertaining the nature 
 and design of the Holy Eucharist, as that of the primitive 
 Church. To her wc are indebted for the authenticity of the 
 records of the institution, and to her we must look for rightly 
 understanding the mind and will of the Apostles, from whom 
 she received the records of our Lord, and by whose doctrines 
 and practice she was instructed in their true meaning. 
 
 Had the Scriptures represented the Lord's Supper, as sim- 
 ply a memorial of our Saviour's death, there would have been 
 little room for variety of opinion ; but these are expressions, 
 both in the words of the institution and in other places of 
 Scripture, wliich open a further view of this ordinance, and 
 which differently apprehended, may give rise to some difference 
 of sentiment. In the words of the institution, Jesus calls the 
 cup, " the New Testrment or covenant in my blood," this im- 
 plies some connexion between the cup drunk in the Lord's 
 Supper, and the new covenant, which may call forth some 
 variety of conception. He likewise .says, "This is my body, 
 this is my blood," which implies a sacredness, of the degrees 
 of which different apprehensions may be entertained respecting 
 their connexion. The Apostle St. Paul, in reciting the words 
 of the institution to the Corinthians, for the purpose of cor- 
 recting certain improprieties in celebrating this ordinance, 
 speaks of the guilt and danger of eating and drinking unwor- 
 thily, in a manner which to some conveys an awful idea of the 
 sanctity of the Lord's Supper, and to many suggests the most 
 precious benefits, as the certain consequences of eating and 
 
45 
 
 drinking worthily. Now as these passages of Scripture would 
 naturally give rise to some diflerence of opinion respecting 
 the ordinance, in some of its aspects it seems to indicate the 
 special care of the holy spirit, that the Eucharistic service of 
 the Church has ever been so carefully framed upon the apostolic 
 model, that during the first eight ages, not the smallest inno- 
 vation was ever attempted, and even now, with the exception 
 of the Roman Church, which has departed from the primitive 
 usage, almost all other tegular Churches, even to that recently 
 discovered in the Mountains of Malabar, however divided 
 among themselves in other respects, exhibit in the service of 
 the Eucharist the must harmonious concurrence. This must of 
 itself carry strong conviction to every candid mind, that such 
 was the true meaning and form of our Redeemer's most holy 
 institution, and according to which his Apostles acted and 
 instructed. . 
 
 But the spirit of God does not always contend with the 
 spirit of man, and the mental darkness, which for many ages 
 overspread Europe, the natural progress of error, the credulity 
 of superstition, and the artifice of designing men, multiplied 
 corruptions in the Church, and produced a firm belief in the 
 most incredible thing?:. But neither the veneration for reliques, 
 the prayers for the dead, and the invocation of saints, are to be 
 compared, unscrlptural as they are, to the victory obtained in 
 the thirteenth century, by Pope Innocent, over the common 
 understanding of man in establishing transubstantiaiion : it is 
 indeed the most astonishing departure from coinmon sense re- 
 corded in the history of the human mind ; for it requires us to 
 believe that the words " This is my body," " this is my blood," 
 are to be understood in their mere literal sense, that when 
 Jesus pronunced these words he changed, by his Almighty 
 power, the bread upon the tabi ..ito his body, and the wine 
 

 '' -il 
 
 40 
 
 iiitu hi^ blood ; and really delivered his body and blood into 
 the hands of his' disciples ; and that at all times, when the Sup- 
 per is administered, the Priest, by pronouncing these words 
 with a good intention, has the power of making a similar 
 change. This change is called transubstantiation, for it means 
 that the bread and wine are not altered in figure, taste, weight 
 or any other accident, but that the substance of them is com- 
 pletely destroyed, and that of the body and blood of Christ 
 substituted fur it, that the persons receiving what has been con- 
 secrated do not receive bread and wine, but literally partake 
 of the body and blood of Christ, and really eat his ilesh and 
 drink his blood. It is further conceived, by those holding to 
 this doctrine, that the bread and wine thus changed are pre- 
 sented by the Priest to God ; and he receives the name of Priest, 
 because in laying them upon the altar he offers to God a sacri- 
 fice which, although it is distinguished from all others, by 
 being wHhout the shedding of blood, is a true propitiatory 
 sacrifice for the sins of the dead and of the living. The body 
 and blood of Christ which were presented on the cross are 
 again presented in the sacrifice of the Mass. It is conceived 
 that the materials of this sacrifice being truly the body and 
 blood of Christ, possess intrinsic virtue, which does not de- 
 pend upon the disposition of him who receives them, but 
 operates immediately on all who do not obstruct the operation 
 by a mortal sin. Hence it is accounted of great importance, 
 for the salvation of the sick, that parts of these materials 
 should be sent to them ; it is further conceived, that as the 
 bread and wine when converted into the body and blood of 
 Christ, are a natural object of reverence and adoration to 
 Christians, it is highly proper to worship them upon the altar, 
 and that it is expedient to carry them about in solemn proces- 
 sion, that they may receive the homage of all who meet them. 
 
 ■J 
 
 i 
 
47 
 
 Hence arose tliul expression in llic Church of Rome, the eleva- 
 tion of tlie Host, Elevalio Hostice. liut as the nine, in being 
 carried about, was exposed to accidents inconsistent willi the 
 veneration due to the body and blood of Christ, it became cus- 
 tomary to send only the bread, and in order to satisfy those 
 who for this reason did not receive the wine, they were taught 
 that, as the bread was changed into the body of Christ, they 
 necessarily partook of the blood with the body of which the 
 flesh retained particles or drops. In process of lime. ih« peo- 
 ple were not allowed to partake of the cnp, and it was said 
 when Jesus spake these word?, "drink ye all of it," he was 
 addressing himself only to his Apostles, so that his command 
 was fulfdled, when the Priests, the successors of the Apostles 
 drank of the cup, although the people were excluded : and 
 thus the last part of this system conspired with the first in ex- 
 alting the Clergy above the Laity, for the same persons who 
 had the power of changing bread and wine into the body and 
 blood of Christ, and who presented what they had just made 
 as a sacrifice for the sins of others, enjoyed the privilege of 
 partaking of the cup, while communion in one kind only, was 
 permitted the people. 
 
 Such is the doctrine imposed upon the Church by Pope 
 Innocent, not that this Prince was its inventor, for during the 
 great ignorance, depravity and superstition of the ninth cen- 
 tury, Pascasius, Abbot of Corbey, was, according to Cardinal 
 Bellarmine, the first who wrote in express terms upon the sub- 
 ject : but though not the inventor, the honor of establishing it 
 as an article of faith belongs to Innocent the Third, for he had 
 sufficient influence in the fourth Lateran Council, held in 1215, 
 to gdt it inserted as a necessary matter of belief, it was farther 
 confirmed in the Council of Trent, and at length inserted in 
 the Roman Catholic Creed, promulgated by Pope Pious the 
 Fourth, in 15G4. 
 
48 
 
 When this extraordinary doctrine was first proposed by 
 Fascasius, it was most strenuously resisted ns untenable and 
 hostile to the simplicity, truth and beauty of the Christian 
 Theology, by the most learned and pious men of the age. — 
 llaban, Archbishop of Mentz, a Prelate, deeply skilled in the 
 Latin, Greek and Hebrew Languages, celebrated for his great 
 erudition, and deemed the glory of Germany, opposed this 
 innovation with determined hostility. Scotus, also so much 
 celebrated for his skill in Languages, Philosophy and Theo- 
 logy, wrote against the doctrine of Transubstantiaiion, and his 
 work circulated through Christendom more than two hundred 
 years without incurring the charge of heresy or experiencing 
 any mark of reprobation from Pope, Council, Clergy or Laity. 
 Bertram, esteemed for the sanctity of his character, and his 
 profound attainments in ScieP'^e and Theology, wrote a book 
 on the body and blood of the Lord, in answer to the interpre- 
 tation of Fascasius, which was widely disseminated through 
 the Christian world, and was never condemned for heresy. — 
 Many other eminent men wrote and contended against this 
 novel doctrine, whose names in a brief review like this, need 
 not be mentioned : and it is the less necessary, as the free and 
 extensive circulation which the publications of Scotus and Ber- 
 tram obtained, without even any insinuation of error, must, to 
 every unprejudiced mind, furnish irresistible proof of their con- 
 formity to the received doctrine of the Church in the ninth 
 century, and that transubstantiation was then a novelt}'. — 
 Indeed the very fact that this doctrine produced the most 
 bitter contention from its first publication till it was confirmed 
 two hundred years after by the Lateran Council, is demonstra- 
 tive of its novelty, and that before that period it was totally 
 unknown to the Church. It has therefore no claim to Eccle- 
 siastical antiquity, for the Church in her primitive days of 
 
4l> 
 
 simplicity and piety, and even after many inferior corruptions 
 had crept in, itciioved without exception (ill the ninth century 
 that the bread and wine retained their own nature or substance, 
 and conveyed nourishment to the human body. She farther 
 believed that they wore made to the faitiifnl the channels of the 
 most precious blessings, and sanctified by the prayer of conse- 
 cration ; that they underwent a moral change similar to the 
 water in baptism. Had the doctrine of transubstantiation been 
 true, how came it to be hid from the Apostles and first Chris- 
 tians, fi'o.n the Churciies in the East and in the West, from all 
 the followers of Christ fdr more than eight hundred years ; and 
 why was it loft to struggle nearly eight hundred years longer 
 before it was adopted by the ruling part of only one denomi- 
 nation of Christians, while on the other hand, almost all Chris- 
 tians, for more than eighteen centuries, have held the same 
 doctrine concerning the elements of bread and wine as the 
 Church of England now docs ; and even now the belief of 
 transubstantiation introduced upon human authority is confined 
 to the Roman Church, and believed to be only received in a 
 qualified sense by a portion of her members. 
 
 It is evident that the doctrine of transubstantiation rests 
 upon the strictly literal meaning of the words, "This is my 
 body," ** this is my blood." Now it has been shewn that they 
 were not so read and understood in the primitive Church, by 
 which they were taken in a figurative sense, as if our Lord had 
 said, this represents my body, this represents my blood; or, 
 this signifies my body, this signifies my blood : expressions of 
 this sort are common in all languages; on looking at a medal 
 we nauurally say, this is Julias Caesar ; or at Mr. Pitt's bust, 
 this is Pitt. In Scripture they are very numerous : thus Joseph, 
 in Genesis says, the three branches are three days, the three 
 ;: : . ; D . " ■ " ■" 
 
 t 
 
50 
 
 1*^1 
 
 biipkcls arc tliroc «l;iys; ilic icvcn fai kinc arc seven years, the 
 ic'ven good cars of corn arc seven years, that is, signify seven 
 years; the rock that fullowcd the Israelitcr:, says St. Paul, was 
 Christ, that is rrprrsented Christ ; thus Daniel, the ram with 
 tiic two horns are the Kings of Media. In the parable of the 
 Sower, our fiOrd says, li>c seed is the word, and the figure is 
 carried through the wiiole parable; Christ calls himself the 
 door, the vine, and his father the husbandman ; he calls his 
 disciples the salt of the earth, the light of the world : St. Paul 
 having spoken of Sarah and Hagar, a^lds, these are the two 
 covenants: the seven stars (says St. John) arc the angels of 
 the seven Churches; and in the Dook of Exodus, after God had 
 spoken of the Paschal Lamb, ♦♦This is the Lord's Passover." 
 pfow our Saviour, substituting the Holy Communion for the 
 Sacrament, follows the style of the Old Testament, and uses 
 the same cxnrcssions ns the Jews were wont to use at the cele- 
 bration of the Passover. Ii» all this there is nothing vi t, 
 so far to the contrary, that common sense prompts such a n-uu- 
 ing, and in all of them the speakers give them the same mean- 
 ing, as thai which we contend for in the passages instituting 
 the Lord's Supper. If we refer to the conduct of our Lord at 
 the institution, we shall find that the disciples who were present 
 could give them no other interpretation, and surely they were 
 as competent judges as Pascasius, who did not come into ex- 
 istence till more than eight centuries after; nor will it be pre- 
 sumptuous in us to understand the Eucharist as St. Pete;' and 
 St. Paul understood it, rather than follow the Abbot of Corbey. 
 Our Lord took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke 
 the bread and gave it to his disciples, saying, *'Take eat : this 
 is my body ;" now of what did the Saviour speak, but of the 
 bread which he had just given them, and which they held in 
 their hands ; was it not bread still f did he not speak of that 
 
 h; 
 AJ 
 T 
 rad 
 
 tit 
 ofl 
 drl 
 sel 
 
51 
 
 (liing wliici) lie luok ami bruke uiid guve lliciit ? and >\li;il wai 
 that but liic true bread, whicli iie then distributed. It is iinpos- 
 •ibie to believe, nor <lid iltc Apostles present su believe, that 
 our Saviour meant this bread 'a my natural body, this wine is 
 iny natural bloud: on (lie contrary, acting' as a Priest, according 
 to the order of Mclchisedcr, whose sacrifice typical of .his was 
 the pure oflfering of bread and wine, our I^ord ofiered the same, 
 that is, his own body and blood represented by bread and wine 
 as pledges of his body and blood, which the dny after hung 
 upon the cross, a sacrifice for (he sins of the world. When 
 our Lord made this oblation, and gave himself at the last Sup- 
 per to suffer and to die, under the symbols or substitutes of 
 bread and wine, we cannot without horror give them a literal 
 interpri.;ntion, or thiidi that he would lay violent hands upon 
 himself — wound and break up his own body, and shed out his 
 own blood: our more rational belief i^, that he did, under repre- 
 sentatives of his own appointmeiil, figures of his body and 
 blood, sure pledges of the real substance, give his body to be 
 broken and his blood to be shed by the hands of his crucificrs : 
 and in order to shew his transccndant love to lost mankind, he 
 made a voluntary oblation of himself while rtill hi perfect 
 liberty : no man, ho said, taketh away my life from me, but I 
 lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I 
 have power to take it up again; when therefore he said to the 
 Apostles, "Take eat," &:c. wc are to understand him as saying: 
 Take eat ; this bread now broken and given to you, is the me- 
 morial or representative of my body, which is under this emblem 
 now given, ofl'ered and devoted to God for you: This do, con- 
 tinue to do as 1 have done ; and thereby make this memorial 
 of me and of what I now do when [ am gone from you : and 
 drink ye all of this cup, for this cup is the memorial or repre- 
 sentative of my blood, which is now imder this emblem devoted 
 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 
52 
 
 1* 
 
 and offered to God, a^ shed ^^r you and for inauy, for the re- 
 mission of sins ; do as I have now done, as cfien as you make 
 this incmoriai of me. s ' •> 
 
 Moreover, to take the words in their literal sense is to believe 
 that the Lor '. took himself, and gave himself from himself, 
 and was eaten even by those disciples that did not touch him ; 
 and his blood was drunk by them even whilst it remained in his 
 .eins : but these things are so totally opposed to the most com- 
 mon understanding, that no one can for a moment admit them. 
 That the Apostles nnderstood our Saviour in a figurative sense 
 evidently appears from the fact, that they expressed neither 
 terror nor amazement, as they ce;tain!y would Iiave dona had 
 they understood him otherwise. But they saw and k'' .v what 
 he took and broke, that it was the real bread on the ti.ole; they 
 did not suspect any secret meaning, nor did our Saviour de- 
 clare any change, as appears f>om his own words. St. Paul's 
 expressions are inconsistent with any change in the substa.ice 
 of the elements, for speaking of the communicants he saith, " for 
 as often as ye eat this bread," and again, •' we are partakers of 
 that one bread," calling it bread after consecration ; for it is 
 certain that the elements are not to be eaten nor drunk till they 
 are consecrated, and that we are not partakers of the elements 
 till we eat and drink them, and yet the Apostle calls it bread 
 even after participation, " lo" we '»- , partakers of that one 
 bread." And our Saviour calls the wine, the fruit of the vine, 
 even after the Apostles had drunk it ; he faiiher s.iys, this cup 
 is the l^ew Testament of my blood, which words t ' -jld not be 
 meant in a literal sense, for the cup could not be changed into 
 a covenant, though it might be a representation or memcrial of 
 
 • ^ ..■»,■> » ■ ■ • . - ■■■-.!,■ , "I ;!;;'';'• ■■ ' 
 
 It. . 
 
 Let it be rtmembered that all languages are more or less 
 figurative, and those of Eastern nations are especially so. In 
 
 IS 
 
 i «_ 
 
53 
 
 the Scriptures the diction abounds in figures, and the distourses 
 and speeches of our Saviour are full of them. Now to discover 
 the true meaning of such words and passages we are not to take 
 them in their literal sense, when it would involve an impossi- 
 bilitjr. Thus, when God declares the Prophet to be a defen- 
 ced city ; an iron pillar ; a brazen wall : we must consider the 
 words figurative, because taken literally they involve that which 
 is impossible : agai.'i, when such words and expressions, taken 
 literaMy, are contrary to common sense, or the context, they are 
 to be taken figuratively : — thus, when the Psalmist exclaims, 
 *• awake, why sleepest thou ?" he means moral, not natural 
 sleep. *' The blood of Jerusalem," means the blood shed and 
 the murder committed by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In ap- 
 plying these two rules to the institution of the Lord's Supper 
 we find that the literal sense is not only repugnant to sacred 
 history and involves an absurdity, but that it is contrary to the 
 context, and to many parallel passages : yet upon a forced and 
 literal construction of these words the Church of Rome, since 
 the thirteenth century, has erected and maintained the doctrine 
 of transubstantiation, or of the cciiversian of the bread and 
 wine in the Lord's Supper, into the actual body and blood a( 
 Christ ; a doctrine which is manifestly repugnant to the plain 
 words nf Scripture, overlhroweth the very nature of a Sacra- 
 ment, and giveth rise to mtsny superstitions. In truth, to take 
 the words •' this is my body,' in the sense of transubstantiation, ' 
 is in direct contradiction to the senses as well as to the reason 
 of mankind ; and yet the Church of Rome will not understand 
 the plain institution of the Sacrament, in both kinds, like men 
 who believe not that there is a God who made the world, but 
 can swallow a thousand things far more diflicult. .! ; vi.. ; -{-, 
 
 ''" 4< This is my body," " this is my blood," therefore simply 
 mean, this represents my body, this represents my blood ; for 
 
54 
 
 IS; 
 § 
 
 i 
 
 these words were spoken before Christ's body was broken upon 
 the cross, and before his blood was shed. He could not there- 
 fore pronounce them with the intention that they shouh! be 
 taken and interpreted literally by his disciples, nor did they so 
 understand him ; nor ought it to be forgotten that the Apostles 
 nt their first council forbid blood ; and would they forbid blood 
 and yet enjoin the taking of blood ? In the Syriac, as well as 
 the Hebrew and Chaldee languages there is no word which 
 expresses " to signify," " represent," or " denote." — Hence 
 it is that we find the expression *' it is," so frequently used for 
 •' represents", '* denotes," or " signifies." This is (represents) 
 my covenant betwixt thee and me ; this is (represents) the Lord's 
 Passover ; the ten horns are (denote) ten kings ; the field is 
 (denotes) the world ; the good seed is (represents) the children 
 of the kingdom ; the tares are (represent) the children of the 
 wicked one ; the enemey is (represents) the devil ; the harvest 
 is (represents) the end of the world ; the reapers are (represent) 
 the angels. Such expressions may be multiplied from the 
 scriptures, but these appear sufficient to shew that any man in 
 the present day would use no other terms than those employed 
 by our Saviour — " this is my body," " this is my blood," mean- 
 ing, this represents my body, this represent my blood, if the 
 language in which he was speaking had no other mode of ex- 
 pression, as was the case with that used by our Redeemer. — 
 Hence we perceii^e in what sense the consecrated bread and 
 wine are the body and blood of Christ ; they are so sacramen- 
 lally only, or by representation changed in their qualities, not in 
 their substance. They continue bread and wine in their nature ; 
 they become the body and blood of Christ in signification and 
 mystery ; bread and wine to our senses ; the body and blood of 
 Christ to our faith ; bread and wine in themselves, the life-giving 
 body and blood of Christ in power and »'irlue. Therefore by 
 
55 
 
 the appointment of Clirlst, through the operation of the Holy 
 Ghost, the faithful icceive in them the etncacy of his sacrifice 
 and death, to ail spiritual intents and purposes. There is there- 
 fore, in this holy institution, no ground for the error of tran- 
 8ubstantintion, with which the Roman Catholics iiavo, for Hve 
 centuries, perplexed the Church of Christ. The natural blood 
 end body of our Lord are, in heaven, in glory and exaltation ; 
 we receive them not in communion in any sonse ; the bread 
 and wine are his body and blood sacramenlally and by repre- 
 sentation. And as it is an estabiisiied maxim, that all under 
 th% law, who did eat of a sacrifice, with those qualifications 
 which the sacrifice required, were partakers o<' its benefits ; so 
 all who under the Gospel eat of the Christian sacrifice of bread 
 and wine, with the qualifications which the holy solemnity 
 requires, are made partakers of all the benefits and blessings of 
 that sacrifice of his natural body aiid blood, wliirh Christ Jesus 
 made to God for the sins of the whole world. 
 
 It has been well observed, that it Is a sufficitnt confutation 
 of the doctrine of transubslaniiaiion, that it contradicts our 
 senses, since we sec and taste that the broiul and wine after the 
 consecration, and when we actual!} o.ive iheni, still continue 
 to be bread and wine without any change or alteration what- 
 ever. Moveover, it overthrows the very n ire of a Sacra- 
 ment, by supposing what we eat and drink to be t!ie l! iiig 
 signified, and not the sign. In fine, transubstanliatiuii has no 
 foundation in truth, but without reason or necessity, puts an 
 absurd and impossible sense upon the words of our r aviour, 
 
 " This is my body," ** this is my blood," by which it is no more 
 proved, than the words, ''This cup of the New Testuinrin," 
 prove that the material cup which was used in the Sacj.inient, 
 was substantially changed into the New Testament : and no 
 more than those tcjtts which atCrm God to have eyes and cars 
 
56 
 
 and hands, prove tiiut lie really has them. It contradicts i'ovv 
 of the five senses, and undermines the foundation of all ce:- 
 tainty. Had the Apostles preached transubstantiation and the 
 renouncing of our senses, miracles would have afforded no 
 evidence of the truth of the Gospel, for that which depends 
 upon the certainty of sense as miracles do, cannot prove that 
 which is contrary to sense. Now miracles, which are the 
 best and highest external proof of Christianity, oppose transub- 
 stantiation as a part of the Christian doctrine, unless we are 
 prepared to disbelieve our senses upon the evidence of which 
 all miracles rest. A man cannot believe a miracle without 
 relying upon his senses, nor can he believe transubstantiation 
 without renouncing them. The main evidence and confirma- 
 tion of the Christian doctrines, viz : miracles, is resolved into 
 the testimony of our senses, but such evidence is against tran- 
 substantiation, for as it renounces the senses, miracles can give 
 it no confirmation : for that which depends upon the certainty 
 of sense, as miracles certainly do, can be no competent argu- 
 ment to prove that which is contrary to sense, as transubstan- 
 tiation evidently is. 
 
 The Council of Trent, in laying down the dortrine of the 
 Mass, seems to draw largely on the credulity of the Roman 
 Catholics, for according to their decree, the wafers used in 
 the Holy Communion of the Roman Church, are converted 
 into the flesh of Christ; aixl the ine into his blood, each also 
 possessing his soul and divinity. Besides, the wafer is con- 
 verted into Christ's blood as well as flesh, and likewise the wine, 
 so that every wafer, and every drop of wine is perfect Christ, 
 of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting, consequently, 
 if ten millions of Christians are communicating at the same 
 time, there may be in different parts of the world the same 
 number of perfect Christs, Sec. Now tliis appears to me to be 
 
57 
 
 a doctrine which no man able to comjjrehend llic meaniiifj of 
 words, can possibly comprehend or believe. Revelation is 
 built on the testimony of the senses; and since we are forced to 
 believe what reason reluctantly admits — that the Son of God 
 became an infant ; that he was crucified ; that he arose from 
 the dead ; that he ascended into heaven with a body of flesh 
 and blood : these facts we admit on the evidence of the senses 
 alone ; nay, we admit them on the evidence of the senses of 
 others and not of our own. But the belief demanded by the 
 Council of Trent, in the doctrine of transnbstantion, invalidates 
 the whole of this evidence, for it implies that the senses may 
 be deceived, and leaves it impossible to ascertain, when they 
 are not deceived. 
 
 Our Lord directed the Apostles, after his resurrection, to 
 handle him that they might be convinced that he was not a 
 spirit: but had a Roman .'atholic been present, and urged 
 that their senses were no criterion, for if they handled the wafer 
 it would appear bread although actually llesh, and that Jesus 
 might appear a body and yet be spirit; it would have been 
 impossible to have refuted him, nor under such circumstances 
 is there any test to which -ur Saviour could have appealed. 
 Roman Catholic writers endeavour to neutralize the force of 
 this argument, by stating the imperfection of our senses and 
 their liability to be deceived. In the same manner certain classes 
 of enthusiasts deny our reason, and certain heretics the evidence 
 of the primitive Church : but such expedients only shew a con- 
 sciousness of weakness In the cause they seek to advocate ; our 
 senses and our reason, whatever may be their imperfections, 
 are our only guides, for by their means we arrive at all our 
 knovyledge, sacred and profane, it is therefore much wiser to 
 improve than to depreciate our faculties. Transubstantiation, 
 if true, must be a miracle equal to the greatest and most incom- 
 
 i 
 
58 
 
 preliensible that has ever been wrought by the power of God, 
 but it rests not on the evidence of our senses as Moses' rod : 
 the water turned into blood in Egypt, or into wine at Cana 
 of Galilee. These were palpable, open, evident and designed, 
 as a testimony of the power of God or the divinity of Christ : 
 nil the miracles stand upon like proof, a proof open and not 
 imperceptible as that alleged in favour of the doctrine of tran- 
 snbstantiation ; had it been otherwise, men would have doubted 
 and not believed. I know that it is said, that the belief of this 
 doctrine is effected by a yipernaturally infused faith, and there- 
 fore it is excepted from the general rule : but this answer im- 
 plies a total misconception of the nature and objects of a 
 divinely infused faith. The work of saving faith is not to 
 convince the understanding of facts, but to incline so effectually 
 the heart and the will, that they embrace and appropriate the 
 consequences, which flowing from, those facts affect ourselves. 
 Having disposed of this apology, rather than reason for the 
 doctrine, we may rest assured, that transubstantiation cannot 
 be true, because it neutralizes every imaginable evidence on 
 which the common sense of mankind builds the certainty of 
 every imaginable thing, respecting which we possess the capa- 
 bility of forming a judgment. To this extravagant demand 
 on our credulity, we may look with some degree of hope, as 
 suggesting the application of a principle which, in skilful 
 hands, will overthrow the dominion of the Church of Rome 
 in the heart of many an uneducated, j'et sensible man. Such 
 a person cannot judge of the testimony of the Fathers, and as 
 to the interpretation of Scriptures, he may feel inclined to 
 acquiesce in the dictation of those to whom he has from infancy 
 been taught to look up with reverence and faith. But in the 
 use of his senses, he has ever been in the practice of judging 
 for himself, and the happy moment may arrive, when he will 
 
59 
 
 apply liimseir to this faUc doctrine, and cast off the spiriluul 
 oppression whicii insists on its right to stultify them. 
 
 " When the real truth of our Saviour's presence in the 
 Eucharist, not in the substance of his humanity, which the 
 Heavens must receive, till the times of the restitution of all 
 things, but in the real presence of his divine power and virtue, 
 by the Holy Spirit, began to revive out of its darkened and 
 obscure state in the si^cteenth century, the doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation appeared particularly obnoxious to the awakened 
 senses of sincere Christians, and rather than acknowledge it 
 as true, many holy men and women embraced the stake and 
 died in the flames. When these evil times had passed awav, 
 the reformers of the English Church renounced transubstan- 
 tiation and the sacrifice of the Mass as altogether unscriptural, 
 and they restored the celebration of the Eucharist to its ancient 
 purity, in which it is shewn to be the commemorative sacrifice 
 of Christ's body broken, and blood shed for the sins of the 
 world, represented according to his own institution, in bread 
 and wine, according to Melchisedec. 
 
 In fiuc, I can never believe iransubstanllalion, since it im- 
 plies that our senses, employed on proper aud far:iiliar objects, 
 are so much deceived as to destroy all dependence upon ihi^m. 
 I never can believe that our Sr-jviour taught his disciple> before 
 his death not to believe in their own senses, which he must 
 have done if he taught them transubstantiation, and tiiat the 
 very first thing he did after he was risen from the dead should 
 be to ask them quite the contrary, l)y appealing to the cer- 
 tainly of sense for the proof of his resurrection. I never can 
 bplieve a doctrine which strikes at the identity of Christ, 
 which St. John's grounds upon the evidence of the senses : that 
 they had heard, seen, looked upon and handled, of the word 
 of life. I can never believe a doctrine that strikes at the cer- 
 
GO 
 
 tainty of what St. Luke calls infallible proofs of the resurrec- 
 tion ; which were none others than what the senses aflbrded : 
 that strikes at the ascension which took place publicly, for no 
 other end than that the sorrowiirg Church might have a sensi- 
 ble and inter'<:^ible foundation for her trust in him : who is 
 exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour. I cannot believe tran- 
 substantiation, unless I can believe that truth can contradict and 
 destroy itself: to conclude, if any can receive a doctrine so 
 unscriptural in itself, and so dangerous in its consequences as 
 transubstantiation, they do right to continue Roman Catholics, 
 but if they doubt this doctrine of the Eucharist, it is high time 
 to lay aside dissimulation and renounce the Church which 
 maintains it. He who candidly examines the case, and is aware 
 of its importance, will find that the doctrine of the Church of 
 Rome holdeth to the letter which killeth : that of the Church 
 of England, to the spirit which giveth life. Sincere minds will 
 discover to which the preference is due, without indulging un- 
 just suspicions or uncharitable assertions. - f,.,-.. .J i,f-'-> 
 
 : i 
 
 >f 
 
 • <•' ■'.' ;»- 
 
 tr 
 
 1 > 
 
I •. 
 
 SFXTION III. 
 
 • .) 
 
 Sixth Chapter St. JOHN, from Veuse 27 to 71, inclusive. 
 
 " 27. Labour not for thn moat \vhioli pori>iheth, but for thnt meat wliuli 
 endurcth unto cvorlastin<T lift', wliich the Son of man shall (jivc unto you: for him 
 hath God tho Father scaled. 
 
 " 28. Thon said they unto him, What nliidl we do, thnt wc miyht work iha 
 works of God? 
 
 •' 21). Jesus answered and said unto them. This ia tho work of God, that yo 
 believe on him wliom he hath sent. 
 
 " 30. Thoy said therefore unto him,- What sipn shcwe.st thou thin, that wo 
 may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 
 
 " .31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them 
 bread from heaven to cat. 
 
 " 32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses pavn 
 you not that bread from heaven ; but my Father piveth you tho true bread from 
 heaven. 
 
 " 3.3. For the bread of God is he which comoth down from heaven, and giveth 
 life unto the world. 
 
 " 34. Then said thoy unto him. Lord, evermore pivc us this bread. ♦ 
 
 " 35. And Jesus said unto them, 1 am tho bread of life: he that cometh to 
 me shall never hunger; and ho that belicvc.th on me shall never thirst. 
 
 " 3G. But I said unto you. That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 
 
 " 37. All that the Father pivelh mc shall come to me; and him that cometh 
 to mo, I will in no wiso cast out. 
 
 " 38. For I came down from hoavcn, not to do mine own will, but the will 
 of him that sent me. 
 
 " 39. And this is the Father's will Vvhich has sent me, that of all which he 
 hath given mc I should lose notliing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 
 
 " 40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth tho 
 Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and 1 will raise him up at 
 the last day. 
 
 " 41. The Jews then murmured at liim, because he said, I am the bread 
 which came down from heaven. < 
 
 " 42. And they said. Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and 
 mother we know ? how is it thon that he saith, I came down from heaven? 
 
 "'43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them. Murmur not among 
 yourselves. 
 
 " 44. No man can come to me except the Father, which hath sent me draw 
 him : and I will raise him up at the last day. 
 
(3'J 
 
 "46. It is wiitten in tho prophets, And they ■hull be nil tau(;ht of GoJ. 
 Every inun thcicfuru that hath hcurcl, and huth learned of thu Father, cometh 
 unto nic. 
 
 " 4G. Not tliat any man huth seen tlic Father, save ho which is of God ; he 
 halh seen tho Father. 
 
 " 47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He tliat bclicveth'on iiie liath evorlaHtinif 
 life. 
 
 " ■]'?, I am that bread of iifo. 
 
 '■ 40. Your futliers did cat nianiia in tho vvildcrncHS, and aro dead. 
 
 " 50. 'I'liis is the bread whicli coincth down from heaven, that a man may 
 cat thereof, and not die. 
 
 "51. I am tho liviuj? bread which came down from heaven. If any man cat 
 of this bread, ho shall live forever: and the bread that 1 will give is my flesh, 
 which I will frive for tho lifn of tho world. 
 
 " 52. The J(!W8 thercroic strove among tliomselvcs, saying, How can this 
 man give us his fleah to eat? 
 
 " 53. Then Jcma said unto them. Verily, verily, I say nnto you, Except yo 
 rat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 
 
 " 51. "VVlioso catcth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and 
 I will raise him up at the last day. 
 
 " 55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 
 
 " 5G. He tluit eatoth my flesh and diinketli my blood, dwcUeth in me, and I 
 in him. 
 
 " 57. As the livinff Father hath sent me, and I live by the F&ther j so ho 
 that eateth mc, even he shall live by me. 
 
 " 53. Tiiis is tiiut bread which came down from heaven : not as your fathers 
 did eat manna, and arc dead : he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 
 
 " 59. Tijcsc thinjrg said ho in tho synagoj^ue, as he fuufrht in Capernaum. 
 
 " GO. !I Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, Thia 
 13 a hard snyinjr; who can hear it? 
 
 " 61. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said 
 unto them, Dotli this oflcnd you? 
 
 " G'2. What and if ye shall see tho Son of man ascend up where he was 
 feefore ? 
 
 " 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profitcth nothing : the words 
 that I speak unto you, they arc spirit, and they arc life. 
 
 • " 64. But there are some of you that believe not. For .Tceus knew from tha 
 beginning who they \yero that believed not, and who should betray him. 
 
 " 05. And he said. Therefore said I unto you, That no man can come unto 
 me, except it were given unto him of my Father. 
 
 " GO. ^ From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more 
 with him. 
 
 " 67. Then Jesus said unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 
 
 " 68. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou 
 hast the words of eternal life. 
 
68 
 
 " 69. Ami we heliuvn, and are Niiru lliat tliuii art titat Chriut, tho Son or tht 
 living Gud. 
 
 " 70. Jtisiiu answered tlicni, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you 
 is a dov'd 7 
 
 "71. He spako of Jiidaa lacariot, the son uf Simon : fur lio it was that should 
 betray him, being one of the twelve." 
 
 I.N the liistory and refutation of the doctrhic of transiibstar.- 
 tialion, given in the second section, [ purposely reserved fur 
 special consideration, what our Lord says in the Sixth Chap- 
 ter of St. John's Gospel, because the Dishop of Strasbourg 
 seems to think that the stronp;cst argument for the real pre- 
 sence is derived from that portion of Scripture. In this opi- 
 nion the learned Prelate has the misfortune to difl*er, as will 
 afterwards appear, with the most ancient Fathers of the primi- 
 tive Church, as well as with the most able Divines belonging 
 to his own, and when we can place St. Ignatius, Clement of 
 Alexandria, Tertullian, Athanasius, Cyril, Augustine, Pope 
 Gelasins, and Facundus, in opposition to t!ie Bishop of Stras- 
 bourg, the latter stands as-an author, in a position by no means 
 enviable. On reading the Sixth Chapter of the Gospel of St. 
 John, you will find, that our Saviour, aftCr feeding the five 
 thousand, was under the necessity of withdrawing himself from 
 the multitude, as they were going to take him by force to make 
 him a King ; believing, from the supernatural power that ho 
 had displayed, that he was able to deliver them from all their 
 enemies, and to redeem the Jews from their present slavery 
 under the Roman yoke. Jesus, having retired to the mountain 
 alone, his disciples set sail for Capernaum, and while they were 
 tossed by a tempest in the midst of the sea, they saw the Lord 
 walking on the waters, and immediately they found themselves 
 at land. Next morning the multitude sought Jesus through 
 the whole neighbourhood, for they knew that he had not gone 
 
04 
 
 ill (liu hliip wltli Ills disciples, but not liniling him, llio most I'or- 
 wiinl of them procured some loats and went in search of him 
 to Capernaum. Ueholding Christ on their arrival, surrounded 
 bv his disciples, teaching the people in the Synagogue, they 
 were unable to contain their astonishment, and exclaimed — 
 " Ilabbi, when camest thou hither.'"' Jesus knowing their spirit 
 and temper, rebuked them, and exhorted them to seek a better 
 portion than the meat that perishcth, namely, the meat uiiich 
 endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give 
 unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed, that is, autho- 
 rised and commissioned to bestow this spiritual food. The 
 mention of the meat that perishclli, connected as it was with 
 the miracle of the loaves, aflorded our Saviour an opportunity 
 of improving, as was his usual custom, the incident for the 
 edification of his hearers. Solemn and awakening therefore 
 as this discourse certainly is, it was not introduced by any for- 
 mal preparation. Jesus had escaped from the people when 
 they wished to make him a King : he had passed over the sea 
 of Tiberias to Capernaum ; some of the more active and for- 
 ward of the multitude had followed him, on account of tiie 
 miracle of the loaves; and from carnal, not spiritual motives. 
 This gave rise, in a way quite natural, to the remarkable con- 
 versation recorded by St. John : as in his discourse with the 
 woman of Samaria, our Lord took occasion, from her drawing 
 the water, to pursue his conversation under the allegory of 
 water, so on this occasion he carries it on under the allegory 
 of eating and drinking. He calls the doctrine of the Gospel 
 bread and wine, because Christianity rests on the great doc- 
 trines of the incarnation and death of Christ, which are here 
 called his flesh and blood. Therefore Jesus speaks of the 
 belief of these things under the phrase of eating his flesh and 
 drinking his blood, by which food they were to become immor- 
 
 I 
 
65 
 
 lal nnd pnrtakprs of hU glory. The metaphor of cxprosltin; 
 ipiritual food by meal and drink, usrd hy our Ijord through 
 UiG whole of this chapter, is familinr to Eastern Natio >% and 
 occurs frequently in scripture. Thus Soloman represents wis- 
 om OS inviting men, s.iyinfj:, " come eat of my brt-ad nnd 
 *' drink of the wine wWivU 1 have njinglrd." Isaiah cx<Iaims, 
 *• wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, 
 '* and your labour for thai which satisfieth not ; hearken dlii- 
 ** gently wnto me, and eat ye that which is good, nnd let youf 
 '* soul ddight itself in fatness." And our Lord in this chapter 
 exhorts the Jews not to labour for the mcnt that perlshcth, but 
 for that meat which cndureth forever. But why, it may be 
 asked, should this allegorical or Hgurntivc mode of instruction 
 have been adopted by Christ, as ihe more natural way would 
 have been to deliver his doctrines in express terms, ns in some 
 cases he has actually done ; what need of another language to 
 convey the same truth ? To this I answer, that the more na- 
 tural method to the Jews was the figurative or allegorical, such 
 being the character of their numerous rites, and of the greater 
 part of their scripture, in which the divine communications are 
 not literal, but conveyed in types, symbols and metaphors.— 
 For the Mosaic dispensation was not so mufh a revelation as 
 a deposit of truths to be revealed : the form in which these 
 truths are deposited being calculated rather to mould mens 
 minds for their reception, than positively to tcacii them. — It 
 was the Gospel which was to bring them to light. IJeiice the 
 Chrstian's view of the doctrines of his religion is by this mode 
 of expression connected with its proofs : our Lord, therefore, 
 by conforming his plan of teaching to the spirit of the Jewish 
 scriptures reminded them of the character of these scriptures, 
 which were so composed that the indocile and nncandid seeing 
 might not see, and hearing might not understand. 
 E 
 
66 
 
 Our Lord having; reproved them for their eagerness after 
 perishable food, they ask, '* what shall we do, that we may 
 work the works of God f" The Saviout answered, " this is 
 the work of God, that ye believe in him, whom he hath sent." 
 In this expression, the Jews understood him to mean himself, 
 and to require a belief in his divine cbaracte: as the Messiah ; 
 but overlooking his miracles, and deluded with the notion of a 
 great temporal king and deliverer, they were offended, and 
 hastily inferring that he could not be that mighty conqueror 
 promised in the law and the prophets. Nevertheless, as he 
 manifestly assumed that title, they demanded new and greater 
 proofs than those which lie had yet given ; for as the Messiah 
 was higher than Moses, he ought to do much greater miracles f 
 and having regard to the feeding of the five thousand, they 
 suggested that Moses did much more ; *' what sign," said they, 
 " shewest thou, that we may see and believe thee to be the 
 *' Messiah ; what dost thou work ; our fathers did eat manna 
 " in the desert, and it is written, * he gave them bread from 
 " heaven to eat ;' " as if they had said, admitting the miracle 
 of the five barley loaves and the five thousand, it was but a single 
 miracle, and a trifling number ; but Moses fed the whole Jewish 
 nation, being upwards of two millions, not for a day or a month, 
 but during forty years. Our Saviour rectifies their mistake, 
 teaching them, that it was not M(\ses but God, who gave them 
 the manna, and now gave them the true bread from heaven, of 
 which that was the type and figure, for the bread of God is he 
 which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 
 Still supposing Christ to speak of the material bread which 
 would not suffer them to die, but to live forever, or to a very 
 great age, they said unto him, " Lord ever more give us of this 
 bread," for if you can give us such bread, we are ready to 
 acknowledge you to be greater than Moses ; for our fathers. 
 
67 
 
 though thej did eat rrianna, died in the wildyerucss. Our Lord 
 then adds, " I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall 
 •* never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall neve thirst ; 
 ** I came down from heaven to save the world, and this is the 
 *' Father's will that hath sent me, that of all which he haih given 
 *' me 1 should lose none, but raise it up at the last day." Our 
 Lords figurative manner of expressing himself tlirongh the 
 whole of this discourse is particularly manifested in this quo- 
 tation ; had he not been speaking spiritually, it would have 
 beeii absurd to promise that his disciples should not hunger 
 and thirst after eating this mysterious meat; what our Lord 
 promised is, that they should never hunger and thirst for want 
 of it. This answer not pleasing the Jews, they murmured saying, 
 •* is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother 
 " We know? — how is it then that he saith I came down from 
 " heaven f" Disappointed in their wordly expectations, and 
 having no relish for spiritual blessings, the Jews were incensed 
 at his arrogance in pretending to have come down from heaven, 
 and said in bitter derision, " Is not this the son of Joseph the 
 Garpenteip .f"' how then has he the presumption to say that he 
 descended from heaven. On this our Lord rebukes them for 
 their hardness of heart, and intimates that their opposition to 
 spiritual things arose from their corrupt natures, which divine 
 pdwer could alone subdue : and he declares, that no man in his 
 present degenerate state can divest himself of his blindtiess and 
 enmity to God, and seriously believe in his Son, unless the 
 Father draw him, that is, persuade him by the influence of bis 
 spirit. The time was not yet come when the mystery of the 
 incarnation wns to be so revealed as to become an article of 
 faith, but the discourse of our Saviour led them to his celestial 
 origin and divine mission, and the testi'uony afforded by his 
 works or miracles fully justify his insisting upon their belief on 
 
68 
 
 him. " Verily, verily I say unto you, that he that believeth on 
 me hath everlasting life." Here the Bishop of Strasbourgh 
 asks, ''what is the meaning of this exordium, and of this man- 
 " ner of opening himself by halves, and by degrees ? How 
 '* comes it that he reminds them at repeated intervals of the 
 *' necessity of the faith due to his character, his miracles, and 
 " divinity .'* What is the tendency of these preliminary recom- 
 " mendations ? In what are they to end, or what is he think- 
 *' ing of proposing to them ? Something very extraordinary 
 " no doubt, and very difficult to be received, otherwise he would 
 " have explained himself without making use of all these pre- 
 ** cautions." Before proceeding to notice the Bishops solution 
 of these solemn questions, and which we shall prove, as I believe 
 to be, altogether erroneous, it is necessary to premise :— 
 
 ist. That there is a material diiTerence and distinction 
 between the teaching of Christ and the teaching of the Apos- 
 tles : a distinction which has been too murh overlooked by 
 Divines, and which the Bishop of Strasbourg does not notice, 
 although it would have furnished him with a much better expo- 
 sition of our Saviour^s meaning in this Chapter than that which 
 he has adopted, and erplained in a far more satisfactory man- 
 ner the serious quest) "^ns, which he proceeds to propound. — 
 Our Saviour came rather to be the subject of Christianity than 
 the author of it. He did not baptise, though baptism was the 
 rite of admission into his religion ; he preached not to the Gen- 
 tiles, although the most distinguishing feature of the new dis- 
 pensation, was its extension to all mankind. He established 
 no Church during his abode on earth, and left no written laws 
 behind him, but as the subject of Christianity, he appears God 
 manifested in the ilesb, and in that character accomplished our 
 redemption by his mysterious death and sufferings. As the 
 teacher of mankind, he instructs them in a way by which they 
 
69 
 
 might attain to the Divhie favour, thus made accessible to all. 
 In the first stage of Christianity, it was impossible for our Lord 
 to explain more clearly than he did, many things respecting his 
 birth ; his transcendant dignity, his last sufferings, his triumph 
 over death and the grave, and his ascension up into heaven ; 
 and this enables us to account for the difliculty of explaining 
 many of his allusions and dark sayings, without the aid of fur- 
 ther revelation. There is, however, one thing which he never 
 fails to demand, that is, faith in his words and testimony. This 
 he r'^nnires of all those on whom he performed miracles, for as 
 he made faith necessary to that eternal salvation which he came 
 to offer, it seemed fitting, that temporal deliverance should in 
 like manner be offered with the same condition, if we suppose 
 the latter to be intended as a type of the former. Our Lord 
 explains frequently to the multitude, and always to his disciples, 
 every thing in as far as ihe progress of events would admit ; 
 and on the present occasion, his address to the people is not 
 more dark and mysterious, than the incidents to which it alluded 
 rendered necessary : if therefore hints and allusions were ofTten 
 given by our Lord, which partook more of the obscurity of 
 prophecy than the explanation of a new truth, it was because 
 many of the Christian doctrines could neither be as yet clearly 
 communicated nor comprehended, as they depended upon 
 events, which had not taken place. The great doctrine of 
 the atonement for example, which was not fully accomplished 
 till our Lord's ascension, his resurrection from the dead, &c. 
 were not designed to be publicly understood till the illumina- 
 tion caused by the descent of the Holy Ghost. Even the twelve, 
 though commonly allowed an explanation, were as mucli in the 
 dark respecting some of the main truths of Christianity till the 
 coming of the Holy Ghost, as tWfe multitude around them. To 
 spei^k therefore of our Lord's careful exordium, his opening 
 
70 
 
 himself by halves and degrees, is altogether erroneous. When 
 our Lord says to his disciples, it is expedient to you that I go 
 away, he plainly indicates that the office of making Christians 
 belonged to the comforter. God manifested himself in the 
 flesh to redeem the world and to atone for sin; to be made 
 the object of a new faith : the subject of a new religion. God 
 manifested himself by the Spirit, to instruct men in what he had 
 done, and to teach them what the}' were bound in consequence 
 to do. The Holy Spirit was sent to the disciples, not only to 
 bring all things to their remembrance, but to teach them sdl 
 things : the necessity of which is manifest in a great number 
 of instances. We trusted, said the two disciples, in their dis- 
 appointment and despondency, that it had been he which should 
 have redeemed Israel, evidently shewing that they were even 
 at this time unacquainted with the doctrine of redemption, by 
 the death of Christ. It is not for you, or you cannot be ex- 
 pected to know, says Christ to his disciples, the times or sea- 
 sons which the Father has put in his own power. But ye shall 
 receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and 
 ye shall be my witnesses. Even if it be admitted that our 
 Lord's teaching embraces all the essential doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity, yet from the very form adopted, that of parables, sym- 
 bolical miracles, and didactic prophecies, the truths so depo- 
 sited by his followers were plainlj' not designed to be under- 
 stood, until the Holy Spirit should not only have brought 
 Christ's ministry to their remembrance, but taught them also 
 all things implied and intended by it. Until such assistance 
 was given, they were in possession of a revelation which they 
 did not understand, and without this assistance, there can be 
 i;io question that the Christian doctrines could never have been 
 understood, explained and preached. From Adam until Christ, 
 the scheme of man's redemption was prefigured. In Christ's 
 
71 
 
 n 
 o 
 
 ministry it was accomplished, by the Spirit it was explained. 
 This great doctrine depended upon our Lord's death and suf- 
 ferings, and could not be properly understood till after his 
 crucifiction. These remarks, which might be profitably ex- 
 tended, account satisfactorily for our Saviour's mode of teach- 
 ing, without having recourse to any art or management, as the 
 Bishop of Strasbourg appears to suppose. Every thing was 
 told in such a manner, as to be understood at the time, or so 
 plainly, that when the event to which it referred took place, it 
 was fully comprehended, or if it still partook of prophetical 
 obscurity, it was taken by the Holy Spirit and brought home to 
 the apprehension of the Apostles and converts. 
 
 2nd. 1 am as ready to admit as the Bishop of Strasbourg, 
 that our Saviour's discourse on this occasion was very remark- 
 able, and that his strong manner of expressing himself, and 
 his emphatically repeating the same thing in the same or dif- 
 ferent phrases, is sufficient to persuade us that some important 
 mystery and significant lesson of instruction was intended to be 
 communicated. Now the Bishop contends that the mystery 
 revealed was that of transubstantiation, or his real physical 
 presence in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and that a 
 prior belief in this doctrine is required by Christ, as necessary 
 to salvation. That this is a great error will be abundantly 
 shewn (in my opinion) in the sequel, at present it may be ob- 
 served, that in this Chapter, our Lord plainly announces himself 
 to be the Messiah ; that he had come down from heaven ; that 
 he was greater than Moses ; that his kingdom was not as the 
 Jews vainly believed temporal, but. spiritual ; that he would at 
 length ascend into heaven, and appear no more personally 
 among them ; that eating his flesh and drinking his blood \vere 
 not meant in a gross carnal sense, but of spiritually living in 
 him, and on his fulness by faith, for as the soul of man giveth 
 
72 
 
 life to ihc bo()y, without which the flesh is only a lifeless putrc' 
 fyiiig lump of clay, so w ithout the life giving spirit of God, all 
 forms of religion are dead and worthless ; he declares, that by 
 believing his doctrine, trusting in his promises, and meditating 
 on his instructions, they would spiritually eat his flesh and drink 
 his blood. It is therefore not wonderful that a discourse con- 
 taining such high and mysterious things should astonish our 
 Lord's audience, since it contradicts their dearest prejudices, 
 for though instruction had frequently been spoken of as the 
 food of the soul, yet no Prophet or servant of God from the 
 beginning of the world had spoken of himself, as the bread of 
 life. 
 
 This discourse at Capernaum, happened about a year 
 before our Lord's institution of the Eucharist, and many of the 
 most able Divines, both ancient and modern, contend that it 
 has no relation to that ordinance, but merely to spiritual feed- 
 ing in general; others maintain that the connexion is intimate, 
 and that our Saviour's expressions on this occasion appear a 
 sort of preparation for the appointment of the last Supper. The 
 arguments on both sides are exceedingly strong, and 1 am in- 
 clined to believe, that though this discourse more immediately 
 refers to the atonement, and the benefits we derive from it by 
 faith, yet it may be justly considered a prophetic intimation of 
 the advantages to be derived from the participation of the 
 Lord's Supper. The sacrifice of Christ and the Holy Sacra- 
 inent have such a relationship, that the mention of the one may 
 naiuially suggest the otlier. In speaking of the ofi*ering of his 
 body, Christ, we may well suppose, spake of it with a reference 
 to that Sacraroent, in which it is typified and its benefits ap- 
 plied. Those who by true faith are partakers of Christ's pro- 
 pitiation have eternal life, and in like manner those who rightly 
 and worthily receive the Holy Sacrament ore spiritually par- 
 
73 
 
 takers of Christ's body and blood ; they become one with Christ 
 and Christ with them ; they really partake of the benefits of 
 his passion ; they feed on him by faith ; they are supported, 
 nourished and strengthened by him, and the divine principle 
 of life which is then confirmed in their souls, will, if not for- 
 feited by sin, lead to eternal happiness. But though it may 
 be right to apply the general doctrine of this Chapter to the 
 particular case of the Lord's Supper, considered as worthily 
 received, because the spiritual feeding here mentioned is the 
 thing signified and effected by the Lord's Supper, yet when we 
 come to the critical examination of words and phrases, it will 
 be found that this admission gives no strength or countenance 
 to the Bishop of Strasbourg's doctrine. 
 
 Having premised these things, wc proceed with the exami- 
 nation of our Lord's discourse, and iiere it may be proper to 
 remark, that there is a spiritual feeding or eating and drinking 
 oup Lord's body broken and blood shed, or participating of 
 the atonement made by our Lord's death and sufferings, with- 
 out reference to sacramental feeding, because many have doubt- 
 less been saved through the blood of Christ, who never had an 
 opportunity of participating in the Communion. It is, how- 
 ever, the bounden duly of all Christians, frequently to com- 
 memorate the death of Christ, and when they communicate 
 worthily, they feed spiritually on his body and blood, for this 
 is the substance. The actual oral manducation of the bread 
 and the drinking of the wine, being merely the outward signs. 
 Admitting therefore the relation between what our Saviour 
 here says about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, with 
 the Lord's Supper, I contend that the expressions are figurative : 
 in this I am fully warranted by the 63rd verse, as well as by the 
 general purport of the whole conversation, which appears upon 
 the face of it to carry a mystical, not a literal meaning. *' It 
 
74 
 
 is the spririt that quiqkcneth ; the flesh profitelh nothing: the 
 words tliat I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." 
 The words are also universal and not particular in their appli- 
 cation, whether we take them negatively or aflirmatively.-^ 
 '' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his 
 blood, ye have no life in you :'* — so far negatively. •' If any 
 man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: who so eateth my 
 flesh and drinkelh my blood, hath eternal life:" that is, all 
 who feed upon what is here mentioned have life, and all that 
 do not feed thereupon have no life, or all that Anally share in 
 the death, passion and atonement of Christ, lire safe ; and all 
 that have not a part therein, are lost : all that are saved, owe 
 their salvation to the salutary passion of Christ, and their par*- 
 taking thereof, which is feeding upon his flesh and blood, is 
 their life. This is the basis of the Gospel ; we must be recon- 
 ciled to God, by the death of jiis Son, before we have a just 
 claim or title to any thing besides. Therefore the foundation 
 of all our spiritual privileges, is our having a part in that re- 
 conciliation, and which, according lo St. John, in this Chapter, 
 is eating and drinking his flesh and blood, or as St. Paul tells 
 the Hebrews, eating of the altar: the result, fruit or eflect of 
 our thus eating his cruciAed body, is a right to be fellow heirs 
 with his body glorified, for if we are made partakers of his 
 death, wc shall also be made partakers of his resurrection. On 
 this is founded our mystical union with Christ's glorified body, 
 which neither supposes nor infers local presence ; for all the 
 members of Christ, however distant in place, are thus mystically 
 united with Christ, and with each otlier. The sum of the doc- 
 trine of this Chapter is not confined to oral or spiritual man- 
 ducation in the Eucharist, but also extends to spiritual mandu- 
 caiion at large. The feeding on Christ's death and passion, 
 as the price of our redemption and salvation, confers a spiritual 
 
75 
 
 or naysiical union with Christ's human nature, dud by that with 
 his Godhead, to which liis humanity is joined iu an uitlty of 
 person : but as this spiritual nnanducation belongs also to the 
 Eucharist, our Lord's expressions are not foreign to the ordi- 
 nance, but have such a relation to it, as the inward thing sig- 
 nified has to the sign. 
 
 3rd. Our Lord's conversation in the Synagoge, ra Caper- 
 naum, was not more mysterious than that which he held with 
 Nicodemus respecting the new birth, but when the latter was 
 explained, as referring figuratively to baptism or the washing 
 of whter upon the outward man, and sanctification of the spirit 
 in the inner man, it became plain and easy of comprehension, 
 when therefore our Lord says, " I am the living bread which 
 came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall 
 live forever ; and the bread that I shall give him is my flesh, 
 which I shall give for the life of the world :" it is the same as 
 if he had said, I am the bread of life whom God haih sent into 
 the world, to direct and bring you into the way of everlasting 
 life. With this bread, the manna of which you boast that your 
 fathers eat in the wilderness, is not to be compared, for the 
 manna preserved them not from temporal death. But whoso- 
 ever eateth of this bread by believing on me, embraceth my 
 doctrine, and persevering in obedience to my commandments, 
 shall be kept and nourished unto everlasting life. For I am 
 the word, and the word was made flesh, that by it the world 
 might be saved : but my incarnation is not all, I must also 
 suffer death upon the cross, and give my life a ransom for many. 
 He therefore that believeth in my incarnation and passion, and 
 acts accordingly, shall as certainly be nourished, as the breat) 
 he eats supports the life of his body. In all this, our Lord 
 says nothing more mysterious, than when he tells the vvoma^ 
 of Samaria, ''The water which I shall give him, shall be in 
 
It 
 
 him a well of vratcr springing up into eternal life :" for as the 
 body is nourished by the food that is eaten, so he that receives 
 me into his heart with a spiritual appetite, his soul shall live and 
 never die. But the Jews, unable to elevate their thoughts to 
 spiritual things, disputed among themselves, saying, *' How 
 can this man give us his flesh to eat." Tiiis oral manducation 
 of his very flesh, they deemed monstrous and absurd. These 
 gross conceptions, which our Lord hastens to rectify, have been 
 adopted by the Roman Catliolio Church, and yet they loudly 
 exclaim against those who cleave to the truth. Indeed} were 
 not the subject so awfully serious, it would be amusing to fol- 
 low the Bishop of Strasbourg in this part of his interpretation. 
 The Prelate admits, that the Jews understood our Lord, when 
 he spoke of giving tiiem his flesh to eat, to mean a real man- 
 ducation, and although our Lord expl ins himself as speaking 
 spiritually, not carnally, the Bishop ^ pts the condemned opi- 
 nion of the Jews, and pleads also for an oral manducation of 
 a similar kind, though covered with a veil to render it invisible 
 10 the senses. The Roman Catholic believes that the elements 
 of bread and wine do not so much as exist in the stupendous 
 mystery : for he believes, •* That by virtue of the Divine 
 Omnipotence, and in consequence of the solemn act of conse- 
 cration, these humble substances are completely changed, being 
 thus transubstantiated into the body and blood of our great 
 Redeemer, in conformity to that plain and strong assurance 
 of this Divine Being: 'this is my body; this is my blood.' " 
 Now the plain and obvious meaning of the words of the insti- 
 tution, as noticed irv the former section, as well as those used by 
 our Lord at Capernaum, was never mistaken for many centu- 
 ries, but in process of time, the true sense became obscured in 
 the dark ages, and by degrees came to be almost entirely lost ; 
 and even now 0iis misconstruction remains in the Roman Ca- 
 
77 
 
 tliolic Churcii a standing monument of human infirmity ; nor 
 was it easy to restore the true sense at the reformation, and 
 clear off the mist wilii wliich it was surrounded. The bread 
 that I will give you is my flesh. Except ye eat the flesh of 
 the Sou of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. — 
 Such expressions now repeated cannot mean that the bread and 
 wine became really and literally our Lord's body, in the same 
 broken state as it hung upon the cross, and that blood which 
 was spilt upon the ground more than eighteen hundred year 
 ago ; neither can they mean that this bread and wine, literally 
 and properly, are our Lord's glorified body, which is as far 
 distant from us as heaven is distant ; all sense — all reason — all 
 scripture — all antiquity, and sound theology reclaim against 
 so wild a thought. As a further confirmation of this reasoning 
 and illustration of the subject, I observe that there was a very 
 prevalent tradition among the Jews, suggested by many pro- 
 phetic passages of the Old Testament, that upon the coming 
 of the Messiah, all the sacrifices of the law would cease : only 
 the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Eucharist) should be perpetuated 
 in bread and wine, after the example of Melchisedec. Of this 
 person we know neither his entry into the world nor his exit 
 from it, that he might be the more like to Christ, whp is an 
 eternal Prince and Priest : King of Righteousness ; King of 
 Peace, without beginning of days or end of life, for of his 
 kingdom there shall be no end. Melchisedec came to meet 
 Abraham with blessings in his mouth, and in his hands bread 
 and wine: and our Lord, who is declared by the Apostle to be 
 a Priest, after his order, took bread and wine, and under these 
 symbols oflcred himself a sacrifice well pleasing to God, and 
 obtained a blessing for all the seed of Abraham, who in the 
 Divine strength are conquerors of their spiritual enemies, 
 Satan, sin and death. This application of the bread and wine 
 
78 
 
 which Melchi«C(Ji.'c brought forih oi* o/Tered as a type of Christ, 
 nnd his oblatiot) of iiimseif under such symbols fur a blesshig 
 to maiikirid, is fully acknowledged by the Church from the 
 Apostolic age. St. Clement, of Alexandria, who flourished 
 in the second century, calls Melchisedcc's bread and wine, 
 •' food sanctifie<l for a type of the Eucharist." "Our Saviour, 
 (says Eusebiiis,) the Christ of Hod, does yet celebrate by his 
 iervatits the functions of his Priesthood, after the manner of 
 Melehisedcc; for as he being a Priest of the Gentiles, never 
 appears to have olTered corporeal sacrifices, but blessed Abra- 
 ham iii bread and wine; in like manner our Saviour ^rst, and 
 then all Priests from him, celebrating the spiritual ministry 
 over all nations, according to the laws of the Church, myste- 
 rioufdy represent his body and salutary blood in bread and 
 wine.'* St. Augustine, in his work •• De Civitatc Dei," men- 
 lions Melchiscdec's interview with Abraham, and says, "there 
 first appeared the sacrifice which now through the whole world 
 is oflereJ by Christians to God, and that is fulfilled, which was 
 long after said by the Prophet to Christ, who was yet to come 
 in th6 flesh." — '• Thou art a Priest forever after the order of 
 Melchisedec." 
 
 Now this interpretation of Melchiscdec's, so far from 
 favouring the Roman Catholic Church, strongly militates 
 ngainst their opinion ; for they can neither say nor suppose that 
 the body and blood of Christ could have been substantially 
 received before ho took flesh and blood by his incarnation, and 
 therefore they must. admit that bread and wine may be a sacri- 
 fice, pacificatory and refreshing to our souls, without believing 
 that there is any transubstantiatlon in what they represent, and 
 the virtue of which they beneficially apply. Indeed this argu- 
 ment, drawn from Melchisedcc's typical ofiering of the Eucha- 
 rist, is in my opinion decisive, were there no other against the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation. 
 
])ut to proceed : — our FiOrd's expreisionf, in his divinely 
 inyftterious termoii at Cnpernaurn, were *' the hrcad that 1 nill 
 give you is my flesh, whicii I wii! give fur the life of the world." 
 Here he speuks in the future, which he explained nnd rulfiilcd 
 when he took bread and blessed it and gave it to his diciples 
 saying, " this is my body which is given for you." The words 
 at Capernaum were " which I shall give/' but ngw, '* this 
 bread is my body which is given" — this body, with its drink 
 offering, his bfood, in spirit and in power. 13ut our Lord 
 himself, to guard us against taking those strong expressions of 
 his in n literal sense, plainly points out their spirilunl meaning 
 in the same chapter — " it is the spirit that qiiicKencth ; the 
 flesh proflteth nothini^;" forbidding at once the thought of his 
 natural flesh, and condemning forever the doctrine of the 
 Church of Home, that the substance of the bread and wine 
 passed into the natural substance of the flesh and blood of 
 Christ, that very flesh and blood which he took of the sub- 
 stance of the blessed Virgin, and which hung on the cross on 
 Mount Calvary : had the prim'aive Church believed or sus- 
 pected this, they never would hnve thought of praying for the 
 sanctificationof the elements of bread and wine, as is expressed 
 in all their Liturgies ; to have done so under that supposition 
 or belief, would have been exceedingly absurd, if not blasphe- 
 mous. The natural body and blood of Christ are capable of 
 no additional sanclificaliou, being i:nilf*d in one person with 
 the divinity, and having' the spirit without measure, being the 
 fountain of It, to all who receive it. If any difliiculty be felt in 
 explaining our Lord's words at Capernaum, it is cftectually 
 removed in the institution of the Lord's Supper, when he took 
 bread, blessed and brake it, and declared that same substantial 
 bread to be his body; and when lin took the fruit of the vine, 
 which the cup contained, and said, " This is my blood," as-t 
 
80 
 
 serting after the consecration and consumption of it, that what 
 he gave, so consecrated and received by his Apostles, was in 
 substance wine, which the Jews called the fruit of the vine ; the 
 tame meaning is established by St. Paul, for he repeatedly calls 
 what was offered and received, bread after consecration. Thus 
 let a man examine himself, and so let him '* eat of that bread 
 and drink of that cup: for whosoever shall cat this bread and 
 drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the 
 body and blood of the Lord ;" bread therefore it is, and yet 
 the body of the Lord, and win 3 it is, and yet the blood 
 of Christ. At the same time this bread and wine so blessed 
 and declared to be Christ's body and blooJ, became more 
 than a bare representation or figure. They are, as our 
 Church, taught by Scripture, declares in her twenty-fifth article 
 of religion, an effectual sign in virtue and effect, though not 
 in substance the thing which they represent. It is the bread 
 and wine quickened by the Spirit, who is the giver of life : 
 that Divine person, who rendered effectual to our spiritual 
 health and souls salvation, all that oar Redeemer had done and 
 suffered for us, and by the means of his own appointment. 
 The same Almighty word vvhich gave bread its natural virtue 
 to nourish the body, by his blessing in the first institution of 
 of food, gives the sacrameiilal bread its supernatural virtue in 
 this divine institution'for the strengthening and refreshing of our 
 souls in the spiritual life, and for the resurrection of our bodies 
 to life eternal, fov says our gracious Lord, " He that ealeth 
 my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
 raise him up at the last day." This appears to have been the 
 doctrine of the Christian Church, for more tiian six centuries, 
 and was scarcely in any degree obscured till very corrupt and 
 ignorant ages followed, nor was it ever totally lost, even in 
 the Western Church, though nearly choked for a time by the 
 
 I 
 
81 
 
 prevailing growth of iraiisubstanlialiou, yel in llie lace of ami- 
 quity, and that of Scripture, sense and reason, tlie Bisliop of 
 Strasbourg proceeds with amusinj^ gravity to rebuke tlie Pro- 
 testants for not adopting his new doctrine : and this at the very 
 moment that he liad seen our Lord telling the Jews, who 
 understood his words as Roman Catholics now do : "It is the 
 spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profitcth nothing: the words 
 that 1 speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Thus 
 we have a plain and convincing intimation that Christ spoke 
 of eating his flesh and drinking his bood in a figurative and 
 spiritual manner, and that the eating of his flesh, as the carnal 
 Jews understood, and as modern Roman Catholics understand, 
 would profit nothing. Here I pause from following the Bishop, 
 till I make good my assertion made in the beginning of this 
 section, that he stands in opposition, in his explanation of St. 
 John, to the most celebrated fathers of the Church. 
 
 St. Ignatius, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and 
 who had lain in the bosom of that Apostle as the Apostle had 
 in the bosom of Christ, and who must have received the sense 
 and meaning of this chapter from the holy penman himself, 
 speaking to the Ephesians, desires them to make haste together 
 to one place in one common faith, in one Jesus Christ, breaking- 
 one loaf, w hich is the medicine of immortality, and oi;r unti- 
 dole agaitist death. Although this father does not quote this 
 chapter, he had it in his eye vvlien he says in another place 
 *• I delight not in corruptible food, nor in the entertainments 
 of this world. The bread of God is what I covet — heavenly 
 bread — bread of life, namely, the llesh of Jesus Christ the 
 son of God ; and I am athirst for the drink of God, namely, 
 his blood, which is a feast of love that faileth not, and life 
 everlasting." Clemens of Alexandria, who flourished about 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 192, speaking of the Eucliarist, wys — "Our Lord, in tht 
 Godpel according to St. John, has otiiervvise (Atroduced it 
 under symbols, saying, eat my flesh and drink my blood, 
 nllegorically signifyiiig the true and clear liquor of faith and 
 of the promise by both which the Church, like mart, com- 
 pacted of many members, is watered and nourished, and is 
 made up or compounded of both — of faith, as the body ; and 
 of hope, as the soul, like as our Lord of flesh and blood." 
 
 Terlullian, speaking of our Saviour's discourse at Ca- 
 pernaum, "though" he says, " the flesh proflteth nothing, yet 
 the sense is lo be governed by the subject matter ; for because 
 they thought il a hard and intolerable saying, as if he had 
 intended really to give them his flesh to eat ; therefore he 
 promised that it is the spirit that quickeneth, and then sub- 
 joined, that the flesh proflteth nothing, namely, towards quick- 
 ening ; therefore, as he makes the word quickener, because 
 the word is spirit and life, he calls the same his flesh, as the 
 word was made flesh, which consequently is to be hungered 
 after for the sake of life, to be devoured by the ear, to be 
 chewed by the understanding and digested by faith." 
 
 Origin says, *' Christ's flesh is meat indeed, and his blood 
 drink indeed, because he feedeth all mankind with the flesh and 
 blood of his word, as with pure meat and drink. Athanasius 
 iayS, •' the words which Christ spake at Capernaum, are not 
 carnal but spiritual, for how could his body have sufficed for 
 meat, that it should be made the food of the whole world." 
 Cyril, of Jerusalem, observes, " that Christ once discoursing 
 wrth the Jews said, except ye eat the flesh, &lc. j but they not 
 understanding tlu ihings that were spoken, or in a spiritual 
 manner, but supposing that he eihorted them to eat flesh (like 
 cannibals) were scandalised, and went back from him." 
 
83 
 
 St. Augustine says, << Why preparest thou teeth and sto- 
 mach f believe, and thou hast eaten, for to believe in him is to 
 eat the living bread ;" again in his tract on St. John, he says, 
 '* to believe in him is to eat the living bread ; he tiiat believes, 
 eats, because he is inwardly replenished." 
 
 Again he introduces Christ as saying *' understand what 
 I say in a spiritual manner, you are not to eat that body which 
 you see, and you are not about to drink this identical blood 
 which they who crucify me will pour out ; I have commended 
 to you a Sacrament, which will give you life if spiritually un- 
 derstood ; though it is necessary to be celebrated in a visible 
 manner, yet it must be invisibly apprehended; what is the 
 bread of the kingdom of God, but he who says, I am the living 
 bread which came down from heaven, prepare not your mouth 
 but your heart. This is the commendation of this Supper, see 
 we believe in Christ : we receive this with faith in receiving, 
 \v8 know wha' is the subject of our meditalion." " Certainly," 
 says Pope Gelasius, in the fifth century, "jtlie Sacraments of 
 the body and blood of the Lord, which we receive, are a Divine 
 thing, because by these we are partakers of the Divine nature. 
 Nevertheless, the substance or nature of the bread and wine 
 ceases not to exist, and assuredly the image and similitude of 
 the body and blood of Christ are celebrated in the action of 
 ihe mysteries." 
 
 *♦ The Sacrament of adoption," says Facundus, in the 
 sixth century, •' may be called adoption, such as the Sacrament 
 of the body and blood of Christ, which in the consecrated 
 bread and wine, we are wont to call his body and blood. Not 
 indeed that the bread is properly his body, or the wine is pro- 
 perly his blood, but because they contain the mystery of his 
 body and blood within themselves. Hence it was that the Lord 
 denominated the consecrated bread and wine which he delivered 
 to his disciples, his own body and blood." 
 
84 
 
 It were easy to muUiply extracts of u similar nature, but 
 tiicse are quite sufficient, (more especially vtlieii taken in con- 
 nexion with the celebrated men noticed in the last Section who 
 opposed transubstantiation,) to prove that such a doctrine was 
 unknown to the primitive Church, and that the words of Saint 
 John are figurative as well as those which our Lord used at 
 the instituiion of the Eucharist. 
 
 Thus we have seen that the Primitive Cliurch, as well a$ 
 all Protestant Churches, repudiate the doctrine of the real phy- 
 sical presence, and that the bread of God wliich came down 
 from heaven, and of which the manna in the wilderness was a 
 type or shadow, is to be received by faith ; for what our Hea- 
 venly Father demands of us is. to believe in him whom he hath 
 sent. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world, it consists 
 not of exterior things, but of a dominion over the heart and 
 understanding, and therefore what our Lord says of eating and 
 drinking h.<s far more respect to our spiritual than our carnal 
 nature ; for as the animal spirits quicken the bod}', so in the 
 work of grace, the spirit of God quickens our souls to spiritual 
 and eternal life. The elements of bread and wine, considered 
 merely in themselves, are of no advantage in the life of the 
 soul, but they have been selected by our Saviour as symbolical 
 of spiritual things, and are the means, if received in faith, of 
 conveying the Holy Spirit, whose influence, as the fruit of 
 Christ's death and resurrection and ascension is effectual to eter- 
 nal life. Consequently, the shocking idea conveyed to the Jews 
 by his words, our Saviour carefully removes and endeavours 
 to convince them, on this as on all other occasions, that his 
 religion is spiritual; yet notwithstanding our Lord's* earnest- 
 ness to convince his hearers that he was speaking of heavenly, 
 not earthly things, the Bishop ass . 'ts that there is no figurative 
 language in the discourse, but that it must be taken literally. 
 
Of) 
 
 Now if otir Lord had not corrected the Jews for their low and 
 grovelling conceptions, the words used, taken literally, outrage 
 common sense, to which all scripture is addressed, and it is not 
 a little extraordinary, that while the Bishop contends for the 
 literal sense of our Saviour's words, he is compelled to allow 
 that the flesh and blood are presented under the form of bread, 
 that under the form and appearance of bread his flesh is eaten, 
 that they participate of the substance, of his body and arc 
 nourished by it under the appearance and usage of the 
 ordinary aliment of man. What inconsistency! — the words 
 are not symbolical, and yet they are symbolical; in fine, if the 
 Bishop attaches any distinct meaning to his belief, it must be 
 that of the Church of Englanu ; any other, even by his own 
 shewing, betrays him into the most glaring contradictions. The 
 fault of the Jews not only consisted in taking our Lord's words 
 in their literal sense, " how can this man give us his flesh to 
 eat," but they also despised and opposed spiritual things, for 
 their indignation did not reach its ht^ight till our Lord repeats 
 what he had said before, *• that no man can savingly believe in 
 him, except the Father draw him by the -spirit, and thus give 
 him strength and grace to come unto hitn in a spiritual man- 
 ner." His disciples were so stung and offended at this close 
 application of his doctrine, that many departed and returned 
 to the world. Before they went away our Lord in his wonder- 
 ful benignity endeavours to recall their attention to spiritual 
 objects: are you surprised niiil dlBlnrJtpd at what I have now 
 spoken, as if thoy were strange and unintelligible things? what 
 if hereafter ye shall see me go up again to the same place from 
 whence I at first came? when ye see this ye will learn to 
 understand my words, not in a gross but in a spiritual and 
 rational sense. In truth, the metaphor in this discour.se of food 
 as doctrine, and eating and drinking as believing, was notdiftl- 
 
06 
 
 cult to be apprelicnded by the Jews, because found in tlie 
 Scriptures and known in their schools, but eating liis flesh and 
 drinking his blood, literally understood, gave them oflence 
 because prohibited by the law of Moses, and repugnant to the 
 customs of civilized nations. 
 
 Our Lord, on this apostacy, to try the faith of the twelve, 
 said in a moving and affectionate manner, " Will ye also go 
 away." Behold how many have forsaken me, will ye follow 
 * their example ? what are your thoughts and purposes .'' Then 
 Simon Peter answered him, " Lord, to whom shall we go, thou 
 hast the words of eternal life, and we believe, and are sure that 
 thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." These words 
 of St. Peter are of great importance to the right explication 
 of the context : he and the other Apostles had continued with 
 our Saviour from the first ; they had been witnesses daily of 
 his miracles ; they had beheld his Divine countenance, that 
 mild and God-like face, tempered by human limitations ; they 
 had seen his pure unspotted innocence — his heavenly deport- 
 ment — his conversation so wise, condescending and sublime, 
 connecting the present with the future, earth with heaven, and 
 therefore with entire conviction they exclaimed, "Yes, we be- 
 lieve and know that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." 
 Nor do we understand thy words in the carnal and absurd sense 
 which these men have given them, for we perceive that thou 
 speakest of those doctrines and revelations by whicii we are to be 
 yuided to eternal life. This declaration, which is fully implied 
 In the words of St. Peter, proves beyond controversy, that the 
 Apostles believed our Lord's couversaf.ion in a spiritual and 
 not in a carnal sense, for their answer to our Lord's appeal, is 
 the same as if they had said : Thou art the true bread of life, 
 llie promised Messiah so long looked for, — the eternal Son of 
 ilie livinc God, who earnest down from heaven. Hence ihe 
 
87 
 
 fkitli required hy the Gospvl is (lie subuaisiiion of (Ijc iieurl to 
 the reception of Diviue truth, jmuch more thun any peculiar 
 capacity for UDder&tanding abstruse docuiue, mid when men 
 are willing to receive instruction, it will always be supplied 
 them in a sufllcieut degree for securing the great object of reli- 
 gion, the saJvation of their souls. Here lay the distinction 
 be4w«ea diie disciples who remained and those who forsook our 
 Saviour: neither of them understood or could understand tlie 
 full import of Christ's words, for bis crucifiction, resurrection 
 and ascension had not yet taken place, but one part gave the 
 Saviour their full confidence, and the other was self-suiiicient 
 and averse to spiritual things. And here it is right to observe, 
 that we stand on the vantage ground, Christ has risen from the 
 dead and ascended into heaven; the Holy Ghost has come and 
 announced that he is the Messiah, by the most astonishing- 
 manifestations, and these proofs of his divinity must bring cer- 
 tain conviction to every well ordered mind. With such accu- 
 mulation of proofs in favour of the sense which we give to our 
 Saviour's discourse, the Apostles, the Fathers. &:c. j it is rather 
 too much for the Bishop of Strasbourg to call upon us to give 
 up our dearest hopes, because we do not adopt his carnal inter- 
 pretation. Christianity is a spiritual worship, and its object is 
 to bring men to a nearer conformity to God : for this purpose, 
 it elevates their views above temporal things, and qualifies them 
 for a higher state of existence, but to maintain that the words 
 of our Saviour in the Synagogue at Capernaum are literal, not 
 spiritual, is so self evident a misapprehension of the nature 
 and design of the Gospel, as to be almost incredible, and is in 
 fact an extravagance more difiicult to reconcile to the mind, 
 than even the aposlacy of the Jews, when they heard and were 
 offended at them. One has hardly patience with the Bishop 
 oi' Strasbonrijh, when he says, " that if the Jews were shocked 
 
8a 
 
 and scandalised, when Jesus said, I will give you my flesh to eat, 
 when he was upon earth, and before their eyes, how much more 
 will you be scandalised, when you shall see his body go up to 
 heaven and dispappear from your sight P If this manducation 
 appears to you incredible, now that you see my body, how much 
 more will it appear to you, when you see it no more f This 
 doctrine was therefore such, that after his resurrection it would 
 represent more difficulties to be understood, than it did before, 
 and from this I conclude that his doctrine was not such as the 
 reformed attribute to him." 
 
 Now this mode of reasoning is singularly weak — the hard 
 saying at which the Jews were offended, was the monstrous, and 
 as they conceived, the savage doctrine of eating his flesh and 
 drinking his blood, which notwithstanding our Lord's explana- 
 tion, they persevered in believing, in a literal sense; and yet 
 the Roman Catholic Church, with astonishing perverseness, 
 adopts the very belief for which the Jews were reproved, and 
 without their excuse, for the spiritual nature of Christ's king- 
 dom is now most clearly revealed, and leaves not the semblance 
 of argument from Scripture, sense or reason, for the Bishop of 
 Strasbourg's opinion. His Lordship endeavours to fortify his 
 opinion by giving a sense to the 63rd verse, at variance with 
 its evident meaning, for he applies the words flesh and spirit in 
 a manner totally unconnected with the context: "It is the spirit 
 that quickeneth ; the flesh profitelh nothing: — as if our Lord 
 had said the flesh, that is, the senses or corrupt reason of man, 
 profitelh notliing towards the discovery or belief of what he 
 had announced ; that is, the reality of the manducation on which 
 he has so much insisted, of which he here declares that we can- 
 not judge by the flesh or by a carnal reason which profitelh 
 nothing, und that it could neither be discerned nor believed, 
 except by the quickening spirit ; that is, by the grace and light 
 
39 
 
 of God." Now this gloss iiiakes tlic carnal man display his 
 cnrnalily, by adopting the spiritual interpretation of our Lord'n 
 expressions : while the spiritual man displays his spirituality, by 
 preferring the carnal interpretation ; such a purnplirase appears 
 to me a very extraordinary description of ilic two states of the 
 carnal man and spiritual man, and is not sanctioned by any 
 authority. The true meaning has already been given, thut 
 what he had said about eating his flesh was to be understood 
 in a spiritual, not in a carnal sense. The words which I speak, 
 says Christ, convey to men the power of the spirit, for the flesh 
 of itself proflteth not at all to the end that I propose, namely, 
 giving you eternal life. Thus understood, there is a consistent 
 and regular connexion with what goes before. Perhaps still 
 more singular is the interpretation by the Bishop of the 65ih 
 verse : " Therefore, said I unto yon, that no man can come 
 unto me, except it were given unto him by my Father," which 
 he expounds to mean, "the need of an assistance, a particular 
 grace from heaven for believing the manducation contended 
 for." Now such a sense is totally inconsistent with the text 
 which evidently implies what our Saviour had already declared, 
 *' that no man can savingly believe in me, unless my Father 
 draw him by bis spirit, and give him strength and grace to 
 enable him to come unto me in a spiritual manner for everlast- 
 ing life." 
 
 Let ns now look back and glance at our examinalion of 
 this Chapter : 
 
 1st. Jesus Christ uses in this discourse metaphorical lan- 
 guage, as was his cnsloin, and urges strong motives to convince 
 his hearers of the obligations thuy were under to believe in his 
 words ; the depth and solemnity of the observations arc very 
 remarkable, and revelations are made in language not a Utile 
 mysterious, of some of the hading doctrines of Christianity-. — 
 
90 
 
 i 
 
 Why sucli ivere not at the time more clearly communicated is 
 abundantly accounted for, by the distinction noticed between 
 the teaching of Christ and the teaching of his Apostles. 
 
 2nd. When our Lord speaks of feeding his Church with 
 his flesh and blood, his langnagc was so strong that the dis- 
 ciples murmured, and the Jews indignantly asked, "how can 
 this man give us his flesh to cat ;" it appears from the tenor of 
 the narrative, that both Jews and disciples understood him lite- 
 rally, but Christ hastens to correct this mistake, and teaches 
 them to understand him figuratively. Those who believed 
 received his explanation, but the perverse heeded him not : yet 
 although our Saviour interprets bis language flcruratively, the 
 Bishop of Strasbourg, like the obstinate Jews, maintains that 
 his language is literal, thus placing himself in direct contra- 
 diction to Christ's declaration recorded in Holy Scripture. 
 
 3. The figurative exposition of our Saviour's language 
 in this Chapter, as well as the institution of the Eucharist, is 
 in perfect accordance with the whole Scripture, but the literal 
 exposition is in direct contradiction. The Bishop's doctrine 
 is, *' that in the celebration of the Eucharist, the Priest oflers 
 up the literal body and blood of Christ to God, as the tree and 
 proper expiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead." Ctirist, 
 therefore, according to this doctrine, is repeatedly offered ; but 
 in Holy Writ, we are positively assured, that Christ was ofler- 
 only once— Heb. 9 ch. &: 28 v. Heb. 10 ch. &: 10 v. 1 Peter, 
 3 ch. Si 18 V. The term once, is in direct opposition to the 
 term repeatedly. According to Scripture, Christ is once 
 offered, but according to ihe Bishop of Strasbourg and his 
 Church, Christ is repeatedly offered ; hence the Holy Scriptures 
 and the Roman Catholic Church are placed in direct variance 
 with each other. 
 
•1 
 
 4tb. After oui' Lord'K expluiiuuuu, St. VeUt dearly per< 
 cc'iveK, that \w had bocn apcukiiig figuratively, and gay^, tbou 
 hait vke words oC eternal life: iiad be thougiit thai CiiuH bail 
 spoken liu*rally of eating bis fle&ti aad driiiking biii blood. In: 
 would uaturally bave laid : Lord, it io a bard sityiiig, yet be- 
 cuuie Uiou bast said it, we beJieve ; strengtbeii tbou our unbe- 
 lief. Tl^ Apostle however speaks very dLlTerently : " Lord, to 
 wbum sbuU we go, tbou bast the words of eternal life;" as if 
 be bad said, we are resolved to remain with thee, for tbou ai-t 
 the true bread of life. B^it had our Lord left tbeai m tbetr 
 nkbtake in believing bis words literal and not figurative, it 
 would only bave been ia accordance with bis conduct on atber 
 occatiions, when dealing with hardened and obstinate sinners ; 
 for example, be said, *' destroy this temple, and in three days 1 
 will raise it up again ;" and though the Jews did certaiuJy nm- 
 understand him, because be spake of the temple of his body, 
 yet lie makes no attempt to set tliem rigla. 
 
 5th. The summary of his argument, drawn up by tlie 
 Bishop, displays much weakness, with not a little assurance. 
 The first three paragrjipbs are taken up with shewing that the 
 Jews understooH our Lord to mean a real manducation ; in the 
 fourth paragraj. he asserts, with astonishing coolness, that our 
 Lord bad also the reality in view, because he does not correct 
 tliem, totally forgetting cr misapplying the 63rd verse, in which 
 Christ exprcbsiy condemns their carnal meaning, and declares 
 his words la b'^ figurative. The fifth and sixth paragraphs, 
 after noticing llio oflenre taken by the disciples, asserts that 
 our Lord docs not sofit'o the expressions wiiich bad alienated 
 bis hearers, although the very contrary is the fact, for Christ 
 cle?,:!y intimates, iliat bis flesh is his life, which he was to give 
 for the lif(3 of the world, and eating his flesh and drinking his 
 

 
 
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 bloud, is believing on him Christ crucified ihe propitiation for 
 the sins of the whole world. In the remaining paragraphs, 
 the Bishop gives a perverse interpretation to the Chapter, and 
 'makes our Lord to say the very opposite of what he did say ; 
 that he announced the realit}' of the manducation, and reproach- 
 ed the disciples for their unbelief, because ihey considered the 
 manducation impossible, and that we are in the same condem- 
 nation. The Bishop farther states, that Jesus declares that no 
 one can believe this manducation, if he has not received grace 
 from the Pather. Now the discourse proves the reverse of all 
 this, and most clearly shews, that the Jews did understand a 
 real manducation, and were so scandalised, that either they Hid 
 not listen to or give credit to Christ's correction of their error, 
 which clearly intimated that the manducation to which he 
 alluded was spiritual, and therefore so must the food be spiri- 
 tual, and consequently it could not be his natural flesh: but the 
 Apostles attending to his explanation, remained stedfast in their 
 confidence, though not yet acquainted with the true nature of 
 his doctrine, which was afterwards to be more fully revealed. 
 It is impossible to follow tlie Bishop through what he he means 
 as his summary, without remarking the difBculties he has to 
 encounter in so interpreting the Chapter, as to support the error 
 of transubstantiation. Instead of the sublime truths which our 
 Lord brings forward, as far as they could then be revealed, the 
 Bishop seeks to confine our vision to the mere belief, in a carnal 
 manducation, and to efiect this purpose he is compelled to per- 
 vert and misinterpret the clearest expressions. 
 
 6th. A great part of the Pamphlet is taken up with exhort- 
 ing Protestants to turn to what his Lordship deems the true 
 faith, respecting the body and blood of Christ; with what suc- 
 cess may be anticipated, when the whole of the discourse at 
 
93 
 
 Capernaum is in direct opposition to tran.substantiation, a doc- 
 trine which we have proved unknown in the primitive Church, 
 and which receives no countenance from the more early father^ ; 
 nay, it has been shewn Jiat these eminent men interpret our 
 Lord's expressions in this Chajiter figuratively, and not literally, 
 so that they stand in direct opposition to the Bishop. In truth, 
 his Lordship's doctrine outrages our senses, and appears to 
 those who have not had their minds prejudiced in its favour 
 from infancy, altogether incredible; nor is it too much to 
 assert, that no man of common understanding can over be 
 brought to believe the doctrine of transubstanliation, if pro- 
 posed to him after he has attained the years of discretion. Thus 
 have we gone through the Sixth Chapter of St. John, from 
 which the Bishop of Strasbourg endeavours to draw the 
 strongest argument for the real physical presence of the body and 
 blood of Christ, in the consecrated elements of bread and wine ; 
 and we have, it is hoped, fully proved that our Lord speaks 
 throughout spiritually, though the images and illustrations, a<i 
 was bis custom, are taken from the things immediately around 
 him or familiar to his hearers. The discourse is indeed highly 
 spiritual, as might have been anticipated from the very nature of 
 the Christian religion, which is essentially spiritual, and seeks to 
 beget in us heavenly dispositions, and to bring us nearer and 
 nearer to the character of God. But enough has been said to 
 justify me in concluding, that the Bishop of Strasbourg has totally 
 failed in his argument; it therefore becomes rather ludicrous in 
 his Lordship to exhort us to beware of the danger we are in : the 
 danger is certainly not with us, but with his Lordship, and all 
 persons of his belief. We arrange ourselves with t'.ie Apostles, 
 and his Lordship takes part with the unbelieving Jews; — w^ 
 listen to Jesus Christ, who is still in the midst of us, and con- 
 tinues to speak the same language to us : we hear him, and 
 
94 
 
 nirreiider oorselves in deep humility to tiis will, while the Bishop 
 of Strasboorg perverts or misinterprets the words of our 
 Saviotrr, and stands in the sitnailon of those, who teach for 
 doctrines the commandments of men. . 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 It is hoped that my object, in this and the preceding Sectionii!, 
 which has been to furnish a competent knowledge of tiie true 
 nature of the Eucharist as it appears from the Scripture, and 
 was understood by the Apostles and first Christians, and to re- 
 move the perplexing error of transubstantiation, with which it 
 has-been for many ages deformed, has been fully attained. 
 
 While doing this 1 have satisfactorily shewn, that it is the 
 most merciful and beautiful institution that God ever vouch- 
 sa^fed to man ; and that it ought not to surprise ua that its cele- 
 bration stood forth as the most prominent part of the worship 
 of the Primitive Church ; it indeed no where appears that our 
 Saviour himself ordained any other for hid disciples, but the 
 commemoration of his own death in this Holy Sacrament. 
 
 Prayer is a duty of natural as well as of revealed religion ; 
 but the celebration of the Eucharist, with its attendant duties, 
 preaching the doctrine of the Apostles, fellowship among the 
 Saints, and the public prayers, is peculiar to Christianity ; and 
 was the known stated and constant worship of our Lord's 
 disciples and their followers ; and with reason, for the death of 
 Christ is the most wonderful and beneficial event that marks 
 the annals of tim6, and of all others the most deserving to be 
 the chief Subject of our praise to God. Now praise, offered in 
 a proper maniier, is justly esteemed the itiost rational and et- 
 
95 
 
 cellent part of divine worsliip, consequently, a participation of 
 the Eucharist, in faith and sincerity, is the most acceptable 
 service we can pay to our Greater and Redeemer. 
 
 The Eucharist has been considered by the pious of ull 
 ages a feast upon a sacrifice ; and vVith equal propriety may it 
 be proclaimed a festival in honor of Divine mercy to mankind ; 
 for where shall we lind a manifestation of God's unspeakable 
 love to our fallen race like that of sending Jesus Christ into the 
 world to save us from destruction. 
 
 Conscious, as every reflecting man must be, of having 
 failed in his duty, and of his need of some testimony of the for- 
 giving grace and compassion of Him, against whose law our 
 transgressions have been committed, the communion comes as 
 balm to the soul : we recognise it to be a feast in honor of the 
 promised and pledged exercise of God's forgiveness, and as the 
 most grateful of all services which can be performed by man. 
 There is no worship so worthy of the benevolence and conde- 
 scension of God to institute, nor any that ought to be so wel- 
 comed in songs of thanksgivings by the universal voice of ail 
 the inhabitants of the earth ; for as all are guilty of sin, and 
 bear always about them doubts and fears, the most blessed a?-- 
 suredly of all sounds is that announced in the Holy Eucharist, 
 which presents God accepting our Lord's sacrifice for sin, 
 pitying our guilt, and removing our iniquities. It is indeed 
 the business of the Gospel to announce forgiveness of sins ; 
 peace with God ; expiation by the blood of Christ ; and eternal 
 life to fallen but pardoned sinners. These are the messages 
 which its heralds are commissioned to proclaim to the children 
 of every kindred, language and people: and if it be true that, 
 the feet of those are beautiful who speed their way into all lands 
 proclaiming unto the inhabitants of the earth, behold your God, 
 how much more ought the mortal history of that greatest of all 
 
1 
 
 96 
 
 the messengers ol' divine mercy to be kept in remembrance, 
 whose very appearance in our nature was liie highest of all 
 pledges, thiit God, "had indeed pitched his tabernacle with 
 men," and that he would dwell with them upon earth. 
 
 The Eucharist thus deemed a feast in honour of divine 
 mercy published and ratified to the whole human race, is a 
 conception of the Institution particularly pleasing and lovely, 
 and ofiers a most appropriate termination to this essay, on its 
 true meaning, character and importance. In this aspect it is 
 felt to be the most attra 'tive and delightful of all festivals, 
 blotting out our sins, removing our doubts and fears, breathing 
 into our souls peace and reconciliation! restoring our tarnished 
 honour, and fortifying our minds with the most glorious hopes 
 of soon enjoying that more intimate communion with our 
 Saviour in his everlasting kingdom, of which the Eucharist in 
 this life is so touching and perfect a representation. 
 
 t*. 
 
 Printed by R. STANTO>f, No. 164, King-Street, York. 
 
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